of Caithness about 1615, having been garrisoned against the Government."-SCOTT. Odin. The same as Wodan (whence Wodan's day or Wednesday), the Scandinavians being unable to pronounce v or w before an o or u (Eng. work is Icel. orka.). Odin was the chief god of the Norsemen. the whilst. The while is the older form, being the acc., then the genitive s was added, and lastly a t intruded, as in behes-t. with visage pale and throbbing heart. The interest and vivid conception of the danger to the 'struggling sail' mark the poet; compare the account of Scott's own boyhood in the Introduction. skill'd to prepare the raven's food. Cp. Lady of Lake, iv. 20, and Marmion, iii. II. The same idea is expanded in the song in the Pirate (chap. xv.): 22 "From his cliff the eagle sallies, Leaves the wolf his darksome valleys; It was cull, Scald, Runic, Saga, falchion, spell, Gl. sea-snake. "One of the wildest fictions of the Edda. very nearly caught by the god Thor, who went to fish for it with a hook baited with a bull's head."-SCOTT. The Edda (A.D. 1200) contains the mythical tales of the Scandinavians. dread Maids. The Valhyries or Selecters of the slain' of Norse mythology. They were sent by Odin from Valhalla to choose those who were to die. They answer to the Fates of the Greeks. Of Chiefs, etc. Norse chieftains usually had their arms buried with them, and it was a favourite act of daring to encounter their spirits' anger by taking their arms from their tombs. Ros-lin, i.e. the promontory of the waterfall,' as Scott tells us: ros is a 'headland,' and llynn 'a deep pool.' Cp. Mel-rose and Pentoun-linn, iv. 12: 23 The little romance of Rosabelle is interesting as a specimen of what may be called the later or florid style of ballad poetry. But apart from this its beauty is very great. The metre is extremely simple, but the rhythm (see particularly the last five verses) often is adapted with singular beauty to the sentiment. The semi-dramatic manner in which the story is told, perfectly plainly, but all without a word of direct narration, has a great charm. "The pictures tell their own story, and tell it so vividly and thrillingly that nothing more is needed. The intensity of the piece would be destroyed by any words of commiseration. The deepest feelings are not the most garrulous. When the dreadful news reached Macduff that his castle was surprised and his wife and babes savagely slaughtered, he pulled his hat over his brows, and gave sorrow no words: a less manly grief would have played the woman with its eyes and braggart with its tongue.' This is the true secret of what power the old ballad poetry possesses. The writers conceive the situations so forcibly that they cannot indulge in any idle moanings; they cannot play with their agony: their sympathy is too profound for melodious sighs; their hands are so paralyzed with woe that they cannot tear their hair and beat their breasts."-HALES. Two distinct pictures are given us. The first that of Rosabelle and the seer at Ravensheugh, discussing the question of her crossing the firth. Then comes a break; Rosabelle's setting out is left to our imagination. The second picture is of Roslin Castle lit up by the "wondrous blaze. We are led back to Rosabelle by the lines, "So still they blaze when fate is nigh The lordly line of high St. Clair." "And the last stanzas bring out well the contrast between the two pictures already so vividly drawn-between the repose and the tossing, the stillness of the chapel and the wild sea murmurs -the priestly services and the tumultuous ritual of nature.' Compare In Memoriam, x. "I hear the noise about thy keel; I hear the bell struck in the night; That takes the sunshine or the rains, Should gulp him fathom-deep in brine; Should toss with tangle and with shells." With the whole of 'Rosabelle' Campbell's 'Lord Ullin's Daughter' (in the Golden Treasury) should be compared. In Rosabelle we have local and historical features contrasting with all "the permanent and abiding elements of the poem, with the deep human sympathy the sad tale stirs in us, as in those 'ladies gay' that heard it long years ago; with the filial affection which omens and storms cannot daunt from its purpose; with the fond ever-cherished belief that the children of love and duty do not perish unnoticed by the higher powers, but that their 'Death is mourned by sympathy divine.' These temporary fashions contrast also with the unchanging phenomena of nature. Nature might say, with her bright daughter the Brook 'Men may come and men may go, 'The good knights are dust,' the ladies gay have long since passed, the seer has become a part of that world into which he was ever curiously gazing; the torches of the priests burnt out ages ago; but the sights and sounds of nature are still fresh and vivid; waves still blacken foam-edged, winds still moan and wail."