away of course. Almost all the Scottish forces, except a few knights, men-at-arms, and the Border-prickers, who formed excellent light cav. alry, acted upon foot " (Scott). 54. Hagbut. See on ii. ind. 48 above. 56. Cheer. Face; its original sense. the Lake, p. 220. Cf. 244 below, and see Lady of 59. Musing. Wondering; as often in Shakespeare. Cf. Macbeth, iii. 4. 85: "Do not muse at me; King John, iii. 1. 317: "I muse your majesty doth seem so cold," etc. 73. Slogan. The Highland battle-cry. Cf. vi. 811 below. 75. Pricker. Horseman. Cf. 491 below, and see on i. ind. 294 above. 93. Hist, Ringan, etc. The MS. reads: "Hist, Ringan! seest thou there! Canst guess what homeward road they take- Oh! could we but by bush or brake Beset a prize so fair! The fangless Lion, too, his guide, Might chance to lose his glittering hide." 96. Eusedale. The valley of the Euse, or Ews, which, like the Liddell, flows into the Esk. For some miles the Liddell is the boundary between England and Scotland. = 100. Maudlin. A female name corrupted from Magdalen. Maud is a contraction of it. Pied variegated. A kirtle rare a fine gown. 107. Trews. The tartan trousers of the Highlanders. For the pronunciation of plaid, see on iv. ind. 73 above. 110. Wild through, etc. The MS. reads: "Wild from their red and swarthy hair Look'd through their eyes with savage stare." 135. The pipes. That is, the bagpipes. 147. To wheel, etc. That is, to wheel, or curve, a bar of iron into a horseshoe. 157. Following. Scott explains this as=' -"feudal retainers; " but, as Lockhart remarks, the word has since been "completely adopted into English, and especially into Parliamentary parlance." 165. Wines. "In all transactions of great or petty importance, and among whomsoever taking place, it would seem that a present of wine was an uniform and indispensable preliminary. It was not to Sir John Falstaff alone that such an introductory preface was necessary, however well judged and acceptable on the part of Mr. Brook; for Sir Ralph Sadler, while on embassy to Scotland in 1539-1540, mentions, with complacency, the same night came Rothesay (the herald so called) to me again, and brought me wine from the king, both white and red"" (Scott). 167. And when, etc. 168. Dons. The 1st on i. ind. 256 above. 173. Princely bower. 404 below. This line is not in the 1st ed. ed. has "donned." For weeds = garments, see Used loosely for palace, or residence; as in The professional fool, or jester, who was found household. The long-eared cap and motley vest Cf. Shakespeare, A. Y. L. ii. 7. 42 : "O that I were a fool! I am ambitious for a motley coat." 200. Can view. The omission of the relative (especially after that) was common in Elizabethan prose as well as poetry. Cf. Bacon, Essay xxxii.: "your knowledge of that you are thought to know." See also Matt. xx. 14. 66 212. Were. The reading of the early eds. was," which Scott would not have written here. All recent ones have 215. Sheen. Shining; as in 285 below. Cf. Lady of the Lake, p. 186, note on 208. 218. Wrought with, etc. 220. His trusty blade, etc. The MS. has" Bearing," etc. The MS. reads: "His trusty blade, Toledo right, Descended from a baldric bright, And dangled at his knee : White were his buskins; from their heel His fretted spurs of gold and steel Were jingling merrily." Right = true, genuine. 221. Baldric. Belt; as in Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 29: "Athwart his brest a bauldrick brave he ware," etc. 244. Cheer. See on 56 above. 247. His iron belt. "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 bat tle 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 disposi tion, which led him highly to relish gayety, approaching to license, was, at the same time, tinged with enthusiastic devotion. The propensities sometimes formed a strange contrast. He was wont, during his fits of devotion, to assume 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 superstitious 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, entitled, 'Dunbar's Dirige to the King, Byding ower lang in Striviling. In Edinburgh, with all merriness, See the whole in Sibbald's Collection, vol. i. p. 234" (Scott). 260. O'er James's heart, etc. "It has been already noticed, 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 passion the delays which led to the fatal defeat of Flodden. The author of The Genealogy of the Heron Family endeavors, 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 slaugh ter of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, Warden of the Middle Marches. It was committed by his brother the bastard, 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). 66 6 269. For the fair Queen of France, etc. "Also the Queen of France wrote a love-letter to the King of Scotland, calling him her love, shewing him that she had suffered much rebuke in France for the defending of his honor. 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 his expenses' (Pitscottie, p. 110). A turquoise ring-probably this fatal gift - is, with James's sword and dagger, preserved in the College of Heralds, London (Scott). 283. The sooth to tell. See on i. 443 above. "Nor France's queen nor England's fair For sheen, see on 215 above. 287. Lithgow's bower. Linlithgow Palace. For the form Lithgow in prose, see p. 290. See on iv. 287 above 301-312. For, all for heat, etc. The MS. has only the following: "For, all for heat, was laid aside Her wimpled hood and gorget's pride: And on the righted harp with glee, A soft, yet lively, air she rang, While thus her voice attendant sang." 302 Wimple. Veil. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 22: "For she had layd her mournefull stole aside, See also Isaiah, iii. 22. 307. Her pretty oath, by yea and nay. Lady Heron swears, as Hotspur said of his Kate (1 Henry IV. iii. 1. 253), "like a comfit-maker's wife," not the "good mouth-filling oath" which he thought became a "lady." For by yea and nay, cf. L. L. L. i. 1. 