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 THE J. U. BARXKTT 
 TEXT- BOOK. COLLKCTION 
 
 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ^ 
 WKSTKRN ONTARIO M 
 
 
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W. If. <&aqt & (f(«.'s <^nt|U9ib Jirtaool 4l»»si(t. 
 
 SCOTT'S POEMS 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. 
 
 WITH ISTRODUCTIOS, SKETCH OF LIFE, NOTES, 
 AND OLOSSARlAt INDEX, 
 
 BV 
 
 R. W. TAYLOR, M.A., 
 
 AS8I8TA.NT-MASTKR IN KUOBY SCHOOL : AND FORMKRLT 
 rKLOW OP ST. JOHN'S COLtiKOB, CAMRIilUOK. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO SCOTT'S POEMS 
 
 (FROM LAY OP LAST MINSTREL), 
 
 ■T 
 
 J. SURTEES PHIIiPOTTS, M.A. 
 
 CANTOS I. TO VI. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION, 
 
 W. J. GAGE AND COMPANY, 
 Toronto and Winnipeg. 
 
 1884. 
 
Interad Moordlng to Act of ParllMnent of CMuda in the yu 
 1880 hj W. J. Gaoi ft CoMrABT, in tht office of the Miiitater 
 of AgrioaltoNb 
 
 re\-!3 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 'T^HE desire of the publishers to meet the wishes of 
 several teachers, by issuing this edition of the Lady 
 of the Lake in three parts, has led me very considerably 
 to modify its plan. All which would naturally come under 
 the head of a glossary has been incorporated with the 
 notes. A glossarial index to the complete work will enable 
 the reader easily to find every word that is explained. 
 The notes have been made much more numerous than 
 they would otherwise have been. The simplicity of the 
 language and of the story of the Lady of the Lake make 
 it^ as a text-book, especially suited to junior classes ; and 
 where two cantos form a term's work, it will be possible 
 to enter into details of etymology, which would be im- 
 possible if all six cantos were read, and are less desirable 
 with older pupils who can be taught to appreciate a 
 literary work as a whole. One of the greatest difficulties 
 which a teacher has to encounter is the vagueness of the 
 ideas which boys attach even to simple words, and any- 
 thing which may help to do away with this vagueness is 
 a gain. With this object in view, I have gone into the 
 derivation and growth of many not uncommon words in 
 a way which I hope may impart some interest to lessons 
 which are too short to derive mucli interest from the story. 
 With regard to other notes, my object has been to 
 render the pupil independent of any help save that of a 
 
iv 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 pocket dictionary. At the same time, I have not thought 
 it wise to explain every variation from the ordinary con- 
 struction$ which a little thought will solve. , 
 
 As the interest of the tale depends on the secret of 
 Fitz-James's identity being kept, it will be well, when the 
 whole poem is used, to let it be read through before the 
 notes are touched. The explanations of historical allu- 
 sions necesspiily divulge the secret 
 
 The notes have been gathered from various sources, 
 which I have in most cases indicated. I have not thought 
 this necessary in the etymological notes, except where the 
 
 derivation given has appeared open to question. Besides 
 the standard dictionaries, I have found most valuable 
 help in M. Littr^'s Dictionnaire de la Langiie Franqaise. 
 For names of places I have consulted Taylor's Words 
 tind Places and Colonel Robertson's Gaelic Topography^ 
 a work which may be very useful to those who, like my- 
 self, think that his conclusions often rest on insufficient 
 grounds. I have given where I can illustrations from 
 Scott's own poems and novels. 
 
 I am indebted to my friend and colleague, Mr. J. S. 
 Phillpotts, who has kindly looked over some of the proof 
 sheets, for many valuable suggestions. 
 
 RiraBV, FOruoiyt i87|i 
 
V 
 
 r 
 
 INTROD UCTION. 
 
 T^HE Lady of the. Lake was published in 1810. It had 
 ■■ been preceded by the Ijiy of the Last Minstrel in 
 1805, and by Marmion in 1808. Scott himself remarks 
 on these three— "The force in the Zay is thrown on style, 
 in Marmion on description, and in the Lady of the 
 Lake on incident." This is true of the fifth canto especi- 
 ally ; but the peculiar charm of the poem, as compared 
 with the others, consists in its quiet beauty, and the 
 wonderful delicacy and variety of its descriptions. The 
 metre of the poem is less varied than that of its pre- 
 decessors, and was the subject of»unfavorable criticism 
 from more than one of Scott's friends. Its requirements 
 have led him into liberties, which are noticed in the notes; 
 but on the whole a vigorous rhythm is well sustained from 
 beginning to end, while the greater simplicity and natu- 
 ralness of the language atone for the want of metrical 
 variety, and prevent the poem from ever becoming weari- 
 some. 
 
 For further remarks on Scott's style, the reader is re- 
 ferred to the introduction to the Lav of the Last Minstrel 
 in the present series. 
 
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^kEfCti OP Ltm 
 
 Sir Walter Scott was bom in the old city of* Edin« 
 burgh, on the 15th of August, 1771. He was the ninth 
 in a family of twelve children, seven of whom died in 
 early chi dhood, and none of whom with the exception of 
 Sir Walter attained to the nearest limits of old age. His 
 father was a writer to the Signet; a legal clerk in con- 
 nection with the City Solicitor. His mother was the 
 daughter of Dr. Rutherford, Professor of Medicine in the 
 University of Edinburgh. 
 
 Early years — It may be said of Scott, as it can be 
 said of few others, that he was never a child in some 
 
 respects. 
 
 (( 
 
 In him the man and child refused to be 
 
 separated." When about eighteen months old he lost 
 the use of one of his legs, and as the result of this 
 was sent to live with his grandfather to get the benefit 
 of the country air. For a considerable lime it was 
 doubtful whether the tenderest care of his fond grand- 
 parents would be rewarded by the restoration of strength 
 to the paralyzed limb, but he was at length able to use 
 it, although he remained a cripple for life. He early 
 showed remarkable mental powers. Before he was six 
 years of age he had read a great deal. His rapidity 
 of development appeac^ to have been accompanied with 
 the expenditure of an unusual amount of vital force. 
 He was too ardent and seemed to have too clear a 
 realization of the exciting in what he read. His mental 
 organism while it should have been simply growing, was 
 urged by his enthusiasm to do the work of an adult mind, 
 and to this far more than business perplexities or over- 
 work in later years, should be attributed the terrible 
 calamity which hastened and darkened his declining 
 days. When strong enough his father bcought him home 
 and sent him to school ; first for a short time to private 
 schools, afterwards to the High School. He was not 
 
VlU 
 
 SkEtCIi OF iAtt. 
 
 remarkaV/j tvr his proficiency in his studies, and usual!/ 
 orc«pied a position " near the middle of his class with a 
 tendency downward rather than upwards." 
 
 fAwahofi'l. — His father intended him for a lawyer, and 
 after an apprenticeship and a training in the law cl^s^^es 
 of the University, he practised for about fourteen years. 
 When he had been nearly eight years at the bar he was 
 appointed Sheriff of Selkirkshire. He mauled a Miss 
 Carpenter or Cbarpenticr, daughter of a French royalist, 
 in 1797. He had previously been a devoted but unsuc- 
 cessful suitor for the hand of Miss Margaret Stuart, 
 daughter of Sir John Stuart Belches, of Invermay. His 
 legal practice after his appointment as Shei iff was merely 
 nominal. He devoted himself mainly to literary work, 
 and unfortunately soon entered into business relations 
 with the Ballantynes in the formation ot a publishing 
 house in ^Jldinburgh. On the failure of the firm in 1826, 
 Sir Walter's I'abilities were found to be nearly ;^i2o,ooo. 
 He had made immense sums of money by his writings, 
 and in other ways, but had been most extravagant in his 
 expenditure upon his estate, Abbotsford, the first portion 
 of which he purchased in 181 1. He paid enormous prices 
 for adjoining lands, and spent almost fabulous sums in 
 erecting a castle, and in beautifying his extensive pro- 
 perty. Great as was his indebtedness, however, he 
 declined to accept any composition with his creditors* 
 and set to work with a resolute will to earn the money 
 to pay all whom he owed. In about five years he had 
 
 nearly succeeded in accomplishing thd desired result. 
 He received ;^ 18,000 for the life of Napoleon alone. But 
 the strain and the anxiety were too great for him to bear. 
 He was threatened with paralysis and his friends pre- 
 vailed upon him to travel on the Continent in the vain 
 hope that his health might thereby be restored. He 
 returned with his great intellect clouded* and died at 
 Abbotsford, September 2ist, 1833. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ) 
 
 SCOTT'S POEMS, 
 
 --BT-- 
 
 J. &URTEES PIIILLPOTTS. M.A. 
 ( From Lay of Last Minstrel ). 
 
 o» 
 
 TN studying Scott's poems we have the advantage c/ 
 ■*• having notes by the Author. The value of these 
 notes is not so much that they support his statements 
 and prove his pictures to be drawn from the life ; it is 
 rather that they shew how Scott composed, and how large 
 an element memory supplied in his imagination. The 
 popular view of imagination, as a faculty that invents out 
 of nothing, is contradicted at once by the practice of 
 inventors as well as by the philosophy of the mind. 
 Imagination draws its food from the storehouse of 
 memory. It may in fact be defined as " productive 
 association," that is, a power of linking together old 
 impressions so as to produce new combinations. Siiakes- 
 ^ peare did not build out of nothing : he took his plots from 
 ' the chroniclers or from former playwrights, a course 
 ; which Goethe most strongly recommends— " it is only 
 i when facts and characters are provided that the poet's 
 ' task begins of animating them into a whole." And in 
 this respect Ruskin happily compares Scott to Turner :--- 
 " How far I could shew that it held with all great 
 inventors, I know not, but with all those whom I have 
 carefully studied (Dante, Scott, Turner, and Tintoret) 
 it seems to me to hold absolutely : that their imagina- 
 tion consists, not in a voluntary production of new 
 
SCOTT'S POEMS. 
 
 
 il 
 
 ii 
 
 images, but an involuntary remembrance, exactly at the 
 right moment, of something they had actually seen. 
 
 " Imagine all that any of these men had seen or heard 
 in the whole course of their lives, laid up accurately in 
 their memories as in vast storehouses, extending, with 
 the poets, even to the slightest intonations of syllables 
 heard in the beginning of their lives, and, with the 
 painters, down to minute folds of drapery, and shapes of 
 leaves or stones ; and over all this unindexed and im- 
 measurable mass of treasure, the imagination brooding 
 and wandering, but dream-gifted, so as to summon at 
 any moment exactly such groups of ideas as shall justly 
 fit each other : this I conceive to be the real nature of 
 the imaginative mind, and this, I believe, it would be 
 oftener explained to us as being by the men themselves 
 who possess it, but that they have no idea what the state 
 of other persons' minds is in comparison ; they suppose 
 everyone remembers all that he has seen in the same 
 way, and do not understand how it happens that they 
 alone can produce good drawings or great thoughts."* 
 
 It was this memory with "hi. infinite diligence in 
 the preparatory studies " which was the parent of Scott's 
 truth of detail in execution and of the rapidity or " spon- 
 taneous impulse" of his compositions. But Scott's 
 memory and diligence would have been nothing unless' 
 animated by the intensity of his enthusiasm. A lady has 
 given us a picture of Scott at six years old. " j^e was 
 reading to his mother a description of a shipwreck. His 
 passioQ rose with the storm, he lifted his eyes and 
 hands ; there's the mast gone, says he ; crash it goes ! — 
 they will all perish !" And when a little older, we read, 
 " He used to interest us by telling us the visions^ as he 
 called them, which he had had when lying alone. . . . 
 
 I 'RvsKin,Mo<ftrn Paintert ?ut\. u. xl. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 4 
 
 Child as he was, I could not help being highly deligU<ed 
 with the description of the glories he had seen. . . • 
 The marvellous seemed to have such power over him 
 that the expression of his face shewed a deep intensity 
 of feeling, as if he were awed even by his own recital." 
 He says of himself, " The love of natural beauty, more 
 especially when combined with ancient ruins, became 
 with me an insatiable passion."^ In later years h: was 
 often " subject to fits of abstraction, becoming so com- 
 pletely absorbed in thick-coming fancies as to be un- 
 conscious of where he was and of what he was writing. * 
 
 Scott describes the powers of his own imagination in 
 the Introduction of Marmion : — 
 
 " Stay yet, illusion, stay a while, 
 My wilder'd fancy still beguile ? 
 From this high theme how can I part, 
 Ere half unloaded is my heart ! 
 For all the tears e'er sorrow drew. 
 And all the raptures fancy knew, 
 And all the keener rush of blood. 
 That throbs through bard in bard-like mood, 
 Were here a tribute mean and low. 
 Though all their mingled streams could flow — 
 Woe, wonder, and sensation high. 
 In one spring-tide of ecstacy 1 — 
 « It will not be— it may not last — 
 
 The vision of enchantment's past : 
 Like frostwork in the morning ray 
 The fancied fabric melts away ; 
 Each Gothic arch, memorial stone, 
 And long, dim, lofty aisle, are gone ; 
 And lingeiing last, deception dear, 
 
 I I'hese proofs of Scott's "poetic temperament" are taken from Mr. 
 Paigrave's interesting Introduction to the Globe Edition of Scott, p. xiii 
 XV. xxxiv. 
 
 3 Frater't Magatine, a/ud Palgrave. 
 
•^ 
 
 xH SCOTT'S POEMS. 
 
 • . -1 ' 
 
 The choir's high sounds die on my eta. 
 
 Now sjow return the lonely down, * 
 
 The silent pastures bleak and brown, 
 
 The farm begirt with copsewood wild, 
 
 The gambols of each frolic child, \' • 
 
 Mixing their shrill cries with the tone 
 
 Of Tweed's dark waters rushing on." 
 
 This imaginative power is the key to his greatness as 
 a romance writer.^ To it he owes his wonderful power of 
 realizing the actions of his characters, and of depicting 
 the scenes they move in. His greatness appears more in 
 his novels than in his poems, though in these two great 
 narrative power is shown. A good specimen of this is 
 the meeting of Fitz-James and Rhoderick Dhu in the 
 Lady of the Lake^ with its climax in the Combat. The 
 descriptions of nature in his poems, such as the stanzas 
 on the Trosachs, are at least equal to any of the same 
 icind in the novels. 
 
 It is instructive to watch the growth of a puem. The 
 germ of the Lay was a suggestion that Scott should write 
 on the legend of Gilpin Horner. This was a mischievous 
 dwarf, perhaps invented to account for the unaccountable 
 blunders men make through their own clumsiness. It is 
 a natural instinct to " cry over spilt milk," and we like 
 to vent our spleen on some creature other than ourselves. 
 Now, we should abuse our friends for putting something 
 in our way ; in earlier times, we should have abused some 
 imp as the cause of our misfortune. Such an imp was 
 Gilpin Horner. His fiendish origin was proved by his 
 crying " Tint, tint, tint " {i.e. lost, lost, lost), to which the 
 hearer answered, "What de'il has tint you?" The imp 
 replying *• Be-ie-ram," ihe "de'il"in question received- 
 
 1 Scott defines a Romanes as " a fictitious narrative ii prose or verse, the 
 interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncomnnon incidents," thus 
 distinguishing it from the Sovel, in which " the events are acconnnoduted 
 to the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society. " 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xtii 
 
 the name of Peter Bertram, and when he called, the 
 dwarf said, "That is me : I must away" — the spiritinc 
 away -happily accounting for the imp's disappearance 
 when his mischief was done. 
 
 There are two obvious difficulties in founding a ro- 
 mance on such a story. 
 
 In the first place, it is not very credible. This is met 
 by the plot being hi in barbarous times before ''the 
 schoolmaster was abroad " in the land. If the poet has 
 art enough to make us identify ourselves with the actors, 
 we shall sympathise with their beliefs, and bur imagina- 
 tic;; will make these our own for the time ; ^ especially 
 if the supernatural incidents do not take, the shape of 
 isolated interferences with the general order of the 
 world, but win a poetic probability or fitness from having 
 magical surroundings. Thus the weird powers of the 
 Ladye of Branksome, the Spirits of the Fell and of the 
 Flood, the Sealed Book, and Michael Scott, all relieve 
 and are relieved by the pranks of the elfish dwarf, while 
 there is a fitness in making the great traditionary magi 
 cian of the Scott family still interested in the fortunes u 
 his house. (It will be noticed that the poet wisely omit'; 
 the Peter Bertram of the tale, and hints it was Mich it I 
 Scott who called the dwarf away, vi. 26). In proper st;i 
 ting, these superstitions themselves help to remove the- 
 scene from the present day, since they form one 01 tit. 
 * notes' of the time of chivalry. 
 
 The second difficulty is that a poem must evoke our 
 interests, and even if we manage to realize a being who 
 is but half-human, we cannot feel even fear or hate, nor 
 anything but contempt for a creature who had the inglo- 
 rious province of deluding children. But the blunders of 
 deluded children may be intensely tragical, and mny have 
 
 — * Cp. Note on i. 14. 
 
if 
 
 xiv 
 
 sfcorr^s poenW. 
 
 consequences so far beyond the results wfiich mere mis- 
 takes seem adequite to produce, that they provoke the 
 idea of an interference from the spiritual world. Thu« 
 the companionship o( the dwarf causes the capture of the 
 young Buccieuch. This capture occasions the single 
 combat, in which Cranstoun, in the guise of Deloraine, 
 recovers the captured son, and thus arises the reconcilia- 
 tion, which makes "pride be quelled and love be free." 
 
 But if we notice the "prodigality with which the poet 
 uses the magical thread on which he weaves his poem, 
 we must also notice the economy in its use. One of the 
 great tests of a fiction is the naturalness of the actions ; 
 the motives must be clear and adequate. The super- 
 natural therefore must not unduly rule the action. It is 
 perhaps most happily used when it gives an outward form 
 to an inward motive ; thus enabling us, as it were, to see 
 with the eye what is really an invisible process of the 
 mind. Thus in Macbeth the witches are thoroughly real 
 and taftgibte, but at the same time they make us see 
 Macbeth's ambitious thoughts, as he saw them, seemingly 
 outside himself and constrr ming his will. So in Homer 
 the gods are perfectly real, or in other words perfectly 
 human, feeling as we do even such motives as pride, 
 jealousy and fear ; but their appearances also make us 
 see as it were in the flesh alike the influences which 
 move men to deeds of bravery beyond themselves, and 
 hidden laws of " fate" which baffle the most heroic efforts. 
 So here the magical powers do not crush or obscure the 
 natural motives ot the human actors, but rather illustrate 
 th.m and bring them into relief. We see this in the 
 dwarf's main action, when it 
 
 •' Seemed to the boy, some comraae gay 
 Led him forth to the woods to play" — ' 
 
 while the bewilderment which followed the revelation of 
 
 -1 
 
fWtkoDuctioW. 
 
 itV 
 
 tSe dwarf at the running <;treain is a natural picture of the 
 terror of a child who has lost his way. So again the 
 impish counterfeiting of the child helps by contrast to 
 bring out the spirit of the true young Buccleuch, and 
 illustrates the nature of the dwarf without interfering 
 with the action of the pieLC. 
 
 So again the Ladye's magic is restrained from excessive 
 distui'bance of the action. Thou.^h she has a secret pre- 
 science* of the coming help, she dares not own her magic, 
 and therefore fails to prevent the proposed single combat, 
 which is to loose the main complication of the plot, the 
 rejection of Cranstoun's suit. Ker foreknowledge seems 
 only one of those vivid presentiments which are them- 
 selves unaccountable. Lastly, her spell only acts so 
 tardily that, while it blinds her to Cranstoun's deception,'' 
 the re-appearance of De)or^ine, which leads to the dis- 
 covery, might after all have oeen natural/ 
 
 Thus was the germ of the poem developed into the 
 ieaves and blossoms which belied so mean an origin ;* 
 but the plant looked like an exotic, unhoused and unshel- 
 tered in the open air of our century. The poem seemed 
 so much " out of the common road," that the friends \"'ho 
 heard the first stanzas could give no opinion on them, but 
 suggested a " prologue to place the mind of the hearers 
 in a situation to understand and enjoy the poem." Scott 
 writes, " I entirely agreed with my friendly critic on the 
 necessity of having some pitch-pipe which might muke 
 readers aware of the object, or rather the tone, o* the 
 publication. I therefore introduced the old minstrel as 
 an appropriate prolocutor, by whom the Lay might be 
 sung or spoken, and the introduction of whom between 
 
 1 iv. 33. 2 V. 15. » V. 84. 
 
 4 So that the critic Teflfrey called the Goblin Page the "capital deformity 
 of the poem," and eureatod Scott to "purge the Lay of tais ungraceiiu 
 Intruder." 
 
XVI 
 
 Scott's poeMS. 
 
 the cantos might remind the reader at intervals of the 
 time, place, and circumstances of the recitation. This 
 species of cadre, or frame, afterwards afforded the poem 
 its name of the ' Lay of the Last MinstreL"' 
 
 V ■ ! 
 
 Born the year before Coleritlge, y**' jj^ afi r Wordsworth, 1771 
 At 18 in his father's office, the )^ v of French Revolution .1789 
 At 34 published Lav, the year of Trafalgar . .1805 
 
 At 43 Dublished IVaPfr/fy, the year before Waterloo . . 1814 
 At 61 died, tbeytar ot KeforiaBut . • • • .1833 
 
 m;,- 
 
 ■<- 
 
 J. H. DONNBLLSY AS FITZ-JAMES. 
 
 J^ 
 
 
THE LADY OF THE LAKE. 
 
 CANTO FIRST. 
 
 C5e (tdatft, 
 
 HARP of the North ! that mouldering long hast hung 
 On the witch-elm that shades Saint Fillan's spring, 
 And down the fitful breeze thy numbers flung, 
 
 Till envious ivy did around thee cling, 
 Muffling with verdant ringlet every string, — 
 
 O Minstiel Harp, still must thine accents sleep? 
 Mid rustling leaves and fountains murmuring, 
 
 Still must thy sweeter sounds their silence keep, 
 Nor bid a warrior smile, nor teach a maid to weep ? 
 
 Not thus, in ancient days of Caledon, 
 
 Was thy voice mute amid the festal crowd, 
 When lay of hopeless love, or glory won, 
 
 Aroused the fearful, or subdued the proud. 
 At each according pause, was heard aloud 
 
 Thine ardent symphony sublime and high ! 
 Fair dames and crested chiefs attention bowed ; 
 
 For still the burden of thy minstrelsy [less eye. 
 
 Was Knighthood's dauntless deed, and Beauty's match- 
 
 O wake once more ! how rude soe'er the hand 
 That ventures o'er thy magic maze to stray ; 
 O wake once more ! though scarce my skill command 
 
 Some feeble echoing of thine earlier lay : 
 " houi^h harsh and faint, and soon to die away^ 
 And all unworthy of thy nobler strain, 
 if one heart throb higher at its sway, 
 he wizaid note has not been touched in vain, 
 silent be no more t Enchantress, wake again. 
 
THB LADY OF THE LAKE, [canvo I. 
 
 !«:' 
 
 L 
 
 The stag at eve had drunk his fill, 
 
 Where danced the moon on Monan's rilli 
 
 And deep his midnight lair had made 
 
 In lone Glenartney's hazel shade ; 
 
 But, "when the sun his beacon red 
 
 Had kindled on Benvoirlich's head, 
 
 The deep-mquthed bloodhound's heavy bay 
 
 Resounded up the rocky way, 
 
 And faint, from farther distance borne, 
 
 Were heard the clanging hoof and honu 
 
 II. 
 
 As Chief, who hears his warder call, 
 *To arms! tie foemen storm the wall/ 
 The antlered monarch of the waste 
 Sprung from his heathery couch in hasta 
 But, ere his fleet career he took. 
 The de»v-drops from his flanks he shook | 
 Like crested leader proud and high, 
 Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky; 
 A moment gazed adown the dale, 
 A moment snufftd the tainted gale, 
 A moment listened to the cry. 
 That thickened as the chase drew nigh } 
 Then, as the headmost foes appeared, 
 With one brave bound the copse he cleared^ 
 And, stretching forward free and far, , 
 Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var. 
 
 IIL 
 
 Yelled on the view the opening pack ; 
 Rock, glen, and cavern paid them back: 
 To many a mingled sound at once 
 The awakened mountain gave response. 
 A hundred dogs bayed deep and strong^ 
 Clattered a hundred steeds along. 
 Their peal the merry horns rung out, 
 A hundred voices joined the shout ; 
 With hark and whoop and wild halloo^ 
 No rest Benvoirlich's echoes knew. 
 
CANTO I.] 
 
 THE CHASE. 
 
 II 
 
 Far from the tumult fled the roe, 
 Close in her covert cowered the doe, 
 The falcon, from her cairn on high, 
 Cast on the rout a wondering eye, 
 'I ill far beyond her piercing ken 
 The hurricane had swept the glen. 
 Faint, and more faint, its failing din 
 Returned from cavern, cliff, and linn, 
 And silence settled, wide and still, 
 On the lone wood and mighty hill. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Less loud the sounds of silvan war 
 Disturbed the heights of Uam-Var, 
 And rnused tbp rpvorn. where, 'tis told, 
 A giant made his den of old ; 
 Foi ere that steep ascent was won, 
 High in his pathway hung the sun, 
 And many a gallant, staid perforce. 
 Was fain to breathe his faltering hors^ 
 And of the trackers of the deer, 
 .Scarce half the lessening pack was near} 
 bo shrewdly on the mountain side. 
 Had the bold burst their mettle tried. 
 
 V. 
 
 The noble stag was pausing now, 
 Upon the mountain's southern brow. 
 Where broad extended, far beneath, 
 • The varied realms of fair Menteith. 
 With anxious eye he wandered o'er 
 Mouniiain and meadow, moss and mooff 
 And pondered refuge from his toil, 
 IJy far Lochard or Aberfoyle. 
 But nearer was the copsewood gray, 
 That waved and wept on Loch Achray, 
 And mingled with the pine-trees blue 
 On the bold cliffs of Benvenue. 
 Fresh vigour with, the hope returned, 
 With flying foot the heath he spurned, 
 Held westward with unwearied race. 
 And left behind the panting chase. 
 
It THE LADY OP THE LAKE. [canto L 
 
 VL 
 
 Twere l6ng to tell what steeds gave o'er, 
 As swept the hunt through Cambus-more; 
 What reins were tightened in despair, 
 When rose Benledi's ridge in air . 
 Who flagged upon Bochastle's he.ith, 
 Who shunned to stem the flooded Teit'a— 
 For twice that day, from shore tc» shorC| 
 The gallant stag swam stoutly ocr. 
 I'ew were the stragglers, followi.ig far, 
 1'hat reached the lake of Vennachar ; 
 And when the Brigg of Turk w as won, 
 The headmost horseman rodr alone. 
 
 VIL 
 
 Alone, but with unbated zeal. 
 
 That horseman plied the scouige and steel; 
 
 For jaded now, and spent with toil. 
 
 Embossed with foam, and dark with soil, 
 
 While every gasp with sobs he drew, 
 
 The labouring stag strained full in view. 
 
 Two dogs of black Saint Hubert's bi ecd, 
 
 Unmatched for courage, breath, and speed. 
 
 Fast on his flying traces came. 
 
 And all but won that desperate game ; 
 
 For, scarce a spear's length from his haunch, 
 
 Vindictive toiled the bloodhounds stanch; 
 
 Nor nearer might the dogs attain. 
 
 Nor farther might the quarry strain. 
 
 Thus up the margin of the lake, 
 
 Between the precipice and brake, 
 
 O'er stock and rock their race they take. 
 
 VIIL 
 
 The Hunter marked that mountain high, 
 The lone lake's western boundary. 
 And deemed the stag must turn to bay, 
 Where that huge rampart barred the way| 
 Already glorying in the prize, 
 Measured his antlers with his eyes ; 
 For the death-wound and death-halloo. 
 Mustered his breath, his whinyard drew* 
 
6ANTO I.j 
 
 tHE chasil 
 
 n 
 
 But thundering as he came prepared, 
 With ready arm and weapon bared, 
 The wily quarry shunned the shock, 
 And turned him from the opposing roclc| 
 Then, dashing down a darksome glen, 
 Soon lost to hound and hunter's ken. 
 In the deep Trosachs* wildest nook 
 His solitary refuge took. 
 There, while close couched, the thicket shed 
 Cold dews and wild flowers on his head, 
 He heard the baffled dogs in vain 
 Rave through the hollow pass amaini) 
 Chiding the rocks that yelled again. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Close on the hounds the Hunter came. 
 To cheer them on the vanished game ; 
 But, stumbling in the rugged dell, 
 The gallant horse exhausted fell. 
 The impatient rider strove in vain 
 To rouse him with the spur and rein. 
 For the good steed, his labours o'er. 
 Stretched his stiff limbs, to rise no morej 
 Then, touched with pity and remorse, 
 He sorrowed o'er the expiring horse : 
 * I little thought, when first thy rein 
 I slacked upon the banks of Seine, 
 That Highland eagle e'er should feed 
 On thy fleet limbs, my matchless steed! 
 Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, 
 That costs thy lile, my gallant gray 1' 
 
 X. 
 
 Then through the dell his horn resound^ 
 From vain pursuit to call the hounds. 
 Back limped, with slow and crippled pace. 
 The sulky leaders of the chase ; 
 Close to their master's side they pressed. 
 With drooping tail and humbled crest; 
 But still the dingle's hollow throat 
 Prolonged the swelling bugle-note. 
 The owlets started from their dream, 
 The eagles answered with their screan^ 
 
14 TJife LadV of tiiE tAkt. tcANto t. 
 
 Round and around the sounds were cast, 
 Till echo seemed an answering blast ; 
 And on 'the hunter hied his way, 
 To join some comrades of the day ; 
 Yet often paused, so strange the road, 
 ' So wondrous were the scenes it shewed. 
 
 XI. 
 
 The western waves of ebbing day 
 Rolled o'er the glen their level way; 
 Each purple peak, each flinty spire, 
 Was bathed in floods of living lire. 
 But not a setting beam could glow 
 Within the dark ravines below, 
 Where twined the path in shadow hid, 
 Round many a rocky pyramid, 
 Shooting abruptly from the dell 
 Its thunder-splintered pinnacle ; 
 Round many an insulated m^ss, 
 The native bulwarks )f the pass. 
 Huge as the tower which builders vain 
 Presumptuous piled on Shinar's plain. 
 The rocky summits, split and rent, 
 Formed turret, dome, or battlement. 
 Or seemed fantastically set 
 With cupola or minaret, 
 Wild crests as pagod ever decked, 
 Or mosque of Eastern architect. 
 Nor were these earth-born castles bare, 
 Nor lacked they many a banner fair ; 
 For, from their shivered brows displayed, 
 Far o'er the unfathomable glade. 
 All twinkling with the dew-drops sheen, 
 The brier-rose fell in streamers green. 
 And creeping shrubs, of thousand dyes, 
 Waved in the west-wind's summer sighs. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Boon nature scattered, free and wild, 
 Each plant or flower, the mountain's child. 
 Here eglantine embalmed the air, 
 Hawthorn and hazel mingled there ; . . 
 
eAMvo .1.3 
 
 THE CHASE. 
 
 t| 
 
 The primrose pale and violet flower, 
 Found in each cliiif a narrow bower j 
 Foxglove and nightshade, side by side, 
 Emblems of punishment and pride, 
 Grouped their dark hues with every stain 
 The weather-beaten crags retain. 
 With boughs that quaked at every breath, 
 Gray birch and aspen wept beneath; 
 Aloft, the ash and warrior oak 
 Cast anchor in the rifted rock ; 
 And, higher yet, the pine-tree hung 
 His shattered trunk, and frequent flun^, 
 \Vh »re seemed the cliffs to meet on high, 
 His boughs athwart the narrowed sky. 
 Highest of all, where white peaks glanced, 
 Where glistening streamers waved and danced 
 The wanderer's eye could barely view 
 The summer heaven's delicious blue ; 
 So wondrous wild, the whole might seem 
 The scenery of a fairy dream. 
 
 XIII. 
 Onward, amid the copse *gan peep 
 A narrow inlet, still and deep. 
 Affording scarce such breadth of brim, 
 As served the wild duck's brood to swim. 
 Lost for a space, through thickets veering, 
 But broader when again appearing. 
 Tall, rocks and tufted knolls their face. 
 Could on the dark-blue mirror trace. 
 And farther as the hunter strayed, 
 Still broader sweep its channels madfr 
 The shaggy mounds no longer stood. 
 Emerging from entangled wood, 
 But, wave-encircled, seemed to float, 
 Like castle girdled with its moat ; 
 Yet broader floods extending still 
 Divide them from their parent hill, 
 Till each, retiring, claims to be 
 An islet in an inland sea. 
 
 XIV. 
 And now, to issue from the glen, 
 ^o |>athway meets the wanderei^^ ken, 
 
 ■ i 
 
THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [canto L 
 
 Unless he climb, with footing nice, 
 
 A far projecting precipice. 
 
 The broom's tough roots his ladder made^ 
 
 The hazel saplings lent their aid ; 
 
 And thus an airy point he won, 
 
 Where, gleaming with the setting sun, . 
 
 One burnished sheet of living gold, 
 
 Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled, 
 
 In all her length far winding lay. 
 
 With promontory, creek, and bay, 
 
 And islands that, empurpled briglit, 
 
 Floated amid the livelier light. 
 
 And mountains, that like giants stand, 
 
 To sentinel enchanted land. 
 
 High on the south, huge Bf nvenue 
 
 Down on the lake in masses threw 
 
 Crags, knolls, and mounds, confusedly hurled, 
 
 The fragments of an earlier world ; 
 
 A wildering forest feathered o'er 
 
 His ruined sides and summit hoar. 
 
 While on the north, through middle air, 
 
 Ben-an heaved high his forehead bare. 
 
 XV. 
 
 From the steep promontory gazed 
 
 The Stranger, raptured and amazed. 
 
 And, * What a scene were here,' he cried, 
 
 * For princely pomp, or churchman's pridei 
 
 On this bold brow, a lordly tower; 
 
 In that soft vale, a lady's bower; 
 
 On yonder meadow, far away, 
 
 The turrets of a cloister gray. 
 
 How blithely might the bu'^le-horn 
 
 Chide, on the lake, the lingerir.g momt ' 
 
 How sweet, at eve, the lover's iute 
 
 Chime, when the groves were still and mutel 
 
 And, when the midnight moon should lave 
 
 Her forehead in the silver wave. 
 
 How solemn on the ear would come 
 
 The holy matins' distant hum. 
 
 While the deep peal's commanding tone 
 
 Should wake in yonder islet lone, 
 
 A sainted hermit from his cell, 
 
eAMTO I.] 
 
 THE CHASE. 
 
 n 
 
 To drop a bead with every knell— 
 And bugle, lute, and bell, and all, 
 Should each bewildered stranger call 
 To friendly feast, and lighted halL 
 
 XVI. 
 
 ' Blithe were it then to wander here I 
 But now, — beshrew yon nimble deer,— 
 Like that same hermit s, thin and spare^ 
 The copse must give my evening fare ; 
 Some mossy bank my couch must be, 
 Some rustling oak my canopy. 
 Yet pass we that ; the war and chase 
 Give little choice of resting-place ; — 
 A summer night, in greenwood spent, 
 Were but to-morrow's merriment : 
 But hosts may in these wilds abound, 
 Such as are better missed than found ; 
 To meet with Highland plunderers here 
 Were worse than loss of steed or deer.— 
 I am alone ; — my bugle-strain 
 Maiy call some straggler of the train; 
 Or, fall the worst that may betide. 
 Ere now this falchion has been tried.' 
 
 XVII. 
 
 But scarce again his horn he wound. 
 
 When lo ! forth starting at the sound. 
 
 From underneath an aged oak, 
 
 That slanted from the islet rock, 
 
 A damsel guider of its way, 
 
 A little skiff shot to the bay, 
 
 That round the promontory steep 
 
 Led its deep line in graceful sweep, 
 
 Eddying, in almost viewless wave, 
 
 The weeping willow twig to lave. 
 
 And kiss, with whispering sound and slow, 
 
 The beach of pebbles bright as snow. 
 
 The boat had touched the silver strand, 
 
 Just as the Hunter left his stand, 
 
 And stood concealed amid the brake^ 
 
 To view this Lady of the Lake. 
 
ti trtE LAbV Oi^ tut LAKE. tcANia t 
 
 The maiden paused, as if again 
 
 She thought to catch the distant strain. 
 
 With hea,d up-raised, and look intent. 
 
 And eye and ear attentive bent, • 
 
 And locks flung back, and lips apart, < 
 
 Like monument of Grecian art, 
 
 In listening mood, she seemed to stand. 
 
 The guardian Naiad of the strand. 
 
 XVIIL 
 
 And ne'er did Grecian cliisel trace 
 
 A Nymph, a Naiad, or a Grace, 
 
 Of finer form, or lovelier face! 
 
 What though the sun, with ardent frown. 
 
 Mad sligh ly tinged her cheek with brown,— 
 
 The sportive toil, which, short and light. 
 
 Had dyed her glowing hue so bright, 
 
 Served too in hastier swell to shew 
 
 Short glimpses of a breast of snow : 
 
 What though no rule of courtly grace 
 
 To measured mood had trainea her pace,— 
 
 A foot more ligh'., a step more true, 
 
 Ne'er from the ncath-flower dashed tne dew> 
 
 K'en the slight harebell raised its head, 
 
 Elastic from her airy tread: 
 
 What though upon her speech there hung 
 
 The accents of the mountain tongue. 
 
 Those silver sounds, so soft, so dear, 
 
 The list'ner held his breath to hcai 1 
 
 XIX. 
 
 A Chieftain's daughter seemed the maid i 
 Her satin snood, her silken plaid. 
 Her golden brooch such birth betrayed. 
 And seldom was a snood amid 
 Such wild luxuriant ringlets hid, 
 Whose glossy black to shame might bring 
 The plumage of the raven's wing; 
 And seldom o'er a breast so fair. 
 Mantled a plaid with modest care, 
 And never brooch the folds combined 
 Above a heart more good and ktncU 
 
 ii 
 
^ANTO I.j 
 
 tHE CttASli. 
 
 Her kindness and her worth to spy. 
 You need but gaze on Ellen's eye ; 
 Not Katrine, in her n^irror blue, 
 Gives back the shaggy banks more tni^ 
 Than every free-born glance confessed 
 The guileless movements of her breast; 
 Whether joy danced in her dark eye. 
 Or woe or pity claimed a sigh, 
 Or filial love was glowing there, 
 Or meek devotion poured a prayer, 
 Or tale of injury called forth 
 The indignant spirit of the North. 
 One only passion unrevealed. 
 With maiden pride the maid concealed, 
 Yet not less purely felt the flame ; — 
 O need I tell that passion's name 1 
 
 ■I 
 
 XX. 
 
 Impatient of the silent horn. 
 Now on the gale her voice was borne :— 
 'Father!* she cried; the rocks around 
 Loved to prolong the gentle sound. 
 A while she paused, no answer came, — 
 ' Malcolm, was thine the blast ?' the name 
 Less resolutely uttered fell. 
 The echoes could not catch the swelL 
 * A stranger I,* the Huntsman said, 
 Advancing from the hazel shade. 
 The maid, alarmed, with hasty oar, 
 Pushed her light shallop from the shore, 
 And when a space was gained between, 
 Closer she drew her bosom's screen ; 
 (So forth the startled swan would swing. 
 So turn to prune his ruffled wing.) 
 Then safe, though fluttered and amazed, 
 She paused, and on the Stranger gazed. 
 Not his the form, nQr his the eye, 
 That youthful maidens wont to fly* 
 
 1 
 
 XXL 
 
 \ 
 
 On his bold visage middle age 
 Had slightly pressed its signet sage^ 
 
( 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [cantc l 
 
 Yet-had not quenched the open truth 
 
 And fiery vehemence of youth ; 
 
 Forward and frolic glee was there, 
 
 The will to do, the soul to dare, 
 
 The sparkling glance, soon blown to fire^ 
 
 Of hasty love, or headlong ire. 
 
 His limbs were cast in manlv mould, 
 
 For hardy sports or contest bold ; 
 
 And though in p^^aceful garb arrayed. 
 
 And weaponless, except his blade, 
 
 His stately mien as well implied 
 
 A high-born heart, a martial pride, 
 
 As if a Baron's crest he wore, 
 
 And sheathed in armour trod the shore. 
 
 Slighting the petty need he shewed. 
 
 He told of his benighted road ; 
 
 His ready speech flowed fair and free, 
 
 In phrase of gentlest courtesy ; 
 
 Yet seemed that tone, and gesture bland, 
 
 Less used to sue than to command. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 A while the maid the Stranger eyed. 
 And, reassured, at length replied. 
 That Highland halls were open still 
 To wildered wanderers of the hill. 
 
 * Nor think you unexpected come 
 To yon lone isle, our desert home ; 
 Before the heath had lost the dew. 
 This morn, a couch was pulled for you ; 
 On yonder mountain's purple head 
 Have ptarmigan and heath-cock bled, 
 
 i ind our broad nets have swept the mcre^ 
 To furnish forth your evening cheer.* — 
 
 * Now, by the rood, my lovely maid, 
 Your courtesy has erred,' he said ; 
 
 ' No right have I to claim, misplaced, 
 The welcome of expected guest. 
 A wanderer, here by fortune tost. 
 My way, my friends, my courser lost, 
 I ne'er before, believe me, fair. 
 Have ever drawn your mountain air, 
 
CANTO L] 
 
 THE CHASE. 
 
 11 
 
 Till on this lake's romantic strand« 
 I found a fay in fairy land 1' — 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 • I well believe/ the maid replied, 
 
 As her light skiff approache'd the side,— 
 
 * I well believe, that ne'er before 
 
 Your foot has trod Loch Katrine's shore ; 
 
 But yet, as far as yesternight, 
 
 Old Alian-bane foretold your plight,— 
 
 A gray-haired sire, whose eye intent 
 
 Was on the visioned future bent. 
 
 He saw your steed, a dappled gray, 
 
 Lie dead beneath the birchen way; 
 
 Painted exact your form and mien, 
 
 Your hunting suit of Lincoln green. 
 
 That tassellcd horn so gaily gili, 
 
 That falchion's crooked blade and hilt, 
 
 That cap with heron plumage trim, 
 
 And yon two hounds so dark and ghm. 
 
 He bade that all should ready be, 
 
 To grace a guest of fair degree ; 
 
 But light I held his prophecy, 
 
 And deemed it was my father's horn, 
 
 Whose echoes o'er the lake were borne.'— 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 The Stranger smiled : * Since to your home 
 A destined errant-knight I come, 
 Announced by prophet sooth and old. 
 Doomed, doubtless, for achievement bold, 
 I '11 lightly front each high emprise, 
 For one kind glance of those bright eyeSi 
 Permit me, first, the task to guide 
 Your fairy frigate o'er the tide.* 
 The maid, with smile suppressed and sly. 
 The toil unwonted saw him try ; 
 For seldom sure, if e'er before, 
 His noble hand had grasped an oar: 
 Yet with main strength his strokes he drew, 
 And o'er the lake the shallop flew ; 
 With heads erect, and whimpering cry. 
 The hounds behind their passage ply. 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. CCAMTO L 
 
 Nor freaucnt does the bright oar break 
 The darkening mirror of the lake, 
 Until the rocky isle they reach, 
 And nioor their shallop onr the beach* 
 
 XXV. 
 
 The Stranger viewed the shore around; 
 Twas all so close with copsewood bound. 
 Nor track nor pathway might declare 
 That human foot frequented there, 
 Until the mountain-maiden shewed 
 A clambering unsuspected road, 
 That winded through the tangled screen, 
 A( d opened on a narrow green, 
 Where weeping birch and willow round 
 With their long fibres swept the ground. 
 Here, for retreat in dangerous hour, 
 Some chief had framed a rustic bower. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 It was a lodge of ample size. 
 
 But strange of structure and device ; 
 
 Of such materials as around 
 
 The workman's hand had readiest found. 
 
 Lopped of their boughs, their hoar trunks bared. 
 
 And by the hatchet rudely squared, 
 
 To give the walls their destined height. 
 
 The sturdy oak and ash unite ; 
 
 While moss and clay and leaves combined 
 
 To fence each crevice from the wind. 
 
 The lighter pine-trees, overhead. 
 
 Their slender length for rafters spread, . 
 
 And withered heath and rushes dry 
 
 Supplied a russet canopy. 
 
 Due westward, fronting to the green, 
 
 A rural portico was seen. 
 
 Aloft on native pillars borne, 
 
 Of mountain fir with bark imshorn. 
 
 Where Ellen's hand had taught to twine 
 
 The ivy and Idrean vine. 
 
 The clematis, the favoured flower 
 
 Wliifh bpasts the name of virgin-bower. 
 
CANTO I.] 
 
 THE CHASE. 
 
 23 
 
 And every hardy plant could benr 
 Loch Katrine's keen and searching air, 
 An instant in this porch she staid, 
 And gaily to the Stranger said, 
 ' On heaven and on thy lady call. 
 And enter the enchanted hall ! ' — 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 ^ 'My hope, my heaven, my trust must be, 
 My gentle guide, in following thee' — 
 He crossed the threshold — and a cl ing 
 Of angry steel that instant rang. 
 To his bold brow his spirit rushed. 
 But soon for vain alarm he blushed. 
 When on the floor he saw displ.iyed. 
 Cause of the din, a naked blade 
 Dropped from the sheuh, that careless flung, 
 Upon a stag's huge antlers swung ; 
 For all around, the walls to grace, 
 Hung trophies of the fight or chase : 
 A target there, a bugle here, 
 A battle-axe, a hunting spear. 
 And broadswords, bows, and arrows store, 
 With the tusked trophies of the boar. 
 Here grins the wolf as when he died, 
 And there the wild-cat's brindled hide 
 The frontlet of the elk adorns, 
 Or mantles o'er the bison's horns ; 
 Pennons and flags defaced and stained, 
 That blackening streaks of blood retained, 
 And deer-skins, dappled, dun, and white. 
 With otter's fur and seal's unite, 
 In rude and uncouth tapestry all, 
 To garnish forth the silvan hall, 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 The wondering Stranger round him gazed, 
 And next the falling weapon raised : — 
 Few were the arms whose sinewy strength 
 Sufficed to stretch it forth at length. 
 And as the brand he poised and swayed. 
 ' I never knew but one,' he said. 
 
 t 
 
f 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [canto i. 
 
 'Whose stalwart arm might brook to wield 
 
 A blade like this in battle-field.* 
 
 Slie sighed, then smiled and took the word; 
 
 * You see the guardian champion's sword: 
 As light it trembles in his hand, 
 
 As in my grasp a hazel wand ; 
 
 My sire's tall form might grace the part 
 
 Of Ferragus, or Ascabart ; 
 
 But in the absent giant's hold 
 
 Are women now, and menials old/ 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 The mistress of the mansion came, 
 
 Mature of age, a graceful dame ; 
 
 Whose er.sy step and stately port 
 
 Had well become a princely court. 
 
 To whom, though more than kindred i:new, 
 
 Young Ellen gave a mother's due. 
 
 Meet welcome to h.r guest she made, 
 
 And every courteous rite was paid, 
 
 That hospitality could claim, 
 
 'i'hough all unasked his birth and name. 
 
 Such then the reverence to a guest. 
 
 That fellest foe might join the feast, 
 
 And from his deadliest foeman's door 
 
 Unquestioned turn, the banquet o'er. 
 
 At length his rank the Stranger names, 
 
 * The Knight of Snowdoun, James Fitz-James; 
 Lord of a barren heritage, 
 
 Which his brave sires, from age to age. 
 By their good swords had held with toil j 
 His sire had fall'n in s ich turmoil, 
 And he, God wot, was foixed to stand 
 Oft for his right with blade in hand. 
 This morning with Lord Moray's train 
 He chased a stalwart stag in vain. 
 Outstripped his comrades, missed the deer, 
 Lost his good steed, and wandered here.' 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Fain would the Knight in turn require 
 The name and state of Ellen's sirr. 
 
<*ANTO I.] 
 
 THE CHASE. 
 
 as 
 
 Well shewed the elder lady's mien, 
 That courts and cities she had seen; 
 Ellen, thougli more her looks displayed 
 The simple grace of sylvan maid, 
 In speech and gesture, form and ince, 
 Shewed she was come of gentle race; 
 *Twere strange in ruder rank to find 
 Such looks, such manners, and such mind. 
 Each hint the Knight of Snowdoun gave, 
 Dame Margaret heard with silence grave; 
 Or Ellen, innocently gay, 
 Turned all inquiry light away :^^ 
 * Weird women we ! by dale and down 
 We dwell, afar from tower and town. 
 We stem the flood, we ride the blast, 
 On wandering knights our spells we cast; 
 While viewless minstrels touch the string, 
 *Tis thus our charmed rhymes we sing.* 
 She sung, and still a harp unseen 
 Filled up the symphony between. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 SONG. 
 
 •Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, 
 
 Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking; 
 Dream of battled fields no more, 
 
 Days of danger, nights of waking. 
 In our isle's enchanted hall, 
 
 Hands unseen thy couch are strewing, 
 Fairy strains of music fall, 
 
 Every sense in slumber dewinj. 
 Soldier, rest ! thy warfare o'er : 
 Dream of fighting fields no more : 
 Sleep the sleep that knows n t breaking. 
 Morn of toil, nor night of waking. 
 
 * No rude sound shall reach thine ear, 
 Armour's clang, or war-steed champing. 
 
 Trump nor pibroch summon here 
 
 Mustering clan, or squadron tramping. 
 
 Yet the lark's shr-11 fife may come 
 At the day-break from the fallow. 
 
! I 
 
 S^ THE LADY OF THE LAKE. fcANTO t 
 
 And the bittern sound his drum, 
 
 Booming from the sedgy shallow. 
 Ruder .sounds shall none be near, 
 Guards nor warders challenge here, 
 Here's no war-steed's neigh and champing, 
 Shouting clans or squadrons stamping.' 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 She paused — then, blushing, led the lay 
 To grace the stranger of the day. 
 Her mellow notes a while prolong 
 The cadence of the flowing song, 
 Till to her lips in measured fram.,* 
 The minstrel verse spontaneous came 
 
 SONG CONTINUED. 
 
 * Huntsman, rest ! thy chase is done, 
 
 While our slumbrous spells assail y(^ 
 Dream not, with the rising sun. 
 
 Bugles here shall sound reveilld. 
 Sleep ! the deer is in his den ; 
 
 Sleep! thy hounds are by thee lyin^; 
 . Sleep ! nor dream in yonder glen. 
 
 How thy gallant steed lay dying. 
 Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done^ 
 Think not of the rising sun, 
 For at dawning to assail ye, 
 Here no bugles sound reveilld.* 
 
 XXXUL 
 
 The hall was cleared — the Stranger's bed 
 Was there of mountain heather spread^ 
 Where oft a hundred guests had lain. 
 And dreamed their forest sports again. 
 But vainly did the heath-flower shed 
 Its moorland fragrance round his head} 
 Not Ellen's spell had lulled to rest 
 The fever of his troubled breast. 
 In broken dreams the image rose 
 Of varied perils, pains, and woes ; 
 His steed now flounders in the brak<^ 
 Now sinks his barge upon the lake} 
 
CANTO 1.3 
 
 THE CHASE. 
 
 27 
 
 Now leader of a broken host, 
 
 His standard falls, his honour's lo3t 
 
 Then, — from my couch may heavenly nii:;ht 
 
 Chase that worst phantom of the night! — 
 
 Again returned the scenes of youth, 
 
 Of confident undoubting truth; 
 
 Again his soul he interchanged 
 
 With friends whose hearts were long estranged 
 
 They come, in dim procession led, 
 
 The cold, the faithless, and the dead ; 
 
 As warm each hand, each brow as gay, 
 
 As if they parted yesterday. 
 
 And doubt distracts him at the view, 
 
 O were his senses false or true ! 
 
 Dreamed he of death, or broken vow, 
 
 Or is it all a vision now ! 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 At length, with Ellen in a grove 
 
 He seemed to walk, and speak of love ; 
 
 She listened with a blush and sigh, 
 
 His suit was warm, his hopes were high. 
 
 He sought her yieMed hand to clasp, 
 
 And a cold gauntlet met his grasp : 
 
 The phantom's sex was changed and gone, 
 
 Upon its head a helmet shone; 
 
 Slowly enlarged to giant size, 
 
 With darkened cheek and threatening eyes, 
 
 The grisly visage, stern and hoar, 
 
 To Ellen still a likeness bore. — 
 
 He woke, and, panting with affright, 
 
 Recalled the vision of the night. 
 
 The hearth's decaying brands were red. 
 
 And deep and dusky lustre shed. 
 
 Half shewing, half concealing, all 
 
 The uncouth trophies of the hall. 
 
 Mid those the Stranger fixed his eye, 
 
 Where that huge falchion hung on high, 
 
 And thoughts on thoughts, a countless throng^ 
 
 Rushed, chasing countless thoughts along, 
 
 Until, the giddy whirl to cure. 
 
 He rose, and sought the moonshine pure. 
 
m 
 
 ■nil; 
 
 a8 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [canto U 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 Tlie wild-rose, eglantine, and broom, 
 Wasted around their rich perfume : 
 The birch-trees wept in fragrant balm, 
 The aspens slept beneath the calm ; 
 The silver light, with quivering glance, 
 Played on the water's still expanse, — 
 Wild were the heart wliose passions' sway 
 Could rage beneath th^ sober ray ! 
 He felt its calm, that warrior guest, 
 While thus he communed with his breast: 
 ' Why is it, at each turn I trace 
 Some memory of that exiled race? 
 Can I not mountain-maiden spy. 
 But she must bear tht Douglas eye? 
 Can I not view a Highland brand, 
 But it must match the Douglas hand ? 
 Can I not frame a fevered dream, 
 But still the Douglas is the thome? — 
 I 'II dream no more — by manly mind 
 Not even in sleep is will resigned. 
 My midnight orisons said o'er. 
 I '11 turn to rest, and dream no more.* 
 His midnight orisons he told, 
 A prayer with every bead of gold, 
 Consigned to heaven his cares and woe% 
 And sunk in undisturbed repose; 
 Until the heath-cock shrilly crew. 
 And morning dawned on Benvenaa 
 
 ■4 
 
NOTES 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 This canto opens with a vigorous description of a stag-hunt 
 The chase is long and wearying, and one by one the huntsmen 
 drop off, till at last one knight alone is left. He follows the 
 game along the banks of Loch Achray, but just as he thinks the 
 prize is his, he finds himself foiled, nnd his quarry lost. To add 
 to his distress, his horse, worn out by the long chase, lies 
 down to die, and he is left, parted from all his companions, 
 in the dark loneliness of the Trosachs. He pushes forward 
 towards the light, and reaches the end of the delile \\li:re it 
 overlooks Loch Katrine. It is now near sunset, and not relish- 
 ing the prospect of spending the night alone in the possible 
 neighbourhood of *' Highland plunderers," he sounds his bugle, 
 in the hope that it may recall some straggler of the chase. Llut 
 instead of this a light skiff shoots forth in answer to the sum- 
 mons from the islet opposite to him, and comes to land close at 
 his feet. Its occupant, a maiden "fair as ever Grecian chisel 
 traced," startled at the sight of a stranger, pushes off a little 
 space from the shore, but after short parley invites him to share 
 their Highland hospitality, assuring him that he is not an un- 
 expected guest ; his bed is prepared, his evening cheer provided; 
 for the seer of the house, old Allan-bane, has foretold his coming. 
 The stranger crosses with her to the island, where, hidden among 
 the trees, is the maiden's rustic home. As he enters, he is startled 
 by the fall of a huge sword, which recalls to him one, the only 
 one he ever knew that could wield such a blade in battle. This 
 discovery calls back old scenes long past. Vain is the maiden's 
 spell ; it cannot lull " the fever of his breast." He dreams over 
 again the perils of the day, and then the scenes of his youth, ere 
 his trusting heart had been shaken by the falsehood of fi lends 
 and the dark policy of the world. lie rises and goes out into 
 the still night, whose quiet calm soothes his spirit, and then 
 sleeps on till dawn. 
 
 Mote in this canto the picture of the stag-hunt, the description 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 ¥'■ 
 
THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [canto i. 
 
 of the Trosachs (stanza xi.), the portrait of Ellen (xviii. xix.), 
 and the account of the knight's dream (xxxiii. xxxiv.). 
 
 The characters are very artistically introduced. The hunt, as 
 we shall find in canto 2, is supi^osed by Roderick to lie only a 
 feint, in order to cover a wliolesalc attack on the Ilij^hland 
 tribes, and so leads to their rising ; and the identity of Snow- 
 doun's knight is the key to the main situations of the poem. 
 The seer seems to have some dim suspicion who he is, but the 
 secret is well kept ; and it is not till the end of the action that 
 the other characters, or even t'le reader, see him in his true 
 place. The air of mystery that hangs about the little island at 
 once interests the reader in its inmates : and tlieir connexion 
 with the knight, shadowed forth in his feverish dream, pr-pares 
 US somewhat for the part which he is to play in their restoration. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Each canto is introduced by one or more stanzas in the Spen- 
 serian metre, bearing more or less on the subject of the canto 
 The lines which hea l the first canto serve as an introduction to 
 the whole poem, which is inspired by the spirit of the old Scottish 
 minstrelsy. 
 
 (The Snenserian stanza, which is an extension of the eight- 
 lined rhymed verse of the Italians — ottava rinia — consists of 
 eight lines of ten syllables and five accents each, followed by a 
 line of twelve syllables and six accents. The first and third 
 lines rhyme together ; the second, fourth, fifth, and seventh ; 
 and the sixth, eiijhth, and ninth. It is the metre of Spenser's 
 /'aery Queen, whence its name, and in more recent limes of 
 Byron's Childe Haivlci, and Scott's Vision of Don Roderick.) 
 
 2 Witch-elm. The broad-leaved elm. More commonly spelt 
 *wich,' and so perhaps connected with German 'weich' and our 
 *wick' ( = quick, alive), and 'wicker,' with the idea of flexibility 
 and vitality. The mountain-ash is called ' witchen,' ' witch- 
 wood,' and ' vvicken-tree.' (Halliwku..) [Popular superstition 
 connects the name with 'witch,' as if the tree were the especial 
 haunt of witches. To this Scott appears to allude in the con- 
 cluding stanza, where he calls it the wizard-elm.] 
 
 Saint Fillan s spring. A sacred pool about two miles from 
 Tyndrum, on the road from Loch Lomond Head to Glencoe. It 
 was said to be efficacious for the cure of insanity. See Alannion^ 
 i. 29, 12 — 
 
 "Thence to St. Fillan's blessed well, 
 Whose spring can frenzied dreams dispel, 
 And the crazed brain restore." 
 The patient was dipi)ed in the pool after sundown on the first 
 day of the cju.uter, then bound with ropes tied in a peculi;;r 
 
CANTO I.] 
 
 NOTES— THE CHASE. 
 
 31 
 
 xix.), 
 
 knot, and laid mid the ruins of St. Fillan's cbapcl, in a coraei 
 called St. Fillan's bed. If in the morning the knot was found 
 untied, the patient might expect to recover his sanity. The pool 
 is reported as still visited in 1843. (Ciiambers's Book of Days, i. 
 79.) Saint Fillan, after whom the valley (Strath Fillan) is named, 
 was the favourite saint of Robert Bruce. He was a Scotch abbot 
 in the seventh century. There is another spring called by his 
 name at the eastern end of Loch Earn. 
 
 4 Envious. As grudi^ing the world its music. 
 
 10 Caledon. For Caledonia, the name by which Scotland was 
 known to the Romans. The first syllable of the word possibly is 
 the same as the 'Gal' in GalXwa, C^/atia. If so, the word means 
 " the Gael of the downs." (Taylor, Words ami Places, p. 44.) 
 Others interpret 'coil-dooine,' "men of the woods." 
 
 12, 13 The connexion is not very clear. The fearful would 
 be aroused, i.e. inspirited, by the songs of glory won ; and pro- 
 bably the plaintive music which tells the, tale of hopeless love 
 is that which subdues the proud. 
 
 14 According. Cp. Marmion, ii. 11 — 
 
 *' Then, answering from the sandy shore, 
 Half-drowned amid the breakers' roar, 
 According chorus rose," 
 wTiere, as here, the word is used of music that takes up and fills 
 the intervals of another. It is used in its commoner sense in 
 the Lay, Introduction — 
 
 " Till every string's according glee 
 Was blended into harmony." 
 
 23 i.e. though [it be] harsh. This construction, which is 
 common when the adjective closely precedes or follows that to 
 which it is in attribution, is not usual when the noun (' wizard 
 note '} is so far off. 
 
 Stanza l. — Glenartney. A valley in Perthshire, about six 
 miles N.N.E. of Callender. It runs from S.W. to N.E., having 
 Benvoirlich at its head on the north, and Uam-Var on the south, 
 separating itfrom the valley of the Teith. On the north ot the valley 
 there was formerly a royal forest, adjacent to the chief haunts of 
 the Macgregors. {Legend of Montrose, Introduction.) According 
 to Col. Robertson, the name = the high valley of the deer. 
 
 BenyovcYich. 'Ben' is the Gaelic form for the Welsh 'pen,* 
 a head, and so a mountain (P^wmaenmawr, Pemhyn). The form 
 * pen' is used in the southern parts of Scotland, so that we are 
 able by this prefix to trace roughly the line that separated the 
 two branches of the Celtic race, the Gaelic and the Cymric. 
 **Ben is confined to the west and north • pen to the east and 
 south. So in the north and west wg find inver used for a con- 
 fluence of waters {Invemess, Ittveraiy) ; 10 the south and east 
 
 
$$ 
 
 THE LADV OF THE LAKE. [canto i. 
 
 I 
 
 
 li 
 
 
 we find n/>er {/Iderdep.n, ^6erk\(\y ; cp. Welsh /Ik-r, Aieryst- 
 with)." — Taylor, Words and P/act's, pp. 146-7, 163. 
 
 Note the effect of the whisper-letters (/ and h) in the last 
 couplet. They are frequently used to express the attitude of fear. 
 
 2. — An.'lered. French, 'andouiller,* properly the first branch 
 of a stag's horn, or the brow-antler. Derivation uncertain. 
 The form ' antoillier' which is found has suggested ' ante,' before, 
 and 'oculus,' an eye, the brow-antler projecting forward. 
 
 Butf ere his fleet career he took, &c. Cp. Lordof the Isles, v. 4— 
 '* Like deer that, rousing from their lair, 
 Just shake the dewdrops from their hair, 
 And toss their armed crests aloft. " 
 
 Seamed frontlet. So Dryden (Virgil's Georg. iii.) speaks of 
 the beamy stag. ' Beam' (A. S. ' beam,' Dutch • boom,' German 
 'baum') is originally a tree, and so is applied to a stag's horn 
 with its tree-like branches (as in French *bois'). Conversely, 
 we call tlie beam which supports the roof a 'roof-/;w.' 
 
 Frontlet. Diminutive of 'front.' Cp. 'leaf/^/,* ' ham/<?A' The 
 termination is Romance, but is often added to Saxon words, as 
 • ring/r/, ' ' stream/f/. ' 
 
 The chase is used for those who are engaged in it. So we 
 speak of * the hunt' for the huntsmen. 
 
 Cry. Cp. Hamlet, iv. 5, 91 — " How cheerfully on the false 
 trail they rry." 
 
 3. — Note the effect of the inversion in the first line, and in the 
 sixth and seventh lines, in giving prominence to the sounds which 
 reach the slag's ear 
 
 Bayed deep and stong. This use of the adjective for the 
 adverb arises from the omission of the final e which once distin- 
 guished the two (probably an old dative ending : Morris, His- 
 torical Outlines of English Accidence, p. 196 ; though Matzner 
 looks upon it as an accusative). So in Chaucer we have — 
 **\Vas even^ joynyng to the gardeyn wal.'' — Prol. 1. 202. 
 •'That loveth so hoot^ Emely the brighte." 
 
 —Knight's Tale, 1. 879. 
 
 Their peal the merry horns rung out. Cp. Rob Roy, ch. v. : 
 **A pack of hounds in full cry, cheered by the occasional bursts 
 of a French-horn, which in those days was the constant accom* 
 paniment of the chase." 
 
 Cairn. A Gaelic word, Welsh 'cam,' a pile of stones, 
 generally over a dead body. 
 
 Rout. Any noisy or confused assembly. The derivation of 
 the word is contested. Diez refers it to the Latin 'rupta,' from 
 which come Italian • rotta,' French ' route,' a broken (army) ; but it 
 teems better to refer it to the verb. To rout (Norse ' rjota') is to 
 
CANTO I.J 
 
 NOTES— THE CHASE. 
 
 33 
 
 snore, grunt, bellow (of oxen). Cf. Monastery, ch. iii. : "To 
 see poor Grizzy and Crumble . . . routing while the stony- 
 hearted villains were brogging them on wi' their lances." Hence, 
 from the noise which they make, a gang, crowd; "the rabble 
 rout." So in Chaucer {Romaunt of the Rose) — 
 " But nightingales, a mil great rout^ 
 That flien over his head about." 
 Bacon uses the verb in this sense— "The meaner sort routed 
 t(;.fether." The colloquial 'row' (to make a great roiv) is a cor- 
 ruption of this word. 
 
 To rout an army (being a military term), probably comes from the 
 Italian 'rotta.' So sergeant, colonel, from 'serviente,' 'coronello.' 
 
 A'en.. Observation, perception by the senses; here 'sight.' 
 
 TAe hurricane had s^vept the glen. This is a good instance of 
 metaphor. The hunt sweeping up the glen is not a 'hurricane,' 
 which is a sudden and violent wind ; but it resembles it in its 
 suddenness and vehemence. This resemblance we may express 
 in two ways: (l) Simply as a resemblance, not forgetting that 
 the two things are distinct, as " They swept the glen like a hur- 
 ricane," or "As a hurricane sweeping the glen, so they passed 
 rapidly by;" this is c-".lled a simile: or (2)\vc may be so struck 
 with the points of likeness as to lose sight of the points of 
 difference, and identify the two things, transferring (fiera-tpipeiv. 
 Latin 'translatio ') the name of the one to the other, as in th( 
 text ; this is called metaphor. Hence a metaphor can alw;iys b i 
 expressed in the form of a simile ; but the comparison vv>ll 
 always be weakened thereby. A common lorm of metapho is 
 that in which not the .■.hings themselves, but their actions, are 
 identified ; i.e. in whi'-li the metaphor is conveyed in tiie verb: 
 
 <".§. " How sweel ';he moonlight sleeps upon this bank :" 
 the perfect stillness is hat of a sleeper. So m this stanza — 
 
 "Rock, gien, and cavern /<?/>/ them back." 
 The motaphor conveyed in ' hurricane ' is kept up by the verb 
 'swept,' which is appropriate to a wind, but not to men and horses. 
 
 Linn. A Celtic word, from 'Uevn,' smooth; a deep pool. 
 It is not uncommon in local names (Zmcoln, King's Lynn, 
 Ros/m, Z/«ton). 
 
 Note the alliterations in the last four lines. 
 
 ;;i: 
 
 i 
 I 
 
 4. — Sihjan. Nothing shows better the richness of English, as a 
 composite language, than a comparison of the pairs of adjectives 
 derived from .Saxon and Latin nouns with the same meaning. 
 The former naturally, af the older, represent the merely material 
 aspect ; the latter suggest ideas of association ; e.g. a woody 
 valley is one which has plenty of timber in it; u silvan scene 
 suggests, in addition, the charm of sun, and shade, and varied 
 form, which has pleased us best in woodland scenery. Compare^ 
 
•1 
 
 34 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [CANTO I. 
 
 ili 
 
 ::[ 
 
 
 
 by way of example, 'dark 'and 'obscure,' 'short* and 'brief,' 
 'slavish' and 'servile,' 'careful' and 'curious,' 'manly* and 
 'masculine.' 
 
 /I mi rouse(f the cavern, where, 'tis told, 
 
 A giant made his den of old. 
 
 " Ua-var, as ihe name is pronounced, or more properly 
 U.iighmor, is a mountain to the norlh-east of the village of Cal- 
 lender, in Menteith, deriving its name, which signilies the great 
 den, or cavern, from a sort of retreat among the rocks on the 
 south side, said by tradition to have been the abode of a giant." 
 
 — ScoiT. 
 
 Fain. A.S. 'fx'gen,' Icel. 'fcginn,' glad, joyful. So we 
 say, "He was glad enough to get home." (Apparently con- 
 nected with Greek 7ra7-, iriiyvvixi, with the idea of 'fitness.') 
 
 7he trackers of the deer are the hounds. 'I'hese descriptive 
 names are common in the oldest and simplest poetry 
 
 Pack. Dutch 'pack,' Iccl. 'pakki,' a bundle tied up under 
 one cover; hence of a set of hounds kept together in the same 
 kennel, of a set of cards which go together, of men got together 
 for one object, or united in one purpose. Cp. Shakespeare's King 
 I ear, v. 3 — " Pachs and sects of great ones.'* 
 Merry Wives, iv. 2 — 
 
 " h pack, a conspiracy against me." 
 So to ' pack * a jury is to get together men of one view for the 
 purpose of acquittal or conviction. 
 
 Shrewdly. Sharply, severely. 'Shrew* and 'shrewd' for- 
 merly conveyed deep moral blame. Chaucer uses the word of 
 two murderers — 
 
 " And thus accorded ben this shrcwcs tweye, 
 To slea the thridde, as ye ban herd me seye ; " 
 i.e. these two bad men have agreed to slay the third, Wycliffe 
 uses it to translate the pravus of the Vulgate (Trench, Select 
 Glossary, S.v.) But simplicity and guilelcssness are found 
 to* be marks of the good ; cunning and far-sightedness of the 
 wicked; so that the moral aspect of this far-sightedness being 
 omitted, 'shrewd 'came to mean 'sagacious.* (Cp. conversely 
 the deterioration of such words as eirjdrjs, 'simple,' 'silly* 
 (= 'blessed,* G. 'selig.'), 'innocent.') The word probably 
 means in the first instance 'crocked ; ' German 'schrage.* 
 
 5. — Menteith. The general name given to the district drained 
 by the Teith from Callender to Stirling, where it joins the Forth. 
 
 Lochard is a lake on the south bore er of Perthshire, about six 
 :niles east of Ben Lomond, and south of Benvenue. It is the 
 scene of Helen Macgregor's exploit in Rob Roy. Aherfoyle (see 
 note on stanza 1} is a village about a mile and a half from its 
 east end. 
 
 Wi 
 
CANTO I.] 
 
 NOTES-TIIE CHASE. 
 
 35 
 
 Loch Achray (" l!ie hice of the level fieKl "). A snull lake in 
 Pert!ishiri-, lyiiiij at iL^ foot of lieiivciuic, about seven miies 
 west of Callc'iidcr. 
 
 Benv^mie {" the centre mountain," as being half-way between 
 Ben Lonioiui and Ben Lcili). At the foot ol Loch Katrine and 
 head of Loch Achray. 
 
 Spurn. To kick off with the heel (Enjjlish 'spur,' German 
 ' sporn '). This was used as a gesture of avoidance and contempt 
 (Cp. Gobjjo's '^S'rorn running tc/VA i.'/_y heels" Merchant oj 
 Venice, ii. 2) ; and so the wonl };ets its metaphorical meaning, 
 to reject with disdain. Tl.e following passages will illustrate 
 the diiTi.-reni meanings of the word — 
 
 ** Use me but as your spaniel, spurn iiie, strike me." 
 
 — Midsuinnicf Night's Dream, ii. 2. 
 "To spurn at your most royal image" (i.e. the judge in the 
 king's court). — 2 Henry IV, v. 2. 
 
 *' He shall spurn fate, scorn death." — Macbeth, iii. 5. 
 
 6. — Long; i.e. tedious. 
 
 Cambus-niore. An estate about two miles from Callender, on 
 the ro.ad to Stirling, near the junction of the Keltic wi:h the 
 Teith. 
 
 Benledi ("mountain of God"). A mountain in Perthshire, 
 about four miles N.N.W. of Callender. The name is one of 
 the vestiges of the worship of the Celtic Bel or Belen, wlio is 
 by some identified with the Syrian Baal. The festival of Beltane 
 (ii. 19) takes its origin probably from the same eultus, of which 
 there are several traces in local names; e.g. Hill Bell in West- 
 moreland, Bel Tor in Devon. (Tayi.or, Words and J laces, p. 
 222.) According to tradition the people used to gather here on 
 May 1st and receive the need-fire from the i)riests of Baal. 
 
 Flagged, To 'flag' is to hang loosely like a flag on its stafT 
 when there is no wind ; hence to droop, to languish, be ex- 
 hausted. The derivation of the noun is uncertain. Wedgwood 
 traces it (likey?^/) to the sound made by a piece of cloth flap- 
 ping: others connect it with German 'fliegen,' our 'fly.' 
 
