479. Good sooth. See on i. 443 above. 481. Spell. Make out, understand. 488. As. As if. See on i. 447 above. 498. Prompt in. 500. The Master. The earliest eds. have "Prompt to." "His eldest son, the Master of Angus" (Scott). 503. Horse-courser. One that runs horses or keeps race-horses. 504. Bear'st a brain. Hast a good memory. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, i. 3. 29: Nay, I do bear a brain; and The Country Captain, 1649: "you beare a braine and memory.' 512. Cotswold. See on i. 174 above. 520. As wont. As I was wont to do. See on ii. 587 above. 526. 'Twas therefore. 'Twas for this, 't was on this account. 66 540. Lennel's convent. A Cistercian house of religion, now almost entirely demolished. It is situated near Coldstream, almost opposite to Cornhill, and consequently very near to Flodden Field" (Scott). 545. A reverend pilgrim. Patrick Brydone, Esq., who then occupied Lennel House. 568. Traversed. The intransitive use of the verb is rare. 573. By Twisel Bridge. "On the evening previous to the memorable battle of Flodden, Surrey's head-quarters were at Barmore-wood, and King James held an inaccessible position on the ridge of Floddenhill, one of the last and lowest eminences detached from the ridge of Cheviot. The Till, a deep and slow river, winded between the armies. On the morning of the 9th September, 1513, Surrey marched in a northwesterly direction, and crossed the Till, with his van and artillery, at Twisel-bridge, nigh where that river joins the Tweed, his rear-guard column passing about a mile higher, by a ford. This movement had the double effect of placing his army between King James and his supplies from Scotland, and of striking the Scottish monarch with surprise, as he seems to have relied on the depth of the river in his front. But as the passage, both over the bridge and through the ford, was difficult and slow, it seems possible that the English might have been attacked to great advantage while struggling with these natural obstacles. I know not if we are to impute James's forbearance to want of military skill, or to the romantic declaration which Pitscottie puts in his mouth, that he was determined to have his enemies before him on a plain field,' and therefore would suffer no interruption to be given, even by artillery, to their passing the river. "The ancient bridge of Twisel, by which the English crossed the Till, is still standing beneath Twisel Castle, a splendid pile of Gothic architecture, as now rebuilt by Sir Francis Blake, Bart., whose extensive plantations have so much improved the country around. The glen is romantic and delightful, with steep banks on each side, covered with copse, particularly with hawthorn. Beneath a tall rock, near the bridge, is a plentiful fountain, called St. Helen's Well" (Scott). 574. Haughty. Used in the obsolete sense of lofty, august. Cf. haught in Spenser, F. Q. i. 6. 29: "his courage haught," etc. 587. Sweeping. The 1st ed. has "bending." 608. Vails. Lowers; here = keeps idle. See on iii. 234 above. The early eds. have vails, which was probably Scott's word; but Lockhart's and all the recent ones print "vails," as if it were a contraction of avails. 611. Wight. See on ii. ind. 113 above. 613. Saint Andrew. The patron saint of Scotland. 616. Had been Bannockbourne. That is, a victory for the Scots. 621. Ere yet, etc. The MS. has "Ere first they met Lord Marmion's eye." 626. Hap what hap. Happen what may. 627. Basnet. A light helmet. A prentice (not to be printed "'prentice") cap is used contemptuously: I'll stake my soldier's head-gear to that of any young workingman. 631. And sweep, etc. The MS. has "And all go sweeping by." 632. Bravely. Gayly. See on i. 140 above. 635 Standards. The 1st ed. has "banners." 636. Thou 'dst best. Thou hadst best; not "wouldst best," as some grammar-mongers who know nothing of the history of the language tell us we should write. 644. Lines. Note the rhyme with joins. 652. The pheasant in the falcon's claw. The pheasant being, etc. The meaning is when the falcon has the pheasant in his grasp, he will not give her up to please a jackdaw -a bird he despises. The daw was reckoned a stupid bird, and was a common metaphor for a fool. 657. Leat's eddies. The MS. has "Leat's tributes." The Leat is a very small branch of the Tweed. 