Marmion Part 29

'Just, good, and wise, contending neighbours come, From your award to wait their final doom.'

line 221. 'Mr. John Martin, minister of Mertoun, in which parish Smailholm Tower is situated.'--LOCKHART. With the tribute to the clergyman's worth, cp. Walton's eulogy on George Herbert, 'Thus he lived, and thus he died, like a saint,' &c.

line 225. For imp, cp. above Introd. to I. 37. A 'grandame's child'

is almost certainly spoiled. Shakespeare (King John, ii. i. 161) utilizes the fact:--

'It grandam will Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig.'

CANTO THIRD.

Stanza I. Mr. Guthrie Wright, advocate, prosaically objected to the indirect route chosen by the poet for his troopers. Scott gave the true poetic answer, that it pleased him to take them by the road chosen. He is careful, however, to a.s.sign (11.6-8) an adequate reason for his preference.

line 16. wan, won, gained; still used in Scotland. Cp. Princ.i.p.al Shairp's 'Bush Aboon Traquair':--

'And then they WAN a rest, The lownest an' the best, I' Traquair kirkyard when a' was dune.'

line 19. Lammermoor. 'See notes to the Bride of Lammermoor, Waverley Novels, vols. xiii. and xiv.'--LOCKHART.

line 22. 'The village of Gifford lies about four miles from Haddington; close to it is Yester House, the seat of the Marquis of Tweeddale, and a little farther up the stream, which descends from the hills of Lammermoor, are the remains of the old castle of the family.'--LOCKHART.

Many hold that Gifford and not Gifford-gate, at the outskirts of Haddington, was the birthplace of John Knox.

Stanza II. line 31. An ivy-bush or garland was a tavern sign, and the flagon is an appropriate accompaniment. Chaucer's Sompnour (Prol. 666) suggested the tavern sign by his head-gear:--

'A garland hadde he set upon his heed, As gret as it were for an ALE-STAKE.'

See note in Clarendon Press ed., and cp. Epilogue of As You Like It (and note) in same series:--'If it be true that good wine needs no bush,' &c.

line 33. 'The accommodations of a Scottish hostelrie, or inn, in the sixteenth century, may be collected from Dunbar's admirable tale of "The Friars of Berwick." Simon Lawder, "the gay ostlier," seems to have lived very comfortably; and his wife decorated her person with a scarlet kirtle, and a belt of silk and silver, and rings upon her fingers; and feasted her paramour with rabbits, capons, partridges, and Bourdeaux wine. At least, if the Scottish inns were not good, it was not from want of encouragement from the legislature; who, so early as the reign of James I, not only enacted, that in all boroughs and fairs there be hostellaries, having stables and chambers, and provision for man and horse, but by another statute, ordained that no man, travelling on horse or foot, should presume to lodge anywhere except in these hostellaries; and that no person, save innkeepers, should receive such travellers, under the penalty of forty s.h.i.+llings, for exercising such hospitality. But, in spite of these provident enactments, the Scottish hostels are but indifferent, and strangers continue to find reception in the houses of individuals.'--SCOTT.

It is important to supplement this note by saying that the most competent judges still doubt whether Dunbar wrote 'The Friars of Berwick.' It is printed among his doubtful works.

Stanza III. Such a kitchen as that described was common in Scotland till recent times, and relics of a similar interior exist in remote parts still. The wide chimney, projecting well into the floor, formed a capacious tunnel to the roof, and numerous sitters could be accommodated with comfort in front and around the fire. Smoke and soot from the wood and peat fuel were abundant, and the 'winter cheer,'--hams, venison, &c.--hung from the uncovered rafters, were well begrimed before coming to the table.

line 48. The solan goose frequents Scottish haunts in summer. There are thousands of them on Ailsa Craig, in the Frith of Clyde, and on the Ba.s.s Rock, in the Frith of Forth, opposite Tantallon.

line 49. gammon (O. Fr. gambon, Lat. gamba, 'joint of a leg'), the b.u.t.tock or thigh of a hog salted and dried; the lower end of a flitch.

Stanza IV. line 73. 'The winds of March' (Winter's Tale, iv. 3.