 BochastW'- heath. A flat plain between the east end of Loch 
 Vennachar and Callender. 
 
 Teith. A river formed by the junction of the streams from 
 Loch Voil and Loch Katrine, half a mile above Callender. It 
 joins the Forth a little above Stirling. 
 
 Vennachar. The easternmost of the three lakes around which 
 the scenery of the poem lies, about two miles W. S. W. of Cal- 
 lender. 
 
 Bri^g oJ Turk. A bridge over the stream that descends from 
 the valley of Glenfinlas, half-way between Lochs Achray and 
 Vennachar. Brigg. Ci. German 'briicke,' A. S. 'brycg,' (Morris, 
 
 <: 
 
 I-. 
 
:!• 
 
 1% 
 
 hi 
 
 II 
 
 1 '"'?! 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [canto l 
 
 p. 69); 80 'epg' became 'edge,* 'rigg' 'ridge.' Chaucer has 
 * jugge ' for ' jiul^'C. ' This softening was common in the Southern 
 dialect of Old English. Cp. 'dike,' 'ditch;' 'kirk,' 'church.' 
 
 7. — Stffl. An instance of the figure called synecdoche, putting 
 the part for the whole, or the material for the thing made ; so 
 fifty sai7, "the iron entered into his soul," the canvas speaks. 
 
 Emlwssed. Covered with 'bosses.' A 'boss,' French 
 'bosse,' ('bossu,* a hunchback) is a swelling or protuberance of 
 any kind ; so that em bossed -work is that which is raised in relief, 
 here covered with patches of foam. ' Boss ' is probably the 
 same as ' bot,' ' botch ; so — 
 
 ** Boiches and blaines must all his flesh emboss." 
 
 — Milton, Paradise Lost, xii. 180. 
 
 Two dogs of black Saint Hubert'' s breed. — " The hounds which 
 we call Saint Hubert's hounds are commonly all blacke, yet 
 nevertheless, the race is so mingled at these days, that we find 
 them of all colours. These are the hounds which the abbots of 
 St. Hubert haue always kept some of their race or kind, in 
 honour or remembrance of the saint, which vas a hunter with 
 St. Eustace. They are mighty of body, neuertheless their 
 legges are low and short, likewise they are not swift, although 
 they be very good of sent." — The Noble Art of Venerie. 161 1. 
 
 His Jlying traces. An instance of transfer ' epithet, «= the 
 traces oj him flying; so " Hence to his idle ' 
 
 " The little fields madt .-a 
 By husbandry of many thrifty years." 
 In Latin the adjective would be put in the genitive, as *mea 
 fugientis vestigia.' Cf. Ovid's " nostros \\iSxiX\ flentis ocellos " 
 
 Stanch. Originally water-tight. ' Stagnum' (French 'etang') 
 is a pool where the water stands without outlet ('stagnant'). 
 From the active sense of the derived verb 'stagnare' we get 
 French 'etancher,' our 'stanch,' to stop a running, to quench 
 (to 'stanch 'a wound, 'etancher sa soif); and from the noun 
 itself the adjective 'stanch,' water-tight, so firm, reliable; and 
 the nouns 'tank,' a water-tight cistern; and 'stanchion,' a sup- 
 port to prevent an object giving way. In the Romance lan- 
 guages the idea of the want of life in stagnant water prevails in 
 the adjectives; and so we have Italian 's.anco,' weary; 'mano 
 stanca,' the left hand. 
 
 Quarry. French 'curee,' Italian 'corata,' from the Latin 
 *cor,' the heart and its surroundings, whicii were given to the 
 dogs when the game was killed ; hence applied to the animal 
 hunted, or more especially to the game at which a hawk is 
 flown; so in Hamlet, v. 2 — 
 
 •• This quarry cries on havoc.'* 
 Mcubeth, iv. 3 — 
 
 
CANTO I.] 
 
 NOTES- THE CHASE. 
 
 S7 
 
 " To re'ate the manner, 
 Were, on the quarry of those munlered deer, 
 To add tlie death of you." 
 Longfellow, llia-a'atlui— 
 
 " Seldom stoops the soaring vulture 
 O'er his qtiany in the desert." 
 OVr stock and rock. The jinyle helps the memory. Cp. 
 'time and tide;' 'hugger mugger;' 'qui s'excuse s'accuse.' 
 
 8. — That mountain high. Bcnvenue. 
 
 Turn to bay, 'stand at bay,' are terms used when the stag 
 turns round and faces his pursuers, thus chculving for a while 
 their attack. The word seems to represent, by sound, the in- 
 voluntary opening of the mouth, and staring intently at a thing. 
 (Cf. French 'beer, bouche beante,' with open mouth.) Cp. 
 Spenser — 
 
 " So well he wooed her, and so well he wrought her, 
 With faire entreaty and swete blandishment, 
 That at the lenj^th unto a bay he brought her, 
 So as she to his speeches was content 
 To lend an ear, and softly to relent ;" 
 i.e. brought her to stand intently listening. The French 'aux 
 abois' ('aboyer') is p'obably of a different derivation. 
 For the death-ivoinui and death-halloo, 
 Mustered his breath, his whinyard drew. 
 When the stag turned to bay the ancient hunter had the perilous 
 task of going in upon, and killing or disabling the desperate 
 animal. At certain times of the year this was held particularly 
 dangerous, a wound received from a stag's horn being then 
 deemed poisonous. — Scott. There is a description of this 
 process in the Bride of Lammermoor, ch. ix. A 'whinyard' is a 
 stout sword, or knife. The word is probably a corruption of 
 'whinger,' a weapon that gives a whinging or a swinging blow. 
 See Lay, v. 7 : 
 
 "And whingers, now in friendship bare 
 The social meal to part and share. 
 Had found a bloody sheath." 
 Trosachs ("the rough country"). The name given to the 
 district between Lochs Katrine and Vennachar, but more gene- 
 rally limited to the wooded pass which unites Loch Katrine and 
 Loch Achray. 
 
 Close couched. Another instance of the ellipsis noticed in the 
 Introduction. * His ' = ' of him.' .,^ 
 
 Amain = on main. A.S. 'maegen,' power, as in our might 
 and 'main.' The word is connected with 'may,' A.S. 'magan;' 
 the same root as the Greek m^X«P> P'-VX'^' 
 Chiding. Explain the metaphor. 
 
 If 
 
 % 
 
 
38 
 
 The lady 01?* the lake, [canto t. 
 
 Mi 
 
 M 
 
 u 
 
 9. — Closf on the hounds, Src. Cf. I/a?n!et, i. 2 — 
 
 " Ham. I think it was to see my mother's wedding. 
 HoR. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon." 
 
 Stretched his sti(} limbs. The inversion of the accent suits the 
 sound to the idea, 
 
 Woe jvorth the day, 'Worth' is the subjunctive or imperative 
 of an old A.S. verb 'weordhan' (German 'werden,' 'gewor- 
 den') to become, or to come into being, which was still in use 
 in Chaucer's time (Coke's Tale of Ganii'lyn) — 
 
 " Cursed mot he ivorthe bolli fleissch and blood, 
 That ever do priour or abliot ony good." 
 So, in Troilus and Cresseide, he says, that without love 
 
 "No lifes wiht is 7oorlh, or may emUn-e ;" 
 i,e. no living thing has come into being ('ist geworden*). 
 
 The day is in the dative — Woe be to the day. 
 When first thy rein 
 
 I slacked upon the banks of SVine, 
 In the year 1536, when the idea of a marriage with the Prin- 
 cei.s Mary of England was al)andoned, there was great anxiety 
 in Scotland that King James should strengthen himself by an 
 alliance with France. Mary, daughter of tne Duke of Vendome, 
 was chosen as the favoured lady, and commissioners w ere sent 
 over to negotiate the marriage; but James, in the same spirit 
 of knight-errantry which our story illustrates, set off privately 
 for France to see his intended bride. His journey was baulked 
 by contrary winds, and he started again, not privately this time, 
 and reachjjd France in September, 1536. On his arrival he 
 broke off the proposals that had been made, and sued for the 
 hand of Magdalen, the daughter of the king of France (Francis 
 I.). Objections were raised on the ground of her delicate health; 
 but in the following spring the marriage was concluded. The 
 objections however were too well founded; for at Midsummer 
 the king buried the wife that he brought home at Whitsuntide. 
 A year afterwards he married Mary of Guise, whom lie had no 
 doubt seen on this visit. The effects of the visit were not favour- 
 able to the Scottish nobles. The subservience which he had 
 witnessed at the French Court would naturally make him more 
 impatient of the freedom and independence of his own nobility, 
 and on his return he did what he could to curb their power.— 
 Burton, Histoiy of Scotland^ vol. iii. pp. 166-177. 
 
 \O.^Dinglt. (Cf. Milton's ** Dingle, or bushy dell ") A nar- 
 row valley. To ' ding ' is to strike hard, so as lo make a de- 
 pressrti'n (or ' dint '), connected with ' dig.' 
 
 II. — This description of the Trosachs (indeed the whole of 
 the Stag Chase) was written in the midst of the scenery which it 
 
CANTO l.J 
 
 ITOTES— THE CHASfi. 
 
 39 
 
 describes, in Ihe summer of 1809. Nothing is more striking in 
 Sir Walter Scott's poetry than the accuracy and picturesqueness 
 of his descriptions *' lie sees everything with a painter's eye. 
 Whatever he represents has a character of individuality, and is 
 drawn with an accuracy and minuteness of discrimination which 
 we are not accustomed to expect from mere verbal description. 
 It is because Mr. Scott usually delineates those objects with 
 which he is perfectly familiar that his touch is so easy, correct, 
 and animated. The rocks, the ravines, and the torrents which 
 he exhibits are not the imperfect sketches of a hurried traveller, 
 but the finished studies of a resident artist." — Quarterly Review, 
 Mny, J 810. 
 
 Note in this description the prominence of colour, on which 
 characteristic of Scott Mr. Raskin has remarked. {Modem 
 Painters, iii. 278.) The purple peaks, the floods of yf;v, t{ie 
 twinkling dew-drops, the green brier-rose, the pale primrose, the 
 p-ey birch, the iichen-stained rojk, all have their place ; while 
 the form is mostly indefinite, much being left to the reader in 
 turret and cupola and minaret. 
 
 Level ; i.e. horizontal, from the setting sun. 
 Bulwark. German, ' boUwerk,' a rampart or bastion, a work 
 made of trunks of trees (' bol ' cp. elm-tree bole). 
 Huge as the tower, &c. Genesis xi. 1-9. 
 
 Minaret (from an Arabic word signifying a lighthouse), a kind 
 of steeple attached to a mosque, consisting of a tall column 
 ending in a cone ; below the cone is a gallery, from which the 
 muezzin calls the faithful to prayer. 
 
 Pagod, or pagoda (Hindustani 'boot-kudu,' an idol-house), 
 an Indian temple, generally crowned with numerous balls and 
 pinnacles. 
 
 Mosque (Arabic ' masjad '), a Mohammedan temple or house 
 of worship. 
 
 Castles. Note here again how the form is conveyed by a com* 
 parison, which is kept up in the following lines. 
 
 Sheen. German, 'schon;' fair, bright, glistening; or is it a 
 noun? 'dewdrops' sheen,' (= glistening, brightness). 
 Compare with this the description in Polcefiy, ii. 8. 
 " Here trees to every crevice clung, 
 And o'er the dell their branches hung ; 
 And there, all splinter'd and uneven, 
 The shiver'd rocks ascend to heaver. ; 
 Oft, too, the ivy swath <l their breast. 
 And wreathed its garland rt.»*nd tlieir crest^ 
 Or from the spires bode loo..ely flare 
 Its tendrils in the middle air, 
 As pennons wont to wave of old 
 O'er the liigli feast oi Paion. boid." 
 
 
 t 
 
 <:i 
 
1 
 
 40 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [CANTO I. 
 
 ii 
 
 12. — Boon; 'kind,' 'good.' French, 'bon.* 
 
 Eglantine; fiweet-Mer; so calleJ from its spikes. Latin 
 'rtculeus,' French 'aiguille.' 
 
 Foxglove and nightshade, side by side, 
 
 Eniblems of punishment and pride. 
 "The second point I have to note is Scott's habit of drawing a 
 slight moral from every scene, . . . and that this slight moral i? 
 almost always melancholy." — RUSKIN. 
 
 Where glistening streamers 7vaved and danced. Cp. Lay, ii. 8— 
 " Red and bright the streamers light 
 Were dancing in the glowing north." 
 
 13. — Veering (French * virer,' to alter one's direction ; mainly 
 a nautical term), ^'he rocks are boldly supposed to change their 
 course as the traveller does. 
 
 14. — And now to issue from the glen, &c. " Until the present 
 road was made through the romantic pass which I have pre- 
 sumptuously attempted to describe in the preceding stanzas, there 
 was no mode of issuing out of the defile called the Trosachs, 
 excepting by a sort of ladder, composed of the branches and 
 roots of trees." — ScOTT. 
 
 Broom (O. Dutch ' brom,' a bud or young twig), the leafless plant 
 from which besoms (or brooms) are made ; 'bramble' is from the 
 same root. So from Latin 'virga,' a rod or twig, comes 'virgul* 
 turn,' a shrub. 
 
 Sapling. The termination ling is used to form (l) names of 
 men and animals, sometimes with a depreciatory meaning ; e.g. 
 * earthling' — a son of the soil, a serf — ' changeling,' ' worldling ;' 
 (2) diminutives, the young of animals, as 'gosling,' 'duckling,' 
 or young trees, as 'oakling.' But, while it conveys this meaning, 
 it is often attached to words which are not themselves names of 
 any of these, as 'yeanling,' 'nestling,' 'sapling.' 
 
 Ij)ch Katrine (according to Col. Rabertson, "the lake of the 
 battle," in allusion to some prehistoric conflict ; according to Sir 
 W. Scott, the lake of the Catterans, or Highland robber.- : note 
 to Fair Maid of Perth, ch. ii.), a beautiful lake in the Perthshire 
 highlands, east of Ben Lomond. 
 
 Floated amid the livelier light. Cf. Marmion, iv. 30— 
 " The gallant Frith the eye might note, 
 Whose islands on its bosom float 
 Like emeralds chased in gold." 
 
 Ben-ati (said to be a diminutive of 'Ben,' 'the little moun- 
 tain'), north of the Trosachs pass, and separating it from 
 GlenBnlas. 
 
 15. — The key to the stanza is in the last couplet : a sum, 
 
1 
 
 CANTO I.J 
 
 NOTES— THE CHASE. 
 
 41 
 
 tired and hungry, longs for sight of some habitation. At the 
 same time the poet probably intends to indicate James's fondness 
 for society. 
 
 Bugle. Latin 'buculus,' (for 'boviculus,' a diminutive from 
 bos, (Jk /Sor?, our 'beef,' a young ox, steer.) The word is said 
 to be still in use in the south of England. " * Bugle Hotel ' is 
 not an uncommon name, with an ox for sign." " These are the 
 bea«ts which ye shall eat of: oxen, shepe and gootes, hert, roc, 
 and bugle." — Bible, 155 1 ; Dcut. xiv. 'Bugle,' in the modem 
 sense, is short for 'bugle-horn.' 
 
 Bead {A.S. 'bed,' 'gebed,' a prayer), so called because they 
 were used to help the memory in reciting a number of prayers. 
 *' To bulde is to pray, whereof cometh beades, for praiers ; and 
 so they say 'to bidde his beades,' sc. to say his praiers." — 
 Glossary to Shepheard^s Calendar. 
 
 16. — Beshrew. As 'shrew' is evil, so to 'beshrew' is to wisU 
 evil to 
 
 Canopy. Greek Ktuvwir^tov, a bed with mosquito -curtains 
 {k(I}V(ji)\I/, a gnat, mosquito), Latin conopium. Hor. Epod, ix. 16; 
 then, a covering overhead, especially a decorated covering for 
 throne or altar. 
 
 To meet with Highland plunderers here 
 
 Were worse than loss of steed or deer. 
 "The clans who inhabited the romantic reqfions in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Loch Katrine were, even until a late period, much 
 addicted to predatory excursions upon their Low land neighbours." 
 — Scott. 
 
 Falchion. Latin 'falx,' a sickle; a short curved sword: see 
 Stanza 23— „ .j,j^^^ falchion's crooked blade and hilt." 
 
 17. — Wound. To wind a horn is to blow it, to put wind into 
 it. The preterite and past participle follow the analogy of 
 'wind,' to twist. Drayton has '^^ winded horns." Note the 
 exquisite bits of description m tliese two stanzas. 
 
 Naiad. In the Greek mythology all the phases of nature, 
 whether of kindness or anger, sadness or joy, were associated 
 with a spirit or deity underlying and prompting them all. So 
 they had their Dryads^ or nymphs of the woods ; their Oreads^ 
 or nymphs of the mountains \ and their Aaiads, or nymjihs of 
 rivers and fountains and inland lakes. 
 
 18. — ^The three Graces {x'^pnesi) were the attendants of Aphro- 
 dite, and the givers of beauty and favour. 
 
 Measured mood ; i.e. stiff and formal, such as court etiquette 
 requires. 
 
 £'en the slight harebell raised its head^ 
 
 ^.lastic from her airy tread. 
 
 
 m 
 
 '1*1" 
 
 If 
 
 m 
 m 
 
 ilk 
 
I'! 
 
 ||i 
 
 i[i:l 
 
 ii 
 
 4a 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [canto I 
 
 So Ovid of Atalanta — 
 
 " Posse putes illos sicco freta radere pa:esu 
 Et segetis cance stantcs percunere aris>tas." 
 And Virgil of Camilla — 
 
 " Illa'vel intactic segetis per summa volaret 
 Gramina, nee teneras cursu Isesisset aristas." 
 Mountain tongue; i.e. Gaelic. 
 
 19. — Snood. (AS 'snod.') A fillet of ribbon worn bjr 
 maidens in Scotland, as the coif or curch was by married 
 women. Ct. Heart of Mid Lothian, chap. xxii. : — " Tresses of 
 long, fair hair, which, ;.ccording to the costume of the coun- 
 tiy, unmarried women were nt)t allowed to cover with any sort 
 of cap, and which, alas ! Efiie dared no lon^jer confine with the 
 snood or riband, whicli implied purity of maiden fame." It ui 
 worn by Una in Spenser's Faerie Queen, i. 3, 4 — 
 
 " From her faire head her fillet she unvlight." 
 It is the materia/, satin, silk, gold, that proclaims her birth. 
 
 Spirit of the North ; i.e. of Highland blood. 
 
 20. — The silent horn = the horn's silence. 
 754^ maid, alarmed. "The startled maid" (MS.) seems more 
 vigorous. 
 
 Shallop French 'chaloupe,* the same word as 'sloop;' Dutch 
 'sloepe,' from its gliding or slipping through the water. Possibly 
 connected with 'scallop,' as scooped out. 
 
 lVont=vi?,edi. Originally the participle of the old verb ' wone,' 
 to inhabit, and hence to do habitually, to be accustomed (AS. 
 "wunian,' German 'wohnen,' 'gewohnt'). 
 
 •' His woning was ful fayre upon an heth." 
 
 — Chaucer, Sompnoures Tale. 
 ** Out of the ground up rose. 
 As from his lair, the wild beast, where he wones.*' 
 
 — Milton, Paradise Lost, bk. vii. 
 Cp. the ballad of j4Nee Brand, in canto iv — 
 
 " Who 7t'on\l upon the hill." 
 The word is used now only in the participle ; but from it is 
 formed a verb 'to wont,' participle 'wonted.' 
 
 21. — Middle age. James V. was born in 1512, and died in 
 1542, so that this description is not fully applicable. The por- 
 trait drawn here is a fairly accurate one. He was the Haroun 
 Alraschid ot Scotland, though it was rather in search of adven- 
 ture, than in the interests of law and order, that he went about 
 incognito among his people. This fondness however for throwing 
 off state and mixing with his subjects, combined with his love 
 for popular display, quite as much as his curbing the pretensions 
 of the nobles, won him the name of the Commons' King. The 
 
i^ANTO I.] 
 
 NOTES— THE CHASE. 
 
 43 
 
 impulsiveness of his nature, and "the will to do, the soul to 
 dare," are seen in all his history, in the way he threw off the 
 yoke of the Douglas, in his knight-errant voyage to France, in 
 his proceedings against the borderers. 
 
 Frolic. German 'frohlich,' in good humour, joyous. 
 
 Benighted. The prefix 'be' with nouns forms transitive verbs, 
 as 'benight,' ' betroih.' Originally it was the same as the 
 German 'bei,' meaning 'about,' and when compounded with 
 verbs extended their action over the whole of the object ; e.g. 
 'befoul,' 'besmear,' 'bestride,' 'bestrew.' 
 
 22. — A couch was pulled for you. See stanza xxxiii.— 
 "The hall was cleared — the stranger's bed 
 Was there of mountain heather spread." 
 
 A similar primitive mode of entertainment still remnins, as I 
 am told, in Sardinia. When the tables are cleared, rushes are 
 spread upon the floor, as beds for the guests. 
 
 Ptarmigan. (Gaelic ' tarmochan.') The white grouse found 
 in most mountainous districts of Europe. Its summer plumage 
 below the snow line is tawny with black spots. 
 
 Cheer. French 'chere,' the face, look; 'faire bonne chere,' 
 to welcome with kind looks, so to entertain. 
 
 Rood. (A. S.' rod,' German 'rulhe.') Alengthened form of 'rod;' 
 a cross made by one 'rod' laid across another at right angles, and 
 then a crucifix, a cross with the image of the Saviour upon it. 
 So the 'rood '-screen in a church is the screen which supported 
 the crucifix. 
 
 23. — A gray-haired sire, whose eye intent 
 Was on the visioned future bent. 
 ** If force of evidence could authorise us to believe facts incon- 
 sistent with the general laws of nature, enough might be pro- 
 duced in favour of the existence of the second-sight. It is called 
 in Gaelic 'Taishitaraugh,' from 'Taish,' an unreal or shadowy 
 appearance; and those possessed of the faculty are called 
 • Taishatrin,' which may be aptly translated visionaries."— 
 Scott. This gift is the basis of Mr. Campbell's beautiful poem, 
 LochieVs Warning. The following lines describe very well the 
 Highland feeling about it — 
 
 " Lochiel, Lochiel, beware of the day I 
 For, dark and despairing, my sight I may seal; 
 But man cannot cover what God would reveal. 
 'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore. 
 And coming events cast their shadows before." 
 Sir Walter Scott has used it again in the Legend of Montrose, 
 (See chap. v. Allan Macaulay.) Dr. Johnson, in his Tour to the 
 Hebrides^ seems to have found evidence of it which convinced 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 .1 
 
 
 » 
 
44 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [canto i. 
 
 i 
 
 
 III: 
 
 
 
 'I 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 = 1'| 
 
 him; but he was always ready to believe in the supernatural.— 
 Bosivell, V. 122, 179. 
 
 Lincoln green. A cloth used for hunting and foresters' dresSi 
 named from the place oi its manufacture. 
 
 24. — Destined: 
 Erranl-knisht. 
 
 Appointed, fated. 
 ,^v... The knight-errant was — * 
 
 To ride about redressing human wrongs. 
 
 • « « • • 
 
 To love one maiden only, cleave to ler, 
 And worship her by years of noble deeds, 
 Until he won her." 
 
 The nobler side of knight-errantry is seen in many of the legends 
 
 of King Arthur's Round Table ; the extravagance and grotesque- 
 
 ness of it in Don Quixote. 
 Sooth." True. The word survives in 'forsooth,' 'in good 
 
 sooth.' 
 
 Emprise. Enterprise, knightly task. A smile from his lady 
 
 love was the knight's highest reward. 
 
 25. — Winded. See stanza xvii. We should here expect 
 'wound.' 
 
 Here, for retreat in dangerous hour. 
 
 Some chief .had framed a rustic boxver. 
 " The Celtic chieftains, whose lives were continually exposed to 
 peril, had usually, in the most retired spot of their domains, 
 som6 place of retreat for the hour of necessity, which, as circum- 
 stances would admit, was a tower, a cavern, or a rustic hut, in 
 a strong and secluded situation. One of these last gave refuge 
 to the unfortunate Charles Edward in his perilous wanderings 
 after the battle of CuUoden."— Scott. 
 
 26. — Lodge (German ' laube,' an arbour or bower, from *laub,' 
 a leaf). A rustic house, built of trunks and branches of trees, 
 and surrounded with green. 
 
 Strange of structure. The preposition ' of fills the place of 
 the L.atin genitive, and shows the occasion or object in which 
 the quality is shown = strange as regards structure. Sofondof/igs, 
 originally = fond or silly where figs are concerned. Cp. 'swift of 
 foot." dull of heart,' 'slow of speech,' 'mature of age.' Stanza 29. 
 
 Crevice (French 'crevasse,' Latin 'crepo,' to crack). A ' crack,' 
 'chink.' 
 
 Id<eatt vine. ' Vaccinium vilis Idoea, ' the red whortleberry. Ida 
 is a mountain in Crete. 
 
 Vir^n bower. A popular name for the ' clematis vitalba.* 
 
 On heaven and on thy lady call, &c., keeps up the play on the 
 idea of a knight-errant. 
 
 ay. — Store (O.F. 'estorer,' Latin 'instaurare'); ».<?. 'accumu- 
 
 
CANTO I.] 
 
 NOTES— THE CHASE. 
 
 45 
 
 
 lated,' 'abundant.' The word was formerly used as an adjective. 
 "Tlje gold was accumulate and store treasure." — Bacon, Of an 
 Holy War. See again in canto iii. stanza I. 
 
 Brindled. Coloured, or mirked in stripes, streaked. Generally 
 derived from ' brennan,' to burn. 
 
 "Thrice the brinded csX hath mewed." — Macbeth, if. I. 
 
 Bison. Scott evidently intends an animal found in Scotland, 
 probably the wild ox. The bison proper is a wild animal of the 
 ox kind found in North America. 
 
 Pennons (Latin 'penna,' 'pinna,' a feather). A long, narrow flag. 
 
 Dun, (A.S. 'dun.' Cp. German 'dunkel') = L. fuscus, a 
 mixture of brown and black. 
 
 28. — Brook (A.S. 'brucan,' German 'brauchen,' Icel. 'bnSka,' 
 cp. Latin 'frugi,' 'fruor,' O.H.G. 'pruhhan,' a good example 
 of Grimm's law, to eat, digest, enjoy, use). (1) To keep the use 
 of; (2) To endure, submit to. (i) Chaucer — 
 
 " I will sey 
 So mote I brouken well mine eyen twey." 
 These lines, by the chord in James' memory which they touch, 
 strike the key-note of the story. 
 
 Ferragits, or P'errau, a Saracen ; one of the opponents of 
 Orlando in Ariosto's poem, Orlando Furioso. He was alain by 
 him in single combat. His dimensions are taken from English 
 romances. 
 
 Ascabart is one of the heroes of the History of Bevis of Hamp- 
 ton. Sir Bevis and he guarded in effigy one of the gates of 
 Southampton. Note again how the knight -errant notion is 
 kept up by the reference to these heroes of chivalry, and in the 
 "guardian champion." 
 
 29. — /'<?y/, bearing. The Lady Margaret was Ellen's aunt, (ii.13.) 
 Though all unasked his birth and name The Highlanders, 
 who carried hospitality to a punctilious excess, are said to have 
 considered it churlish to ask a stranger his name or lineage before 
 he had taken refreshment. Feuds were so frequent among them 
 that a contrary rule would in many cases have produced the dis- 
 covery of some circumstance which might have excluded the guest 
 from the benefit of the assistance he stood in need of. — ScoTT. 
 The same rigorous hospitality is shown by the Arabs. If a man 
 has once eaten in an Arab tent, though there be a feud of blood 
 between him and his host, he is safe as long as he stays, and is 
 allowed a good start before any pursuit when he departs. 
 
 Lord of a barren heritage. By the misfortunes of the earlier 
 Jameses, and the internal feuds of the Scottish chiefs, the kingly 
 power had become little more than a name. Each chief was a 
 petty king in his own district, and gave just so much obedience 
 to the king's authority as suited his convenience. James IV., 
 
 ^*i;i 
 
 t 
 
 !( 
 

 
 'ii; 
 
 ill 
 
 46 
 
 tHE LADV OF tttE LAKE. fcANTO 1. 
 
 after an unsettled reign, invaded England in 1513, in order, on 
 the one hand, to revenge the capture of some Scotch vessels, 
 alleged by the Engl.sh to have been pirates, and, on the other, 
 to help the French, the old allies of Scotland, in the war they 
 were waging with Henry VIII. The result of the invasion is 
 well known. The "flowers of the forest were a' wede awa'," 
 and James, with all his knights, left dead on the field. Of 
 the confusion that followed, when almost every clan and every 
 estate changed masters, we shall have more to say. (Canto ii. 
 stanza 8.) 
 
 Stahvart (or 'stahvorthe'). A.S. 'staelweorth,' worth taking 
 or stealing; so 'stout,' 'robust,' 'strong.' 
 
 30. — Weird A.S. 'wyrd,' fate, destiny; connected with 
 'weorthan,' German 'werden,' to come to pass. {Urdh is the 
 name of the eldest of the Nornir, or Norse Fates.) So Shake 
 speare call.s his witches in Macbeth the ' weird-sisters,' because 
 they foretell to Macbeth his fate. The same expression is used 
 by Bishop Douglas to translate Virgil's Panic. Hence * weird' 
 has come to mean 'unearthly,' 'supernatural.' The word 'fairy* 
 (stanza 31) is similarly derived from the Latin 'fatum,' 'fataria.* 
 
 31. — The songs in this poem are skilfully interspersed, so as 
 to prevent the metre from becoming monotonous. The metre of 
 this song is trochaic; that is, the accent falls on the former of the 
 two syllaljJes that make the foot, instead of on the second, as in 
 the previous stanzas. The double rhymes are also a pleasing 
 variety. 
 
 Pibroch. "A Highland air, suited to the particular passion 
 which the musician would either excite or assuage ; generally 
 applied to those airs that are played on the bagpipe before the 
 Highlanders when they §;o out to battle. Gaelic ' piobaireachd,* 
 from 'piob,' a pipe." — Jamieson. Sometimes apparently used 
 for the pipe itself. 
 
 Fife, another form of 'pipe' (German 'pfeiffe'). A small 
 shrill pipe or flute. The word is chosen to imitate the military 
 music just mentioned. 
 
 Fallow, originally pale red, or pale yellow. (German 'falb,' 
 French 'fixuve,' A.S. 'falu') 
 
 " His hewe falwe and pale as asschen cold." — Chaucer. 
 Then, from the colour of the soil, applied to land ploughed but 
 not sown, and so generally to land unsown. 
 
 32. — Reveilli. The bugle-call to rouse troops or huntsmen in 
 the morning. 
 
 33. — Noi Ellen*s spell. The position of the negative gives 
 somewhat clumsily the meaning ' not even.' 
 
 iti 
 
•UNTO I.] 
 
 NOTES— THE CHASE. 
 
 47 
 
 Compare with this the opening of Rokeby, i. I— 
 *• She changes as a guilty dream, 
 
 WliCn conscience, with remorse and fear, 
 
 Goads sleeping Fancy's wild career." 
 KvA i. 2 — 
 
 *' Sleep came at length, but with a train 
 
 Of feelings true and fancies vain, 
 
 Mingling, in wild disorder cast, 
 
 The expected future with the past." 
 The suspicion that the sword is that of Douglas has awakened 
 a train of recollections that mingle with the adventures of the 
 day, and disturb his rest. More than once the friends on whom 
 James had relied had proved to be seeking merely their own in- 
 terests, not his ; but we do not gather from history that he ever 
 had the affection for the Douglases which is here attributed 
 to him. 
 
 
 '. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 34. — Gauntlet (French 'gantelct,' diminutive of 'gant,' a 
 glove), a leathern glove covered with plates of iron or steel, 
 forming part of a complete suit of armour. 
 
 Grisly. German '^'rasslich,' A.S. 'grislic;' 'horrible,* 'dread- 
 ful,' 'ghastly.' An archaic word, much used by Chaucer and 
 Spenser. Tliere is a verb 'agrise,' apparently from the same 
 root, meaning 'to shudder,' or 'cause to shudder,' 'terrify' — 
 *• The kinges herte of pitee gan agrise.^' — Man 0/ Lawc^s Tale. 
 
 Uncouth. 'Couth' is the past participle of the verb 'conne,' 
 our 'can' (AS. 'cunnan'); so that ' uncouth ' is 'unknown.' 
 It is explained by Chaucer, in his fondness for coupling English 
 and French words, ' uncouthe and strange.' ' Couthe' or 'cowde* 
 was the preterite, the / in 'cou/d' being apparently due to the 
 false analogy of 'would,' 'should,' where there is an / in the 
 word itself. 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
 t 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 *' 
 
 ^ I 
 
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 i 
 
i I 
 
 TUB LADY OF THE LAKE. 
 
 If 
 
 \i 
 
 CANTO SECOND. 
 
 I. 
 
 AT morn the black-cock trims his jetty wing, 
 'Tis morning prompts the linnet's blithest lay, 
 All Nature's children feel the matin spring 
 
 Of life reviving, with reviving day ; 
 And while yon little bark glides down the bay, 
 
 Wafting the Stranger on his way again, 
 Morn's genial influence roused a minstrel gray. 
 
 And sweetly o'er the lake was heard thy strain, 
 Mixed with the sounding harp, O white-haired Allan-bane \ 
 
 II. 
 SONG. 
 
 * Not faster yonder rowers' might 
 
 Flings from their oars the spray, 
 Not faster yonder rippling bright. 
 That tracks the shallop's course in light. 
 
 Melts in the lake away. 
 Than men from memory erase 
 The benefits of foimer days; 
 Then, Stranger, go ! good speed the while, 
 Nor think again of the lonely isle. 
 
 ' High place to thee in royal court, 
 High place in battle line, 
 
 llf 
 
 m 
 
 
 AS KLLEK, 
 
|l;:! . . 
 
 l!i:: 
 
 *' . 
 
 ] 
 
 1 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto IL 
 
 Good hawk and hound for silvan sport, 
 Where beauty sees the brave resort, 
 
 The honoured meed be thine ! 
 True be thy sword, thy friend sincere, 
 Thy lady constant, kind, and dear, 
 And lost in love and friendship's smile 
 Be memory of the lonely isle. 
 
 in. 
 
 * But if beneath yon southern sky 
 ^ plaided stranger roam, 
 
 Whose drooping crest and stifled sigh, 
 And sunken cheek and heavy eye, 
 
 Pine for his Highland home; 
 Then, warrior, then be thine to shew 
 The care that soothes a wanderer's woe ; 
 Remember then thy hap erewhile, 
 A stranger in the lonely isle. 
 
 * Or if on life's uncertain main 
 
 Mishap shall mar thy sail ; 
 If faithful, wise, and brave in vain. 
 Woe, want, and exile thou sustain 
 
 Beneath the fickle gale ; 
 Waste not a sigh on fortune changed, 
 On thankless courts, or friends estranged, 
 But come where kindred wo th shall smile. 
 To greet thee in the lonely isle.' 
 
 IV. 
 
 As died the sounds upon the tide. 
 The shallop reached the mainland side, 
 And ere his onward way he took. 
 The Stranger cast a lingering look, 
 Where easily his eye might reach 
 The Harper on the islet beach. 
 Reclined against a blighted tree. 
 As wasted, gray, and worn as he. 
 To minstrel meditation given. 
 His reverend brow was raised to heaven. 
 As from the rising sun to claim 
 A sparkle of .inspiring flame. 
 
exNto tt.j 
 
 tHE tsLAM). 
 
 His hand, reclined upon the wire, 
 Seemed watching the awakening fire> 
 So still he sate, as those who wait 
 Till judgment speak the doom of fate; 
 So still, as if no breeze might dare 
 To lift one lock of hoary hair; 
 So still, as life itself were fled, 
 In the last sound his harp had sped. 
 
 V. 
 
 Upon a rock with lichens wild, 
 Beside him Ellen sate and smiled.— 
 Smiled she to see the stately drake 
 Lead forth his fleet upon the lake, 
 While her vexed spaniel, from the beacb^ 
 Bayed at the prize beyond his reach? 
 Yet tell me, then, the maid who knows, 
 Why deepened on her cheek the rose?— 
 Forgive, forgive, Fidelity ! 
 Perchance the maiden smiled to see 
 Yon parting lingerer wave adieu, 
 And stop and turn to wave ar.ow; 
 And, lovely ladies, ere your ire 
 Condemn the heroine of my lyre, 
 Shew me the fair would scorn to spy, 
 And prize such conquest of her eye 1 
 
 i! 
 
 VI. 
 
 While yet he loitered on the spot, 
 It seemed as Ellen marked him not; 
 But when he turned him to the glade. 
 One courteous parting sign she made; 
 And after, oft the knight would say. 
 That not when prize of festal day 
 Was dealt him by the brightest fair, 
 Who e'er wore jewel in her hair, 
 So highly did his bosom swell, 
 As at that simple mute farewell. 
 Now. with a trusty mountain-guide. 
 And his dark stag-hounds by his side^ 
 He parts— the maid, unconscious still, 
 Watched him wind slowly round the Uill^ 
 
 ■ I 
 
i 
 
 SJ THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [canto JJ, 
 
 But when his stately form was hid, 
 
 The guardian in her bosom chid — 
 
 * Thy Malcohii ! vain and selfish maid :* 
 
 'Twas'thus upbraiding conscience said — 
 
 *Not so had Malcolm idly hung 
 
 On the smooth phrase of southern tongue; 
 
 Not so had Malcolm strained his eye, 
 
 Another step than thine to spy. 
 
 Wake, Allan-bane,' aloud she cried, 
 
 To the old Minstrel by her side — 
 
 'Arouse thee from thy moody dream ! 
 
 1 '11 give thy harp heroic theme. 
 
 And warm thee with a noble name ; 
 
 Pour forth the glory of the Graeme!* 
 
 Scarce from her lip the word had rushed, 
 
 When deep the conscious maiden blushed ; 
 
 For of his clan, in hall and bower. 
 
 Young Malcolm Graeme was held the flower. 
 
 vn. 
 
 The Minstrel waked his harp — three times 
 
 Arose the well-known martial chimes. 
 
 And thrice their high heroic pride 
 
 In melancholy murmurs died. 
 
 'Vainly thou bidd'st, O noble maid,' 
 
 Clasping his withered hands, he said — 
 
 'Vainly thou bidd'st me wake the strain. 
 
 Though all unwont to bid in vain. 
 
 Alas ! than mine a mightier hand 
 
 Has tuned my harp, my strings has spanned I 
 
 I touch the chords of joy, but low 
 
 And mournful an3vver notes of woe ; 
 
 And the proud mamh, which, victors tread, 
 
 Sinks in the wailing for the dead. 
 
 O well for me, if mi'ie alqne 
 
 That dirge's deep prophetic tone ! 
 
 If, as my tuneful fatliers said, 
 
 This harp, which erst Saint Modan swayed, 
 
 Can thus its master's fate foretell. 
 
 Then welcome b^ the minstrel's knell 1 
 
CANTO 11.] 
 
 THE ISLAND. 
 
 53 
 
 VIII. 
 
 *But ah! dear lady, thus it sicfhcd 
 
 The eve thy sainted mother died ; 
 
 And such the sounds which, while I strove 
 
 To wake a lay of war or love, 
 
 Came marring all the fest il mirth, 
 
 Appalling me who gave them birth, 
 
 And disobedient to my call, 
 
 Wailed loud through Bothwell's bannered hall, 
 
 Ere Douglases, to ruin driven, 
 
 Were exiled from their native heaven. — 
 
 Oh ! if yet worse mishap and woe, 
 
 My master's house must undergo. 
 
 Or aught but weal to Ellen fair, 
 
 Brood in these accents of despair, 
 
 No future bard, sad Harp! shall fling 
 
 Triumph or rapture from thy string ; 
 
 One short, one final strain shall flow, 
 
 Fraught with unutterable woe, 
 
 Then shivered shall thy fragments lie, 
 
 Thy master cast him down and die I* 
 
 IX. 
 
 Soothing she answered him : 'Assuage, 
 Mine honoured friend, the fears of age ; 
 All melodies to thee are known. 
 That harp has rung, or pipe has blown, 
 In Lowland vale or Highland glen. 
 From Tweed to Spey — what marvel, then 
 At times, unbidden notes should rise. 
 Confusedly bound in memory's ties, 
 Entangling, as they rush along, 
 The war-march with the funeral song?— 
 Small ground is now for bodinsr foar ; 
 Obscure, but safe, we rest us here. 
 My sire, in native virtue great. 
 Resigning lordship, lands, and stat^ 
 Not then to fortune more resigned. 
 Than yonder oak might give the wind 
 The graceful foliage storms may reav<^ 
 The noble stem they cannot grieve. 
 
;'::|i :i 
 
 54 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto :i. 
 
 For me' — she stooped, and, looking round, 
 Plucked a blue hare-bell from the ground — 
 
 * For me, whose memory scarce conveys 
 An image of more splendid days, 
 This little flower, that loves the lea, 
 May well my simple emblem be ; 
 
 It drinks heaven's dew as blithe as rose 
 
 That in the King's own garden grows ; 
 
 And when I place it in my hair, 
 
 Allan, a bard is bound to swear 
 
 He ne'er saw coronet so fair.* 
 
 Then playfully the chaplet wild 
 
 She wreathed in her dark locks, and smiled. 
 
 X. 
 
 Her smile, her speech, with winning sway, 
 Wiled the old harper',s.mood away. 
 With such a look as hermits throw, 
 When angels stoop to soothe their woe, 
 He gazed, till fond regret and pride 
 Thrilled to a tear, then thus replied : 
 
 * Loveliest and best ! thou little know'st 
 The rank, the honours, thou hast lost ! 
 O might I live to see thee grace, 
 
 In Scotland's court, thy birthright place^ 
 To see my favourite's step advance, 
 The lightest in the courtly dance, 
 The cause of every gallant's sigh, 
 And leading star of every eye. 
 And theme of every minstrel's art, 
 The Lady of the Bleeding Heart I' 
 
 XL 
 
 * Fair dreams are these,' the maiden cried 
 (Light was her accent, yet she sighed), 
 
 * Yet is this mossy rock to me 
 AVorth splendid chair and canopy; 
 
 Nor would my footsteps spring more gay 
 In courtly dance than blithe strathspey. 
 Nor half so pleased mine car incline 
 To royal minstrel's lay as thine. 
 And then for suitors proud and high, , 
 f bend before my conquering eye, 
 
CANTO II.] 
 
 THE ISLAND. 
 
 t! 
 
 Thou, flattering bard ! thyself wilt say, 
 That grim l?ir Roderick owns its sway. 
 The Saxon scourge, Clan-Alpine's pride, 
 The terror of Loch Lomond's side, 
 Would, at my suit, thou know'st, delay 
 A Lennox foray — for a day.' — 
 
 XIL 
 
 The ancient bard hlV^lee repressed : 
 
 ' 111 hast thou chosen theme for jest! 
 
 For who, through all this western wild, 
 
 Named Black Sir Roderick e'er, and smiled! 
 
 In Holy-Rood a knight he slew ; 
 
 I saw, when back the diik he drew. 
 
 Courtiers give place before the stride 
 
 Of the undaunted homicide ; 
 
 And since, though outlawed, hath his hand 
 
 Full sternly kept his mountain land. 
 
 Who else dared give — ah ! woe the day, 
 
 That I such hated truth should say — 
 
 The Dou ;las, like a stricken deer, 
 
 Disowned by every noble peer, 
 
 Even the rude refuge we have here? 
 
 Alas, this wild marauding Chief 
 
 Alone might hazard our relief, 
 
 And now thy maiden charms expand, 
 
 Looks for his guerdon in thy hand ; 
 
 Full soon may dispensation sought. 
 
 To back his suit, from Rome be brought. 
 
 Then, though an exile on the hill. 
 
 Thy father, as the Douglas, still 
 
 Be held in reverence and fear; 
 
 And though lo Roderick thou 'rt so dear, 
 
 That thou might'st guide with silken thread, 
 
 Slave of thy will, this chicfiain dread; 
 
 Yet, O loved maid, thy mirth refrain 1 
 
 Thy hand is on a lion's mane.' — 
 
 xin. 
 
 'Minstrel,* the maid replied, and high 
 Her father's soul glanced from her eye, 
 'My debts to Roderick's house 1 know: 
 All that a mother could bestow, 
 fo Lad^ Margaret's care I owe^ 
 
 
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 56 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto n. 
 
 Since first an orphan in the wild 
 She sorrowed o'er her sister's child ; 
 To her brave chieftain son, from ire 
 Of Scotland's king who shrouds my sire, 
 A de'eper, holier debt is owed ; 
 And, could I pay it with my blood, 
 Allan ! Sir Roderick should command 
 My blood, my life — but not my hand. 
 Rather will Ellen Douglas dwell 
 A votaress in Maronnan's cell ; 
 Rather through realms beyond the sea, 
 Seeking the world's cold charity. 
 Where ne'er was spoke a Scottish word, 
 And ne'er the name of Douglas heard, 
 An outcast pilgrim will she rove, 
 Than wed the man she cannot love. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 *Thou shak'st, good friend, thy tresses gray- 
 That pleading look, what can it say 
 But what I own ? — I grant him brave, 
 But wild as Bracklinn's thundering wave; 
 And generous— save vindictive mood. 
 Or jealous transport, chafe his blood : 
 I grant him true to friendly bind, 
 As his claymore is to his hand ; 
 But O ! that very blade of steel 
 No mercy for a foe would feel: 
 I grant him liberal, to lling 
 Among his clan the wealth they bring, 
 . When back by lake and glen they wind, 
 And in the Lowland leave behind, 
 Where once some pleasant hamlet stood, 
 A mass of ashes slaked with blood. 
 The hand that for my father fought, 
 I honour, as his daughter ought ; 
 But can I clasp it reeking red, 
 From peasants slaughtered in their shed? 
 No! wildly while his virtues gleam. 
 They make his passions darker seem. 
 And flasli along his spirit hi^h. 
 Like lightninij o'er the miJaijht sky. 
 
C\NTO II.] 
 
 THE ISLAND. 
 
 S7 
 
 While 1 ct a child — and children know, 
 
 Instinctive taught, the friend and loe- 
 
 I shuddered at his brow of glooin, 
 
 His shadowy p'aid, and sable plume; 
 
 A maiden grown, I ill could l)ca. 
 
 His haughty mien and lordly air: 
 
 But, if thou joinst a suitor's chiim, 
 
 In serious mood, to Rodcrioi^'s name, 
 
 I thrMl with angui h ! or, if o'er 
 
 A Douglas knew the word, with ;ear. 
 
 To change such odious theme were best— 
 
 What think'st thou of our stranger guest ?'- 
 
 Li*'" 
 
 I-,: 
 
 ,*» 
 
 lit 
 si, 
 
 XV. 
 
 *What think I of him?— Woe the while 
 
 That brou.';ht such wanderer to our isle 
 
 Thy fiiher's battle-brand, of yore 
 
 For Tine-man forged by lairy lore, 
 
 What lime he leagued, no lontycr foes, 
 
 His Border sp:ars with Hotspur's bows, 
 
 Did, self-unscabbarded, forcshew 
 
 The footstep of a secret foe. 
 
 If courtly spy hath iiarboured here, 
 
 W! It may we for the Douglas fear.? 
 
 What f • r this island, deemed of old 
 
 Clan-Alpine's last ;ind surest hold.? 
 
 If neither spy nor foe, I pray 
 
 What yet may jealous Roderick say ? 
 
 — Nay, wave not thy disdainful head; 
 
 Bethink thee of the discord dread. 
 
 That kindled when at Ijeltanc game 
 
 Thou ledst the dance with Malcolm (^rnemc; 
 
 .Still, though thy sire the peace renewed. 
 
 Smoulders in Roderick's breast the feud ; 
 
 Beware! — But hark, what sounds are these? 
 
 My dull ears catch no faltering breeze, 
 
 No weeping birch, nor aspens wake, 
 
 Nor breath is dimpling in the lake, 
 
 Still is the canna's hoary beard, 
 
 Yet, by my minstrel faith, I heard— 
 
 And hark again ! some pipe of v,ar 
 
 Sends the bold pibroch from afar.' 
 
 
 H 
 
if '' ': 
 
 ii 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. tcANTO it 
 
 XVL 
 
 Far up the lengthened lake were spied 
 Four darkening specks upon rhe tide, 
 That, slow enlarging on the view, 
 Four manned and masted bar;:;c5 grew, 
 And, bearing downwards from ( ilengylc, 
 Steered full upon the lonely is!c; 
 The point of Brianch.oil they passed, 
 And, to the windw;:rd as they c.isr, 
 Against the sun they gave to shine 
 The bold Sir Roderick's bmnered Pino, 
 Nearer and nearer as they bear, 
 Spear, pikes, and axes flash in air. 
 Now might you see the tartans brave, 
 And plaids and plumage dance and wave; 
 Now see the bonnets sink and rise, 
 As his tough oar the rower plies ; 
 See, flashing at each sturdy stroke, 
 Thevvave ascending into smoke; 
 See the proud pipers on the bow. 
 And mark the gaudy streamers flow 
 From their loud chanters down, and sweep 
 The furrowed bosom of the deep. 
 As, rushing thrrugh the lake amain, 
 They plied the ancient Highland strain. 
 
 XVIL 
 
 Ever, as on they bore, more loud 
 
 And louder rung the pibroch proud. 
 
 At first the sound, by distance tame, 
 
 Mellowed along the waters came, 
 
 And, lingering long by cape and bay, 
 
 Wailed every harsher note away; 
 
 Then bursting bolder on the ear, 
 
 The clan's shrill Gathering they could hcarj 
 
 Those thrilling sounds, that call the might 
 
 Of old Clan-Alpine to the fight. 
 
 Thick beat the rapid notes, as when 
 
 The mustering hundreds shake the glen, 
 
 And hurrying at the signal dread, 
 
 The battered earth returns their tread. 
 
caNto 11.3 
 
 THE ISLAND. 
 
 59 
 
 Then prelude light, of livelier tone, 
 Expressed their merry marching on, 
 Ere peal of closing battle rose, 
 With mingled outcry, shrieks, and blows ; 
 And mimic din of stroke and ward, 
 As broadsword upon target jarred ; 
 And groaning pause, ere yet again 
 Condensed the battle yelled amain, 
 The rapid charge, the rallying shout, 
 Retreat borne headlong into rout, 
 And bursts of triumph, to declare 
 Clan-Alpine's conquest— all were thcro. 
 Nor ended thus the strain ; but slow 
 Sunk in a moan prolonged and low, , 
 And changed the conquering clnrion swell, 
 For wild lament o'er those that fell. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 The war-pipes ceased ; but lake and hill 
 Were busy with their echoes still ; 
 And, when they slept, a vocal strain 
 Bade their hoarse chorus wake again. 
 While loud a hundred clansmen raise 
 Their voices in their Chieftain's praise. 
 Each boatman, bending to his oar. 
 With measured sweep the burden bore, 
 In such wild cadence, as the breeze 
 Makes through December's lenllcss trees. 
 The chorus first could Allan know, 
 'Roderick Vi;h Alpine, ho! iro!' 
 And near, and nearer as they rowed, 
 Distinct the martial ditiy flowed. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 BOAT SONG. 
 
 Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances ! 
 
 Honoured and blessed be the ever-green Pine! 
 Long may the tree, in his banner that glances, 
 Flourish, the shelter and grace of our line I 
 Heaven send it happy dew, 
 Earth lend it sap anew. 
 
 II 
 
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 41 
 
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 60 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [cANTO 11, 
 
 Gaily to bourgeon, and broadly to grow, 
 
 While every Highland glen 
 
 Sends our shout back agen, 
 ' Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho ! ieroe !* 
 
 Ours is no saplinsr, chance-sown by the fountain, 
 
 Blooming at Beltane, in winter to fade ; 
 When the whirlwind has stripped every leaf on themountain, 
 The more shall Clan-Alpine exult in her shade. 
 Moored in the rifled rock, 
 I'roof to the tempest's shock. 
 Firmer he roots him the ruder it blow; 
 Menteith and Breadalbane, then, 
 Echo his praise agen, 
 * Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho ! ieroe I' 
 
 >. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Proudly our pibroch has thrilled in Glen Fruin, 
 
 And Bannochar's groans to our slogan replied: '' 
 Glen Luss and Ross-dhu, they are smoking in ruin, 
 And the best of Loch Lomond lie dead on her side. 
 
 Widow and Saxon maid 
 
 Long shall lament our raid, 
 Think of Clan-Alpine with fear and with woe; 
 
 Lennox and Leven-glen 
 
 Shake when they hear agen, 
 * Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho I ieroe ! ' 
 
 Row, vassals, row, for the pride of the Highlands! 
 
 Stretch to your oars, for the ever-green Pine ! 
 O ! that the rose-bud that graces yon islands, 
 
 Were wreathed in a garland around him to twine ! 
 
 O that some seedling gem, 
 
 Worthy such noble stem, 
 Honoured and blessed in their sha 'ow might growl 
 
 Loud should Clan-Alpine then 
 
 Ring from the deepest glen, 
 'Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe 1* 
 
 XXL 
 
 With all her joyful female band, 
 
 Had Lady Mr.rgarct sought the strand. 
 
 .■ I 
 
 if M 
 
:' i 
 
 CAMTO II.] 
 
 THE ISLAND. 
 
 tfl 
 
 Loose on the breeze their tresses flew, 
 And high their snowy arms they threw, 
 As echoing back with shrill acclaim, 
 And chorus wild, the Chieftain's name; 
 While prompt to please, with mother's ar^ 
 The darling passion of his heart, 
 The Dame called Ellen to the strand, 
 To greet her kinsman ere he land : 
 * Come, loiterer, come ! a Douglas thou, 
 And shun to wreathe a victor's, brow?*— 
 Reluctantly and slow, the maid 
 The unwelcome summoning obeyed. 
 And, when a distant bugle rung, 
 In the mid-path aside she sprung: 
 'List, Allan-bane! From mainland cast, 
 I hear my father's signal blast. 
 Be ours,' she cried, ' the skiff to guide, 
 And waft him from the mountain-side.* 
 Then, hke a sunbeam, swift and bright, 
 She darted to her shallop light, 
 And, eagerly while Roderick scanned, 
 For her dear form, his mother's band, 
 The islet far behind her lay, 
 And she had landed in the bay. 
 
 \^ 
 
 ». .1 J. 
 
 r 
 
 I ; ;',' 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Some feelings are to mortals given, 
 With less of earth in them than heaven? 
 And if there be a human tear 
 From passion's dross refined and clear, 
 A tear so limpid and so meek, 
 It would not stain an angel's chctk, 
 'Tis that which pious fathers shed 
 Upon a f'uteous daughter's head ! 
 And as the Douglas to his breast 
 His darling Ellen closely prcsL^d, 
 Such holy drops her tresses steeped, 
 Though 'twas a hero's eye that wcepcd. 
 Nor while on Ellen's faltering tongue 
 Her filial welcomes crowded hung, 
 Marked she, that fear (affection's proof} 
 Still held a gracelul youth aloof ; 
 
 I 
 
I "* 
 
 'B'l 
 
 : J I' 
 
 ! .< 
 
 3 I.' 
 
 \i 
 
 6S THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto li. 
 
 No! not till Douglas named his name, 
 Although the youth was Malcolm Gramme 
 
 XXI n. 
 Allan, with wistful look the while, 
 Marked Roderick landing on the isle; 
 His master piteously he eyed, 
 Then gazed upon the Chieftain's pride. 
 Then dashed, with hasty hand, away 
 From his dimmed eye the j^athering spra/i 
 And Douglas, as his liand he laid 
 On Malcolm's shoulder, kindly said : 
 'Canst thou, young friend, no meaning spy 
 In my poor follower's glistening eye? 
 I 'II tell thee; he recalls the day, 
 When in my praise he led the lay 
 O'er the arched gate of Bothwell proud, 
 While many a minstrel answered loud, 
 When Percy's Norman pennon, won 
 In bloody licld, before me s^hone, 
 And twice ten knights, the least a name 
 As mighty as yon Chief may claim, 
 Gracing my pc iip, behind me came. 
 Yet trust me, Malcolm, not so proud 
 Was I of all that marshalled crowd. 
 Though the waned crescent owned my mi;;'ht, 
 And in my train trooped lord and knight, 
 Though lilanlyre hymned her holiest lays. 
 And liolh well's bards flung back my praise, 
 , As when this old man's silent tear. 
 And this poor maid's affection dear, 
 A welcome give more kind and true. 
 Than aught my better fortunes knew. 
 Forgive, my friend, a father's boast, 
 01 it out-beggars all 1 lostl' 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Delightful praise!— like summer rose. 
 That brighter in the dew-drop glows. 
 The bashiul maiden's cheek appeared. 
 For Douglas spoke, and Malcolm heard* 
 The flush of shame-faced joy to hide. 
 The hounds, the hawk, her cai-^s divide ; 
 
tANtO Il.j 
 
 THE ISLAND. 
 
 63 
 
 The loved caresses of the maid 
 Ihe dogs with crouch and whimper paid; 
 And, at her whistle, on her hand 
 The falcon took his favourite stand, 
 Closed his dark wing, relaxed his eye, 
 Nor, though unhooded, sought to fly. 
 And, trust, while in such guise she stood, 
 Like fabffed Goddess of the Wood, 
 That if a father's partial thought 
 O'ervvci-jhed her worth, and beauty au3;h^ 
 Well might the lover's judgment fail 
 To balance with a juster scale ; 
 For with each secret glance he stole, 
 The fond enthusiast sent his soul. 
 
 u* 
 
 ^:!< 
 
 't 
 
 
 w 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Of stature tall, and slender frame, 
 
 IJut firmly knit, was Malcolm Cira^mc 
 
 The belted plaid and tartan hose 
 
 Did ne'er more graceful limbs disclose; 
 
 His flaxen hair, of sunny hue, 
 
 Curled closely round his bonnet blue. 
 
 Trained to the chase, his Ciigle eye 
 
 The ptarmigan in snow could spy: 
 
 Each pass, by mountain, lake, and heath. 
 
 He knew, through Lennox and Menteith. 
 
 Vain was the bound of dark-brown doe, 
 
 When Malcolm bent his sounding bow, 
 
 And scarce ihat doe, though winged with fear. 
 
 Outstripped in speed the mountaineer: 
 
 Right up Ben Lomond could he press. 
 
 And not a sob his toil confess. 
 
 His form accorded with a mind 
 
 Lively and ardent, frank and kind; 
 
 A blither heart, till Ellen came. 
 
 Did never love nor sorrow tame ; 
 
 It danced as lightsome in his breast, 
 
 As played the feather on his crest. 
 
 Yet friends, who nearest knew the youth, 
 
 His scorn of wrong, his zeal for truth, 
 
 And bards, who saw his features bold, 
 
 When kindled by the tales of old* 
 
I 
 
 
 
 
 tllE LADY OF THE LAKK. [canto tt 
 
 Said, were that youth to maiihtiod grown, 
 Not long should Roderick Dhu's icnown 
 Be foremost voiced by mountain fame, 
 But quail to that of iMalcolm Grasmc. 
 
 I!rl ,1 
 
 I i. 
 
 hi' 
 
 i l« 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Now back they wend their watery v/ay, 
 And, 'O my sire!' did lillcn say, 
 *Why urge thy chase so far astray? 
 And why so late returned? And why' — 
 The re:5t was in her speaking eye. 
 *My child, the chase I follow far, 
 'Tis mimicry of noble war; 
 And with that gallant pastime reft 
 Were all of Douglas I have left. 
 I met young Malcolm as I strayed 
 Far eastward, in Glenfinlas' shade, 
 Nor strayed I safe; for, all around, 
 Hunters and horsemen scoured the ground. 
 This youth, though still a royal ward, 
 Risked life and land to be my guard, 
 And through the passes of the wood 
 Guided my steps, not unpursued; 
 And Roderick shall his welcome make, 
 Despite old spleen, for Dou'^las' sake. 
 1 hen must he seek Strath-Endr'ck glen, 
 Nor peril aught for me agen.' 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Sir Roderick, who to meet them came, 
 Reddened at sight of Malcolm Gramme, 
 \<.., not in action, word, or eye. 
 Failed aught in hospitality. 
 In talk and sport they whiled away 
 The morning of that summer day j 
 But at high noon a courier light 
 Held secret parley with the kftight. 
 Whose moody aspect soon declared. 
 That evil were the news he heard. 
 Deep thought seemed toiling in his head ; 
 Yet was the evening banquet made, 
 
?i 
 
 CANTO II. 1 
 
 THE ISLAND. 
 
 6S 
 
 Ere he assembled round the flame, 
 His mother, Doucrlas, and the CInrmc, 
 And Ellen, too; then cast around 
 His eyes, then fixed them on the ground, 
 As studying- phrase that miglU avail 
 Best to convey unpleasant tale. 
 Long with his dagger's hilt he played, 
 Then raised his haughty brow, and said : 
 
 XXVI H. 
 
 * Short be my speech ; nor time affords, 
 
 Nor my plain temper, glozing wdrds. 
 
 Kinsman and father — if such name 
 
 Douglas vouchsafe to Roderick's claim ; 
 
 Mine honoured mother: Ellen — why, 
 
 My cousin, turn away tliinc eye ? — 
 
 And Gra^-ne ; in whom I hope to know 
 
 Full soon a noble friend or foe, 
 
 When age shall give thee thy command. 
 
 And leading in thy native land — 
 
 List all ! — the King's vindictive pride 
 
 Boasts to have tamed the Border-side, 
 
 Where chiefs, with hound and hawk who came 
 
 To share their monarch's silvan game, 
 
 Themselves in bloody toils were snared; 
 
 And when the banquet they prepared. 
 
 And wide their loyal portals flung, 
 
 O'er their own gateway struggling hung. 
 
 Loud cries their blood from iMeggat's mead. 
 
 From Yarrow braes, and banks of Tweed, 
 
 Where the lone streams of Ettrick glide, 
 
 And from the silver Teviot's side; 
 
 The dales, where martial clans did ride, 
 
 Are now one sheep-walk, waste and wide. 
 
 This tyrant of the Scottish throne, 
 
 So faithless, and so ruthless known. 
 
 Now hither comes ; his end the same. 
 
 The same pretext of silvan game. 
 
 What grace for Highland Chiefs, judge yc. 
 
 By fate of Border chivalry. 
 
 Yet more ; amid Glenfinlas green, 
 
 Douglas, thy stately form was seen. 
 
 r 
 
 i4< 
 
 
■>l I, 5 
 
 M 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto IL 
 
 This by espial sure I know; 
 Your counsel in the strcicrht I 
 
 shew/ 
 
 %' '■ 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Ellen and Margaret fearfully 
 Sought comfort in each other's eye, 
 Then turned their ghastly look, each one, 
 This to her sire, that to her son. 
 The hasty colour went andrcanie 
 In the bold cheek of Malcom Gri^me; 
 15ut from his glance it well appeared, 
 'Twas but for Ellen that lie feared ; 
 While, sorrowful, but undismayed. 
 The Douglas thus his counsel said : 
 * Brave Roderick, thoug i the tempest ro::r, 
 It may but thunder anc. pass o'er; 
 Nor will I here remain an hour, 
 To draw the lightning on thy bower ; 
 For well thou know'st, at this gray head 
 The royal bolt were fiercest sped. 
 For thee, who, at thy king's command, 
 Canst aid him with a gallant band. 
 Submission, homage, humbled pride, 
 Shall turn the Monarch's wr.ith aside. 
 Poor remnants of the Bleeding Heart, 
 Ellen and I will seek, apart, 
 The refuge of some forest cell, 
 There, like the hunted quarry, dwell, 
 Till on the mountain and the moor, 
 The stern pursuit be passed and o'er.*— 
 
 m 
 
 XXX. 
 
 *No, by mine honour,' Roderick said, 
 
 * So help me, Heaven, and my good blade! 
 
 No, never! Blasted be yon Pine, 
 
 My father's ancient crest and mine, 
 
 If from its shade in danger part 
 
 The lineage of the Bleeding Heart! 
 
 Hear my blunt speech : grant me this maid 
 
 To wife, thy counsel to mine aid ; 
 
CANTO II.] 
 
 THE ISLAND. 
 
 67 
 
 H 
 
 To Douglas, Icir^ucd with Rodori-.k Dhu, 
 
 Will iricnUs ana allies Hock cncnv ; 
 
 Like cause of doubt, distrust, and j^ricf, 
 
 Vv'ill bind to us each Western Ciiief. 
 
 When the luud pipes my bridal ti-ll, 
 
 The links of I'Oitli shall hear the knell, 
 
 The guards shall start m Siirling's porch; 
 
 And, when I light the nupUal torch, 
 
 A thousand villages in ilanies, 
 
 Shall scare the slumbers of King James! 
 
 —Nay, Ellen, blench not thus i- way ; '; .. 
 
 And, mother, cease these signs, 1 pray; '. . 
 
 I meant not all niy heart might say. — 
 
 Small need of inroad, or of light, 
 
 When the sage Douglas may unite 
 
 Each n-,ountain clan in friendly band, 
 
 To guard : he passes of their land, 
 
 Till the foiled king, from pathless glen, 
 
 Shall bootless turn him home agen.* 
 
 XXX L 
 
 There are who have, at midnight hour, 
 
 In slumber scaled a dizzy tower, 
 
 And, on the verge that beetled o'er 
 
 The ocean tide's incessant roar, 
 
 Dreamed calmly out their dangerous drer.ra, 
 
 Till wakened by the morning beam; 
 
 When, dazzled by the eastern glow, 
 
 Such startler cast his glance below, 
 
 And saw unmeasured depth around, 
 
 And heard unintermitted sound, 
 
 And thought the battled fence so frail, 
 
 !t waved like cobweb in the gale; 
 
 Amid his senses' giddy wheel, 
 
 Did he not desperate impulse feel, 
 
 Headlong to plunge hmiself below, 
 
 And meet the worst his fears foreshew?— 
 
 Thus, Ellen, dizzy and astound, 
 
 As sudden ruin yawned around, 
 
 By crossing terrors wildly tossed, 
 
 Still for the Douglas fearing most, 
 
 Could scarce the desperate thought withstand; 
 
 To buy his safety with her hand. 
 
 .1'^ 
 
 ii 
 
 I 
 
 ll 
 f 
 
 I 
 
! fi 
 
 68 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto il 
 
 i\ 
 
 ' - I Us 
 
 l« 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 Such purpose dread could Malcolm spy 
 
 In Ellen's (luiverin.Lf lip and eye, 
 
 And ca;er ruse to speak — but ore 
 
 Hia tongue could hurry forth his fear, 
 
 Had Douglas marked the hectic strife, 
 
 Where death sccMiied combating with life; 
 
 For to her cheek, in feverish flood, 
 
 One instant rushed the throbbing blood, 
 
 Then ebbing back, wiiii sudden sway. 
 
 Left its domain as wan as clay. 
 
 'Roderick, enough ! enough!' he cried; 
 
 * My daughter cannot be thy bride; 
 
 Not that the blush to wooer dear. 
 
 Nor paleness that of maiden fear. 
 
 It may not be— forgive her, Chief, 
 
 Nor hazard aught for our relief. 
 
 Against his sovereign, Douglas ne'er 
 
 \Vill level a rebellious spear. 
 
 'Twas I that taught his youthful hand 
 
 To rein a steed and wield a brand; 
 
 I see him yet, the princely boy ! 
 
 Not Ellen moie my pride and joy; 
 
 I love him still, despite my wrongs, 
 
 P.y hasty wrath, and slanderous tongues, 
 
 O seek the grace you well may find, 
 
 V\/ithout a cause to mine combined' 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Twice through the hall the Chieftain strode! 
 The waving of his tartans broad, 
 And darkened brow, where wounded pride 
 With ire and disappointment vied. 
 Seemed, by the torch's gloomy light, 
 Like the ill Demon of the night, 
 Stooping his pinions' shadowy sway 
 Upon the nighted pilgrim's way : 
 But, unrequited Love! thy dart 
 Plunged deepest its envenomed smart, 
 And Roderick, with thine anguish stung, 
 At length the hand of Douglas wrung, 
 
 I 
 
 
CANTO II.] 
 
 THE ISLAND. 
 
 69 
 
 While eyes, that mocked at tears before, 
 With bitter drops were running o'er. 
 The death-pan;4s of long-cherished hope 
 Scarce ir that ample breast had scope, 
 But, struggling with his spirit proud, 
 Convulsive heaved its cliequercd shroud, 
 While every sob — so mute were all — 
 Was heard distinctly through the hall. 
 The son's despair, the mother's look, 
 111 might the gentle Ellen brook ; 
 She rose, and to her side there came. 
 To aid her parting steps, the Grsemc. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 Tlien Roderick from the Douglas broke — 
 As flashes flame through sable smoke, 
 Kindling its wreaths, long, dark, and low^ 
 To one broad blaze of ruddy glow. 
 So deep the anguish of despair 
 Burst, in fierce jealousy to air. 
 With stalwart grasp his hand he laid 
 On Malcolm's breast and belted plaid : 
 'Back, beardless boy!' he sternly said; 
 
 * Back, minion ! hold'st thou thus at nought 
 The lesson I so lately taught.? 
 
 This roof, the Douglas, and that maid, 
 Thank thou for punishment delayed.* 
 Eager as greyhound on his game, 
 Fiercely with Roderick grappled Graeme. 
 
 * Perish my name, if aught afford 
 Its Chieftain safety save his sword!' 
 Thus as they strove, their desperate hand 
 Griped to the dagger or the brand, 
 
 And death had been — but Douglas rose. 
 And thrust between the struggling foes 
 His giant strength : * Chieftains, forego! 
 I hold the first who strikes, my foe. — 
 Madmen, forbear your frantic jar! 
 What ! is the Douglas fallen so far, 
 His daughter's hand is doomed the spoil 
 Of such dishonourable broill' 
 
 I' •*.! 
 
 '* Ml 
 
 :l 
 
 
10 
 
 tllE LADV of the lake. tcANTo it. 
 
 il II 
 
 1 ^ 
 
 Ni 
 
 
 ^ Sli 
 
 ll 
 
 
 Sullen and slowly, they unclasp, 
 
 As struck with shame, their desperate grasp, 
 
 And each upon his rival glared. 
 
 With foot advanced, and blade half bared. 
 
 Xxxv. 
 
 Ere yet the brands aloft were flung, 
 Margaret on Roderick's mantle hung, 
 And Malcohn heard his Ellen's scream. 
 As faltered through terrific dream. 
 Then Roderick plunged in sh^-'th his sword. 
 And veiled his wrath in scorr j1 word. 
 
 * Rest safe tiil morning ; pity 'twere 
 Such cheek should feel the midnight air! 
 Then mayest thou to James Stuart tell, 
 Roderick will keep the lake and fell. 
 Nor lackey, with his freeborn clan, ' 
 The pageant pomp of earthly man. 
 More would he of Clan-Alpine know. 
 Thou canst our strength and passes shew.— 
 Malise, what ho!* — his henchman came; 
 
 * Give our safe-conduct to the Graeme.' 
 Young Malcolm answered, calm and bold; 
 
 * Fear nothing tor thy favourite hold ; 
 The spot an angel deigned to grace, 
 
 Is blessed, though robbers haunt the plac& 
 Thy churlish courtesy for those 
 Reserve, who fear to be thy foes. 
 As safe to me the mountain way 
 At midnight as in blaze of day, 
 Though with his boldest at his back. 
 Even Roderick Dhu beset the track- 
 Brave Douglas — lovely Ellen — nay, 
 Nought here of parting will I say. 
 Earth does not hold a lonesome glen, 
 So secret, but we meet agen. — 
 Chieftain ! we too shall find an hour — * 
 He said, and left the silvan bower, 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 Old Allan followed to the strand 
 (Such was the Douglas's command), 
 
CANtO U.] 
 
 fnt ISLANi5. 
 
 U 
 
 And anxious told, how, on the morn, 
 
 The stern Sir Roderick deep had sworn, 
 
 The Fiery Cross should circle o'er 
 
 Dale, glen, and valley, down and moor; 
 
 Much were the peril to the Gramme, 
 
 From those who to the si<;nal came; 
 
 Far up the lake 'twere safest land, 
 
 Himself would row him to the strand. 
 
 He fjave his counsel to the wind. 
 
 While Malcolm did, unheeding, bind. 
 
 Round dirk and pouch and broadsword rolled. 
 