675. Breathed his steed. Allowed him to take breath; as in 2 Henry IV. I. 1. 38: "That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse." 681. Hence might they see, etc. "The reader cannot here expect a full account of the battle of Flodden; but, so far as is necessary to understand the following pages, I beg to remind him, that, when the English army, by their skilful countermarch, were fairly placed between King James and his own country, the Scottish monarch resolved to fight, and, setting fire to his tents, descended from the ridge of Flodden to secure the neighboring eminence of Brankstone, on which that village is built. Thus the two armies met, almost without seeing each other, according to the old poem of Flodden Field: ' The English line stretched east and west, The English army advanced in four divisions. On the right, which first engaged, were the sons of Earl Surrey, namely, Thomas Howard, the admiral of England, and Sir Edmund, the knight marshal of the army. Their divisions were separated from each other; but, at the request of Sir Edmund, his brother's battalion was drawn very near to his own. The centre was commanded by Surrey in person; the left wing by Sir Edward Stanley, with the men of Lancashire, and of the palatinate of Chester. Lord Dacre, with a large body of horse, formed a reserve. When the smoke, which the wind had driven between the armies, was somewhat dispersed, they perceived the Scots, who had moved down the hill in a similar order of battle, and in deep silence. The Earls of Huntley and of Home commanded their left wing, and charged Sir Edmund Howard with such success as entirely to defeat his part of the English left wing. The admiral, however, stood firm, and Dacre advancing to his support with the reserve of cavalry, probably between the interval of the divisions commanded by the brother Howards, appears to have kept the victors in effectual check. Home's men, chiefly Borderers, began to pillage the baggage of both armies; and their leader is branded, by the Scotch historians, with negligence or treachery. On the other hand, Huntley, on whom they bestow many encomiums, is said, by the English historians, to have left the field after the first charge. Meanwhile the admiral, whose flank these chiefs ought to have attacked, availed himself of their inactivity, and pushed forward against another large division of the Scottish army in his front, headed by the Earls of Crawford and Montrose, both of whom were slain, and their forces routed. On the left, the success of the English was yet more decisive; for the Scottish right wing, consisting of undisciplined Highlanders, commanded by Lennox and Argyle, was unable to sustain the charge of Sir Edward Stanley, and especially the severe execution of the Lancashire archers. The king and Surrey, who commanded the respective centres of their armies, were meanwhile engaged in close and dubious conflict. James, surrounded by the flower of his kingdom, and impatient of the galling discharge of arrows, supported also by his reserve under Bothwell, charged with such fury, that the standard of Surrey was in danger. At that critical moment, Stanley, who had routed the left wing of the Scottish, pursued his career of victory, and arrived on the right flank, and in the rear of James's division, which, throwing itself into a circle, disputed the battle till night came on. Surrey then drew back his forces: for the Scottish centre not having been broken, and their left wing being victorious, he yet doubted the event of the field. The Scottish army, however, felt their loss, and abandoned the field of battle in disorder, before dawn. They lost, perhaps, from eight to ten thousand men, but that included the very prime of their nobility, gentry, and even clergy. Scarce a family of eminence but has an ancestor killed at Flodden; and there is no province in Scotland, even at this day, where the battle is mentioned without a sensation of terror and sorrow. The English lost also a great number of men, perhaps within one third of the vanquished, but they were of inferior note. See the only distinct detail of the field of Flodden in Pinkerton's History, Book xi.; all former accounts being full of blunder and inconsistency. "The spot, from which Clara views the battle, must be supposed to have been on a hillock commanding the rear of the English right wing, which was defeated, and in which conflict Marmion is supposed to have fallen" (Scott). 