Marmion Part 34

line 67. See 'Faerie Queene,' III. iv.

line 78. "For every one her liked, and every one her loved."

Spenser, as above.'--SCOTT.

line 106. A knosp is an architectural ornament in form of a bud.

lines 111-12. See Genesis xviii.

line 118. 'Henry VI, with his Queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his family, fled to Scotland after the battle of Towton. In this note a doubt was formerly expressed whether Henry VI came to Edinburgh, though his Queen certainly did; Mr. Pinkerton inclining to believe that he remained at Kirkcudbright. But my n.o.ble friend, Lord Napier, has pointed out to me a grant by Henry, of an annuity of forty marks to his Lords.h.i.+p's ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the King himself, AT EDINBURGH, the 28th day of August, in the thirtyninth year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of G.o.d, 1461. This grant, Douglas, with his usual neglect of accuracy, dates in 1368.

But this error being corrected from the copy of Macfarlane's MSS., p. 119, to, removes all scepticism on the subject of Henry VI being really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and heir of Sir Alexander Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. The hospitable reception of the distressed monarch and his family, called forth on Scotland the encomium of Molinet, a contemporary poet. The English people, he says,--

"Ung nouveau roy creerent, Par despiteux vouloir, Le vieil en debouterent, Et son legitime hoir, Qui fuytyf alia prendre D'Ecosse le garand, De tous siecles le mendre, Et le plus tollerant."

Recollection des Avantures'--SCOTT.

line 120. 'In January, 1796, the exiled Count d'Artois, afterwards Charles X of France, took up his residence in Holyrood, where he remained until August, 1799. When again driven from his country, by the revolution of July, 1830, the same unfortunate Prince, with all the immediate members of his family, sought refuge once more in the ancient palace of the Stuarts, and remained there until 18th September, 1833.'--LOCKHART.

line 140. 'Mr. Ellis, in his valuable Introduction to the "Specimens of Romance," has proved, by the concurring testimony of La Ravaillere, Tressan, but especially the Abbe de la Rue, that the courts of our Anglo-Norman Kings, rather than those of the French monarch, produced the birth of Romance literature. Marie, soon after mentioned, compiled from Armorican originals, and translated into Norman-French, or Romance language, the twelve curious Lays of which Mr. Ellis has given us a precis in the Appendix to his Introduction.

The story of Blondel, the famous and faithful minstrel of Richard I, needs no commentary.'--SCOTT.

line 141. for that = 'because,' a common Elizabethan connective.

line 165. '"Come then, my friend, my genius, come along, Oh master of the poet and the song!"

Pope to Bolingbroke.'--LOCKHART.

Cp. also the famous 'guide, philosopher, and friend,' in 'Essay on Man,' IV. 390.

lines 166-175. For a curious and characteristic ballad by Leyden on Ellis, see 'Life of Scott' i. 368; and for references to his state of ealth see 'Life,' ii, 17, in one of Scott's letters.

line 181. 'At Sunning-hill, Mr. Ellis's seat, near Windsor, part of the first two cantos of Marmion were written.'--LOCKHART. Ascot Heath is about six miles off.

CANTO FIFTH.

Stanza I. line 18. 'This is no poetical exaggeration. In some of the counties of England, distinguished for archery, shafts of this extraordinary length were actually used. Thus, at the battle of Blackheath, between the troops of Henry VII and the Cornish insurgents, in 1496, the bridge of Dartford was defended by a picked band of archers from the rebel army, "whose arrows," says Holinshed, "were in length a full cloth yard." The Scottish, according to Ascham, had a proverb, that every English archer carried under his belt twenty-four Scots, in allusion to his bundle of unerring shafts.'--SCOTT.

Stanza II. line 32. croupe = (1) the b.u.t.tocks of the horse, as in Chaucer's 'Fryars Tale,' line 7141, 'thakketh his horse upon the croupe'; (2) the place behind the saddle, as here and in 'Young Lochinvar,' below, 351.

line 33. 'The most useful AIR, as the Frenchmen term it, IS TERRITERR, the courbettes, cabrioles, or un pas et un sault, being fitter for horses of parade and triumph than for soldiers: yet I cannot deny but a demivolte with courbettes, so that they be not too high, may be useful in a fight or meslee; for, as Labroue hath it, in his Book of Horsemans.h.i.+p, Monsieur de Montmorency having a horse that was excellent in performing the demivolte, did, with his sword, strike down two adversaries from their horses in a tourney, where divers of the prime gallants of France did meet; for, taking his time, when the horse was in the height of his courbette, and discharging a blow then, his sword fell with such weight and force upon the two cavaliers, one after another, that he struck them from their horses to the ground.'--Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life, p.

