the right bank of the Clyde, a few miles from Glasgow. The beautiful „ declivity called Bothwell Bank is celebrated in Scottish song.

404. Princely bowers. See on 173 above.

414. And chafed his royal lord. Angus was an old man when the war against England was resolved upon. He earnestly spoke against that measure from its commencement, and, on the eve of the battle of Flodden, remonstrated so freely upon the impolicy of fighting, that the king said to him, with scorn and indignation,' if he was afraid, he might go home.' The Earl burst into tears at this insupportable insult, and retired accordingly, leaving his sons, George, Master of Angus, and Sir William of Glenbervie, to command his followers. They were both slain in the battle, with two hundred gentlemen of the name of Douglas. The aged Earl, broken-hearted at the calamities of his house and his country, retired into a religious house, where he died about a year after the field of Flodden " (Scott).

425. While. The reading of the early eds. Many recent ones substitute the harsher "Whilst," which is the worse for the sibilant that follows.

429. Tantallon Hold. "The ruins of Tantallon Castle occupy a high rock projecting into the German Ocean, about two miles east of North Berwick. The building is not seen till a close approach, as there is rising ground betwixt it and the land. The circuit is of large extent, fenced upon three sides by the precipice which overhangs the sea, and on the fourth by a double ditch and very strong outworks. Tantallon was a principal castle of the Douglas family, and when the Earl of Angus was banished, in 1527, it continued to hold out against James V. The king went in person against it, and, for its reduction, borrowed from the castle of Dunbar, then belonging to the Duke of Albany, two great cannons, whose names, as Pitscottie informs us with laudable minuteness, were 'Thrawn-mouth'd Mow and her Marrow;' also, 'two great botcards and two moyan, two double falcons, and four quarter-falcons;' for the safe-guiding and redelivery of which three lords were laid in pawn at Dunbar. Yet, notwithstanding all this apparatus, James was forced to raise the siege, and only afterwards obtained possession of Tantallon by treaty with the governor, Simeon Panango. When the Earl of Angus returned from banishment, upon the death of James, he again obtained possession of Tantallon, and it actually afforded refuge to an English ambassador, under circumstances similar to those described in the text. This was no other than the celebrated Sir Ralph Sadler, who resided there for some time under Angus's protection, after the failure of his negotiation for matching the infant Mary with Edward VI. He says, that though this place was poorly furnished, it was of such strength as might warrant him against the malice of his enemies, and that he now thought himself out of danger.

"There is a military tradition, that the old Scotch March was meant to express the words,

Ding down Tantallon,

Mak a brig to the Bass.'

"Tantallon was at length 'dung down' and ruined by the Covenanters, its lord, the Marquis of Douglas, being a favorer of the royal cause

The castle and barony were sold in the beginning of the eighteenth cen tury to President Dalrymple of North Berwick, by the then Marquis of Douglas."

432. He wears their motto, etc. "A very ancient sword, in possession of Lord Douglas, bears, among a great deal of flourishing, two hands pointing to a heart, which is placed betwixt them, and the date 1329, being the year in which Bruce charged the Good Lord Douglas to carry his heart to the Holy Land. The following lines (the first couplet of which is quoted by Godscroft as a popular saying in his time) are inscribed around the emblem:

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 1745-1746, 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).

437. But e'en, etc. The MS. has "But yestermorn was hither driven." 444. Cochran's soul. See on 398 above.

455, 456. Angus, my hasty speech, etc. These two lines are not in the MS.

461. More tender and more true.

470. Her sparrow part.

Scott quotes The Houlate:

"O Dowglas! Dowglas!
Tendir and trew."

depart, see on i. 20 above.

The MS. has “her love depart." For part=

491. Prickers. See on 75 above.

501. A hall! a hall! "The ancient cry to make room for a dance or pageant" (Scott). Cf. Romeo and Juliet, i. 5. 28: "A hall! a hall! give room! and foot it, girls!"

552. Was by. 559. Antique.

above.