54: "By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest," etc. 313. Oh! young Lochinvar, etc. Scott says that this ballad is "in a very slight degree" founded on one called "Katherine Janfarie," which may be found in the Border Minstrelsy. The metre of it is anapestic, that is, with the accent regularly on every third syllable; but the iambus (two syllables, with the second accented) often takes the place of the anapest (three syllables, with the third accented), especially at the beginning of a line. 332. The Solway. "See the novel of Redgauntlet for a detailed picture of some of the extraordinary phenomena of the Spring-tides in the Solway Frith (Lockhart). 344. Galliard. A lively dance. Cf. Henry V. i. 2. 252: “a nimble galliard," etc. 353. Scaur. Steep river bank or cliff. 378. Broad. That is, with the broad-seal of the sovereign. Cf. broad letter in 862 below. Lockhart ascribes this reading to the MS. 398. Archibald Bell-the-Cat. Scott has the following note here: "Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus, a man remarkable for strength of body and mind, acquired the popular name of Bell-the-Cat upon the following remarkable occasion: James the Third, of whom Pitscottie complains that he delighted more in music and policies of building,' than in hunting, hawking, and other noble exercises, was so ill advised as to make favorites of his architects and musicians, whom the same historian irreverently terms masons and fiddlers. His nobility, who did not sympathize in the king's respect for the fine arts, were extremely incensed at the honors conferred on those persons, particularly on Cochran, a mason, who had been created Earl of Mar; and seizing the opportunity, when, in 1482, the king had convoked the whole array of the country to march against the English, they held a midnight council in the church of Lauder, for the purpose of forcibly removing these minions from the king's person. When all had agreed on the propriety of this measure, Lord Gray told the assembly the apologue of the Mice, who had formed a resolution, that it would be highly advantageous to their community to tie a bell round the cat's neck, that they might hear her approach at a distance; but which public measure unfortunately miscarried, from no mouse being willing to undertake the task of fastening the bell. I understand the moral,' said Angus, and, that what we propose may not lack execution, I will bell the cat. The rest of the strange scene is thus told by Pitscottie: :- "By this was advised and spoken by thir lords foresaid, Cochran, the Earl of Mar, came from the king to the council (which council was holden in the kirk of Lawder for the time), who was well accompanied with a band of men of war, to the number of three hundred light axes, all clad in white livery, and black bends thereon, that they might be known for Cochran the Earl of Mar's men. Himself was clad in a riding. pie of black velvet, with a great chain of gold about his neck, to the value of five hundred crowns, and four blowing-horns, with both the ends of gold and silk, set with a precious stone, called a berryl, hanging in the midst. This Cochran had his heumont born before him, overgilt with gold, and so were all the rest of his horns, and all his pallions were of fine canvas of silk, and the cords thereof fine twined silk, and the chains upon his pallions were double overgilt with gold. "This Cochran was so proud in his conceit, that he counted no lords to be marrows to him, therefore he rushed rudely at the kirk-door. The council enquired who it was that perturbed them at that time. Sir Robert Douglas, Laird of Lochlevin, was keeper of the kirk-door at that time, who inquired who that was that knocked so rudely? and Cochran answered, "This is I, the Earl of Mar." The which news pleased well the lords, because they were ready boun to cause take him, as is afore rehearsed. Then the Earl of Angus past hastily to the door, and with him Sir Robert Douglas of Lochlevin, there to receive in the Earl of Mar, and so many of his complices who were there, as they thought good. And the Earl of Angus met with the Earl of Mar, as he came in at the door, and pulled the golden chain from his craig, and said to him, a tow,1 would set him better. Sir Robert Douglas syne pulled the blowing-horn from him in like manner, and said, "He had been the hunter of mischief over long." This Cochran asked, “My lords, is it mows 2 or earnest ?" They answered, and said, it is good earnest, and so thou shalt find: for thou and thy complices have abused our prince this long time; of whom thou shalt have no more credence, but shall have thy reward according to thy good service, as thou hast deserved in times bypast; right so the rest of thy followers. 66 6 'Notwithstanding, the lords held them quiet till they caused certain armed men to pass into the king's pallion, and two or three wise men to pass with them, and give the king fair pleasant words, till they laid hands on all the king's servants, and took them and hanged them before his eyes over the bridge of Lawder. Incontinent they brought forth Cochran, and his hands bound with a tow, who desired them to take one of his own pallion-tows and bind his hands, for he thought shame to have his hands bound with such tow of hemp, like a thief. The lords answered, he was a traitor, he deserved no better; and, for despight, they took a hair-tether, and hanged him over the bridge of Lawder, above the rest of his complices.' 400. Hermitage in Liddisdale. The ruins of Hermitage Castle are still to be seen on the bank of the Hermitage Water, a tributary of the Liddell (see on 96 above). 402. Where Bothwell's turrets, etc. This is to be joined with what follows, not with what precedes: he left the Hermitage to fix his resi dence at Bothwell Castle. The picturesque ruins of this castle are on 1 Rope. 2 Jest. 3 Halter. |