 His ample plaid in ti'^htened fold, 
 
 And stripped his limbs to such array, 
 
 As best might suit the watery way— 
 
 |!| 
 
 i\ 
 
 « 
 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Then spoke abrupt : * Farewell to thee, 
 Pattern of old fidelity!* 
 The Minstrel's hand he kindly pressed— 
 * O ! could I point a place of rest ! 
 My sovereign holds in ward my land, 
 My uncle leads my vassal band ; 
 To tame his foes, his friends to aid. 
 Poor Malcolm has but heart and blade. 
 Yet, if there be one faithful Grasme, 
 Who loVes the Chieftain of his name, 
 Not long shall honoured Douglas dwell. 
 Like hunted stag, in mountain cell; 
 Nor, ere yon pride-swollen robber dare— ■ 
 I may not give the rest to air! 
 Tell Roderick Dim, I owed him nought, 
 Not the poor service of a boat. 
 To waft me to yon mountain side/ 
 Then plunged he in the flashing tide; 
 Bold o'er the flood his head he bore, 
 And stoutly steered iiim from the shore j 
 And Allan strained his anxious eye, 
 Far 'mid the lake his form to spy. 
 Darkening across each puny wave, 
 To which the moon her silver gave. 
 Fast as the cormorant could skim. 
 The swimmer plied each active limb ; 
 
 % 
 
 V. 
 
 'l,! 
 
 .f*i;i 
 
 c 
 
 ««l,' 
 
 
 ■I 
 
 
.,: I. 
 
 fH THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto it 
 
 Then landinjj In the moonlight clcll, 
 Loud shouted of his weal to tell. 
 The Minstrel heard the far halloo, 
 And jo'yful from the shore withdrew. 
 
 A. W. MACAL.ISTUK AS RUDEtClCK DHL. 
 
IM 
 
 'I 
 
 i\] 
 
 NOTES 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 The stranger, who has announced himself as "the knight of 
 Snovvdoun, James Fitz-James," leaves the island in the early 
 morning. The old minstrel speeds him on his way with a song 
 of farewell, and Ellen watches his departure with an interest for 
 which she soon reproaches heri,-elf, as implying disloyalty to her 
 lover, Malcolm Gncuie. She calls upon the old man to sing her 
 Malcolm's praises ; but Allan has not forgotten the fallen sword 
 of yesternight : it is to him an omen of evil. He attempts in 
 vain a joyous strain ; involuntarily he touchiis but chords of woe. 
 The maiden tries to assuage his fears by a more cheerful view of 
 their fortunes ; for she can hardly remember the proud days 
 which he regrets. But Allan's discernment sees a new danger 
 to her peace which she has not yet suspected : the rough "hief 
 whose hosiMtality now shelters them is hoping for his reward 
 in his cousin's liand. Besides this, he suspecis this stranger 
 guest ; his coming can bring no good. Their conversation is 
 interrupted by the sounds of music, and the proud piijroch, fol- 
 lowed by a vigorous " Boat Song," introduces us to tliis rough 
 Cdusin, Roderick the Black, on his return from a Lowland raid. 
 His mother, with her maids, comes down to welcome him. 
 Ellen, who, with her e>os opened, is unwi.Iing to do aught that 
 may seem to favour his suit, is reluctantly following, when she 
 hears her father's buglc-horn, and darts aside to her skiff to 
 ft)nvey him from the mainland. With him comes Malcolm 
 Grceme, who has been his guide, and who is no welcome guest 
 to Roderick, though he does not fail in hospitality. Roderick 
 receives news of a suspicious gathering of the king's forces, and 
 of the discovery of Douglas's retreat. The latter jiroposes to 
 withdraw, and so save his host from peril ; but Roderick seizes 
 the opportunity of making his proposal for his cousin's hand. 
 With the Douglas by his side, he may set the king at defiance. 
 Douglas watches its ell'ect upon his daughter, and, seeing that 
 "lier affections do not that way tend," courteously declines the 
 ofier. Ellen, unalile to bear the sigiit of her cousin's desi)nir, 
 rises to leave the room, and Malcolm has the bad taste to come 
 forward, as of right, to be her escort. Roderick cannot brook 
 
 i 
 
 •i 
 
 
 'Iff 
 
 'Si: 
 
 t 
 
74 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto IL 
 
 s 
 
 this parade of successf.il rivalry, and a somewliat unseemly en- 
 counter follows, which f'nds in Malcolm swimming across to the 
 mainland rather than be indel)ted to his rival. 
 
 The triumphal arriv il of Roderick is tlie only part of thii 
 canto wliicli requires special notice. 
 
 It appears at fust si.c;ht as if the action of the poem and the 
 development of the plot were not much advanced in this canto ; 
 but a more minute examination will show that this is not the 
 case. In the first place, some of the mystery of the previous canto 
 is removed, and we learn in the most natural way the former 
 grandeur of the Douglas family, and their presi-nt outlawry ; the 
 character of their protector, and his hoj^es of reward. Our in- 
 terest in the fallen house is increased hy the noble contentment 
 with which they bear their change of fortune. Complaint comes 
 from the minstrel, not from Ellen or her father. The latter finds 
 greater happiness in lis daughter's truth and affection than in his 
 former pomp, and is iirei)ared rather to fiice fresh ills as an out* 
 cast than to raise his hand a.^jainst the king, who has done him 
 ■wrong, but whom still he loves. In all this the poet shows much 
 skill. Fjrst he interests us in his characters, and then lets us 
 know so much of their former history as is nccessar; for the 
 understanding of the poem. And note that he tells us this, not 
 in his own person, but incidentally in a conversation between 
 Ellen and Allan Bane, the motive for which is very simply 
 prepared. 
 
 Secondly, the avowed savacjery of the raifl described in the 
 Boat Son.j gives us the motive of the gathering of the king's 
 forces, and prevents our feeling too great a sympathy with 
 Roderick, whose bravery, added to his misfortune in love, 
 cannot but attract us. 
 
 S^(7HZ7 2. — Trachs ; i.e. marks the track of. 
 
 Note how the inversion of th.e accent in the second and fifth 
 lines of this stanza ('flings' ai^d 'melts') expresses the rapidity 
 imi)lied in the words. 
 
 'J /lan men fro'n memory era.ie 
 
 The benefits of fi)rmer days. 
 It is evident that the old bard, with his second-sight, has a 
 glimmering notion who the stranger is. He speaks below of 
 "courtly spy," and James'sspeech had betrayed a knowledge of 
 the Douglas. 
 
 Meed (A.S. 'mcd,' German 'micthe,' Greek ixL(jOh%)\ reward. 
 
 3. — Plnided (Gaelic 'plaide,' a blanket). Th.e plaid was 
 properly the dress of a Hii;hlovdei\ tlu)!igh it was worn also in 
 the Lowlands. (So in Scott's ballad, Clenfinlas: "Their simple 
 drcas, the lli^Jdand plaid.'^) " Their plaid consists of twelve or 
 
CANTO II.] NOTES— THE ISLAND. 
 
 75 
 
 1« 
 
 the 
 
 thirteen yards of a narrow stuff, wrapt round the middle, and 
 reaches to the knees : is often fnstened round tlfe middle with a 
 belt ; but in cold weather is huge enoiiyh to wrap round the 
 whole body, from head to feet ; and this is often their only cr-vcr, 
 not only within doors, but on the open hills, during the whole 
 night."— Pennant's Toitr in Scothmd. 
 
 Hap, from the Welsh (luck, fortune), is the same as the 
 Saxon 'luck,' German 'gliick.' Tlie two synonyms have parted 
 from each other. A man is 'lucky' in his outward fortuues, but 
 'happy' in his inward feelings. ' 
 
 4. — "This picture is touched with the hand of a true poet" 
 —Jeffrey. 
 
 5. — The contrast between the minstrel's gloom and Ellen's 
 cheerfulness is very well brought out. 
 fleet; i.e. his brooil, sailing over the waters. 
 
 6. — In hall and bmver; i.e. among men for his bravery and 
 among ladies for his g.illantry 'Bower' (AS. 'bur,' from 
 'buan,' to build; Welsh 'bwr'), an enclosure, private chamber, 
 is specially applied to the ladies' apartments in a house. So 
 Tennyson of Godiva — 
 
 " Then fled she to her inmost bozver, and there 
 ' Unclasped the wedded eagles of her belt." 
 Lay of La't Minstrel, i. I — 
 
 "The feast w.is over in Branksomc tower 
 And the ladye had gone to her secret bmver." 
 
 7. — well for me, if mine alone, &c. ; i.e. if it is an omen of 
 misery or death to me alone. 
 
 Saint Modan. An abbot in Scotland in the seventh century. 
 His festival was kept on February 4th. 
 
 8. — Bothwell. A Norman castle on the Clyde, in Lanarkshire, 
 about nine miles ai)ove Glasgow. It was th.; home of the elder 
 branch of the Douglasses, as Tantallon was of the younger. 
 (See next note) t"p. Mnrmion, v. 14 — 
 
 *' The same who left the dusky vale 
 Of Hermitage in Liddesdale, 
 
 Its dungeons and its towers; 
 Where Bothwell's tuircts brave the air^ 
 And Bothwell bank is blooming fair, 
 To fix his princely l}C»rVe|j." 
 Ere Doti^s^lasses, to ruin driven. 
 Were exiled from their native heaven. 
 
 The family of the Douglas had for a long time been the most 
 popular and influential in Scotland. They owed this in part to 
 
 •I 
 
 If 
 
 \\ 
 
 
 tXW 
 
 i 
 
 ■ A 
 
 « 
 
 % 
 
 
1 1 
 
 7* 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [CANTO II. 
 
 the eNf<^nt of their possessions; but more still to the fact that 
 
 tiu;ir name was i Iciuified with the cause of Scottisli independ* 
 eiicc. 1 iijy were ;\ family native to the soil, or at any rate 
 firmly sctlled in the country before the Norman adventurers 
 crowdcil in." Tiie Domains was the first to throw himself into 
 tiie national cause as a follower of Wallace The good Sir 
 Jiimcs wns the ^ood King Robert's rij;ht-hand man. The 
 achicvonn '.its of the hero of Otterburn would alone have made 
 a navnt- illistrious, and the smaller affairs, in which it was ever 
 a Doii^lr.s thai was the victorious champion of Scotlani, were 
 countless lUit ihere was another cause which made them 
 especially formidable to the house of Stewart. They we e, in 
 tiie popular hclicf as to their jiedigree, the rightful heirs to the 
 crown. In the ili<]nUes as to the succession, which followed on 
 the death of the Maid of Norway in I2<)0, and which are 
 famous i.i history a.i i;iviiig occasion to our Edward L to claim 
 feudal sovercigmy over Scotland, the final decision lay between 
 two com elitors, John de baliol and Robert de liruce, grand- 
 father of the hero of Bannockburn. They both claimed as 
 descendants of D.ivid, Earl of Huntingdon, brother of King 
 William (called the Lion, died 1214), whose line was e.\tinct. 
 B>iliol was desceihlcd from an elder daughter, liruce from a 
 younger, but was one generation nearer to the common ancestor. 
 Baliol's claim was prelened, and it was laid down as a rule that 
 the descendants of the elder child must be exhausted before the 
 younger could succeed. Hence the tide of the Bruce was im- 
 perlcct as Ion:; as there were any heirs of the elder branch alive. 
 The Red Comyn, whom Robert Bruce slew in the church at 
 Dumfries, was on this princij le die next heir to the throne after 
 the Baliols. His right — v.Iiich by this time was complete, the 
 Baliol line being extinct — was believed to have pns.ied by 
 marriage to the iiouse of Douglas, and thus the Stewarts, who 
 inherited from the liruces or younger branch, had every reason to 
 check their iiower whenever tliey could. The dealings of the Black 
 Douglas with the Percies, and his attitude towards Robert HL 
 (^ee Fair Maid of l\'rth) show how ill they bore dependence on 
 the crown; and the hisiory of the earlier Jameses is that of a 
 series of struggles with these too powerful vassals. The judicial 
 murder of the two reinesentatives of the family in 1439, and 
 the murder of William of Douglas by the king himself in 1452, 
 led to a civil war, which James H. could only end by bringing 
 into prominci?ce a younger and rival branch of the same house, 
 the house of .\ngus. In this branch the fortunes of the family 
 were revived. In the reign of Jaines HL Archibald Douglas 
 (surnamed Bdl the Cat) is llie leader in the attack on the king's 
 favourites (see A/armion, v. 18), and in the following reign the 
 same carl is conspicuous by his boldness in dissuading the king 
 
CANTO II.] NOTES— Tin: ISLAND. 
 
 77 
 
 from the expedition which enclcrl so fatnlly at FlocMen {1513). 
 His two sons were slain in that l)atlle, and on his dea'h in 1514 
 he was succeeded hy his {grandson, the sixth earl of Ai>;,'us, who 
 was soon afterwards married to tlie queen-dowager. Animus came 
 into collision with the regent Albany, when the latter brought 
 forces from France to maintain his power, and was carried off to 
 France. He returned first to England, and then, on Albany's 
 departure, reappeared as one of the council of Regency in 
 Scotl.ind. After a second banishment, prolonged by his wife's 
 intrigues, he returned to Scotland in 1525, and in the following 
 year was chosen by the king, with the Lords Argyle and Errol, 
 to he his guardian. Each was to have the custody of the king 
 for three months; but at (he end of that time Angus refused to 
 part with him, and for two years kept him practically a prisoner, 
 ruling in the meantime in his name. But in Mr.y, 1528, during 
 his absence, tlic king managed, with the help of two grooms, to 
 escape from Falkland, and found refuge in Stirling Castle. 
 Angus s iw that his day was over, and lied to Tantallon (see 
 Mannion, canto v.), which was twice besieged before it was 
 taken. Angus and all his adherents were prohibited from 
 coming within six miles of the royal presence, and his estates 
 were forfeited. By this means a large force was, as it were, 
 sul).sidised against him. Angus then fled to England.— Burton, 
 History of Scotland, vols. ii. and iii. The Dougl s of the poem 
 is an imaginary person, a supposed uncle of the Earl of Angus. 
 Fraught. The same word as ' freight.' (French ' fret,' Low 
 Latin 'frettare,' from O. II. German 'frelit,' conveyance.) It 
 was formerly used as a verb and as a noun in the same sense ; but 
 is now n=;ed only as an adjective or participle in a metaphorical 
 sense. We say ' fraught ' {i.e. laden) with disaster, but not a ship 
 'fraught' with cotton. 
 
 " These marchaunts han don fraught hir shippes newe " 
 
 — Chaucer, Man of Lowe's Tale. 
 
 "Their ships had their full /ra«^^/." — Holland's Livy. 
 " Memory have its ixHA. fraught." 
 
 — Milton, Apology for Sviecfymnuus. 
 So Shakespeare has fra ug/if age. — Comedy of Errors^ iv. 2. 
 Conversely, freighted W7i% once used metaphorically. "Martius 
 went home to his house full frighted with spite and malice 
 against the people." — North's Plutarch. 
 
 9. — Spey. A river which rises in the west of Scotland, in 
 Inve ness-shire, and flows in a north-easterly direction across the 
 countiy into the North Sea. *' From Tweed to Spey" is there- 
 fore put for " Through the length of Scotland." 
 
 Reave (A.S 'reafian,' German 'rauben,' Latin 'rapio'). To 
 * strip,' 'tear away,' *rob;' so to 'bereave* is 'to strip from 
 
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tllE LAt>Y OF tHE LARE. [canto It. 
 
 all round,' * to strip utterly. ' 'Reiver,' * reiving,' are comnlon 
 in Scotland for 'robber,' 'robbciy.* 
 
 ** He slew and raft the skinne of the lioun." 
 
 — Chaucer, ilA;«>6'j Tb/A 
 ' " Next we reave thy sword, 
 And give thee armless to thy enemies " 
 — Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of Malta, v. 
 Lea (A.S. ' leag'). *Zfly/-Iand ;' i.e. land laid up from present 
 use, or left untilled; so 'pasture-land.' 
 •' Let wife and land 
 Lie lay till I return." 
 — ^Beaumont and Fletcher, Lwe's Pilgrimage, iii. 3. 
 
 10. — The Lady of the Bleeding Heart. The bleeding heart is 
 the cognizance of the Douglas family. Robert Bruce, on his 
 deathbed, bequeathed his iieart to his close friend, the good 
 Lord James, to be borne in war against the Saracens. " He 
 joined Alphonso, king of Leon and Castile, then at war with 
 the Moorish chief Osurga, of Granada, and in a keen contest 
 with the Moslems he flung before him the casket containing the 
 precious relic, crying out, 'Onward as iliou wert wont, thou 
 noble heart, Douglas will follow thee.' Douglas was slain, but 
 his body was recovered, and also the precious casket, and in the 
 end Douglas was laid with his ancestors, and the heart of Bruce 
 deposited in the church of Melrose Abbey." — Burton, History 
 of Scotland, ii. 308. 
 
 II. — Strathspey. A Highland dance, taking its name from 
 the * strath,' or broad valley of the Spey. It is in simple com- 
 mon time, and much slower than a reel. 
 
 Clan-Alpine. The Siol Alpine, or race of Alpine, includes 
 several clans who claimed descent from Kenneth McAlpine, an 
 ancient king. These are the Macgregors, the Grants, the 
 Mackies, the Mackinnans, the MacNabs, the MacQuarries, and 
 the Macaulays. Their common emblem was the pine, which is 
 now confined to the Macgregors. 
 
 Loch Lomond. A beautiful lake, twenty-three miles in length 
 and five in breadth (at its bro.idest). It separates the counties 
 of Stirling and Dumbarton, and drains uself by the valley of 
 the Leuen into the estuary of the Clyde. The southern end is 
 studded with beautiful islands, one of which, Inch'Cailliach, is 
 mentioned below (iii. 8) as Clan- Alpine's burying-place. 
 
 A Lennox foray is a raid in the territory of the Lennox 
 family, which lay around the south end of Loch Lomond. The 
 ruins of Lennox Castle may still be seen on a long narrow island, 
 called Inch Murrin, and the site of one of their strongholds can 
 be traced at Balloch. 
 
CANTO II. J 
 
 NOTES— THE ISLAND. 
 
 12. — /// Iloly-Rood a knight he slno. " Tliis was by no means 
 an ur.commou occurrence at the court of Scotland." — ScOTT. 
 Burton remarks : " On one inijiortant point a difle; cnce lielwecn 
 the two courts (of France and Scotland) was disaj^reoably con- 
 spicuous — the unprotected condition of the sovcrt-iija and her 
 court, from the want of any arme<l force whose duty it was to 
 guard her royal person, . . . Wliile every head of a considerable 
 family in Scotland, down to the humblest landowner, had some 
 regular armed following, the Crown alone had none."^//w/f/7 
 of Scotland, iv. 23. 
 
 Z>/;vt (Scotch *durk,* German 'dolch'), a dagger. The clian^ic 
 of / and r is not uncommon. Cp ' pourpre' and 'purple.' 
 
 The Douglas, like a stricken deer, 
 
 Disffwn\i by every noble peer. 
 "•'The exiled state of this powerfid race is not exaggerated in 
 this and subsequent passages. The hntrcd of James against the 
 race of Douglas was so inveterate tli.it, numerous as their allies 
 were, and disregarded as the regal authority had usually been in 
 similar cases, their nearest frientis, even in the most remote parts 
 of Scotland, duist not entertain them, unless under the strictest 
 and closest disguise. James Douglas, son of the banished Earl 
 of Angus, aflei wards well known by the ti'.le of Earl of Morton, 
 lurked, during the exile of his family, in the north of Scotland, 
 under the assumed name of James Innes, otherwise yatnes the 
 Grieve (i.e. Reeve or Bailiff)." — Scott. 
 
 Guerdon. French 'guerdon,' Italian 'gaiderdone,' from the 
 old High German 'widarlon' (Modern German ' wiedcrlohn'), 
 'recompense.' (' Lohn ' = ' reward,' ' pay.') 
 
 Dispensation. The absolving a particular person from the 
 obligation of a general law, chiefly applied to the Pope's abso- 
 lution from the Canon law. That law forbids marriage between 
 cousins, and between persons who stand in certain other degrees 
 of relationship. When the Pope grants permission to persons 
 within prohibited degrees to marry, he is said to grant a dispen- 
 sation. A well-known instance is the dispensation obtained 
 by Henry VH. to allow Prince Henry to marry his brother 
 Arthur's widow, Katherine of Aragon. Roderick and Ellen 
 were cousins, and so could not wed together without a dispen- 
 sation. 
 
 13. — Since first an orphan in the wild 
 She sorro7v'd o'er her sister's child. 
 The inverted style, by which words arc put before instead of 
 after the words' which govern them, is allowed in poetry where 
 the meaning is clear ; but Sir Walter Scott has in many instances 
 stretched the license too far. In the present instance "an orphan 
 in the Avild " ought grammatically to be m apposition to " shCi'* 
 
 liE 
 
89 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto ii. 
 
 I if" 
 
 H 
 
 and not, as it is in fact, to "her sister's child," The next couplet 
 contains another example of an inversion not to be imitated, but 
 very common in this poem and in Kokeby ; viz., that a part of 
 the relative sentence is put before the rel.itive, which, according 
 t.i strict rule, should come first. In prose, as well as in veise, a 
 word or phrase nay be taken, for the sake of emphasis, from 
 the middle of a sentence, and put at the beginning, the verb in 
 this case being also'put before its subject ; e.i;. — 
 *• Rather will Ellen Douglas dwell 
 A votaress in Maronnan's cell." 
 Maronnan^s cell, /w/maronock, a village in Dumbartonshire, 
 about two miles from the south-east corner of Loch Lomond, 
 with a chapel (and apparently a convent) dedicated to St. 
 Marnock, or Maronuan, of whom little is remembered. So 
 ColmeXv// {Macbeth, ii. 4, 1. 33) is St. Columbas cell, • 
 
 14. — BracJiUnn, *' white foaming pool;" a beautiful cascade 
 on the Keltic, about a mile north-east of Callander. *' The falls 
 consist of a series of shelving rapids and dark linns, formed by 
 the Keltie Burn, which leaps from a considerable bank of red 
 sandstone, and rambles away in fine style among great masses 
 of stone beneath." 
 
 Save vindictive niood^ 
 
 Or jealous transpoii, chafe his blood, 
 * Save,' with its noun, originally formed an absolute case, like the 
 Latin 'salvo officio,' and the French 'sauf I'appel.' " Sauf le 
 respect que je te dois." — Voltaire. Formerly tlie/was retained. 
 So Chaucer {Prologucy 1. 67S) — 
 
 " Dischevele, sauf his cnppe, he rood all bare ;" 
 though at the same time he has ** saving his olde fader" (Kitight^s 
 TaL'y 1. 1790), showing that 'sauf is an adjective. Then it came 
 to be used as a preposition in the sense of ' without prejudice to,' 
 'reserving,* * excepting;' and so, like many prepositions, by 
 substituting a sentence for the noun-object, it became a conjunc- 
 tion, as here (=' unless'). 'Except' has a. similar history ; it is 
 the French 'excepte.' So Chaucer ha.s 'suspect' for 'suspected.' 
 
 Claymore, a large sword. Gaelic 'claidhcanih,' Latin 'gladius,' 
 a swoid, and 'more,' great. Cp. Fergus More. 
 
 His shadonvy plaidf and sable plume. He was Roderick £>hu, 
 the Black, 
 
 15. — Woe theivhile; i,e. *woe to the time.' 
 
 Twe-man. The name given to "Archibald, the third Earl of 
 Douglas, because he ' tincd,' or lost, his followers in every battle 
 which he fouijht. He was vanquished in the bloody battle of 
 llomildon Ilill, near Wooler, where he himself lost an eye, and 
 was made prisoner by Hotspur. He was no less unfortunate 
 
•I 
 
 II. 
 
 CANTO II.] NOTES— THE ISLAND. 
 
 8x 
 
 IS 
 
 I 
 
 vvlien allied with Percy, being wounded and taken at tTie battle 
 of Shrewslany. lie was so unsuccessful in an attempt to besiege 
 Roxburgh Castle that it was called tlie ' Foul Raid,' or disgrace- 
 ful expedition. His ill fortune left Iiim indeed at the battle 
 of Leauge, in France; but it was only to return with double 
 emphasis at the subsequent action of Vernoil, the last and most 
 unlucky of his encounters, in which he fell, with the flower of the 
 Scottish chivalry, then serving as auxiliaries in France, and about 
 two thousand common soldiers, a. D. 1424." — ScoTT. 
 
 Tine, or tyne, 'to lose,' 'forfeit,' 'kill' (Icelandic *tyna*). 
 " But for he (Lucifer) hrak buxumnesse (/>. obedience) his blisse 
 gan he tyne^ — Piers y'iouj^-'iman (A.D. 1377), i. 112. "The 
 queen your mistress sliall spend mickle silver, and Hjfne our hearts 
 in the end."— Grange ioA'a/iiM//i, 1570, a/>itd F Rou de. "Better 
 , tj'ne life, since fini is good fame." — Heart of Mui-Lot.'iian, 
 ch. vii. 
 
 fJis Border spears with Hotspiir^s bozos. So in Mannion, vi. 
 34, the "English shafts" and the Scottish "stubborn spearmen" 
 are contrasted at Flodden. For the story of Douglas's alliance 
 with Percy, see Shalcospeare's Henry IV. part i. 
 
 Beltane. 'Beal-tein,' 'Baal's fire,' 'Beal' being one of the 
 Gaelic names for the sun. "Among the barbarous Celtic popu- 
 lations of Europe there was a heathen festival on the same day 
 (May I), but it does not seem to have been connected with 
 flowers. It was called Beltein, and found expression in the 
 kindling of fires on the hill-tops by night. Amongst the pea- 
 santry of Ireland, of the Isle of Man, and of the Scottish High- 
 lands, such doings were kept up till within the recollection of 
 living people."— Cli AM iBERs's Book of Days, i. 571. From 
 the accounts given of it, it appears to have been a festival in 
 honour of the sun and the returning spring, and to have been 
 accompanied at one time by human sacrifices. Among other 
 ceremonies, n cake was baked, and divided into as many, similar 
 portions as there were persons in the company. One of these 
 was blacked over with charcoal, and all the pieces were thrown 
 into a bonnet. Whoever drew the black bit was devoted to 
 Baal, whose favour they wished to implore for the productiveness 
 of the soil. The person thus devoted compounded for his life in 
 later times by leaping three times through the fire that had been 
 kindled. As at all such festivals, the quasi-religious ceremony 
 would be M'ound up by dances and merry-making. Scott has 
 fretjuent allusions to this festival. See stanza 19. 
 " The shepherd lights his beltane-fire."— Zw-</ <////<? Isles, i. 8. 
 " But o'er his hills, in festal day. 
 How blazed Lord Ronald's beltane-tree." — Glenfinlas. 
 
 Canna. Gaelic 'cannacli,' cotton grass. Anglice ' the canna* 
 
 down. '— J AMIESON, 
 
 
 I %■ 
 
 
 '5? 
 
 4. 
 
 A 
 
If. 
 
 6i 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [can-xu it. 
 
 l6. — Gleng)>U. The upper v.illey which drains itself into 
 Loch Katrine. It is separated by only a narrow ridge of hills 
 from Loch Lomond. Brianchoil is a promontory on the north 
 bank of Loch Katrine, due north of Ben venue. 
 
 Tartan. WpoUen cloth, checkered or cross-barred with 
 threads of various colours. The word is not known in Gaelic. 
 It is the French 'tirefaine,' a mixture of flax and Avool, linsey- 
 woolsey. These linsey-woolsey cloths were most probahly parti- 
 coloured, or the word originally signifying cloth of different 
 viaterials might be used in another country for such cloths as 
 contained ditferent colours; or when the natives of Scotland 
 imitated the fal)ric they might think it an. improvement to 
 checker the cloth with the most glaring colours. — ^Jamikson. 
 
 Chanters. The pipes of the bagpipes, to which long ribands 
 were attached. 
 
 17. — Pibroch. "The piobrachd, as its name implies, is pro- 
 perly a pipe tune, and is usually the Cruinneachadh, or gathering 
 of the clan (see below), being a long piece of music composed 
 on occasion of some victory or other fortunate circumstance in 
 the history of a trilie, which, when played, is a warning for the 
 troops to turn out." — Looan, The Scottish Gael, 1831. 
 
 Hurrying. Another instance of clumsy inversion. The word 
 really agrees with ' them ' contained in " their tread." But in a 
 passage of such vigour and fire the fault may well be excused. 
 
 For -wild lament o'er those ihatfdl. '* Some of these pibrochs, 
 being intended to represent a battle, begin with a grave motion 
 resembling a march, then gradually quicken into the onset, run 
 off with no'sy confusion and turbulent rapidity to imitate the con- 
 flict and pursuit ; then swell into a itvi flourishes of triumphant 
 joy, and perhaps close with the wild and slow wailings of a 
 funeral procession." — Dr. Beattik. 
 
 18. — Burden. French 'bourdon,' the drone of the bagpipe, 
 from Gaelic 'burdan,' a humming noise; hence, "a musical 
 accompaniment, repetition of sounds with or without sense at 
 the end of stated divisions of a song." For the former sense see 
 Chaucer, Trologue, 667 — 
 
 " Full lowde he sang, Come hider, love, to me, 
 
 This sompnoure bar to I.im a stif htrdoun.^* 
 
 i.e. put in a bass. The word naturally comes from the patrons 
 
 of the bag- pipe, and is assimilated in spelling to the commoner 
 
 Saxon word. 
 
 19, 20. — The metre of this song is dactylic. The staple line 
 (the 2nd, 4th, 7th, and loih) consists of ten syllables with four 
 accents, the unaccented syllables of the last dactyl being sup- 
 
Canto ii.j NOtES— THE tsLANb. 
 
 h 
 
 k 
 
 lie 
 
 pressed. But in the first and third lines of each stanza, ore 
 syllable only is thus suppressed, and since rhymes must fall on 
 accented syllables, these lines have eleven syllables, and double 
 rhymes 
 
 Cp. " Hdil to the | Chief who in | triumph ad- | vanccs I 
 I Honoured and | blest be the | evergreen | Pine ! 
 I Long may the | tree, in hi'i | banner that | glances, 
 I Flourish, the | shelter and | grace of our | line. 
 The shorter lines that follow are of six syllables and three 
 accents, with the usual eflect of the suppression of unaccented 
 syll.iMes; viz., greater weight and solidity. 
 
 J£.g: " Heaven send it | happy [ dew. 
 Moor'd in the | rifted | rock." 
 In the second stanza the song becomes more vigorous, and the 
 vncant spaces, or rests, as they may be called, in the long lines, 
 are tilled up by unaccented syllables at the beginning of the 
 following line, so that the rhythm is continuous, as in — 
 •' Oi'irs is no | sapling, chance- | sown by the | fountain 
 j Bk oming at | Beltane, in | winter to | fade ; 
 When the | whirlwind has | stripped every | leaf on the | 
 m6untain 
 The I more ^hzll Clan- | 'Alpine ex- | lilt in | her shide." 
 
 19. — Bourgeon. To 'sprout,' 'bud,' from French 'bourgeon,* 
 a bud that develops into !)ranch or leaf. The derivation is un- 
 certain. Possibly from (lothic 'burjan,' to 'rise.' 
 
 Kodeiigh Vich Alpine dhn. Roderick, descendant of Alpine 
 the Black. Alpine is one of the line of Scottish kings who is 
 said to have subdued the Southern Picts at the beginning of the 
 ninth century. His son, Kenneth MacAlpine, is said to have 
 subjugated, or even extirpated, the whole of the Picts, and to 
 have been the first king of Scotland. The first trace of the 
 Mac^regors claiming descent from him is in a genealogy of 1562. 
 
 The nider it Hoiv. * The ' is the A S. 'tl e,^' 'thy,' the inbtru- 
 mental case of the demonstrative, and corresponds to the Latin 
 •eo,' 'tanto' ' Se,' *sc6,' 'tliKt,' was relative as well as de- 
 monstrntive, though the indeclinable 'the' generally took its 
 plac^;; hence we have 'the — the,' iike the Latin 'co — quo,' or 
 ♦quo — eo,' as in "M<r more the merrier." 
 
 Breadcilbaut, The name given to the district north of Loch 
 Lomond, and around Loch Tay. 
 
 20. — Clett Ftuin (according to Colonel Robertson, "the 
 valley of sheltered places ") is a valley which runs down into 
 Loch Lomond on the south-west, and separates it from the 
 C*re-loch. Bettachra, or Bannochar, lies at its mouth. Glen 
 Ims* is another of the mountain valleys, which drain into Loch 
 
 11 
 
 i 
 
 • I 
 
 < 
 
 S 
 
 m 
 
 ' ill 
 
 
I-: H{ 
 
 84 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto li. 
 
 Lomond from the west. Jioss-dhn lies on the banks of the lake 
 about three miles south of the entrance to Glen Liiss. 
 Lei'en-gl:n connects Loch Lomond with the Clyde. 
 Raid (A.S. *rad,'from 'rid-an,' to 'ride'). Strictly an in- 
 road or invasion on horseback, then any inroad for purposes of 
 plunder Cp. I Samuel xxvii 10: "Whither have ye made a 
 r<7rt(/ to-day ?" This form is also used in Scotland for the road 
 where ships ride at anchor (French ' rade '). 
 
 "On I stalk 
 From the port, my navy left in the raid.''* 
 
 — DoLGi.AS, Virgil. 
 Note how this song connects Allan's forebodings with 
 Roderick's subsequent ofier. 
 
 21. — Reluctantly and slow. A good instance of the two forms 
 of the adverb. See note on i. 3. 
 
 22. — Weeped. Another instance of the license which Scott 
 uses beyond limits. 
 
 23. — Wistful. Thoughtful, from the obsolete 'wi.s,' *vvist,* 
 Saxon 'witan,' 'to know.' 
 
 Perc/s Norman pennon was captured by the Douglas in the 
 raid which led to the battle of Otterburn, in Northumberland, 
 in the year 1388. It was taken in a small skirmish, and the 
 Percy (Hotspur) vowed, in reply to liis enemy's taunts, that he 
 should not carry it beyond the border. Douglas bade him come 
 and take it, it should be planted before his tent. The Scotch 
 intrenched themselves at Otterburn. They might have got off 
 clear with their booty; but it was a point of chivalry to give 
 Percy a fair chance of recovering his pennon. Hotspur hurried 
 after them without waiting for reinforcements, which were 
 coming up, and attacked the Scots on a moonlight night (the 
 19th of August). The Scots held their own, thou^^h Douglas 
 was mortally wounded, and Hotspur and his brother, with many 
 others, were taken prisoners. The battle and the victory were 
 perfectly useless ; it was really a tourney, where men fought for 
 mere fighting's sake. The memory of the raid is preserve 1 in 
 the different ballads of Chevy Chase (a corruption of ' chevau- 
 chee,' a 'riding raid). 
 
 Though the 'coaned crescent owned my might. An allusion 
 apparently to wars with the Saracens. Cp. Marmion, vi. 16 — 
 " A rusty shirt of mail I spied. 
 By Archibald won in bloody work, 
 Against the Saracen and Turk." 
 This Douglas, an uncle of Angus, and an old man, would be a 
 contemporary of Archibald Bell-theCat. 
 
 Blantyre, an old priory on the south of the Clyde, opposite to 
 Bothwell Castle. 
 
CANTO 11. J 
 
 NOTES— THE ISLAND. 
 
 Outbfgi^ars; i.e. is worth far more than : all I have lost would 
 Dot pay ior the loss of this. 
 
 24. — Stand and unhocded are both terms in falconry. The 
 falcon was carried oi> ihc wrist, with its head covered, to the 
 chase, and when the prey was seen its hood was removed. A 
 weli-trained bird would at once fly up into the air, and, as soon 
 as it criught sight of its quarry, swoop down upon it. 
 
 (jodde^s of the wood. Diana, or one of her nymphs. 
 
 25. — Quails *to shrink back,' 'droop from fear.' The deri- 
 vation of the word is uncertain. In the eastern counties to quail is 
 to 'curdle' (Latin 'coagulum,' French 'cf.'.lle'); and Wedgwood 
 supposes that the notion of fear is derived from this chilling or 
 curdling of the heart's blood. On the other hand, it may be 
 connected 'svith 'quell,* 'to strangle,' 'kill,' and so 'to' put 
 down' (Darish 'quaele,' German 'qualen'). Cp. 'fail,' 'fall,' 
 'fell,' which seem all to belong to the same root. See Wedg- 
 wood, s.v. 
 
 26. — Cle»finlas ("the grey-white valley"), a wooded valley, 
 formerly a royal forest, on the north of 6en-an, the entrance to 
 which lies half-way between Loch Achray and Loch Vennachar. 
 It is the scene of one of Scott's ballads, Glenfinlas ; or. Lord 
 Ronald's Coronach. 
 
 Strath- Endrick, the low valley drained by Endriclc water, 
 which runs into Loch Lomond near its south-east corner. 
 
 Royal ivai-d ; i.e. under age, with the king, my chief enemy, 
 for his guardian. 
 
 27. — Whih'd. Gothic 'hveilan,* *to rest,' 'cease;' so that a 
 * while' is a ' »vj//«5^-space,' and to * while away time' is to pass 
 it so that it is restfuly and not wearisome. 
 
 Bantjnet. Here, and in modern writers, of the whole meal, 
 with some idea of sumptuousness. Formerly it meant raihei 
 'dessert.' "We'll dine in the great room ; but let tlie rrusic 
 and banqttet be prepared here." — Massinglr. See Trench's 
 Select Glossary, S.V. 
 
 28. — Closing (A.S. • glesan,' to flatter), 'fair,' 'specious,* 
 'complimentary,* 'not outspoken.' The idea is that of 'making 
 to shine,' 'giving a fair ouiside to.* So to 'gloze,' in Scotch, is 
 to 'blaze,' 'shine brightly.' 
 
 The hint's X'indicdve pride 
 Boasts to have tamed the Border-side. 
 The borderers, holding land which they had won, or at any 
 rate had to keep, by their own swords, had always maintained a 
 wore independent .spirit than the other vassals of the Crown. 
 
 m ij 
 
 »•• 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 1 
 
85 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto ii. 
 
 K.|il 
 
 Their land was indeed debateable land, so that they hail iilc 
 spirit of nationality. The I<ing might winlt at this, as lon^' as 
 they were useful in checlcing invasions from England ; liut, no'v 
 that the country was more settleil, it was time for his authority 
 to be enforced. Many of tliese borderers were, in one way or 
 another, dependents of the house of Douglas ; so that James V., 
 in his st'Uggle with Angus, was brought into conflict with them. 
 He led out a force of 8,000 men against them, and swept the 
 country, hanging many of the chiefs — and amongst others the 
 famous Johnnie Armstrong — as thieves and resetters. — 1531. 
 Burton, iii. 142 foil. According to Pitscottie, the nol)les who 
 joined this expedition were orderetl 10 bring their hawks and 
 dogs with them, that the king might refresh himself with sport 
 between times. 
 
 Meggat, a mountain stream that runs into the Yarrow, which 
 is a confluent of the Ettrick, which is itself a confluent of the 
 Tweed. The Teviot is another border stream, which runs into 
 the Tweed at Kelso. 
 
 Your couttsel, &c. ; i.e. 'give me your counsel.' 
 Strei^ht, or strait. French 'elroit,' Latin 'slrictusj' 'close,* 
 •tight,* 'narrow.' 
 
 29. — Ghastly (A.S. 'gast,' German 'geist'), Mike a ghost or 
 spectre,' 'deathlike,' 'hideous,' 'frightful.' The form 'ghostly,' 
 now obsolete, was used in the nobler sense, 'spiritual,' belonging 
 to the spirit rather than to the body. So ** ghostly counsel and 
 advice," in the Communion Service. 
 
 Homage. " The acknowledgment of the tenant under the feudal 
 law, that he was his lord's man, in the terms, ' Devcnio vester 
 homo.^** Thence applied to any tribute of respect to a superior. 
 
 30. — To 7vife. Most factitive verbs, in English as in Latin, 
 take a double accusative, one of the object, the other of the 
 complement : ' they elected him kin^,' 'he made her his wife.' 
 But there are many which, especially in older English, distin- 
 guish the complement 1 y the preposition ' to ;' e.g. " The seven 
 had her to wife." — Mark xii. 23. "Take the highest to witness." 
 — Shakespeare, All's Well, iv. 2. "As I shall find the time 
 to friend." — Macbeth, iv. 3. So ' to give a thing to boot,' ' to lay 
 a thing /(? pawn.' 
 
 Links of Forth. (German Menken,' to bend.) The windings 
 of the Forth, the part between Stirling and Alloa. The appro* 
 priateness of the term is plain from the map. 
 
 Stifling, a royal residence, strongly situated below the junction 
 of the Teith and the lorth. See canto v. 
 
 Blench. ' Blanch,' ' blench,' and ' blink ' are different forms 
 9f th9 same root found \a German ' blinken,' 'to glitter,' 'dazzl^j' 
 
* 
 
 CANTO II.] NOTES-THE ISLAND. 
 
 •7 
 
 A.S. •Wican,' whence the O.H.G. •blanch,' French 'blanc,' ke, 
 * Dlanch ' takes its meaning from the French, and is ' to make or 
 be white or pale.' ' Blench' and ' blink ' express the efiects of 
 ft dazzling light which makes one ellher start aside, or instinc* 
 tively wink tiie eyes to protect them from the glare. * Blind ' is 
 also from the same root. Cp. Chaucer, Kni^i's Tale, L 220— 
 " lie cast his even upon Emelya, 
 And iherwithal he bleynte and cried a ! " 
 HamUtt it 2, 626— 
 
 " I 'II observe his looks; 
 I '11 tent him to the quick ; if he but bleneht 
 I know my course." 
 Foiled. French 'fouler,' to trample upon. To 'foil' answers 
 rather to 'refouler,' to rebate the edge or point of a sword, 
 and so to make useless or vain. A ' foil ' is a sword with the 
 
 })oint and edge blunied. ['Foil' in 'tin/^//' is a distinct word, 
 rom Latin 'folium,' and coiTesponds to ' go\6i-leaf." Such leaf 
 was often put behind precious stones to show off their brilliancy ; 
 10 in Shakespeare, Richard II. i. 3, 266 — 
 
 "The sullen passage of thy weary steps 
 Esteem as/oil^ wherein thou art to set 
 The precious jewel of thy home return." 
 Hence the word is used metaphorically for whatever sets off a 
 thing, especially by contrast. So I/atnlet, t. 2, 266 — 
 "I'll be yowx foil, Laertes: in mine ignorance 
 Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night, 
 Stick fiery off indeed."] 
 Bootless. Saxon and Icelandic 'b8t,' compensation; so 'profit- 
 less.' A thing given to 'boot' is given to compensate for the 
 loss involved in an exchange. 
 
 "^i.— Beetled. "The A.S. 'biiel' means the insect called a 
 'beetle,' litemlly the ' biter;' the O.K. adjective 'bitel,' means 
 'biting,' 'sharp,' hence perhaps the meaning of 'toothlike,' 
 •projecting.'" — .Skeat, Glossary to Piers Ploui^hman. Cp. 
 Ilamlel, i. 4: "The cliff that beetles o'er his base into the sea. 
 
 Bn tiled; i.e. with battletnents, or openings to discharge 
 missiles from. 
 
 Astound. Stunned, for astounded. 
 
 32 
 of a consti 
 
 Hectic. Belonging to a ^4^ J, 'constitutional,' especially 
 
 _. istitutional fever. The 'hectic' flush is the flush, or burn- 
 
 ing sput on the cheek, that is observed in such a fever, or in 
 consumption; so the 'hectic' strife is the strife between such a 
 Hush and the paleness that follows. 
 
 33. — Ay^'/i/fv/. For 'benighted, 'overtaken by night;' so "hi* 
 ni^hled \\iii."—A'iii^ Lear, iv. 5, 13. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 v4 
 
 5' V 
 
 ' y, <.. 
 
 1; 
 
 hi' 
 
 M 
 
THE LADV OP THE LAKE. [canto ii. 
 
 Unrequited. To 'quit' or 'requite' is to quiet; e.g. the 
 demands of a creditor by paying him. Till recent times nn 
 account on the Exchequer books was closed with the words 
 'quietus est.' Hence Hamlet's "when he can his quietus make ;" 
 i.e. when he can close his account. 
 
 Chequered shroud. His tartan plaid. ' Chequered ' is in a 
 pattern of squares, like a chess-board (French 'echiquier); 
 the 'Chequers' is a common sign. ' Shroud ' is from the Saxon 
 'scrvdan, to clothe. It is only by later use that the word is 
 connned to the clothing of the dead, and of the masts or yards 
 of a ship. 
 
 " I shope me in shroudes as I a shepe were." 
 
 — Piers Ploughman, Prologue, a. 
 i.e. I put me in clothes as if I were a shepherd. 
 "Give my nakedness 
 Some shroud to shelter it." 
 
 — Chapman, Horner^ s Odyssey, vi. 
 
 34. — Minion (French 'mignon,' a darling, from the Old 
 German word 'minne,' whence 'minnesingers,' poets of love). 
 A favourite, and, in a bad sense, one who keeps favour by base 
 compliances. Often used as a term of contempt, as implying 
 effeminacy. 
 
 The lesson I so lately taught, at the Beltane game. Stanza 15. 
 
 Greyhound. The Grecian dog, 'canis Graius.' 
 
 Doomed. Judged (Saxon 'dom.' Cp. Greek dt-afibs, rldrffu; 
 so a 'deemster' in the Isle of Man is one who gives judgment). 
 
 35. — Lackey. A word of Arabic origin, coming to us from 
 the Spanish through the French ' laquais,' originally a sort of 
 orderfy attached to a master (Littr^, s.v., 'laquais'). 
 
 Henchman. Literally one who stood at his master's haunch, 
 to wait upon him, or to support him. 
 
 36. — Tightened. The addition of the old infinitive ending 
 'en' makes a verb out of an adjective or a noun, as 'heart^^v 
 •soft^,' *light<?«.' 
 
 Fiery Cross* See next canto» 
 

 Z' ■ 
 
 TIi£ LADY OF THE LAKE. 
 
 CANTO THIRD. 
 
 I. 
 
 'l"*IME rolls his ceaseless course. The race of yore, 
 ■'• Who danced our infancy upon their knee, 
 And told our marvelling boyhood legends store, 
 
 Of their strange ventures happed by land or sea, 
 How are they blotted from the things that bel 
 
 How few, al^weak and withered of their force, 
 Wait on the verge of dark eternity, 
 
 Like stranded wrecks, the tide returning hoarse, 
 To sweep them from our sight ! Time rolls his ceaseless 
 course. 
 
 * 
 
 Yet live there still who can remember well, 
 
 How when a mountain chief his bugle blew, 
 Both field and forest, dingle, cliff, and dell, 
 
 And solitary heath, the signal knew ; 
 And fast the faithful clan around him drew. 
 
 What time the warning note was keenly woundy 
 What time aloft their kindred banner flew. 
 
 While clamorous war-pipes yelled the gathering sound. 
 And while the Fiery Cross glanced, like a meteor, round. 
 
 II. 
 The summer dawn's reflected hue 
 To purple changed I.och Katrine blue ; 
 Mildly and soft the western breeze 
 Just kissed the lake, just stirred the trees, 
 And the pleased lake, like maiden coy, 
 Trembled but dimpled not for joy; 
 
 5 
 
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I 
 
 96 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto lit 
 
 The mountain shadows on her breast 
 
 Were neither broken nor at rest ; 
 
 In bright uncertainty they lie, 
 
 Like future joys to Fancy's eye. 
 
 The water-lily to the light 
 
 Her chalice reared of silver b-i^ht ; 
 
 The doe awoke, and to the lavntf 
 
 Begemmed with dewdrops, leC her fawn ; 
 
 The gray mist left the mountain side, 
 
 The torrent shewed its glistening pride ; 
 
 Invisible in flecked sky. 
 
 The lark sent down her revelry ; 
 
 The blackbird and the speckled thrush 
 
 Good-morrow gave from brake and bush ; 
 
 In answer cooed the cushat dove 
 
 Her notes of peace, and rest, and lovCt 
 
 in. 
 
 No thought of peace, no thought of rest, 
 Assuaged the storm in Roderick's breast. 
 With sheathed broadsword in his hand, 
 Abrupt he paced the islet strand, 
 And eyed the rising sun, and laid 
 His hand on his impatient blade. 
 Beneath a rock, his vassals* care 
 Was prompt the ritual to prepare. 
 With deep and deathful meaning fraught; ' 
 For such Antiquity had taught 
 Was preface meet, ere yet abroad 
 The Cross of Fire should take its road. 
 The shrinking band stood oft aghast 
 At the impatient glance he cast;— 
 Such glance he mountain eagle threw, 
 As, from the cliffs of Ben venue, 
 She spread her dark sails on the wind, 
 And, high in middle heaven reclined, 
 With her broad shadow on the lake, 
 Silenced the warblers of the brake. 
 
 IV. 
 
 A heap of withered boughs was pilcd| 
 Of iuh.per and rowan wild. 
 
CAKTO lll.j 
 
 tliE CAtHEklNG. 
 
 91 
 
 Mingled with shivers from the oak, 
 
 Rent by the lightning's recent stroke. 
 
 Brian, the Hermit, by it stood, 
 
 Barefooted, in his frock and hood. 
 
 His grisled beard and matted hair 
 
 Obscured a visage of despair; 
 
 His naked arms and legs, seamed o'er, 
 
 The scars of frantic penance bore. 
 
 That monk, of savage form and face, 
 
 The impending danger of his race 
 
 Had drawn from deepest solitude, 
 
 Far in Benharrow's bosom rude. 
 
 Not his the mien of Christian priest. 
 
 But Druid's, from the grave released. 
 
 Whose hardened heart and eye might brook 
 
 On human sacrifice to look ; 
 
 And much, 'twas said, of heathen lore 
 
 Mixed in the charms he muttered o'er. 
 
 The hallowed creed gave only worse 
 
 And deadlier emphasis of curse; 
 
 No peasant sought that Hermit's* prayer. 
 
 His cave the pilgrim shunned with care, 
 
 The eager huntsman knew his liound. 
 
 And in mid chase called off his hound; 
 
 Or if, in lonely glen or strath, 
 
 The desert-dweller met his path. 
 
 He prayed, and signed the cross between, 
 
 While terror took devotion's mien. 
 
 V. 
 
 Of Brian's birth strange tales were told. 
 His mother watched a midnight fold, 
 Built deep within a dreary glen, 
 Where scattered lay the bones of men, 
 In some forgotten battle slain. 
 And bleached by drifting wind and rain. 
 It might have tamed a warrior's heart, 
 To view such mockery of his art ! 
 The knot-grass fettered there the hand 
 Which once could burst an iron band ; 
 Beneath the broad and ample bone, 
 That bucklered heart to fear unknown, 
 
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 l>iy. 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 III 
 
 $2 Tiifi LAbV OF tHfe LAKE. tcANTO lit 
 
 A feeble and a timorous guest, 
 
 The field-fare framed her lowly nest ; 
 
 There the slow blind-worm left his slime 
 
 On the fleet limbs that mocked at time : 
 
 And there, too, lay the leader's skull. 
 
 Still wreatHed with chaplet, flushed and full. 
 
 For heath-bell, with her purple bloom, 
 
 Supplied the bonnet and the plume. 
 
 All night, in tMs sad glen, the maid 
 
 Sate, shrouded in her mantle's shade ; 
 
 — She said, no shepherd sought her side. 
 
 No h inter's h?-nd her snood untied. 
 
 Yet ne'er again to braid her hair 
 
 The virgin onood oid Alice wear ; 
 
 Gone was her maiden glee and sport, 
 
 Her maif^en girdle all too short. 
 
 Nor sought she, from that fatal night, 
 
 Or holy church or blessed rite. 
 
 But locked her secret in her breast, 
 
 And died in travail, unconfessed. 
 
 i 
 
 VI. 
 
 Alone, among his young compeers, 
 Was Brian from his infant years ; 
 A moody and heart-broken boy, 
 Estranged from sympathy and joy, 
 Bearing each taunt which careless tongue 
 On his mysterious lineage flung. 
 Whole nights he spent by moonlight pale. 
 To wood and stream his hap to wail. 
 Till, frantic, he as truth received 
 What of his birth the crowd believed, 
 And sought, in mist and meteor fire, 
 To meet and know his Phantom Sire! 
 In vain, to soothe his wayward fate. 
 The cloister oped her pitying gate; 
 In vain, the learnin<T of the age 
 Unclasped the sable-lettered page ; 
 Even in its treasures he could find 
 Food for the fever of his mind. 
 Eager he read whatever tells 
 Of magic, cabala, and spells, 
 
CAXVTO in.] 
 
 THE GATHERING. 
 
 93 
 
 And every dark pursuit allied 
 To curious and presumptuous pride ; 
 Till with fired brain and nerves o'erstrun^, 
 And heart with mystic horrors wrung, 
 Desperate he sought Benharrow's den, 
 And hid him from the haunts of men. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The desert gave him visions wild, 
 Such as might suit the Spectre's child. 
 Where with black cliffs the torrents toil, 
 He watched the wheeling eddies boil, 
 Till, from their foam, his dazzled eyes 
 Beheld the river Demon rise ; 
 The mountain mist took form and limb, 
 Of noontide hag, or goblin grim ; 
 The midnight wind came wild and dread. 
 Swelled with the voices of the dead ; 
 Far on the future battle-heath 
 His eye beheld the ranks of death : 
 Thus the lone Seer, from mankind hurled. 
 Shaped forth a disembodied world. 
 One lingering sympathy of mind 
 Still bound him to the mortal kind; 
 The only parent he could claim 
 Of ancient Alpine's lineage came. 
 Late had he heard, in prophet's dream, 
 The fatal Ben-Shie's boding scream ; 
 Sounds, too, had come in midnight blast, 
 Of ch urging steeds, careering fast. 
 Along Benharrow's shingly side. 
 Where mortal horsemen ne'er might ride; 
 The thunderbolt had split the pine— 
 All augured ill to Alpine's line. 
 He girt his loins, and came to shew 
 The signals of impending woe, 
 And now stood prompt to bless or ban, 
 As bade the chieftain of his clan. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 *Twas all prepared ; and from the rock, 
 A goat, the patriarch pf the flock, 
 
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 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto IlL 
 
 Before the kindling pile was laid, 
 And pierced by Roderick's ready blade. 
 Patient the sickening victim eyed 
 The life-blood ebb in crimson tide, 
 Down his clogged beard and shaggy limb, 
 Till darkness glazed his eyeballs dim. 
 The grisly priest, with murmuring prayer, 
 A slender crosslet formed with care, 
 A cubit's length in measure due : 
 The shaft and limbs were rods of yew, 
 Whose parents in Inch-Cailliach wave 
 Their shadows o'er Clan-Alpine's grave, 
 And, answering Lomond's breezes deep, 
 Soothe many a chieftain's endless sleep. 
 The Cross, thus formed, he held on high, 
 With wasted hand, and haggard eye. 
 And strange and mingled feelings woke, 
 While his anathema he spoke. 
 
 IX. 
 
 •Woe to the clansman, who shall view 
 This symbol of sepulchral yew, 
 Forgetful that its branches grew 
 Where weep the heavens their holiest dew 
 
 On Alpine's dwelling low ! 
 Deserter ot his Chieftain's trust, 
 He ne'er shall mingle with their dust, 
 But, from his sires and kindred thrust, 
 Each clansman's execration just 
 
 Shall doom him wrath and woe.* 
 He paused ; the word the vassals took, 
 With forward step and fiery look, 
 On high their naked brands they shook, 
 Their clattering targets wildly strook ; 
 
 And first in murmur low, 
 Then, like the billow in his course. 
 That far to seaward finds his source. 
 And flings to shore his mustered force. 
 Burst, with loud roar, their answer hoarse, 
 
 ' Woe to the traitor, woe ! ' 
 Ben-an's gray scalp the accents knew, 
 The joyous wolf from covert drew, 
 
exNfo tit 
 
 tHE GATllERlNC. 
 
 $5 
 
 The exulting eagle screamed afar— 
 They knew the voice of- Alpine's war. 
 
 X. 
 
 The shout was hushed on lake and fell, 
 The monk resumed his muttered spell: 
 Dismal and low its accents came, 
 The while he scathed the Cross with flame, 
 And the few words that reached the air, 
 Although the holiest name was there, 
 Had more of blasphemy than prayer. 
 But when he shook above the crowd 
 Its kindled points, he spoke aloud : 
 *Woe to the wretch, who fails to rear 
 At this dread sign the ready spear ! 
 For, as the flames this symbol sear, 
 His home, the refuge of his fear, 
 
 A kindred fate shall know : 
 Far o'er its roof the volumed flame 
 Clan-Alpine's vengeance shall proclaim, 
 While maids and matrons on his name 
 Shall call down wretchedness and shame, 
 
 And infamy and woe.' 
 Then rose the cry of females, shrill 
 As goss-hawk's whistle on the hill. 
 Denouncing misery and ill. 
 Mingled with childhood's babbling trill 
 
 Of curses stammered slow ; 
 Answering, with imprecation dread, 
 * Sunk be his home in embers red ! 
 And cursed be the meanest shed 
 That e'er shall hide the houseless head 
 
 We doom to want and woe !' 
 A sharp and shrieking echo gave, 
 Coir-Uriskin, thy Goblin-cave ! 
 And the gray pass where birches wave, 
 
 On Bcala-nam-bo. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Then deeper paused the priest anew, 
 And hard his labouring breath he drew, 
 While with set teeth and clenched hand. 
 And eyes that glowed like fiery brand. 
 
 
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 96 tlifi Ladv 6t THE Lake, {canto llt 
 
 He mcflitated curse more dread, 
 And deadlier, on the clansman's head, 
 Who, summoned to his Chieftain's aid, 
 The signal saw and disobeyed. 
 The crosslet's points of sparkling wood, 
 He quenched among the bubbling blood, 
 And, as again the sign he reared, 
 Hollow and hoarse his voice was heard; 
 ' When flits this Cross from man to man, 
 Vich-Alpine's summons to his clan, 
 Burst be the ear that fails to heed ! 
 Palsied the foot that shuns to speed 1 
 May ravens tear the careless eyes. 
 Wolves make the coward heart their prize t 
 As sinks that blood-stream in the earth, 
 So may his heart's-blood drench his hearth 1 
 As dies in hissing gore the spark. 
 Quench thou his light. Destruction darkl 
 And be the grace to him denied. 
 Bought by this sign to all beside 1* 
 He ceased ; no echo gave agen 
 The murmur of the deep Amen. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Then Roderick, with impatient look. 
 From Brian's hand the symbol took : 
 X^ 'Speed, M-^lise, speed!' he said, and gave 
 The crosslt t to his henchman brave. 
 ' The muster-place be Lanrick mead — 
 Instant the time— speed, Malise, speed!' 
 Like heath-bird, when the lia,wks pursue, 
 A barge across Loch Katrine flew ; 
 High stood the henchman on the prow; 
 So rapidly the bargemen row, 
 The bubbles, where they launched the boat^ 
 Were all unbroken and afloat. 
 Dancing in foam and ripple still, 
 When it had nearcd the mainland hill; 
 And from the silver beach's side 
 Still was the prow three fathom wide. 
 When lightly bounded to the land 
 The messenger of blood and brand. 
 
CANTO in.] 
 
 THE GATHERING. 
 
 97 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Speed, Malise, speed ! the dun deer's hide 
 On fleeter foot was never tied. 
 Speed, Malise, speed! such cause of haste 
 Thine active sinews never braced. 
 Bend 'gainst the steepy hill thy breast, 
 Burst down like torrent from its crest ; 
 With short and springing footstep pass 
 The trembling bog and false morass ; 
 Across the brook like roebuck bound, 
 And thread the brake like questing hound ; 
 Tiie crag is high, the scaur is deep, 
 Yet shrink not from the dc sperate leap : 
 Parched are thy burning lips and brow, 
 Yet by the fountain pause not now j 
 Herald of battle, fate, and fear, 
 Stretch onward in thy fleet career ! 
 The wounded hind thou track'st not now, 
 Pursuest not maid through greenwood bough, 
 Nor pliest thou now thy flying pace, 
 With rivals in the mountain race ; 
 But danger, death, and warrior deed. 
 Are in thy coursie — speed, Malise, speed I 
 
 XIV. 
 Fast as the fatal symbol flies, 
 In arms the huts and hamlets rise ; 
 From winding glen, from upland brown, 
 They poured each hardy tenant down. 
 Nor slacked the messenger his pace; 
 He shewed the sign, he named the place, 
 And, pressing forward like the wind, 
 Left clamour and surprise l^ehind. 
 The flsherman forsook the strand. 
 The swarthy smith took dirk and brand ; 
 With changed cheer, the mower blithe 
 Left in the half-cut swathe the scythe; 
 The herds without a keeper strayed, 
 The plough was in mid-furrow staid, 
 The falc'ner tossed his hawk away^ 
 The hunter left the stag at bay; 
 Prompt at the signal of alarms. 
 Each son of Alpine rushed to arms ; 
 
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 9S THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [CANTO III. 
 
 So swept the tumult and affray 
 
 Along the margin of Achray. 
 
 Alas, thou lovely lake ! that e'er 
 
 Thy banks should echo sounds of fearl 
 
 The rocks, the bosky thickets, sleep 
 
 So stilly on thy bosom deep, 
 
 The lark's blithe carol, from the clci.d, 
 
 Seems for the scene too gaily loud. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Speed, Malise, speed ! the lake is past, 
 
 Duncraggan's huts appear at last, 
 
 And peep, like moss-grown rocks, half seen. 
 
 Half hidden in the copse so green; 
 
 There mayst thou rest, thy labour done, 
 
 Their lord shall speed the signal on.— 
 
 As stoops the hawk upon his prey. 
 
 The henchman shot him down the way, 
 
 — What woeful accents load the gale ? 
 
 The funeral yell, the female wailT 
 
 A gallant hunter's sport is o'er, < 
 
 A valiant warrior fights no more. 
 
 Who, in the battle or the chase. 
 
 At Roderick's side shall fill his place I— 
 
 Within the hall, where torches' ray 
 
 Supplies the excluded beams of day, 
 
 Lies Duncan on his lowly bier, 
 
 And o'er him streams his widow's tear. 
 
 His stripling son stands n ournful by, 
 
 His youngest weeps, but knows not why; 
 
 The village maids and matrons round 
 
 The dismal coronach resound. 
 
 XVL 
 
 CORONACH. 
 
 He is gone on the mountain, 
 
 He is lost to the forest. 
 Like a summer-dried fountain, 
 
 When our need was the sorest. 
 The font, reappearing. 
 
 From the rain-drops shall borroifi 
 But to us comes ho cheering, 
 
 To Duncan no morrow 1 
 
\ . 
 
 \ 
 
 CAN^u^O III.] 
 
 THE GATHERING. 
 
 99 
 
 The hand of the reaper 
 
 Takes the ears that are hoary, 
 Dut the voice ol the wcejjcr 
 
 Wails niiinhoofl in glory. 
 The aiituinn winds rushing 
 
 Waft the leaves that are scares!^ 
 But our flower was in flushing, 
 
 When bliiihiing was nearest. 
 
 Fleet foot on the correi. 
 
 Sage counsel in cumber, 
 Retl hand in the fjray, 
 
 How sound is thy slumber! 
 Like the dew on the mountain, 
 f Like the foam on the river, 
 Like the bubble on the fountain, 
 
 Thou art gone, and for ever 1 
 
 XVH. 
 
 See Stumab, who, the bier beside. 
 His master's corpse with wonder eyed, 
 Poor Stumah ! whom his least halloo 
 Could send like lightning o'er the dew. 
 Bristles his crest, and points his ears, 
 As if some stranger step he hears. 
 *Tis not a mourner's muffled tread, 
 Who comes to sorrow o'er the dead. 
 But headbng haste, or deadly fear, 
 Urge the precipitate career. 
 All stand aghast: unheeding all, 
 The henchman bursts into the hall; 
 H Belore the dead man's bier he stood ; 
 
 Held forth the Cross besmeared with blood; 
 Jt * The muster-place is Lanrick mead ; 
 
 Speed forth the signal ! clansmen, speedl' 
 
 XVIH. 
 Angus, the heir of Duncan's line, 
 Sprung forth and seized the fatal sign. 
 In haste the stripling to his side 
 His father's dirk and broadsword tied: 
 • saw his mother's eye 
 speechless agony. 
 
 ^r:: 
 
100 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto la 
 
 * 
 
 Back to her opened arms he flew, 
 Pressed on her lips a fond adieu — 
 . *Alas!' she sobbed — 'and yet be gone, 
 *y- And speed thee forth, like Duncan's son !* 
 One look he cast upon the bier, 
 Dashed fj'om his eye the gathering tear, 
 Breathed deep to clear his labouring breast. 
 And tossed aloft his bonnet crest. 
 Then, like the high-bred colt, when, freed, 
 First he essays his fire and speed, 
 He vanished, and o'er moor and moss 
 Sped forward with the Fiery Cross. 
 Suspended was the widow's tear, 
 While yet his footsteps she could hear ; 
 And when she marked the henchman's eye, 
 Wet with unwonted sympathy, 
 ' Kinsman,' she said, ' his race is run. 
 That should have sped thine errand on ; 
 The oak has fallen — the sapling bough 
 Is all Duncraggan's shelter now. 
 Yet trust I will, his duty done, 
 The orphan's God will guard my son. — 
 And you, in many a danger true, 
 At Duncan's hest your blades that drew. 
 To arms, and guard that orphan's head 1 
 Let babes and women wail the dead.' 
 Then weapon-clang, and martial call. 
 Resounded through the funeral hall. 
 While from the walls the attendant band 
 Snat'.hed sword and targe, with hurried hand ; 
 And short and flitting energy 
 Glanced from the mourner's sunken eye, t 
 •As if the sounds to warrior dear 
 Might rouse her Duncan from his bier. 
 But faded soon that borrowed force ; 
 Grief claimed his right, and tears their course. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Benledi saw the Cross of Fire, 
 It glanced like lightning up ii;rath-Ire. 
 O'er dale and hill the summons flew. 
 Nor rest nor pause young Angus knew; 
 The tear that gathered in his eye 
 He left the mountu n-breeze to dry; 
 
CANTO III.l 
 
 THE GATHERING. 
 
 toi 
 
 Until, where Teith's young waters roll, 
 Betwixt him and a wooded knoll, 
 That graced the sable strath with green. 
 The chapel of Saint Bride was seen. 
 Swoln was the stream, remote the bridge 
 But Angus paused not on the edge ; 
 Though the dark waves danced dizzily. 
 Though reeled his sympathetic eye, 
 He dashed amid the torrent's roar: 
 His right hand high the crosslet bore, 
 JAiz left the pole-axe grasped, to guide 
 And siay his footing in the tide. 
 He stumbled twice — the foam splashed highi 
 "With hoarser swell the stream raced by 
 And had he fallen — for ever there 
 Farewell Duncraggan's orphan heir! 
 But still, as if in parting life. 
 Firmer he grasped the Cross of strife, 
 Until the opposing bank he gained. 
 And up the chapel pathway strained. 
 
 XX. 
 
 A blithesome rout, that morning tide. 
 Had sought the chapel of Saint Bride; 
 Her troth Tombea's Mary gave 
 To Norman, heir of Armandave, 
 And, issuing from the Gothic arch. 
 The bridal now resumed their march. 
 In rude, but glad procession, came 
 Bonneted sire and coif-clad dame ; 
 And plaided youth, with jest and jeer. 
 Which snooded maiden would not hear: 
 And children, that, unwitting why. 
 Lent the gay shout their shrilly cry ; 
 And minstrels, that in measures vied 
 Before the young and bonny bride. 
 Whose downcast eye and cheek discloso 
 The tear and blush of morning rose. 
 With virgin step, and bashful hand. 
 She held the kerchiefs snowy band; 
 The gallant bridegroom, by her side, 
 Beheld his prize with victor's pride. 
 And the glad mother in her ear 
 Was closely whispering word of cheer. 
 
 
 

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 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. Icantoiil 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Who meets them at the churchyard gate? 
 
 The messenger of tear and fate ! 
 
 Haste in his hurried accent lies, 
 
 And grief is swimming in his eyes. 
 
 All dripping from the recent llood, 
 
 Panting and travel-soiled he stood, 
 
 The fatal sign of fire and sword 
 
 Held forth, and spoke the appointed word: 
 
 * The muster-place is Lanfick mead ; 
 
 Speed forth the signal ! Norman, speed I' 
 
 And must he change so soon the hand, 
 
 inst linked to his by holy band, 
 'or the fell Cross of blood and brand? 
 And must the day, so blithe that rose, 
 And promised rapture in the close, 
 Before its setting hour, divide 
 The bridegroom from the plighted bride ? 
 O fatal doom I— it must ! it must I 
 Clan-Alpine's cause, her Chieftain's trust, 
 Her summons dread, brook no delay; 
 Stretch to the race — away ! away I 
 
 XXH. 
 Yet slow he laid his plaid aside, 
 And, lingering, eyed his lovely brid^ 
 Until he saw the starting tear 
 Speak woe he might not stop to cheer; 
 Then, trusting not a second look, 
 In haste he sped him up the brook, 
 Nor backward glanced, till on the heath 
 Where Lubnaig's lake supplies the Teitfau 
 —What in the racer's bosom stirred ? 
 The sickening pang of hope deferred, 
 And memory, with a torturing train 
 Of all his morning visions vain. 
 Mingled with love's impatience, came. 
 The manly thirst for martial fame ; 
 The stormy joy of mountaineers. 
 Ere yet they rush upon the spears ; 
 And zeal for Clan and Chieftain burning; 
 And hope, from wcU-fought field returninjf, 
 
CAKTO fll.3 
 
 THE GATHERING. 
 
 With war's red honours on his crest, 
 
 To clasp his Mary to his breast. 
 
 Stun? by such thoughts, o'er bank and bra^ 
 
 Like fire from flint he glanced away, 
 
 While high resolve, and feeling strongi 
 
 Burst into voluntary song. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 SONG. 
 
 The heath this night must be my bed| 
 The bracken curtain for my head, 
 My lullaby the warder's tread, 
 
 Far, far, from love and thee, Mary; 
 To-morrow eve, more stilly laid. 
 My couch may be my bloody plaid, 
 My vesper song, thy wail, sweet maid t 
 
 It will not waken me, Maryl 
 I may not, dare not, fancy now, 
 The grief that clouds thy lovely brow, 
 I dare not think upon thy vow, 
 
 And all it promised me, Mary. 
 No fond regret must Norman know ; 
 When bursts Clan-Alpine on the foe, 
 His heart must he like bended bow. 
 
 His foot like arrow free, Mary. 
 A time will come with feeling fraught 
 For, if I fall in battle fought. 
 Thy hapless lovers dying thought 
 
 Shall be a thought on thee, Mary* 
 And if returned from conquered foes. 
 How blithely will the evening close, 
 How sweet the linnet sing repose. 
 
 To my young bride and me, Maryt 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Not faster o'er thy heathery braes, 
 Balquidder, speeds the midnight hhz% 
 Rushing, in conflagration strong, 
 Thy deep ravines and dells along. 
 Wrapping thy cliffs in purple glow. 
 And reddening the dark lakes below | 
 Nor faster speeds it, nor so far, 
 As o'er thy heaths the voice of war* 
 
 r. 
 ifei 
 
1 
 
 li. 
 
 •*' 
 
 .•^l 
 
 'W>\ 
 
 11 
 
 if 
 
 tr; 
 
 
 t64 tHE LADY OF THE LAKE. fcANTO lit. 
 
 The signal roused to martial coil, 
 
 The sullen margin of Loch Voil, 
 
 Waked still Loch Doine, and to the solirc^ 
 
 Alarmed, Balvaig, thy swampy courseV 
 
 Thence southward turned its rapid road 
 
 Adown Strath-Gartney's valley broad, 
 
 Till rose in arms each man might claim 
 
 A portion in Clan-Alpine's name, 
 
 From the gray sire, whose trembling hand 
 
 Could hardly buckle on his brand. 
 
 To the raw boy, whose shaft and bow 
 
 Were yet scarce terror to the crow. 
 
 Each valley, each sequestered glen, 
 
 Mustered its little horde of men, 
 
 That met as torrents from the height 
 
 In Highland dales their streams unite, 
 
 Still gathering, as they pour along, 
 
 A voice more loud, a tide more strong. 
 
 Till at the rendezvous they stood 
 
 By hundreds, prompt for blows and blood; 
 
 Each trained to arms since life began, 
 
 Owning no tie but to his clan, 
 
 Ko oath, but by his chieftain's hand. 
 
 No law, but Roderick Dhu's command. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 That summer morn had Roderick Dhu 
 Surveyed the skirts of Benvenue, 
 And sent his scouts o'er hill and heath. 
 To view the frontiers of Menteith. 
 All backward came with news of truce ; 
 Still lay each martial Graeme and Bruce, 
 In Rednock courts no horsemen wait, 
 No banner ivaved on Cardross gate, 
 On Duchray's towers no beacon shone, 
 Nor scared the herons from Loch Con ; 
 All seemed at peace. — Now, wot ye why 
 The Chieftain, with such anxious eye, . 
 Ere to the muster he repair. 
 This western frontier scanned witl: care ?-• 
 In Benvenue's most darksome cleft, 
 A fair, though cruel, pledge was left ; 
 For Douglas, to his promise tiue. 
 That morning from the isle withdrew, 
 
CANTO IXI.] 
 