Was over, had ceased.. Cf. iv. ind. 124 above
Accented on the first syllable. See on iv. ind. 171

569. Bowne. See on iv. 487 above.

580-602. De Wilton, etc. Jeffrey, in the Edinburgh Review, refers to this passage as one of those "in which the flatness and tediousness of the narrative is relieved by no sort of beauty nor elegance of diction, and which form an extraordinary contrast with the more animated and finished portions of the poem."

585. Despiteously. Furiously. For the adjective, cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 7. 62: "Jewes despiteous," etc.

587. Martin Swart. "A German general who commanded the auxiliaries sent by the Duchess of Burgundy with Lambert Simnel. He was defeated and killed at Stokefield. His name 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).

Cf. 614 below.

592. Wont. See on ii. 587 above. 596. Scroll. Letters, correspondence. 607. Perchance some form, etc. "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 shifts, 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 armor, swears that he did not commit the crime of which the Steward, his antagonist, truly, though maliciously, accused him whom he represented. Brantome (Discours sur les Duels) tells the 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 abandoned it.' 'Je vous laisse à penser,' adds Brantome, 's'il n'y a pas de l'abus là.' 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 assuroient-t-ils du tout, mesmes que leurs confesseurs, parrains et confidants leurs en respondoient tout-à-fait, comme si Dieu leur en eust donné une patente; et ne regardant point à d'autres fautes passées, et que Dieu en garde la punition à ce coup là pour plus grande, despiteuse, et exemplaire"" (Scott).

612. Recreant. This, like craven, was a specific term for a knight vanquished in the trial by battle. Cf. Richard II. i. 2. 50:

"Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom

That they may break his foaming courser's back,
And throw the rider headlong in the lists,

A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford !"

616. Drenched him with. Made him drink. Drench is a causative" from drink; like fell from fall, lay from lie, etc.

621. Livings. Possessions.

627. Edelfled. See on ii. 244 above.

633. Tame. A small river that flows into the Trent, a few miles to the north of Tamworth.

641. Spoiled. That is, being thus spoiled, or defrauded.

661. Clerk. Scribe, scholar. Cf. iii. 324 above.

662. Quaint. Neat, fine; as often in Elizabethan English. Cf. the adverb in Shakespeare, T. G. of V. ii. 1. 128: "the lines are very quaintly writ." Silvia has said, a moment before, that they are "very clerkly done."

665. Scheme. Plan, contrive.

Peter Bayne, writing of Coleridge,

says that "he schemed an epic," etc.
677. 'Twere long, etc. Cf. iv. 449 above.

691. Wolsey. That is, Cardinal Wolsey. Cf. 691 and vi. 1167 below. 697. What ail'st thou ? "What ails thee?" would be the more common construction. Cf. Gen. xxi. 17. Shakespeare, however, uses the other in the only two instances in which he has ail: A. W. ii. 4. 6: "what does she ail?" and W. T. iii. 3. 83: "What ailest thou, man?" 704. Saint Withold. A corruption of the name of St. Vitalis. Cf. Lear, iii. 4. 125: "Saint Withold footed thrice the old" (wold), etc. 706. Battled. See on i. above.

709. Dun-Edin's Cross, etc. The MS. reads:

"Dun-Edin's Cross, a pillar'd stone,

Rose on a turret hexagon;

(Dust unto dust, lead unto lead,
On its destroyer's drowsy

Upon its base destroyer's S

head!

The Minstrel's malison is said.)"

Scott says here: "The Cross of Edinburgh was an ancient and cu rious structure. The lower part was an octagonal tower, sixteen feet in diameter, and about fifteen feet high. At each angle there was a pillar, and between them an arch, of the Grecian shape. Above these was a projecting battlement, with a turret at each corner, and medallions, of rude but curious workmanship, between them. Above this rose the proper Cross, a column of one stone, upwards of twenty feet high, surmounted with an unicorn. This pillar is preserved at the House of Drum, near Edinburgh. The Magistrates of Edinburgh, in 1756, with consent of the Lords of Session (proh pudor!), destroyed this curious monument, under a wanton pretext, that it encumbered the street; while, on the one hand, they left an ugly mass, called the Luckenbooths, and, on the other, an awkward, long, and low guard-house, which were fifty times more encumbrance than the venerable and inoffensive Cross.

