Part 24 (2/2)

525. =by Saint Serle.= The necessities of rime compel the poet to choose a very obscure saint from the calendar.

532. =postern gate=, the small rear gate of a castle, generally used by the servants only.

584. =jennet.= A small Spanish horse, originally a cross between native and Arabian stock.

611. =morricers=, morrice dancers. The morrice or morris was an old dance, imported into England from Spain. Believed to be a corruption of ”Moorish.”

613. =b.u.t.ts=, the targets for archery practice.

614. =Bold Robin Hood and all his band.= It is of course not meant that the renowned outlaw himself and his followers were there, but masqueraders representing these traditional characters. All the names that follow occur in one or other of the legends and ballads which gathered about Robin Hood's name.

622. =the white=, i.e., the white center of the target.

660. =Ladies Rock.= A hillock between the Castle and Grayfriar's church, from which the court ladies viewed the games.

872. =lily lawn.= A conventional phrase in old ballad poetry, without any very definite meaning.

CANTO SIXTH

42. =harness=, armor and other war gear.

60. =halberd=, a weapon consisting of a battle-ax and pike at the end of a long staff. =brand=, a poetical word for sword.

92. =black-jack=, a large drinking can of tarred or waxed leather.

95. =Drink upsees out.= ”Upsees” is a corruption of a Dutch Baccha.n.a.lian interjection.

103. =cure.= Parish or charge. =placket.= Petticoat.

104. =lurch=, swindle, leave in difficulty.

306. =prore=, poetical form of ”prow.”

377. =erne=, eagle.

Stanza XVII. Notice how both rime and rhythm mirror the growing excitement of the conflict.

452. =As their Tinchel cows the game.= The ”Tinchel” was a circle of hunters, surrounding a herd of deer and gradually closing in on them.

488. =linn=, the word here means waterfall.

586. =Bothwell's lord=, Douglas. See note to II, xiii, 141.

591. =How Roderick brooked his minstrelsy.= ”Brooked” is not used in its strong sense of ”endured,” but in the weaker one of ”received”; we should say colloquially ”how he took it.”

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