120), are a prominent feature of the month. The FRESHNESS of May has fascinated the poets since it was told by Chaucer (Knightes' Tale, 175) how Emelie arose one fine morning in early summer:--

'Emilie, that fairer was to scene Than is the lilie on hire stalke grene, And fresscher than the May with floures newe.'

line 76. Cp. 'Jock o' Hazeldean':--

'His step is first in peaceful ha', His sword in battle keen.'

line 78. buxom (A. S. bocsum, flexible, obedient, from BUGAN, to bend) here means lively, fresh, brisk. Cp. Henry V, iii. 6. 27:--

'Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart, And of BUXOM valour.

Stanza VII. line 112. Cp. Spenser's Epithalamium:--

'Yet never day so long but late would pa.s.se, Ring ye the bels to make it weare away.'

A familiar instance of 'speed' as a trans. verb is in Pope's Odyssey, XV. 83:--'Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.'

Stanza VIII. line 120. St. Valentine's day is Feb. 14, when birds pair and lovers (till at any rate recent times) exchange artistic tokens of affection. The latter observance is sadly degenerated. See Professor Skeat's note to 'Parlement of Foules,' line 309, in Chaucer's Minor Poems (Clarendon Press).

line 122. The myth of Philomela has been a favourite with English sentimental poets. The Elizabethan Barnefield writes the typical lyric on the theme. These lines contain the myth :--

'She, poor bird, as all forlorn, Lean'd her breast against a thorn, And there sung the dolefullest ditty That to hear it was great pity.'

Stanza IX. In days when harvesting was done with the sickle, reapers from the Highlands and from Ireland came in large numbers to the Scottish Lowlands and cut the crops. At one time a piper played characteristic melodies behind the reapers to give them spirit for their work. Hence comes--

'Wha will gar our shearers shear?

Wha will bind up the brags of weir?'

in a lyric by Hamilton of Gilbertfield (1665-1751). The reaper's song is the later representative of this practice. See Wordsworth's 'Solitary Highland Reaper'--immortalized by her suggestive and memorable singing--and compare the pathetic 'Exile's Song' of Robert Gilfillan (1798-1850):--

'Oh! here no Sabbath bell Awakes the Sabbath morn; Nor song of reapers heard Among the yellow corn.'

For references to Susquehanna and the home-longing of the exile, see Campbell's 'Gertrude of Wyoming,' I. i.-vi. The introduction of reaping-machines has minimised the music and poetry of the harvest field.

Stanzas X, XI. The two pictures in the song are very effectively contrasted both in spirit and style. The lover's resting-place has features that recall the house of Morpheus, 'Faery Queene,' I. i.

40-1. Note the recurrence of the traitor's doom in Marmion's troubled thoughts, in VI. x.x.xii. The burden 'eleu loro' has been somewhat uncertainly connected with the Italian ela loro, 'alas! for them.'

Stanza XIII. lines 201-7. One of the most striking ill.u.s.trations of this is in Shakespeare's delineation of Brutus, who is himself made to say (Julius Caesar, ii. I. 18):--

'The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins Remorse from power.'

For the sentiment of the text cp. the character of Ordonio in Coleridge's 'Remorse,' the concentrated force of whose dying words is terrible, while indicative of native n.o.bility:--

'I stood in silence like a slave before her That I might taste the wormwood and the gall, And satiate this self-accusing heart With bitterer agonies than death can give.'

line 211. 'Among other omens to which faithful credit is given among the Scottish peasantry, is what is called the "dead-bell," explained by my friend James Hogg to be that tinkling in the ears which the country people regard as the secret intelligence of some friend's decease. He tells a story to the purpose in the "Mountain Bard," p.

26 [pp. 31-2, 3rd edit.].'--SCOTT.

Cp. Tickell's 'Lucy and Colin,' and this perfect stanza in Mickle's 'c.u.mnor Hall,' quoted in Introd. to 'Kenilworth':--

'The death-bell thrice was heard to ring, An aerial voice was heard to call, And thrice the raven flapp'd its wing Around the towers of c.u.mnor Hall.'

line 217. Cp. Midsummer Night's Dream, v. I. 286: 'The death of a dear friend would go near to make a man look sad.'

Stanza XIV. lines 230-5. Cp. the effect of Polonius on the King (Hamlet, iii. I. 50):--

'How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!'