48.--SCOTT.

line 35. 'The Scottish burgesses were, like yeomen, appointed to be armed with bows and sheaves, sword, buckler, knife, spear, or a good axe instead of a bow, if worth L100: their armour to be of white or bright harness. They wore WHITE HATS, i.e. bright steel caps, without crest or visor. By an act of James IV their weapon-schawings are appointed to be held four times a year, under the aldermen or bailiffs.'--SCOTT.

lines 40-48. Corslet, a light cuira.s.s protecting the front of the body; brigantine, a jacket quilted with iron (also spelt 'brigandine'); gorget, a metal covering for the throat; mace, a heavy club, plain or spiked, designed to bruise armour.

'Bows and quivers were in vain recommended to the peasantry of Scotland, by repeated statutes; spears and axes seem universally to have been used instead of them. The defensive armour was the plate- jack, hauberk, or brigantine; and their missile weapons crossbows and culverins. All wore swords of excellent temper, according to Patten; and a voluminous handkerchief round their neck, "not for cold, but for cutting." The mace also was much used in the Scottish army! The old poem on the battle of Flodden mentions a band--

"Who manfully did meet their foes, With leaden mauls, and lances long."

'When the feudal array of the kingdom was called forth, each man was obliged to appear with forty days' provision. When this was expended, which took place before the battle of Flodden, the army melted away of course. Almost all the Scottish forces, except a few knights, men-at-arms, and the Border-p.r.i.c.kers, who formed excellent light-cavalry, acted upon foot.'--SCOTT.

Stanza III. line 48. swarthy, because of the dark leather of which it was constructed.

line 54. See above, Introd. to II. line 48.

line 56. Cheer, countenance, as below, line 244. Cp. Chaucer, 'Knightes Tale,' line 55:--

'The eldeste lady of hem alle spak When sche hadde swowned with a dedly CHERE.'

Stanza IV. line 73. slogan, the war-cry. Cp. Aytoun's 'Burial March of Dundee':--

'Sound the fife and cry the slogan.'

line 96. The Euse and the Liddell flow into the Esk. For some miles the Liddell is the boundary between England and Scotland.

line 100. Brown Maudlin, dark or bronzed Magdalene. pied, variegated, as in Shakespeare's 'daisies pied.' kirtle = short skirt, and so applied to a gown or a petticoat.

Stanza V. For unrivalled ill.u.s.tration of what Celtic chiefs and clansmen were, see 'Waverley' and 'Rob Roy.'

lines 130-5 Cp. opening of Chapman's Homer's Iliad III.:--

'The Trojans would have frayed The Greeks with noises, crying out, in coming rudely on At all parts, like the cranes that fill with harsh confusion Of brutish clanges all the air. '

Stanza VI. lines 143-157. Cp. Dryden's 'Palamon and Arcite,' iii.

1719-1739:--

'The neighing of the generous horse was heard, For battle by the busy groom prepar'd: Rustling of harness, rattling of the s.h.i.+eld, Clattering of armour furbish'd for the field,' &c.

line 157. following = feudal retainers.--SCOTT. To the poet's explanation Lockhart appends the remark that since Scott thought his note necessary the word has been 'completely adopted into English, and especially into Parliamentary parlance.'

line 166. Scott says:--'In all transactions of great or petty importance, and among whomsoever taking place, it would seem that a present of wine was a uniform and indispensable preliminary. It was not to Sir John Falstaff alone that such an introductory preface was necessary, however well judged and acceptable on the part of Mr.

Brook; for Sir Ralph Sadler, while on an emba.s.sy to Scotland in 1539-40, mentions, with complacency, 'the same night came Rothesay (the herald so called) to me again, and brought me wine from the King both white and red.'--Clifford's Edition, p. 39.

line 168. For weeds see above, I. Introd. 256.

Stanza VII. line 172. For wa.s.sell see above, I. xv. 231; and cp.

'merry wa.s.sail' in 'Rokeby,' III. xv.

line 190. Cp. above, IV. Introd. 3.

line 200. An Elizabethan omission of relative.

Stanza VIII. The admirable characterisation, by which in this and the two following stanzas the King, the Queen, and Lady Heron are individually delineated and vividly contrasted, deserves special attention. There is every reason to believe that the delineations, besides being vivid and impressive, have the additional merit of historical accuracy.

line 213. piled = covered with a pile or nap. The Encyclopaedic Dict., s. v., quotes: 'With that money I would make thee several cloaks and line them with black crimson, and tawny, three filed veluet.'--Barry; Ram Alley, III. i.

line 221. A baldric (remotely from Lat. balteus, a girdle) was an ornamental belt pa.s.sing over one shoulder and round the other side, and having the sword suspended from it. Cp. Pope's Iliad, III. 415:- -

'A radiant BALDRIC, o'er his shoulder tied, Sustained the sword that glittered at his side.'