 THE GATHERING. 
 
 los 
 
 And in a deep sequestered dell 
 Had sought a low and lonely cell. 
 By many a bard, in Celtic tongue, 
 Has Coir-nan-Uriskin been sunj;; 
 A softer name the Saxons gave, 
 And called the grot the Goblin-cave. 
 
 XXVI 
 
 It was a wild and strange retreat, 
 As e'er was trod by outlaw's feet. 
 The dell, upon the mountains crest, 
 Yawned like a gash on warrior's breasf ; 
 Its trench had staid full many a rock. 
 Hurled by primeval earthquake shock 
 From Benvenue's gray summit wild. 
 And here, in random ruin piled, 
 They frowned incumbent o'er the spot, 
 And formed the rugged silvan grot. 
 The oak and birch, with mingled shade. 
 At noontide there a twilight made. 
 Unless when short and sudden shone 
 Some straggling beam on cliff or stone, 
 With such a glimpse as prophet's eye 
 Gains on thy depth. Futurity. 
 No murmur waked the solemn still, 
 Save tinkling of a fountain rill ; 
 But when the wind chafed with the lake, 
 A sullen sound would upward break. 
 With dashing hollow voice, that spoke 
 The incessant war of wave and rock. 
 Suspended cliffs, with hideous sway, 
 Seemed nodding o'er the cavern gray. 
 From such a den the wolf had sprung. 
 In such the wild-cat leaves her young ; 
 Yet Douglas and his daughter fair 
 Sought for a space their safety there. 
 Gray Superstition's whisper dread 
 Debarred the spot to vulgar tread ; 
 For there, she said, did fays resort. 
 And satyrs hold their silvan court. 
 By moonlight tread their mystic maze, 
 And blast the rash beholder's gaze. 
 
 .; '■ 
 
to6 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto lit 
 
 I 
 
 i" 
 
 H 
 
 ; 
 
 XXVIL 
 Now eve, with western shadows long, 
 Floated on Katrine bright and strong, 
 When Roderick, with a chosen few. 
 Repassed the heights of Benvenue, 
 Above thfe Goblin-cave they go, 
 Through the wild pass of Beal-nam-bo; 
 The prompt retainers speed before, 
 To launch the shallop from the shore, 
 For cross Loch Katrine lies his way 
 To view the passes of Achray, 
 And place his clansmen in array. 
 Yet lags the chief in musing mind, 
 Unwonted sight, his men behind. 
 A single page,to bear his sword, 
 Alone attended on his lord ; 
 The rest their way through thickets breal^ 
 And soon await him by the lake. 
 It was a fair and gallant sight, 
 To view them from the neighbouring heigh^ 
 By the low-levelled sunbeam's light ! 
 For strength and stature, from the clan 
 Each warrior was a chosen man. 
 As even afar might well be seen, 
 By theit proud step and martial mien. 
 Their feathers dance, their tartans flua^ 
 Their targets gleam, as by the boat 
 A wild and warlike group they stand, 
 That well became such mountain stramL 
 
 XXVIIL 
 
 Their Chief, with step reluctant, sliU 
 "Was lingering on the craggy hill, 
 Hard by where turned apart the road 
 To Douglas's obscure abode. 
 It was but with that dawning mom, 
 That Roderick Dhu had proudly sworn^ 
 To drown his love in war's wild roar, 
 Nor think of Ellen Douglas more; 
 But he who stems a stream with sand, 
 And fetters flame with flaxen band. 
 Has yet a harder task to prove — 
 By firm resolve to conquer love! 
 
CANTO III.] 
 
 THE GATHERING. 
 
 107 
 
 Eve finds the Chief, like restless ghost. 
 Still hovering near his treasure lost; 
 For though his haughty heart deny 
 A parting meeting to his eye, 
 Still fondly strains his anxious eai| 
 The accents of her voice to hear, 
 And inly did he curse the breeze 
 That waked to sound the rustling trees. 
 But hark! what mingles in the strain? 
 It is the harp of Allan-bane, 
 That wakes its measure slow and high 
 Attuned to sacred minstrelsy. ^ 
 
 What rrfelting voice attends the strings? 
 *ris Ellen, or an angel, sings. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 HYMN TO THE VIRGIN. 
 
 Ave Maria ! maiden mild ! 
 
 Listen to a maiden's prayer ! 
 Thou canst hear though from the wild, 
 
 Thou canst save amid despair. 
 Safe may we sleep beneath thy care, 
 
 Thou;;h banished, outcast, and reviled — 
 Maiden ! hear a maiden's prayer ; 
 
 Mother, hear a suppliant child I 
 
 Ave Maria! 
 Ave Maria / undefiled ! 
 
 The flinty couch we now must share 
 Shall seem with down of eider piled, 
 
 If thy protection hover there. 
 The murky cavern's heavy air 
 
 Shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled ; 
 Then, Maiden ! hear a maiden's prayer, 
 
 Mother, list a suppliant child ! 
 
 Ave Maria I 
 Az'e Maria / Stainless styled ! 
 
 Foul demons of the earth and air, 
 F»'om this their wonted haunt exiled, 
 
 Shall flee before thy presence fair. 
 We bow us to our lot of care. 
 
 Beneath thy guidance reconciled ; 
 Hear for a maid a maiden's prayer. 
 
 And for a father hear a child ! 
 
 Ave Maria f 
 
 '« 1: 
 
 , ;i 
 
 il-! " 
 

 108 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [CANTO HI, 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Died on the harp the closing hymn?— 
 Unmoved in attitude and limb, 
 As listening still, Clan- Alpine's lord 
 Stood leaning on his heavy sword, 
 Until the page, with humble sign. 
 Twice pointed to the sun's decline. 
 Then while his plaid he round him cast, 
 * It is the last time — 'tis the last,' 
 He muttered thrice — * the last time e'er 
 That angel-voice shall Roderick hear 1* 
 It was a goading thought — his stride 
 Hied hastier down the mountain-side; 
 Sullen he flung him in the boat. 
 And instant 'cross the lake it shot. 
 They landed in that silvery bay. 
 And eastward held their hasty way, 
 Till, with the latest beams of light. 
 The band arrived on Lanrick heigh^ 
 Where mustered, in the vale below, 
 Clan-Alpine's men in martial show. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 A various scene the clansmen made. 
 
 Some sate, some stood, some slowly strayed; 
 
 But most, with mantles folded round. 
 
 Were couched to rest upon the ground, 
 
 Scarce to be known by curious eye. 
 
 From the deep heather where they lie. 
 
 So well was matched the tartan screen 
 
 With heath-bell dai;k and brackens green ; 
 
 Unless where, here and there, a blade, 
 
 Or lance's point, a glimmer made. 
 
 Like glow-worm twinkling through the shade. 
 
 But when, advancing through the gloom. 
 
 They saw the Chieftain's eagle plume. 
 
 Their shout of welcome, shrill and wide, 
 
 Shook the steep mountain's steady side. 
 
 Thrice it arose, and lake and fell 
 
 Three times returned the martial yell ; 
 
 It died upon Bochastle's plain. 
 
 And Silence claimed her evening reign. 
 
NOTES 
 
 CANTO III 
 
 Is almost entirely taken up with the gathering by means of 
 the Fiery Cross. It opens with the ritual, half Pagan, half 
 Christian, with '^vhich it is consecrated, a cross made of rods of 
 yew having its end charred in the fire, and quenched in the 
 blood of a goat. At each stage of the consecration, dire curses 
 of fire and blood are called down on the head of the clansman 
 who shall not answer his chieftain's call. To make the whole 
 ceremony more weird and strange, the monk that performs it is 
 represented as of mysterious and scarce human birth. The cross 
 is consecrated, and is at once entrusted to Malise, Roderick's 
 henchman. He bears it eastward, and it is passed on from 
 one hand to another, interrupting wedding and funeral alike, till 
 the clan is gathered in Lanrick mead. The funeral and wedding 
 give opportunity for the introduction of two songs, but they are 
 not in Scott's best style. 
 
 Roderick meanwhile has been reconnoitring, but finds no 
 trace of the foes whom he had expected. The Douglas and his 
 daughter have left the island, in order not to imperil their host, 
 and have taken refuge in a cavern on the side of Benvenue, 
 which the superstition of the age "debarred to vulgar tread," 
 and thither Roderick comes, and, hovering over the treasure 
 he has lost, hears Ellen's voice for the last time, and then 
 hastens to join his men. 
 
 Note the description of Loch Katrine in the morning sun, and 
 the breaking up of the wedding. Stanzas xxii. and xxiii. 
 
 This canto contributes very little to the developing of the 
 plot. It is an interesting picture of an old Highland custom; 
 but, suspending as it does the main action of the poem, one can« 
 not but feel it to be somewhat tedious. The emphasis of the 
 curses is weakened by their repetition, and though, as Lord 
 
 ieffrey says, "the eager fidelity with which the fatal signal is 
 urried on and obeyed is represented with great spirit," the 
 whole occupies a space out of^ all proportion to its importance. 
 The end of the canto wins back our sympathy for the more 
 
 m 
 
 
 m 
 
tto 
 
 THE LADY OP THS; LAKE. fcANto ill. 
 
 hT 
 
 human sich in Roderick's character, while Ellen's trustful hymn 
 shows how Utile a brave woman's heart is depressed by adversity. 
 
 Stanza I. — Yore; 'formerly,' 'of ancient times.' A.S. 'geara,* 
 which was also used in the sense of 'completely' (^^I/iwiston 
 geare" "They be persuaded'" — Luke xx. 6), and so is identical 
 with German 'gar.* This meaning is represented by the nautical 
 term 'yare.' 
 
 Li'gmds store. Cf. canto i. 27, 'arrows store* and note. 
 
 The gathering sound. The signal for the gathering. 'Gather- 
 ing* is a noun^ used adjectively, as '^««//«^-horn,' 
 
 And 7vhile the Fiery Cross glanced, like a meteor, round. ' ' When 
 a chieftain designed to summon his clan, upon any sudden or 
 important emergency, he slew a goat, and making a cross of any 
 light wood, seared its extremities in the fire, and extinguished 
 them in the blood of the animal. This was called the Fiery 
 Cross, also Crean Tarigh, or the Cross of Shame, because dis« 
 obedience to what the symbol implied inferred infamy. It was 
 delivered to a swift and trusty messenger, who ran fnll speed 
 with it to tHe next hamlet, where he presented it to the principal 
 person, with a single word, implying the place of rendezvous. 
 He who received the symbol was bound to send it forward, with 
 equal despatch, to the next village ; and thus it passed with in- 
 credible celerity through all the district which owed allegiance to 
 the chief, and also among his allies and neighbours, if the danger 
 was common to them. At the sight of the Fiery Cross, every 
 man, from sixteen years old to sixty, capable of bearing arms, 
 was obliged instantly to repair, in his best arms and accoutre- 
 ments, to the place of rendezvous. He who failed to appear 
 suffered the extremities of fire and sword, which were emblemati- 
 cally denounced to the disobedient by the bloody and burnt 
 marks upon this warlike signal. During the civil war of 1745-6 
 the Fiery Cross often made its circuit, and upon one occasion 
 it passed through the whole district of Breadalbane, a tract of 
 thirty-two miles, in three hours." — Scott. Macaulay mentions 
 its use in 1689, before Killiecrankie. (//;lr/. Eng. iii. 355.) 
 
 2. — Mr. Ruskin has commented upon this passage {Modern 
 Painters, iii. 278-282) : " In this love of beauty, observe that 
 the love of colour is a leading element, his (Scott's) healthy mind 
 being incapai>le of losing, under any modern false teaching, its 
 joy in brilliancy of hue. Though not so subtle a colourist as 
 Dante, which, under the circumstances of the age, he could not 
 be, he depends quite as much upon colour for his power or 
 pleasure. And in general, if he does not mean to say much 
 about things, the one character which he will yive is colour, 
 using it with the most perfect mastery and faithfulness. . . • 
 
CANTO III.] NOTES-THE GATHERING. 
 
 Ill 
 
 "The other passage I have to quote" (the one in the text) 
 "is still more interestinfj, because it has no form in it at all 
 except in one word {chalice), but wholly composes iis imagery 
 either of colour, or of that delicate half-believed life which we 
 have seen to be so important an element in modern landscape 
 Two more considerations are, however, suggested by this pas 
 sage. The first, that the love of natural history, excited by the 
 continual attention now given to ail wild landscape, heightens 
 reciprocally the interest of that landscape, and become, an im- 
 portant clement in Sco't's description, leading him to finish 
 down to the minutest speckling of the breast, and slightest shade 
 of attributed emotion, the portraiture of birds and animals. 
 Compare carefully the second and third stanzas of canto vi. of 
 Jiokehy, The second point I have to note is Scott's habit of 
 drawing a slight moral from every scene, and that this slight 
 moral is almost always melancholy. Here he has stopped short 
 without entirely expressing it — 
 
 '• 'The mountain-shadows • • 
 
 * • • • lie 
 
 Like future joys to Fancy's eye.* 
 His completed thought would be that those future joys, like the 
 mountain-shadows, were never to be attained." 
 
 Chalice; cup. Latin 'calix.* 
 
 Begemmed. Covered with gems. See i. 21, and note. Cp. 
 'bejewelled,' 'bedizened.' 
 
 Cushat-dove; the ring-dove. A.S. 'cusceote,' literally 'cow- 
 shot,' which is still the name for a ring-dove in the north of 
 England and in Scotland. 
 
 3. — Note the contrast. No sadness of the poet or hif hero 
 makes him ign^tre the gladness of nature. 
 
 JHs impaiunt blade. Transferred epithet : he is impatient. 
 
 Aghast. Old English "agast.^ Explained as a compound of 
 *a' privative and 'gast,' 'spirit,' as 'amod' is 'mad' ('amens'), 
 from 'mod,' 'mind.' Wiclif, however, has 'gast,' 'terrified,' 
 and 'gastnes,' 'tenor,' with which this word and 'ghastly' may 
 be connected. (Compare with Gothic ' us-gaisjan,' to horrify; 
 German 'aus' and 'geist.') 
 
 4. — Roivan ; the mountain-ash. Jamieson thinks that this 
 tree derived its name from ' runa,' an incantation, because of the 
 use made of it in magical arts. It «as a^conimon custom in 
 Scotland, in order to prevent the fatal effects of an evil eye, to 
 cut a piece of this tree, peel it, tie a red thread about it, and 
 attach it to the liniel of the cow-house. Cp. A/ouasteiy, ch. viii.: 
 " I have tied a red thread round the bairns' throats, and given 
 i^k an? of them $1 riding-wand of rowan tree, forby sewing up a 
 
 '^li'l 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 4-i' 
 
113 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto III. 
 
 It 
 
 m 
 
 (u 
 
 slip of \vitch-elm into their doublets ; and I wish to know if 
 there be ony thin.i; ninir that a lone woman can do in the matter 
 of ghosts and fairies." 
 
 GrisUd ; marked with grey. (French 'gris.') 
 
 Benfiarrow, a mountain on the east of the head of I<och 
 Lomond. 
 
 Hallmved creed ;' i.e. the Christian as distinguished from "hea« 
 then lore." 
 
 Bound, limit ; i.e. of his haunts. 
 
 Glen or strath. A glen is a deep and narrow valley, through 
 which 9, stream flows (Gaelic 'gleann,' Welsh 'glyn'); a, strath^ 
 (Gaelic 'srath') is a valley of consuierable size, through which a 
 ^iver flows. 
 
 5. — Of Brian^s birth strange tales were told. This story may 
 be compared with that of "fiend-born Merlin," ol mysterious 
 origin; so in the Greek mythology "Fate and black Destiny 
 and Death," the offspring of Night, have no father. 
 Where scattered lay the bones of men^ 
 In some forgotten battle slain. 
 Cp. Tennyson, Elaine — 
 
 "A horror lived about the tarn, and clave 
 Like its own mists to all the mountain side ; 
 For here two brothers, one a king, had met 
 And fought together; but their names were lost. 
 And each had slain his brother at a blow. 
 And down they fell and made the glen abhorred ; 
 And there they lay till all their bones were bleached, 
 'vnd lichen'd into colour with the rocks." 
 Bucklered; i.e. 'shielded.' 'Buckler,' from the French *bou- 
 clier' (in full, ' ecu bouclier,' or shield with a boss in the centre, 
 Latin 'buccula'), is the small round shield worn on the left 
 arm. 
 
 Virgin snood. A riband worn round the hair by maidens 
 only, replaced by the kerchief or coif of married women. It 
 was the mark of maiden purity, as the cap or bonnet of matronly 
 dignity. "I thought unco' shame of mysell," says Jeanie Deans, 
 when she has to lay aside her tartan screen and wear a bonnet, 
 after crossing the border, "the first time I put on a married 
 woman's bon-grace, and me a single maiden." — Heart 0/ Midlo- 
 thian, chap, xxviii. 
 
 6. — Moody (A.S. 'modig,* 'proud,' 'irritable;' from 'mod,' 
 *mind,' 'passion;' German 'muth;' Gothic • m8ds ' == 6/)7iJ, 
 OviJjbi). Given to 'moods,' 'humours,' such as 'self-will,' 'sul- 
 lenness,' 'anger.' 'Mood' is the prevailing disposition of the 
 mind, and may be good or bad ; but ' moody ' implies always 
 
tAHro lli.J l^OTES— t«E CJATHERmCJ. 
 
 tt3 
 
 the 'bad.* "If you be not i' the mood, I hope you will not be 
 moody." — Beaumont and Fletcher, TAe Captain, iii. i. 
 
 Meteor (Greek neHupos, 'aloft,' 'suspended'). Seen in the 
 air; so a 'meteor* (noun) is a body that is seen shoot'iig through 
 the air, a shooting star. 
 
 Sable-lettered pas;e. The earliest printed booVs were printed 
 from type of uniform thickness {i.e. without distinction of up 
 and down strokes), in the Goihic or O.E. character. * Un- 
 clasped* is opened up to him, enabled him to read. 
 
 Cabala. "The term Cabala, in its more exclusive sense, 
 meant that knowledge which was traditionally derived from the 
 hklden mysteries contained in the letters of the law, in the 
 number of times they occurred, and in their relative position." — 
 MiLMAN, History of the Jews, ii. 414, note. This was extended 
 later into a mystical system of philosophy. An interesting; 
 account of it is given by the same writer, vol. iii. pp. 431, foil. 
 He goes on to say, " The Cabala degenerated into a system of 
 magic and wonder-working. The traditional fathers of the 
 Cabala had wrought miracles with the letters of Scripture,, and 
 later there was no kind of vulgar conjuring trick that was not 
 performed by the adepts, till cabalism sank into contempt and 
 suspicion. The cabalistic pretensions to enchantments, amulets, 
 charms, justified to the more sober, if not the proscription, the 
 discouragement of these, in their essence lofty, in their practice 
 vulgar and degrading studies. But the influence of the Cabala 
 was not confined to the Jewish mind. Some of the strange, 
 powerful intellects of the middle ages, when the borders of 
 science and wonder-working were utterly confounded, were 
 tempted at once by the abstruseness, the magnificent pretensions, 
 and the mysticism of the Cabala, to penetrate into its secrets, 
 and appropriate its powers and virtues. " Hence ' cabalistic ' is 
 that which has a hidden, secret meaning, known only to the 
 initiated. 
 
 Curious. Cp. " They that used curious ^xi%.*'' — Acts xix. 19. 
 Prying into secrets (Latin *curiosus,' 'full of anxiety to learn '). 
 Compare with this description Marmion, iii. 21, 22. 
 
 7, — " The river detnon, or river-horse, for it is that form 
 which he commonly assumes, is the Kelpy of the Lowlands, an 
 evil and malicious spirit, delighting to forbode and to witness 
 calamity. He frequents most Highland lakes and rivers; and 
 one of his most memorable exploits was performed upon the 
 banks of Loch Vennachar, in the very district which forms the 
 scene of our action. It consisted in the destruction of a funeral 
 procession with all its attendants. The 'noontide hag,* called 
 m Gaelic Glas-lich, a tall, emaciated, gigantic female figure, is 
 supposed in particular to haunt the district of Knoidart A 
 
 
tu 
 
 TitE LAt)Y Ot!' tllE LAKE, [canto ill. 
 
 cjohlin, dressed in nntique armour, and having one handcorered 
 with l)lood, called from Ihat circumstance, Lham-de<irg, or Ked- 
 liand, is a tenant of the forests of Glenmore and Rothiemurcus." 
 — Scott. 
 
 /»>«-.S'-4/V (Gaelic 'hen,' a woman; and 'sighe,* a fairy), the 
 fairy's wife. " In certain places the death of people is supposed 
 to 1)0 foretold by the cries and shrieks of Hen-Shi, or the fairie's 
 wife, uttered along the very path where the funeral is to pass." 
 —Pennant. 
 
 Shiw^'y. ' Shingles * are the waterwom pebbles on the sea- 
 shore, from German 'schindel,' Latin 'scindula,' or 'scandula,' 
 that which is separated or detached, as these from the rock. A 
 'shingle,' or 'shindle,' is also the name for a lath of cleft wood 
 used for roofing houses. (Wedgwood derives the word in its 
 former sense from Norse -singl,' from 'singla,' to jingle.) "A 
 presage of the kind alluded to in the text is still believed to 
 announce death to the ancient Highland family of M'Lean of 
 Lochbuy. The spirit of an ancestor slain in battle is heard to 
 gallop along a stony bank, and then to ride thrice around the 
 family residence, ringing his fairy bridle, and thus intimating 
 the approaching calamity." — ScOTT. 
 
 Bitn. To curse ; originally to summon to join the host when 
 the feudal lord planted his 'bann,' or banner; then to summon 
 by superior authority, to make any public proclamation, and in 
 especial to denounce publicly by ecclesiastical authority, to ex- 
 communicate or curse. 'Banns* are the public announcement 
 of an intended marriage; 'banish' is from French 'bannir,' 
 used for the compound 'forbannir' ('foras bannire'), to order 
 publicly out of the realm; so, as an 'outlaw' is in English a 
 'robber,' the Italian 'banditto' (our 'bandit') has the same 
 meaning. 
 
 8. — l/,'m. This figtire is called 'prolepsis ' (anticipation of the 
 result). They were dim by reason of the glazing. 
 
 Jnch-Cailliach ("the isle of nuns," or "of old women"). 
 An island on the south-east of Loch Lomond, opposite the pass 
 of Balmaha. It contained a convent (whence its name), and the 
 buryinff-ground of the Macgr^gors, and of other clans which 
 claimed descent from King Alpine. 
 
 Ila^Z^ani. 'Wild-looking,' 'meagre,' 'rugged in feature.' 
 A ' haggard ' is a hawk thai has moulted more than once before* 
 he is caught, so that he can never be properly tamed, but retains 
 something of his wild look. From A..S. 'haga,' a hedge (our 
 'haw,' 'hawthorn '), a hawk of the wood, a wild hawk. He is 
 called in French 'miiier de haie,' in English a ' brancher.' The 
 following passages illustrate the connexion between noun and 
 adjective— 
 
«ANto lit] NOTES-tllE GATHERmO 
 
 "i 
 
 "Live like a Afl^i,'r7rrf still therefore, 
 
 And for no luring care." — TurbervilE. 
 "I know her spirits are ns coy and wild 
 As haggards of the rock." 
 
 — Much A Jo about Nothing, iiL I. 
 
 9.— C?« Alpine's dwrUing Imv ; i.e. Us burial-place. 
 Strook. Cp. Milton, 1/ymn on the Nativity — ( 
 
 " Such music 
 As never was by mortal finger strook." 
 Strook and str6k are O. E. forms of the preterite, and so come to 
 be used for the participle. 
 
 -Fell. A common word in the North of England for 
 
 Swedish 'fjall,' Dan. 
 Halliwell quotes an 
 
 10.- 
 * mountain moorland ;' connected with 
 
 •fjeld/ .Icel. 
 old use — 
 
 'fjall,' a mountain range. 
 
 "Moyses wente up on ^■dXfelle, 
 Fourty dayes there gon dwelle." 
 
 Scathed. 'Touched,' 'injured.' Saxon ' sceathian,' German 
 'schaden,' and possibly Greek 6.-(jKt\Q-i\'i. We use the word in 
 •scathing,' 'scathless,' 'unscathed;' in Scotland noun and verb 
 are constantly used. Cp. — 
 
 " No maiden lays her scaith to me." 
 — In Graham of Gartmore's song, If Doits^hty Deeds. 
 "The skaith or damage which they occasioned." — Legend of 
 Montrose, chap. x. (Connected with 'sceadan,' to divide, 
 'shed.' Cp. German 'schaden' and 'scheiden.') 
 
 Goss-harvk. Saxon 'gos-hafoc,' 'goosehawk.' "The gos- 
 hawk was in high esteem among falconers, and flew at cranes, 
 geese, pheasants, partridges." — Pennant. 
 
 Arid cuts'd be the meanest shed, &c. Compare the curse ia 
 Sophocles' Od. Tyr. 1. 236— 
 
 " rhv ApSp' iiravSij tovtov • 
 /*tJt' iffS^xftrffai /j.'fyre irpotx<pwelv rivi 
 <hOiiv 5'd7r' oIkuv v&irra.i. " 
 The whole of this stanza is very impresisive ; the mingling of the 
 children's curses is the climax of horror. Note the meaning of 
 the triple curse. The cross is of ancestral yew — the defaulter 
 is cut off from communion with his clan ; it is seared in the fire 
 — the fire shall consume his dwelling ; it is dipt in blood — his 
 heart's blood is to be shed. 
 
 Coir-Uriskin, or Coir-nan- Uriskin ("the corry, or den, of the 
 wild men"), a hollow cleft in the northern side of Ben venue, sup» 
 posed to be haunted by fairies and evil spirits. It is surrounded by 
 rocks and overshadowed by birch-trees, so as to give complete 
 shelter. The Urisk is the equivalent of the Grecian Satyr, 
 having a human form with goat s feet, " The Urisks," says Dr. 
 
 1! 
 
 1^ lii. 
 
 : m 
 
I 
 
 
 ti6 
 
 tHE Lady of the t.ake. (canto iti. 
 
 Grahnm, "were a set of luMiorly sHpernatmals, who, like the 
 Brownies, could be gained over by kind allention to perform the 
 drudgery of the farm, and it was believed that many of the 
 families in the Highlands had one of the order attached to it. 
 They were supposed to be dispersed over the Hijjhlands, each 
 in his own wild recess ; but the solemn stated meetings of the 
 order were regularly held in this Cave of Benvenue." — ^xene/y 
 on the .Southern Copi fines of Perthshire. The cave had probably 
 been at one time the haunt of banditti. 
 
 Deala-nam-bo, "the pass of the cattle," on the other side of 
 Benvenue from the Gol)lin's Cave, "d magnificent glade over- 
 hung with birch-trees, by which the cattle taken in Lowland 
 forays were driven within the protection of the Trosachs." 
 
 II. — Clenched. According to Stratmann, from O.H.G. .'chlen- 
 ken' = 'rctundere.' To clench or clinch a nail is to bend back 
 the point which has come through, and bsat it down into the 
 wood. Hence to clinch is to fasten down firmly, to secure ; e.g. 
 to clinch an argument, a bargain. To clench the hands is to 
 bend over the fingers till they meet the flat of the hand, so as to 
 form a ball. ^ Klinke'' in Modern German is a latch, and is pro» 
 bal)ly connected with this. 
 
 Crosslet, diminutive. Cp. 'ringlet,' 'tearlet,' 'circlet.' 
 Aniomr. We generally say 'quench /«,' especially of a fluid. 
 Palsied ; paralysed, the muscles being useless, and no longer 
 answering to the will. 'Palsy' (for 'paralysis') is an instance 
 of the contraction which often takes place in English words 
 derived from Greek and Latin. Cp. 'frantic' for 'phrenetic,' 
 * fancy' for 'phantasy.' 
 
 Drench, active of 'drink.' Some verbs in English have the 
 two forms, transitive and intransitive, distinguished by the modi- 
 fied vowel ; e.g. 'fall,' 'fell;' 'drip,' 'drop;' 'rise,' 'raise.' Cp. 
 German 'trinken' and 'triinken.' 
 
 Agen. This or 'ayen' is the old form of 'again* (A.S. 
 *ongean,' ' ongen'). So the * Ayenbiteo{ Inwvt'' is the ' /'^'•morse 
 of Conscience.' Compare with the whole of this the Abbot's 
 curse in Lord of the Isles, ii. 28 — 
 
 "Arms evejy hand against thy life, 
 Bans all who aid thee in the strife, 
 Nay each whose succour, cold and scant. 
 With meanest alms relieves thy want ; 
 Haunts thee while living, and when dead 
 Dwells on thy yet devoted head, 
 Rends Honour s scutcheon from thy hearse, 
 Stills o'er thy bier the holy verse, 
 And spurns thy corpse from hallow'd ground, 
 Flung like vile carrion to the hound." 
 
tAXTO III.] NOTES— THE GATHERING. 
 
 «I7 
 
 There is not much difTcrence between the Abbot and the fiend* 
 born rcclase 1 
 
 12. — Syvihol; ' s\S^,* * token.' Literally • a fa/fy* {ffVfi-piWwt 
 * to put together '). The breaking of a coin in two by a betrothed 
 couple, each keeping half, is a good instance of a symbolum. It 
 is used by Jeremy Taylor in the sense of 'contribution, put 
 together to a common stock.' 
 
 Lanrick mead. The flat ground at the north-west end of Loch 
 Vennach.ir. 
 
 J/mth-bird (French 'coq de bruyere'). Grouse. 
 
 Zight/y, /and. Note the alliieraiiohs. The / gives the idea 
 of lightness, agHity. 
 
 13.— The dun deer^s hide. Logan thus describes the construc- 
 tion of a Highlander's brogues (Gaelic 'brog,' a shoe): "An 
 oval piece of raw cow or horse's hide was drawn neatly round 
 the foot by thongs of the same material, by means of holes in 
 the margin. The hair was often kept inside for warmth ; they 
 were perfectly flexible, and were pierced with small holes, for 
 the purpose of allowing the water received in crossing rivers and 
 morasses to escape." The commoner practice of leaving the 
 hair outside procured for the Highlanders the name Redshanks, 
 Cf. Marmion, v. 5 — 
 
 *' The hunted red-deer's undressed hide 
 Their hairy buskins well supplied." 
 
 Questing; i.e. in search ot game. Lat. ' quaero.* 
 
 Scaur, or scar. Originally 'a cleft ;' then applied to the face 
 of that in which there has been a cleft or breach ; e.g. a cliff, a 
 ('sheer') precipice, broken rock (Latin 'rupes'); or, in a secon- 
 dary sense, the mark of a cleft, cut, or wound. Norse 'skar,* 
 A.S. 'sceran,' German 'schaar.' Akin to 'shear,' 'sherd,' 
 'shard,' 
 
 Herald of hattle, iate, and iear. 
 
 Stretch onward in thy Ueet career. 
 Note the effect of the whisper-letters, expressing the dread and 
 awe of the message. The </'s express a similar feeling under 
 another form in 'Vanger, </eath, and warrior deed." 
 
 14. — Here again the panting haste of the message, and its 
 reception, is expressed by the aspirates — 
 
 "Fast as the/atal symbol /lies. 
 
 In arms the Auts and Camlets rise." 
 
 Hamlet; a diminutive of the A.S. 'ham,' German 'heirn,' 
 
 Gothic 'haims,' our ' home.' Cp. Greek Afti/xi?, French 'hameau.' 
 
 'ham remains as an affix m local names, as ' -heim^ in south 
 
 Germany ; cp. Buckingham (the home of the Bockings), Hoch* 
 
iz8 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto in. 
 
 heim. The prevalence of the termination 'hem in Picardy and 
 Artois is proof of a Saxon colony there. — Taylor, IVords and 
 Places, 82 foil. : " The ultimate root seems to be the Sanscrit 
 '{},' to repose. Cp. Greek Keifxai, Koi/idu." 
 
 Swarthy. A.S. 'sweart,' German 'schwarz,' black. 
 
 J^irk and brand. "Thair weapones ar bowes and dartes, 
 with ane very broad sword, and ane dagger sharp onlie at the 
 ane syde."— Lindsay, of Pitscottie, 1573. They used the two 
 together. Chev. Johnstone says, "They bring down two men at 
 a time, one with the dirk in their left hand, and another with the 
 sword." 
 
 iiwathe. A.S. 'swathe,* 'swaethe,' a 'track,' 'path;' so that 
 the swathe is the path which the mower cuts for himself, and on 
 which the hay or corn falls. Others suppose that the firs., idea 
 (as in A.S. 'beswethan') is that of binding into sheaves, to 
 swathe, bandage. Possibly the long bandage used in swathing 
 takes its name from the former meaning, as a ' list ' is primarily 
 a border, and then the long narrow strip cut off the border, 
 and then the row of names written on such a strip. 
 
 Alas, thou lovely lake! &c. "Observe Scott's habit of look» 
 ing at nature, neither as dead, or mert ly material, nor as altered 
 by his own feelings; but as having an animation and p.ithos of 
 its own, wholly irrespective of human passion." — RusKlN. 
 
 Bosky, * bushy,' ' woody ; ' Ital. ' bosco,' f r. ' bois.* Cp. "bosky 
 bowin," in Milton's Comus. 
 
 15. — Duttcraggan. A homestead close to the Brigg of Turk, 
 and between Loch Achray and Loch Vennachar. 
 
 Stoop. The technical term for a bird of prey pouncing on its 
 quarry; so — 
 
 " .*^eldom stoops the soaring vulture." — Note on i. 7. 
 
 Stripling. "Seems to signify stripe-sh.nped, a tall, thin young 
 person."— Wedowood. 
 
 Coronaih. The coronach was generally an extempore effusion, 
 setting forth the good deeds of the deceased, and the glories of 
 his ancestiy. At the end of each stanza a chorus of women 
 and girls swell the notes into a loud plaintive cry or wail, which 
 is so retimes used without the song. 
 
 16.— The metre of this dirge seems to be amphibraehic* 
 Some of the lines appear to be anaptvstic; but it will be found on 
 examination tlial the rhythm of these is atn[>hibrachic; that is, 
 that the rhythmic pause is afiei the syllable that follows the accent 
 
 • From Pp<^X^^> short, and ifi<pl, on cich side, ihs lonj syllabic being 
 in the middle. In English verse a thiee-sy Hailed foot is called a dactyl 
 when the accent is on the first syllablCi^ an ani^hibi:a<;h when 99 th« tecuti^, 
 «n anaosBSt when on the thirv|. 
 
CANTO III.] NOTES— THE GATHERING. 
 
 119 
 
 " (He) is gone on | the mountain, 
 (Lilic) a biimmer- | dried fountain." 
 Ten lines out of twenty-four are distinctly amphibrachic, as— 
 
 " To Duncan j no morrow." 
 So that it seems best to treat the rest as amphibrachie with an 
 anacrusis, or superfluous unaccented syllable at the beginning of 
 the line. The amphibiach is useful to express pathos or melan- 
 choly. Compare the snnjj in yls You Like It, ii. 7 — 
 "Most frier.dship is feigning, 
 Most loving mere folly ;" 
 and the exquisite pathos of Miss Elliott's Lament for Floddenr-^ 
 "At e'en, in | the gloaming, | naeyounkers | are roaming 
 'Bout stacks wi' | the lasses | at bogle | to play ; 
 But ilk ane | sits drearie, | lamenting | her dearie, 
 The Flowers of [ the Forest | are a'wede j away." 
 
 — Abbott, English Lessons, p. 213. 
 The song is very carefully divided. To each of the three things, 
 mountain, forest, fountain, four lines are given in the order, 3, 
 I, 2. 
 
 Hoary, and so ripe for the sickle. Cp. "Segelis cana."— 
 CTz'u/ quotation, i. 18. 
 
 Searest (A.S. 'searian,' Dutch 'zooren,* Greek ^rjpos). 'Dry,* 
 * withered ;' so to ' sear' a wound is to stop its bleeding by (frying 
 it up with a hot iron. 
 
 Fiushing. Cp. Hamlet, iii. 3 — " With all his crimes broad- 
 blown as flush as May." (Latin 'fluo,' 'fluxus,' German 'fluss.') 
 Flowers are at 'flushing,' as the tide is at the 'flood,' when 
 they are at full. A 'flush' of good luck is a sudden 'flow' of it. 
 Correi. "A hollow between hills; or rather a hollow in a 
 hill." — Jamieson. 
 
 Cumber. 'Perplexity,' 'trouble,' from Icelandic 'kumra,' to 
 'growl,' 'mutter;' German 'kummer.' — Wkdowood. 
 
 Ked hand. Possibly ' ready ' hand ; ' red ' is used in the 
 lowlands for ready. If not, then 'murderous,' 'unsparing.' 
 
 17. — Stiimnh. ' Faithful,* the name of a dog. 
 
 O^er the ae7v. A good instance of a poet's power of suggesting 
 a picture by a little touch. The hunt begins at early morn, 
 when the scent lies fresh ; so in i. 1 7 : " Level rays " tells us that 
 it is evening. 
 
 iS.—Hest. Bidding, O.E. 'haeste,' A.S. 'haes,' from 'hatan,' 
 to command (German ' heissen '). Cp. 'behest.' 
 
 .bzaord and ti?rge. The common Highland equipment. Cp. 
 AW> Koy, chap. xxvi. — "Never another law hae they but the 
 length o' their dirks — the broadsword's pursuer 01 plaintiff, as 
 you Englisliers ca' it, and the target's defender — and there's a 
 
 I 
 
 ) i 
 
 •I 
 
i! 
 
 it 
 
 I20 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto iii. 
 
 Hieland plea for ye." These were the arms of the ancient 
 Britons, "Ingentibus gladiis (claymores) et brevibus cetris 
 (targes)." — Tactf. Agr. 36. 
 
 19. — Strath-Ire. A valley running north and south on the 
 cast of Ben Ledi, connecting Loch Voil with Loch Lubnaig. 
 The C/iJpel of St. Bride is about half a mile from the south end 
 of the latier lake, on the river Leny, one of the streams which 
 join to form iheTeith; hence "Teith's _jv««^ waters." Note 
 the picture of trees mingled with dark rocks, conveyed by two 
 touches of colour— 
 
 ' That ■ raced the sable strath w'lih. green." 
 
 Sympathetic. Really qualifies ' reeled,' = * in sympathy.' 
 
 20. — Rout. See canto i. 3, note. 
 
 Tombea and Armandave were two farms or homesteads in 
 Strathire. 
 
 Btidnl. Epithet used for the thing qualified. 
 
 Coif-clad. Diez and Littre trace the word ' coif through Low 
 Lniin 'cofea,' or 'cuphia,' to O.H.G. *kuppa,' our 'cap,' with 
 the same root as 'cup.' Latin 'cuppa.* [Wedgwood derives 
 it through the Italian ' cuflfia,' from the Arabic ' kufiyah,' a head- 
 coverin;^.] The coif or curch (a white piece of linen pinned over 
 the forehead, round the back of th^ head, and falling over the 
 neck) is in Scotland the distinguishing mark of a married 
 woman; so the kerchief below (= French * couvre-chef,' head- 
 covering). 
 
 22. — Lnhnai^s lake. "The lake of small bends." A fine 
 sheet of water four miles long and one broad, which lies at the 
 east foot of Ben Ledi, The Leny issues from its southern end. 
 
 The silk niing paugy &c. ?iO Lord of the Isles ^ vi. l- 
 heart-sick faintness of the hope delayed." Proverbs xiii 
 
 Brae. Tlie side or * brow ' of a hill. Icelandic ' braa,' a 
 brow; Gaelic 'bre,' 'brigh,' a mountain. 
 
 23. — The effect of this song is produced solely by the varia- 
 tion in the rhyming. 
 
 Bracken, or braikin. The 'Pteris aquilina.* The word is 
 apparently a diminutive of 'brake,' which is also used for a fern, 
 as well as for the tangled undergrowth i.i places where trees 
 have been cut down. 
 
 iVarder. Sentinel, explained by the beginning of the next 
 canto. 
 
 Jh'ing. Transferred epithet. 
 
 A nd if returned from conquered foes. This sentence is ungram* 
 niatical. With the elliptic use of ' if,' the verb being omitted, 
 
 "The 
 12. 
 
CANTO tii.l NOTES— THE GATHERING. 
 
 X2Z 
 
 IS 
 
 'returned' should agree with 'evening.' It really agrees with 
 ' me ' in the last line, or else (I shall have) is to be supplied. 
 
 ^^. — Balqiiidder. "The town of the back -lying country," a 
 village at the angle of Stralliire, where the Balvcti^ turns from 
 an easterly to a southerly direction. Tlie Braes extend along 
 the north side of the valley. This district became a little later 
 the property of the Macgregors, and the village is the burial- 
 place of Rob Roy and his wife Helen. " It may be necessary 
 to inform the southern reader that the heath oi the Scottish 
 moorlands is often set fire to, that the sheep may have the 
 advantage of the young herbage producecl, in room of the tough 
 old heather j^lants. This custom (execrated by : portsmen) pro- 
 duces occasionally the most beautiful nocturnal appearances, 
 similar almost to the discharge of a volcano." — Scott. Note 
 the touch of colour which follows. 
 
 Coil. Gaelic 'coilcid,' 'astir,' 'noise;' probablv from 'goil,* 
 'boiling.' The word is frequent in Shalcipeare : " Vondcr's old 
 coil ^\ home." — Much Ado, v. 2. "When we have shuffled off 
 this mortal ri?//." — Hamld, iii. I. 
 
 Loch Foil and I och Doine form an almost contin'.mus sheet of 
 water, running from west to east, at the foot of the Braes of 
 Balquidder, and emptying themselves by the Balvnig into Loch 
 Lubnaig. " Few places in Scotland have such an air of solitude 
 and remoteness from the haunts of men." Cp. "the sullen 
 margin." 
 
 StrathCartney. The name given to the north side of the 
 ba.sin, which contains Lech Katrine. 
 
 No oath, but hy his chieftain's hand. " The deep and implicit 
 respect paid by the Highland clansmen to their chief rendered 
 this both a common and a solemn oath. In other respects they 
 were capricious in their ideas concerning the obligatory power of 
 oaths."— Scott. 
 
 25. — Rednoch, an estate four miles S.S.W. of Callander; 
 Cardross, about three miles further south ; Duchray, a castle 
 about a nule south of Lochard, on the borders of Stirling and 
 Perth, of which Duchray water is for some distance the boun- 
 dary ; Loch Con ("the lake of dogs") is a small lake in the 
 valloy which separates Benvenne from Ben Lomond ; its waters 
 form one of the feeders of the Forth (the Avon-dlui), Duchray 
 being the other. 
 
 26. — W//, for * still silence.' So Tennyson, *' the breezy blue** 
 
 for 'bkie (sky).' 
 
 Gray Sn/^erstition^s xvhisper dread 
 Debarred the s/ot to vulgar tread. 
 
 I ■-. 
 
Ijl 
 
 1- ii;* 
 
 i f* 
 
 f r * 
 
 I* 
 
 i' It 
 
 |:,' f 
 
 Ifii* 
 
 iii 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto iii. 
 
 
 Cp. Rokeby, ii. lo — 
 
 " The lated peasant shunned the dell ; 
 For Superstition wont to tell 
 Of many a grisly sound and sight, 
 Scaring his path at dead of night." 
 Bta.t A.S. * blaesan,* to blow. The meaning and origin is 
 well shown in the following : 
 •'A myghty tre, ♦ « • 
 
 Whose h&zxxXt blasted -Visits, with boysteroas winde." — SkeltoN. 
 With the text compare Gray's lines on Milton's blindness— 
 *' He saw ; but, blasted with excess of light, 
 Closed his eyes in endless night." 
 
 VJ, — /''Tcr, 'a serving boy,' 'attendant.' Greek «-of6io«», 'a 
 child,' whence Italian 'paggio,' French 'page.' Chaucer has, 
 "In cradle it lay, and was a proper /flgr." 
 
 2%.— But he toko stefns a stream taith sand. The letters st are 
 frequently used to express fear and amazement. Lips open, and 
 voice lails us. If the surprise be sudden, a whispered ejaculation 
 escapes, suppressed almost as soon as uttered : the" whisper of 
 the s is stopped suddenly by the A neither letter being formed 
 by the lips. The same kind of broken breathing generally 
 follows any kind of sharp effort. Compare — 
 *' He answer'd not at all, but, adding new 
 Fear lo his first amazement, j/aring wide 
 With j/ony eyes, and heartless hollow hue, 
 Aj/onish'd j/ood." — Spenser, Faerie Qiieen^ i. 9, 1. 24. 
 **But th' heedful boatman j/yiongly forth did j/retch 
 His brawny arms, and all his body j//-ain." 
 For the next line cp. stanza 13. 
 
 29. — The metrical peculiarity of this hymn is, that the rhymes 
 of the even lines of the first quatrain (or set of four lines) are 
 taken up as those of the odd lines in the second, and that they 
 are the same in nil three stanzas. 
 
 Eider, a species of sea-duck, producing down of the finest 
 and softest kind. 
 
 30. — An instance of poetic irony. It is the 'last time' in 
 another sense than Roderick means. So in the curse quoted on 
 *tan/a 10, CEdipus was unconsciously cursing hiinseifl 
 
 Foul demons. The U risks. 
 
 31. — Scarce to be kumvn by curious eye, 
 From the deep heather where they lit, 
 A hint l>'> prepare for the scene in v. 9. 
 
T 
 
 THE I.JPy iV THE LAKE. 
 
 \;anto fvuirtii. 
 
 I. 
 
 I IE rose is fairest when 'tis buu '*nj new, 
 And hope is brightest wlien it daw ns l om fears : 
 The rose is sweetest washed with morning c'v.v, 
 And love is loveliest when embahiied in t^ars. 
 O wilding rose, whom fancy thus endears, 
 I bid your blossoms in my bonnet wave, 
 Emblem of hope and love thro'igh future yea-^ I' — 
 
 Thus spoke young Norman, heir of Annandavi, 
 Wliat time the sun arose on Vennacliar's broad wave, 
 
 II. 
 Such fond conceit, half said, half sung, 
 Love prompted to the bridegroom's tongue. 
 All while he siri|)ped the wild-rose spray, 
 His axe and bow beside him lay, 
 For on a pass 'twixt lake and wood, 
 A wakeful sentinel he stood. 
 Hark ! — on the rock a footstep rung, 
 And instant to his arms he sprung. 
 'Stand, or thou diest ! — What, Malise? — soon 
 Art thou returned from Braes of Doune. 
 Hy thy keen step and glance I know, 
 Thou bring'st us tidings of the foe.* — 
 (For while the Fiery Cross hied on, 
 On distant scout had Malise g .ne.) 
 
 \ n 
 
 I ' 
 
 m 
 
 iMQ 
 
 m\ 
 
 « hi 
 
 1 
 ^ 
 
 mi 
 
 Hfl 
 
 s '.m \ 
 
 W'B 
 
 5 : 
 
 1 
 
 II 
 
 i 
 
 w 
 
 Hi 
 
 t 
 
 % 
 
 ml 
 
 i 
 
 -I 
 
 11 
 
 i 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 %'■ 
 
 n 
 
 .1 
 
 :| 
 
 1 
 
I"." 
 
 r 
 
 p < 
 
 F4 I. 
 
 ti4 The LAt)Y of tllE LAKli:. tcANTO iV. 
 
 'Where sleeps the Chief?* the henchman said. 
 
 * Apart, in yonder misty glade ; 
 
 To liis lone couch 1 '11 be your guide.* — 
 Then called a slumberer by his side, 
 And stirred him with his slackened bow— 
 
 * Up, up, Glentarkin I rouse thee, ho I 
 We seek the Chieftain ; on the track, 
 Keep eagle watch till I come back.' 
 
 III. 
 Together up the pass they sped : 
 'What of the foemenr' Norman iz'u}. — 
 'Varying reports from near and far ; 
 This cert .in — that a band of war 
 Has tor two days been ready bonne, 
 At prompt command, to march from Donne; 
 King James, the while, with princely powers. 
 Holds revelry in Stirling towers. 
 Soon will this dark and gathering cloud 
 Speak on our glens in thunder loud. 
 Inured to bide such bitter bout. 
 The warrior's plaid may bear it out ; 
 But, Norman, how wilt thou provide 
 A shelter for thy bonny bride .'' ' — 
 
 * What ! know ye not that Roderick's care 
 To the lone isle hath caused repair 
 Each maid and matron of the clan. 
 
 And every child and aged man 
 
 Unfit for arms ; and given his charge, 
 
 Nor skiff nor shallop, boat nor barge. 
 
 Upon these lakes shall float at large, 
 
 But all beside the islet moor. 
 
 That such dear pledge may rest secure?'— 
 
 IV. 
 
 *'Tis well advised— the Chieftain's plan 
 Bespeaks the father of his clan. 
 But wherefore s^^^ps Sir Roderick Dhu 
 Apart from all h.s followers true?' — 
 
 * It is, because last evening-tide 
 Brian an augury hath tried, 
 
 Of that dread kind which must not be 
 Unless in dread extremity, 
 
CANTO IV.] 
 
 THE PROPHECY. 
 
 125 
 
 J^ 
 
 The Taghairm called ; by which, afar, 
 Our sires foresaw the events of war. 
 Uuncragjjan's milk-white bull they slew'- 
 
 • 1 
 
 MALISE. 
 
 * Ah! well the fjnllant brute I knew I 
 The choicest of the prey we had, 
 When swept our merry-men Gallangad, 
 His hide was snow, his horns were dark 
 His red eye glowed like fiery spark; 
 So fierce, so tameless, and so fleet, 
 Sore did he cumber our retreat, 
 And kept our stoutest kernes in awe, 
 Even at the pass of Beal 'maha. 
 But steep and flinty was the road, 
 And sharp the hurrying pikeman's goad. 
 And when we came to Dennan's Row, 
 A child mii^ht scatheless stroke his brow.'- 
 
 m 
 
 V. 
 
 NORMAN. 
 
 *That bull was slain : his reeking hide 
 They stretched the cataract beside, 
 Whose waters their wild tumult toss 
 Adown the black and craggy boss 
 Of that huge clitif, whose ample verge 
 Tradition calls the Hero's Targe. 
 Couched on a shelve beneath its brink, 
 Close where ihe thundering torrents sink, 
 Rocking beneath their headlong sway, 
 And drizzled by l-o ceaseless spray, 
 Midst Ljroan of rock, and roar of stream, 
 The wizard waits proplietic dream. 
 Nor distant rests the Chief; — but hush! 
 See, gliding slow through mist and bush, 
 The hermit gains yon rock, and stands 
 To gaze upon our slumbering bands. 
 Seems he not, Malise, like a ghost, 
 That hovers o'er a slaughtered host ? 
 Or raven on the blasted oak, 
 Th.it, watching while the deer is broke, 
 His morsel vlaim§ with sullen groak?' 
 
 'h I'll 
 
 i ?I 
 
I'l'' F 
 
 mm 
 
 126 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto i\. 
 
 MALISE. 
 
 — ' Peace ! peace ! to other than to me, 
 
 Thy words were evil augury; 
 
 But still I hold Sir Roderick's blade 
 
 Clan- Alpine's omen and her aid, 
 
 Not aught that, gleaned from heaven or hell, 
 
 Yon fiend-begotten monk can tell. 
 
 The Chicfiain joins him^ see — and now, 
 
 Together they descend the brow.* 
 
 4^ 
 
 k 
 
 |-i 
 
 VI. 
 
 And, as they came, with Alpine's Lord 
 
 The Hermit Monk held solemn word: 
 
 * Roderick ! it is a fearful strife, 
 
 For man endowed with mortal life, 
 
 Whose shroud of sentient clay can still 
 
 Fee! feverish pang and fainting chill, 
 
 Whose eye can stare in stony trance, 
 
 Whose hair can rouse like warrior's lance— 
 
 *Tis hard for such to view, unfurled, 
 
 The curtain of the future world. 
 
 Yet, witness every quaking limb, 
 
 My sunken pulse, mine eyeballs dim, 
 
 My soul with harrowing anguish torn, 
 
 This for my Chieftain have 1 borne !— 
 
 The shapes that sought my fearful couch, 
 
 A human tongue may ne'er avouch ; 
 
 No mortal man — save he, who, bred 
 
 Between the living and the dead, 
 
 Is gifted beyond nature's law — 
 
 Had e'er survived to say he saw. 
 
 At length the fateful answer came, 
 
 In characters of living flame ! 
 
 Not spoke in word, nor blazed in scroll, 
 
 But borne and branded on my soul ; — 
 
 Which spills the foremost foeman's ufts. 
 
 That party conquers in the strife.' 
 
 VI L 
 
 'Thanks. Brian, for thy zeil and care t 
 GQod is ^lane au^uiy^ and fair, 
 
 |W 
 
CANl'O IV,] 
 
 tllE fROPHECY. 
 
 127 
 
 Clan-Alpine ne'er in battle stood, 
 But first our broadswords tasted blood. 
 A surer victim still I know, 
 Self-ofiered to the auspicious blow : 
 A spy has sought my land this morn- 
 No eve shall witness his return ! 
 My followers guard each pass's mouth, 
 To east, to westward, and to south ; 
 Red Murdoch, bribed to be his guide, 
 Has charge to lead his steps aside, 
 Till, in deep path or dingle brown. 
 He light on those shall bring him down. 
 — But see, who comes his news to shew 1 
 Malise I what tidings of the foe?' — 
 
 ♦ ^« 
 
 "i« 
 
 iifii 
 
 VIII. 
 
 *At Doune, o'er many a spear and glaive, 
 Two Barons proud their banners wave. 
 I saw the Moray's silver star. 
 And marked the sable pale of Mar.' 
 
 * By Alpine's soul, high tidings those I 
 I love to hear of worthy foes. 
 
 When move they on ?' — * To-morrow's noon 
 Will see them here for battle boune.' 
 
 * Then shall it see a meeting stern ! — 
 But, for the place — say, couldst thou 1 ;arn 
 Nought of the friendly clans of Earr ? 
 Strengthened by them, we well might bide 
 The battle on Benledi's side. 
 
 Thou couldst not? — well I Clan-Alpine's men 
 Shall man the Trosachs' shaggy glen ; 
 Within Loch Katrine's gorge we '11 fight. 
 All in our maids' and matrons' sight, 
 Each for his hearth and household fire, 
 Father for child, and son for sire — 
 Lover for maid beloved ! — But why- 
 Is it the breeze affects mine eye ? 
 Or dost thou ome, ill-omened tear! 
 A messenger of doubt or fear ? 
 No ! sooner may the Saxon lance 
 Unfix Benledi from his stance, 
 Thin doubt or terror can pierce through 
 The unyielding heart of Roderick Dhu I 
 
 •\w 
 
I. 
 II 
 
 tad 
 
 THE LADY Of Tilt: LAKE, [canto IV. 
 
 *Tis stubborn as his trusty tar^e. 
 
 Each to his post! — all know tlicir charge.' 
 
 The pibroch sounds, the bands advance, 
 
 The broadswords gleam, the banners dance, 
 
 Obedient to the Chieftain's glance. 
 
 — 1 turn me from the martial roar, 
 
 And seek Coir-Uriskin once more. 
 
 I; f 
 
 
 11)1 
 
 
 IX. 
 
 Where is the Douglas ? — he is gone 
 And Ellen sits on the gray stone 
 Fast by the cave, and makes her moan ; 
 While vainly Allan's words of cheer 
 Are poured on her unheeding ear. — 
 * He will return — Dear lady, trust ! — 
 With joy return ; — he will — he must. 
 Well was it time to seek, afar, 
 Some refuge from impending war, 
 When e'en Clan-Alpine's rugged swarm 
 Are cowed by the r.pproaching storm. 
 I saw their boats with many a light, 
 Floating the live-long yesternight. 
 Shifting like flashes darted forth 
 By the red streamers of the north ; 
 I marked at morn how close they ride, 
 Thick moored by the lone islet's side. 
 Like wild-ducks couching in the fen, 
 When stoops the hawk upon the glen. 
 Since this rude race dare not abide 
 The peril on the mainland side, 
 Shall not thy noble father's care 
 Some safe retreat for thee prepare ?'-« 
 
 '•lUi 
 
 ■4 
 
 X. 
 
 ELLEN. 
 
 • No, Allan, no ! Pretext so kind 
 My wakeful terrors could not blind. 
 When in such tender tone, yet grave, 
 Douglas a parting blessing gave. 
 The tear that glistened in his eye 
 Drowned not his purpose fixed on high. 
 
 1 :il 
 

 r. 
 
 CANTO IV. 1 
 
 TTTE rROPTTFXY. 
 
 129 
 
 My soul, though feminine and weak, 
 
 Can image his ; e'en as the lake, 
 
 Itself disturbed by slightest siroke, 
 
 Reflects the invulnerable rock. 
 
 He hears report of battle rife. 
 
 He deems himself the cause of strife, 
 
 I saw him redden, when the theme 
 
 Turned, Allan, on thine idle dream 
 
 Of Malcolm Cr.Tme in fetters bound, 
 
 Which I, thou saidst, about him wound. 
 
 Think'st thou he trowed thine omen aught ? 
 
 Oh no ! 'twas apprehensive thought 
 
 For the kind youth — for Roderick too — 
 
 (Let me be just) that friend so true; 
 
 In danger both, and in our cause! 
 
 Minstrel, the Douglas dare not pause. 
 
 Why else that solemn warning given, 
 
 ** If not on earth, we meet in heaven !'* 
 
 Why else, to Cambus-kenneth's fane, 
 
 If eve return him not again, 
 
 Am I to hie, and make me known? 
 
 Alas ! he goes to Scotland's throne. 
 
 Buys his friend's safety with his own ; — 
 
 He goes to do — what I had done. 
 
 Had Douglas* daughter been his son I'— 
 
 XI. 
 
 * Nay, lovely Ellen ! — dearest, nay t \ 
 If aught should his return delay, ' 
 He only named yon holy fane 
 As fitting place to meet again. -V^ 
 Be sure he 's safe ; and for the Grrcmc— 
 Heaven's blessing on his gallant name.!— 
 My visioned sight may yet prove true, 
 Nor bode of ill to him or you. 
 When did my gifted dream beguile ? 
 Think of the stranger at the isle, 
 And think upon the harpings slow. 
 That presaged this approaching woe t 
 Sooth was my prophecy of fear ; 
 Believe it when it augurs cheer. 
 Would we had left this dismal spot I 
 111 luck still haunts a fairy grot 
 
 < ; 
 
 fil 
 

 |n,,„ 
 
 hit. 
 
 130 THE LADY OF THE I.AUi:. [canto IV. 
 
 Of such a wondrous t.ile I know — 
 Dear lady, change that look of woe, 
 My harp was wont thy grief to cheer/— 
 
 ELLEN. 
 
 * Well, be it as 'thou wilt ; I hear, 
 But cannot stop the bursting' tear.* 
 The Minstrel tried his simple art, 
 But distant far was Ellen's heart. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Lallan. 
 
 ALICE BRAND. 
 
 Merry tt is in the good greenwood, 
 
 When the mavis and merle are singin*. 
 
 When the deer sweeps by, and the hounds are m cry. 
 And the hunter's horn is ringing. 
 
 * O Alice Brand, my native land 
 
 Is lost for love of you ; 
 And we must hold by wood and wold, 
 As outlaws wont to do. 
 
 * O Alice, 'twas all for 'ocks so bright, 
 
 And 'twas all for th...- eyes so blue, 
 That, on the night of our luckless flight. 
 Thy brother bold I slew. 
 
 'Now must I teach to hew the beech, 
 
 The hand that held the glaive. 
 For leaves to spread our lowly bed, 
 
 And stakes to fence our cave. 
 
 'And for vest of pall, thy fingers small, 
 
 That wont on harp to stray, 
 A cloak must sheer from the slaughtered deer 
 
 To keep the cold away.' — 
 
 ' O Richard ! if my brother died, 
 
 'Twas but a fatal chance ; 
 For darkling was the battle tried, 
 
 And fortune sped the lance. 
 
O^TO IV.] 
 
 THE PROPHECY. 
 
 »3i 
 
 '• » 
 
 * If pall and vair no more I wear, 
 
 Nor thou the CTinison sheen, 
 As warm, we'll say, is the russet ijray, 
 As gay the forcst-grccn. 
 
 •And, Rii-hard, if our lot be hard, 
 
 And hjst thy native land, 
 Still Alice has her own Richard, 
 
 And he his Alice Brand.' 
 
 XIII. 
 
 BALLAD CONTINUED, 
 rris merry, 'tis merry, in good greenwood, 
 
 So blithe Lady Alice is singing ; 
 On the beech's pride, and the ouk's brown side, 
 
 Lord Richard's axe is ringing. 
 
 Up spoke the moody Elfin King, 
 
 Who woned within the hill — 
 Like wind in the porch of a ruined church, 
 
 His voice was ghostly shrill. 
 
 'Why sounds yon stroke on beech and oak, 
 
 f ur moonlight circle's screen ? 
 Or who comes here to chase the deer, 
 
 Beloved of our Ellin Oueen ? 
 Or who may dare on wold to wear 
 
 The fairies' fatal green ? 
 
 * Up, Urgan, up ! to yon mortal hie, 
 
 For thou wert christened man ; 
 For cross or sign thou wilt not fly, 
 For muttered word or ban. 
 
 'Lay on him th'^ curse of the withered heart, 
 
 The curse of i.;e sleepless eye ; 
 Till he wish and pray that his life would part, 
 
 Nor yet find leave to die.' 
 
 XIV. 
 BALLAD CONTINUED. 
 
 Tis merry, 'tis merry, in good greenwood, 
 Though the birds have stilled their singing j 
 
 The evening blaze doth Alice raise. 
 And Richard is fagots bringing. 
 
 I. I * 
 
 *•? 
 
 M 
 
 n 
 
 '']\- ip: 
 
 ;»!' 
 
13* THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto iv 
 
 Up Urgan starts, that hideous dwarf, 
 
 Before Lord Richard stands,. 
 And, as he crossed and blessed himself, 
 *I fear not sign,' quoth the grisly elf, 
 
 *That is made with bloody hands.* 
 
 But out then spoke she, Alice Brand, 
 
 That woman void of fear — 
 *And if there's blood upon his hand, 
 
 'Tis but the blood of deer.' — 
 
 * Now loud thou liest, thou bold of mood ! 
 
 It cleaves unto his hand, 
 The stain of thine own kindly blood. 
 
 The blood of Ethert Brand.* 
 
 Then forward stepped she, Alice Brand, ♦ 
 
 And made the holy sign — 
 *And if there's blood on Richard's hand, 
 
 A spotless hand is mine. 
 
 *And I conjur** thee, Demon elf, 
 
 By Him whom Demons fear, 
 To shew us whence thou art thyself, 
 
 And what thine errand here?' — 
 
 ^.^.4 
 
 XV. 
 
 BALLAD CONTINUED. 
 
 "Tis merry, 'tis merry, in Fairy-land, 
 
 When fairy birds are singing, 
 When the court doth ride by their monarch's side^ 
 
 With bit and btidle ringing : 
 
 * And gaily shines the Fairy-land — 
 
 But all is glistening show. 
 Like the idle gleam that December's beam 
 Can dart on ice and snow. 
 
 * And fading, like that varied gleam, 
 
 Is our inconstant shape, 
 Who now like knight and lady seem, 
 And now like dwarf and ape. 
 
u- J 
 
 CANTO IV. j 
 
 THE PROPHECV. 
 
 t33 
 
 * It was between the night and day, 
 
 When the Fairy King has power, 
 That I sunk down in a sinful fray, 
 And, 'twixt Hfe and death, was snatched away 
 
 To the joyless Elfin bower. 
 
 * But wist I of a woman bold, 
 
 Who thrice my brow durst sign, 
 I might regain my mortal mold, 
 As fair a form as thine.* 
 
 She crossed him once — she crossed him twice— 
 That lady was so brave ; - 
 
 The fouler grew his goblin hue. 
 The darker grew the cave. 
 
 She crossed him thrice, that lady bold ; 
 
 He rose beneath her hand 
 The fairest knight on Scottish mold, 
 
 Her brother, Ethert Braiid ! 
 
 Merry it is in good greenwood, 
 When the mavis and merle are singing. 
 
 But merrier were they in Dunfermline gray 
 When all the bells were ringing. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Just as the minstrel sounds were staid, 
 
 A stranger climbed the steepy glade ; 
 
 His martial step, his stately mien. 
 
 His hunting suit of Lincoln green. 
 
 His eagle glance, remembrance claims — 
 
 'Tis Snowdoun's Knight, 'tis James Fitz-James. 
 
 Ellen beheld as in a dream. 
 
 Then, starting, scarce suppressed a scream: 
 
 * O stranger ! in such hour of fear. 
 What evil hap has brought thee here ?'— 
 *An evil hap how can it be, 
 
 That bids me look again on thee ? 
 By promise bound, my former guide 
 Met me betimes this morning tide, 
 And marshalled, over bank and bourne, 
 The happy path of my return.* — 
 
 
 ' ft 
 
 M 
 
 
J34 
 
 THE LAt)Y 01? Tilt LAKE. tcANto IV. 
 
 * The happy path ! — what ! said he nought 
 Of war, of battle to be fought, 
 Of guarded pass ? ' — ' No, by my faith I 
 Nor saw I aught could augur scathe.' — 
 ' O haste thee, Allan, to the kern, 
 — Yonder his tartans I discern ; 
 Learn thou his purpose, and conjure 
 That he will guide the stranger sure! — 
 What prompted thee, unhappy man ? 
 The meanest serf in Roderick's clan 
 Had not been bribed by love or fear, 
 Unknown to him to guide thee here.'— 
 
 
 Km 
 
 hi 
 
 XVI L 
 
 ' Sweet Ellen, dear my life must be, 
 
 Since it is worthy care frdmUliee; 
 
 Vet life I hold but idle breath, 
 
 When love or honour 's weighed with death* 
 
 Then let me profit by my chance. 
 
 And speak my purpose bold at once. 
 
 I come to bear thee from a wild, 
 
 Where ne'er before such blossom smiled ; 
 
 By this soft hand to lead thee far 
 
 From frantic scenes of feud and war. 
 
 Near Bochastle my horses wait ; 
 
 They bear us soon to Stirling gate. 
 
 I '11 place thee in a lovely bower, 
 
 I '11 guard thee like a tender flower' • 
 
 * O I hush. Sir Knight t 'twere female art. 
 To say I do not read thy heart ; 
 Too much, before, my selfish ear 
 Was idly soothed my praise to hear. 
 That fatal bait hath lured thee back, 
 In deathful hour, o'er dangerous track ; 
 And how, O how, can I atone 
 The wreck my vanity brought on !— 
 One way remains — I '11 tell him all- 
 Yes ! struggling bosom, forth it shall ! 
 Thou, whose light folly bears the blame. 
 Buy thine own pardon with thy shame i 
 But first — my father is a man 
 Outlawed and exiled, under ban } 
 
 I 
 
.' ^ ;; 
 
 <lANtO IV. 1 
 
 tHE t>ROt»HECY. 
 
 tSJ 
 
 The price of blood is on his head, 
 
 With me 'twere infamy to wed. — 
 
 Still wouldst thou speak ? — then hear the truth t 
 
 Fit2-James, there is a noble youth— 
 
 If yet he is I — exposed for me 
 
 And mine to dread extremity — 
 
 Thou hast the secret of my heart ; 
 
 Forgive, be generous, and depart V 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Fitz- James knew every wily train 
 
 A lady's fickle heart to gain, 
 
 But here he knew and felt them vain. 
 
 There shot no glance from Ellen's eye, 
 
 To give her steadfast speech the lie ; 
 
 In maiden confidence she stood, 
 
 Though mantled in her cheek the blood, 
 
 And told her love with such a sigh 
 
 Of deep and hopeless agony, 
 
 As death had sealed her Malcolm's doom. 
 
 And she sat sorrowing on his tomb. 
 
 Hope vanished from Fitz-James's eye, 
 
 But not with hope fled sympathy. 
 
 He proffered to attend her side, 
 
 As brother would a sister guide. — 
 
 * O ! little know'st thou Roderick's heart I 
 
 Safer for both we go apart. 
 
 O haste thee, and from Allan learn. 
 
 If thou mayst trust yon wily kern.' 
 
 With hand upon his forehead laid, 
 
 The conflict of his mind to shade, 
 
 A parting step or two he made : 
 
 Then, as some thought had crossed his braln^ 
 
 He paused, and turned, and came again. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 * Hear, lady, yet, a parting word ! — 
 It chanced in fi^ht that my poor sword 
 Preserved the life of Scotland's lord. 
 This ring the grateful monarch gave. 
 And bade, when I had boon to crave, 
 
 •:# 
 
 
 
!> 
 
 
 136 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. [can;o iv 
 
 To bring it back, and boldly claim 
 
 The recompense that I would name. 
 
 Ellen, J am no courtly lord, 
 
 But one who lives by lance and sword, 
 
 Whose castle is his helm and shield, 
 
 H is lordship the embattled field. 
 
 What from a prince can I demand, 
 
 Who neither reck of state nor land ? 
 
 Ellen, thy hand — the ring is thine ; 
 
 Each guard and usher knows the sign. 
 
 Seek thou the king without delay ; 
 
 This signet shall secure thy way ; 
 
 And claim thy suit, whate'er it be. 
 
 As ransom of his pledge to me.' 
 
 He placed the golden circlet on, 
 
 Paused — kissed her hand — and then was gbne 
 
 The aged Minstrel stood aghast,^ 
 
 So hastily Fitz-James shot past. 
 
 He joined his guide, and wending down 
 
 The ridges of the mountain brown. 
 
 Across the stream they took their way, 
 
 That joins Loch Katnne to Achray. 
 
 XX. 
 
 All in the Trosachs' glen was still, 
 Noontide was sleeping on the hill : 
 Sudden his guide whooped loud and high— 
 * Murdoch I was that a signal cry?' — 
 He stammered forth — * I shout to scare 
 Yon r^aven from his dainty fare.' 
 He looked — he knew the raven's prey. 
 His own brave steed : — * Ah, gallant gray I 
 For thee — for me, perchance — 'twere well 
 We ne'er had seen the Trosachs' dell. — 
 Murdoch, move first — but silently ; 
 Whistle or whoop, and thou shalt die 1 * 
 Jtulous and sullen on they fared, 
 Each silent, each upon his guard. 
 
 XXL 
 
 Now wound the path its dizzy ledge 
 Around a precipice's edge, 
 
 I 
 
CANTO TV.] 
 
 THE PROPHECY. 
 
 137 
 
 When lo ! a wasted female form, 
 
 BIi;^lited by wrath of sun and storm, 
 
 In tattered weeds and wild an ay, 
 
 Stood on a cliff beside the way, 
 
 And glancing round her restless eye, 
 
 Upon the wood, the rock, the sky, 
 
 Seemed nought to mark, yet all to spy. 
 
 Her brow was wreathed with gaudy broom ; 
 
 With gesture wild she waved a plume 
 
 Of feathers, which the eagles fling 
 
 To crag and clifif from dusky wing ; 
 
 Such spoils her desperate step had sought, 
 
 Where scarce was footing for the goat. 
 
 The tartan plaid she first descried. 
 
 And shrieked till all the rocks replied ; 
 
 As loud she laughed when near they drew. 
 
 For then the Lowland garb she knew ; 
 
 And then her hands she wildly wrung, 
 
 And then she wept, and then she sung— 
 
 She sung ! — the voice, in better time, 
 
 Perchance to harp or lute might chime ; 
 
 And now, though strained and rou;^hened, still 
 
 Rung wildly sweet to dale and hill. 
 
 XXII. 
 SONG. 
 
 They bid me sleep, they bid me pray, 
 
 They say my brain is warped and wrung— 
 
 I cannot sleep on Highland brae, 
 I cannot pray in Highland tongue. 
 
 But were I now where Allan glides, 
 
 Or heard my native Devan's tides. 
 
 So sweetly would I rest, and pray 
 
 That Heaven would close my wintry day. 
 
 Twas thus my hair they bade me braid, 
 They made me to the church repair ; 
 
 It was my bridal morn, they said. 
 And my true love would meet me there. 
 
 But woe betide the cruel guile, 
 
 That drowned in blood the morning smile ! 
 
 And woe betide the fairy dream ! 
 
 I only waked to sob and scream. 
 
 ', ',* 
 
 'I 
 
'i 
 
 
 135 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto IV. 
 
 XXIIL 
 
 *Who is this maid? what means her la/? 
 
 She hovers o'er the hollow way, 
 
 And flutters wide her mantle gray, 
 
 As the lone heron spreads his wing, 
 
 By twilight, o'er a haunted spring.' — 
 
 **Tis Blanche of Devan,' Murdoch said, 
 
 *A crazed and captive Lowland maid, 
 
 Ta'en on the morn she was a bride, 
 
 When Roderick forayed Devan-side. 
 
 The gay bridegroom resistance made. 
 
