I

NOTES TO CANTO II.

Few verses of Scott's are better known than the description of Melrose. Jeffrey remarks, "The reader will observe how skilfully the author calls in the aid of sentimental associations to heighten the effect of the picture which he presents to the eye."

"It would be difficult to overrate the influence which Scott's poetry has had on both sides of the Tweed, in encouraging a national taste for Gothic architecture. Every line in the 'Lay,' every incident in Marmion,' is pregnant with that spirit of romance which is the essence of traditional art. The time may

perhaps have now arrived when the popular mind can dispense with the spell of association, and learn to admire Gothic for its intrinsic beauty. But in the early part of this century England could boast of no such author as Mr. Ruskin, to teach, discriminate, and criticize, in matters of taste. Guided by his advice and influence, we may succeed in kindling the lamps of life and power. But fifty years ago, in the darkest period which British art has seen, we were illumined by one solitary feeble and flickering flame, which Scott contrived to keep alive. It was the lamp of memory."-EASTLAKE'S Gothic Revival, p. 115. the scrolls that teach. "The buttresses along the sides of the ruins of Melrose Abbey are richly carved and fretted, containing niches for the statues of saints, and labelled with scrolls bearing appropriate texts of Scripture. Most of these statues have been demolished."-SCOTT.

David's. "David I. of Scotland purchased the reputation of sanctity by founding and liberally endowing, not only the monastery of Melrose [1136], but also those of Jedburgh, Kelso, and many others; which led to the well-known observations of his successor, that he was a sore saint for the crown."-SCOTT. flout, Gl.

2 Short halt. Notice the effective contrast, by which we return to the ballad proper.

for Branksome's chiefs. Observe how every fact has its motive. Cp. on Introd. I. 2.

3 aventayle, Gl.
5 atone, dree, Gl.

would'st thou. For the construction, cp. "would the noble Duchess deign" (Introd. Grammar). Think what the meaning of yet, and the mood of wait is.

6 patter an Ave Mary. "We learn from Lesley that the Borderers regularly told their beads, and never with more zeal than when going on a plundering expedition."-SCOTT.

Notice that prayer' is used as a dissyllable in the second and sixth, but as a monosyllable in the third line. Deloraine's little speech is intentionally made rough and harsh in metre to bring out the contrast between the unlettered knight and the monk. Cp. Introd. Metre.

66

Pray'er know' I hardly one';

For mass' or pray'r can I rarely tar'ry,

Save' to pat'ter an A've Mar'y,

So speed' me my er'rand and let' me be gone'."

Notice that in the three middle lines we have what are called double rhymes; the last syllables however being the same therefore do not really rhyme (for rhyme implies difference in the consonants), but the rhyme comes on the first syllable, and the last syllable is disregarded in point of metre. Deloraine's verses rather remind one of the moss-trooper's apostrophe to the haystack, which he regretted he could not carry off with the cattle on his raid, "By my saul, had ye but four feet ye should not stand lang there." Deloraine's verses have four feet, but they are very awkward ones.

mass, foray, Gl.

7 Now slow. Notice the expressive change from the bounding anapæsts to the iambics in the seventh line.

8 jennet, Gl.

Then in'to the night' he looked for'th. There are only three accents in this line; this change is common where the rhymes are alternate as here, but the alternate lines more commonly answer to one another. A solitary line of three accents may be used to mark a pause in the sense.

So had he seen. Cp. i. 28, note 2, and observe the fitness of the comparison in the monk's mouth (cp. 7 and 14).

9 The darkened roof. Notice that the end of this line rhymes with the middle, and not with door in the first line, cp. the 7th and 5th lines of the last stanza. aloof at a distance, with 'darkened' it seems to mean to the limit of their sight. Compare a description of an English minster, "the style of exquisite lightness and heavenward aspiration is engrafted on the old forms of rest and solidity; every ingenious method is practised to lend a greater appearance of altitude and distance by a marvellous combination of height and obscurity." A forest avenue is supposed to have given the idea of Gothic architecture.

fleur-de-lys, lily, the royal flower of France; lis' in modern

French; quatre-feuille, the heraldic device of four leaves joined to form a rounded cross.

aloof, corbells, Gl.

10 scutcheon, Gl.

Shook to the cold night wind. Touches of this kind make us see the scene with the eyes of the monk and Deloraine, and prevent the description losing life and reality, and becoming a recapitulation.

It is worth while to compare with this and the following stanza Byron's description of Lara in his hall. In both the aim is to impress by the solemn effect of moonlight and Gothic architecture combined :

"He turned within his solitary hall,

And his high shadow shot along the wall:
There were the painted forms of other times,
'T was all they left of virtues and of crimes
Save vague tradition, and the gloomy vaults
That hid their dust, their foibles, and their faults.
He wandering mused, and—as the moonbeams shone
Through the dim lattice o'er the floor of stone,
And the high fretted roof and saints that there
O'er Gothic windows knelt in pictured prayer,—
Reflected in fantastic figures grew

Like life, but not like mortal life to view."

