Part 24 (1/2)
line 403. Montserrat, a mountain, with a Benedictine abbey on it, in Catalonia. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood cherish a myth to the effect that the fantastic peaks and gorges of the mountain were formed at the Crucifixion.
lines 404-7. Scott annotates as follows:--
'Sante Rosalie was of Palermo, and born of a very n.o.ble family, and, when very young, abhorred so much the vanities of this world, and avoided the converse of mankind, resolving to dedicate herself wholly to G.o.d Almighty, that she, by divine inspiration, forsook her father's house, and never was more heard of, till her body was found in that cleft of a rock, on that almost inaccessible mountain, where now the chapel is built; and they affirm she was carried up there by the hands of angels; for that place was not formerly so accessible (as now it is) in the days of the Saint; and even now it is a very bad, and steepy, and break-neck way. In this frightful place, this holy woman lived a great many years, feeding only on what she found growing on that barren mountain, and creeping into a narrow and dreadful cleft in a rock, which was always dropping wet, and was her place of retirement, as well as prayer; having worn out even the rock with her knees, in a certain place, which is now open'd on purpose to show it to those who come here. This chapel is very richly adorn'd; and on the spot where the saint's dead body was discover'd, which is just beneath the hole in the rock, which is open'd on purpose, as I said, there is a very fine statue of marble, representing her in a lying posture, railed in all about with fine iron and bra.s.s work; and the altar, on which they say ma.s.s, is built just over it.'--Voyage to Sicily and Malta, by Mr. John Dryden, (son to the poet,) p. 107.
Stanza XXIV. line 408. The national motto is 'St. George for Merrie England.' The records of various central and eastern English towns tell of a very ancient custom of 'carrying the dragon in procession, in great jollity, on Midsummer Eve.' See Brand's 'Popular Antiquities,' i. 321. In reference to the 'Birth of St George' and his deeds, see Percy's 'Reliques.'
line 409. Becket (1119-70), Archbishop of Canterbury. See 'Canterbury Tales' and Aubrey de Vere's 'St. Thomas of Canterbury: a dramatic poem.'
line 410. For Cuthbert, see below, II. xiv. 257. Bede (673-735), a monk of Jarrow on Tyne; called the Venerable Bede; author of an important 'Ecclesiastical History' and an English translation of St.
John's Gospel.
lines 419-20. Lord Jeffrey's sense of humour was not adequate to the appreciation of these two lines, which he specialised for condemnation.
Stanza. XXV. line 421. Gramercy, from Fr. grand merci, sometimes used as an emphatic exclamation, although fundamentally implying the thanks of the speaker.
line 430 still = always. Cp., inter alia, 440 and 452 below. See 'STILL vexed Bermoothes,' Tempest, i. 2. 229, and cp. Hamlet, ii. 2.
42,--
'Thou STILL hast been the father of good news.'
Stanza XXVI. line 452. Scott quotes from Rabelais the pa.s.sage in which the monk suggests to Gargantua that in order to induce sleep they might together try the repet.i.tion of the seven penitential psalms. 'The conceit pleased Gargantua very well; and, beginning the first of these psalms, as soon as they came to Beati quorum they fell asleep, both the one and the other.' Cp. Chaucer's Monk and the character of Accidia in 'Piers the Plowman,' Pa.s.sus V.
line 453. ave, an address to the Virgin Mary, beginning 'Ave Maria'; creed, a profession of faith, beginning with Credo. It has been objected to this line that the creed is not an essential part of the rosary, and that ten aves and one paternoster would have been more accurate. It should, however, be noticed that both Friar John and young Selby know more of other matters than the details of religious devotion.
Stanza XXVII. line 459. 'A PALMER, opposed to a PILGRIM, was one who made it his sole business to visit different holy shrines; travelling incessantly, and subsisting by charity: whereas the Pilgrim retired to his usual home and occupations, when he had paid his devotions at the particular spot which was the object of his pilgrimage. The Palmers seem to have been the Quaestionarii of the ancient Scottish canons 1242 and 1296. There is in the Bannatyne MS.
a burlesque account of two such persons, ent.i.tled, ”Simmy and his Brother.” Their accoutrements are thus ludicrously described (I discard the ancient spelling):--
”Syne shaped them up, to loup on leas, Two tabards of the tartan; They counted nought what their clouts were When sew'd them on, in certain.
Syne clampit up St. Peter's keys, Made of an old red gartane; St. James's sh.e.l.ls, on t'other side, shews As pretty as a partane Toe, On Symmye and his brother.”'--SCOTT.
With this account of the Palmer, cp. 'Piers the Plowman,' v. 523:--
'He bare a burdoun ybounde . with a brode liste, In a withewyndes wise . ywounden aboute.
A bolle and a bagge . he bare by his syde; An hundredth of ampulles . on his hatt seten, Signes of Synay . and sh.e.l.les of Galice; And many a cruche on his cloke . and keyes of Rome, And the vernicle bifore . for men shulde knowe, And se bi his signes . whom he soughte hadde.'
In connexion with this, Prof. Skeat draws attention to the romance of Sir Isumbras and to Chaucer's Prol. line 13.
line 467. Loretto, in Ancona, Italy, is the site of a sanctuary of the Virgin, ent.i.tled Santa Casa, Holy House, which enjoys the reputation of having been the Virgin's residence in Nazareth, and the scene of the Annunciation, &c.
Stanza XXVIII. line 483. haggard wild is a twofold adj. in the Elizabethan fas.h.i.+on, like 'bitter sweet,' 'childish foolish,' and other familiar examples.
line 490. Science appears to support this theory. See various examples in Sir Erasmus Wilson's little work, 'Healthy Skin.' Many of the cases are within the writer's own knowledge, and all the others are historical or otherwise well authenticated. He mentions Sir T. More the night before his execution; two cases reported by Borellus; three by Daniel Turner; one by Dr. Ca.s.san; and in a note he recalls John Libeny, a would-be a.s.sa.s.sin of the Emperor of Austria, 'whose hair turned snow-white in the forty-eight hours preceding his execution.' See 'Notes and Queries,' 6th S. vols. vi.
to ix., and 7th S. ii. Not only fear but sorrow is said to cause the hair to turn white very suddenly. Byron makes his Prisoner of Chillon say that his white hairs have not come to him
'In a single night, As men's have grown from sudden fears.'
Stanza XXIX. line 506. 'St. Regulus (Scottice, St. Rule), a monk of Patrae, in Achaia, warned by a vision, is said, A. D. 370, to have sailed westward, until he landed at St. Andrews, in Scotland, where he founded a chapel and tower. The latter is still standing; and, though we may doubt the precise date of its foundation, is certainly one of the most ancient edifices in Scotland. A cave, nearly fronting the ruinous castle of the Archbishops of St. Andrews, bears the name of this religion person. It is difficult of access; and the rock in which it is hewed is washed by the German Ocean. It is nearly round, about ten feet in diameter, and the same in height. On one side is a sort of stone altar; on the other an aperture into an inner den, where the miserable ascetic, who inhabited this dwelling, probably slept. At full tide, egress and regress are hardly practicable. As Regulus first colonised the metropolitan see of Scotland, and converted the inhabitants in the vicinity, he has some reason to complain that the ancient name of Killrule (Cella Reguli) should have been superseded, even in favour of the tutelar saint of Scotland. The reason of the change was, that St. Rule is said to have brought to Scotland the relics of Saint Andrew.'--SCOTT.