 And felt our Chief's unconqucred blade. 
 
 I marvel she is now at large, 
 
 But oft she 'scapes from Maudlin's charge. — 
 
 Hence, brain-sick fool!' — He raise 1 liis bow: — 
 
 ' Now, if thou strik'st her but one blow, 
 
 I '11 pitch thee from ihe cliff as (ar 
 
 As ever peasant pitched a bar!* 
 
 'Thanks, champion, thanks !' the Maniac cried, 
 
 And pressed her to Fitz-James's side. 
 
 ' See the gray pennons I prepare, 
 
 To seek my true-love through the air ! 
 
 I will not lend that savage groom, 
 
 To break his fall, one downy plume ! 
 
 No ! — deep amid disjointed stones. 
 
 The wolves shall batten on his bones, 
 
 And then shall his detested plaid. 
 
 By bush and brier in mid air staid, 
 
 Wave forth a banner fair and free, 
 
 Meet signal for their revelry.* — 
 
 XXIV. 
 * Hush thee, poor maiden, and be still !*— 
 •O! thou look'st kindly, and I will. — 
 Mine eye has dried and wasted been, 
 But still it loves the Lincoln green ; 
 And, though mine ear is all unstrung, 
 Still, still it loves the Lowland tongue. 
 
 'For O my sweet William was forester true, 
 
 He stole poor Blanche's heart away ! 
 His coat it was all of the greenwood hue, 
 
 And so blithely he trilled the Lowland lay I 
 
CANTO IV.] 
 
 THE PROPHECY. 
 
 ' It wns not tluit I meant to tell . . , 
 But thou art wise, and guessest well/ 
 Then, in a low and broken tone, 
 And hurried note, the song went on. 
 
 Still on the Clansmnn, fearfully, 
 She fixed her apprehensive eye ; 
 Then turned it on the Knight, and then 
 Her look glanced wildly o'er the ^Icn. 
 
 'j* 
 
 •• t»l 
 
 XXV. 
 
 •The toils are pitched, and the stakes are set, 
 
 Ever sing merrily, merrily ; 
 The bows they bend, and the knivci they whet, 
 
 Hunters live so cheerily. 
 
 * It was a stag, a stag of ten. 
 
 Bearing his branches sturdily ; 
 He came stately down the glen, 
 Ever sing hardily, hardily. 
 
 * It was there he met with a wounded doc;, 
 
 She was bleeding deathfully ; 
 She warned him of the toils below, 
 O, so faithfully, faithfully ! 
 
 * He had an eye, and he could heed, 
 
 Ever sing warily, warily ; 
 He had a foot, anil he could speed- 
 Hunters watch so narrowly.' 
 
 {3.1 
 
 :iii 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Fitz-James's mind was passion-tossed, 
 When Ellen's hints and fears were lost ; 
 But Murdoch's shout suspicion wrou.i;ht, 
 And Blanche's song conviction brought,*— 
 Not like a stag that spies the snare, 
 But lion of the hunt aware. 
 He waved at once his blade on high, 
 * Disclose thy treachery, or die ! * 
 Forth at full speed the Clansman fle\7| 
 But in his race his bow he drew. 
 
140 
 
 THE T.ADY OF THE LAKE, [canto iv. 
 
 The sliaft just j^razcd Fitz-Jamcs's crest, 
 
 And thrilled in IJlanchc's f.ided breast — 
 
 Murdoch of Alpine ! prove thy speed, 
 
 For ne'er had Alpine's son such need ! 
 
 With heart of fire, and foot of wind, 
 
 The fierce avenger is behind ! 
 
 Fate jud;4es of the r.ipid strife — 
 
 The forfeit death — the prize is life ! 
 
 Thy kindred ambush lies before, 
 
 Close couched upon the heathery moor; 
 
 Them couldst thou reach ! — it may not be— 
 
 Thine ambushed kin thou ne'er shalt see, 
 
 The fiery Saxon gains on thee ! 
 
 — Resistless speeds the deadly thrust, 
 
 A., lightning strikes the pine to dust ; 
 
 Witli foot and hand Fitz-James must strain, 
 
 lire he can win his blade again. 
 
 Dent o'er the fall'n, with falcon eye^ 
 
 He grimly smiled to see him die ; 
 
 Then slower wended back his way, 
 
 Where the poor maiden bleeding lay. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 She sate beneath the birchen tree, 
 
 Her elbow resting on her knee ; 
 
 She had withdrawn the fatal shaft. 
 
 And gazed on it, and feebly laughed ; 
 
 Her wreath of broom and feathers gray, 
 
 Daggled with blood, beside her lay. 
 
 The Knight to stanch the life-stream tried— 
 
 * Stranger, it is in vain ! ' she cried. 
 
 'This hour of death has given me more 
 
 Of reason's power than years before j 
 
 For, as these ebbing veins decay, 
 
 My frenyied visions fade away. 
 
 A helpless injured wretch I die, 
 
 And something tells me in thine eye, 
 
 That thou wert mine avenger born. — 
 
 Seest thou this tress ? — O ! still 1 Ve worn 
 
 This little tress of yellow hair, 
 
 Through danger, frenzy, and despair ! 
 
 It once wr*s bright and clear as thine, 
 
 But blood and tears have dimmed its shine. 
 
CANtO IV.j 
 
 THE l>ROPttECV. 
 
 Ht 
 
 I will not tell thee when 'twas shred, 
 Nor frbm what guiltless victim's head — 
 My brain would turn ! — but it shall wave 
 Like plumage on thy helmet brave, 
 Till sun and wind shall bleach the stain, 
 And thou wilt bring it me again. — 
 I waver still. — O God ! more bright 
 Let reason beam her parting light ! — 
 
 ! by thy knighthood's honoured sign, 
 And for thy life preserved by mine, 
 When thou shalt see a darksome man, 
 
 Who boasts him Chief of Alpine's clan, • 
 With taitans broad and shadowy plume, 
 And hand of blood, and brow of gloom, 
 Be thy heart bold, thy weapon strong, 
 And wreak poor Blanche of Devan's wrong?— 
 They watch for thee by pass and fell . . . 
 Avoid the path . . . O God ! . . . farewelL' 
 
 XXVI IL 
 A kindly heart had brave Fitz-James ; 
 Fast poured his eyes at pity's claims, 
 And now, with mingled grief and ire, 
 He saw the murdered maid expire. , 
 
 * God, in my need, be my relief, 
 As I wreak this on yonder Chief I* 
 A lock from Blanche's tresses fair 
 
 He blended with her bridegroom's hair j 
 The mingled braid in blood he dyed. 
 And placed it on his bonnet-side : 
 
 * By H im, whose word is tmth ! I swear, 
 No other favour will I wear, 
 
 Till this sad token I imbrue 
 
 In the best blood of Roderick Dhu ! 
 
 — But hark ! what means yon faint halloo ? 
 
 The chase is up — but they shall know, 
 
 1 he stag at bay 's a dangerous foe.* 
 Barred from the known but guarded way, 
 Through copse and cliffs Fitz-James must stray 
 And oft must change his desperate track, 
 
 By stream and precipice turned back. 
 Heartless, fatigued, and faint, at length, 
 Fcom lack of food and loss of strength. 
 
 :» 
 
 J 
 
 i::t< 
 
 m 
 
 I) 
 
 .4 
 
t4i tllE LADV 0^ tllE Lake, [canto IV. 
 
 He couched him in a thicket hoar, 
 
 And thought his toils and perils o'er: — 
 
 *0f all my rash adventures pa^t, 
 
 This frantic feat must prove the last ! 
 
 Who e'er so mad but might have guessed, 
 
 That all this Highland horneVj nest 
 
 Would muster up in swarms so soon 
 
 As e'er they heard of bands at Doune ? 
 
 Like bloodhounds now they search me out-— 
 
 Maik, to the whistle and the shout! — 
 
 If faither through the wilds I go, 
 
 1 anly fall upon the foe: 
 
 1 '11 couch me here till evening gray, 
 
 Then darkling try my dangerous way.' 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 The shades of eve come slowly down. 
 
 The woods are wrapt in deeper browii, 
 
 The owl awakens from her dell, 
 
 The fox is heard upon the fell ; 
 
 Enough remains of glimmering light 
 
 To guide the wanderer's steps aright, 
 
 \ et not enough from far to shew 
 
 His figure to the watchful foe. 
 
 With cautious step, and ear awake, 
 
 He climbs the crag and threads the brakef 
 
 And not the summer solstice, there, 
 
 Tempered the midnight mountain air. 
 
 But every breeze, that swept the wold, 
 
 Benumbed his drenched limbs with cold. 
 
 In dread, in danger, and alone, 
 
 Famished and chilled, through ways unknown, 
 
 Tangled and steep, he journeyed on ; 
 
 Till, as a rock's huge point he turned, 
 
 A watch-fire close before him burned. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Beside its embers red and clear. 
 
 Basked, in his plaid, a mountaineer ; 
 
 And up he sprung with sword in hand— - 
 
 'Thy name and purpose ! Saxon, stand 1*— Jr 
 
V, 
 
 CANTO IV.] 
 
 THE I'ROPIIECY. 
 
 143 
 
 * A stranjjcr.' — 'What dost thou require?' — 
 ' Rest and a guide, and food and fire. 
 My life's beset, my path is lost, 
 The gale has chilled my limbs with frost.' — 
 'Art thou a friend to Roderick?' — ' No.' — 
 
 * Thou darest not call thyself a foe ?' — 
 
 * I dare ! to liim and all the band 
 He brings to aid his murderous hand.' — . 
 
 * Bold words ! — but, though the beast of game 
 The privilege of chase may claim. 
 
 Though space and law the stag we lend. 
 
 Ere hound we slip, or bow we bend, 
 
 Who ever recked, where, how, or when, 
 
 The prowling fox was trapped or slain? 
 
 T lus treacherous scouts— yet sure they lie. 
 
 Who say thou camest a secret spy?* — 
 
 'They do, by Heaven ! — Come Roderick Dhw, 
 
 And of his clan the boldest two, 
 
 And let me but till morning rest, 
 
 1 write the false lood on their crest.' — 
 
 * If by the blaze I mark aright, 
 
 Thou bear'st the belt and spur of Knight.' — 
 'Then by these tokens mayst thou know 
 Each prouil onnrcssor's mortal foe.' — 
 'Enough, eiiou'^n ; sit down and snare 
 A soldier's couch, a soldier's fare.* 
 
 •«i 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 He gave him of his Highland cheer, 
 
 The hardened flesh of mountain deer ; 
 
 Dry fuel on the fire he laid. 
 
 And bnde the Saxon share his plaid. 
 
 He tended him like welcome guest, 
 
 Then thus his further speech addressed i-^ 
 
 'Stranger, I am to Roderick Dhu, 
 
 A clansman born, a kinsman true ; 
 
 Each word against his honour spoke, 
 
 Demands of me avenging stroke ; 
 
 Yet more — upon my fate, 'tis said, '-''''' 
 
 A mighty augury is laid. 
 
 It rests with me to wind my horn— 
 
 fhou aft wi^h number^ overborne : 
 
 ^'i. 
 
144 
 
 ip 
 
 if 
 
 If 
 
 I 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto iv. 
 
 It rests with me, here, brand to brant!, 
 
 Worn as thou art, to bid thee stand : 
 
 But, not for clan, nor kindred's cause, 
 
 Will I depart from honour's laws ; 
 
 To assail a wearied man were shame, 
 
 And stia nger is a holy name ; 
 
 Guidance and rest, and food and fire, 
 
 In vain he never must require. 
 
 Then rest thee here till dawn of day ; 
 
 Myself will guide thee on the way. 
 
 O'er stock and stone, througii watch and w:ir:1, 
 
 Till past Clan-Alpine's outmost guard, 
 
 As far as Coilantoglc's ford ; 
 
 From thence thy warrant is thy sword.* — 
 
 * I take thy courtesy, by Heaven, 
 
 As freely as 'tis nobly j^iven !'— 
 
 'Well rest thee ; for the bittern's cry 
 
 Sings us the lake's wild lullaby.' 
 
 With that he shook the gathered heath, 
 
 And spread his plaid upon the wreath ; 
 
 And the brave foemen, side by side. 
 
 Lay peaceful down like brothers tried. 
 
 And slept until the dawning beam 
 
 Purpled the mountain and the .stream. \ 
 
V. 
 
 c 
 
 H 
 
 •«1 
 
 NOTES 
 
 CANTO IV, 
 
 "Opens with more incantations," The clans are gathered, the 
 Lowlanders are at Doune wailing the command to advance, air I 
 Brian tries by a weird augury to discover wliat shall be the issiiL' 
 of the fight. He lakes care to magnify iiis own courage and 
 merit in so doing, and declares as the result of his spells that 
 the victory will rest with tliose that draw the first blood. Mean- 
 time the Douglas has left his daughter in Allan's charge, and 
 himself is gone on some secret errand, which he doesn.t confide 
 to them. Ellen's fears are aroused. She feels as by instinct 
 that her father has gone to purchase, by surrender of himself, 
 the release of Malcolm Graeme, whom they imagine to be captive. 
 In vain the minstrel seeks to cheer her grief. She gives little 
 heed to his song. It is hardly ended when Fitz-James aj^ain 
 appears, bent now on carrying her off with him to Stirling, 
 away from noise of battle. She has recognised his noble nature, 
 and feels that the safest v iy is to trust him with her secret. lie 
 offers to stay for her protection ; but Ellen knows better than he 
 the danger that this would involve to them both, and declines 
 the offer. So he leaves with her a ring, a pledge, as he says, 
 which he received from the king, and which will assure her of 
 the king's protection. He returns to his guide, who is really a 
 clansman of Roderick, set to draw him on, in the belief that he 
 is a spy. They set off eastward, when suddenly the guide gives 
 a loud whoop. Fitz-James, to whom Allan Bane has already 
 suggested doubts of the man's truth, fancies that this is a signal 
 cry; but Murdoch manages for the time to lull his suspicions. 
 Presently they come ujjon a wild-looking woman, taken captive, 
 as Murdoch relates, in one of Clan-Alpine's raids in the Low- 
 lands. It had been her wedding-morn, and her husband had 
 fallen by Roderick's sword. Her reason had given way; but 
 one passion, that of revenge, is awake still. She recognises tlie 
 knight's Lowland dress, and warns him in a wild scmg of )iis 
 danger. He turns upon his guide, and bids him disclose liis 
 treachery. But the man takes to his heels, first discharging a 
 Parthian shot, which grazes the knight's helmet, and fatally 
 wounds poor Blanche. Murdoch's speed is vain; he is over- 
 
 4 
 
 I" 
 
 i. 
 
 r 
 
 it I 
 
 ^ I 
 
 !i!'„ 
 
 3_S 
 
mmi 
 
 14^ 
 
 tHE LADV 6F the lake, [canto iV 
 
 t.iken and slain before he can reach h's fiends ; ai;d Fitz-James, 
 soothing the mad woman in her last l.ou •, swears to avenjje her 
 wrong on Roderick. Left w thout guide in the midst of foes he 
 deems it prudent not to advance till nightfall. Then he pursues 
 his way as be-t he can ; but soon comes full upon one of the 
 enemy's watch-fires. He boldly avows himself Roderick's foe ; 
 but the stranger, assured that he is not a spy, refuses to take 
 advantage of his weariness, and gives him shelter for the night, 
 promising to guide him on the morrow to the border of the king's 
 domain. 
 
 Note the ballad of Alice Brand, which catches well the weird- 
 ness, as well as the rhyihm of the old ballads; and the episode of 
 Blanche of Devan, wliich is fuH of beauty, whatever judgment be 
 passed on the use which is maue of it for Fitz-James's warning. 
 
 The description of the Taghairm is another instance of the 
 same fondness for antiquarianism which has given us the long 
 details of the Fiery Cross. It seems a pity to have so much of 
 this in a poem whose mnin interest is not antic]uarian. The 
 ballad is probably only meant as a specimen of border minstrelsy, 
 though it may not be fanciful to read in it the lesson so suited to 
 Ellen's position, that purity and innocence ar«; the best ground? 
 of courage, and will conquer difficulties, which guilty hands are 
 powerless to overcome. Fitz-James' . gift of the ring, though a 
 somewhat stale <levice, prepares for the final dejiottefiient. 
 
 Of the episotle of Blanche of Devan Lord Jeffrey speaks very 
 sfn-ereiy. "No macliinery," he says, "can be conceived more 
 clumsy for effecting the deliverance of a distressed hero than the 
 introduction of a mad woman, who, without knowing or caring 
 about the wanderer, warns him, by a soni;^, to take care of the 
 ambush that was set for him." And to make a maniac sing good 
 sense, and sensible people be guided by it, he thinks "a rash 
 extension of the privileges of the maniacs of poetry." This 
 criticism seems unjust. The cruelty of Roderick's raids in the 
 Lowlands has already been hinted at, and the sight of the Low- 
 
 land dress 
 
 might 
 
 well stir associations in the poor girl's mind 
 
 which would lead her to look to the knight for help and protec- 
 tion, and also to \. ^rn h'm of his danger. It is plain, from 
 Murdoch's surprise, that her being out of her captors' sight is 
 looked on as dangerous, from which we may infer that she is not 
 entirely crazed. Her song is not the only hint that Fitz-James 
 follows. His suspicions had already twice been excited, so that 
 the episode seems i.atural enough. As giving a distinct personal 
 ground for the comi^at in canto v., it serves the poet's purpose 
 still further. \Vith.)ut it, we should sympathize too much with 
 the robber chief, 'vho thinks that "plimdering Lowland field and 
 fold is naught but retribution true;" but the sight of this sad 
 huii of his raids wins us back to the cause of law and or^sr. 
 
(Asto IV. j NOTES— THE PROPHECY. 
 
 U? 
 
 Siama I. — When it dawns from fears. Cp. the Greek Tv<t>\ht 
 U StSopKOTos. This use of 'from' is not common ; it combines 
 ihe idea of 'starting from'w'ith that of 'chantje.' Compare, 
 " You from a stranger to become my confidant." — Coleridge, 
 IVallenstein^ iv. 4. " The greatest part bad been born peasants, 
 and had risen /r^/// private soldiers by military merit." — Gibbon. 
 
 2. — ^pray, a small shoot or branch of a tree. (O.H.G. 
 'spraioh,' 'twigs.') Akin to 'spread,' A.S. 'sprsedan.' The 
 form 'spraid' is used in the eastern counties for 'to sprinkle.' 
 So tlie spray of water when it spreads out. For the dropping of 
 d, compare Low German 'spreden,' 'spreen.' 
 
 Sentinel. French 'sentineJle,' Italian ' sentinella ;* generally 
 derived from Latin 'sentire,' 'to perceive,' as 'scout' from 
 'scolta' ('auscultare'), 'one who listens.' It is difficult to ac- 
 count for the /«, though Littre adduces ' Sentinus,' the name of 
 a god, derived from 'sentio.' Wedgwood derives from Old 
 PVench 'sente,' Latin 'semita,' from the short track or beat of 
 the sentinel. This derivation is corroborated by the fact that in 
 some country districts of France 'sentier'='sergent de ville,' 
 watch. [The suggestion of 'sentina,' 'the water in the hold;' 
 1.^. ' one who watches the water in the hold, ' may be dismissed ] 
 
 Braes oj Doune. The name given to the undulating country 
 north of the Teith, between Callander and Doune, a village half 
 way to Stirling. 
 
 Scont. French 'ecouter.' See last note but one. 
 
 Glentarkin. In Perthshire, on the north of Lochearn. The 
 mau takes his name from his residence. 
 
 3. — Band of war. Note the genitive for the adjective — *a 
 warrior-band 
 
 Doune (Gaelic 'dun,' 'a castle,' 'fort,' 'mound'), on a penin- 
 sula formed by the confluence of the Ardoch and the Teith. 
 The castle is the property of the earls of Moray. 
 
 Bout, or 'bought.' A.S. 'bugan,* to bow or bend. "The 
 bou^hts of a rope are the separate folds when coiled in a circle ; 
 and as tliC coils come round and round in similar circles, a boiU 
 is applied to the turns of things that succeed one another at 
 certain intervals." — Wedgwood. 
 
 The warrior's plaid may bear it out. A good instance of 
 poetic terseness. ' The warrior may bear it out : his plaid is 
 sufficient shelter for him ; but how provide shelter for thy bride ?' 
 
 4. — The Taghairm called ; by which, afar. 
 Our sires foresaw the events of xoar. 
 
 
 :1 1 
 
 ISP 
 
 «• 
 
 The Highlanders, like all rude people, had various superstitiotu 
 
 Ijf^. 
 

 mm^ 
 
 mm 
 
 t4S 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [can to iv. 
 
 I 
 
 modes of inquiring into futurity. One of tlie most noted was 
 the Taghairm [from 'targair,' to foretell 1, mentioned in the 
 text. A person was wrapped up in the skin of a newly-slain 
 bullock, and deposited beside a waterfall, or at the bottom of a 
 precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, 
 where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of 
 horror. In this situation he revolved in his mind the question 
 proposed, and whatever was impressed upon him by his- exalted 
 imagination passed for the inspiration of the disembodied spirits 
 who haunt the desolate recesses." — Scott. 
 
 Gallnngad. Apparently part of the Lennox district, near 
 Strath Endrick. The incident here related actually happened 
 in one of Rob Roy's raids. 
 
 Kernes (Gaelic 'cearlharnach,' light-armed fighting men). 
 "They had spears, swords, and dirks, but bows and arrows were 
 their usual arms." The term became in the Low Country one 
 of reproach, being associated with ideas of foraging and plunder. 
 The heavy- armed soldier was called * Galloglach.' Hence 
 Shakespeare's 
 
 " Of Keins and Callmvglasses is supplied." — Macbeth, i. 2. 
 
 Beat 'maha, "the pass of the plain," on the east of Loch 
 Lomond, opposite Inch-Calliach. 
 
 Lennans Roia, or Rowardennan, at the foot of Ben Lomond, 
 by the side of the lake, about six miles above Beal 'maha. 
 
 5. — Boss, 'p'.ojcction.' German 'butze,' a blunt point or 
 lump ; Dutch 'butse,' a boil ; Breton 'bos,' a tumnm. 
 
 IJero's Targe. "A rock in the forest of Glenlinlas, by which 
 a tumultuary cataract takes its course. " — Scott. 
 
 Shelve, a slanting part of the rock. Swiss 'schelb,' slanting; 
 Old Norse 'skjaigr,' oblique. Hence our 'shallow,' 'shoal.* 
 The noun is seldom used. ' Shelf is a different word, from A. S. 
 'scylfe,' *a board,' 'bench.' 
 
 firoke, 'quartered.' " Everything belonging to the chase was 
 matter of solemnity among our ancestors ; but notliing was more 
 so than the mode of cutting up, or, as it was tecliiiicaily called, 
 breaking, the slaughtered stag. The forester had his allotted 
 portion, the hounds had a certain allowance, and, to make the 
 division as general as possible, the very birils had their share 
 also. "—Scott. 
 
 "Marian. He that undoes him 
 
 Doth cleave the brisket bone, upon the spoon 
 Of which a little gristle grows: you call it 
 
 *' Rubin Hoi to. The raven's bone. 
 
 " Marian. Now o'er head sat a raven 
 
 On a sere bough, a grown, great bird, and hoarse, 
 Who, all the while the deer was breaking up, 
 
CA^ ro IV.] NOTES— THE PROPHECY. 
 
 149 
 
 So croak'd and cried for 't, as all the huntsmen. 
 Especially old Scathloci<, thought it ominous." 
 
 — Ben Jonsov, Sad .Shepherd, i. 2. 
 Compare the description in the Bride of Lammermoor, ch. ix. ! 
 " Bucklaw was soon stript to his doultlet, with tucked-up sleeves, 
 . . . slashing, cutting, hacking, and hewing, . . . and wrang- 
 ling and disputing with all around him concerning nombles, 
 briskets, flankards, and raven-bones." 
 
 6. — Fed feverish pang, &c. See note on canto iii. 28. 
 
 Avouch \Vxci\ch 'avouer,' Latin 'advocare'). An 'advocatus' 
 at Rome was a friend summoned to support an accused person by 
 his presence, which might be an evidence of the respectability 
 of the accused, or ani ndication that it was dangerous to touch 
 him. So in feudal times a tenant whose rights were impugned 
 called upon his lord to defend them. By so doing he acknow- 
 ledged all the duties involved in feudal tenancy, and avowed ilie 
 person whom he summoned to be his lord. Hence to 'avow' 
 or 'avouch ' is 'to admit or confess openly.* 
 Which spills the foremost foeiuan' s life. 
 That party conquers in the strife. 
 "Though this be in the text described as a response of the 
 Taghairm, or Oracle of the Hide, it was of itself an augury 
 frequently attended to. The fate of the battle was often antici- 
 pated in the imagination of the combatants by observing which 
 party first shed blood. It is said that the Highlanders under 
 Montrose were so deeply imbued with this notion, that on the 
 morning of the battle of Tippermoor they murdered a defence- 
 less herdsman, whom they found in the fields, merely to secure 
 an advantage of so much consequence to their party." — Scott. 
 
 
 1 ,■?' 
 
 8. — Glaive. French 'glaive,* Latin 'gladius,' 'a sword.* 
 
 Silver star, sable pale. Heraldic emblems. 
 
 Boune; 'ready,' 'prepared.* The same word is found in our 
 'outward hound. It is the past participle * buinn ' of Icelandic 
 'biia,* to make ready, or (intransitively) to dwell ; compare Greek 
 'bauen,' our 'big'=to build. 'Busk' is the reflexive form of the 
 same word = to get ready. So in Piers Plowman, ii. 159 — 
 "And bad hem alle he bown, beggeres and othere, 
 To wenden wyth hem to Westmynstre." 
 
 Earn, a river in Perthshire, which flows east from Loch^ar«, 
 on the north of Glenartney, and falls into the Tay below Perth. 
 
 Stance; 'station,* 'base,' 'foundation.' Latin 'sto,* Italian 
 * stanza.' "Every man had a dry grave'lish stance whereon to 
 found his house." — ^Jamieson. 
 
 9. — Ked streamers of the north / i.e pf the Aurora Borealis or 
 
 liii 
 
 '••; 
 
 4 IS 
 
 ■ 
 
 I 
 
 I' 
 
ISO 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto iv. 
 
 1 1 
 
 Northern T t^Iits, which often consist of a series of bands of red 
 li^jlil meetiiiv; in one quarter of the heavens. Compare Lay^ ii. 8— 
 **,i\ncl red and bright the streamers lijht 
 Were dancing in the glowing north." 
 
 lo. — Rife. 'Abundant,' 'prevalent.' O.N. 'rffr,' liberal; 
 Dutch * rijf,' copious. 
 
 In fetters bound. The minstrel had spoken of the fetters of 
 love which Ellen had wound round him. Douglas takes it of 
 actual fetters. 
 
 Trowed. 'Trusted,' 'believed.' A.S. 'treowian,* 'treovVt'true. 
 
 Cambus-kennetli. A famous abbey on one of the links of 
 Forth, about a mile east of Stirling. James III. was buried 
 here after the battle of Sauchie-burn, in which he was defeated 
 and slain a.d. 14SS. 
 
 Hie. A.S. 'higan,* to hasten, to endeavour; Danish *hige,' 
 to pant. 
 
 II. — /// luck still {i.e. always) haunts a fairy grot. This is the 
 introduction to the ballad that follows. 
 
 12. — ^The metre of this ballad is very varied. Its basis is the 
 common ballad-metre, a line of four accents followed by on* of 
 three, with alternate lines rhyming, so as to form a four-line verse. 
 The second verse is an instance of this. But this is varied in 
 several ways, (i.) By substituting three-syllabled feet for the 
 iambus, thus giving greater rapidity and "go" to the line; e.g. 
 
 *' When the deer sweeps by', and the hounds are in cry'." 
 Or in the second line — 
 
 " And 'twas ill for thine ^yes so blue." 
 (2.) In the first verse of each division, and the last verse of all, 
 by the double rhymes 'singing,' 'ringing.' (3.) By the multi- 
 plication of rhymes in the four-accent lines, the verse being split 
 into two halves ; e.g. — 
 
 " And we must hold by wood and 7vold, 
 Like the idleglMm that December's bedm.** 
 The rhyme between the first and third lines of the ballad metre 
 is not essential ; but it will be found that Sir W. Scoit has used 
 it here wherever there is no rhyme between the two halves of 
 either line. The story is taken from an old Danish ballad. 
 
 Mavis.- 'Thrush,' French 'mauvis.' Supposed to be so 
 callal because it is destructive to the vines, 'mahun vitis.' Dicz 
 d<ri es it from 'miloid,' the Breton name for a gull or seamevv. 
 
 ALrle. 'Blackbird,* Latin 'merula."' 
 
 I Void. Grassy ground. Old Danish 'void,' a field. 
 
 Wont. See i. 20, and note. 
 
 Pall, Gaelic 'peall' (Latin 'pellis'), a skin covering, a dork 
 
CANTO IV.] NOTES— THE PROPHECY. 
 
 «Si 
 
 or mantle, especially a mantle of state worn by nobles or 
 ecclesiastics (ihe ' [jallium '), now npplled to the cluak thaf, 
 covers tuc coi'm at a luneial; hence the material of which it 
 was xwrilc, jLie clofh, Fai.liolt quotes from an old Christmas 
 caroi-- 
 
 " Neither shall be clothed in purple or m pall S 
 hut ill fine linen, as are babies all." 
 So in Thomas the Khymer, stanza 3, Scott has — 
 "And ladies, laced m pall." 
 
 iM*/liH^. 'In the dari<;' a poetical word used by Milton, 
 /*. X.. iii. 39, and by Shakespeare, A/. M D. ii. 3. '1 he teruu« 
 ration -ling, li!<e -long in 'headlong,' is an old adverbial endnig, 
 from the A.S. -linga or lunga. It is still preserved in the 
 Scotch -lins, as in 'aiblins.' Cp. sidling for side-long. 
 
 Vair. (Latin ' varius.') The fur of a squirrel, while on the 
 throat and belly, and grey on the back. The white pa«-t was 
 generally arrangca in lozenges or shields. Cjj. with this pa.-.sage 
 the following from Froissart : " lis (les seigneurs) sont fourres de 
 vairs et de gris, et nous (les paysans) sommes vestus de povres 
 draps. — II. n. 160. H\\q glass slipper of Cinderella has arisen 
 from the substitution of 'verre' for 'vair' by persons who did 
 not know the latter word. The real Cinderella's slipper was 
 edged or lined with 'vair.' 
 
 Russet gray. ' Russet ' is reddish. The name is given to the 
 coarse, home-spun cloth worn by country-people. The origin ol 
 it is indicated in a passage quoted by Richardson from habyai^s 
 Chronicle: " Aboute this tyme the Cr^_y Friars were compelled 
 to take their own habit russet, as the shepe doth dye it." 
 Fairholt quotes (from Delony's Pleasant IJistorie) : " We are 
 country-folks, and must keepe ourselves in good compasse. 
 Gray rtissd and good hempe spun cloth doth best become us." 
 Hence Shakespeare uses the adjective in the sense of homely, 
 countrified. Lmte's Labour Lost, v. 2 — 
 
 " Henceforth my wooing mind shall be exprest 
 In russet yeas and honest kersey noes." 
 
 13. — £l/in. A.S. 'elf,* 'elfen,' a fairy, sprite. 
 
 IVoned. 'Dwelt,' A.S. 'wunian,' German 'wohncn.* See 
 i. 20. In an imitation of the old ballads the word is in its 
 place. "The Daoine Shi', or Men of Peace of the Highlanders, 
 though not absolutely malevolent, are believed to be a peevish, 
 repining race of beings, who, possessing themselves but a scanty 
 portion of happiness, envy mankind their more compete and 
 sulistantial enjoyments. They are supposed to enjoy in their 
 subterraneous recesses a sort of shadowy happiness, a tinsel 
 grandeur, which, however, they would M'illinf;iy exchange for 
 1)1^ more solid ^oys of mortality. 'They are believed to inhabif 
 
 h 
 
 [Ml 
 
 
 ill 
 
 ..w 
 
 'W^^ 
 
 
 n^ 
 
152 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto iv. 
 
 \h 
 
 certain round grassy eminences, where they celebrate their noc- 
 turnal festivities by the light of the moon. About a mile beyond 
 the source of the Forth above Lochcon, there is a place called 
 Coirshi'an, or the Cove of the Men of Peace, which is still 
 supposed to be a favourite place of their residence. In the 
 neifjhbourhood are to be seen many round conical eminences, 
 particularly one near the head of the lake, by the skirts of 
 which many are still afraid to pass after sunset.' — Crahame." 
 Scott. 
 
 Who may dare on avoid to wear 
 The fairies^ fatal green ? 
 " As the Daoine Shi', or Men of Peace, wore green habits, they 
 were supposed to take offence when any mortals ventured to 
 assume their favourite colour." — Scott. 
 
 / 0*1 on him the curse of the withered heart, 
 The airse of the sleepless eye. 
 Cp. Macbeth, i. 3 — 
 
 ** Sleep shall neither night nor day 
 Hang upon his pent-house lid ; 
 Weary sev'n-nights, nine times nine, 
 Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine." 
 
 14. — Bold of mood. See i. 26, note. 
 
 Kindly. Cf thine own 'kin,* or 'kind.' So "The kindly 
 fruits of the earth." 
 
 1 5. — Idle gleam. Why idle ? 
 
 Mold. Shape. 
 
 ^Hi\fcrmline gray. A town in the west of Fife, with an 
 abbey founded by Malcolm TH. about 1075. Here Robert 
 Bruce was buried. 'Grey* fixes the allusion to the Abbey 
 Church. Why? 
 
 16. — Bourne. From- French 'borne,' which is from the Low 
 Latin ' bociina.' It is found in Old French in the form * bonne.' 
 [' Borne' is for 'bosne' = *bodne.' The same word is found in 
 our 'bound.'] The root 'bod* means 'to swell' (cp. English 
 'bud'), so that a 'bourne* is originally 'a raised bank,' and so 
 *a boundary,' 'limit.* 
 
 Sea the; 'hurt,* 'harm.' German 'schade.' So Tennyson, in 
 Guinevere — 
 
 "This life of mine 
 I guard as God's high gift from seathe and wrong. 
 
 ly. — Not a few of James III.'s travels in disguise are mix d 
 lip with adventures of gallantry. Two such are commemorate 
 in The Qaberlitmie M^» and ft^e'll ^ae nae more a rp^i/t^, two 
 
 i 
 
CANTO IV.] NOTES-THE PROPHECY. 
 
 «53 
 
 W1 
 
 i ■ ' ■ 
 
 ' ' '■*■:'' 
 
 ballads which are popularly attributerl to his pen. Burton says: 
 " From the character of his life, he would, according to modern 
 notions, be called a profligate." 
 
 Feu(/. A.S. 'faehth' (from 'fean,' to hate), a deadly quarrel ; 
 ' ft.ehthbot ' is the compensation for homicide. German ' fehd,' 
 "the revenge pursued by the relatives of a murdered man, 
 and the state of lawful warfare which results." 
 
 l8. — 7 rain ; 'device,' 'thpt which lures or draws a person 
 on.' French 'train,' Old French 'trahin,' from Latin 'traho.' 
 So in Alacbeth^ iv. 3 — 
 
 ••Devilish Macbeth 
 By many of these trains hath sought to win me 
 Into his power." 
 
 Steadfast. A.S. 'stedfaest,' firm in place. The samex/m^as 
 in ' \voxn^stead. ' 
 
 Mantled ; 'gathered and spread over it like a mantle.' 
 
 As deaths &c. = as j/C A frequent ellipsis in bcott, as in 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Safer for bo.'h ive go apart illustrates well the origin of the 
 conjunction 'that.' The sentence "we go apart " is the subject 
 to the verb {is understood) ; ' that,' which is originally a demon- 
 strative or article, compresses the sentence in^ one word, like 
 the article t6 with the infinitive in Greek. 
 
 19. — His lordship the embatlLd field. A 'lordship' implied 
 possessions in land. He, he says, owns none but the battle-field. 
 
 Embattled; as 'embalni,' 'embillow.' covered, surrounded 
 with battle. 
 
 Usher, French 'huissier,' the Latin 'ostiorius,' a door-keeper. 
 So a cause is said to be heard ' i huis clos,' with closed doors ; 
 except in this sense ' huis ' is obsolete. 
 
 20. — Ah, gallant gi'ay ! See canto i. stanza 9. 
 
 Fared. A.S. 'faran,' ' feran,' Gothic 'far.in,' German 'fahren' 
 (Greek Tro/jfi/o/uoj), 'to go.' To 'fare well' is 'to go on well.* 
 \fare is the fee lor the journey. ' Ferry' is from the .same root. 
 
 21. — li\rds. A.S. *waed,' a garment.* Now confined to 
 * widow's weeds,' but once used indiscriminately. 
 
 " To ransake in the tas [heap] of bodies dede 
 Hem for to streepe of herneys and of wede." 
 
 —Chaucer, KnighVs Tale, 1. 148. 
 So "In lowly shepherds wrjds." — Si'KNSEk, Faerie Queen, L 
 Introduction. 
 
 Chit'ie. Here== harmonise, or sing. Cp. Chaucer, ^w^x /V<^ 
 lo^e — 
 
 J 
 
 ill 
 
 ••; * 
 
 "•■j»4, 
 
'S 
 
 #1 
 
 • * 
 
 M 
 
 ij4 f llE LADY OF THE tAltl Ccanto <V. 
 
 ** The sely tonge may well ring and chimbe 
 Of wrecchednesse. 
 This spelling has led to the conjecture that the word may come 
 from 'cymbal,' A. S. 'cimbal ;* but the derivation is uncertain. 
 
 22. — IVarped ; '* siwry,* 'distorted.' A.S. 'weorpan,* Gothic 
 •vairpa,' Greek plirru, stem ' vrip ' (? Latin ' verber'). Orifjinally 
 •to cast,' then 'to turn,* 'to' bend.' (Wedgwood compares 'a 
 C(7si in the eye.') 
 " In 7wi/-/ft/ keels "rs'curvis carinis.* — Surrey's F/V^/7, yEn. ii. 
 
 [Of the min .} " Let him straight betimes. 
 
 Lest he for ever warfi." 
 
 — Dryden, Love Triumphant, v. I. 
 To warp, as a na"iical term, means to tow a vessel by means of 
 a hawser attached to an anchor, and so not in a straight course. 
 Hence Milton's 
 "A cloud of locusts 7vai'phtg on the eastern wind." — P. L. i. 341. 
 
 Allan ("the white stream") and l^evan ("the two streams") 
 are two tributaries of the Forth, which flow, one on the north, 
 the other on the south, of the Ochill Hills. The latter is the 
 "clear — winding Devon" of Burus's song. 
 
 23. — Bridegroom. A.S. 'bryd-guma,' the bride's man. The 
 first part (Gothic ' bruths,' daughter-in-law ; German ' l)iaut ') 
 is possibly connected with Welsh ' priod,' appropriated. The 
 second is the Gothic 'guma' (German ' braiiti-^rt/;/ '), the same 
 as the Latin 'hom-o,'from the root of ' hum-us,' Greek \a.ix-a.L 
 
 As ever peasant pitched a bar, ' Putting the bar,' or ' putting 
 the stone ('clach-naert,* stone of strength), is a favourite and 
 ancient amusement in Scotland. 
 
 Champion. The holding of the games in the Campus Martius 
 at Rome has given rise to a number of words. ' Campi-doctor' 
 m the Imperial times is the name for a drill-sergeant. A. S. 
 *camp,' Dutch 'kamp,' German 'kampf,' all come to denote 
 the game of war. A champion is one who challenges the fu-ld, 
 or who represents another in the fiM. (Others suppose that 
 'campus' is borrowed from the Teutonic dialects.) 
 
 Pennon. Italian ' pennone,' a large * penna ' or feather. 
 
 BatUn , 'grow fat,' 'feed to sali<v>ty.' Gothic 'gabattan,' to 
 thrive; the same root as in '^^/-ter.' Cp. Hamlet, iii. 4, ^batten 
 on this moor.' 
 
 24. — For O my s%veet William, &c. The sight of Lowland 
 dress and Lincoln green reminds her of her husband, and so she 
 is led to warn the stranger of the peril he is in. 
 
 25. — The meaning is obvious. The hunters are Clan-Alpine's 
 men ; the stag often is Fitz- James ; the woi;-*lti doe is hersel£ 
 
eXNto iv.l KOtES— THE PROPHECY. 
 
 tSS 
 
 Toils. Nets to enclo«!C the pame. French 'toiles,' from Latin 
 •tela,' that which is woven ('tcxo'). 
 
 Stag of ten ; i.e. having ten branches on each antler. Cp. 
 Bride of I ammermoor. ch. iii. ; "Tiiere was a buck turned to 
 bay made us all stand back; a stout old Trojan of tlie*fiist head, 
 ten-tyned branches'' &c. Ben Jonson, TAe Sad M./>Aerd, i. a— 
 " Scar. A great, large deer I , 
 Rob. What head ? 
 John. Forked : a ^ar^^ //«.'* 
 The metre of this song consists of a trochaic verse of four 
 iccents, followed by one of three accents. The odd lines drop 
 the fmal syllable, but in some cases have an extra unaccented 
 syllable at the beginning. In each three-syllabled feet are freely 
 a(hnitted, and in the lines of three accents, the last foot is always 
 trisyllabic. Hence, as rhymes must fall upon accented syllables, 
 these lines have triple rhymes, all of them, however, of a very 
 loose kind. 
 
 26. — Sfnkes the pine. The pine is chosen with reference to 
 Aljiine's crest. Poetry loves a definite jiicture, and so avoids 
 general names, as 'tree' and 'flower' and 'stream.' 
 
 Wended. What other past has ' wend ' ? 
 
 27. — Shaft ; 'arrow.' Dutch 'schaft,' a stalk, reed, rod. So 
 Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 1. 504 — • 
 
 "That lene he wex, and drye as any schaft'' {i.e. *reed*). 
 
 Daggled; 'wtt,' 'soaked.' Scotch 'dag,' fine rain, dew; 
 Icelandic 'daugg,' rain. 
 
 Stanch. "Cp. i. 7, note. 
 
 Hand of blood. The genitive for the adjective. Cp. Tennyson, 
 Enid — 
 
 " Cavall, King Arthur's hound of deepest mouth." 
 
 Wreak; 'avenge.' A. S. 'wraec,* 'revenge,' 'wrecan;* Ger* 
 man 'rache,* 'rachen.' 
 
 28. — Imbrue. Cotgrave gives 's'embruer,* * to bedabble him- 
 self with.' Wedgwood supposes a verb to have existed in some 
 dialect corresponding to French 'breuvage,' beveiaf^e, formed 
 by inversion from 'beuvrage' (from an old form 'beuvre,' 'bevre,* 
 or 'boivre.') 
 
 Chase = the hunters. See canto i. 2. 
 
 29. — Solstice. Latin 'solstitium.* The point at which the sun 
 seems to stand still. At other times the sun is ('\pparently) 
 moving to or from the equator ; but at its highest J.nd lowest 
 points, moving for a time parallel to the equator, it appears to 
 be stationary with reference to the earth's motion. '1 his arises 
 
 ■W 
 
 r;-; I 
 
 \\ 
 
t56 
 
 tttE LADY OF THE LAKfi. (canto <V. 
 
 I 
 
 •^ 
 
 •' 
 k 
 
 from the fact that the axis round which the earth rotates is not 
 at right angles to the plane (the ecliptic) in which the earth's 
 centre moves around the sun. Even the midsummer heat in the 
 Highlands does not lessen the mountain cold at night. 
 
 Tangled. * 'Twisted,' ' confused, ' or probably here covered 
 with a • tangle ' of brush wowl. The word is apparently a nasa- 
 lised form uf Gothic 'tag!,' hair. 
 
 30. — Basked. 'Bask ' is a reflexive form of 'bake,' to lie in 
 the heat. It is generally used of lying in the heat of the sun, 
 here of the glowing ashes, or embers. (In Icelandic, the re- 
 flexive is formed by adding sk = sik [G. sich] to the verb, or 
 mk = mik for the first person; so 'at baka,' to bake, 'at 
 bakask ' to bake one's self, to bask. Similary ' busk ' is the 
 reflexive of the verb biia, to make ready. See note on stanza h.) 
 Who nter ricked, where, kmv, or when, 
 7'he f^rmvUni^ fox 7u,is trapped or slain ? 
 "St. John actually used this illustration when engaged in con- 
 futing the plea of law proposed for the unfortunate Earl of 
 Strafford : ' It was true, we gave laws to hares and deer, because 
 they are be.ists of chase; but it was never accounted either 
 cruelty or foul pUiy to knock foxes or wolves on the head as they 
 can be oitnd, bec;uise they are beasts of prey. In a word, the 
 Inw r.nil humanity were alike, the one being more fallacious, and 
 the other more barbarous, than in any age had been vented in 
 such an au'.iority.' — Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, Ox- 
 ford, 1702, fol. vol. p. 183." — Scott. 
 
 31.— His Highland cheer, • 
 
 The hardened flesh of mountain uter. 
 "The Scottish Highlanders in former times had a concise mode 
 of cooking their venison, or rather of dispensing with cooking 
 it, which appears greatiy to have surprised the French whom 
 chance made acquainted with it. The Vidame of Chartres, 
 when a hostaj;e in England, during the reign of Edward VI., 
 wa< permitted to travel into Scotland, and penetrated as far as 
 to the remote Highlands {au fin Jond des Sanvag.s). After a 
 great hunting parly, at which a most wonderful quantity of 
 game was destroyed, he saw those Scottish Savages devour a 
 part of their venison raw, without any further preparation than 
 comjiressing it between two batons of wood, so as to force out 
 the blood and render it extremely hard. This they reckoned a 
 great delicacy; and when the Vidame partook of it. his com|ili- 
 ancc with their taste rendered him extremely popular." — ScoTT. 
 
 Au^ry : i,e. of the Taghairm. 
 
 Coilantogles ford. 'Just i-elow the mouth of Loch Vennachar, 
 on the lower confluent of the Teitli. There the knight would 
 
CANTO iv.l NOTES— THE PROPHECY. 
 
 157 
 
 be in the district which more properly owed allegiance to th<» 
 Scottish king, and could have no further claim on the hospitable 
 protection of the Highland chief. The following line naturally 
 implies that the assault from which he abstnins now is to begin 
 then, and the mighty augury laid upon his fate to be definitely 
 settled. 
 
 The bittern^ s cry 
 Sin^s us the lake's wild lullaby. 
 
 A fine picture of loneliness and desolation. This is the ^nly 
 lound to lull the lake to sleep. 
 
 I"'; 
 
 if^ 
 
lit: 
 
 M 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 
 g 
 
 5^. 
 
 . 0) 
 
 X 
 
 H 
 
 ■ 
 
 3 
 
 'A 
 
 * 
 
 o 
 
 I ill 
 
THE LADY OF THE LAKE. 
 
 CANTO FIFTH. 
 
 QTfie Combat 
 I. 
 
 FAIR as the earliest beam of eastern light, 
 When first, by the bewildered pilgrim spied, 
 It smiles upon the dreary brow of night, 
 
 And silvers o'er the torrent's foaming tide, 
 And lights the fearful path on mountain side ;— 
 
 Ffiir as that beam, although the fairest far, 
 Giving to horror grace, to danger pride, 
 
 Shine martial Faith, and Courtesy's bright star, 
 Through all the wreckful storms that cloud the brow of 
 War. 
 
 II. 
 
 That early beam, so fair and sheen, 
 Was twinkling through the hazel screen^ 
 When, rousing at its glimmer red, 
 The warriors left their lowly bed. 
 Looked out upon the dappled sky, 
 Muttered their soldier matins by, 
 And then awaked their fire, to steal, 
 As short and rude, their soldier meaL 
 That o'er, the Gael around him threw 
 His graceful plaid of varied hue. 
 And, true to promise, led the way, 
 By thicket green and mountain gray. 
 
 M 2/ 
 
 35' ♦ 
 
 m\ 
 
 It 
 
 K 
 II 
 
 m. ■ 
 
 ; m 
 
 , .1! 
 
 (r 
 
 ; III; 
 ^ ^1 
 
 M'l?' 
 
 
l6o ttlfi LADY OF THE LAKE. tcANTO V. 
 
 A wildering path ! — they winded now 
 Along the precipice's brow, 
 Commanding the rich scenes beneath, 
 The windings of the Forth and Teith, 
 And all the vales between that lie, 
 Till Stirling's turrets melt in sky; 
 Then, sunk in copse, their farthest glance 
 Gained not the length of horseman's lancc: 
 'Twas oft so steep, the foot was fain c e /, /^ 
 Assistance from the hand to gain ; 
 So tangled oft, that, bursting through. 
 Each hawthorn shed her showers of dew — 
 That diamond dew, so pure and clear, 
 It rivals all but Beauty's tear ! 
 
 
 in. 
 
 At length t)iey came where, stem and steep, 
 
 The hill sinks down upon the deep. 
 
 Here Vennachar in silver flows, 
 
 There, ridge on ridge, Benledi rose ; 
 
 Ever the hollow path twined on. 
 
 Beneath steep bank and threatening stone ; 
 
 An hundred men might hold the post 
 
 With hardihood against a host. 
 
 The rugged mountain's scanty cloak 
 
 Was dwarfish shrubs of birch and oak, 
 
 With shingles bare, and cliffs between. 
 
 And patches bright of bracken green. 
 
 And heather black, that waved so high, 
 
 It he d the copse in rivalry. 
 
 But where the lake slept deep and still, 
 
 Dank osiers fringed the swamp and hiU ; "^ 
 
 And oft both path and hill were torn. 
 
 Where wintry torrents down had borne, 
 
 And heaped upon the cumbered land 
 
 Its wreck of gravel, rocks, and sand. 
 
 So toilsome was the road to trace. 
 
 The guide, abating of his pace. 
 
 Led slowly through the pass's jaws, 
 
 And asked Fitz-James, by what strange caus^ 
 
 He sought these wilds, traversed by few, 
 
 Without a pass from Roderick Dhu. 
 
 '1^,'^ 
 
CANTO v.] 
 
 THE COMBAT. 
 
 i6l 
 
 IV. 
 
 ' Brave Gael, my pass, ii) danger tried, 
 Hangs in my belt, ar.d 'jy my side ; 
 Yet, sooth to tell,' *ae Saxon said, 
 ' I dreamt not now to claim its aid. 
 When here, but three days since, I camC| 
 Bewildered in pursuit of game, 
 AH seemed as peaceful and as still 
 As the mist slumbering on yon hill ; 
 Thy dangerous Chief was then afar, 
 Nor soon expected back from war. 
 Thus said, at least, my mountain-guide, 
 Though deep perchance the villain lied.'— 
 ' Yet why a second venture try ?' — 
 * A warrior thou, and ask me why ! — 
 Moves our free course by such fixed caus^ 
 As gives the poor mechanic laws ? 
 Enough, I sought to drive away 
 The lazy hours of peaceful day ; 
 Slight cause will then suffice to guide 
 A Knight's free footsteps far and wide— 
 A falcon flown, a greyhound strayed. 
 The merry glance of mountain maid : 
 Or, if a path be dangerous known. 
 The danger's self is lure alone.*— ,£n tt 
 
 
 f.'i': 
 
 yyfA '< C 
 
 V. 
 
 * Thy secret keep, I urge thee not ;— 
 Yet, ere again ye sought this spot. 
 Say, heard ye nought of Lowland war, 
 Against Clan-Alpine, raised by Mar .?' 
 
 — * No, by my word ;— of bands prepared 
 To guard King James's sports I heard ; 
 Nor doubt I aught, but, when they hear 
 This muster of the mountaineer. 
 Their pennons will abroad be flung, 
 Which else in Doune had peaceful hung.'- 
 
 * Free be they flung ! for we were loth ', 
 Their silken folds should feast the moth. 
 Free be they flung ! — as free shall wave 
 Clan-Alpine's pine in banner brave 
 
 ^c.^C 
 

 
 -Mill 
 
 I"** 
 
 fill 
 
 111 
 ID 
 
 ]y\\ 
 
 t6a THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto v. 
 
 But, Stranger, peaceful since you came, 
 Bewildered in the mountain game, 
 Whence the bold boast by which you shew 
 Vich-Alpine's vowed and mortal foe?* 
 * Warrior, but yester-morn, I knew 
 Nought of thy Chieftain, R9derick Dhu, 
 Save as an outlawed desperate man, 
 The chief of a rebellious clan. 
 Who, in the Regent's court and sight, 
 With ruffian dagger stabbed a knight : 
 Yet this alone might from his part 
 Sever each true and loyal heart.' 
 
 VI. 
 
 Wrothful at such arraignment *bul, 
 Dark lowered the clansman's sable scowl. 
 A space he paused, then sternly said, 
 'And heard'st thou why he drew his blade? 
 Heard'st thou that shameful word and blow 
 Brought Roderick's vengeance on his foe ? 
 What recked the Chieftain if he stood 
 On Highland heath or Holy- Rood? 
 He rights such wron^ where it is given, 
 If it were in the court of heaven.' 
 * Still was it outrage ; — yet, 'tis true. 
 Not then claimed sovereignty his due; 
 While Albany, with feeble hanc\ 
 Held borrowed truncheon of command, 
 The young King, mewed in Stirling tower^ ' 
 Was stranger to respect and power. 
 Kut then, thy Chieftain's ronber life ! 
 W inning mean prey by causeless strife, 
 Wrenching from ruined Lowland swain 
 His herds and harvest reared in vain. 
 Methinks a soul like thine should scorn 
 The spoils from such foul foray borne.' 
 
 vn. 
 
 The Gael beheld him grim the whil^ 
 And answered with disdainful smile— 
 ' Saxon, from yonder mountain high, 
 I marked thee send delighted eye, 
 
 /^r/<' 
 
 /I/ 
 
 /, 
 
 I 
 
m 
 
 CANTO v.] 
 
 THE COMBAT. 
 
 Far to the south and east, where lay, 
 
 r.xtondcd in succession gay, 
 
 Deep waving liekls and pastures green, 
 
 With ^cnt'e slopes and groves between:—- 
 
 These iertile plains, that sol'tcned vale, 
 
 Were once the birthright of ihe Gael; 
 
 The stranger came vvitli iron hand, 
 
 And from our ftithers reft the land. 
 
 Wlierc dwell we now?" See, rudely swell 
 
 Crag over crag, and fell o'er fell. 
 
 Ask we this savage hill we tread, 
 
 For fattened steer or household bread; 
 
 Ask we for Hocks these shingles dry, 
 
 And well the mountain might reply— 
 
 " To you, as to your sires of yofe. 
 
 Belong the target and claymore ! 
 
 I give you shelter in my breast, 
 
 Your own good blades must win the rest." 
 
 Pent in this fortress of the North, 
 
 Think'st thou we will not sally forth, 
 
 To spoil the spoiler as we may. 
 
 And from the robber re;id the prey? 
 
 Ay, by my soul ! — While on yon plain 
 
 The Saxon rears one shock of grain ; 
 
 While, of ten thousand herds, there strays 
 
 Ikit one along yon river's maze — 
 
 The Gael, of plain and river heir, 
 
 Shall, with strong hand, redeem his share. 
 
 Where live the mountain Chiefs who hold 
 
 That plundering Lowland field and fold 
 
 Is aught but retribution true? 
 
 Seek other cause 'gainst Roderick Dhiu' 
 
 163 
 
 I* 
 
 ! 
 
 1 
 
 ••I ' 
 
 
 
 id 4 
 
 •I* 
 
 *,:. 
 
 
 
 VIII. 
 
 y^nswcred Fitz-Jamrs— * And, if I sought, 
 Think'st thou no other could be brought? 
 What deem ye of my path waylaid? 
 ^'y life j^iven o'er to ambuscade?' — 
 'As of a meed to rashness due: 
 Hadst thou sent warning fair and true— 
 I seek my hound, or falcon strayed, 
 1 seek, good faith, a Highland maid— 
 
 
 i 
 
^■^ 
 
 I 
 
 I' 
 
 I 
 
 *-i:* 
 
 1,^. 
 
 
 164 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [cantu v. 
 
 Free hadst thou been to come and go ; 
 
 But secret path marks secret foe. 
 
 Nor yet, for this, even as. a spy, 
 
 Hadst thou, unheard, been doomed to die, 
 
 Save to fulfil an augury.' - 
 
 ' Well, let it pass ; nor will I now ' 
 
 Fresh cause of enmity avow, ''^C 
 
 To chafe thy mood and cloud thy brow. 
 
 Enough, I am by promise tied 
 
 To match me with this man of pride : 
 
 Twice have I sought Clan-Alpine's glen 
 
 In peace ; but when I come agen, 
 
 I come with banner, brand, and bow, 
 
 As leader seeks his mortal foe. 
 
 For love-lorn swain, in lady's bower, 
 
 Ne'er panted for the appointed hour. 
 
 As I, until before me stand 
 
 This rebel Chieftain and his band !' 
 
 a 
 
 i 
 
 m 
 
 
 h* 
 
 If • t 
 
 Ui > 
 
 ** I 
 
 '.I ! I 
 
 I 
 
 / 
 
 IX. 
 
 * Have, then, thy wish ! ' — he whistled shrill. 
 And he was answered from the hill ; 
 Wild as the scream of the curlew, ' 
 
 From crag to crag the signal flew. 
 Instant, through copse and heath, arose 
 Bonnets, and spears, and bended bows ; 
 On right, on left, above, below. 
 Sprung up at once the lur!:ing foe ; 
 From shingles gray their lances start. 
 The bracken bush sends forth the dart, 
 The rushes and the willow-wand 
 Are bristling into axe and brand. 
 And every tuft of broom gives life 
 To plaided warrior armed for strife. 
 That whistle garrisoned the glen 
 At once with full five hundred men, 
 As if the yawning hill to heaven 
 A subterranean host had given. 
 Watching their leader's beck and will, 
 All silent there they stood, and still. 
 Like the loose crags whose threatening mass 
 Lay tottering o'er the hollow pas^. 
 
W^HV 
 
 i^ 
 
 I i, 
 
 V. 
 
 CANTO V.j 
 
 THE COMBAT. 
 
 16S 
 
 V 
 
 As if an infant's touch could urge 
 
 Their headlong passage down the verge, ' ' 
 
 With step and weapon forward flung, 
 
 Upon the mountain-side they hung. 
 
 The Mountaineer cast glance of pride 
 
 Along Benledi's living side, * 
 
 Then fixed his eye and sable brow 
 
 Full on Fitz-James — 'How say'st thou now? 
 
 These are Clan-Alpine's warriors true ; 
 
 And, Saxon— I am Roderick Dhu ! * 
 
 X. 
 
 Fitz-James was brave : — Though to his heart 
 
 The life-blood thrilled with sudden sturt, 
 
 He manned himself with dauntless air, 
 
 Returned the Chief his haughty stare, 
 
 His back against a rock he bore, 
 
 And firmly placed his foot before : — 
 
 * Come one, come all ! this rock shall fly 
 
 From its ^rm base as soon as I.* 
 
 Sir Roderick marked— and in his eyes 
 
 Respect was mingled with surprise, 
 
 And the stern joy which warriors feel 
 
 In foemen worthy of their steel. 
 
 Short space he stood — then waved his hand; 
 
 Down sunk the disappearing band ; 
 
 Each ^arrior vanished where he stood, 
 
 In broom or bracken, heath or wood ; 
 
 Sunk brand, and spear, and bended bow, 
 
 In osiers pale and copses low; 
 
 It seemed as if their mother Earth 
 
 Had swallowed up her warlike birth. 
 
 The wind's last breath had tossed in air, 
 
 Pennon, and plaid, and plumage fair — 
 
 The next but swept a lone hill-side. 
 
 Where heath and fern were waving wide : 
 
 The sun's last glance was glinted back, 
 
 From spear and glaive, from targe and jack— 
 
 The next, all unreflected, shone 
 
 On bracken green, and cold gray stone. 
 
 
 I 
 
 ! 
 
 "I'M 
 
 !»■ i I-:.:: ii 
 
 *■'*) -^ Vim 
 
 
 ffc: 
 
 ^'; ■ : 
 
 ' ll 
 
M 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto V. 
 
 •i* ^ 
 
 *'ii\t 
 
 XI. 
 
 Fitz- James looked round — yet scarce believed 
 The witness Jhat his sight received ; 
 Such appari.ion well might seem 
 Djclusion of a dreadful dream. 
 Sir Roderick in suspense he eyed, 
 And to his look the Chief replied, 
 ' Fear nought — nay, that I need not say- 
 But — doubt not aught from mine array. 
 Thou art my guest ; — I pledged my word 
 As far as Coilantogle ford : 
 Nor would 1 Call a clansman's brand 
 For aid against one valiant hand, 
 Though on our strife lay every vale 
 Rent by the Saxon from the Gael. 
 So move we on ; — I only meant 
 To shew the reed on which you leant, 
 Deeming this path you might pursue 
 Without a pass from Roderick Dhu.' 
 They moved ; — I said Fitz-James was brave^ 
 As ever knight that belted glaive ; 
 Yet dare not say, that now his blood 
 Kept on its wont and tempered flood, 
 As, following Roderick's stride, he drew 
 That seeming lonesome pathway through, 
 Which yet, by fearful proof, was rife 
 With lances, that, to take his life, 
 Waited but signal from a guide, ^ 
 
 So late dishonoured and defied. 
 Ever, by stealth, his eye sought round 
 The vanished guardians of the ground, 
 And still, from copse and heather deep, 
 Fancy saw spear and broadsword peep. 
 And in the plover's shrilly strain. 
 The signal whistle heard again. 
 Nor breathed he free till far behind 
 T)ie pass was left ; for then they wind 
 Along a wide and level green, 
 Where nciiker tree nor tuft was seen, 
 Nor rush nor bush of broom was near, 
 To hide a bonnet or a spear. 
 
V. 
 
 txtno v.] 
 
 ItUt (iOMBAt. 
 
 XII. 
 
 le? 
 
 The Chief in silence strode before, 
 
 And reached that torrent's sounding shore, 
 
 "Which, daughter of three mighty lakes, 
 
 From Vennachar in silver brealcs, 
 
 Sweeps through the plain, and ceaseless mines 
 
 On Bochastle the mouldering lines, 
 
 "Where Rome, the Empress of the world, 
 
 Of yore her eagle wings unfurled : 
 
 And here his course the Chieftain staid. 
 
 Threw down his target and his plaid. 
 
 And to the Lowland warrior said : — 
 
 * Bold Saxon ! to his promise just, 
 "Vich-Alpine has discharged his trust. 
 This murderous Chief, this ruthless man, 
 This head of a rebellious clan. 
 
 Hath led thee safe, through watch and ward, 
 Far past Clan-Alpine's outmost guard. 
 Now, man to man, and steel to steel, 
 A Chieftain's vengeance thou shalt feel. 
 See, here, all vantageless I stand, 
 Armed, like thyself, with single brand : 
 For this is Coilantogle ford, 
 And thou must keep thee with thy sword.* 
 
 XIII. 
 
 "{""The Saxon paused : — * I ne'er delayed, 
 ' When foeman bade me draw my blade ; 
 Nay more, brave Chief, 1 vowed thy death S 
 "Yet sure thy fair and generous faith. 
 And my deep debt for life preserved, 
 A better meed have well deserved : 
 Can nought but blood our feud atone ? 
 Are there no means ?' — ' No, Stranger, none i 
 And hear — to fire thv flncrfring zeal — 
 The Saxon cause rests on thy steel : 
 For thus spoke Fate, by prophet bred 
 Between the living and the dead ; 
 " Who spills the foremost focman's life, 
 His party conquers in the strife."' — 
 
 * Then, by my word,' the Saxon said, 
 
 * Thy riddle is already read. 
 
 
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 "'«« tHE tADV OF THE LAKE. Icanto T. 
 
 Seek yonder brake beneath the cliff — ai j/ . •, > 7 
 
 There lies Red Murdoch, stark and stilt i,-- ''^^ , ■'. 
 
 Thus Fate has solved her prophecy, 
 
 Then yield to Fate, and not to me. 
 
 To James, at* Stirling, let us go. 
 
 When, if thou wilt be still his foe, 
 
 Or if the King shall not agree 
 
 To grant thee grace and favour free, 
 
 I plight mine honour, oath, and word, /^'' ^ ^■- 
 
 That, to thy native strengths restored. 
 
 With each advantage shalt thou stand. 
 
 That aids thee now to guard thy land.' 
 
 "^tr- 
 
 
 
 M » 
 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Dark lightning flashed from Roderick's eye- 
 * Soars thy presumption, then, so high, 
 Because a wretched kern ye slew. 
 Homage to name to Roderick Dhu ? 
 He yields not, he, to man nor Fate t 
 Thou add'st but fuel to my hate : — 
 My clansman's blood demands revenge.— 
 Not yet prepared? — By heaven, I change 
 My thought, and hold thy valour light 
 As that of some vain carpet knight. 
 Who ill deserved my courteous care. 
 And whose best boast is but to wear 
 A braid of his fair lady's hair.* — 
 — ' I thank thee, Roderick, for the word t 
 It nerves my heart, it steels my sword ; 
 For I have sworn this braid to stain 
 In the best blood that warms thy vein. 
 Now, truce, farewell ! and, ruth, begone t 
 Yet think not that by thee alone. 
 Proud Chief ! can courtesy be shewn ; 
 Though not from copse, or heath, or cairiii 
 Start at my whistle clansmen stern, 
 Of this small horn one feeble blast 
 Would fearful odds against thee cast. 
 But fear not — doubt not— which thou wilt— • 
 We try this quarrel hilt to hilt.' 
 Then each at once his falchion drew, 
 Each on the ground his scabbard threw, 
 
i 1 
 
 T. 
 
 CANTO V,J 
 
 THE COMBAT. 
 
 ■t 
 
 169 
 
 Each looked to sun, and stream, and plain, 
 As what they ne'er might see again ; 
 Then foot, and point, and eye opposed, 
 In dubious strife they darkly closed. 
 
 XV. 
 Ill fared it then with Roderick Dhu, 
 That on the field his targe he threw, 
 Whose brazen studs and tough bull-hide 
 Had death so often dashed aside ; 
 For, trained abroad his arms to wield, 
 Fitz-James's blade was sword and shield. 
 He practised every pass and ward. 
 To thrust, to strike, to feint, to guard ; 
 While less expert, though stronger far, 
 The Gael maintained unequal war. 
 Three times in closing strife they stood, 
 And thrice the Saxon blade drank bloc J ; 
 No stinted draught, no scanty tide, 
 The gushing flood the tartans dyed. 
 Fierce Roderick felt the fatal drain. 
 And showered his blows like wintry rain ; 
 And, as firm rock, or castle-roof. 
 Against the winter shower is proof, 
 Tiie foe, invulnerable still, 
 Foiled his wild rage by steady skill ; 
 Till, at advantage ta'en, his brand 
 Forced Roderick's weapon from his hand, 
 And backward borne upon the lea, 
 Brought the proud Chieftain to his knee. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 'Now, yield thee, or by Him who made 
 
 The world, thy heart's blood dyes my blade 1'— 
 
 * Thy threats, thy mercy, I defy ! 
 
 Let recreant yield, who fears to die.' 
 
 — Like adder darting from his coil. 
 
 Like wolf that dashes through the toil,^ ^ «)- > ' ' 
 
 Like mountain-cat who guards her young, 
 
 Full at Fitz-James's throat he spiling ; 
 
 Received, but recked not of a wound. 
 
 And locked his arms his foeman round.— 
 
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 70 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto v. 
 
 Now, gallant Saxon, hold thine own ! 
 No maiden's hand is round thee thrown ! 
 That desperate tjrasp thy frame mi;^ht feci, 
 Through bars pf brass and triple steel ! — 
 They tug, they strain ! down, down they go, 
 The Gael a'jove, Fitz-James below. 
 The Chieftain's gripe his throat compressed, 
 His knee was planted in his breast; 
 His clotted locks he backward threw, 
 Across his brow his hand he drew, 
 !• rem blood and mist to clear his sight, 
 Then gleamed aloft his dagger bright !— 
 — Hut hate and fury ill supplied 
 The stream of life's exhausted tide, 
 And all too late the advantage came, 
 To turn the odds of deadly game ; 
 For, while the dagger gleamed on high, 
 Reeled soul and sense, reeled brain and eye. 
 Down came the blow ! but in the heath 
 The erring blade found bloodless sheath. 
 The struggling foe may now unclasp 
 The faintin;^ Chiefs relaxing grasp ; 
 Unwounded from the dreadful close. 
 But breathless all, Fitz-James arose. 
 
 xvn. 
 
 He faltered thanks to Heaven for life, 
 Redeemed, unhoped, from desperate strife; 
 Next on his foe his look he cast, 
 Whose every gasp appeared his last ; 
 In Roderick's gore he dipped the braid — 
 * Poor Blanche ! thy wrongs are dearly paid; 
 Yet with thy foe must die, or live, 
 The praise that Faith and Valour give.* 
 With ^hat he blew a bugle note. 
 Undid the collar from his throat, 
 Unbonneted, and by the wave 
 Sat down his brow and hands to lave. 
 Then faint afar are heard the feet 
 Of rushing steeds in gallop fleet ; 
 The sounds increase, and now are seen 
 Four mounted squires in Lincoln green | 
 
 CA 
 
CANTO V.l 
 
 THE COMBAT. 
 
 tV 
 
 Two who bear lance, and two who lead, 
 By loosened rein, a saddled steed ; 
 Each onward held his headlong course, 
 And by Fitz-James reined up Ins horsc^- 
 With wonder viewed the bloody sp t — 
 'Exclaim not, gallants ! question not. — 
 You, Herbert and Luffness, ali{,'ht, 
 And bind the wounds of yonder knight; 
 Let the gray palfrey bear his wei;iht, 
 We destined for a fairer frei^iht, 
 And bring him on to Stirling straight; 
 I will before at better speed, 
 To seek fresh horse and fitting weed. 
 The sun rides high ; — I must be boune, 
 To see the archer game at noon ; 
 But lii^htly Bayard clears the lea. — 
 De Vaux and Harries, follow me. 
 
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 XVIII. 
 
 * Stand, Bayard, stand ! ' — the steed obeyed, 
 With arching neck and bended head. 
 And glancing eye and quivering ear, 
 As if he loved his lord to hear. 
 No foot Fitz-James in stirrup staid, 
 No grasp upon the saddle laid. 
 But wreathed his left hand in the mane, 
 And lightly bounded from the plain. 
 Turned on the horse his armed heel, 
 And stirred his courage with the steel. 
 Bounded the fiery steed in air, 
 The rider sate erect and fair, 
 Then like a bolt from steel crossbow 
 Forth launched, along the plain they go. 
 They dashed that rapid torrent through, 
 And up Carhonie's hill they flew ; 
 Still at the gallop pricked the Knight, 
 His merry-men followed as they might. 
 Along thy banks, swift Teith ! they ride, 
 And in the race they mock thy tide ; 
 Torry and Lendrick now are past. 
 And Deanstown lies behind them cast ; 
 They rise, the bannered towers of Doune, 
 They sink in distant woodland soon ; 
 
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ni THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto v. 
 
 Blair-Drummond sees the hoofs strike Arc, 
 They sweep like breeze througli Ochferiyrcj 
 They mark just glance and disappear 
 The lofty brow of ancient Kier ; 
 Th(?y bathe their coursers* sweltering sides, ^ '* - 
 Dark Forth ! amid thy sluggish tides, 
 An.l on the opposing shore take ground,- 
 With plash, with scramble, and with bound. 
 Right-hand they leave thy cliffs, Craig- Forth 1 
 And soon the bulwark of the North, 
 Gray Stirling, with her towers and town, 
 Upon their fleet career looked down. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 As up the flinty path they stiained, 
 Sudden his steed the leader reined ; 
 A signal to his s<^uire he flung, 
 Who instant to his stiriup sprung :— 
 
 * Seest thou, De Vaux, yon woodsman gray 
 Who town -ward holds the rocky way, 
 
 Of stature tiill and poor array ? 
 Mark'st thou the firm, yet active stride, 
 With which he scales the mountain-side? 
 Know'st thou from whence he comes, or whom?*— • 
 
 * No, by my word ;— a burly groom 
 He seems, who in the field or chase 
 A baron's train would noblv grace/ — 
 ' Out, out, Ue Vaux ! can fear supply. 
 And jealousy, no sharper eye ? , 
 Afar, ere to the hill he drew, 
 
 That stately form and step I knew ; 
 
 Like form in Scotland is not seen, 
 
 Treads not such step on Scottish green. 
 
 *Tis James of Douglas, by Saint Serlel 
 
 The uncle of the banished Earl. 
 
 Away, away, to court, to shew 
 
 The near approach of dreaded foe: 
 
 The King must stand upon his guard ; 
 
 Douglas and he must meet prepared.* 
 
 Then right-hand wh clcd their steeds, and straight 
 
 They won the castle's postern gate. . 
 
