Part 36 (1/2)

”So mony guid as of ye Dovglas beinge, Of ane surname was ne'er in Scotland seine.

I will ye charge, efter yat I depart, To holy grawe, and thair bury my hart; Let it remane ever BOTHE TYME AND HOWR, To ye last day I sie my Saviour.

I do protest in tyme of al my ringe, Ye lyk subject had never ony keing.”

'This curious and valuable relic was nearly lost during the Civil War of 1745-6, being carried away from Douglas Castle by some of those in arms for Prince Charles. But great interest having been made by the Duke of Douglas among the chief partisans of the Stuart, it was at length restored. It resembles a Highland claymore, of the usual size, is of an excellent temper, and admirably poised.'-- SCOTT.

Stanza XVI. line 461. Scott quotes:--

'O Dowglas! Dowglas Tender and trew.'--The Houlate.

line 470. There are two famous sparrows in literature, the one Lesbia's sparrow, tenderly lamented by Catullus, and the other Jane Scrope's sparrow, memorialised by Skelton in the ' Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe.'

line 475. The tears of such as Douglas are of the kind mentioned in Cowley's 'Prophet,' line 20:--

'Words that weep, and tears that speak.'

Stanza XVII. line 501. 'The ancient cry to make room for a dance or pageant.'--SCOTT.

Cp. Romeo and Juliet, i. 5. 28: 'A hall! a hall! give room,' &c.

line 505. The tune is significant of a Scottish invasion of England.

See Scott's appropriate song to the 'ancient air,' 'Monastery,' xxv.

Reference is made in I Henry II, ii. 4. 368, to the head-dress of the Scottish soldiers, when Falstaff informs Prince Hal that Douglas is in England, 'and a thousand BLUE-CAPS more.'

Stanza XIX. line 545. Many of the houses in Old Edinburgh are built to a great height, so that the common stairs leading up among a group of them have sometimes been called 'perpendicular streets.'

Pitch, meaning 'height,' is taken from hawking, the height to which a bird rose depending largely on the pitch given it.

Stanza XX. line 558. St. Giles's ma.s.sive steeple is one of the features of Edinburgh. The ancient church, recently renovated by the munificence of the late William Chambers, is now one of the most imposing Presbyterian places of wors.h.i.+p in Scotland.

line 569. For bowne see above, IV. 487.

line 571. A certain impressiveness is given by the sudden introduction of this pentameter.

Stanza XXI. Jeffrey, in reviewing' Marmion, 'fixed on this narrative of the Abbess as a pa.s.sage marked by 'flatness and tediousness,' and could see in it 'no sort of beauty nor elegance of diction.' The answer to such criticism is that the narrative is direct and practical, and admirably suited to its purpose.

line 585. Despiteously, despitefully. 'Despiteous' is used in 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' V. xix. Cp. Chaucer's 'Man of Lawe,' 605 (Clarendon Press ed.):--

'And sey his wyf despitously yslayn.'

line 587. 'A German general, who commanded the auxiliaries sent by the d.u.c.h.ess of Burgundy with Lambert Simnel. He was defeated and killed at Stokefield. The name of this German general is preserved by that of the field of battle, which is called, after him, Swart- moor.--There were songs about him long current in England. See Dissertation prefixed to RITSON'S Ancient Songs, 1792, p. lxi.'-- SCOTT.

line 588. Lambert Simnel, the Pretender, made a scullion after his overthrow by Henry VII.

line 590. Stokefield (Stoke, near Newark, county Nottingham) was fought 16 June, 1487.

line 607. 'It was early necessary for those who felt themselves obliged to believe in the divine judgment being enunciated in the trial by duel, to find salvos for the strange and obviously precarious chances of the combat. Various curious evasive s.h.i.+fts, used by those who took up an unrighteous quarrel, were supposed sufficient to convert it into a just one. Thus, in the romance of ”Amys and Amelion,” the one brother-in-arms, fighting for the other, disguised in his armour, swears that HE did not commit the crime of which the Steward, his antagonist, truly, though maliciously, accused him whom he represented. Brantome tells a story of an Italian, who entered the lists upon an unjust quarrel, but, to make his cause good, fled from his enemy at the first onset. ”Turn, coward!” exclaimed his antagonist. ”Thou liest,” said the Italian, ”coward am I none; and in this quarrel will I fight to the death, but my first cause of combat was unjust, and I abandon it.” ”Je vous laisse a penser,” adds Brantome, ”s'il n'y a pas de l'abus la.”

Elsewhere he says, very sensibly, upon the confidence which those who had a righteous cause entertained of victory: ”Un autre abus y avoit-il, que ceux qui avoient un juste subjet de querelle, et qu'on les faisoit jurer avant entrer au camp, pensoient estre aussitost vainqueurs, voire s'en a.s.suroient-t-ils du tout, mesmes que leurs confesseurs, parrains et confidants leurs en respondoient tout-a- fait, comme si Dieu leur en eust donne une patente; et ne regardant point a d'autres fautes pa.s.ses, et que Dieu en garde la punition a ce coup la pour plus grande, despiteuse, et exemplaire.”--Discours sur le Duels.'--SCOTT.

Stanza XXII. line 612. Recreant, a coward, a disgraced knight. See 'Lady of the Lake,' V. xvi:--