"From the tower of the Cross, so long as it remained, the heralds published the acts of Parliament; and its site, marked by radii diverg·ing from a stone centre, in the High Street, is still the place where proclamations are made."

Since the above was written the shaft of the old Cross has been set up within the railings of St. Giles's Church, very near its original site. 717. Malison. "Curse" (Scott).

725. As. As if. See on i. 447 above.

735. This awful summons came. Scott says: "This supernatural citation is mentioned by all our Scottish historians. It was, probably, like the apparition at Linlithgow, an attempt, by those averse to the war, to impose upon the superstitious temper of James IV. The following account from Pitscottie is characteristically minute, and furnishes, besides, some curious particulars of the equipment of the army of James IV. I need only add to it, that Plotcock, or Plutcock, is no other than Pluto. The Christians of the Middle Ages by no means misbelieved in the existence of the heathen deities; they only considered them as

devils;1 and Plotcock, so far from implying anything fabulous, was a synonyme of the grand enemy of mankind. Yet all thir warnings, and uncouth tidings, nor no good counsel, might stop the king, at this present, from his vain purpose, and wicked enterprize, but hasted him fast to Edinburgh, and there to make his provision and furnishing, in having forth of his army against the day appointed, that they should meet in the Burrow-muir of Edinburgh: That is to say, seven cannons that he had forth of the castle of Edinburgh, which were called the Seven. Sisters, casten by Robert Borthwick, the master-gunner, with other small artillery, bullet, powder, and all manner of order, as the master-gunner could devise.

"In this mean time, when they were taking forth their artillery, and the king being in the Abbey for the time, there was a cry heard at the Market-cross of Edinburgh, at the hour of midnight, proclaiming as it had been a summons, which was named and called by the proclaimer thereof, The Summons of Plotcock; which desired all men to compear, both Earl and Lord, and Baron, and all honest gentlemen within the town (every man specified by his own name) to compear, within the space of forty days, before his master, where it should happen him to appoint, and be for the time, under the pain of disobedience. But whether this summons was proclaimed by vain persons, night-walkers, or drunken men, for their pastime, or if it was a spirit, I cannot tell truly; but it was shown to me, that an indweller of the town, Mr. Richard Lawson, being evil-disposed, ganging in his gallery-stair foreanent the cross, hearing this voice proclaiming this summons, thought marvel what it should be, cried on his servant to bring him his purse; and when he had brought him it, he took out a crown, and cast over the stair, saying, I appeal from that summons, judgment, and sentence thereof, and takes me all whole in the mercy of God, and Christ Jesus his son. Verily the author of this, that caused me write the manner of the summons, was a landed gentleman, who was at that time twenty years of age, and was in the town the time of the said summons; and thereafter, when the field was stricken, he swore to me, there was no man that escaped that was called in this summons, but that one man alone which made his protestation, and appealed from the said summons; but all the lave were perished in the field with the king.'" 746. Pride. The MS. has". "fraud; and just below:

دو

"Ere twenty days are pass'd and gone,

Before the mighty Monarch's throne,
I cite you to appear."

756. Forbes. A dissyllable, as in iv. ind. 132 above.
757. Style. Name, title.

"See, on this curious subject, the Essay on Fairies, in the Border Minstrelsy, vo.. ii. under the fourth head; also Jackson on Unbelief, p. 175. Chaucer calls Pluto the 'King of Faerie;' and Dunbar names him, Pluto, that elrich incubus.' If he was not actually the devil, he must be considered as the prince of the power of the air.' The most remarkable instance of these surviving classical superstitions is that of the Germans, concerning the Hill of Venus, into which she attempts to entice all gallant knights, and detains them there in a sort of Fools' Paradise."