O gallant chief of Otterburne. Notice the dignity is imparted to some of Scott's verse by the use of such 'sounding' names: Compare Dunedin (i. 7), and contrast with Todrig (iii. 27). "The famous and desperate battle of Otterburne was fought 15th August 1388, between Henry Percy, called Hotspur, and James Earl of Douglas. Percy was made prisoner, and the Scots won the day, dearly purchased by the death of the Earl of Douglas, who was slain in the action, and buried at Melrose, with his banner hanging over him.' SCOTT.

dark Knight of Liddesdale. "William Douglas, who flourished during the reign of David II., and was so distinguished for his valour that he was called the Flower of Chivalry. Nevertheless he tarnished his renown by the cruel murder of Ramsay Earl of Dalhousie, originally his friend and brother in arms. He succeeded his victim as Sheriff of Teviotdale, but was soon after slain by his own godson and chieftain William Earl of Douglas in 'revenge of Ramsay's murder. He was interred in Melrose with great pomp."-SCOTT.

O fading honours, etc. Compare Shirley's verses :——

"Some men with swords may reap the field,

And plant fresh laurels where they kill;

But their strong nerves at last must yield,
They tame but one another still:
Early or late

They stoop to fate,

And must give up their murmuring breath,
Where they pale captives stoop to death.

The garlands wither on your brow,

Then boast no more your mighty deeds;
Upon Death's purple altar now

See where the victor-victim bleeds;
Your heads must come

To the pale tomb;

Only the actions of the just

Smell sweet and blossom in their dust."

II spell, Gl.

triumphant, ie. over Satan. For the power of the fallen saint, cp. i. 22, ii. 15.

12 Paynim, Gl.

13 Sir Michael Scott of Balwearie "flourished during the thirteenth century;' by a poetical anachronism he is here placed in a much later era. He wrote several treatises on natural philosophy, and hence passed among his contemporaries for a skilful magician. Dempster (1627) tells us that he remembers to have heard in his youth, that the magic books of Michael Scott were still in existence, but could not be opened without danger, on account of the fiends who were thereby invoked."SCOTT. Dante places poor Michael Scott, along with other sorcerers, in one of the lower circles of his Inferno. The magician was often only the modern natural philosopher in embryo; but now we do honour to the professor who can make ice before our eyes in a red-hot basin. In those dark ages of fighting knights and superstitious priests, the Devil was the only being credited with doing his duty in exploring the secrets of Nature.

Salamanca's cave. "Spain, from the reliques doubtless of Arabian learning and superstition, was accounted a favourite residence of magicians. There were public schools where magic was regularly taught, at Toledo, Seville, and Salamanca. In the latter city they were held in a deep cavern, the mouth of which was walled up by Isabella, wife of King Ferdinand. In a romantic history of Roderic, the last Gothic king of Spain, he is said to have entered one

'He was physician and astrologer to the Emperor Frederick II., who died in 1250. Boccacio says, "Not long since there was in this city (of Florence) a great master of necromancy called Michele Scotto, because he was of Scotland;" cp. Carlyle's Dante, xx. 115.

of those enchanted caverns at Toledo. It was situated beneath an ancient tower, and when its iron gates were unfolded, there rushed forth so dreadful a whirlwind that hitherto no one had dared to penetrate into its recesses. Roderic, however,

with great difficulty, reached a square hall, in the midst of which stood a colossal statue of brass, representing a Saracen, who discharged furious blows on all sides with a Moorish mace, and seemed thus to excite the tempest which raged around. Being conjured by Roderic, it ceased striking till he read on his right hand, 'Wretched monarch, for thy evil hast thou come hither.' Roderic caused the gates of the cavern to be locked and barricaded, but in the course of the night the tower fell with a tremendous noise, and under its ruins concealed for ever the entrance to the mystic cavern. The conquest of Spain by the Saracens and the death of Roderic fulfilled the prophecy of the brazen statue."-SCOTT.

listed, Gl.

bells would ring. Scott tells another story that, when Michael was sent as ambassador to Paris to demand satisfaction for piracies, the king refused, but the first stamp of the wizard's horse shook every steeple in Paris, and made all the bells ring; the second threw down three of the towers of the king's palace, and the king was glad to give in before the third. Compare this with the end of stanza 14.

bridled the Tweed. The art of bridge-building in which the Romans excelled, seems to have been lost by the Celts and Saxons. Thus a great number of towns end in -ford, very few in -bridge, and these mostly are on small streams. Ponte-fract

on the Aire marks that they could not even repair the bridges, as Gates-head, i.e. 'road's end,' where was once the Pons Ælii over the Tyne. Cp. Taylor, Words and Places, p. 169. The connexion of engineering with magic is shewn in the 'Devil's Bridge' on the St. Gothard, etc., and the Devil's Dyke,' or earthwork defending East Anglia against Mercia.

the words that cleft. "Michael Scott was once on a time much embarrassed by a spirit for whom he was forced to find constant employment. Two of the tasks set are recorded in the text; the demon was at last conquered by being set to make ropes out of sea-sand."-SCOTT. What if the demon had found out that sand makes glass, and glass makes beautiful threads.

17 unquenchably. Eternal lamps like the secret of perpetual motion, and the philosopher's stone, were among the cherished mysteries of natural magic. These lamps were supposed to be found burning in sepulchres, one with a wick of asbestos in the tomb of Cicero's daughter: so Scott is true to tradition, but is