Part 26 (1/2)

'Like a pillar of Parian stone, That in some old temple shone, Or a slender shaft of living star, Gleams that foam-fall from afar; But the column is melted down below Into a gulf of seething snow, And the stream steals away from its whirl of h.o.a.r, As bright and as lovely as before.'

CANTO SECOND.

lines 1-6. The earlier editions have a period at the end of line 5, and neither Scott himself nor Lockhart changed that punctuation.

But, undoubtedly, the first sentence ends with line 11, 'roll'd' in the second line being a part, and not a finite verb. Mr. Rolfe is the first to punctuate the pa.s.sage thus.

line 9. 'The Abbey of Whitby, in the Archdeaconry of Cleaveland, on the coast of Yorks.h.i.+re, was founded A. D. 657, in consequence of a vow of Oswy, King of Northumberland. It contained both monks and nuns of the Benedictine order; but, contrary to what was usual in such establishments, the abbess was superior to the abbot. The monastery was afterwards mined by the Danes, and rebuilded by William Percy, in the reign of the Conqueror. There were no nuns there in Henry the Eighth's time, nor long before it. The ruins of Whitby Abbey are very magnificent.'--SCOTT.

line 10. 'Lindisfarne, an isle on the coast of Northumberland, was called Holy Island, from the sanct.i.ty of its ancient monastery, and from its having been the episcopal seat of the see of Durham during the early ages of British Christianity. A succession of holy men held that office: but their merits were swallowed up in the superior fame of St. Cuthbert, who was sixth bishop of Durham, and who bestowed the name of his ”patrimony” upon the extensive property of the see. The ruins of the monastery upon Holy Island betoken great antiquity. The arches are, in general, strictly Saxon, and the pillars which support them, short, strong, and ma.s.sy. In some places, however, there are pointed windows, which indicate that the building has been repaired at a period long subsequent to the original foundation. The exterior ornaments of the building, being of a light sandy stone, have been wasted, as described in the text.

Lindisfarne is not properly an island, but rather, as the Venerable Bede has termed it, a semi-isle; for, although surrounded by the sea at full tide, the ebb leaves the sands dry between it and the opposite coast of Northumberland, from which it is about three miles distant.'--SCOTT.

The monastery, of which the present ruins remain, was built, between 1093 and 1120, by Benedictine monks under the direction of William Carileph, Bishop of Durham. There were sixteen bishops in Holy Island between St. Aidan (635 A. D.) and Eardulph (875 A. D.). The Christians were dispersed after the violent inroad of the Danes in 868, and for two centuries Lindisfarne suffered apparent relapse.

Lindisfarne (Gael. farne, a retreat) signifies 'a place of retreat by the brook Lindis.' The name Holy Island was given by Carileph's monks, to commemorate, they said, 'the sacred blood which had been shed by the Danes.' See Raine's 'History of North Durham,' F. R.

Wilson's 'Churches of Lindisfarne,' and Mr. Keeling's 'Lindisfarne, or Holy Island: its History and a.s.sociations.'

line 17. Cp. Coleridge's 'Ancient Mariner':--

'The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The farrow followed free.'

line 20. For Saint Hilda, see below, note on line 244.

Stanza II. line 33. sea-dog, the seal.

line 36. still. Cp. above, I. 430.

line 44. A Novice is one under probation for a term extending to at least a year, and it may extend to two or three years, after which vows are either taken or declined.

Stanza IV. line 70. Benedictine school. St. Benedict founded his order--sometimes, because of their dark garb, called Black Friars-- in the beginning of the sixth century. Benedict of Aniana, in the eighth century, reformed the discipline of the order.

line 74. Cp. Chaucer's Prioress in the Prologue:--

'And sikerly sche was of gret disport, And ful plesaunt, and amyable of port.'

Stanza V. line 90. Cp. Spenser's Una, 'Faery Queene,' I. iv:--

'A lovely Ladie rode him faire beside.

As one that inly mournd, so was she sad, And heavie sat upon her palfrey slow.'

Stanza VI. With this 'brown study,' cp. Wordsworth's 'Reverie of Poor Susan.'

Stanza. VII. line 114. Reference to the lion of 'Faery Queene,' I.

iii:--

'Forsaken Truth long seekes her love, And makes the Lyon mylde.'

line 124. bowl and knife. Poisoning and stabbing.

Stanza VIII. Monk-Wearmouth. A monastery, founded here in 674 A. D., was destroyed by the Danes in the ninth century, and restored after the Norman Conquest. For Tynemouth, see below, 371, Seaton-Delaval, the seat of the Delavals, who by marriage came into possession of Ford Castle. Widderington. It was a 'squyar off Northombarlonde, Ric. Wytharynton,' that showed notable valour and persistent endurance at Chevy Chase:--