Canto v. J 
 
 tllE COMB At. 
 
 tn 
 
 XX. 
 
 The Douglas, who had bent his way 
 From Cambus- Kenneth's abbey gray, 
 Now, as he climbed the rocky shelf, 
 Held sad communion with himself: — 
 'Yes ! all is true my fears could frame; 
 A prisoner lies the noble Graeme, 
 And fiery Roderick soon will feel 
 The vengeance of the royal steel. 
 I, only 1, can ward their fate — 
 God grant the ransom come not late I 
 The Abbess hath her promise given. 
 My child shall be the bride of Heaven ;— 
 — Be pardoned one repining tear ! 
 For He, who gave her, knows how dear, 
 How excellent ! but that is by, 
 And now my business is — to die. 
 — Ye towers ! within whose circuit dread 
 A Douglas by his sovereign bled ; 
 And thou, O sad and fatal mound ! 
 That oft hast heard the death-axe sound, 
 As on the noblest of the land 
 Fell the stern headsman's bloody hand — 
 ■ The dungeon, block, and nameless tomb 
 Prepare — for Douglas seeks his doom 1 
 — But hark ! what blithe and jolly peal 
 Makes the Franciscan steeple reel? 
 And see i upon the crowded street, 
 In motley groups what masquers meet I 
 Banner and pageant, pipe and drum, 
 And merry morrice-dancers come. 
 I guess, by all this quaint array, • ' - 
 
 The burghers hold their sports to-day. ^' ^ 
 James will be there ; he loves such show^ 
 where the good yeoman bends his bow, 
 And the tough wrestler foils his foe, 
 As well as where, in proud career, 
 The high-born tilter shivers spear. 
 I '11 follow to the Castle-park, 
 And play my prize ; — King James shall marl^ 
 If age has tamed these sinews stark. 
 Whose force so oft, in happier days, 
 His boyish wonder loved to praise.' 
 
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 tHE LAbV 61? TilE LAKfi. tcANto V. 
 
 / < f 
 
 XXI. 
 
 The Castle gates were open flung, 
 
 The quivering drawbridge rocked and rung;. 
 
 And echoed loud the flinty street 
 
 Beneath the courser's clattering feet, 
 
 As slowly down the steep descent 
 
 Fair Scotland's King and nobles went, 
 
 While all along the crowded way 
 
 Was jubilee and loud huzza. ^ ^ 
 
 And ever James was bending low, 
 
 To his white jennet's saddlebow, 
 
 Doffing his cap to city dame, 
 
 Who smiled and blushed for pride and shamev 
 
 And well the simperer might be vain — 
 
 He chose the fairest of the train. 
 
 Gravely he greets each city sire, 
 
 Commends each pageant's quaint attire, -^ ^' 
 
 Gives to the dancers thanks aloud, 
 
 And smiles and nods upon the crowd, 
 
 Who rend the heavens with their acclaims, 
 
 * Long live the Commons* King, King James I' 
 
 Behind the King thronged peer and knight, 
 
 And noble dame and damsel bright, 
 
 Whose fiery steeds ill brooked the stay 
 
 Of the steep street and crowded way. 
 
 — But in the train you might discern 
 
 Dark lowering brow and visage stem ; 
 
 There nobles mourned their pride restrained. 
 
 And the mean burgher's joys disdained ; 
 
 And chiefs, who, hostage for their clan, 
 
 Were each from home a banished man, 
 
 There thought upon their own gray tower, 
 
 Their waving woods, their feudal power, 
 
 And deemed themselves a shameful par. 
 
 Of pageant which they cursed in heart 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Now, in the Castle-park, drew out 
 Their chequered bands the joyous rout; 
 There morricers, with bell at heel. 
 And blade in hand, their mazes wheel} 
 
CAT X) V.J 
 
 THE COMBAT. 
 
 X7S 
 
 But chief, beside the butts, there stand 
 Bold Robin Hood and all his band — 
 Friar Tuck with quarterstaff and cov.l, 
 Old Scathelocke with his surly scowl. : 
 Maid Marion, fair as ivory bone. 
 Scarlet, and Mulch, and Little John; 
 Their bugles challenge all that will, 
 In archery to prove their skill. 
 The Douglas bent a bow of might, 
 His first shaft centred in the white, 
 And wlicn in turn he shot again. 
 His second split the first in twain. 
 From the King's hand must Douglas take 
 A silver dart, the archei-'s stake ; 
 P'ondly he watched, with watery eye. 
 Some answering glance of sympathy- 
 No kind emotion made reply ! 
 Indifferent as to archer wight, 
 The monarch gave the arrow bright. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Now, clear the ring ! for, hand to hand. 
 The manly wrestlers take their stand. 
 Two o'er the rest superior rose. 
 And proud demanded mightier foes. 
 Nor called in vain ; for Douglas came. 
 — For life is Hugh of Larbert lame ; 
 Scarce better John of Alloa's fare, 
 Whom senseless home his comrades bear. 
 Prize of the wrestling match, the King 
 To Douglas gave a golden ring. 
 While coldly glanced his eye of blue, 
 As frozen drop of wintry dew. 
 Douglas would speak, but in his breast 
 His struggling uoul his words suppressed; 
 Indignant then he turned him where 
 Their arms the brawny yeomen bare, 
 To h rl the massive bar in air. 
 When each his utmost strength had shewn^ 
 The Douglas rent an earth-fast stone 
 From its deep bed, then heaved it high, 
 ^nd sent the fragment through the skv^ 
 
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(76 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto ▼. 
 
 A rood beyond the farthest mnrk ; 
 
 And still in Stirling's royal park, 
 
 The gray-haired sires, who know the past. 
 
 To strangers point the Douglas-cast, 
 
 And moralise on the decay 
 
 Of Scottish strength in modem day. 
 
 CJ, 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 The vale with loud applauses rang, 
 The Ladies* Rock sent back the clang. 
 The King, with look unmoved, bestowed 
 A purse well filled with pieces broad. 
 Indignant smiled the Douglas proud, 
 And threw the gold among the crowd, 
 Who now, with anxious wonder, scan, 
 And sharper glance, the dark gray man ; 
 Till whispers rose among the throng, 
 That heart so free, and hand so strong, 
 Must to the Douglas blood belong ; 
 The old men marked and shook the head, 
 To see his hair with silver spread. 
 And winked aside, and told each son 
 Of feats upon t^e English done. 
 Ere Douglas of the stalwart hand 
 Was exiled from his native land. 
 The women praised his stately form, 
 Though wrecked by many a winter's storm ; 
 The youth with awe and wonder saw 
 His strength surpassing Nature's law. 
 Thus judged, as is their wont, the crowd, 
 Till murmurs rose to clamours loud. 
 But not a glance from that proud ring 
 Of peers who circled round the King 
 With Douglas held communion kind. 
 Or called the banished man to mind ; 
 No, not from those who, at the chase, 
 Once held his side the honoured place, 
 Begirt his board, and, in the field. 
 Found safety underneath his shield : 
 For he, whom royal eyes disown, 
 Wh^n wa$ his forip to courtiers known | 
 
▼. 
 
 (JANtO V.J 
 
 tllE COMBAt. 
 
 17? 
 
 I 
 
 XXV. 
 
 Tlie Monarch saw the gambols flaj, 
 
 And IkuIo let loose a gallant stag, 
 
 Whose pride, the holiday to crown, 
 
 Two fa\ (Unite greyhounds should pull dowiiy 
 
 That venison free, and Bordeaux wine, 
 
 Might serve the archery to dine. 
 
 But Lufra — whom from Douglas* side 
 
 Nur bribe nor threat could e'er divide. 
 
 The fleetest hound in all the North — 
 
 Biave Lufra saw, and ilarted forth. 
 
 She left the royal hounds mid-way, 
 
 And dashing on the anflered prey, 
 
 Sunk her sharp muzzle in his flank, 
 
 And deep the flowin ( life-blood drank. 
 
 The King's stout huntsman saw the sport 
 
 by strange intruder broken short, 
 
 Came up, and, with his leash unbound, 
 
 In anger struck the noble hound. 
 
 — The Douglas had endured, that morn. 
 
 The King's cold look, the nobles* scorn. 
 
 And last, and worst to spirit proud, 
 
 Had borne the pity of the crowd ; 
 
 But Lufra had been fondly bred, 
 
 To share his board, to watch his bed, 
 
 And oft would Ellen, Lufra's neck, 
 
 In maiden glee, with garlands deck ; 
 
 They were such playmates, that with name 
 
 Of Lufra, Ellen's image came. 
 
 His stilled wrath is brimming high, 
 
 In darkened brow and flashing eye ; 
 
 As waves before the bark divide, 
 
 The crowd gave way before his stride ; 
 
 Needs but a buffet and no more, 
 
 The groom lies senseless in his gore. 
 
 Such blow no other hand could deal. 
 
 Though gauntlcted in glove of steeL 
 
 tl 
 
 W 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Then cjarnoured loud the royal train. 
 And brandisiied swords and staves amain* 
 
I 
 
 iji tHE tAbV of tHE LAKE. tcANXo V. 
 
 But stern the Baron's warning — * Back I 
 
 Back, on your lives, ye menial pack ! < 
 
 Beware the. Douglas. Yes ! behold, 
 
 King James ! The Douglas, doomed of old, 
 
 And vainly sought for near and far, 
 
 A victim to atone the war, 
 
 A willing victim now attends, 
 
 Nor craves thy grace but for his friends.* 
 
 • Thus is my clemency repaid ? " 
 Presumptuous Lord !' the Monarch said ; 
 
 ' Of thy mis-proud ambitious clan, 
 Thou, James of Bothwell, wert the man, 
 The only man, in whom a foe 
 My woman-mercy would not know : 
 But shall a Monarch's presence brook 
 Injurious blow, and haughty look ? — 
 What ho I the Captain of our Guard ! 
 Give the offender fitting ward, — 
 Break off the sports !* — for tumult rose, 
 And yeomen *gan to bend their bows — 
 
 * Break off the spoHs !* he said, and frowned, 
 ' And bid our horsemen clear the ground.' 
 
 XXVIL 
 
 Then uproar wild and misarray 
 Marred the fair form of festal day. 
 The horsemen pricked among the crowd, 
 Repelled by threats and insult loud ; 
 To earth are borne the old and weak, 
 The timorous fly, the women shriek ; 
 With flint, with shaft, with staff, with bar, 
 The hardier urge tumultuous war. 
 At once round Douglas darkly sweep 
 The royal spears in circle deep, 
 I And slowly scale the pathway steep. 
 While on the "rear in thunder pour 
 The rabble with disordered roar. 
 With grief the noble Douglas saw 
 The Commons rise against the law, 
 And to the leading soldier said — 
 * Sir John of Hyndford ! 'twas my blade 
 That knighthood on thy shoulder laid ; 
 
6AKfO V.J 
 
 tllE COMBAt. 
 
 For thrtt good deed, permit me then 
 A word with these misguided men. 
 
 i:d 
 
 XXVIII. 
 -f- * Here, gentle friends ! ere yet for me, 
 Ye brcik the bands of fealty. 
 My life, my honour, and my cause, 
 I tender free to Scotland's laws. 
 Are these so weak as must require 
 The aid of your misguided ire?^ 
 Or, if I sutler causeless wrong. 
 Is then my selfish raj[e so strong, 
 My sense of public weal so low, 
 That, for mean vengeance on r foe, 
 Those cords of love I should unbind, 
 Which knit my country and my kind? 
 Oh no ! Believe, in yonder tower 
 It will not soothe my captive hour. 
 To know those spears our foes should dread, 
 For me in kindred gore are red ; 
 To know, in fruitless brav I begun, 
 For me, that mother wails her son ; 
 For me, that widow's mate expires; 
 For me, that orphans weep their sires ; 
 That patriots mourn insulted laws. 
 And curse the Douglas for the cause. 
 O let your patience ward such ill. 
 And keep your right to love me still ! ' 
 
 
 m 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 The crowd's wild fi'ry sunk again 
 In tears, as tempests melt in rain. 
 With lifted hands and eyes, they prayed 
 For blessings on his generous head, 
 Who for his country felt alone. 
 And prized her blood beyond his own. 
 Old men, upon the verge of life, 
 Blessed him who stayed the civil strife ; 
 And mothers held their babes on high, 
 The self-devoted Chief to spy, 
 Triumphant over wrongs and ire, 
 To whom the prattlers owed a sire : 
 
 i 
 
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•do tHE LADV of the lake. fcANTO V. 
 
 Even the rough soldiei'*s heart was moved ; 
 
 / s it behind some bier beloved, 
 
 \\'ith trailing arms and drooping head, 
 
 'Hie Douglas up the hill he led, 
 
 And at the Castle's battled verge, 
 
 With sighs resigned his honoured charge. 
 
 \ 
 
 XXX. 
 
 The offended Monarch rode apart, 
 With bitter thought and swelling heart, 
 And would not now vouchsafe again 
 Through Stirling streets to lead his train. 
 * O Lennox, who would wish to rule 
 This changeling crowd, this common fool? ' 
 Hear'st thou,* he said, * the loud acclaim 
 With which they shout the Douglas name? 
 With like acclaim the vulgar throat 
 Strained for King James their morning note ; 
 With like acclaim they hailed the day, 
 When first I broke the Douglas' sway ; 
 And like acclaim would Douglas greet, 
 If he could hurl me, from my seat. 
 Who o'er the herd would wish to reign, 
 Fantastic, fickle, fierce, and vain ! 
 Vain ns the leaf upon the stream, 
 And fickle as a changeful dream ; 
 Fantastic as a woman's mood, 
 And fierce as Frenzy's fevered blood. 
 Thou many-headed monster-thing, 
 O who would wish to be thy King !— 
 
 XXXL 
 
 * But soft ! what messenger of speed 
 Spurs hitherward his panting steed? 
 I guess his cognizance afar — 
 "What from our cousin, John of Mar?*— 
 *He prays, my liege, your sports keep bound 
 Within the safe and guarded ground : 
 For some foul purpose yet unknown — 
 Most sure for evil to the throne — 
 The outlawed Chieftain, Roderick Dhu, 
 Has summoned his rebellious crew ; 
 
// 
 
 CANTO V.) 
 
 THE COMBAT. 
 
 i8i 
 
 'Tis said, in James of Bothwell's aid 
 These loose banditti stand arrayed. 
 The Earl of Mar, this morn, from Dounft, 
 To break their muster marched, and soon 
 Your grace will hear of battle fought ; 
 But earnestly the Earl besought, 
 Till from such danger he provide, 
 With scanty train you will not ride.* 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 'Thou warn'st me I have done amiss — 
 I should have earlier looked to this : 
 I lost it in this bustling day. 
 — Retrace with speed thy former way. 
 Spare not for spoiling of thy steed, 
 The best of mine shall be thy meed. 
 Say to our faithful Lord of Alar, 
 We do forbid the intended war : 
 Roderick, this morn, in single fight, 
 Was made our prisoner by a knight ; 
 And Douglas hath himself and cause 
 Submitted to our kingdom's laws. 
 The tidings of their leaders lost 
 Will soon dissolve the mountain host, 
 Nor would we that the vulgar feel, 
 For their Chief's crimes, avenging steel. 
 Bear Mar our message. Brace ; fly !*— 
 He turned his steed — ' My liege, I hie — 
 Yet, ere I cross this lily lawn, 
 I fear the broadswords will be drawn.* 
 The turf the flying courser spurned, 
 And to his towers the King returned. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Ill with King James's mood that day, 
 Suited gay feast and minstrel lay ; 
 Soon were dismissed the courtly throngs 
 And soon cut short the festal song. 
 Nor less upon the saddened town 
 The evening sunk in sorrow down. 
 The burghers spoke of civil jar, 
 Pf rumoured feuds and ipountain war, 
 
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 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto V. 
 
 Of Moray, Mar, and Roderick Dhu, 
 All up in arms : — the Douglas too, 
 They mourned him pent within the hold 
 .'Where stout Earl William was of old.' 
 And there his word the speaker staid, 
 And finger on his lip he laid, 
 Or pointed to his dagger blade. 
 But jaded horsemen, from the west, 
 At evening to the Castle pressed ; 
 And busy talkers said they bore 
 Tidings of fight on Katrine's shore ; 
 At noon the deadly fray begun, 
 And lasted till the set of sun. 
 Thus giddy rumour shook the town. 
 Till closed the H'lRht her pennons brown* 
 
• rM ;' 
 
 NOTES 
 
 CANTO V. 
 
 After a hasty morning meal the two start upon their journey, 
 and the Gael's enquiries as to the knight's object in thus ventur- 
 ing in these \<rilds without a pass from the chief lead to an 
 interesting conversation betwixt them. Fitz-Janies shows that 
 Roderick^ suspicions of u war-gathering are mistaken, but hints 
 that his preparations may possibly lead to an encounter whicli 
 had not been intended. He avows his enmity against Roderick, 
 with whom he has vowed to match himself, and expresses the 
 keenest desire to meet "the rebel chiefiain and his band." 
 *' Have, then, thy wish," is the reply. His companion's shrill 
 signal makes the whole hillside bristle with armed men, who 
 have been lying perdtis among the heather and the bracken, and 
 the guide proclaims himself the very man whom he seeks. At 
 a fresh sign the warriors disappear as suddenly as they sprang to 
 light, and the two pursue their course. They pass tlie foot of 
 Lake Vennachar, and at last reach the ford, which is the 
 limit of Roderick's protection. There Fitz-James must defend 
 himself with his own sword. The Gael, to make the fight more 
 equal, throws away his targe, and thus the science which makes 
 the good blade both sword and shield gives the knight tlie ad- 
 vantage over his adversary. The latter, thrice severely wounded, 
 loses his sword, but makes a final effort, and springs at his oppo- 
 nent's throat. Clasped in his strong arms the kni<;ht falls under 
 him, and the issue of the fight would have been changed had 
 not Roderick turned giddy from loss of blood and missed his 
 aim. Poor IJlanclie is thus reventjed. The victor winds his 
 bugle, and four attendants come galloping to the spot. Leaving 
 two of them to look to the wotindeil innn, he hastes with the 
 others back to Stirling. As they come to tlie castle they catch 
 sight of the Douglas, wiio comes to give himself up lo the king 
 
 'iiH 
 
 <•» 
 
 r 
 
 ^ . ■T I 
 
i84 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto v. 
 
 in the hope of liberating the Graeme, and of saving Roderick 
 from a calamitous war. On his arrival he finds the town in a 
 busile of preparation for the burghers' sports, and decei mines to 
 take part in them, and so introduce himself to the king. He 
 proves victor in all that he undertakes, so that the multitude 
 begin to suspect who he is ; but the king gives him the prize as 
 to an utter stranger. All this he bears patiently ; but when his 
 hound, Ellen's playfellow, is maltreated by the king's huntsman, 
 he can bear it no longer, and with a sound cuff stretches the 
 offender on the ground, and proclaims himself, and his purpose 
 in coming. He is carried off captive to the castle. The people 
 attem,jt a rescue, but are appeased by Douglas himself, and 
 retire, though with gloomy forebodings of his fate. 
 
 While the king is brooding .over the fickleness of the crowd, 
 a messenger comes from the Earl of Mar to warn him that Cian- 
 Alpine is rising, and that he must confine his sport to guarded 
 ground. The earl himself is gone to quell the rising, and hojies 
 soon to encounter the foe. James sends in all speed to stay the 
 army's march, as Roderick is already a captive, and the people 
 must not suffer for his crimes. But the message, as will be seen, 
 comes too late. 
 
 This canto is by far the most powerful in the whole poem. 
 It begins with one of those exquisite bits of description in which 
 Scott excelled. The scene is not perhaps so lovely as Loch 
 Katrine, but it is more /aried. The conversation between the 
 knight and his guide is skilfully directed, so as to show us that 
 Roderick, in his suspicions, has mistaken the king's purpose ; 
 that no raid was intended, but only a peaceful hunt. The ground 
 of hostility between the Saxon and the Gael is carefully put 
 forward, and the way well prepared for Roderick's declanng 
 himself; and at the declaration we can hardly decide which most 
 deserves our sympathy, the mountain chief, so often called bar- 
 barous and treacherous, who forbt ars to use his advantage, and 
 respects the rights of hospitality; or the brave knight, who 
 fronts this unexpected danger without flinching. The combat 
 that shortly follows is related with much vigour, and we are kept 
 in suspense as to the result to the last moment. 
 
 It is to be regretted that the rule of time, a canto to a day's 
 action, should have givci to the games that follow a place in 
 the same canto. There is no real want of vigour in the descrip- 
 tion, but still it falls tamely aftei this. The only purpose that it 
 serves is to make Douglas known, and to hint at the real cause 
 of the unrest of the time ; • i., the efforts of the Commons' King 
 to curtail the power of the nobles. 
 
 Stanza i. — This introductory stanza is wel^ worked in with 
 
CANTO v.] NOTES— THE COMBAT. 
 
 ^^5 
 
 the story. The morning beam "lights the fearful path on 
 mountain side" which the two heroes of the poem are to 
 traverse, and the comparison which it suggests enlists our sym- 
 pathy for Roderick, who is to be the victim of defeat. 
 
 2. — Da/fled; 'spotted,* 'variegated.' Akin to *dab,' Ice- 
 landic 'dep'll.'aspot on aground of different colour; 'deplottr,' 
 dappled. — \Vi;uc;\V(U)D. 
 
 Muttered tht'ir soidier matins by. They were short and nide, 
 as shown by the following couplet. ' By ' seems to be inserted 
 for the rhyme. It may mean ' near,' as "thou being ^j/" (Milton) ; 
 or, ' to mutter by' means *to say quickly, so as to get them over.' 
 Cp. stanza 20, "that is by;" i.e. 'over,' 'past.' 
 
 Bursting through. A piece of loose writing, for * as they burst 
 through.' 
 
 ■ ■ r 
 
 i 
 
 ^ I 
 
 
 lis 
 
 3. — Flows, rose. Another feeble sacrifice to rhyme. 
 
 Shingles. See note on iii. 7. 
 
 Heather black, that waved so high. Note how the details of 
 this description are used in stanza 9 — 'shingles, 'bracken,' 
 'broom.' 
 
 Dank. Probably the same word as 'damp.' Cp. Italian 
 *cambiare' and 'cangiare,' to change; English 'dimble' and 
 * dingle.' The meaning of the word is clearly seen in Milton's 
 Sonnet to Lawrence — 
 
 "Now that the fields are dank, and ways are mire." 
 
 5. — Shows the mistake under which Roderick has been 
 labouring, too late now for remedy. 
 
 Muster. Italian 'mostra,' Old French 'moustre,' * a show,' 
 'reviev/ of troops.* From Latin 'monstro,' which is from 
 'nioneo,' through 'monstrum,' 'a warning prodigy.' (The 
 German 'muster,' which also means 'pattern,' 'sample,' shows 
 the derivation more clearly.) Hence 'to muster* is 'to gather 
 for review,' and so 'to gather' simply. 
 
 We were loth. The old construction is seen in the following ; 
 " That other, be him loth or leef. 
 He itiay go pypen in an ivy leaf." — Ch.\ucer. 
 Regeftt. Albany. See next stanza. For the fact see canto ii. 12. 
 Utiffian. Italian 'ruflfiano,' French 'rufien.' Appears to be 
 connected with O.H.G. 'hruf,' 'scurf,' 'dirt ;' English 'rough,* 
 It b then applied in a moral sense. Dante has — 
 "Ruffian, barattii e simile lordura." 
 " Ruffians and cheats, and such like filth." 
 
 -Mill 
 
 
 ! i T? 
 
 n 
 
 :i I; 
 
i§6 tilE LADY OF THE LAKE. fcANTO V. 
 
 6. —His due. Probably because sovereignty implies a sovereign. 
 While Albany, with feeble hand. 
 Held borrffived truncheon of command. 
 Albany was the son of a younger brother of James IIL, who 
 had been driven into exile by liis brotlier's attempts on his life. 
 He was well received at the court of France, and his son was 
 made Lord High Admiral. To him the Scotlisli nobles turned 
 on the death of James IV., and invited him over to assume the 
 regency. He came in 15 1 5, bringing with him a French reiinr.e, 
 and French habits of rule, which soon made him unpopular in 
 Scotland. In the following year he returned to France on short 
 leave, and remained away till 1521. After a short stay in Scot- 
 land, he again went over to France for ! elp against England, 
 and returned in September, 1523, with a considerable force ; but, 
 owing to the distrust of the Scotch, he M'as obliged to abandon 
 his expedition. In 1524 he finally withdrew. 
 
 Meived. French 'muer,' Latin 'mutare,* our 'moult.' Origin- 
 ally 'to cast the feathers,' 'to change them.' .So the 'mew' or 
 'mews' was the place where hawks were confined while moult- 
 ii.^;. The Royal Mr^vs was the building where the king's hawks 
 were kept, which would be part of the stable offices, whence its 
 present meaning. To 'mew' is to 'pen' or 'shut up.' There 
 seems to be some inaccuracy in the history here. James V. was 
 only twelve years of age when Albany left, and Stirling was the 
 place he fled to for safety, when he threw off the yoke of Angus, 
 four years later. 
 
 Swain, Icelandic 'sveinn,' a boy, Danish 'svend,* a young 
 man, journeyman. A.S. 'swan,' a herdsman. 
 
 7. — Steer. A.S. 'styric,* German 'stier,' a young bull, ox, or 
 heifer. 
 
 Belong the target and claymore. These were the weapons of 
 the ancient Britons. Cp. Tacitus, Agticola, 1. 36 — 
 "Ingentibus gladiis et bievihus cetris." 
 
 Pent. A.S. 'pyndan,' to confine; whence our 'pound,' '/;«- 
 fold.' ' Pond' and 'pindar ' are from the .same root. The hilly 
 fastnesses are their natural fortress, in which they have been 
 cooped up by the aggressions of the Lowlanders. 
 
 Shock. A pile of sheaves, Dutch 'schokke,' German 'schock,' 
 possibly from the idea of a 'tuft,' 'branch.' Cp. 'shock' of 
 nair, Italian 'ciocco.' Akin to 'shake,' that which is shaken 
 together. 
 
 8. — Meed. German 'miethe,' Greek fdaOos, reward. 
 Alatch me. .Scott is rather fond of these reflexive forms. 
 "Wilfred had roused him to reply." — Kokeby, ii. 13. 
 
 Cp. 
 
Canto v.] KOTES— THE COMIBAt. 
 
 187 
 
 *' S/ay thee, fair, in Ravensheuch." — Ley, vi. 23. 
 
 "Enter and rest thee there a space." — Lord of (he h/es, v. 21. 
 
 *' Moutil thee en the wightest steed." — Lay, i. 22. 
 
 9. — Compare with this the fears of Jarvis in Fol> Roy, chap, 
 xxvii. : " 111 I winna say of him, for, foiby that he's my cousin, 
 we're coming near his ain country, and there may be ane o' his 
 gillies ahiiit every whin-bush for what I ken." This incident, 
 hkc some oilier passages in the poem, illustrative of the character 
 of the anciont Gael, is not imaginary, i)ut borrowed from fact. 
 
 Yinvniiig hill. An instance of condensed epithet, as if the 
 hill had yavvned and given, &c. 
 
 Beck. A nod or bow, A. S. 'beacon,' a si ;;n, nod. Wedg- 
 wood quotes: '' He (Hardicanute) made a law iliat every Inglis 
 man sal bek, and discover his hed quhen he met ane Dane." — 
 Bellenden. 
 
 10. — Clint. "To glance, gleam, or pass suddenly like a flash 
 of lightning." — Jamieson. Danish 'glimt,' a gleam, flash. 
 Cp. the slang "douse the,^'/////," for 'put out the light.' Con- 
 nected with 'glance,' 'glimpse,' 'glis'.en,' German 'glanz.' 
 
 yack. The peasant's substitute for a coat of mail, known in 
 the time of the Commonwealth as a \i\\^ jerkin. It wns a tunic 
 of leather, set with rings or bosses of iron. Meyrick says it 
 originated with the English, quoting a passage from the Chro' 
 nide of Bcrlraud du Cuesclin (lime of Richard II.) — 
 
 " Each had a jack above his hauberk." 
 It was buttoned down the front to the waist, and secured round 
 it by a girdle. (Fairholt, Costume in England). In the pre- 
 parations for w.ir with England (I454) every man worth twenty 
 marks is 10 have a jack with iron sleeves. — Burton, ii. 431. 
 It was sometimes more effectually protected. In the Monastery, 
 chap, ix., Scott speaks of the jack, or doublet quilted with iron, 
 and, in the Eve of St. John, of the plate-jack. 
 
 II. — Wont. See i. 20. 
 sense as a participle. 
 
 The word is used here in its original 
 
 12. — Three mighty lakes. Katrine, Acliray, and Vennachar. 
 "The torrent which discharges itself from Loch Vennachar. the 
 lowest and eastmost of the three lakes which form the scenery 
 adjoining to the Trosachs, sweeps through a flat and extensive 
 nioor called Bochastle. Upon a small eminence called the Dun of 
 
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 i'i 
 
 
 : ' ' 111 
 
 « 
 
 
 
 •t ' -'ill 
 
 + 
 
 \^M 
 
 1 
 
 
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 ^i^ ii 
 
 T 
 
 fi 
 
 
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 ■ ii^'ii' ' 
 
 •'■ i W 
 
 
 rfi 
 
 
 ■': ^" i 
 
 ii 
 
 'f : 
 
h 
 If 
 
 l^^ 
 
 tHE LADY OP tHE LAKE. tcANTo V. 
 
 Bochastle, and indeed on the plain itself, are some intrenchments, 
 which have been thought Roman. There is, adjacent to Callen- 
 der, a sweet villa, the residence of Captain Fairfoul, entitled the 
 Roman Camp." — Scott. Tliis district is by many antiquaries 
 held to be the scene of Ajjricola's final contest with the Scots 
 in the A/ons Graitpius. At Ardoch, near Dunblane, not far 
 to the east of Menteith, is ,a very perfect Roman encamp- 
 ment, which is believed to have held his army. (The name 
 Grampians^ which has been given to the whole of this range of 
 mountains, on the faith of Tacitus, appears from the MSS. to 
 have arisen from a false reading.) 
 
 And his plaid. So at Killiecrankie the Highlanders threw off 
 their plaids and their brogues before beginning the fight.^ 
 Macau LAY, History of Eiis^land, iii. 360. 
 
 13. — Bred bdw.en thf living and the dead. See canto iii. 5. 
 
 Read. 'Interpreted,' A. S. 'roedan,' to advise, command, 
 interpret; so the Scotch *red,' 'rede.' The connexion with 
 *roed,' ready, plain, would suggest that it means to make plains 
 which will suit both meanings of the word. For * rede ' = 
 * counsel ' cp. Hamlet, i- 3 — 
 
 " And recks not his own rede.^^ 
 
 14. — Some vain carpet knight; i.e. one who won his spurs, 
 not on the battle-field by deeds of valour, but at court by dan- 
 cing attendance on royalty. A lord mayor knighted at a royal 
 visit to the city is a carpet-knight. Cp. Twelfth Night, iii. 4: 
 *' He is knight, dubbed with unhatched rapier, and on carpet 
 consideration." 
 
 Ruth. Pity. 
 
 Which thou wilt. See stanza 1 1. 
 
 Scabbard. The sheath or covering of a sword. According to 
 Wedgwood, a corruption of ' scaleboard,' thin board, of which 
 it was made. The word is used to denote this material. " Some 
 splints are made of scabbard and tin, sewed up in linen 
 cloths." 
 
 15.— Ill fared it then with Roderick Dhu, 
 That on the field his targe he threw, 
 For, trained abroad his arms to wield, 
 Fitz-yames^ s blade was sivord and shield. 
 "A round target of light wood, covered with strong leather, 
 and studded with brass or iron, was a necessary part of a High- 
 lander's equipment. In charging regular troops they received 
 the thrust of the bayonet in this buckler, twisted it aside, and 
 used the broad-sword against the encumbered soldier. In the 
 civil war of 1745, most of the front rank of the clans were thus 
 wrmed; and Captain Grose informs us that in 1747, the privates 
 
CANTO v.] NOTES— THE COMBAT. 
 
 189 
 
 of the 42nd regiment, then in Flanders, were for the most part 
 permitted to carry targets. The use of defensive a;mour, and 
 particularly of the buckler, or target, was general in Que^n 
 Elizabeth's time, allliou.;h that of the single rapier seems to 
 have been occasionally practised much earlier. Rowland Yorke, 
 however, who betrayed the fort of Zutphen to the Spaniards, 
 for which good service he was afterwards poisoned by them, is 
 said to have been the first who brought the rapier fight into 
 general use." — Scott. 
 
 Cp. Hamlet iv. 7, 96. " And for your rapier most especially." 
 Here and in Act v. sc. 2, Shakespeare implies that in his time 
 Paris was the best fencing school. 
 
 Feint (Latin 'fingere,' French 'feindre'), to pretend to make 
 a thrust, so as to distract the opponent's eye, and make him 
 leave some part unguarded. ^ 
 
 16. — Recreant. The Latin 'recredo' and its derivatives in 
 the Romance languages, were used in the sense of 'surrender,* 
 'give up,' 'abate.' The p.nrticiples, Italian 'ricredente,' French 
 'recreant,* were especially used of one who yields in battle, or 
 in a judicial combat. To do so in the latter implied that a 
 man's cause was not good enough for him to give his life for; so 
 that 'recreant^ came to mean coward, convicted traitor. — 
 Wedgwood. 
 
 Dagger. This completes the ordinary Highland equipment. 
 He threw away his tari,'c, liis sword or claymore is forced from 
 his hand, his dirk is left. Cp. P'lora's Song in IVaverley, chap, 
 xxii. — 
 
 "The dirk and the target lie sordid with dust, 
 The bloodless claymore is but reddened with rust." 
 
 Triple steel. Cp. Horace, Od. i. 3, 9: ** l{\\ xohm t\. as triplex 
 circa pectus erat. 
 
 The odds. The chances of an event happeriing, or not hap- 
 pening, are either equal or unequal. For instance, if a coin ft 
 tossed head or tail must come up, and the chance of the one is 
 as great as that of tlie other. In this case the chances are said 
 to be even. If the chances are unequal, as, for instance, in 
 throwing a die with six faces, where tliere is only one way for a 
 <;iven face to turn up, and five for it not to turn up, we might 
 similarly say the chances are odd. But this would not tell us 
 wliich event was most prolfable; so we say instead, the odds are 
 in favour o{ the more likely event, e.g. of six not turning up; 
 and against the less likely, e.g. the six turning up ; so to tnrn 
 the odds is to transfer the chance of victory lo him. As James's 
 sword was sword and shield, and Koderick had thrown away 
 his targe, he was fii^liting against olds. 
 
 ' ; so we say to dose with the enemy. 
 
 (< 
 
 prnp 
 
 
 
 ^1" 
 
 
 ^1 
 
 '.:i i^:^ 
 
 ■'.'ji 
 
 (4 
 
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 11 
 
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 •tSi 
 
190 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto v. 
 
 \T.— Gallants. The A.S. 'gal,' German •geil,' = 'light,' 
 'pleasant,' 'merry.' From it was formed the Italian and 
 Spanish noun 'gala,'' and from this a verb 'galare,' to keep^rt/a, 
 to pursue pleasure. Of this verb the Italian 'galante' is the par- 
 ticiple (French 'galant,' our 'gallant'). Originally therefore it 
 means one who knows how to make the most of pleasure-days; 
 then one who knows how to please the fair sex (our 'gallant'). 
 Hence its meaning diverges. In English it means brave, in 
 Italian honest, in French a man of pleasure. 
 
 Palfrey. An easy-going horse for riding, a lady's horse. 
 French 'palefroi,' German 'pfcrd,' Medireval Latin 'paravere- 
 dus, parafredus,' a hybrid word from Greek trapb., and 'veredus,* 
 a post-horse ; so an extra post-horse. 
 
 Boune. Ready. See iv. 8. 
 
 1 8. — Steel = 'spur.' Cf. i. 7, note. 
 
 Cross-bow. A bow placed athwart a stock. " It would send 
 the 'quarell'—as the arrows were termed — a distance of forty 
 rods. The cross-bowman had a tnoulinet and pulley for winding 
 up his bow. "This operation is performed by fixing one foot 
 in the sort of stirrup at ihe bottom [of the bow], and applying 
 the wheels and lever to the string of the bow, and so winding 
 it upward by the handle placed at its top," — Fairholt. 
 
 Carhonie. About a mile from the mouth of Loch Vennachar. 
 
 Pricked; 'spurred,' 'rode quickly.' The word came to mean 
 simply 'ride.' So Spenser, Faerie Queen, i, I — 
 
 "A gentle knight -^zs, pricking oxi the plaine." 
 And in 7I/fl;v«/y«, v. 17 — 
 
 "Northumbrian -^rickers, wild and rude." 
 
 Torry, Lendrick, Deanstorvn, Doune, B'air-Drutntnond, Och- 
 ttrtyre, and Kier, all lie on the banks of the Teith, between 
 Caflender and Stirling. Most of them are ashociated with per- 
 sonal friends of Sir W. Scott. Craig-Forth is between the two 
 branches of the Forth, before and after the Teith joins it. 
 During his visit to Carnbusmore in 1809 Scott ascertained, by 
 personal trial, that a good horseman might gallop from Loch 
 Vennachav to Stirling in the time he has allotted to Fitz-James. 
 
 19. — Saint Serle. Lord Jeffrey remarks : "The king himself 
 is in such distress for a rhyme as to be obliged to apply to one 
 of the obscurest saints ni the calendar." We have already 
 noticed instances of this haste in the present canto. 
 
 The king must stand upon his guard. This seems a needless 
 device to keep the secret : the courtiers of course know who 
 Fitz-James is. 
 
 Postern. French 'posterne,' 'poterne,' from Low Latin 
 'posterula,' 'a back way.' The word is sonaetimes used for th? 
 tjale iisolf, 
 
OA?^TO v.] NOTES— THE COMBAT. 
 
 I9t 
 
 20. — Vf to7uers ! within whose circuit dread 
 A Dotiglas by his sm'Cn'ij^n bled. 
 In 1451 William, the then head of the house of Douglas, a 
 man of great political activity at home and abroad, had, in order 
 to secure his position, entered into a bond, or band, as it was 
 called, with the Earls of Crawfurd and Ross. On the 15th of 
 January, 1452, James II. invited him to visit him at Stirling 
 Castle, and after supper withdrew with him into an inner cham- 
 ber. After much talk upon public matters, the king bade him 
 break these bands. Douglas refused. The king replied, • Then 
 this shall,' and stabbed him twice. Sir Patrick Grey then came 
 up, and finished the work with a pole-axe. — Burton, ii. 425. 
 In October, 1797, a human skeleton was found during some 
 excavations in the garden, about eight yards from the window of 
 the room where this happened. As it was believed that the 
 victim was buried on the spot, it is supposed that this was the 
 skeleton of the Douglas. 
 
 Thou, sad and fatal mound. The "heading hill," north of 
 the castle, used by James V. and his courtiers for sliding down 
 on small sledges, from which it got the name of Hurley- Hacket. 
 '* Murdack Duke of Albany, Duncan Earl of Lennox, his 
 father-in-law, and his two sons, Walter and Alexander Stuart, 
 were executed at Stirling in 1425. They were beheaded upon 
 an eminence without the castle walls, but making part of the 
 same hill, from whence they could behold their strong castle of 
 Doune and their extensive possessions." — ScoTT. 
 
 Franciscan steeple. The Grey-friars' church was built by 
 James IV. in 1494, on the slope of the Castle Rock. James VI. 
 was crowned here in July, 1567. 
 
 Pageant. Possibly from Latin ' compaginata, ' 'fitted together.' 
 Originally the scafifokling or movable platform on which mystery 
 plays were acted. It is called 'pagina' in old documents. Then 
 It was transferred to that which was exhibited, whether it were a 
 dumb show or a dramatic performance. In the Chester Mysteries 
 each drama is introduced in the form, "Incipit/a^Vw prima de 
 cell, &c., creacione." 
 
 Morrice-dancei-s. Originally 'Moriscos,' or ^Moorish dancers.* 
 The dance was probably the Spanish ' fandango ;' but it was in 
 England soon combined with the national May-day pageant of 
 Robin Hood and Maid Marian, the Queen of the May. It 
 required five characters, though the number was sometimes 
 extended. They were Robin Hood, Maid Marian, a friar 
 (Robin Hood's chaplain. Friar Tuck), a minstrel, and a clown.. 
 The hobby-horse was generally added to them, and often the 
 usher of the bower, or gentleman usher. Most of these charac- 
 ters are found in Ben Jonson's Sad Shepherd, already referred io, 
 which is a thoroughly poetical version of this pasreant. One 
 
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 i.j 
 
 [ 1 1 
 
 4, 
 
 1 
 
 f 
 
 1 % 
 
 M'l,^;. 
 
 i 
 
 
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 - 
 
 
192 
 
 THE LAt)Y OF THE LAI^E. tcANTo V. 
 
 distinctive feature of the morris- dancer, and indicative of his 
 origin, was the wearing bells upon the heel. (See stanza 22, and 
 note.) The dance was kept up till the earlier part of the present 
 century. JTone saw it in London in 1826. In Oxfordshire it is 
 said to be still practised, though a few ribbons are the only re- 
 mains of the old costume. (Chambers, Booi o/Days, i. 630- 
 633.) There is a description of the play in the Abbot, ch. xiv., 
 and Scott's note. Its popularity was a great stumbling-block to 
 ihe Reformers on each side of the Border. It was forbidden in 
 Scotland by statute in 1555, but "it would seem, from the com- 
 plaints of the General Assembly of the Kirk, that these profane 
 festivities were continued down to 1592. Bold Robin was, to 
 say the least, equally successful in maintaining his ground against 
 the reformed clergy of En;;land ; for the simple and evangelical 
 Latimer complains of coming to a country church, where the 
 people refused to hear him because it was Robin Hood's day ; 
 and his mitre and rochet were fain to give way to the village 
 pastime." — Scott. 
 
 Play my prize. Cp. Odyssey, xxiv. 89: ^^hwynnai re vioi Kal 
 iirevT^vovToi AedXai "get ready for the prizes," meaning the 
 contest. 
 
 21. — TAe Castle gates were open flung. Stirling Castle was 
 already one of the principal fortresses of Scotland in the twelfth 
 century, and ;ibout the beginning of the fifteenth became a royal 
 residence. A palace was erected within its walls by James V., 
 with whose history, as we have seen, it is intimately associated. 
 It stands upon a lofty rock, which commands the Forth. The 
 slope which connects it with the plain is occupii d by the town 
 of Stirling. 
 
 Jennet. A small Spanish horse; from Spanish 'ginete,' a 
 light horse soldier; said to come from the Arabic 'diund,' a 
 soldier. (Connected by others with the Greek 7i}/iu^es.) From 
 the soldier it was transferred, in French and English, to the 
 horse which he rode. 
 
 Long live the Commons^ King, King yamesl The lines that 
 follow explain the policy which in great part led to this name. 
 James had done what was done by Henry VII. in England, 
 and by Louis XL in France ; that is, had striven to check the 
 lawless power of the noVjles, and had sought the alliance of the 
 commons, or people of the towns. Shortly after the fall of 
 Angus, the Earl of Argyle was deprived of the lieutenancy of 
 the Isles, a step which led some of the Lowland lords to transfer 
 their allegiance to England. Later (1540), when the king made 
 a progress in the north, he took possession of some of the High- 
 land chiefs, and brought them southward in captivity, as sureties 
 for thego(^ behaviour of their clans. (BURTON, iiu 175.), 
 
CANTO v.] NOTES— THE COMBAT. 
 
 193 
 
 22. — The Castle-park lies to the south of the Castle, from 
 tvhich it is separated by the king's garden and the esplanade, 
 which parts the Castle from the town. 
 
 Chequered. In allusion to the gay dresses of the pageants, oi 
 of the morris-dancers, whose dress is described as of white 
 fustian spangled. 
 
 Morricers, with bell at heel. The bell at heel was indispensable, 
 but this was not necessarily all. In a description of a morris- 
 dancer's dress, given in a note (s) to the Fair Maid of Perth, we 
 find that it has 252 small bells in sets of twelve at regular musicul 
 intervals ; so that, li'' "t the old woman of Banbury, music would 
 go with him wherever he went. 
 
 Butts. French 'buttes,* literally the mound of earth vMch 
 supports the target. (Same root as 'boss,' iv. $.) 
 
 Cowl. Latin 'cucullus,' a hood attached to the long ttmic, 
 so as to be pulled over the head; hence the proverb, " Cucullus 
 iion facit monachum. " 
 
 Scathelocke and Scarlet are two of the characters in Ben Ji)n- 
 son's play. Will Scarlet is mentioned in the ballad of Ko'.iin 
 Hood's Death, in Percy's MS. ; Friar Tuck, the clerk of Cop- 
 manhurst, in Jvanhoe. The games that follow remind us of the 
 funeral games for Patroclus in the Iliad, and for Anchises in the 
 ^ncid, though they are treated with distinct originality. The 
 stag-hunt is Scott's own. 
 
 Stake; i.e. prize. 
 
 Wight. Creature; i.e. commonest archer. A. S. *wilit,' from 
 which we have also *whit.' Cp. German 'bosewicht,' a good- 
 for-nothing fellow. It was once used of fairies, spirits; so 
 Chaucer, Miller's Tale — 
 
 " I crouche thee from elves and from wights." 
 Part of this scene is taken from a story, reported by Hume of 
 Godscroft, which has been worked up into a ballad by Mr. 
 Fiiilay (Scottish Historical and Romantic Ballads. Glasgow, 
 iSoS). It is introduced as follows — 
 
 ** Our nobles they hae sworn an aith? 
 
 An they gart our young king swear the same^ 
 That as lang as the crown was on his head 
 He wad speak to nane o' the Douglas name. 
 
 *• An wasna this a wearifou aith ; 
 
 For the crown frae his head had been tint and gane^ 
 Gin the Douglas hand hadna held it on. 
 Whan anither to help him there was nane. 
 
 ** An the king frae that day grew dowie and wae; 
 ^For he liked in his heart the Douglas weel; 
 For his foster-brither was Jamie o' Parkhead, 
 An Archie o' Kilspindie was his Grey Stall, 
 
 ] 
 
 ^ 
 
 ,\ >, « 
 
 !•' i 
 
\- 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 n4 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto v. 
 
 •• But Jamie was banisht, an* Archy hailh, 
 An' they lived hinij, lang ayont the sea, 
 Till a' had forgotten lliem but the king, 
 An' he whiles said wi' a watery e'e. 
 ^ Gin they think on me as I think on them, 
 
 I wot their life is but drearie." 
 
 The king goes out hunting with his nobles, and is returning to 
 " Snawdon Tower," 
 
 " When Murray cried loud — Wha 's yon I see ? 
 Like a Douglas he looks, baith dark and grim, 
 And for a' his sad and weary pace, 
 Like them he 's ricl^t stark o' arm and limb. 
 
 The king's heart lap, and he shouted wi' glee : 
 Yon stalwarth makedom I ken richt weel. 
 
 And I'se wad in pawn the hawk on my han'. 
 It's Archie Kilspindie, my ain Gray Steill; 
 
 We maun gie him grace o' a' ^lis race ; 
 For Kilspindie was trusty, ay and leal." 
 
 But his nobles, some sadly, some sternly, remind him of his 
 oath, and with heart "yeamin and like to brast," he spoke 
 haughtily to his old friend, who would not be thrown off, but 
 kept up with the cavalcade to the castle gate. The king looked 
 back right wistfully, but left him there. The poor man begged 
 for a draught of cold water ; but no one durst give it him, so 
 strict was the ban. The king, when he heard of it, was "red- 
 wood furious," and — 
 
 *' A' fu' sad at the ta'Ae he sat him down, 
 An he spak but ae word at the dine : 
 O I wish my warst fae were but a king 
 Wi' as cruel counsellours as mine 1 ' 
 
 23. — For life is Hugh of Larbert lame. Lord Jeffrey objects 
 to this expression as intolerable. It seems to me to have the 
 great merit of setting the whole struggle before us in a line, 
 without wasting any words of description upon it. Larbert is in 
 Stirlingshire, about ten miles south of Stirling. In its church 
 Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, is buried. 
 Alloa. On the other side of the Forth, in Clackmannan. 
 A golden ring. The ordinary prize for wrestling was a ram 
 and a ring. Cp. Chaucer, Cokeys Tale of Gamely n, 169— 
 •' Litheth, and lestneth, and holdetli our tonge. 
 And ye schul heere talkyng of Gamely n l!ie yonga 
 Ther was ther bysiden cryed a wrastling. 
 And tberfor ther was sette up a ram and a ryng." 
 
CANTO v.] NOTES— THE COMBAT. 
 
 195 
 
 And moralise on the decay 
 
 Of ' cottish strength in modem day. 
 So in Homer and Virgil, the great victors are generally those of 
 a former generation, who astonish the younger men by exploits 
 to which they can never attain. (Mom. //. v. 303, xii. 447; 
 Virg. /£». xii. 899.) Cp. with this stanza the putting the bar 
 in Homer, //. xxiii. 
 
 24. — Ladies^ Rock. A hilloc'c in the "valley," from which 
 the ladies of the court witnessed the tourney. 
 
 Douglas of the stalwart hand. See note on canto iv, 27. 
 
 For an illustration of the close of this stanza compare the 
 scene of Wolsey's downfall, Henry VIII. act iii. scene 2. 
 
 mhols. O.E. 'gambauld,' French 'gambade,' lite- 
 
 incT, dancing, from *gambe,' an old form of 'jambi*,* 
 
 that from Celtic root *cim,' crooked ("This is clean 
 
 lAKESPEARE, Coriolonus). Cp. 'camera,' an arch; 
 
 25. — Gambols. 
 rally skippii 
 a leg ; and t 
 
 cam. " — Shakespeare, Coriolanus). 
 Greek »ca/*7nj, a bending. 
 
 Bu'/,'t. A blow, slap, from 'buff,' an imitation of the sound. 
 Cp. French 'sou diet,' a slap in the face, from 'souffler,* to 
 blow. 
 
 26. — rack. Rabble. See i. 4, and note. 
 
 27. — Hyndford. A village on the Clyde, three or four miles 
 south-east of Lanark. 
 
 j.a.— Fealty. French *f^elte,' Latin 'fidelitas,' 'faith,' 'loyalty.' 
 Widow'' s mate expires. A bold instance of prolepsis. She is 
 not a widow till he expires. 
 
 29. — As tempests melt in rain. This comparison is a common 
 one. Cp. Tennyson, song in the Princess — 
 
 "Like summer tempest came her tears." 
 Shakespeare, Ventts and Adonis, 1. 965 — 
 
 "But, like a stormy day, now wind, now rain. 
 Sighs dry her checks, tears make them wet again." 
 Verge. French 'verge,' Latin 'virga,' 'the wand borne by 
 the officer of a court.' Within the verge of the court = within 
 
 'limit,' 'edge.' 
 
 the limits of his authority ; and hence 'verge' 
 
 30. — Thou matty-headed monster-thing. Cp. Coriolanus^ i. i— 
 " He that depends 
 Upon youi favour swims with fins cf lead, 
 And hews down oaks with rushes. 
 With every minute do you change your mind, 
 
 
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196 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto v. 
 
 And call him noble that was no'v your hate, 
 Him vile that was your garland." 
 2 ICing Hfiiry IV. i 3 — 
 
 "An hahilntion giiiily and unsure 
 Hath he that luilldo'h on the vulvar heart." 
 
 yt.^Cognkattee. P'rench 'coiinaissance,' 'knowlcdjje.' A 
 knight in full arnioiir, with his vizor down, so that his face was 
 hid, was recognized by his crest or heraldic coat; here the sable 
 pale. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ADDA KAVANAOU AS ELLEN. 
 
(E^U (3mt^*Uiitviu 
 
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 •« 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LA ICE. 
 
 CANTO SIXTH. 
 
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 THE sun, awakening, through the smoky air 
 Of the dark city casts a sullen glance, 
 Rousing each caitiff to his task of care, 
 
 Of sinful man the sad inheritance ; 
 Summoning revellers from the lagging dance. 
 
 Scaring the prowling robber to his den ; 
 Gilding on battled tower the warder's lance. 
 
 And warning student pale to leave his pen. 
 And yield his drowsy eyes to the kind nurse of men. 
 
 What various scenes, and, O I what scenes of woe, 
 
 Are witnessed by that red and struggling beam ! 
 The fevered patient, from his pallet low. 
 
 Through crowded hospital beholds its stream ; 
 The ruined maiden trembles at its gleam, 
 
 The debtor wakes to thought of gyve and jail, 
 The love-lorn wretch starts from tormenting dream , 
 
 The wakeful mother, by the glimmering pale, 
 Trims her sick infant's couch, and soothes his feeble wait 
 
igS tHE LADY OF tllE LAKE. tcANTO Vt 
 
 IL 
 
 s^ At dawn the towers of Stirling rang 
 
 t With soldier-step and weapon-clang, 
 
 '^% While drums, with rolling note, foretell 
 
 Relief to weary sentinel. 
 Through narrow loop and casement barred 
 The sunbeams sought the Court of Guard, 
 And, struggling with the smoky air, 
 Deadened the torches' yellow glare. 
 In comfortless alliance shone 
 The lights through arch of blackened stone. 
 And shewed wild shapes in garb of war, 
 Faces deformed with beard and scar. 
 All haggard from the midnight walch, 
 And fevered with the stern debauch ; 
 For the oak table's massive board, 
 Flooded with wine, with fragments stored, 
 And beakers drained, and cups o'erthrown, 
 Shewed in what sport the night had flown. 
 Some, weary, siored on floor and bench ; 
 Some laboured still their thirst to quench ; 
 Some, chilled with watching, spread their hands 
 O'er the huge chimney's dying brands, 
 While round them, i^r beside them flung, 
 At every step their harness rung. 
 
 in. 
 
 These drew not for their fields the sword, 
 
 Like tenants of a feudal lord. 
 
 Nor owned the patriarchal claim 
 
 Of Chieftain in their leader's name ; 
 
 Adventurers they, from far who roved. 
 
 To live by battle, which they loved. 
 
 There the Italian's clouded face, 
 
 The swarthy Spaniard's there you trace ; 
 
 The mountain-loving Switzer there 
 
 More freely breathed in mountain-air ; 
 
 The Fleming there despised the soil, 
 
 That paid so ill the labourer's toil ; 
 
 Their rolls shewed French and German name; 
 
 And merry England's exiles came, 
 
1 
 
 vt 
 
 CANto vi.j tHE GUAkD-feOOM. 
 
 To share, with ill-concealed disdain. 
 Of Scotland's pay the scanty gain. 
 All brave in arms, well trained to wield 
 The heavy halberd, brand, and shield ; 
 In camps licentious, wild, and bold ; 
 In pillage fierce and uncontrolled ; 
 And now, by holytide and feast, 
 From rules of discipline released. 
 
 t99 
 
 IV. 
 
 They held debate of bloody fray, 
 Fought 'twixt Loch Katrine and Aciiray. 
 Fierce was tiieir speech, and, 'mid their wordSy 
 Their hands oft grappled to their swords ; 
 Nor sunk their tone to spare the ear 
 O' wounded comrades groaning near, 
 Whose mangled limbs, and bodies gored, 
 Bore token of the mountain sword. 
 Though, neighbouring to the Court of Guard, 
 Their prayers and feverish wails were heard ; 
 Sad burden to the ruffian joke. 
 And savage oath by fury spoke ! — 
 At length up-started John of Brent, 
 A yeoman from the banks of Trent; 
 ^A stranger to respect or fear, 
 In peace a chaser of the deer, 
 In host a hardy mutineer. 
 But still the boldest of the crew, 
 When deed of danger was to do. 
 He grieved, that day, their games cut shorty 
 And marred the dicer's brawling sport, 
 And shouted loud, * Renew the bowl 1 
 And, while a merry catch I troll, 
 Let each the buxom chorus bear. 
 Like brethren of the brand and spear.* 
 
 
 ' i .: j'ii: 
 
 tiyt 
 
 V. 
 
 SOLDIER'S SONG. 
 
 Our vicar still preaches that Peter and Pouie 
 
 Laid a swinging long curse on the bonny brown bow]. 
 
266 
 
 tHE LAt)V OF THE LAKE. fcANTo vi. 
 
 That there's wrath and despair in the jolly black-jack. 
 And the seven deadly sins in a flagon of sack ; 
 Yet whoop, Barnaby ! off with thy liquor, 
 Drink upsees out, and a fig for the vicar ! 
 
 Our vicar he calls it damnation to sip 
 
 The ripe ruddy dew of a woman's dear lip, 
 
 Says, that Beelzebub lurks in her kerchief so sly,- 
 
 And Apollyon shoots darts from her merry black eye ; 
 
 Yet whoop, Jack ! kiss Gillian the quicker, 
 
 Till she bloom like a rose, and a fig for the vicar ! 
 
 Our vicar thus preaches — and why should he not ? 
 For the dues of his cure are the placket and pot ; 
 And 'tis right of his office pcor laymen to lurch. 
 Who infringe the domains of our good Mother Church. 
 Yet whoop, bully-boys ! off with your liquor. 
 Sweet Marjorie's the word, and a fig for the vicar I 
 
 Y 
 
 VI. 
 
 The warder's challenge, heard without, 
 
 Staid in mid-roar the merry shout. 
 
 A soldier to the portal went — 
 
 * Here is old Bertram, sirs, of Ghent ; 
 
 And — beat for jubilee the drum ! 
 
 A maid and minstrel with him come.* 
 
 Bertram, a FLming, gray and scarred, 
 
 Was entering now the Court of Guard. 
 
 A harper with him, and in plaid 
 
 All muffled close, a mountain maid. 
 
 Who backward shrunk to 'scape the view 
 
 Of the loose scene and boisterous crew. 
 
 ' What news ? ' they roared : — * I only know, 
 
 From noon till eve we fought with foe, 
 
 As wild and as untameable 
 
 As the rude mountains where they dwell; 
 
 On both sides store of blood is lost, 
 
 Nor much success can either boast.* — 
 
 ' But whence thy captives, friend ? Such spoil 
 
 As theirs must needs reward thy toil. 
 
 Old dost thou wax, and wars grow sharp: 
 
 Thou now hast glee-maiden and harp ! 
 
 f: 
 f, 
 

 CANTO VI.] 
 
 THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 201 
 
 Get thee an ape, and trudge the land, 
 The leader of a juggler band.' 
 
 VII. 
 
 * No, comrade ; no such fortune mine. 
 After the fight t'^ese sought our line, 
 That aged harper and the girl, 
 
 And, having audience of the Earl, 
 Mar bade 1 should purvey them steed, 
 And bring them hitherward with speed. 
 Forbear your mirch and rude alarm. 
 For nqne shall do them shame or harm.' 
 
 * Hear ye his boast ? ' cried John of Brent, 
 Ever to strife and jangling bent ; 
 
 * Shall he strike doe beside our lodge, 
 And yet the jealous niggard grudge 
 To pay the forester his fee .-* 
 
 I '11 have my share, howe'er it be, 
 Despite of Moray, Mar, or thee.' 
 Bertram his forward step withstood ; 
 And, burning in his vengeful mood, 
 Old Allan, though unfit for strife, 
 Laid hand upon his dagger-knife ; 
 But Ellen boldly stepped between. 
 And dropped at once the tartan screen: 
 So, from his morning cloud, appears 
 The sun of May, through summer tears. 
 The savage soldiery, amazed. 
 As on descended angel gazed ; 
 Even hardy Brent, abashed and tamed. 
 Stood half admiring, half ashamed. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Boldly she spoke — * Soldiers, attend ; 
 My father was the soldier's friend ; 
 Cheered him in camps, in marches led. 
 And with him in the battle bled. 
 Not from the valiant, or the strong. 
 Should exile's daughter suffer wrong.' 
 Answered De Brent, most forward still 
 Tn every feat or good or ill — 
 
 4 
 
 
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 'ijl ■'■' :l 
 
 I/: 4 
 
 \ '^: I 
 
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292 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto n. 
 
 CA 
 
 V 
 
 ' I shame me of the part I played : 
 And thou an outlaw's child, poor maid I 
 An outlaw I by forest laws, 
 And merry Needwood knows the cause. 
 
 Poor Rose -if Rose be living now,', • 
 
 He wiped his iron eye and brow, 
 * Must bear such age, I think, as thou. 
 Hear ye, my mates; — I go to call 
 The Captain of our watch to hall : 
 There lies my halbert on the floor ; 
 And he rhat steps my halbert o'er, 
 To do the maid injurious part, 
 My shaft shall quiver in his heart ! — 
 Beware loose speech, or jesting rough: 
 Ye all know John de Brent. Enougii/ 
 
 
 IX. 
 
 Their Captain can^e, a gallant young— 
 (Of Tullibardine's house he sprung). 
 Nor wore he yet the spurs of knight ; 
 Gay was his mien, his humour light, 
 And, though by courtesy controlled, 
 Forward his speech, his bearing bold. 
 The high-born maiden ill could brook 
 The scanning of his curious look 
 And dauntless eye ; — and yet, in sooth, 
 Young Lewis was a generous youth; 
 But Ellen's lovely face and mien, 
 III suited to the garb and scene, 
 Might lightly bear construction strange, 
 And give loose fancy scope to range. 
 
 * Welcome to Stirling towers, fair maid I 
 Come ye to seek a champion's aid, 
 
 On palfrey white, with harper hoar, 
 
 Like errant damosel of yore ? 
 
 Does thy high quest a knip^ht require, 
 
 Or may the venture suit a squire.-*' — 
 
 Her dark eye flashed ; — she paused and sighed- 
 
 * O what have I to do with pride ! — 
 
 — Through scenes of sorrow, shame, and strifCi 
 A suppliant for a father's life, 
 
CANTO VI.] 
 
 THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 I crave an audience of the King. 
 Behold, to back my suit, a ring, 
 The royal pledge of grateful claims, 
 Given by the Monarch to Fitz-Jamcs.* 
 
 tf 
 
 S03 
 
 ^ 
 
 * i I-' il 
 
 The signet-ring young Lewis took, 
 
 With deep respect and altered look ; 
 
 And said — ' This ring our duties own ; 
 
 And pardon, if to worth unknown. 
 
 In semblance mean obscurely veiled, 
 
 Lady, in aught my folly failed. 
 
 Soon is the day flings wide his gates. 
 
 The King shall know what suitor waits. 
 
 Please you, meanwhile, in fitting bower 
 
 Repose you till his waking hour ; 
 
 Female attendance shall obey 
 
 Your best, for service or arra/. 
 
 Permit I marshal you the way.' 
 
 But, ere she followed, with the grace 
 
 And open bounty of her race, 
 
 She bade her slender purse be shared 
 
 Among the soldiers of the guard. 
 
 The rest with thanks their guerdon took; 
 
 But Brent, with shy and aukward look, 
 
 On the reluctant maiden's hold 
 
 Forced bluntly back the proffered gold; 
 
 * Forgive a haughty English heart, 
 
 And O forget its ruder part ! 
 
 The vacant purse shall be my share, 
 
 Which in my barret-cap I '11 bear 
 
 Perchance in jeopardy of war. 
 
 Where gayer crests may keep afar.* 
 
 With thanks — 'twas all she could — the maid 
 
 His rugged courtesy repaid. 
 
 XL 
 
 When Ellen forth with Lewis went, 
 Allan made suit to John of Brent :— 
 * My lady safe, O let your grace 
 Give me to see my master's face 1 
 
 
 i 
 
 A.K 
 
 
 
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204 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto vi. 
 
 His minstrel I — to share his doom 
 Bound from the cradle to the tomb. 
 Tenth in descent, since first my sires 
 Waked for his noble house their lyres, 
 Nor one of all the race was known 
 But prized its weal above their own. 
 Wi h the Chief's birth begins our care ; 
 Our harp must soothe the infant heir, 
 Teach the youth tales of fight, and grace 
 His earliest feat of field or chase ; 
 In peace, in war, our rank we keep, 
 We cheer his board, we soothe his sleep, 
 Nor leave him till we pour our verse — 
 A doleful tribute ! — o'er his hearse. 
 Then let me share his captive lot ; 
 It is my right — deny it not !' — 
 
 * Little we reck,' said John of Brent, 
 
 * We southern men, of long descent ; 
 Nor wot we how a name — a word — 
 Makes clansmen vassals to a lord : 
 Yet kind my noble landlord's part.— 
 God bless the house of Beaudesert ! 
 And, but I loved to drive the deer. 
 More than to guide the labouring steer, 
 I had not dwelt an outcast here. 
 Come, good old Minstrel, follow me ; 
 Thy Lord and Chieftain shalt thou see.* 
 
 m 
 
 XII. 
 
 Then, from a rusted iron hook, 
 A bunch of ponderous keys he took, 
 Lighted a torch, and Allan led 
 Through grated arch and passage di ead. 
 Portals they passed, where, deep within. 
 Spoke prisoner's moan, and fetters' din ; 
 Through rugged vaults, where, loosely stored, 
 Lay whe^i, and axe, and headsman's sword, 
 And many an hideous engine grim, 
 For wrenching joint, and crushing limb. 
 By artist formed, who deemed it shame 
 And sin to give their work a name. 
 
i 
 
 kAwr6 vi.j tHE Gt;ARt)-ROOM. 
 
 They halted at a low-browed porch, 
 
 And Bient to Allan gave the torch, 
 
 While bolt and chain he backward rolled, 
 
 And made the bar unhasp its hold. 
 
 They entered : — 'twas a prison-room 
 
 Of stern security and gloom, 
 
 Yet not a dungeon ; for the day 
 
 Through lofty gratings found its way, 
 
 And rude and antique garniture 
 
 Decked the sad walls and oaken floor ; 
 
 Such as the rugged days of old 
 
 Deemed fit for captive noble's hold. 
 
 * Here,' said De Brent, * thou mayst remain 
 
 Till the Leech visit him again. 
 
 Strict is his charge, the warders tell, 
 
 To tend the noble prisoner well.' 
 
 Retiring then the bolt he drew, 
 
 And the lock's murmurs growled anew. 
 
 Roused at the sound, from lowly bed 
 
 A captive feebly raised his head ; 
 
 The wondering Minstrel looked, and knew- 
 
 Not his dear Lord, but Roderick Dhu ! 
 
 Fo •, come from where Clan-Alpine fought. 
 
 They, erring, deemed the Chief he sought. 
 
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 XIIL 
 
 As the tall ship, whose lofty prore 
 Shall never stem the billows more. 
 Deserted by her gallant band, 
 Amid the breakers lies astrand — 
 So, on his couch, lay Roderick Dhu f 
 And oft his fevered limbs he threw 
 In toss abrupt, as when her sides 
 Lie rocking in the advancing tides. 
 That shake her frame with ceaseless beat. 
 Yet cannot heave her from her seat ; — 
 O ! how unlike her course at sea I 
 Or his free step on hill and lea ! — 
 Soon as the Minstrel he could scan, 
 — ' What of thy lady i* — of my clan ? 
 My mothe; ? — Douglas? — tell me alll 
 Have they been ruined in my fall? 
 
 
 ! (^ 
 
 i |: 
 
iOt tHE LADV of tHE LAKE. tcANTc VI. 
 
 Ah, yes 1 or wherefore art thou here ! 
 Yet speak — speak boldly — do not fear.' — 
 (For Allan, who his mood well knew. 
 Was choked with grief and terror too.) — 
 'Who fought — who fled? — Old man, be ^'.ii/,— 
 Some might — for they had lost their Chief, 
 Who basely live ? — who bravely died .'" — 
 *0, calm thee. Chief!' the Minstrel cried, 
 'Ellen is safe ;' — * For that thank Hoaven !' 
 * And hopes are for the Douglas given ;— 
 The Lady Margaret too is well. 
 And, for thy clan — on field or fell, 
 Has never harp of minstrel told. 
 Of combat fou^Mit so true and bold. 
 Thy stately Pine is yet unbent, 
 Though many a goodly bough is rent' 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The Chieftain reared his form on high, 
 And fever's fire was in his eye ; 
 But ghastly, pale, and livid streaks 
 Chequerer^. his swarthy brow and cheeks. 
 — * Hark, Minstrel ! I have heard thee play; 
 With measure bold, on festal day. 
 In yon lone isle, . . . again where ne'er 
 Shall harper play, or warrior hear ! . , , 
 That stirring air that peals on high, 
 O'er Dermid's race our victory. — 
 Strike it ! — and then (for well thou canst), 
 Free from thy minstrel-spirit glanced, 
 Fling Hie the picture of the fight. 
 When met my clan the Saxon might. 
 I '11 listen, till my fancy hears 
 The clang of swords, the crash of spears ! 
 These grates, these walls, shall vanish then, 
 For the fair field of fighting men, 
 And my free spirit burst away, 
 As if it soared from battle-fray.' 
 The. trembling bard with awe obeyed— 
 Slow on the harp his hand he lai'^ ; 
 '' But soon remembrance of the sight 
 He witnessed from the mountain's height. 
 With what old Bertram told at night, 
 
i .ii: 
 
 £ANTO VI.] 
 
 THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 107 
 
 Awakened the full power of song, 
 And bore him in career along ; — 
 As shallop launched on river's tide, 
 That slow and fearful leaves the side, 
 But, when it feels the middle stream, 
 Drives downward swift as lightning's beam. 
 
 XV. 
 
 BATTLE OF BEAL* AN DUINE, 
 
 'The minstrel came once more to view 
 The eastern ridge of Benvenue, 
 For, ere he parted, he wculd say 
 Farewell to lo\ely Loch Achray — 
 Where shall he find, in foreign land, 
 So lone a lake, so sweet a strand ! 
 There is no breeze upon the fern, 
 
 No ripple on the lake. 
 Upon her eyry nods the erne, 
 
 The deer has sought the brake; 
 The small birds will not sing aloud, 
 
 The springing trout lies still. 
 So darkly glooms yon thunder-cloud, 
 '1 hat swathes, as with a purple shroud, 
 
 Beniedi's distant hill. 
 Is it the thunder's solemn sound 
 That mutters deep and dread, 
 Or echoes from the groaning ground 
 
 The warrior's measured tread ? 
 Is it the lightning's quivering glance 
 
 That on the thicket streams, 
 Or do they flash on spear and lance 
 The sun's retiring beams ? 
 — I see the dagger-crest of Mar, 
 I see the Moray's silver star. 
 Wave o'er the cloud of Saxon war, 
 That up the lake comes winding far I 
 To hero bound for battle-strife, 
 
 Or bard of martial lay, 
 'Twere worth ten years of peaceful lifi^ 
 Pne glance at their array | 
 
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208 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto vi. 
 
 XVL 
 
 'Their light-armed archers far and near 
 
 Surveyed the tangled ground, 
 Their centre ranks, with pike and spear, 
 
 A twilight furcst frowned, 
 Their barbed hors men, in the rear, 
 
 The stern battalia crowned. 
 No cymbal clashed, no clarion rang, 
 
 Still were the pipe and drum ; 
 Save heavy tread, and armour's clang, 
 
 The sullen march was dumb. 
 There breathed no wind their crests to shake. 
 
 Or wave their flags abroad ; 
 Scarce the frail aspen seemed to quake. 
 
 That shadowed o'er their road. 
 Their vanward scouts no tidings bring, 
 
 Can rouse no lurking foe, 
 Nor spy a trace of living thing, 
 
 Save when they stirred the roe ; 
 The host moves, like a deep-sea wave. 
 Where rise no rocks its pride to brave. 
 
 High-swelling, dark, and slow. 
 The lake is passed, and now they gain 
 A narrow and a broken plain, 
 Before the Trosachs' rugged jaws ; 
 And here the horse and spearmen pause, 
 While, to explore the dangerous glen, 
 Dive through the pass the archer-men. 
 
 XVH. 
 
 * At once there rose so wild a yell 
 Within that dark and narrow dell, 
 As all the fiends, from heaven that fell. 
 Had pealed the banner-cry of hell ! 
 Forth from the pass in tumult driven. 
 Like chaff before the wind of heaven, 
 
 The archery appear : 
 For life ! for life ! their plight they ply- 
 And shriek, and shout, and battle-cry, 
 And plaids and bonnets waving high. 
 And broadswords flashing to the sky, 
 Are maddening in the rear. 
 

 A 
 
 CANTO VI.] tllE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 Onward they drive, in dreadful race, 
 
 Pursuers and pursued ; 
 Before that tide of flight and chase, 
 How shall it keep its rooted place, 
 
 The spearmen's twilight wood ? — 
 " Down, down," cried Mar, "your lances down I 
 
 lic;ir back both friend and foe I " 
 Like reeds before the tempest's frown, 
 That serried grove of lances brown 
 
 At once lay levelled low ; 
 And closely shouldering side to side, 
 The bristling ranks the onset bide. 
 "We'll quell the savage mountaineer 
 
 As their Tinchel cows the game ! 
 Th. y come as fleet as forest deer. 
 
 We'll drive them back as tame." 
 
