SCOTT'S MARMION A TALE OF FLODDEN FIELD EDITED BY H. E. COBLENTZ, A. M PRINCIPAL OF THE SOUTH DIVISION HIGH SCHOOL NEW YORK .:. CINCINNATI: CHICAGO HARVARD Copyright, 1893 and 1911, by MARMION W. P. IC INTRODUCTION. WHEN Sir Walter Scott had completed this poem of "Marmion," in 1808, he foresaw that it would be a favorite with youth; and in the lines "To the Reader," at its conclusion, he specified the schoolboy in a passage which shows his warm feeling, and his appreciation of the schoolboy's natural heart: "To thee, dear schoolboy, whom my lay Has cheated of thy hour of play, Light task and merry holiday! To read "Marmion" is indeed a light and pleasant task, for the subject and the style engage the reader's interest from the start; but to read it to the best purpose, and with full understanding, one needs to get in some way that knowledge of the time in which the events narrated occurred, of the places and historical facts mentioned, and of the prevailing social conditions then existing, which the author presumed the reader would possess. To supply the information with sufficient fullness and clearness, and also to explain such words and literary constructions as may be strange or obscure, is the purpose of this edition. Such things as any intelligent teacher may be supposed competent to interpret readily, or the explanation of which may be found in the smaller dictionaries or in other books of reference easily accessible to pupils, have been left without remark. It is 5 |