-HALES.' Rosabelle. Notice "how strongly the Norman-French influence is represented in this poem. Thus the heroine's very name is Norman-French." Ravensheuch. Heuch is the same word as 'haugh,'‘steep,' in Willie drowned in Yarrow' "O Leader haughs are wide and braid, And Yarrow haughs are bonny." inch, firth, pinnet, Gl. swathed. Cp. swaddling-clothes. 'Tis not because. Cp. Lady of Lake, ii. 22: Her filial welcomes crowded hung, No, not till Douglas named his name, Although the youth was Malcolm Græme." In Rosabelle, however, the poet seems delicately to hint that 'Love is still the lord of all,' by the very words of the denial, in which maiden modesty combats a suggestion of the heart. 25 instant, an adverb. be-dazzled. The preposition be or by, when prefixed to transitive verbs, makes them stronger, as be-daub: intransitive verbs it makes transitive, as be-speak. levin, larum, Gl. withal, i.e. with all [the other places], at the same time, as well. 26 Gylbin, come. Cp. Introd. p. viii. flung him-self down. The accusative of the reflexive, like 'knelt them down,' 29; cp. on ii. 21. This note is abridged from Mr. Hales' admirable Introduction to an admirable book-'Longer English Poems,' pp. xvii-xxxvi. dimm'd each lofty look. A phrase-epithet: the sense decides whether it implies though' or 'since.' spoke the spectre-hound in Man. “A drunken guard of a castle in the Isle of Man dared to face the 'Mauthe Doog,' a black spectre-spaniel which haunted the castle; he returned speechless, and died in three days in agonies."- SCOTT. a shape with amice. Cp. ii. 19. 27 plight. Another form of 'pledge.' St. Bride. A favourite saint of the House of Douglas, esp. of the Earl of Angus.—SCOTT. rood, aye, Gl. 29 uneath, Gl. 30 cowl, scapular, stole, host, Gl. aisle, cp. Etym. iv. sage in hall, and fortunate in field. Cp. Il. ix. 53: Τυδείδη, πέρι μὲν πολέμῳ ἔνι καρτερός ἐσσι Καὶ βουλῇ μετὰ πάντας ὁμήλικας ἔπλεν ἄριστος. "In conduct, as in courage, you excel, Still first to act what you advise so well."-POPE. office close. Think what 'office' means here, and what sounds do not admit of 's' marking the genitive. dies ira. This hymn of Thomas of Celano dates from 1230: it consists of seventeen stanzas of three lines each, and an eighteenth of four, all with double rhymes; the remaining line of the first stanza being 'Teste David cum Sibylla :' Scott's version is only a free paraphrase: there is a literal translation beginning— "The day of wrath, that dreadful day Shall the whole world in ashes lay- 32 Epilogue. Close beneath proud Newark's tower. So Wordsworth's 'Yarrow Visited.' "the vale unfolds Rich groves of lofty stature, With Yarrow winding through the pomp Of cultivated nature; And, rising from those lofty groves, Behold a ruin hoary, The shattered front of Newark's towers, Renowned in Border story. Fair scenes for childhood's opening bloom, For sportive youth to stray in, For manhood to enjoy his strength, And age to wear away in.' rapt. Carried away with rapture; not to be confounded with wrapt, i.e. clad. The Epilogue describes a cottage which was a daydream of the poet's own; cp. Lockhart's Life, chap. iv. ETYMOLOGY BEFORE I. TEUTONIC WORDS-GRIMM'S LAW. to master Grimm's Law of the variations of consonants, when represented in the three families of the Indo-Germanic languages (1) in Greek or Latin (and Sanscrit). (2) in Old High' German. (3) in Low German, Anglo-Saxon, English. Thus, if we take the three characteristics of any of the three first conjugations in Greek, we find they go in a regular circle. Thus the lip-letters go in the series π Bπ B.... So starting from p we pass to b, and then to ph (f): Starting from b we pass to ph, and then by beginning the series again we come to p; Starting from ph we begin again with p, and then pass on to b. This law applies in the same way to the teeth and throat letters (but not to the liquids 1, m, n, r, for which cp. III. ii). etc. The order in which they go is sharp, flat, aspirate, sharp, fiat, |