 'i'i 
 
 i 
 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 * Bearing before them, in their course. 
 The relics of the archer force. 
 Like wave with crest of sparkling foam, 
 Right onward did Clan-Alpine come. 
 Above the tide, each broadsword bright 
 Was brandishing like beam of light, 
 
 Each targe was dark below ; 
 And with the ocean's mighty swing, 
 When heaving to the tempest's wing, 
 They hurled them on the foe. 
 I heard the lance's shivering crash. 
 As when the whirlwind rends the ash ; 
 I heard the broadsword's deadly clang. 
 As if an hundred anvils rang ! 
 But M oray wheeled his rearward rank 
 Of horsemen on Clan- Alpine's flank, 
 — " My banner-man, advance ! 
 I see," he cried, " their column shake- 
 Now, gallants ! for your ladies' sake. 
 
 Upon them with the lance ! " — 
 The horsemen dashed among the rout, 
 
 As deer break through the broom ; 
 Their steeds are stout, their swords are out, 
 They soon make lightsome room. 
 
 '''!'! 
 
 I,, I 
 
 fei: 
 
 ¥yi 
 
 
 11' 'i 
 
 t' 
 
 m 
 
:ib 
 
 tttE LaDV oP tHE Lake, [canto vt 
 
 i-A 
 
 Clan-AIpinc's best arc backward borne— 
 
 Where, where was Roderick then 1 
 One blast upon his buyle-horn 
 Were worth a thousand men. 
 And refluent throujjh the pass of fear 
 
 The battle's tide was poured ; 
 Vanished the Saxon's struggling spear, 
 
 Vanished tho mountain sword. 
 As Bracklinn's chasm, so black and steep^ 
 
 Receives her roaring linn, 
 As the dark caverns of the deep 
 Suck the wild whirlpool in, 
 Sc did the deep and darksome pass 
 Devour the battL's mingled mass: 
 None linger now upon the plain, 
 Save those who ne'er shall fight again* 
 
 XIX. 
 
 ITow westward rolls the battle's din, 
 That deep and doubling pass within. 
 — Minstrel, away ! the work of fate 
 Is bearing on : its issue wait, 
 Where the rude Trosachs' dread defilo 
 Opens on Katrine's lake and isle. — 
 Gray Benvenue I soon repassed, 
 Loch Katrine lay beneath me cast. 
 
 'i he sun is set ;— the clouds are me^ 
 The lowering scowl of heaven 
 
 An inky hue of livid blue 
 To the deep lake has given ; 
 Strange gusts of wind from mountain glen 
 Swept o'er the lake, then sunk agen. 
 I heeded not the eddying surge. 
 Mine eye but saw the Trosachs' gorge, 
 Mine ear but heard the sullen sound, 
 Which like an earthquake shook the ground^ 
 And spoke the stern and desperate strife 
 That parts not but with parting life, 
 Seeming, to minstrel-ear, to toll 
 The dirge of many a passing soul. 
 
 Nearer it comes — the dim-wood glen 
 
 The martial flood disgorged agen, 
 
tANtO Vl.j 
 
 tHE GUARD-R60^i. 
 
 But not in mingled tide ; 
 The plaidecl warriors of tlie North 
 High on the mountain thunder forth 
 
 And overhang its side ; 
 While by the lake below appears 
 The dark'ning cloud of Saxon spears. 
 At weary bay each shattered band, 
 Eyeing their foemen, sternly stand ! 
 Their banners stream like tattered sail, 
 That flings its fragments to the gale, 
 And broken arms and disarray 
 Marked the fell havcck of the day. 
 
 i«l 
 
 XX. 
 
 'Viewing the mountain's ridge askance^ 
 The Saxon stood in sullen trance, 
 Till Moray pointed with his lance, 
 
 And cried — " Behold yon isle ! — 
 Sec ! none are left to guard its strand, 
 But women weak, that wring the hand : 
 'Tis there of yore the robber band 
 
 Their booty wont to pile ; — 
 My purse, with bonnet-pieces store, 
 To him will swim a bow-shot o'er. 
 And loose a shallop from the shore. 
 Lightly we '11 tame the war-wolf then, 
 Lords of his mate, and brood, and den* 
 Forth from the ranks a spearman sprung. 
 On earth his casque and corslet rung, 
 
 He plunged him in the wave ; — 
 All saw the deed — the purpose knew. 
 And to their clamours Benvenue 
 
 A mingled echo gave ; 
 The Saxons shout, their mate to cheer. 
 The helpless females scream for fear, 
 And yells for rage the mountaineer. 
 *Twas then, as by the outcry riven, 
 Poured down at once the lowering heaven j 
 A whirlwind swept Loch Katrine's breubt. 
 Her billows reared their snowy crest. 
 Well for the swimmer swelled they high, 
 To mar the l-lii;hland marksman's eye ; 
 
 I • lik 
 
 i :':!11 
 
 f ' -' 
 
 ■|J .1 ' 
 
;iifc:i 
 
 
 i ' 
 
 tiz THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto vl 
 
 For round him showered, 'mid rain and hail, 
 
 The veiv^eful arrows of the Gael. — 
 
 In vain. — He nears the isle — and lo! 
 
 His hard is on a shallop's bow. 
 
 — Just then a flash of lightning came, 
 
 It tinged the waves and strand with flame ;— 
 
 I marked Uuncraggan's widowed dame. 
 
 Behind an oak I saw her stand, 
 
 A naked dirk gleamed in her hand : — 
 
 It darkened — but amid the moan 
 
 Of waves I heard a dying groan ; — 
 
 Another flash ! — the spearman floats 
 
 A weltering corse beside the boats. 
 
 And the stern Matron o'er him stood, 
 
 Her hand and dagger streaming blood. 
 
 XXL 
 
 *" Revenge ! revenge !" the Saxons cried, 
 Tiie Gaels' exulting shout replied. 
 Despite the elemental rage. 
 Again they hurried to engage; 
 Hut, ere they closed in desperate fight, 
 Bloody with spurring came a knight, 
 Sprur;g from his horse, and, from a crag, 
 Waved 'twixt tl-.e hosts a milk-white flag, 
 Clarion and trumpet by his side 
 Rung forth a truce-note high and wide. 
 While, in the Monarch's name, afar 
 A herald'j voice forbade the war. 
 For Bothwell's lord, and Roderick bold. 
 Were both, ho said, in captive hold.' 
 — But here the lav made sudden stand, 
 The harp escaped the M instrcl's hand !— 
 Oft had he stolen a glance, to spy 
 How Rodericiv Ijrooked iiis minstrel y: 
 At first, the Chieftain, to the chime, 
 With lifted hand, kept feeble time; 
 That motion ceased — yet feeling strong 
 Varied his look ns i:!ian jed the song; 
 At length, no more his deafened "^a*- 
 The minstrel meloily can hear; 
 
CANTO VI.] 
 
 THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 213 
 
 His face grows sharp — his hands aro clenc'- 
 
 As if some panq; his heart-strings wvenchcil ; 
 
 Set are his teeth, his Aiding e?ye 
 
 Is sternly fixed on vacancy ; 
 
 Thus, motionless, and moan less, drew 
 
 His parting breath, stout Roderick Dhu ! — 
 
 Old Allan-bane looked on aghast. 
 
 While grim and still his spirit passed ; 
 
 But when he saw that life was fled, 
 
 He poured his wailing o'er the dead. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 LAMENT. 
 
 'And art thou cold and lowly laic, 
 Thy foemen's dread, thy people's aid, 
 Breadalbane's boast, Clan-Aipine's shide! 
 For thee shall none a requiem say ? 
 — For thee — who loved the minstrels lay, 
 For thee, of Bothwell's house the st >y, 
 The shelter of her exiled line, 
 E'en in this prison-house of thine, 
 I '11 wail for Alpine's honoured Pine ! 
 
 * What groans shall yonder valleys fill ! 
 What shrieks of grief shall rend yon hill I 
 What tears of burning rage shall thrill, 
 When mourns thy tribe thy battles done, 
 Thy fall before the race was won, 
 
 Thy sword ungirt ere set of sun ! 
 There breathes not clansman of thy line, 
 But would have given his life for thine.— 
 O woe for Alpine's honoured Pine ! 
 
 * Sad was thy lot on mortal stage ! — 
 The captive thrush may brook the cage, 
 The prisoned eagle dies for rage. 
 Brave spirit, do not scorn my strain I 
 And, when its notes awake again. 
 Even she, so long beloved in vain, 
 Shall with my harp her voice combine, 
 And mix her wre and tears with mine, 
 To wail Clan-Alpine's honoured Pine,' 
 
 •^1, 
 
 :( fi I 
 
 il^i:::| 
 
 .t;;i;s| 
 
 ■ ii 
 
 '!^ 
 
8X4 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE [canto vl 
 
 XXIH. 
 
 Ellen, the while, with bursting heart, 
 
 Remained in lordlv bower apart, 
 
 Where played, with many-coloured gleamS) 
 
 Through storied pane the rising beams. 
 
 In vain on gilded roof they fall, 
 
 And lightened up a tapestried wall, 
 
 And for her use a menial train 
 
 A rich collation spread in vain. 
 
 The banquet proud, the chamber gay, 
 
 Scarce drew the curious glance astray ; 
 
 Or, if she looked, 'twas but to say, 
 
 With better omen dawned the day 
 
 In that lone isle, where waved on high 
 
 The dun-deer's hide for canopy ; 
 
 Where oft her noble father shared 
 
 The simple meal her care prepared, 
 
 While Lufra, crouching by her side, 
 
 Her station claimed with jealous pride. 
 
 And Douglas, bent on woodland game, 
 
 Spoke of the chase to Malcolm Grreme, 
 
 Whose answer, oft at random made, 
 
 The wandering of his thoughts betrayed.— 
 
 Those who such simple joys have known. 
 
 Are taught to prize them when they 're gone. 
 
 But sudden, see, she lifts her head ! 
 
 The window seeks with cautious tread. 
 
 What distant music has the power 
 
 To win her in this woeful hour ! 
 
 *Twas from a turret that o'erhung 
 
 Her latticed bower, the strain was sung. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 LAY OF THE IMPRISONED HUNTSMAN, 
 
 *My hawk is tired of perch and hood, 
 My idle greyhound loathes his food. 
 My horse is weary of his stall, 
 And I am sick of captive thrall. 
 I wish I were as I have been, 
 punting tjie hart in forest ^reen, 
 
■^;r I 
 
 CANTO VI.] 
 
 THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 ««S 
 
 With bended bow and bloodhound free. 
 For that 's the life is meet for mc. 
 I hate to learn the ebb of time, 
 From yon dull steeple's drowsy chime, 
 Or mark it as the sunbeams crawl, 
 Inch after inch, along the wall. 
 The lark was wont my matins ring, 
 The sable rook my vespers sing ; 
 These towers, although a king's tlicy be^ 
 Have not a hall of joy for me. 
 No more at dawning morn I rise. 
 And sun myself in Ellen's eyes, 
 Drive the fleet deer the forest throu;;h, 
 And homeward wend with evening dew ; 
 A blithesome welcome blithely met. 
 And lay my trophies at her feet, 
 While fled the eve on wing of glee— 
 That life is lost to love and me !' 
 
 ft'- If ^ ii 
 
 I 
 
 -'^.l *H 
 
 XXV. 
 
 The heart-sick lay was hardly said, 
 The list'ner had not turned her head. 
 It trickled still, the starting tear. 
 When light a. footstep struck her ear. 
 And Snowdoun's graceful Knight was near. 
 She turned the hastier, lest again 
 The prisoner should renew his strain. 
 *0 welcome, brave Fitz-James,' she said ; 
 * How may an almost orphan maid 
 
 Pay the deep debt' ' O say not so I 
 
 To me no gratitude you owe. 
 
 Not mine, alas ! the boon to give, 
 
 And bid thy noble father live ; 
 
 I can be but thy guide, sweet maid, 
 
 With Scotland's King thy suit to aid. 
 
 No tyrant he, though ire and pride 
 
 May lay his better mood aside. 
 
 Come, Ellen, come I — 'tis more than time, 
 
 He holds his court at morning prime.' 
 
 With beating heart, and bosom wrung, 
 
 A? to a brother's j^rm she c]\\\v^, 
 
 M 
 
 III 
 
2i6 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto vl 
 
 Gently he dried the falling tear, 
 And gently whispered hope and cheer; 
 Her faltering steps half led, half staid, 
 Through gallery fair and high arcade, 
 Till, at his touch, its wings of pride 
 A portal arch unfolded wide. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Within 'twas brilliant all and light, 
 A thronging scene of figures bright ; 
 It glowed on Ellen's dazzled sight. 
 As when the setting «?un has given 
 Ten thousand hues to summer even, 
 And from tlieir tissue, fancy frames 
 Aerial knights and fairy dames. 
 Still by Fitz-James her footing said; 
 A few faint steps she forward made, 
 Then slow her drooping head she raised, 
 And fearful round the presence gazed. 
 For him she sought, who owned this state, 
 The dreaded prince whose will was fate!— 
 She gazed on many a princely port. 
 Might well have ruled a loyal court; 
 On many a splendid garb she gazed— 
 Then lurned bewildered and amaz.d. 
 For all stood bare ; and, in the room, 
 Fitz-James alone wore cap and plume. 
 To him each lady's look was lent ; 
 On him each courtier's eye vvas bent; 
 Midst furs and silks and jewels sheen, 
 He stood, in simple Lincoln green. 
 The centre of the glittering ring — 
 And Snowdouu's Knight is Scotland's Kin; 
 
 XXVIL 
 
 As wreath of snow, on mountain-brmst, 
 Slides from the rock that gave it icbi. 
 Poor Ellen glided from her stay, 
 And at the Monarch's feet she lay; 
 
 
^•'>^l 
 
 CANTO VI.3 
 
 THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 217 
 
 No word her choking voice commands — 
 She shewed the ring — she clasped her hands. 
 
 ! not a moment could he brook, 
 
 The generous prince, that suppliant look! 
 
 Gently he raised her— and, the while, 
 
 Checked with a glance the circle's smile: 
 
 Graceful, but grave, her brow he kissed, 
 
 And bade her terrors be dismissed : — 
 
 * Yes, Fair; the wandering poor Fitz-James 
 
 The fealty of Scotland claims. 
 
 To him thy woes, thy wishes, bring ; 
 
 He will redeem his signet ring. 
 
 Ask nought for Douglas ; — yestcr e\en, 
 
 His prince and he have much forgiven : 
 
 Wrong hath he had from slanderous tongue, 
 
 I, tVom his rebel kinsmen, wrong. 
 
 We would not to the vulgar crowd 
 
 Yield what tl ey craved with clamour loud; 
 
 Calmly we heard and judged his cr^use, 
 
 Our council aided, and our laws. 
 
 1 stanched thy father's death-feud stern. 
 With stout De Vaux and gray Glencairn, 
 And Both well's Lord henceforth we own 
 The friend and bulwark of our Throne. — 
 But, lovely infidel, how now? 
 
 What clouds thy misbelieving brow? 
 Lord James ot Douglas, lend thine aid ; 
 Thou must confirm this doubting maid/ 
 
 XXVIIL 
 
 Then forth the noble Douglas sprung, 
 And Oi;i his neck his daughter hung. 
 The Monarch drank, that happy hour, 
 The sweetest, holiest draught of Power- 
 When it can say, with godlike voice, 
 Arise, sad Virtue, and rejoice ! 
 Yet would not James the general eye 
 On Nature's raptures long should pry; 
 He stepped between—* N.ay, Douglas, nay, 
 Steal not my proselyte away ! 
 The riddle 'tis my right to read, 
 That brought this happy chance to speed.— 
 
 f 
 
 : :1„| 
 
 !:!» 
 
 iii 
 
 
 
 i; ) 
 
 
 
 t^M 
 
 ,|i j 
 
 'I 
 
 i ii 
 
 '?! 
 
 '1 
 
 i 
 
 II i 
 
 It 
 
±iS tut LAt)V OF THE LAKE. tcANTO Vt 
 
 Yes, Ellen, when disguised I stray 
 
 In life's more* low but happier way, 
 
 'Tis under name which veils my power, 
 
 Nor falsely veils— for Stirling's tower 
 
 Of yore the name of Snowdoun claims, 
 
 And Normans call me James Fitz-James. 
 
 Thus watch I o'er insulted laws, 
 
 Thus learn to right the injured cause.' — 
 
 Then, in a tone apart and low, 
 
 — * Ah, little traii'ress i none must know 
 
 What idle dream, what lighter thought, 
 
 What vanity full dearly boui^ht. 
 
 Joined to thine eye's dark witchcraft, drew 
 
 My spell-bound steps to Benvenue, 
 
 In dangerous hour, and all but gave 
 
 Thy Monarch's life to mountain glaive !* 
 
 Aloud he spoke — * Thou still dost hold 
 
 That little talisman of gold. 
 
 Pledge of my faith, Fitz-James's ring— 
 
 What seeks lair Ellen of the King?' 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Full well the conscious maiden guessed, 
 
 He probed the weakness of her breast; 
 
 But, with that consciousness, there came 
 
 A lightening of her fears for Praeme, 
 
 And more she deemed the Monarch's ire 
 
 Kindled 'gainst him, who, for her sire, 
 
 Rebellious broadsword boldly drew ; 
 
 And, to her generous feehng true. 
 
 She craved the grace of Roderick Dhu.-r- 
 
 ' Forbear thy suit: — The King of kings 
 
 Alone can stay life's parting wings, 
 
 I know his heart, I know his hand. 
 
 Have shared his cheer, and proved his brand; 
 
 My fairest earldom would I give 
 
 To bid Clan-Alpine's Chieftain live I— 
 
 Hast thou no other boon to crave? 
 
 No other captive friend to save ?* 
 
 Blushing, she turned her from the King, 
 
 And to the Douglas gave the ring, 
 
CANTO VI.] 
 
 THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 2I() 
 
 As if she wished her sire to speak 
 The suit that stained her glowing cheek, 
 
 * Nay, then, my pledge has lost its force, 
 And stubborn justice holds her course. 
 Malcolm, come forth !' And, at the word, 
 Down kneeled the Graeme to Scotland's Lord. 
 
 * For thee, rash youth, no suppliant sues, 
 From thee may Vengeance claim her dues, 
 Who, nurtured underneath our smile, 
 Hast paid our care by treacherous wile, 
 And sought, amid thy faithful clan, 
 
 A refuge for an outlawed man, 
 Dishonouring thus thy loyal name. — 
 Fetters and warder for the Graeme ! '— — 
 His chain of gold the King unstrung. 
 The links o'er Malcolm's neck he flung, 
 Then gently drew the glittering band, 
 And laid the clasp on Ellen's hand. 
 
 i: ir 
 
 Harp of the North, farewell ! The hills grow dark. 
 
 On purple peaks a deeper shade descending; 
 In twilight copse the glow-worm lights her spark, 
 
 The deer, half-seen, are to the covert wending. 
 'Resume thy wizard elm ! the fountain lending, 
 
 And the wild breeze, thy wilder minstrelsy ; 
 Thy numbers sweet with nature's vespers blending, 
 
 With distant echo from the fold and lea. 
 And herd-boy's evening pipe, and hum of housing bee. 
 
 iimi 
 
 Yet, once again, farewell, thou Minstrel Harp ! 
 
 Yet, once again, forgive my feel)le sway, 
 And little reck I of the censure sharp 
 
 May idly cavil at an idle lay. 
 Much have i owed thy strains on life's long way, 
 
 Through secret woes the world has never knuwn. 
 When on the weary night dawned wearier day, 
 
 And bitterer was the grief devoured alone. 
 That I o'erlive such woes, Enchantress ! is thine own. 
 
 '';'i 
 
 ■\f 
 
 ■!-' i; 
 
 'tl 
 
220 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto VL 
 
 Hark ! as my lingering footsteps slow retire, 
 
 Some Spirit of the Air has waked thy string I 
 Tis now a seraph bold, with touch of fire, 
 
 *Tis now the brush of Fairy s fioHc wing. 
 Receding now, the dying numbers ring 
 
 Fainter and fainter down the rugged dell, 
 \nd now the mountain breezes scarcely bring 
 
 A wandering witrh-note of the distant spell — 
 ind now, lis sibnt all 1 — Enchantress, fare thee well 1 
 
 A. K. LIDSCUNE AS HALOOLM GRABlisB. i 
 
n 
 
 NOTES 
 
 CANTO VL 
 
 Introduces us to the guard-room in Stirling Castle, amid the 
 remains of the debauch which has followed the games of the 
 previous day. While the few soUlici'S who remain awake are 
 finishing their carouse, and talkingover the rumours of yesterday's 
 battle, they are joined by one of their mates, who has been -in ihe 
 field, and brings with him a maiden and a minstrel (EUea and 
 Allan Bane). They are at first disposed to treat the riaiden 
 roughly ; but the sight of her innocent beauty, and her .tory of 
 misfortune, touch tlie heart of one of the roughest in fne com- 
 
 Eany, who becomes her champion. Presently they a/e joined 
 y the officer of the guard, who, at sight of F'itz-James's ring, 
 commits the lady to proper care, while John of Brent, the guards- 
 man who had interfered, grants Allan's request to see his master. 
 But, fancying that the minstrel is one of Roderick's clansmen, 
 he shows him into the wrong cell, where he finds the wounded 
 chief. After anxious enquiries as to the safety of his kindred, 
 Roderick asks news of the fight, and the minstrel, in spirited 
 verse, sings the battle of Beal' an Duine, whose issue was left 
 doubtful Ijy the arrival of a messenger from the king with orders 
 to stay the fight. But before he had finished his song the stern 
 spirit had fled, and the minsirel's harp changes its tune from 
 batlle-song to deatli-dirge. 
 
 Meanwliile Kllen waits anxiously and impatiently for her 
 n.udience with the king. At last Fitz-James appears to escort 
 her to the audience chamber. Faltering, she looks round to find 
 the king, and sees to her surprise that her companion alone re- 
 mains covered, and "Snowdoun's knight is Scotland's king." 
 He tells her how the feud with Doufjlas is at an end, and that 
 her father is now to be " the friend and bulwark of his throne." 
 But she has still the ring, still some boon to ask. She begs for 
 Roderick's life, but that is past giving ; and when she sl^inks 
 
 9 
 
 I lilil . 
 
 ■; , * a,: 
 
 i|-!:Mi: 
 
 ^m. 
 
832 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto vi. 
 
 from further request, the king calls forth Malcolm, and throws 
 over him a golden chain, which he gives to Ellen to keep. 
 
 Lord Jeffrey has objected to the guard-room scene and its 
 accompanying song as the greatest blemish in the whole ])oem. 
 The scene contrasts forcibly with the grace wliich characterises 
 the rest ; but in a poem which rests its interest upon incident 
 such a criticism seems overstrained. It gives us a vigorous 
 picture of a class of mfn who played a very important part in 
 the history of the tinif. .'S'j.wtciaiiy ;icrov» the borcler ; men who, 
 many of them outlaws, f.iid fij;hting, not for country or for king, 
 but for him who paid them best, were humoured with every 
 license when tiiey were not on strict military duty. The require- 
 ments of the narrative might have been satisfied without these 
 details, it is true ; but the use which Sir Walter has made of 
 them — to show the power of beauty and innocence, and the 
 chords of tenderness and goodness which lie ready to vibrate in 
 the wildest natures — may surely reconcile us to such a piece of 
 realism. 
 
 The scene of Roderick's death harmonizes well with his 
 character. The minstrel's account of the battle the poet himself 
 felt to be somewhat long, and yet it is difficult to see how it 
 could be curtailed without spoiling it. It is full of life and 
 vigour, and our only cause of surprise is that the lay should only 
 come to a sudden stand when it is really completed. 
 
 Stanza I. — Caitiff"; * miserable wretch. * Latin 'captivus,' 'a 
 captive;' whence Italian 'cattivo,' 'bad;' French 'chetif.' 
 Wiclif has, "He ledde caitifte caitif;" Chaucer, "The riche 
 Croesus, cayfif'm servage." Popular language has seized upon 
 the degraded, despicable condition of the captive, and the mean- 
 nesses which a servile position engenders, as in 'villain,' on the 
 blunted morals of the serf; and in 'knave,' on the tricks and 
 deceits of the serving-boy. 
 
 Kind nurse of men, Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV. iii. I— 
 
 " O gentle sleep, 
 Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee ? " 
 
 Pallet. According to Wedgwood, from the Gaelic 'peallaid,* 
 *a sheep-skin.' More probably the same as French 'paillasse,* 
 *a bed of straw.' French 'paille,' Latin 'palea.' 
 
 Gyve. A fetter ; originally a log of wood attached to the ankle. 
 Welsh 'gefyn,' Breton 'kef,' 'trunk of a tree;' French 'cep,' 
 Latin 'cippus." 
 
 Love-lorn. 'Lorn* is an old participle of 'leosen,* ' lesen,' 
 our 'lose.* Cp. 'for-lorn,' German 'ver-loren.' 
 
 3. — ^eakfr, A drinking-vess^l. Italian ' bigchiere,* German 
 
CAMtd VI.] NOtES— THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 *2J 
 
 ' becher,* possibly from having a mouth or beak (Italian 'becco'). 
 The same word as 'pitcher.' (DiEZ.) 
 
 Brands. Logs not wholly consumed ; partly burnt^ but not 
 reduced to embers. 
 
 y^-^Tkese drew not for their fields the sword^ 
 Like tenants of a feudal lord. 
 Nor mvned the patriarchal claim 
 Of Chieftain in their leader^s name; 
 Adventurers they^ * ♦ 
 
 *' The Scotch armies consisted chiefly of the nobility and barons, 
 with their vassals, who held lands under them, for military 
 service by themselves and tenants. The patriarchal influence 
 exercised by the heads of clans in the Highlands and Borders 
 was of a different nature, and sometimes at variance with feudal 
 principles. It flowed from the Patria Potestas, exercised by 
 the chieftain as representing the original father -of the whole 
 name, and was often obeyed in contradiction to the feudal supe- 
 rior. James V. seems first to have introduced, in addition to 
 the militia furnished from these sources, the service of a small 
 number of mercenaries, who formed a body-guard, called the 
 Foot-Band. "—Scott. 
 
 Clouded. Swarthy. The difference between the Italian and 
 Spanish complexion is very well indicated by these epithets. 
 
 Fleming. Some parts of the Netherlands, especially Flanders 
 and Brabant, were among the most fertile soil in Europe. 
 Motley (speaking of a time very shortly after this) says : " Thus 
 fifteen ages have passed away, and in the place of a horde of 
 savages, living among swamps and thickets, swarm three 
 millions of people, the most industrious, the most prosperous, 
 under the sun. Their cattle, grazing on the bottom of the sea, 
 are the finest in Europe, their agricultural products of more ex- 
 changeable value than if nature had made their land to overflow 
 with wine and 6i\.'*— Dutch Republic, Introduction. 
 
 Halberd. French ' hailebarde,' from the German 'helm,' a 
 handle, ai. x * barte,' an axe ; so, an axe with a long handle. 
 The head .generally consisted of a pointed spear-head with a 
 crescent-shaped blade attached to it axe-wise. It was introduced 
 into England in the reign of Edward IV., was the peculiar 
 weapon of the royal guard in Henry VII. 's time and after, and 
 continued in use till the time of George III. It was intended to 
 combine in one bill, glaive, and pike. 
 
 In camps iicentious, loild, and bold. Like the French Scots- 
 euards, "They never mind what you do when you're off dutyi 
 but miss you the roll-call, and see how they'll arrange you." — 
 Old Mortality^ ix. Cp. the picture of the soldiery in Schiller** 
 WcUlmstein^ 
 
 ft 
 
 : { 
 
 lit 
 
 iM'^ 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 Ml 
 
 
 I 
 
 m " 
 
 I. ■.■!': .'1 
 
 11 
 illi! 
 
«i4 
 
 THE LADV OP THE LAKE. fcANTO n. 
 
 4. — Debate. Apparently little more than 'talk,' though from 
 what follows it w.ns somewhat quarrelsome. 
 
 Cored. Stained with I)Iood; hence pierced so as to draw 
 blood. The word is used now only of the wound made by the 
 horn of an ox or some animal; but its use has not always been 
 thus restricted; so " Pyrrhus — that gored the son before the 
 father's face." — SURRKY. (A.S. *gor,' mud, mire; hence 
 clotted blood.) 
 Burd'tt. See ii. 18, note. 
 
 Yeoman. A countryman, from Gothic 'cavi,' German *gau,' 
 district, canton; so in Friesland *gaeman=' villager.' The 
 legal definition is ' he that hath free land of forty shillings by 
 the year,' the ancient qualification for a voter in the election of 
 knights of the shire. — Blackstone. 
 
 J/ost; i.e. in war. The feudal vassal, when called upon to 
 follow his lord to battle, was 'bannitus in hostem,' summoned by 
 * ban * against the enemy. The word 'hostis ' came in this way 
 to mean the hostiie expedition, and so by an easy step the army 
 on duty, and later any great gathering of men. In legal docu- 
 ments we find such expressions as "ne episcopi vexentur losti- 
 bus;" i.e. by <lemands of military service. "Hostem facere," 
 to perform military service. 
 
 liuxom. Merry, blithe. A.S. *bi»' -n,* from 'bugan,' to 
 bow; German 'beugsam,' that bends ; so Gower — 
 
 •* Unto him, which the h^>... is. 
 The membres buxom shall bow.^* 
 Hence 'obedient,' 'pliable,' *^buxum to the lawe." — Piers 
 Plo7oman. The word became a special term of commendation 
 to a young woman, as denoting flexibility and grace of figure, as 
 well as gentle pliableness of disposition, and in the idea of live- 
 liness and health gradually lost its original meaning. "A buxom 
 landlady " now conveys far other ideas than that of a flexible 
 figure. Cp. Gray, Eton College — 
 
 "Theirs buxom health of rosy hue." 
 Milton uses it in both senses — 
 
 " He with broad sails 
 Winnowed the buxom air." 
 '^Par. Lost, bk. ii. 842, following Spenser, Faerie Queene, i 9, 37. 
 
 "A daughter fair, 
 So buxom, blithe, and debonnair." — JjAllegro^ 24. 
 Scott uses it in Marmion, iii. 4 in its original sense — 
 " Such buxom chief shall lead his host 
 From India's fires to Zembla's frost;" 
 Lt. versatile, able to adapt himself to circumstances. 
 
 5. — Poule. The old way of spelling Paul ; so Chaucer, Komu 
 Prests TaU\ 616— " For seint Paul sailli." 
 
CANTO VI.) NOTES— THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 235 
 
 •t 
 
 Blaek'jack. A leathern jug for beer. "The hrge black> 
 jack filled with very small beer of Milnwood's own brewing." — 
 Old Mortality, ch.ap. viii. 
 
 Seven deadly sins. Pride, Sloth, Gluttony, Lust, Avarice, 
 Envv, and Anger. See the description in Spenser's laerie Queene, 
 bk. 1. canto 4. 
 
 Sack. A corruption of *sec,' dry. FalstafT says, "A good 
 tlicrns sacik hath a two-fold operation in it;" and in the same 
 speech speaks of "a second property of your excellent sAerris." 
 (We have also Canary 'sack,' Malaga 'sack,' inappropriately; 
 for these are sweet, not dry wines; but the word seems to have 
 been considered applicable to all white wines.) So the word 
 came to be used by itself as an equivalent for sherry. 
 *' SacJi, says my bush ; 
 Be merry, and drink sherry, that's my posie." 
 
 — Ben Jonson, hnv Inn, \. 2. 
 
 Upsees. Generally found in the form ' Upsee Dutch,' or 
 •Upsee Frise, the Dutch 'op-zyn-fries,' in the Dutch fashion. 
 So Beaumont and Fietcher have • upsey- English,' in English 
 fashion. "The bowl, which must be 'upsey- English,' strong, 
 lusty Lx)ndon beer." (Beggar's Bush, iv. 4.) Scott seems to have 
 mistaken it for a noun. 
 
 A fig for the vicar. This expression of contempt is said to be 
 a reminiscence of an ignominious punishment inflicted upon the 
 Milanese by Frederic Barbarossa, m 1 162. If a man wished to 
 insult a native of Milan he would remind him of this punish- 
 ment by putting his thumb between his first and secund finger 
 and thrusting it out at him. French ' faire la figue.' (It appears, 
 kowevert, to have been also an ancient Italian custom. — DoucE, 
 Illustrations of Shakspere, p. 302. ) This action became a com- 
 mon form of insult, or sign of contempt, and the expression is 
 found all over Europe. The same insult was conveyed in another 
 way, by putting the thumb into the mouth. Cp. Romeo and 
 Juliet, i. I: "I will bite my thumb tiXX^Mxa', which is a di.sgrace 
 to them if they bear it." Lodge calls it "giving one the fico^ 
 with his thumb in his mouth." Cp. Henry V» iiL 6: ** Fico 
 for thy friendship." 
 
 Placket. (Derivation uncertain.) A petticoat, and so the 
 wearer of a petticoat, in the same way that we speak of petti- 
 coat government. Love is called " Dread prince o{ plackets.'* — 
 Love s Labour Lost^ iii. I. So Beaumont and Fletcher, JIum, 
 Lieut, iv. 3 — 
 
 " Was that brave heart made to pant for a. placket f" 
 Pot is used in the same way for the liquor which it contains. 
 This figure is called metonymy, the thing being named by some 
 accompaniment (Greek n^ri., tvona) ; so the ermine is put for 
 the judge, or judgeship, the kettle for the water in it 
 
 II 
 
 1 III; 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 ill 
 
 f 
 
 ii' 4- 
 
 '3 
 
 :!^: 
 
 
 ^' I 
 
 m 
 
 :pl' 
 
 hx. 
 
 m 
 
 liMJ 
 
sa6 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE. tCANTO TL 
 
 Lurch. The same word as ' lurk,' to lie in wait, to be on the 
 look-out for, sometimes to lie in wait, so as to get a thing first, 
 so to rob. Coriolanhs, ii. 2 — 
 
 *' He lurcht all swords o' the garland." 
 A ship lurches when it dips, so as to be lost in the trough of the 
 waves. 
 
 6. — Minstrel. The same word as 'minister.' Proven9al 
 'menestral' = 'artisan.' "Confined in process of time to those who 
 ministered to the amusement of the rich by music and jesting." 
 
 Glee-maiden. A necessary attendant of ih^jongleur^ or jug- 
 gler, though shc' sometimes went about unaccompanied. The 
 readers of the Fair Ataid of Perth will remember Louise. 
 
 Get thee an ape. "The facetious qualities of the ape soon 
 rendered him an acceptable addition to the strolling band of the 
 jongleur. Ben Jonson, in his splenetic introduction to the 
 comedy of Bartholomew Fair, is at pains to inform the audience 
 ' that he has ne'er a sword-and-buckler man in his fair, nor a 
 juggler with a well-educated ape, to come over the chain for the 
 King of England, and back again for the Prince, and sit still on 
 his haunches for the Pope and the King of Spain." — ScoTT. 
 
 7. — Purvey. French 'pourvoir,' to provide. In a royal 
 progress the purveyors were those who went before to collect 
 provisions, the sale of which they could enforce, as the harbinger 
 secured lodging. 
 
 Tartan screen. The tartan served a Scotch maiden as a veil ; 
 so of Jeanie Deans: "The want of the screen, which was 
 drawn over the head like a veil, she supplied by a bon-grace.** 
 
 8. — Needwood. 
 in Staffordshire. 
 
 Formerly a royal forest in the Treat Valley 
 
 9. — Tullibardine ("the bard's knoll"), near Auchterarder, in 
 Perthshire, an old seat of the Murrays, which was their residence 
 and designation till they acquired the Atholl estates and title by 
 marriage. 
 
 Spurs were the natural mark of the 'eques' or knight 
 
 Conu ye to seek a champioiUs aid. 
 
 On palfrey white, with harper hoar^ 
 
 Like errant damosel sf yore ? 
 Compare the picture which Spenser gives of Una in the letter 
 to Sir W. Ralegh prefixed to the Faerie Queene: " Soone after 
 entred a faire Ladye in mourning weedes, riding on a white Asse, 
 with a dwarfe bphind her leading a warlike steed, that bore the 
 armes of a knight, and his speare in the dwarfe'k hand. Shee, 
 falling before the Queene of Faeries, complayned that her father 
 and mother had been by a huge dragon many years shut up in a 
 
CANTO VI.] NOTES— THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 S2 
 
 brazen Castle, and therefore besought the Faery Queene to 
 assygne her some one of her knights to take on'him this exployt.** 
 Compare also Tennyson's Cara.A and Lynctte. 
 
 to. — Permit I marshal. An unusual construction ; understand 
 •that.' 
 
 Barret-cap. A cloth cap. Italian 'berretta,* French 'barrette,* 
 from Low Latin * birretum,* and that from ' birrus' or * byrrhus,' 
 a coarse cloth. The ' berretta * still forms a part of ecclesias* 
 tical costume. 
 
 II. — With the Chiefs birth, &c. Note how this speech is 
 framed so as to mislead the hearer. He would natnrally suppose 
 
 the chief *3 be Roderick. 
 
 # 
 
 *I2. — Wheel. An instrument of torture on which malefactors 
 were stretched after their limbs had been broken. Hence the 
 French word * roue,' * broken upon the wheel.' Cp. — 
 •'The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel, 
 Luke's iron crown, and Damiens' bed of steel." 
 
 —Goldsmith, Traveller. 
 
 Unhasp. A.S. 'hseps,' 'a latch or bolt of a door ;' German 
 •haspe.' For the change of letters, compare 'task' and ' tax.' 
 
 Dungeon. An underground prison. The same word as * don- 
 jon,' 'the lar^e tower in a fortress,' 'the keep,' •that which 
 commands \}c\t xt.%i.^ Latin •■dominio,' 'domnio.' Cp. •songe,' 
 from 'somnium.' 
 
 Garniture; 'furniture,* 'tapestry.' French 'gamir,' Italian 
 •guarnire,' related to 'garer,' *to look out.* as our 'warn' (its 
 equivalent), to 'ware.* So it is 'to make another look out/ 'to 
 provide against a thing;* then 'to provide,' 'furnish.* 
 
 Leech. A.S. 'laece,' Gothic 'leikeis,* 'a healer,' 'a physician/ 
 Icelandic 'Isekna,' 'to cure.' 
 
 •prora,' 'piow.* 
 
 13. — Prore. Latin 
 
 Stem. To stay, resist. From the root 'sta* of Greek tffrrffUt 
 Latin 'sto;' Icelandic 'stemmi.' A ship stems the billows by 
 making head against them. Any one who has seen a stranded 
 vessel break up will feel the force of the simile. Nothing gives 
 a better notion of strength made helpless. 
 
 14. — Af^ain where nier. One of Scott's strange inversions for 
 * where ne'er again. ' 
 
 O^er Dermid^s race. A pibroch of the Macgregor clan cele- 
 brated this victory. "There are several instances, at least in 
 tradition, ol" persons so much attached to particular lunes as to re- 
 quire to hear them on their death-bed,"— ScoTT. Brantome gives 
 
 !'^^. 
 
 t. 
 
 Vi'. 
 
 is 
 
 V 
 
 
 ^i- Hi, 
 III 
 
 fii::fl' 
 
 11 
 
 ■ '1 
 
 ::n 
 
 h 
 
 
 % 
 
 % 
 
 ■;!| 
 
ssS 
 
 THE LADY OF THE LAKE, [canto vi. 
 
 a curious instance of a lady at the court of France, who asked to 
 have played to her in this way a tune composed on the defeat of 
 the Swiss at Marignano. The burden of this song was "Tout 
 est verlore:" "all is lost ;" and when the minstrel came to this 
 she cried out twice, " Tout est perdu ! " and died. 
 
 x$.— Battle of Beat' an Duine. In 1650 and 1651, after the 
 battle of Dunbar, Cromwell's troops were occupied in " reducing 
 detached castles, coercing moss-troopers, and, in detail, bringing 
 the country to obedience." — Carlyle's Cromwell, ii. 244. It 
 was during thi.'i time that "a skirmish actually took place at a 
 pass thus called in the Trosachs, and closed with the remarkable 
 inci-lent mentioned in the text." — Scott. One of the soldiers 
 engaged is buried on a little eminence to the south of the pass. 
 His death led his comrades to make the attack on the island. 
 The pass of Bea!ach an Duine lies considerably above the pre* 
 sent road, at the foot of Ben-an. 
 
 The liveliness of this description of the battle is due to the 
 greater variety of the metre, which resembles that of Martnion. 
 The three-accent lines introduced at intervals give it lightness, 
 and the repetition of the same rhyme enables the poet to throw 
 together without break all that forms part of one pictuie. 
 
 So lone a lake, so sweet a strand! A perfect description of 
 Achray. Even now, though it is haunted by tourists, if once 
 you leave their beat, you may get into complete quiet and 
 solitude ; but it is ' sweet,' not dreary. 
 
 £)'rv. A.S. 'teg,' plural 'segru;' Old English 'eyren* 
 (Morris, 96), 'eggs;' literally *a collection of egys,' so 'a nest;' 
 generally used only of an eagle's nest. (Greek wlv, Latin ' ovum,' 
 German 'ei.') 
 
 Erne; eagle. A.S. 'em' or 'earn,' Gothic 'arn,' German 
 *aar,' Greek ipv-tx, which is supposed to be connected with Stem 
 6p- of 6pvv/u, 'to spring.* 
 
 Note in this stanza the alliteration which the poet uses in 
 describing the distant rumbling of the soldiers' march. 
 
 16. — Barbed. Used of the trappings of a iiorse ; probably a 
 corruption of 'bard,' French 'barde,' 'horse-armour.* Cp. A.S. 
 'barda,' 'an armed war-ship.' Icelandic 'barth,' a beaked ship, 
 ram. 
 
 Battalia. A plural foi-med, after a false analogy, like that of 
 Greek nouns, such as 'phenomenon,' 'idolon.' 
 
 ^rtWfl!n/s= ' vanward,' 'in the front.' 'Van* is from Italian 
 •avanti,' French 'avant,' Latin *ab ante.' Cp. 'vantage' and 
 French 'avantage.' 
 
 17. — Their plight they ply. The meaning of this is not very 
 
' ,:H 
 
 CANTO VI.1 NOTES— THE GUARD-ROOM. 
 
 129 
 
 clear. Possibly 'they keep up a constant fire,' but they seem in too 
 complete a rout for that. Note the effect of the repeated rhymes. 
 
 T7vilight 7vood. Cp. stanza 16 : "A twilight forest frowned." 
 The appearance of the spears and pike was such that in the 
 twilight they might have been mistaken at a distance for a wood. 
 
 Serried. French *serre,* 'closely pressed.' From 'serrer,' 
 Latin 'serare' ('sera'), 'to lock in,' 'bolt,' 'confine.' The 
 doubling of the r is a mistake which has arisen from a confusion 
 with 'serra,' 'a saw.' 
 
 Tinchel. A snare or gin. *' After this there followed nothing 
 but slaughter in this realm, every party ilk one lying in wait for 
 another, as they had been setting tinchills for the slaughter of 
 wild beasts." — Jamieson. It is a sort oi battue, the game being 
 surrounded and driven together. 
 
 18. — Hurled them. See v. 8, and note. 
 Linn. i. 3, and note. " Receives her linn" is receives the 
 waters that form the linn or pool. 
 
 19. — Defile. A narrow gorge, which must be passed in a 
 file or a string (' de * aYid * filum,' to siring off), • 
 
 The sun is set, &c. Note the effect of the touch of colour 
 here, and also that of the rhymes within the line. 
 That parts not but with parting life. 
 
 "The loveliness in death 
 That parts not quite with parting breath," — Byron. 
 Dir^. Properly 'dirige,' the beginning of a solemn hymn, 
 **Dinge Domine, gressus meos." So Chaucer — 
 *• Resort, I pray, unto my sepulture, 
 To sing my dirige with great devocioun." 
 
 20. — Bonnet-pieces. A gold coin in which the king's head 
 was represented with a bonnet instead of a crown, coined bj 
 the "Commons' King." 
 
 Duncraggan^s wid<nved dame. See iii. 18. 
 
 21. — Elemental. Of the elements. 
 
 22. — Note the three-fold rhymes. 
 
 Requiem (like dirige\ the first word of the funeral mass in 
 the Romish Church. " Requiem setemam da iis, Domine." 
 
 23. — Storied; i.e. of painted glass, representing some scene 
 from history. 
 Fall. Lightened. See v. 3, and note. 
 
 24. — Perch and hood; i.e. of idleness. The hawk was hooded 
 when it was not to be flown at any game. 
 
 .[■ i\fl\ 
 
 
 nui 
 
 'til j ■ 
 
 !r ' 
 
 II! 
 
 'I. 
 
 m i 
 
 
 ;i 
 
 ■■(' 
 
 '^■h' 
 
 
 J' 
 
 V 'if) 
 
i30 
 
 tHE LADY OF THE LAKE. [cANto VL 
 
 Thrall. Confinement. A * thrall * is a slave (connected by 
 some with A.S. .'thirel,' our 'drill,' the ears of slaves being 
 pierced) ; hence * thraldom,' here * thrall ' = ' servitude,' * cap- 
 tivity.' 
 
 Steeple; i.e. of Orey-friars* CLurch. See v. lo. 
 
 Trophies^ Prizes of victory. Greek Tpona-iop, from t/joiH), 
 a rout. 
 
 Prime. Properly the first canonical nour of prayer, 6 A.M. 
 Then applied loosely to the first quarter of the day. 
 
 26. — Presence. Used in the old poets for the reception-room; 
 so Henry VIII. iii. I, 17— 
 
 "The cardinals wait in ikt presence." 
 Romeo and Juliet, v. 3, 86 — 
 
 " This vault a itz&\Sxi'g presence full of light.* 
 Cp. Marmiony i. 28 — 
 
 ** If she had been in presence there. " 
 
 27. — Mr. Ruskin {Modem Painters, iii. 248) bids us note the 
 northern love of rocks in the openiiig ot' this stanza. " Dante 
 could not have thought of his ' cut rocks ' as giving rest even to 
 snow. He must put it on the pine-branches if it is to be at 
 peate." Cp. Autocrat of the Breakfast Table: "She melted 
 away from her seat like an image of snow." 
 
 Glencaim is the dowre enemy of the Douglas in the ballad of 
 Archie Kilspindie, quoted m. canto v. 
 
 a8. — The general eye; i.e, common, public. Cp. Hamlet's 
 " 'Twas caviare to the general.** 
 * ' Stirling* s tower 
 
 Of yore the name of Snowdoun claims.** 
 •* "William of Worcester, who wrote about the middle of the fif- 
 teenth century, calls Stirling Castle Snowdoun. Sir David 
 Lindsay bestows the same epithet upon it." — Scott. The 
 name generally assumed by James V., in his disguise, was the 
 "Laird of Ballingeich," a narrow lane "that leads from the 
 town of Stirling, and descends the precipice behind the castle." 
 He was James (V.), the son of James (IV.). 
 
 Talisman. A charm or spell that has magical power to 
 produce some extraordinary effect. From the Arabic ' telsam,' 
 plural 'telsaman,* horoscope; and this trom the Greek Terek- 
 tfffiiva (consecrated), the name given in the Lower Empire to 
 the images of pagan divinities who were deemed mischief- 
 workers. 
 
 Conclusion. — Wixard-elm, See introduction to canto i., witch- 
 elm. 
 
m 
 
 CtOSSARlAL INDEX. 
 
 The References are to Cantos and Stanzas. 
 
 according . 
 
 1. In. 
 
 orae . 
 
 iii. 20 1 
 
 cumber, 
 
 iii. 16 
 
 agen 
 
 iii. II 
 
 bridegroom . 
 
 iv. 23 
 
 curious 
 
 iii. 6 
 
 .ghast . 
 
 iii. 3 
 
 brigg 
 
 i. 6 
 
 cushat-dove . 
 
 iii. 2 
 
 umain . 
 
 i. 8 
 
 brindled 
 
 i. 27 
 
 
 
 antler • 
 
 i. 2 
 
 brogue 
 
 iii. 13 
 
 dagger 
 
 V. 16 
 
 avouch . 
 
 iv. 6 
 
 broke 
 
 iv. 5 
 
 daggled 
 
 iv. 27 
 
 
 
 brook (verb) 
 
 i. 28 
 
 dank • 
 
 V. 3 
 
 ban 
 
 iii. 7 
 
 broom 
 
 i. 14 
 
 dappled ' * 
 
 V. 2 
 
 banquet 
 
 ii. 27 
 
 buckler 
 
 iii. 5 
 
 debate 
 
 vi. 4 
 
 barbed 
 
 vi, 16 
 
 buffet 
 
 V. 25 
 
 defile (noun) 
 
 vi. 19 
 
 barret -cap . 
 
 vi. 10 
 
 bugle . 
 
 i. 15 
 
 dingle 
 
 i. 10 
 
 bask 
 
 iv. 30 
 
 bulwark 
 
 i. II 
 
 dirge 
 
 vi. 19 
 
 batten 
 
 iv. 23 
 
 burden . 
 
 ii. 18 
 
 dispensation 
 
 ii. 12 
 
 battled 
 
 ii. 31 
 
 butts 
 
 v. 22 
 
 doom 
 
 ii. 34 
 
 bay, at 
 
 i. 8 
 
 buxom . 
 
 vi. 4 
 
 drench 
 
 iii. II 
 
 bead . 
 
 i- 15 
 
 
 
 dun 
 
 i. 27 
 
 beaker 
 
 vi. 2 
 
 Cabala 
 
 =ii. 6 
 
 dungeon 
 
 vi. 12 
 
 beam 
 
 i. 2 
 
 cairn . 
 
 »• 3 
 
 
 
 beck 
 
 V. 9 
 
 caitiff 
 
 vi. I 
 
 eglantine 
 
 i. 12 
 
 beetle 
 
 ii. 31 
 
 Caledon 
 
 i. In. 
 
 cider . 
 
 iii. 29 
 
 beltane 
 
 ii. 15 
 
 canna 
 
 ii. 15 
 
 elfin 
 
 iv. 3 
 
 benighted . 
 
 i. 21 
 
 canopy 
 
 i. 16 
 
 emboss , 
 
 i. 7 
 
 Benshie 
 
 iii. 7 
 
 carpet-knigh 
 
 t v. 14 
 
 emprize . 
 
 L 24 
 
 beshrew 
 
 i. 16 
 
 chalice 
 
 iii. 2 
 
 erne 
 
 vi. 15 
 
 bison, 
 
 i. 27 
 
 champion 
 
 . iv. 23 
 
 eyrie • 
 
 vi. 15 
 
 black-jack 
 
 vi. 5 
 
 cheer 
 
 . i. i2 
 
 
 
 blast 
 
 . iii. 26 
 
 .chequer 
 
 ' ii- 33 
 
 fain . 
 
 i. 4 
 
 blench 
 
 . ii. 30 
 
 chime 
 
 . iv. 21 
 
 falchioli , 
 
 i. 16 
 
 bonnet-piece 
 
 ; vi. 20 
 
 claymore 
 
 . ii. 14 
 
 fallow • 
 
 i- 3» 
 
 boon 
 
 . i. 12 
 
 clench 
 
 . iii. II 
 
 fealty 
 
 v. 28 
 
 bootless 
 
 . ii. 30 
 
 cognizance 
 
 . v. 31 
 
 feint 
 
 V. IS 
 
 boss 
 
 . iv. 5 
 
 coif 
 
 . iii. 20 
 
 fell 
 
 iii. 10 
 
 boune 
 
 . iv. 8 
 
 coil 
 
 . iii. 24 
 
 feud 
 
 iv. 17 
 
 bourgeorr. 
 
 . ii. 19 
 
 coronach 
 
 . iii. 15 
 
 fife 
 
 i' 31 
 
 bourne 
 
 . iv. 16 
 
 correi 
 
 . iii. 16 
 
 fig (a fig for) 
 
 vi. 5 
 
 bout, 
 
 . iv. 2 
 
 cowl, 
 
 . V. 22 
 
 flag , . 
 
 i. I 
 
 bower 
 
 . ii. 6 
 
 crevice 
 
 . i. 26 
 
 flush 
 
 m. 16 
 
 brawiC'T 
 
 . iii. 23 
 
 crossbow 
 
 . T. 18 
 
 foU 
 
 it 30 
 
 % 
 
 f !l 
 
 %1 
 
 III' 
 
 
 
 ¥. 1 1 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 11 
 
 ; t 
 
 y 
 
 ■. t i 
 
 m 
 
 ■.ill 
 
133 
 
 THE LADY or THE LAKfi. 
 
 fraught 
 
 , ii. 8 
 
 lurch 
 
 vi. 5 
 
 rout . 
 
 i. 3 
 
 frolic , 
 
 , i. 21 
 
 
 
 rowan 
 
 iii. 4 
 
 frontlet 
 
 . i. 2 
 
 mavis . 
 
 iv. 12 
 
 ruffian 
 
 V. 5 
 
 
 
 meed , 
 
 ii. 2 
 
 russet 
 
 iv. 12 
 
 gallant , 
 
 . V. 17 
 
 merle , 
 
 iv. 12 
 
 
 
 gambol 1 
 
 V. 23 
 
 meteor , 
 
 iii. 6 
 
 sable -lettered iii. h 
 
 garniture 
 
 , vi. 12 
 
 mew 
 
 V. 6 
 
 .sack 
 
 vi. 5 
 
 gauntlet 
 
 . i- 34 
 
 minaret . 
 
 i. II 
 
 sapling 
 
 i. 14 
 
 ghastly , 
 
 ii. 29 
 
 minion 
 
 ii. 34 
 
 save , 
 
 ii. 14 
 
 glaive 
 
 , iv. 8 
 
 minstrel , 
 
 vi. 5 
 
 scabbard 
 
 V. 14 
 
 glen 
 
 iii. 4 
 
 moody 
 
 iii. 6 
 
 scathe 
 
 . iii. 10 
 
 glint 
 
 V. 10 
 
 morrice-dan 
 
 
 scaur 
 
 •iii. 13 
 
 gloze 
 
 ii. 28 
 
 cers 
 
 V. 20 
 
 scout 
 
 iv, 2 
 
 gored , 
 
 vi. 4 
 
 mosque 
 
 i. II 
 
 sear 
 
 iii. 16 
 
 gosshawk . 
 
 iii. 10 
 
 muster . 
 
 V. 5 
 
 sentinel 
 
 iv. 2 
 
 greyhound , 
 
 ii-34 
 
 
 
 serried 
 
 vi, 17 
 
 grisled 
 
 iii. 4 
 
 Naiad 
 
 i. 17 
 
 shaft 
 
 iv. 27 
 
 grisly 
 
 i. 34 
 
 
 
 shallop 
 
 i. 20 
 
 guerdon « 
 
 > ii. 12 
 
 odds, the . 
 
 V. 16 
 
 sheen 
 
 i. II 
 
 gyve 
 
 vi. I 
 
 Oread 
 
 i. 17 
 
 shelve 
 shingle 
 
 iv. 5 
 
 iii. 7 
 
 haggard , 
 
 iii. 8 
 
 pack 
 
 i. 4 
 
 shock . 
 
 V. 7 
 
 halberd 
 
 vi. 3 
 
 page 
 
 iii. 27 
 
 shrewd 
 
 i. 4 
 
 hamlet 
 
 iii. 14 
 
 pageant 
 
 V. 20 
 
 shroud . 
 
 i>. 33 
 
 hap 
 
 ii. 3 
 
 pa frey 
 
 V. 17 
 
 snood . 
 
 i. 19 
 
 hectic . 
 
 ii. 32 
 
 pa 1 
 
 iv. 12 
 
 solstice 
 
 iv. 29 
 
 henchman . 
 
 ii.35 
 
 pallet 
 
 vi. I 
 
 sooth . 
 
 i. 24 
 
 hest 
 
 iii. 18 
 
 pennon 
 
 i. 27 
 
 spray 
 
 iv. 2 
 
 hie 
 
 iv. 10 
 
 pent 
 
 v. 7 
 
 spurn 
 
 i. 5 
 
 homage 
 
 > ii. 29 
 
 pibroch, i. 3 
 
 I, ii. 17 
 
 stalwart 
 
 i. 29 
 
 host 
 
 > vL 4 
 
 placket 
 
 vi. 5 
 
 stance 
 
 iv. 8 
 
 
 
 plaid . 
 
 ii. 3 
 
 stanch 
 
 i. 7 
 
 Idsean vine 
 
 . i. 26 
 
 port 
 
 > i. 29 
 
 St ed fast 
 
 . iv. 8 
 
 imbrue 
 
 . iv. 28 
 
 prick , 
 
 V. 18 
 
 steer (noun) 
 
 V. 7 
 
 
 
 prore 
 
 vi. 13 
 
 stem 
 
 . vi. 13 
 
 jack 1 
 
 . V. IQ 
 
 ptarmigan 
 
 . i. 22 
 
 stoop 
 
 iii. 15 
 
 jennet ( 
 
 . V. 21 
 
 purvey 
 
 vi. 7 
 
 store 
 strath 
 
 . i. 27 
 . ui. 4 
 
 ken 
 
 . i. 3 
 
 quail (verb) . 
 
 ii. 25 
 
 strathspey 
 
 . ii. II 
 
 kernes 
 
 . iv. 4 
 
 quarry • 
 
 . i. 7 
 
 streamer 
 streight 
 
 . iv. 8 
 . ii. 28 
 
 lackey 
 
 . ii. 35 
 
 read 
 
 . V. 13 
 
 stripling 
 
 • iii. 15 
 
 lea 
 
 . ii. 9 
 
 reave , 
 
 . li. 9 
 
 swain 
 
 . V. 6 
 
 leech 
 
 , vi. 12 
 
 recreant 
 
 , V. 16 
 
 swarthy 
 
 . iii. 14 
 
 links 
 
 . ii. 30 
 
 requiem 
 
 , vi. 22 
 
 swathe 
 
 . iii. 14 
 
 linn 
 
 . i. 3 requite 
 
 . ii. 33 
 
 symbol 
 
 . iii. 12 
 
 love-lorn 
 
 , vi. I rife 
 
 , iv. 10 
 
 
 
 lodge 
 
 . L26 
 
 rood 
 
 , I 22 
 
 talisman 
 
 . vi. 28 
 
tnnTlcd 
 
 tnrtaii 
 
 thrall 
 
 Tinchel 
 
 Tineman 
 
 train 
 
 trophy 
 
 trow 
 
 uncouth 
 
 upsees 
 
 usher 
 
 GENERAL INDEX TO NOTES. 
 
 IV. 29 
 ii. 16 
 vi. 24 
 vi. 17 
 ii. 15 
 iv. 18 
 vi. 24 
 iv. 10 
 
 J. 34 
 vi. 5 
 iv. 19 
 
 «33 
 
 vair 
 
 iv. 12 
 
 wistful 
 
 . 11.23 
 
 vaward . 
 
 vi. 16 
 
 witch-elm 
 
 . i. In. 
 
 veer 
 
 '. '3 
 
 Wf.ld 
 
 . iv. 12 
 
 verge 
 
 v. 29 
 
 wone 
 
 ; } i. 20 
 
 virgin-bower 
 
 i. 26 
 
 wont 
 
 
 
 worth ( woe 
 
 warp 
 
 IV. 22 
 
 worth) 
 
 . i. 9 
 
 weeds 
 
 iv, 21 
 
 wreak 
 
 . iv. 27 
 
 weird 
 
 i. 30 
 
 
 
 while (verb). 
 
 ii. 27 
 
 yeoman 
 
 . vi. 4 
 
 vvhinyard . 
 
 i. 8 
 
 yore. 
 
 • ill I 
 
 wight . 
 
 ▼. 22 
 
 
 
 GENERAL INDEX TO NOTES. 
 
 Adjective for adverb 
 
 Adjectives of Saxon and French derivation 
 
 Albany, Duke of, Regent of Scotland 
 
 Alliteration 
 
 Alpine 
 
 Amphibrachic metre 
 
 Angvis, Earl of 
 
 Archie of Kilspindie 
 
 Armour, Scottish 
 
 Ascabart . 
 
 Ballad metres 
 
 Ballangeich 
 
 Beltane 
 
 Ben and Pen 
 
 Bleeding Heart, the 
 
 Borderers, James V. suppresses 
 
 Bothwdl Castle 
 
 Breaking the deer 
 
 Bruce, Robert 
 
 Cabala 
 
 Celtic festivals 
 „ worship 
 
 Deer-flesh dried 
 
 Dispensation, Papal 
 
 Douglas family, their history 
 „ William, his death 
 (, Archie, of Kilspindie 
 
 V. 
 
 U 
 
 . i. 
 
 3 
 
 i. 
 
 4 
 
 v. 
 
 6 
 
 . iii. 
 
 28 
 
 ii. 
 
 19 
 
 . iii. 
 
 16 
 
 i. 
 
 S 
 
 V. 
 
 22 
 
 10, IS, 
 
 16 
 
 1. 
 
 28 
 
 . iv. 
 
 12 
 
 vi. 
 
 28 
 
 ii. 
 
 IS 
 
 i. 
 
 I 
 
 ii. 
 
 16 
 
 . ii. 
 
 28 
 
 ii. 
 
 8 
 
 iv. 
 
 5 
 
 8, 10, 
 
 16 
 
 iii. 
 
 16 
 
 ii. 
 i. 
 
 '1 
 
 iv. 
 
 31 
 
 ii. 
 
 12 
 
 ii. 
 
 8 
 
 V. 
 
 20 
 
 Y. 
 
 23 
 
 \l\ 
 
 1' I 
 
 i 
 
 'It' a 
 
 I r 
 
 t H 
 
 ' V 
 
 I 
 
 
 ;.« 
 
 1, 
 
 I 
 d 
 
 [| 
 
 
234 
 
 THE LADY OF THE lAkE. 
 
 Fairies • • 
 
 Ferragus . . , 
 
 Fiery Cross . 
 
 Fillan, St. 
 
 Flanders, its fertility. 
 Flodden, battle of • 
 
 Glenartney • 
 
 Highland brogues . 
 „ hospitality 
 
 James V., in France. 
 
 „ incognito adventures 
 and the Douglases 
 and the Borderers 
 the Commons' King 
 
 I* 
 ft 
 
 Killing the deer 
 Knight errantry • 
 
 Loch Ard . • 
 
 „ Achray • 
 
 Menteith . • 
 
 Metaphor and Simile 
 Morrice-dancers • 
 
 Of — its uses • 
 
 Otterboume • 
 
 Percy . • 
 
 Raven-bone • • 
 
 Robin Hood • 
 
 Roman remains 
 Scotch superstition . 
 Scott, his descriptions 
 love of colour 
 songs, . 
 inversion . 
 „ moralising 
 Second sight, • 
 
 Simile and metaphor 
 Spenserian statua . 
 
 Taghairm . • ' 
 
 Tineman . • 
 
 to (to wife) • 
 
 
 »> 
 
 L II 
 
 T! 28 
 
 ni. 
 
 I 
 
 i. 
 
 In. 
 
 vi. 
 
 3 
 
 i. 
 
 29 
 
 • 
 
 I 
 
 • •• 
 
 in. 
 
 »3 
 
 i. 
 
 29 
 
 i. 
 
 9 
 
 i. 
 
 21 
 
 ii. 
 
 8 
 
 ii. 
 
 28 
 
 v. 
 
 21 
 
 • 
 
 1. 
 
 8 
 
 i 
 
 24 
 
 i. 
 
 5 
 
 L 
 
 5 
 
 i. 
 
 5 
 
 i. 
 
 3 
 
 V. 
 
 20 
 
 • 
 
 1. 
 
 26 
 
 ii. 
 
 23 
 
 ii. 
 
 23 
 
 iv. 
 
 5 
 
 V. 
 
 20 
 
 V. 
 
 12 
 
 iii. 
 
 4 
 
 i. 
 
 II 
 
 iii. 
 
 2 
 
 • 
 
 1. 
 
 • • 
 
 n. 
 
 • •• 
 
 m. 
 
 3» 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 • 
 
 1. 
 
 23 
 
 i. 
 
 • 
 
 L 
 
 li 
 
 IV. 4 
 ii. 15 
 il 30 
 
iffit. 3' ®afl< & €o*& €ngli0k €la0«w0. 
 
 RIP TAN WINKLE, 
 
 WITH NOTEP, <^'c, &c., 
 
 BT 
 
 GEO. CHASE, M.A., 
 
 PRINCIPAL RIDOETOWN HIGH SCHOOL. 
 
 
 RBPftlRTBD FROM 
 
 Gage*$ Sixth Header Jor use of Intermediate Students. 
 
 111'! 
 
 Ullil 
 
 W. J. GAGE & COMPANY, 
 
 TORONTO. 
 
 i! 
 
Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the Office of 
 the Minister of Agriculture, by W. J. Gaoe & Company, in the 
 year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four. 
 
of 
 the 
 
 RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 t * . 
 
 ' 6 
 
 I'Iff 
 
 SI 1 
 
RIP VAN WINKLE 
 
 WITH SKETCH OF AUTHOR'S LIFE, WORKS, &c. 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 Ii 
 
 Washington Irvine waa born at Now York, April 3, 1783. Aftei 
 passing through the ordinary school of the day he entered upon the 
 study of law; but although he was ultimately admitted to the oar, he 
 never practised, — anything like set, systematic work being altogether 
 distasteful to him. His constant companions were Goldsmith and John- 
 son, the novelists of the eighteenth century, Swift, Addison, Shakes- 
 peare, Spenser, and Chaucer, traces of whose influence are everywhere 
 visible throughout his w,orks. While he % as thus laying the foundation 
 of that charm of style so characteristic of his writings, hia love of nature 
 was cherished by frequent rambles among the noble scenery in the neigh- 
 borhood of New York, and his keen powers of observation found an 
 ample field in the oddities of the descendants of the early Dutch settlers, 
 and in the absurdities of the political and social life around him. In 1802 
 Irving began his literary career with the Old Style Papers, a series 
 of humorous contributions to a paper started by his brother. Ill-health, 
 however, forced him in 1804 to go abroad for two years. Failing after 
 his return to receive a government appointment, he joined a friend in 
 editing Salmagundi. In 1810 he became a partner in business with 
 two of his brothers, receiving a share of the profits, but doing little or 
 nothing of the work, one of the brothers being unwilling that he should 
 engage in anything that interfered with his tastes or pursuits. For the 
 greater part of the two following years Irving was editor of a magazine 
 m Philadelphia; the regular labor that this demanded, however, he 
 found quite uncongenial to his disposition. 
 
 In 1815 Irving again went to Europe, this time, as it proved, for sev- 
 enteen years. Not till the bankruptcy of his business firm in 1818, and 
 his failure to obtain diplomatic employment, did he finally decide to 
 
RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 S0.\ 
 
 adopt literature as a profession. His Sketch Book, the first number 
 of which appeared in May 1819, was the first product of tliis new re- 
 Boive. He now visited various countries on the continent, meeting, 
 as in England, witli most of the famous literary men of the time. 
 In 1829, while living in the old Moorish palace of the Alhambrain Spain 
 he received from the United States government the appuin uncut of 
 Secretary of Legation at London. This position ho held fur three 
 years, returning to America in May 1832. The next ten years he 
 passed in his native land. During this period he produced several 
 works; projected, and in part sketched, a History of the Conquest of 
 Mexico, giving it up wliun ho learned that I'rescott was engaged on the 
 same theme ; made tours in various directions, one to the west of the 
 Mississippi ; and in general led a happy life, interrupted at times by un- 
 acountaole fits of melancholy. His residence at Sunnyside, on the east 
 bank of his loved Hudson near Tarry town, — the very scene of the adven- 
 tures in Sleepy Hollow, — was the resort of friends and admirers, and the 
 home of a family of orphan nieces and of an aged brother. In 1838 he 
 was nominated for mayor of New York, antl soon afterward he was 
 offered a seat in the Cabinet at Washington. Both of these Proffered 
 honors he declined : his sensitive nature slirank from mingling iu the 
 bitter personal politics of the time. From 1842 to 184G he was 
 United States ambassador to the Court of Spain, in the latter year 
 he returned to spend his remaining days at home, engaging in varied 
 literary work, in travelling, and in rest at Sunnyside surrounded by 
 those he loved. He died at Sunnyside, November 27, 1859, having 
 completed his Life of Washington, his *' crowning work," the previous 
 April. 
 
 Irving's most important worksare: — Salmagundi {\%0Q), a serial in- 
 tended "to instruct the young, reform the old, correct the town, and 
 castigate the age." It was very popular, but lasted only a year. History 
 of New York, a burlesque history of the State purporting to have been 
 found in manuscript in the chamber of Diediich Knickerbocker, an old 
 gentlentan who had lately disappeared. This is Irving's mo^^t original 
 work, aboun<ling in rich humor and good-natured wit at the expense 
 of the descendants of the old Dutch settlers, mingled often with 
 keen satire on the customs of society and of governments. 71ie 
 Sketch-Book (1819), completed in 1820, a collection of short papers con- 
 taining some of his best writing, humorous, pathetic, descriptive, and 
 otherwise. Bracehrid(je Hall (1822), similar to the Sketch Book. Life 
 and Voyages of Columbus (1828). Chronicles of the Gonquext of Grenada 
 (1829), written mainly at Seville, not historical, but presenting "alively 
 picture of the war, and one somewhat characteristic of the times, so 
 much of the material having been drawn from contemporary hivstorians." 
 Voyages of the Companions of Columbus (1830), Alhambra (1832), "a 
 beautiful Spanish 'Sketch-Book' — the subjects being in the most ele- 
 gant arid finished style." Crayon Miscellany, a series of tales and 
 sketches, including Tour on the Prairies, Abbotsford, Legends of the 
 Conquest of Spain, &c., that appeared in the coui'se of 1836. Astoria 
 (1836), principally an account of the founding of a colony at the mouth 
 of the Colutnbia River by John Jacob Astor, a fur trader. Adventures 
 of Captain Bonneville (1837), founded upon the journal of a U. S. officer 
 while exploring the Rocky Mountains and the Far West. WolferCs 
 J^oost (1855), a collection of his contributions to the "Knickerbocker 
 
 ■■ m 
 
 
 t! 
 
 •!• 
 
 ?ifi 
 
 m 
 
 •.'[ 
 
 hi 
 
 U 
 
392 
 
 CANADIAN READER.—BOOK VI. 
 
 Magazine" in 1839. L^e. oj Ooldamith (1849), a charming biography, 
 being an enlargement of a former sketch, and containing the resui^a of 
 the researches of other biographers of Goldsmith. Mahomet andhla Snc- 
 ce8sora {1850), a popular historical work contuiniug nothing original — 
 the Uast valuable of the author's historical works. Life of Wusliinglon 
 (IS55 — 1859), the work of many anxious years, a "noble capital for his 
 literary column." It is Irving's most elaborate production^— a labor of 
 love, in preparing which the author lived in constant fear that death or 
 failing powers would prevent him from completing it. 
 
 Irving is not distinctively an American writer : his own good sense, his 
 readiness to see and appreciate what is good in others, his long resi> 
 dence abroad, his familiar intercourse with the great men of other 
 countries, his delight in the scenes of ancien'* grandeur and in the gor- 
 geous legends of chivalry as well as his love for the natural scenery of his 
 native laud — all combined to make him cosmopolitan rather than Ameri- 
 can, and to render him incapable of narrowing his mind to one country, 
 or party, or sect. Apart from his historical works, his aim was to enter- 
 tain, not to instruct or reform, m.inkind ; hence he is said to have no 
 moral purpose in his writings. But he is everywhere pure and healthy 
 in tone — the man himself was pure; he does not attempt to analyze 
 humau character and human motive, or to examine the workings of the 
 human heart ; but he excels in delineation of character as well as in 
 the description of natural scenery and of incident ; .'lie is objective, not 
 pubjeative. His kindly nature did not allow his humor to hurt any- 
 body I though childless and wifeless he could enter heartily intothe sports 
 of children, and dwell with tenderness on scenes of domestic happiness. 
 
 No writer, not even Goldsmith, more clearly shows the man in his writ- 
 ings. Irving was deeply sensible to the beauties of nature, and his 
 descriptions, minute in their detail, bring the scenes vividly before 
 ua because they are vividly before him. He had a keen sense of 
 the ridiculous ant' the od i in tha society around him ; he enjoyed it and 
 makes us enjoy it in consequence. His humor is hearty ; it is never, as is 
 sometimes the case with Goldsmith, the sparkle on the sur^ce of a 
 tear ; the smile in liis reader's eye is but the rcllection from his own. 
 His satire is always good-natured ; he never indulges in invective, never 
 purposely wounds or holds up to rid'>ule : he is amused at the follies of 
 people rather than disgusted at them. His pathos is as natural and true 
 as it is tender ; for he draws upon the memory of his own sorrow — the 
 death of the lady to whom he was engaged to be married, and whose 
 name he never afterwards uttered, even in presence of his closest friend. 
 No truer pathos exists than is found in The Broken Heart, The Widow 
 and her Son, The Pride of the Village, and The Wife. 
 
