Part 35 (1/2)
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 a.s.sume 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 superst.i.tions 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, ent.i.tled:--
”Dunbar's Dirige to the King, Byding ewer lang in Striviling.
We that are here, in heaven's glory, To you that are in Purgatory, Commend us on our hearty wise; I mean we folks in Paradise, In Edinburgh, with all merriness, To you in Stirling with distress, Where neither pleasure nor delight is, For pity this epistle wrytis,” &c.
See the whole in Sibbald's Collection, vol. i. p. 234.'--SCOTT.
Since Scott's time Dunbar's poems have been edited, with perfect scholars.h.i.+p 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 pa.s.sion 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d, 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 wimple was a covering for the neck, said to have been introduced in the reign of Edward I. See Chaucer's 'Prologue,' 151:--
'Ful semely hire wympel i-pynched was.'
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 :--
'The la.s.sie blush'd, and frowning cried, ”No, no, it will not do; I cannot, cannot, wonnot, wonnot, mannot buckle too.”'
Stanza XII. The skilful application of the anapaest for the production of the brilliant gallop of 'Lochinvar' has been equalled only by Scott himself in his 'Bonnets o' Bonnie Dundee.' Cp. Lord Tennyson's 'Northern Farmer' (specially New Style), and Mr.
Browning's 'How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix.' 'The ballad of Lochinvar,' says Scott, 'is in a very slight degree founded on a ballad called ” Katharine Janfarie,” which may be found in the ”Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,” vol. ii. Mr. Charles Gibbon's 'Laird o' Lamington' is based on the same legend.
line 332. 'See the novel of ”Redgauntlet” for a detailed picture of some of the extraordinary phenomena of the spring-tides in the Solway Frith.'--LOCKHART.
line 344. galliard (Sp. gallarda, Fr. gaillarda), a lively dance.
Cp. Henry V, i. 2, 252, 'a nimble galliard,' and note on expression in Clarendon Press ed.
line 353. scaur, cliff or river bank. Cp. Blackie's 'Ascent of Cruachan' in 'Lays of the Highlands and Islands,' p. 98:--
'Scale the SCAUR that gleams so red.'
Stanza XIII. line 376. Cp. Dryden's 'Aurengzebe':-
'Love and a crown no rivals.h.i.+p can bear.'
line 382. Sir R. Kerr. See above, line 261.
line 383. Andrew Barton, High Admiral of Scotland, was one of a family of seamen, to whom James IV granted letters of reprisal against Portuguese traders for the violent death of their father.