Walter Scott - Marmion

Stanza V. For unrivalled illustration of what Celtic chiefs and clansmen were, see ‘Waverley’ and ‘Rob Roy.’

lines 130-5Cp. opening of Chapman’s Homer’s Iliad III.:-

Stanza VI. lines 143-157. Cp. Dryden’s ‘Palamon and Arcite,’ iii. 1719-1739:-

line 157. following= feudal retainers.-SCOTT. To the poet’s explanation Lockhart appends the remark that since Scott thought his note necessary the word has been ‘completely adopted into English, and especially into Parliamentary parlance.’

line 166. Scott says:-‘In all transactions of great or petty importance, and among whomsoever taking place, it would seem that a present of wine was a uniform and indispensable preliminary. It was not to Sir John Falstaff alone that such an introductory preface was necessary, however well judged and acceptable on the part of Mr. Brook; for Sir Ralph Sadler, while on an embassy to Scotland in 1539-40, mentions, with complacency, ‘the same night came Rothesay (the herald so called) to me again, and brought me wine from the King both white and red.’- Clifford’s Edition , p. 39.

line 168. For weeds see above, I. Introd. 256.

Stanza VII. line 172. For wassellsee above, I. xv. 231; and cp. ‘merry wassail’ in ‘Rokeby,’ III. xv.

line 190. Cp. above, IV. Introd. 3.

line 200. An Elizabethan omission of relative.

Stanza VIII. The admirable characterisation, by which in this and the two following stanzas the King, the Queen, and Lady Heron are individually delineated and vividly contrasted, deserves special attention. There is every reason to believe that the delineations, besides being vivid and impressive, have the additional merit of historical accuracy.

line 213. piled= covered with a pile or nap. The Encyclopaedic Dict., s. v., quotes: ‘With that money I would make thee several cloaks and line them with black crimson, and tawny, three filed veluet.’-Barry; Ram Alley, III. i.

line 221. A baldric(remotely from Lat. balteus, a girdle) was an ornamental belt passing over one shoulder and round the other side, and having the sword suspended from it. Cp. Pope’s Iliad, III. 415:-

See also the ‘wolf-skin baldric’ in ‘Lay of the Last Minstrel,’ III. xvi.

Stanza IX. line 249. ‘Few readers need to be reminded of this belt, to the weight of which James added certain ounces every year that he lived. Pitscottie founds his belief that James was not slain in the battle of Flodden, because the English never had this token of the iron-belt to show to any Scottishman. The person and character of James are delineated according to our best historians. His romantic disposition, which led him highly to relish gaiety, approaching to license, was, at the same time, tinged with enthusiastic devotion. These propensities sometimes formed a strange contrast. He was wont, during his fits of devotion, to assume the dress, and conform to the rules, of the order of Franciscans; and when he had thus done penance for some time in Stirling, to plunge again into the tide of pleasure. Probably, too, with no unusual inconsistency, he sometimes laughed at the superstitions observances to which he at other times subjected himself. There is a very singular poem by Dunbar, seemingly addressed to James IV, on one of these occasions of monastic seclusion. It is a most daring and profane parody on the services of the Church of Rome, entitled:-

See the whole in Sibbald’s Collection, vol. i. p. 234.’-SCOTT.

Since Scott’s time Dunbar’s poems have been edited, with perfect scholarship and skill, by David Laing (2 vols. post 8vo. 1824), and by John Small (in l885) for the Scottish Text Society. See Dict. of Nat. Biog.

lines 254-9. This perfect description may be compared, for accuracy of observation and dexterous presentment, with the steed in ‘Venus and Adonis,’ the paragon of horses in English verse. Both writers give ample evidence of direct personal knowledge.

Stanza X. line 261. ‘It has been already noticed [see note to stanza xiii. of Canto I.] that King James’s acquaintance with Lady Heron of Ford did not commence until he marched into England. Our historians impute to the King’s infatuated passion the delays which led to the fatal defeat of Flodden. The author of “The Genealogy of the Heron Family” endeavours, with laudable anxiety, to clear the Lady Ford from this scandal; that she came and went, however, between the armies of James and Surrey, is certain. See PINKERTON’S History , and the authorities he refers to, vol. ii. p. 99. Heron of Ford had been, in 1511, in some sort accessory to the slaughter of Sir Robert Kerr of Cessford, Warden of the Middle Marches. It was committed by his brother the bastard, Lilburn, and Starked, three Borderers. Lilburn and Heron of Ford were delivered up by Henry to James, and were imprisoned in the fortress of Fastcastle, where the former died. Part of the pretence of Lady Ford’s negotiations with James was the liberty of her husband.’-SCOTT.

line 271. love= beloved. Cp. Burns’s ‘O my love is like a red red rose.’

line 273. ‘“Also the Queen of France wrote a love-letter to the King of Scotland, calling him her love, showing him that she had suffered much rebuke in France for the defending of his honour. She believed surely that he would recompense her again with some of his kingly support in her necessity; that is to say, that he would raise her an army, and come three foot of ground on English ground, for her sake. To that effect she sent him a ring off her finger, with fourteen thousand French crowns to pay bis expenses.” PITSCOTTIE, p.110.-A turquois ring-probably this fatal gift-is, with James’s sword and dagger, preserved in the College of Heralds, London.’-SCOTT.

lines 287-8. The change of movement introduced by this couplet has the intended effect of arresting the attention and lending pathos to the description and sentiment.

Stanza XI. line 302. The wimplewas a covering for the neck, said to have been introduced in the reign of Edward I. See Chaucer’s ‘Prologue,’ 151:-

line 307. Cp. 2 Henry IV, iii. 2. 9, ‘By yea and nay, sir.’

line 308. Cp. refrain of song, ‘‘Twas within a mile o’ Edinburgh Town,’ in Johnson’s Museum :-