683. Their marshalled lines, etc. form'd, stretch'd east and west." The MS. has "Their lines were 1 "Lesquelz Ecossois descendirent la montaigne en bonne ordre, en la maniere que marchent les Allemans, sans parler, ne faire aucun bruit” (Gazette of the Battle, Pinkerton's History, Appendix, vol. ii. p. 456).. 700. Amain. See on i. ind. 91 above. soon in 707 below. 705. And would not. The MS. reads: The word is repeated too "Nor mark'd the lady's deep despair, Nor heeded discontented look." 715. Fronts their right. The 1st ed. reads "has the right;" but a note at the end of the volume states that it should be fronts their right. 716. Vaward. Vanguard. Cf. Lady of the Lake, vi. 414: "Their vaward scouts no tidings bring;" and see our ed. p. 262. 717. Brian Tunstall. "Sir Brian Tunstall, called in the romantic language of the time, Tunstall the Undefiled, was one of the few Englishmen of rank_slain at Flodden. He figures in the ancient English poem, to which I may safely refer my reader; as an edition, with full explanatory notes, has been published by my friend Mr. Henry Weber. Tunstall perhaps derived his epithet of undefiled from his white armor and banner, the latter bearing a white cock about to crow, as well as from his unstained loyalty and knightly faith. His place of residence was Thurland Castle " (Scott). 726. Beneath De Burg, etc. The MS. has"Beneath thy seneschal, Fitz-Hugh." 729. Parting. Departing. See on i. 20 above. 743. Gilded spurs. See on i. 95 above. 744. Bent. Slope, declivity. See on iv. 519 above. 746. And sudden, etc. Jeffrey says in the Edinburgh Review: "Of all the poetical battles which have been fought, from the days of Homer to those of Mr. Southey, there is none, in our opinion, at all comparable, for interest and animation, for breadth of drawing and magnificence of effect, with this of Mr. Scott's." 747, 748. From the sharp, etc. This couplet is not in the MS. 750. Vast. Misprinted "fast" in some eds. 767-769. Oh! life and death, etc. the MS. These three lines are not in 774. And first, etc. The MS. has "And first the broken ridge of spears." 795. Badenoch-man. All the early eds. have "Highlandman." Lockhart says that the new reading appears first in the author's interleaved copy of the ed. of 1830. Badenoch is the name given to a large district in the Highlands, to the northwest of Blair Athole. A mountain in the region is known as the Badenoch Boar, and another near it as the Athole Sow. 800. Western. The MS. has "dauntless ;" and six lines below: "Fell stainless Tunstall's banner white, Sir Edmund's lion fell." 811, Slogan. See on v. 73 above. 822. Fitz-Eustace, etc. The MS. reads: "Fitz-Eustace, you and Lady Clare To bid one's beads is to utter a prayer for each bead. 831. Like pine-tree, etc. ground." The MS. has "Like pine uprooted from the 842. To mark, etc. The MS. has "And cried," etc. 849. The scatter'd van, etc. The MS. reads: 867. Sped. Despatched, " done for." Cf. Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1. 94, where Mercutio, after being stabbed by Tybalt, says, "I am sped." See also Milton, Lycidas, 122: "What need they? They are sped" (that is, provided for). 872. When doffed, etc. The MS. has "And when he felt the fresher air." 873. Gan. See on iv. 456 above. 880. Yet my last thought, etc. The MS. reads: "Yet my last thought 's for England To Dacre give my signet-ring. 890. Scotland's. The MS. has "King James's." hie, 902-913. O woman! etc. The Critical Review, quoting these lines, remarks: "The hero of the piece, Marmion, who has been guilty of seducing a nun, and abandoning her to be buried alive, of forgery to ruin a friend, and of perfidy in endeavoring to seduce away from him the object of his tenderest affections, fights and dies gloriously, and is indebted to the injured Clara for the last drop of water to cool his dying thirst. This last act of disinterested attention extorts from the author the smoothest, sweetest, and tenderest lines in the whole poem. It is with pleasure that we extract numbers so harmonious from the discords by which they are surrounded." 914. She stooped, etc. The MS. reads: 932. Shrieve. Shrive. See on i. 481 above. |