 As a historian Irving does n^t raak high ; he had not the patience 
 necessary for the careful laborious research that history demands ; but 
 he is always interesting, and in the main animated and graceful. He 
 chose only those themes that were congenial to him, either through 
 personal sympathy or through the charm they had for him on account 
 of something heroic or chivalrous in them. 
 
 Irving, thoush not original in style, never consciously imitated any 
 other writer; but the student of Goldsmith and Addison will readily 
 
 Eerceive whence the inspiration came. The leading characteristics of 
 is style are ease, grace, simplicity, purity, clearness, and finish. 
 His nice taste led him to reject faulty constructions, inaccurate expre«> 
 
RIP VAN WINKLE 
 
 393 
 
 sions, and unmelodious combinations. His " sense of form " was 
 very delicate ; conse(]piently his sentences are carefully balanced ; 
 due importance is given to whatever is introduced,— nothing is ouc of 
 proportion ; the transitions from one idea to another are never abrupt, 
 all are carefully prepared and seem perfectly natural. Indeed, he may 
 sometimes be justly charged with over-elaboration ; h^ awakens the 
 suspicion that the feeling expressed is not genuine, and that his sole care 
 is the art in the productio i, and that he is sacrificing truth to form. 
 Of this defect "Westminster Abbey" is perhaps the most marked 
 example. 
 
 [The followii^g^ Tale was found among the papers of the late 
 Diedrich Knickerbocker,* an old gentleman of New York, who 
 was very curious in the Dutch' history of the province, and the 
 manners of the descendants from its primitive* settlers. His 
 historical researches, however, did not lie so much among hooks 
 as among men ; for the former are lamentably scanty on his 
 favorite t6pics, whereas he found the old burghers, and still 
 more their wives, rich in that legendary lore so invaluable to 
 true history.* Whenever, therefore, he happened upon a genu- 
 ine Dutch family, snugly shut up in its low-roofed farmhouse, 
 under a spreading sycamore, he looked upon it as a little clasped 
 volume of black letter,* and studied it with the zeal of a book- 
 worm. 
 
 
 i: II '^ 
 
 ; ! 
 
 1 In this introduction Irvintir quietly laughs at those historians who relate as true 
 historj' some of the most grotesque of popular legends ; but the chief part is a charac- 
 teristic protest against the manner in which verj' many leading men of the descendants 
 of the early Dutch colonists regarded his "Knickerbocker's History of New York."— a book 
 that gave great offence to these people, who seem to have been unable to appreciate 
 its rich humor. Irving indicates, in his own way, the origin, character, and purpose of 
 the book, with an amusing reference to its popularity, and at the same time intimates 
 that it is absurd in anyone to be angry from such a trifling cause. 
 
 3 Diedrich (deed-rik) Knickerbocker was a name frequently assumed by Irving in his 
 lighter writings. The introduction to the Sketch Book shows that the author is here 
 describing his own chiNrocter and tastes. 
 
 » Hendrik (or Henry) Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch, was the 
 first to explore (1609) the coast in the neighborhood of New York and to sail up the 
 river. The Dutch claimed the country by right of discovery, and colonized it. It came 
 into the possession of the English in 1064. 
 
 4 Remark that one element of the humor in this story consists in the gravity with 
 which the exaggerations and other absurd statements are mode. Note the frequent 
 humorous assertions of the truth of his narrative, and of his anxiety to be precise in 
 his statements. 
 
 B Women seem to have always had the reputation of preserving the legends and 
 stories of former days. Saint Paul speaks of " old wives' fables " ; the Arabian 
 Nights' Entertainments are stories related by women ; and the ballads collected by 
 Bishop Percy, Scott, and others were taken down from the recitation of old peasant' 
 women. Such women deserve our gratitude for saving these legends from destruction. 
 
 • Block-Ictter is th« name now given to the coarse, rude type in " Old English" or 
 Qcnnau ch»raot«n amploytd in th« Mriisit printing. The Mrliest printed books ooiv 
 
 |!f 
 
 '\ 
 
 
394 
 
 CANADIAN RHADEM.—BOOK VI. 
 
 The result of all these researches was a history of the prO' 
 vince during the reign of the Dutch governors,' which he pul)- 
 lished some years since. There have been various opinions as 
 to the literary character of his work, and, to tell the truth, it is 
 not a wliit'' better than it should be. Its chief merit is its scru- 
 pulous accuracy, which indeed was a little questioned on its 
 first appearance, but has since been completely established ; and 
 it is now admitted into all historical collections as a book of un- 
 questionable authority. 
 
 The old gentleman died shortly after the publication of his 
 work, and now that ho is dead and gone, it cannot do much 
 harm to his memory to say, that his time might have been much 
 better employed in weightier labors. He, however, was apt to 
 ride his hobby his own way** ; and though it did now and then 
 kick up the dust a little in the eyes of his neighbors, and 
 grieve the spirit of some friends, for whom he felt the truest 
 deference and aifection ; yet his errors and follies are remem- 
 bered " more in sorrow than in anger," and it begins to be sus- 
 pected that he never intended to injure or offend. But however 
 his memory may be appreciated by critics, it is still held dear 
 by many folk whose good opinion is well worth having, partic- 
 ularly by certain biscuit-bakers, who have gone so far as to im- 
 print his likeness on their new-year cakes, and have thus given 
 him a chance for immortality, almost equal to the being stamped'" 
 on a Waterloo medal, or a Queen Anne's farthing."] 
 
 sisted chiefl3r of legends, tales, &c., thoroughly believed by the readers. Develop the 
 comparison in the text. 
 
 1 These wore Wouter Van Twiller, Peter Kieffc, and Peter Stuyve8ant(u2/'>i)> whose 
 rule is so graphically described in the " History of New York." 
 
 8 " Not a whit" contains a tautology ; not itself is a compound of na (negative), and 
 whit, a thing. 
 
 9 Remark hero that the author intimates he will write as he pleases. Explain the 
 metaphors in this connection. 
 
 10 For this construction see Mason's Grammar, sec. 20O-1, and note ; 470 and note. 
 u The " Sketch Book " was written in England, but first published in New York. 
 
RIP VAN WlNKLt!. 
 RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 395 
 
 A POSTHUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDRICH KNIOKERBOOKBR. 
 
 By Woden, God of Saxons, 
 
 From whence comes Wensday, that is Wodensday, 
 
 Truth is a thing that ever I will keep 
 
 Unto thylkeia day in which I can creep into 
 
 My sepulchre —Oartwright. 
 
 Lenfendary lore hod always a charm for Irving ; he was delighted with Scott's " Min- 
 strelsy of the Scottish Border"— ballads, legendary, and otherwise, taken down by Scott 
 from chiefly the recitation of old peasant women ; he. had read translations of German 
 legends by different persons, and is said to have received from Scott the hint that some 
 of these might be made the foundation of an excellent story. 
 
 In the characteristic note at the end of Rip Van Winkle Irving indicates the origin 
 of his story— the legend of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. According to this 
 legend the old emperor had not died, but, attended by faithful knights, was in a 
 charmed sleep in an underground castle of the Kypphauser Mountain in the Hartz 
 range, to return again when the glory and greatness of the German Empire had de- 
 parted, in order to restore them once more. The attendant knights have been seen. 
 One Peter Klaus, a villager, while wandering in the mountains, met with a number 
 of men in antique garb ; after being courteously entertained by them he returned 
 home only to find that he had been absent twenty years. Other stories more or less 
 resembling this are current among the German peasantry. 
 
 Legends concerning the supernatural disappearance of lieople from the earth.and their 
 subsequent return, are common in all parts of the world ; among others are that of the 
 Seven Sleepers of Ephesus— seven young Christian men who, to escape persecution in the 
 reign of the Hlmporor Decius, retired to a cave where they slept two hundred years, 
 and awoka to find Christianity the established belief ; the legend of Thomas the Rhymer 
 or Thomas of Ercildoune,— so prominent in the Northern ballads of England and Scot- 
 land, — who was taken away from earth by the Queen of Fairy Land, and who returns 
 from time to time on various errands ; the nursery fairy story of the Sleeping Beauty ; 
 Hogg's *' Kilmeny"; the famous legend of King Arthur, so long and so persistently 
 believed in by the Welsh (see Greene's " History of the English People," reign of Edw. 
 I.) In the " Passing of Arthur" in Tennyson's Idyls of the King, Arthur says :— 
 " I perish by this people which I made, — 
 
 The' Merlin sware that I should come again 
 To rule once more." 
 
 Sir Bedivere cries, as Arthur moves away in the black boat :— 
 " He passes to b&King among the dead, 
 And after healing of his grievous wound, * 
 • He comes again." 
 
 But it is not the legend proper that constitutes the charm of Rip Van Winkle ; the 
 humor lies elsewhere ; it lies in the delineation of Rip's character and domestic sur- 
 roundings ; in the picture of the little Dutch inn with its landlord and freouenters, and 
 in the astounding change within the short space of (apparently) a night, that dazes the 
 reader almost as much as it did the hero himself — a change from the snug, cosy Dutch 
 inn with its old style sign to the rickctty, barn-like, slipshod " hotel " with the everlast- 
 ing "Union" attached to it; from the fat, stupid, speechless Dutchman, Nicholas 
 Vedder, to the lean, bustling, voluble Yankee " Jonathan " ; and from the sleepy village 
 with its grave discussions of worn-out subjects and stale news, to the clamor of public 
 speech-making in the warfare of modern party politics— the whole, with its dash of 
 sportive satire and its mock solemnity, told in the author's happiest vein. 
 
 The adapted legend forms only about a fourth part of the present piece. But although 
 the story is of foreign origin, yet the little village with its inhabitants and characteris- 
 tics of hoth its early and later days, the hero himself a denizen of the village, and the 
 magnificent scenery of the Kaatskills and the " lordly Hudson " at their feet, are so 
 inseparably united that we cannot conceive of the legend as belonging to any other 
 spot than that to which the auther has transferred it. 
 
 IS Thylke, "that," still used in Lowland Scotch : aoompound of the kag. Sax. the, and 
 Ke (It't), like ; tuck is co/tnposed of «t«a, so, and lie ; which, of htea, who or what, 
 And Un, 
 
 p 
 
 1 
 
 
 'ij 
 
 'i ■■( 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 1' : ;■ 
 
 f 
 
 li;:' 
 
 'Mm 
 
 fm 
 
 !;! 
 
 i" 
 
 lii ,;. 
 
 lli: 
 
 v\ 
 
 11 
 
 ■; 
 
 li: i 
 
 1 :■■■ 
 
 J, \i 
 
396 
 
 CANADIAN READER.— BOOK VJ. 
 
 Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson, must remember 
 the Kaatskill mountains." They are a dismembered branch of 
 the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of 
 the river, swelling up t'o a noble height, and lording it'* over the 
 surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of 
 weather, indeed every hour of the day produces some change in 
 the magical hues and shapes of these mountains ; and they are 
 regarded by all the good wives," far and near, as perfect barom- 
 eters. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in 
 blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear even- 
 ing sky ; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is 
 cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their 
 summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow 
 and light up like a crown of glory. 
 
 •' At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have 
 descried the light smoke curling up from a village, whose 
 shingle roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of 
 the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape. 
 It is a little village of great antiquity, having been founded by 
 some of the Dutch colonists, in the early times of the province, 
 just about the beginning of the government of the good Peter 
 Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace !) and there were some of the 
 houses of the original settlers standing within a few years, built 
 of small yellow bricks brought from Holland, paving latticed 
 windows and gable fronts, surmounted with weathercocks. 
 
 In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, 
 to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather- 
 
 is Remark how the author shows his sense of form and symmetry. The Koatskills 
 are, in various ways, to out a prominent part in the story ; they are, therefore, brouKlit 
 
 f prominently forward and their iiiiaiire stamped, as it were, on the mind from ttie betrin- 
 ng. The requirements of the stnry would naturally brinj; us to the villat^e at the foot 
 of the mountain ; heuce the villaite is next introduced ; and thus each step in the 
 projjrress follows naturally the preccdinir one. In passing from one paragraph or 
 *dea to another, it will be obsenred that abruptness in the transitions is often avoided 
 by making the closing expression or idea of the one paragraph sugoreat the opening 
 of the next. Trace throughput the pkeoe these evidences of artistic skill. 
 M Give the fortse of " lording." On this use of it see Mason's Oram., sec. 372, note. 
 18 Show if the tenor of the expression, "and they— barometers" is in accord with 
 that of the Immediate context. Cforapare also " great antiquity " and "just— peace " ! 
 bfllow. What object had tha author in view in inserting these T 
 
RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 iun 
 
 ^ol^^ 
 
 beaten), there lived many years since, while the country was 
 yet a province of Great Britain, a simple,. good-natured fellow,^^ 
 of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a descendant of the 
 Van Winkles who figured so gallantly in the chivalrous days of 
 Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to the siege of fort 
 Christina." He inherited, however, but little of the martial 
 character of his ancestors. I have observed that he was a 
 simple good-natured man ; he was moreover a kind neighbor," 
 and an obedient henpecked husband. Indeed, to the latter cir- 
 cumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which gained 
 him such universal popularity ; for those men are most apt to 
 be obsequious and conciliating abroad, wlio are under the dis- 
 cipline of §hr§ws at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are ren-> 
 dered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic 
 tribulation,** and a curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the 
 world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suifering. A 
 termagant** wife may, therefore, in some respects, be considered 
 a tolerable blessing; and if so, Rip Van Winkle was thrice 
 blessed. 
 
 Certain it is, that he was a great favorite amons all the good , 
 wives of the village, who, as usual with the amiable sex," took i.^'i-'^tju 
 his part in all family squabbles, and never failed, whenever 
 they talked those matters over in their evening gossipings,*^ to lay 
 
 all the blainu on Dame Van Winkle. The children of the vil- 
 
 « 
 
 i< Why not man instead of fellow f Noto carefully the followin;; description of a 
 good-natured "ne'er do well.'' 
 
 V In Delaware ; it was held by the Swedes who claimed, and hod in part colonized, 
 that reffion. See in " Kniclierbockcr's History of New York " the absurdly ludicroun, 
 mock heroic description of the siej^e and capture of this fort by Stuyvesant and hia 
 wonderful army. 
 
 M Why is this statement repeated ? Remark the mock earnestness in what immedi 
 ately follows, — one of the elements of the humor of the piece. 
 
 19 Criticise the metaphor in "their tempers -tribulation," bearinpr in mind f;hat 
 " tribulation " is from the Latin tribulatio,a rubbinyr out of grain by means of a slct'.jft 
 Bet with sharp stones or iron teeth. 
 
 *o Terntasfant ^old French, Terva^nt ; Italian, Trevagante), the name of the ;?od that 
 nedinval ChriHtians supposed the Saracens to worship. He was frequently represent^ 
 ed in old plays as a violent, storming character. It is now applied to a violnnt, scolding 
 woman. What is the force of thrice in the following line ? ^.j^ / 
 
 « Why does not the author use the word " woman " here ? 
 
 n "OobsId" is a compound of the Ang. Sax. god, Ood, and sib, a relative— a "re- 
 lative in Ood," that is, a sponsor {n baptism ; the modern usage shows a degradatioq iq 
 meaning. 
 
 h4 
 
 t \i 
 
 1 ;: I', 
 
 ' ji.j; ft 
 
 H; !f 
 •4* '!: 
 
 >i 
 
898 
 
 CANADIAN READER.— BOOK VI. 
 
 ii-<' 
 
 lage, too, would shout with joy whenever he approached. He 
 assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to 
 fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of ghosts, 
 witches, and Indians. . "Whenever he went dodging about the 
 village, he was surrounded by a troop of them hanging on his 
 skirts, clambering on his back, and playing a thousand tricks on 
 him Avith impunity ; and not a dog would bark at him through- 
 out the neighborhood. 
 
 The great error in Rip's composition was an insuperable aver- 
 dL*^ 'r.lVt^sioil to'^' all kinds of profitable labor."* It could not be from the 
 V( //^ .^-yrant of assiduity or perseverance ; for he would sit on a wet 
 ' rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar's" lance, and fish 
 all day without a murmur, even though he should not be en- 
 couraged by a single nibble. He would carry a fowling-piece 
 on his shoulder for hoursutogether, trudging through woods and 
 swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or 
 wild pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor even 
 in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics 
 for husking Indian corn, or building stone fences. The women 
 of the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands, and 
 to do such little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would 
 not do for them ; — in a word, Rip was ready to attend to any- 
 body's business but his own • but as to doing family duty, and 
 keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible. 
 
 In fact,*' he declared it was of no use to work on his farm ; it 
 
 28 It is usually stated that "aversion" should be followed by "from," not "to," since 
 it is derived from the Latin ttrto (ver»U8), to turn ; but " aversion " contains also the 
 Latin preposition a (ab), from; hence "aversion from" is tautological, while "aver- 
 sion to " is contradictor^'. But in using the word its derivation is not present to the 
 mind ; we thinlc merely of the object towards which our dislike is directed, not of the 
 physical act implied by the derivation ; hence "aversion to" seems to be the more 
 natural expression. 
 
 24 Express more briefly the idea in the preceding sentence. What eff5ot,rtoes the 
 author wish to produce by this wording ? Is it consistent with the tenor of the ]>iece? 
 Remark that this first sentence contains the general statement. What is the character 
 of the rest of the paragraph ? 
 
 35 The Tartars, or more properly Tatars, inhabit Asia, outside of China proper, and 
 north of the Nan-Shan, Kuen-lun, Hindu Kush, and Eiburz mountains. They also con- 
 quered and settled southern Russia in Europe: the Turks and Hungarians are also of 
 Tartar origin. The famous Cossacks, the lancers in the Russian army, are also Tartars. 
 
 2n How much of the following paragraph is in " in<)ir«o( oarr^tiQii " ? Change it to 
 "direct uarratiQrit" t r v 
 
li'il 
 
 RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 399 
 
 1 '!' 
 
 o|re it to 
 
 was the most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole coun- 
 try ; everything about it went wrong, and would go wrong in 
 spite of hini.. His fences were continually falling to pieces ; his 
 cow would either ;^o astray, or get among the cabbages ; weeds 
 were sure to grow thicker in his fields than any where else ; the 
 rain always made a point of setting in just as he had some out- 
 door work to do ; so that though his patrimonial estate had 
 dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until there 
 was .little more left than a mere patch of Indian corn and 
 potatoes, yet it was the worst conditioned farm in the neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
 His children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they belonged 
 to nobody. His son Rip, an urchin begotten in his own like- 
 ness, promised to inherit the habits, with the old clothes of his 
 father. He was generally seen trooping like a colt at his 
 mother's heels, equipped in a pair of his father's cast-off galli- 
 gaskins," which he had much ado*^ to hold up with one hand, as 
 a fine lady does her train in bad weather. 
 
 Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, 
 of foolish, well-oiled dispositions,'® who take the world easy, eat 
 white bread or browa,** whichever can be got with least thought 
 or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a 
 pound. If left to himself, he would have whistled life away in 
 perfect contentment ; but his wife kept continually dinning in 
 his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was 
 bringing on his family. 
 
 •Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, 
 and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of 
 household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to all 
 lectures of the kind, and that, by frequent use, had grown into 
 
 it GalliifaskinH wore a kind of wide, full trousers, worn in the latter part of the 16th 
 and beginning of the 17th century. The word \» itaid to be a "derivative of tbe Italian 
 Oreoheiicu — Orcek ; a naniexiven to a particular kind of hose worn at Venice." 
 
 >« Ado U n contraction used as a noun for at do, to do : the preposition at was often 
 UHed heforo the infinitive in the old Northern EnvIishHialect. 
 
 t9 Develop the metaphor in " well-oiled disposition " ; also in " torrent of eloquence, ** 
 " volley," and " draw off his forces," below ; note, in passing, any change of tnQtaphor, 
 
 3« Express 'eat— brown" in other words, 
 
 :v'': 
 
 \\l 
 
 i ' ii; 
 
 I 4! ji! 
 
 \u^ 
 
 • l«l 
 
 it 
 
400 
 
 CANADIAN READER.— BOOK VI. 
 
 V 
 
 a habit. He shrugged his shouklors, shook his head, cast up his 
 eyes, but said nothing. This, however, always provoked a fresh 
 volley from his wife, so that- he was fain to draw off his forces, 
 and take to the outside of the house — the only side which, in 
 truth, belongs to a henpecked husband. 
 
 Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as 
 much henpecked as his master ; for Dame Van Winkle regarded 
 them as companions in idleness, and even looked upon Wolf 
 ■with an evil eye, as the cause of his master's going so often 
 astra}'. True it is, in all points of spirit befitting an honorable 
 dog, he was as courageous an animal as ever scoured the woods ; 
 ■ — but what courage can withstand the ever-during and all-be- 
 setting terrors of a woman's tongue ? The moment Wolf entered 
 the house, his crest fell, his tail drooped to the ground, or curled 
 between his legs, he sneaked about with a gallows air, casting 
 many a sidelong glance at Dame Van Winkle, and at the least 
 flourish of a broomstick or ladle, he would fly to the door with 
 yelping precipitation.'^ >" 
 
 Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years 
 of matrimony rolled on : a tart temper never mellows with age, 
 and a sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener witli 
 constant use.''* For a long while he used to console himself, 
 when driven from home, by frequenting a kind of perpetual*' 
 club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the 
 village, which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn 
 designated by a rubicund portrait of his Majesty George the 
 Third." Here they used to sit in the shade through a long lazy 
 
 81 Remark upon "yelping precipitation." Show whether the author hat hitherto 
 been " minute in details." 
 
 sS How many and what figures are contained in " Times— use " ? Develop them 
 fully. 
 
 u What is the author's object in usin? " perpetual," and "sages and philosophers" 
 and "profound discussions" further on ? 
 
 84 Compare this description of tho inn and Van Bummel with ..hat of the village 
 ale-house and tlie school-master in Goldsmith's " Deserted Villa^'e,*' (See the critical re- 
 marks on Irving's style.) Tho additional perKonairo, Nicholas Vf^dder, is a reproduction 
 In miniature of Governor Wouter Van Twiller, in the "Hiutory of New York," a 
 humorous satlrization of tho phlegmatic Dutch character, "o i^ttractive a nibjeot to 
 Ining in bis earlisr writings. Tho landlord serves m^^teriall/ to .localize the stoiy. 
 
RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 401 
 
 ii::'li 
 
 summer's day, talking listlessly** over village gossip, or telling 
 endless sleepy stories about uuthing. But it would have been 
 worth any vstateaman's money to have heard the profound dis- 
 cussions that sometimes took place, when by chance an old news- 
 paper fell into their hands from some passing traveller. How 
 solemnly they would listen to the contents, as drawled out by 
 Derrick Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, a dapper learned little 
 man, who was not to bo daunted by the most gigantic word in 
 the dictionary ; and how sagely they would deliberate upon 
 public events some months after they had taken place.* 
 
 The opinions of tliis junto''* were completely controlled by 
 Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the 
 inn, at the door of which he took his seat from mornins till 
 night, just moving sufficiently to avoid the sun and keep in the 
 shade of a large tree ; so that the neighbors could tell the hour 
 by his movements as accurately as by a sun-dial. It is true he 
 was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his pipe incessantly. 
 His adherents,"'' however (for every great man has his adher- 
 ents), perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather his 
 opinions. When anything that was read or related displeased 
 him, he was obsorved to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to 
 send forth short, frequent, and angry puffs, but when pleased 
 he would inhale the smoke slowly and tranquilly, and emit it 
 in light and placid clouds ; and sometimes taking the pipe from 
 his mouth, and letting the fragrant vapor curl about his nose, 
 would gravely nod his head in token of perfect approbation. 
 
 From even this stronghold the unlucky Eip was at length 
 routed by his termagant wife, who would suddenly break in up- 
 on the tranquillity of the assemblage and call the members all 
 to naught ; nor was tliat august personage, Nicholas Vedder 
 
 himself, sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible virago^ 
 
 .> • 
 
 w What is peculiar in "long— listlesslj-"? Show fullj- by what devices the effect if 
 produced. Comment oil " worth— money." 
 
 M Junto is a Spanish word from Liitin juntfere (jundtut), to Join. On the use o( 
 this word in English politics, see Green's History of England, reigu of Wijliain UIi 
 
 V Note this quiet little piece of Sfitifc, \ . •., ^; . 
 
 ^i r 
 
 ii» 
 
 •-cKv 
 
 i, 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 1 ■ 
 
 
 il> &' ill 
 
 !. 
 
 ili? 
 
 
 -r/..i ( 
 
402 
 
 CANADIAN READER.— BOOK VI. 
 
 .L.T 
 
 who charged him outright with encouraging her husband in 
 habits of idleness. 
 
 Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair ; and his only 
 alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor 
 of his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the 
 woods. Here he would sometimes seat himself at the foot of 
 a tree, and share the contents of his wallet with Wolf, with 
 whom he sympathized as a fellow-sufferer in persecution. " Poor 
 Wolf,*' he would say, " thy mistress leads thee a dog's life of 
 it ; but never mind, my lad, whilst I live thou shalt never want 
 a friend to stand by thee !" Wolf would wag his tail, look 
 wistfully in his master's face, and if dogs can feel pity, I verily 
 believe he reciprocated the sentiment'* with all his heart. 
 
 In'' a long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day, Bip 
 had unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the 
 Kaatskill mountains. . He was after his favourite sport of 
 squirrel-shooting, and the still solitudes had echoed and re- 
 echoed with the reports of his gun. Panting and fatigued, he 
 threw himself, late in the afternoon, on a green knoll, covered 
 with mountain herbage, that crowned the brow of a precipice. 
 From an opening between the trees he could overlook all the 
 lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a 
 distance the lordly Hudson, far, far below him, moving on its 
 silent but majestic course, with the reflection of a purple cloud, 
 or the sail of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping on its 
 glassy bosom, and at last losing itself in the blue highlands. 
 
 On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, 
 wild, lonely, and shaggy, the bottom filled with fragments from 
 the impending cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays 
 of the setting sun. For some time Bip lay musing on the 
 scene ; evening was gradually advancing ; the mountains began 
 to throw their long blue shadows over the valleys ; he saw that 
 
 S8 Give the full explanation of this phrase. 
 
 n Account for the changed tone of this and the followin^c paragraph. Compare 
 with the opening paragraph. Compare this view from the mountain with that des- 
 cribed in Scott's liady of the Lalte, canto I. (See critical remarks on Irvinir's stj-le.) 
 Account for thi character of the conclusion of the para^ph " On thf— Winkle." 
 
\l/' 
 
 RIP VAN WINKLS. 
 
 408 
 
 ;an 
 that 
 
 Ipare 
 Ides- 
 
 it would be dark long before he could reach the village, and he 
 heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encountering the ter- 
 rors of Dame Van Winkla 
 
 As*° he was about to descend, he heard a voice from a distance 
 hallooing, " Rip Van Winkle ! Rip Van Winkle I" He looked 
 round,' but could see nothing but a crow winging its solitary 
 flight across the mountain. He thought his fancy must have 
 deceived him, and turned again to descend, whfen he heard the 
 same cry ring through the still evening air : " Rip Van Winkle ! 
 Rip Van Winkle !" — at the same time Wolf bristled up his back, 
 and, giving a loud growl, skulked to his master's side, looking 
 fearfully down into the glen. Rip now felt a vague apprehen- 
 sion stealing over him ; he looked anxiously in the same direc- 
 tion, and perceived a strange figure slowly toiling up the rocks, 
 and bending under the weight of something he carried on his 
 back. He was surprised to see any human being in this lonely 
 and unfrequented place ; but supposing it to be some one of 
 the neighbourhood in need of his assistance, he hastened down 
 to yield it." * 
 
 On nearer approach he was still more surprised at the singu- 
 larity of the stranger's appearance. He was a short, square- 
 built old fellow, with thick bushy hair and a grizzled beard. 
 His dress was of the antique Dutch fashion — a cloth jerkin," 
 strapped round the waist, several pairs of breeches,*' the outer 
 one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons down the 
 sides, and buttons at the knees. He bore on his shoulder a 
 stout keg, that seemed to contain liquor, and made signs for 
 
 M From this point to Rip's appearahce bofore tlte " Union Hotel," the story has but 
 little of a local nature ; it is, in its main features, the German legend. Irving followfs 
 the legends here ; these do not represent the heroes as failing asleep, but as meeting 
 with supernatural beings in whose company they are unaware of the lapxe of tlme,--flve, 
 or seven years, or even two hundred years having piassed away as if they were but a 
 few hours. 
 
 41 Is this act characteristic of Rip ? ,^.>:^\ 
 
 4> Jerkin is a diminutive of the Dutch jurk, H f roclt. 
 
 « Irving delighted In tSius presenting his typical Dutchman'. In the " History of 
 New York" he represents one of the colonists. Ten Broeck, as derivin? his name from 
 wearing ten pairs of breeches ; these were of such a size that, when the Indians had 
 
 rsed to give the colonists as much land as a man's breeches would cover, the 
 pie savaves were amazed and oontoonded to see Ten Broeck's cover the whole tuf ur* 
 lite of theClty of Kew York. 
 
 i ii 
 i \\ 
 
 1 jv 
 
 V i 
 
 i'Ki 
 
 
 II! 
 
 
4Ai 
 
 CANADIAN kEADEn.-BOOK VI. 
 
 /(. 
 
 Rip to approach and assist liim with the load. Though rather 
 shy and distrustful of this new acquaintance, Rip complied with 
 his usual alacrity ; and, mutually relieving each other,** they 
 clambered up a narrow gujly, appuiontly the dry bed of a moun- 
 tain toiTent. As they ascended, Rip every now and then heard 
 long rolling peals, like distant thunder, that seemed to issue out 
 of a deep ravine, or rather cleft, between lofty rocks, toward 
 which their rugged path conducted. He paused for an instant, 
 but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those transient 
 thunder-showers which often take place in mountain-heights, 
 he proceeded. Passing** through the ravine, they came to a 
 hollow, like a small amphitheatre, surrounded by perpendicular 
 precipices, over the brinks of which impending trees sliot their 
 branches, so that you only caught glimpses of the azure sky and 
 the bright evening cloud. During the whole time Rip and his 
 companion had labored on in silence, for though the former 
 marvelled greatly what could be the object of carrying a keg of 
 liquor up this wild mountain, yet there was something strange 
 and incomprehensible about the unknown that inspired awe 
 and checked familiarity. 
 
 On entering the amphitheatre,*' new objects of wonder pre- 
 sented themselves. On a level spot in the centre was a com- 
 pany of odd-looking personages playing at nine-pins." They 
 were dressed in a quaint, outlandish fashion ; some wore short 
 doublets,** others jerkins, with long knives in their belts, and 
 
 44 Examine the correctness of this phrase ; also " so that— cloud " further down. 
 
 45 Compare the description of the hollow here with that of the Trosachs in Scott's 
 Lady of the Lake, canto I. ' 
 
 46 Amphitheatre— Or. amphi around, and theatron, seeing^,— a theatre with seats on 
 all sides ; the usual theatre was in the form of a semicircle. The term is here applied 
 to a little vale surrounded by hills. 
 
 47 So in the legpend of Peter Klaus ; but Irvinjr here takes liberties with the Knights 
 of Barbarossa ; he makes them Dutchmen, but in his own way. 
 
 48 Quaint — a very di^oruised form of the Latin eoijnitus. " In French the word took 
 the sense of trim, neat, fine, ttc. ; in English it meant /amou*, remarkable, euHuus, 
 itrange, Sio."—Skeat, 
 
 Doublet—" Fr. double, double ; Lat. duo, two ; and plus, related to plenuK, full." 
 OrlffinaHy a thickly wadded Jacket for defence ; aiterwards a close-fitting coat extend- 
 U>|; down to the middle. 
 
JilP VA2f WINKLE. 
 
 405 
 
 most of them had 
 
 breechos, of similnv style with*' 
 
 enormous 
 
 that of the guide's. Their visages, loo, were peculiar : one had 
 a large head, broad face, and small piggish eyes j the face of an- 
 other seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted 
 by a white sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little red cock's tail. 
 They all had beards, of various shapes and colors. There was 
 one who seemed to be the commander. He was a stout old 
 gentleman,''' with a weather-beaten countenance ; he wore a 
 laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, high-tsrowned hat and 
 feather, red stockings, and high-heeled shoes, witli ro.ses in 
 them. The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an old 
 Flemish painting in the parlor of Dominie Van Shaick," the 
 village parson, and which*'* had been brought over from Holland 
 at tlie time of the settlement. 
 
 What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that though these 
 folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained 
 the gravest faces,*" the most mysterious silotice, and were, with- 
 al, the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. 
 Nothing interrupted iJie stillness of the scene but the noise of 
 the balls, which, whenever they were rolled, echoed along the 
 mountains like rumbling peals of thunder. 
 
 As Rip and his companion approached them, they suddenly 
 desisted from their play, and stared at him Avith such fixed, 
 statue-like gaze, and such strange, uncouth, lack-lustro counten- 
 ances, that his heart turned within him, and his knees smoto 
 together. His companion now emptied the contents of the keg 
 into large flagons, and made signs to him to wait upon the com- 
 
 49 What preposition should follow "similar"? What is commonly the relative 
 order of an odjectivo and its modifying phrase ? 
 
 Ko This is Hendrick Hudson. Following the legends Irving gives to the river, as its pre- 
 siding genius, the man who hod discovered it— a very happy idea in connection with 
 the localizing process. 
 
 n What reason hod the writer for introducing this Dutch name ? See Introduction, 
 last clause. 
 
 5S In "and which" the "and" implies a preceding "which"; none is expressed 
 here, but one is implied in the adjective phrase " in— Shaick,"— a construction th '^ it 
 would be better to avoid. 
 
 M Why is the party so grave f Cf . the character of Nicholas Vedder. What figure of 
 •peeob is there in " melancholy party of pleasure" ? 
 
m 
 
 CANADIAN BEADElt,~BOOK VI. 
 
 ^W. s> 
 
 pany. He obeyed with fear and trembling ; they quaffed the 
 liquor in profound silence, and then returned to their game. 
 
 By degrees Rip's awe and apprehension subsided. He even 
 V ventured, when no eye was fixed upon him, to taste the bever- 
 age, which he found had much of the flavor of excellent Hol- 
 lands. He was naturally a thirsty soul, and was soon tempted 
 to repeat the draught. One taste provoked another ; and he 
 ri^ reiterated his visits to the flagon so often, that at length his 
 senses were overpowered, his eyes swam in his head, his head 
 gradually declined, and he fell into a deep sleep.** 
 
 On waking, ho found himself on the green knoll whence he 
 had first seen the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes — 
 it was a bright sunny morning. The birds were hopping and 
 twittering among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, 
 and breasting the pure mountam breeze. " Surely," thought 
 Rip, " I have not slept here all night." He recalled the occur- 
 rences before he fell asleep. The strange man with the keg of 
 liquor — the mountain ravine — the wild retreat among the rocks 
 — tlie woe-begone party at nine-pins — :the flagon — " Oh ! that 
 flagon ! that wicked flagon !" thought Rip ; " what excuse shall 
 I make to Dame Van Winkle T 
 
 He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean well- 
 oiled fowling-piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the 
 barrel encrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock 
 worm-eaten. Ho now su^jjected that the grave roysters of the 
 mountain had put a trick upon him, and, having dosed him with 
 liquor, had robbed him of his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared, 
 but he might have strayed away after a squirrel or partridge. 
 He whistled after him, and shouted his name, but all in vain ; 
 the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but no dog was to be 
 seen. 
 
 He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's gam- 
 bol, and, if he met with any of the party, to demand his dog 
 
 64 Why does the author remove Rip from his supernatural companv in this parti- 
 oiilar manner t What is the peuuUarity in worda suoh aa "twittering," four lines 
 Mdw? 
 
RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 4ff! 
 
 and gun. As he rose to walk, he found himself stiff in the 
 joints, and wanting in his usual activity. " These mountain 
 beds do not agree with me," thought Rip, " and if this frolic 
 should lay me up with a fit of rheumatism, I shall have a blessed 
 time with Dame Van Winkle." With some difficulty he got 
 down into the glen : he found the gully up which he and his 
 companion had ascended the preceding evening ; but, to his as- 
 tonishment, a mountain stream was now foaming down it — 
 leaping from rock to rock, and filling the glen with babbling 
 murmurs. He, however, made shift to scramble up its sides, 
 working his toilsome way through thickets of birch, sassafras, 
 and wild-hazel, and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the 
 wild grape-vines that twisted their coils or tendrils from tree to 
 tree, and spread a kind of net-work in his path. 
 
 At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through 
 the cliflfe to the amphitheatre ; but no traces of such opening re- 
 mained. The rocks presented a high impenetrable wall, over 
 which the torrent^* came tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, 
 and fell into a broad deep basin, black from the shadows of the 
 surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip was brought to a 
 stand. He again called and whistled after his dog ; he was only 
 answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows,"* sporting high 
 in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice ; and 
 who, secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and scoff 
 at the poor man's perplexities. What was to be done ? — the 
 morning was passing away, and Rip felt famished for want of 
 liis breakfast. He grieved to give up his dog and gun ; he 
 dreaded to meet his wife ; but it would not do to starve among 
 the mountains. He shook his head, shouldered the rusty fire- 
 lock, and, with a heart full of trouble and anxiety, turned his 
 steps homeward. 
 
 if 
 
 I 
 
 I ll 
 
 III ;il 
 
 !:,-| 
 
 •{ 
 
 M See the Indian legrend in tlie author's appended note. 
 
 M In the legend, Barbarosaa partially wakes up every hundred years and asks the at< 
 tendant dwarf if the "old crows still continue to fly around the mountain." trying 
 iUM metamorphoa«d these orows as well as other features. 
 
403 
 
 CANADIAN READER.-^BOOK VI. 
 
 As he approached the village he met a number of people, but 
 none whom he knew, v/hich somewhat surprised him, for he had 
 thought himself acquainted with every one in the country- 
 round. Their dress, too, was of a different fashion from that 
 to which he was accustomed. They all stared at him with 
 equal marks of surprise, and, whenever they cast their eyes 
 upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant recur- 
 rence of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same 
 — when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a 
 foot long I'' 
 
 He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of 
 strange children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pollut- 
 ing at his grey beard. The dogs, too, not one of whom he re- 
 cognized for an old acquaintance, barked at him as he passed ; 
 the very village was altered j it was larger and more populous. 
 There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, 
 and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. 
 Strange names were over the doors — strange faces at the Avin- 
 dows — everything was strange. His mind now misgave him ; 
 he began to donbt whether both he and the world around him 
 were not bewitched. Surely^' this was his nati\e village which 
 he had left but the day before. There stood the Kaatskill 
 mountains — there ran the silver Hudson at a distance — there 
 wafi every hill ar.d da-o pn^cisely as it had always been. Rip 
 was sorely perplexed. " That flagon last niglit," thought he 
 " has addled" my poor head sadly ! ',* 
 
 It was with some difficulty thnt he found his way to his own 
 house, which he approached with silent awe, exji&cting evety 
 moment to hear the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He 
 found the house gone to decay — the roof fallen in, the windows 
 
 ii Barbarossa's beard has tnrown through the marble table " whereon ho rests his 
 
 hea»l." 
 
 as Why betrin the sentence with this word ? Cliangfe the rest of the paragraph to the 
 direct narrative form. 
 
 S9 Addled— from the Ang. Sax. ddl^ a disease ; " the original moaning is inflam- 
 mation." 
 
BtP VAK WINKLE 
 
 400 
 
 rfiattered, and the doors off the liinges. A half-starved dog 
 that looked liked Wolf, was skulking about it. Rip called him 
 by his name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed 
 on. This was an unkind cut indeed — " My very dog," sighed 
 poor Rip, " has forgotten me !" 
 
 He entered the house, which, to tell the truth. Dame Van 
 Winkle had always kept in neat order. It Avas empty, forlorn, 
 and apparently abandoned. The desolateness overcame all liis 
 , connubial fears ; he called loudly for his wife and children ; 
 the lonely /chambers rang for a moment with his voice, and 
 then all again was silence. 
 
 Ho^ now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the 
 village inn — but it too was gone. A large ricketty wooden 
 building stood in its place, with great gaping windows, some 
 broken, and mended with old hats and petticoats, and over the 
 door was painted, "The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." 
 Instead of the great tree that used to slielter the quiet little 
 Dutch inn of yore, there was now reared a tall naked pole, with 
 something on the top that looked like a red nightcap, and from 
 it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage 
 of stars and stripes ; all this was strange and incomprehen- 
 sible. Ho recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face 
 of King George, tinder which he had smoked so many a 
 peaceful pipe; but even this was singularly metamorphosed. 
 The red coat was changed for one of blue and bufi", a sword was 
 held in the hand instead of a sceptre, the head was decorated 
 Avith a cocked hat, and underneath was painted in large charac- 
 ters, General Washington. 
 
 There was, as usual, a crowd of folks about the door, but none 
 that Rip recollected. The very character of the people seemed 
 4;bingod. There wa^s a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about 
 
 M Remark the hiprhly kon'iorous character of the scene that greets the amazed 3!p. 
 What was the artistic purpose of the author in choosing: election day for his hero's 
 <«turn ? It will be seen that Irvi/ifif is here lautrhing at the fondness of the people of 
 tha United btllitea for the name "Union," for flaRs and liberty poles ; as also at their 
 batn-Uke village hotels, and theii- keenness in politics. 
 
 iili 
 
 ' ; .'1 
 
410 CANADIAN READER.— BOOK VI. 
 
 it, instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquillity. 
 He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with his broad 
 face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering®^ clouds of tobacco 
 smoke instead of idle speeches ; or Van Bummel, the school- 
 master, doling forth the contents of an ancient n.^wspaper. In 
 place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow,'^ with his pockets 
 full of hand-bills, was haranguing vehemently about rights of 
 citizens — elections — members of congress — liberty — Bunker's 
 Hill — heroes of seventy-six — and other words, which were a 
 perfect Babylonish jargon*** to the bewildered Van Winkle. 
 
 The appearance of Rip, with his long grizzled beard, his rusty 
 fowling piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and 
 children at his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern 
 politicians. They crowded round him, eyeing him from head 
 to foot with great curiosity. The orator bustled up to him, 
 and, drawing him partly aside, inquired " on which side he 
 voted r Rip stared in vacant stupidity. Another short but 
 busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and, rising on tiptoe, 
 inquired in his ear, " Whether he was a Federal or a Demo- 
 crat ?"** Rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question ; 
 when a knowing self-important** old gentleman, in a sharp 
 cocked hat, made his way through the crowd, putting them to 
 the right and left with his elbows as he passed, and planting 
 himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo,*' the other 
 
 (( 
 
 •I Comment on this use of " utter." Is its sense the same in construction with tmoke 
 a/a with speeches ? What is the figure? Cf. "to utter counterfeit money," and other 
 variations in the use of the word. 
 
 M Irving as heartily despised this typical Yankee Jonathan as he was amused at the 
 phlegfinatic Dutchman. He lamented the displacement of the old inn by the modem 
 oomrortless village " hotel " ; and ward and tavern politics with their hypocritical and 
 paeudo-patriotic cant and disgraceful personalities he utterly loathed. 
 
 03 The reference is to Genesis xi., 1-9. The derivation of jargon is uncertain ; it 
 •arly came into the English language from the French. 
 
 M These are the names of the two political parties in the United States in the early 
 part of the century ; the former claimed more authority for the central government 
 over the separate States than the latter was willing to grant. 
 
 as The self-importance of those in office has always been a favorite subjec of satire 
 with writers. 
 
 M. Akimbo, or akimbow : ' a compound of the English on, corrupted into a, im In 
 aboard, and the Celtic oam, crooked,— the bo ox bow being the repetition in EngUsb o( 
 Mm.' Skeat, 
 
RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 m 
 
 resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, as 
 it were, into his very soul,''^ demanded in an austere tone, 
 " What brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, 
 and a mob at his heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot 
 in the village ?" — " Alas ! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dis- 
 mayed, " I am a poor quiet man, a native of the place, and a 
 loyal subject of tlie king, God bless him !" 
 
 Here a general shout burst from the by-standers — " A tory I*^ 
 a tory ! a spy ! a refugee ! hustle him ! away with him !" It was 
 with great difficulty that the self-important man in the cocked 
 hat restored order ; and, having assumed a tenfold austerity of 
 brow, demanded again of the unknown culprit what lie came 
 there for, and whom he was seeking. The poor man humbly 
 assured him that he meant no harm, but^ merely came there in 
 search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep about the 
 tavern. 
 
 " Well ; who are they ? — name them !" 
 
 Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, " Where's 
 Nicholas Vedder?" 
 
 There was a silence for a little wliile, wlien an old man re- 
 plied in a thin, piping voice, " Nicholas Vedder ! why he is 
 dead and gone these eighteen years ! There was a wooden 
 tombstone in the churcliyaid that used to tell all about him, 
 but that's rotten and gone too." 
 
 •' Where's Brom Dutcher r 
 
 " Oh, he went oft" to the army in the beginning of the war ; 
 some say he was killed at the storming of Stony Point®' — others 
 say he was drowned in a squall at the foot of Antony's Xose.'^ 
 I don't know — he never came back again." 
 
 67 ShoNV wherein consists the humor of " his keen— soul," and of " What— village ?" 
 Is thidsentenuu in diiect or indirect iiarnition ? 
 
 «i Those wiio took sides with the EriijHsh Government during the war o( the Revolu- 
 tion were called " Tories " by their opponents ; at the close of the war their property 
 WM nearly all confiscated and they themiielves were compelled to leave the country ; 
 they were then termed " refugees." 
 
 «9 A fort on the Hudson stormed by the Americans durinir the war. 
 
 7« A bold headland on the eastern side of the Tappan Zee,— a broad expansion of the 
 Hudkoii, near Tarrvtown. For the origin of the name see " Knickerbocker's History of 
 New York," Book Vl , chap. 4. 
 
 
 
 I mm 
 
 i -n 
 
 : : i 
 
\\ 
 
 412 
 
 CANADIAN READER.— BOOK VI. . 
 
 " Where's Van Bummell, the schoolmaster ?" 
 
 " He went off to the M-ars too, was a great militia general, 
 and is now in Congress." 
 
 Kip's heart died away at heaving of these sad changes in his 
 home and friends, and finding liiniself thus alone in the world. 
 Every answer puzzled liim too, hy treating of such enonnous 
 lapses of time, and of matters Avhicli he could not understand : 
 war — congress — Stony Point ; — he had no courage to ask after 
 any more friends, but cried out in despair " Does nobody here 
 know Rip Van Winkle ?" 
 
 " Oh, Rip Van Winkle !" exclaimed two or three, " Oh, to be 
 sure ! that's Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the tree." 
 
 Rip looked, and beheld a precise counteri)art of himself as he 
 went up the mountain ; apparently as lazy, and certainly as 
 ragged.'^ The poor fellow was now completely confounded. 
 He doubted his own identity, and whether ho was himself or 
 another man. In the midst of his bewilderment, the man in 
 the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his name. 
 
 "God knows," exclaimed he, at his Avit's end ; " I'm not my- 
 self — I'm somebody else — that's me yonder — no — tliat's some- 
 body else got into my shoes — I was myself last night, but I fell 
 asleep on the mountain, and they've changed my gun, and every- 
 thing's changed, and I am changed, and I can't tell what's my 
 name, or who I am !" 
 
 The bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, wink 
 significantly, and tap their fingers against their foreheads. There 
 was a whisper," also, about securing the gun, and keeping the 
 old fellow fr<im doing mischief, at the very suggestion of which 
 the 8elf-imi>ortant man in the cocked hat retired Avith some pre- 
 cipitation. At this critical moment a fresh comely Avoman 
 pressed through the throng to get a peep at the grey-hearded 
 man. She had a chubby chiM in her arms, Avhich, frightened 
 at bis looks, began to cry. "Hush, Rip," cried she, "hush you 
 
 tw( 
 neA 
 hii 
 Inc 
 
 71 Show if young: R>p gave early promise of t))i«, 
 
BIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 413 
 
 little fool, the old man won't" hurt you." The name of the child, 
 the tone of her voice,?^ all awakened a train of recollections in 
 his mind. 
 
 " What is your name, my good woman ?" asked he. 
 
 "Judith Gardenier." 
 
 " And your father's name ?" 
 
 "Ah, poor man, Eip Van Winkle was his name, but it's 
 twenty years since he went away from home with his gun, and 
 never has been heard of since ; his dog came home without 
 him J but whether he shot himself, or was carried away by the 
 Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a little girl." 
 
 Rip had but one question more ; but he put it with a falter 
 ing voice :^* 
 
 " Where's your mother ?" . 
 
 " Oh, she too had died but a short time since ; she broke » 
 blood-vessel in a fit of passion at a New-England pedler."^' 
 
 There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. 
 The honest man could contain himself no longer. He caught 
 his daughter and her child in his arms. " I am your father !" 
 cried he — " young Rip Van Winkle once — old Rip Van Winkle 
 now ! — Does nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle ?" 
 
 All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from 
 among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under 
 it into his face for a moment, exclaimed, " Sure enou<|h ! it is 
 Rip Van Winkle — it is himself ! Welcome home again, old 
 neighbor — Why, where have you been these twenty long 
 years ?" 
 
 Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had 
 been to him but as one night. The neighbors stared when 
 they heard it ; some were seen to wink at each other, and put 
 
 m 
 
 'r-\ 
 
 \m 
 
 n. Won't. The iro in this word is a remnant of the Old English wol, a form of the 
 present tense of the verb wil ; won't is, therefore, composed of viol and itot— tbe2 hav- 
 \n\i dropped out. 
 
 13 How could the " tone of voice " do this ? 
 
 ii Why "faltering"? 
 
 w Is this statement in character? Why does the author insert it? Irvlnp liked to 
 •atirize the ener^'etic, but often unscrupulous character of the New England traders. 
 
 i- 
 
v\ 
 
 414 
 
 CANADIAN READER.— BOOK VI. 
 
 their tongues in their cheeks : and the self-important man in 
 the cocked hat, who, when the alarm was over, had returned to 
 the field, screwed down the comers of his mouth, and shook his 
 head — upon whicli there was a general shaking of the head 
 throughout the assemblage. '''' 
 
 It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter 
 Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing up the road. He 
 was a descendant of the historian of that name, who wrote one 
 of the earliest accounts of the province.'^ Peter was the most 
 ancient inhabitant of the village, and well versed in all the 
 wonderful events and traditions of the neighborhood. He re- 
 collected Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most 
 satisfactory manner. He assured the company that it was a 
 fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the 
 Kaatskill mountains had always been haunted by strange beings. 
 That it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, the first 
 discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil there 
 every twenty years with his crew of the Half-moon ; being per- 
 mitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, and 
 keep a guardian eye ujjon the river, and the great city called by 
 his name. That his father had once seen them in their old 
 Dutch dresses playing at nine-pins in a hollow of the mountain ; 
 and that he himself had heard, one summer afternoon, the sound 
 of their balls, like distant peals of thunder. 
 
 To make a long story short, the company broke up, and re- 
 turned to the more important concerns of the election. Kip's 
 daughter took him home to live with her ; she had a snug, well- 
 furnished house, and a stout cheery farmer for her husband, 
 whom Rip recollected for one of tlie urchins that used to climb 
 upon his back. As to Rip's son and heir, who was the ditto of 
 himself, seen leaning against the •iree, he was employed to work 
 on the farm ; but evinced an hereditary disposition to attend to 
 ttU)' thing else but his business. 
 
 76 Kefer in tlie piocedinif part of the stoiy to a statement in a similar vtrain. 
 71 A sportive referunce to the " Histor.* of Xcw York," 
 
to 
 
 RIP VAN WINKLB. 
 
 416 
 
 Kip now resumed his old walks and habits ; he soon found 
 many of his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the 
 wear and tear of time ; and preferred making friends among 
 the rising generation,^® with whom he soon grew into great 
 favor. 
 
 Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at that 
 happy ug« when a man can be idle wiih impunity, he took his 
 place once more on the bench at the inn door, and was rever- 
 enced as one of the patriarchs of the village, and a chronicle of 
 the old times " before the war." It was some time before he 
 could get into the regular track of gossip, or could be made to 
 comprehend the strange events that had taken place during his 
 torpor. How that there had been a revolutionary war — that 
 the country had thrown off the yoke of old England — and that, 
 instead of being a subject of his Majesty George the Third, he 
 was now a free citizen of the United States. Rip, in fact, was 
 no politician ; the changes of states and empires made but little 
 impression on him ; but there was one species of despotism un- 
 der which he had long groaned, an^ that was — petticoat govern- 
 ment. Happily that was at an end ; he had got his neck out 
 of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in and out whenever 
 he pleased without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle. 
 Whenever her name was mentioned, however, he shook his 
 head, shrugged his shoulders, and cast up his eyes ; wliich might 
 pass either for an expression of resignation to his fate, or joy at 
 his deliverance. ''^ 
 
 He used to tell his story to every stranger that arrived at 
 Mr. Doolittle's hotel. Ho was at first observed to vary on some 
 points every time he told it, which was, doubtles!?, owing to his 
 having so recently awaked. It at last settled down to precisely 
 the tale I have related, and not a man, woman, or child in the 
 neighborhood but knew it by heart. Some always pretended 
 to doubt the reality of it, and insisted that Rip had been out of 
 
 in Why should this beT 
 
 w Hiffht another explanation of this be ofTerei' 
 
 See the early purr of the stoiy. 
 
v\ 
 
 416 
 
 CANADIAN READBR.-^BOOK VI. 
 
 his head, and that this was one point on which he always re> 
 maincd flighty. The old JJutch inhabitants, however, almost 
 universally gave it iuil credit. Even to this day they novej 
 hear a thunder-storm of a summer afternoon about the Kaatskill 
 but they suy Ilendrick Hudson and his ^ew are at their game 
 of ninepins ; and it is a common wish of all henpecked husbands 
 in the neighborhood, wlien life hangs heavy on their hands, 
 that they might have a quieting draught out of Kip Van Winkle's 
 flagon. 
 
 Note. — The foregning tale, oue would suspect, had been suggested to Mr. 
 Elnickerbocker by a little German superstition about the Emperor Fred- 
 erick der Bothbart, and the Kypphauser mountain ; the subjoined note, 
 however, which he had appended to the tale, shows that it is an absolute 
 fact, narrated with his usual fidelity : — 
 
 *• The story of Rip Van Winkle may seem incredible to many, but never- 
 theless I give it my full belief, for I know the vicinity of our old Dutch 
 settlements to have been very subject to marvellous events and appear- 
 ances. Indeed, I have heard many stranger stories than this in the villages 
 along the Hudson, all of which were too well authenticated to admit of a 
 doubt. I have even talked with Rip Van Winkle myself, who, when I last 
 saw him, was a very venerable old man, and so perfectly rational and con- 
 sistent on every other point, that I think no conscientious person could re- 
 fuse to take this into the bargain; nay, I have seen a certificate on the sub- 
 ject taken before a country justice, and signed with a cross, in the justice's 
 own handwriting. 80 The story, therefore, is beyond the possibility of 
 doubt. D. K." 
 
 Postscript. — The following are travelling notes from a memorandum- 
 book of Mr. Knickerbocker : — 
 
 " The Kaatsberg, or Catskill Mountains, have always been a region full 
 of fable. The Indians considered them the abode of spirits, who influenced 
 the weather, spreading sunshine or clouds over the landscape, and sending 
 good or bad hunting seasons. They were ruled by an old sqnaw spirit, 
 said to be their motner. She dwelt on the highest peak of the Oatsldlls, 
 and had charge of the doors of day and night, to open and shiit them at the 
 proper hour. She hung up the new moons in the skies, and cut up the old 
 ones into stars. In times of drought, if properly propitiated, she would 
 spin light summer clouds out of cobwebs and morning dew, and send them 
 off from the crest of the mountain, flake after flake, like flakes of carded 
 cotton, to float in the air, until, dissolved by the heat of the sun, they 
 would fall in gentle showers, causing the grass to'spring, the fruits to ripen, 
 and the corn to grow an inch an hour. If displeased, however, she would 
 brew up clouds black as ink, sitting in the midst of them like a bottle-bel- 
 lied spider in the midst of its web ; and when these clouds broke, woe be- 
 tide the valleys 1 
 
 " In old times, say the Indian traditions, there was a kind of Manitou or 
 Spirit, who kept about the wildest recesses of the Catskill Mountains, and 
 t(X)k a mischievous pleasure in wrecking all kinds of evils and vexations up- 
 on the red men. Sometimes he would assume the form of a bear, a pan- 
 
 to This igrnorance in oflQcialsis satarized in niore*:han one of Irving's M^rks. 
 
BIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 417 
 
 ther, or a deer, lead the bewildered hunter a weary chase through tangled 
 fureuts and auiong ragged ruekn, and then spring off with a loud ho ! no! 
 leaving him aghast on the brink of a beetling precipice or raging torrent. 
 . "The favorite abode of this Manitou 13 still shown. It is a great rock 
 ur cliff on the loneliest part of the mountains, and, from the flowering vines 
 which clamber about it, and the wild flowers which abound in its neigh- 
 bourhood, is kuowu by tho nimo of the Garden Kock. Near the foot of it 
 is a small lake, tho haunt of the solitary bittern, with water-snukes basking 
 in the sun on the leaves of the pond-lilicu which lie on the surface. This 
 
 Klace was held in great awe by the Indians, insomuch that the boldest 
 unter would not pursue his game within its precincts. Once upon a time 
 however, a hunter who had lost his way penetrated to the Garden Zlock, 
 where he beheld a number of ^'ourds placed in the crotches of trees. One 
 of these he seized and made of! with, but in the hurry of his retreat he let 
 it fall among the rocks, when a great stream gushed forth, which washed 
 him away and swept him down precipices, where he was dashed to pieces, 
 and the stream made its way to the Hudson, and continues to flow to the 
 
 E resent day, being the identical stream known by the name of the Eaater«- 
 lU." 
 
 Sho\ir what characteristics o^ Irvintf's stylo are illustrated in Kip Van Winkle. 
 
 [The followinir is a poetical version of the Barbarossa legend by the German poet, 
 RQckert] 
 
 BARBAROSSA. 
 
 Der alte Barbarossa, der Kaiser Friedrich, 
 
 Im uutetird'schen Schlosse halt er verzaubert sich. 
 
 Er ist niemals gestorben, er lebt darin noch jetzt ; 
 
 Er hat im Schiosz verborgen zum Schlaf sich hingesetzt. 
 
 Er hat hinabgenommen dea Reiches Herrlichkeit, 
 Und wird eiust wiederkommen mit ihr zu seiner Zfeit. 
 
 Der Stuhl ist elfenbeinem, worauf der Kaiser sitzt, 
 D'jrTisch ist marmelsteiuern, worauf sein Haupter stiitzt. 
 
 Sein Bart ist nicht von Flachse, er ist von Feuersgluth, 
 Ist durch den Tisch gewachsen, worauf sein Kiun ausruht. 
 
 Er nickfc als wie im Traume, sein Aug' halb offen zwinkt ; 
 Und je nach langem Raume er einem Knaben winkt. 
 
 Er spricht im Schlaf zum Knaben, Geh' hin vora Schiosz, o Zwerg, 
 Und sieh ob noch die Raben herfliegen urn den Berg. 
 
 Un wenn die alten Raben noch fliegen immerdar, 
 
 So nuiBv i>h niich noch schlafen verzaubert hundert Jahr. 
 
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 Mary'* Collegiate Institute— Price 60 cents. 
 
 Contents. — Introduction, Summary of Notes, Collection of 
 Synonymes, Index of Proper Names, Miscellany, Exami- 
 nation Papers, and a complete Vocabulaiy. 
 
 NOTICES : 
 ■nperl«r t« all other*. 
 
 After a careful examination otseveial editions of the fifth Book of 
 the iEneid I have given the preference to Mr. Wetherell's little worlK. 
 The Author showed his wisdom in making the work "complete in it- 
 self." The excellencies of this particular work are not a few. The 
 soundest Judgmeilt and greatest care have been e\«rci8ed in selecting 
 and arranging the matter. The Introduction is full and well written, 
 the Notes neat and scholarly. The chapter of Miscellany and collection 
 of Synonymes make this work superior to all others of the clawt. I 
 take pleasure then in recommending a work which will commend it* 
 self to all who examine it. 
 
 8. W. PsKBT. M.A., Classioal Master, Strathroy H. S. 
 
 The moet comitlete cdltlen. 
 
 Wetherell's is the most complete ediMoa ol the fifth Book of Vifgtt 
 lliat I have examined. I take pleasure In recommending it. 
 
 D4vu> Hicks, i).A., II.M.H.S., Newbuigh. 
 
 Shall nue his edltien. 
 
 I thi'>*i Wetherell's notes on the fifth Book of Virgil very suitable for 
 High School pupils and shall use his edition w4th my class. The Index 
 of Proper Names, Table of Synonymes, Glossary of Metrical Terms, 
 Literary Critique8,*Chronolog{cal and Biographical Notes, Suggestive 
 Examination Questions, &o., make it so complete in itself that the 
 student will need nothing but a Latin Grammar to acquire an intimate 
 knowledge of the subject. 
 
 J. A. Claui, R A.. B.Se., H.M.H.S., Bsaith's Falls. 
 
 Well got np. 
 
 Wetherell's Vini^il seems very well got up, and Is a great addition to 
 Canadian Educational Literature. 
 
 W. II. T. SmbIiLRS, B.A., H.M.B.S., Gananoque. 
 
 Tecahnlnrr §••«!. 
 
 The Vocabulary of the ilSneid is good, the Notes concise, and 
 ■n>lanatoi7 of reiJ difficulties. 
 
 Jho. J. Maorb, U.A., Head Maftter, Uxbridge H.8. 
 
 W. J. CIACiB A COMPANY. 
 
 CtfotfAffoiukl PttbUsheTM, Toronto mnd Wiaaipog. 
 
 loTn. 
 
:l 
 
 I^IRKLAND & scons BXMIINATlOli PAPERS. 
 
 Suitable for Zntermediate Szami&Atieiis. 
 
 ItKI'RlNTKU fAUU ' 
 
 GAGE'S SCHOOL EXAMINER 
 
 AlfD STUDENTS ASSISTANT FOR 1881. 
 
 COMPILKD BT 
 
 Thoiub Kuikland, M. a., Science Master, Normal Sehool,«id 
 Wm. Soott.D.A., Utbd Master, Provincial Modal SohooL 
 
 PRIOS, - SO OKI«7T8. 
 
 Th%$ 9otun%e eontaitu papen <m Arithnutte, Bvuttd^ Geography, 
 Algebra, Book'keeping, Uutiury, Statiet and HydroHatiot, EiiiiU*h 
 LiUratuf, frtmk (July, 1880), Chnimtry, EngtuhOram^tar 
 
 FROM THE PREFACEi 
 
 la raarOBM to tba dedre of » laryv number of TeaehMra, we mprinr 
 the Eumination Papers auitalile (or the Annoal Intermediate Kx- 
 aniination, which have appea/wl in (he nunib«ra, lor 1881, of GatceS 
 "School Exanainer and Student's AwisUnt." 
 
 The steadilf looreaslng dreulation of this monthly masasine atui 
 the numerous tetters nodved testifyins to the gr^mt Taju« of the 
 questions in the vafiooa sobjeetc naiursd for the Exami(iatio!H. 
 plainly iudioato that lach a periodkal is a laoil aasfal aid to ii»Ui 
 teacher and stndeoti 
 
 Tb« almost iiihaasllis nature ol the quesillont on each suhjjoct. 
 brings the student Into close aoquaintanoe with every neodlul point; 
 aad the drill ezptrienoed in thinkinijr and workinc out the aaaerers ir* 
 ol incalculable praeUcal benefit to those wiio wish to exert al written 
 asaminattona. 
 
 When we state that the editors of thia dMaaitmeat ol MM Sehnol 
 JbNHiUncr are Ifessn. T. Klrkl»nd, M. A., and w. Soott, B-A.* we con- 
 sider that it is a sutBdent ijruarantee for the excdieaee and appro- 
 nriateneM d the work, as these ventlemen have eamad a wide reputa- 
 ilea as spealalista in sdenoe and literature. 
 
 la oonsequence o( nnmeroos applioatloas for the Freooh Paper iriven 
 al the Intermediate Examination, 1880, we leptodooa Ik la this book. 
 
 Hints and Answers to the Abovtb 00 Cents. 
 
 W. J. OAOB A COn 
 
 WamomttamMt PvhUMt^xu, Tonmf 
 
 Wllmaip9£. 
 (ovn. 
 
 i 
 
 ii 
 
 ) ' 
 
BOOKS FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS, BY DR. McLELLAN. 
 
 Examination Papers in Arithmetic. 
 
 By J. A. McLellan, Mf A , LL. D., Inspector of High Schools, Ont., and 
 Thomas Kirrland, M. A., Science Master, Normal School, Toronto. 
 
 " In our opinion the best Collection of Problems on the American Con- 
 tinent."— NATioxAb Teaciibrs Uon'thlt, N. Y. 
 
 Seventh Complete Edition, - - Price. $1.00. 
 
 Examination Papers in Arithmetic— Part I. 
 
 By J. A. UcLbllam, M. A., LL. D., and Tiios. Kirriand, H. A. 
 
 Price, ----- 50 Cents. 
 
 This Edition has been Iwued at the request of a large number of Public 
 School teachers who wish to have a Cheap Edition for the use of their 
 pupils preparing for admission to High School. 
 
 Hints gnd Answers to Examination Papers 
 in Arithmetic. 
 
 By J. A. McLellan, U. A., LL. D., and Tnos. Kirrland, M . A. 
 Fourth Edition, ----- $i.00. 
 
 McLellan's Mental Arithmetic. ---Part I. 
 
 Containing the Fundamental Rules, Fractions and Analysis. 
 
 By J. A. McLbllan, M. A., LL. D., Inspector High Schools, Ontario. 
 
 Third Edition, - - - - SO Certs. 
 
 Authorized for use in the Schools of N^va Scotia. 
 
 McLellan's Mental Arithmetic. ---Part II. 
 
 Specially adapted for Model and High School Students. 
 Third^dition, - - . Price, 45 Cents. 
 
 The Teacher's Hand Book of Algebra. 
 
 By J. A. McLbllan, M. A., LL. D. 
 Second Complete Edition, . • • $1.26. 
 
 Teacher's Hand Book of Algebra. ---Part I. 
 
 Prepared for the use of Intermediate Student*. 
 Price^ . - - - - 75 Cents. 
 
 Key to Teacher's Hand Book of Algebra, i 
 Second Edition, ... Prico, $1.50. 
 
i 
 
 I «. J. 
 
 (Sage ^ Co'o. JlckD Cbucationat ^orke. 
 
 WORKS FOK TEACHEKS AXD STUftBVTS. BY JAS. I.. IIL'GIIISS. 
 
 Examination Primer in Canadian History. ; 
 
 On the Topical Method. Ry Jak. L. ITi'oiikh, inoiivctiir of ScHooIh, To, 
 ronto. A Pruiier for StudenU prei«iin(; (or CKainiu&tioa. Price, 25c 
 
 Mistakes in Teaching. 
 
 By Jaj. Laooiili!! nvttiiiH. Second edition. 
 
 AOOrrU IT STATI aMITUUITT OP IOWA, AS AM HAIKCTAIIT WORK PUR 
 
 OP TBACBIRB. 
 
 Price, 50c. 
 
 Ultl 
 
 This work dlMnmea in a terse mftiiner orer one hundred of the mistalcen 
 oomnioniy niade by untrained or inex(icrienoed Teachers. It is deMtrned to 
 warn yountf Teachers of the errors they are iiablo to tnalce, and to help the 
 older members of the profession to disoanl whatever methods or habits may 
 Im preventing their higher success. 
 
 The mistaku8 are arranged under the followinfr heads : 
 1. MixUlceH in Management, t. Histaltss io OisdpUiM. I. Mistakes In 
 Methods. 4, Mistakes in Manner. 
 
 How to Secure and Retain Attention. 
 
 By Jas. LAuauLM HaonM. Price. 25 Oente. 
 
 Comprising Kinds of Attention. Characteristics of 
 Charaoteristka of The Teacher. How to Control a Class. 
 
 Positive AttentionI 
 Developing Men 
 tal Activity. Cultivation of the Senses. 
 
 ^Krom TiiR School akd Univbrsht Maoaxikn, Lonpow, Exo.) 
 "Replete with valuable hints and practical suggestions which are evident* 
 ly the result of wide sxpsrienos in the soholastM profession. " 
 
 Manual of Drill and Calisthenics for use in 
 Schools. 
 
 By J. L. nDGHVs.Publie SdMol Inspaolor, Toronto, Graduate of Military 
 School, H. M. 10th Regiment. Price. 40 Oeiit49. 
 
 The work contains : The Squad Drill prescribed for Public Schools In On- 
 tario, with full and explicit directions for teaching it. Free G3rmnastic Kx- 
 ttroises, carefully selected from the best German and American systems, 
 «nd arranged in proper classes. Olrroan Calisthenio Exercises, as taught 
 •ly the late Colonel Goodwin in Toronto Normal School, and in Enfrland. 
 -<everal of the best Kindergarten Games, and a few choice Exercise Songs. 
 The Instructions throughout the iMok ars divested, as ftur as possible, of 
 unneosssary technicalities. 
 
 " A most valuable book for every teacher, portlenlarly In country places* 
 It embraces all that a school teacher should teach his pupils on this suhiect. 
 Any teacher can use the easy drill lessons, and l>y doing so he will be con- 
 ferring a benefit on his country."— C. Radcuppr Drarii alt, M«Jor First 
 Ufs Ouania, Drill Instnulor Normal and Model Sohoota. Tbrouto. 
 
J(. (Snqt ^ flo'B. ^e^ d^bncAttonal SBorke. 
 
 HAMBUV SMITH'S MATHEMATICAL WORKS. 
 Authorized for use, and now used in iinarly all the principal School* of 
 Ontari , Quebec, Nova Scotia and Manitol>a. 
 
 Hamblin Smith's Arithmetic. 
 
 An Advanced treatise, on the Unitary System, by J. Hamblin SMrrn, 
 M. A.,otGonviIieandCaiuaCollegeR, andlate lecturer of St. Peter's Col- 
 Ics^e, Camliridge. Adapted to Canadian Schools, by Thomas Kirl<land, 
 M. A., Ssicnce Master, Monnal School, Toronto, and William Scott, B. A., 
 Head Master Model School for Ontario. 
 
 12th Edition, Price, 75 Cents. 
 
 K£ Y. — A complete Key to the above Arithmetic, by the Authors. 
 Price. $2.00. 
 
 Hamblin Smith's Algebra. 
 
 An Elementary Algebra, by J. Hamblin Smith, M. A., with Appendix 
 by Alfred Baker, B. A., Mathematical Tutor, University College, Toronto. 
 
 8th Edition Price, GO Cei^ts. 
 
 KC Y. — A couiplciQ {'Ley to Hamblin Smith's Algebra. 
 Price. 
 
 $2.75. 
 
 Hamblin Smith's Elements of Geometry. 
 
 Containing Books I. to VI., and portions of Books XI. and XII.,of Euclid> 
 with Exercises and Notes, by J. Hamblin Smith, M. A., &c., and Examina- 
 tion Papers, from the Toronto and McGill Universities, and Isormal School, 
 Toronto. 
 Price, 00 Cents. 
 
 Hamblin Smith's Geometry Books, i and is. 
 Price, SO Cents. 
 
 Hamblin Smith's Statics. 
 
 By J. IlAMBbi.v Smith, M. A., with Appendix by Thomas Kirkland, M. A., 
 Science Master, Normal School, Toronto. 
 
 Price, 
 
 Hamblin Smith's Hydrostatics. 
 
 IC£ Y. — statics and Hydrostatics, in one volume. 
 
 Hamblin Smith's Trigonometry. 
 
 KEY. — To t^ above. 
 
 90 Cents. 
 75 Cents. 
 
 $2.00. 
 
 $1.25. 
 
 $2.50. 
 
■iii 
 
 J,^ 
 
 M. Jf. (Sage ^ Co'0. fit\o C^bumtional @Bork0. 
 
 TEXT liOOK& ON ENGLISH GRAMMAR. 
 
 BY MASOn AND MACMILLAN. 
 
 Revised £d. Miller's Language Lessons. 
 
 Adapted as an introductorr Text Book to Mason's Grammar. By J. 
 A. MxcMiiiLAN, B. A. It contains the Examination Paiters for admissicn 
 to IIi{;h Schools, and teaches Granmiar and Composition simultanoously. 
 Sixth Edition, 2C0th thousand. 
 
 Price, 
 
 25 Gents. 
 
 Mason's Outlines of English Grammar. 
 
 Authorized for use in Schools Suitahlo for Junior Classes. 
 Price. 45 Cents. 
 
 Mason's Shorter English Grammar. 
 
 New and improved edition. With copious and .jirefully (praded exercises, 
 243 pages. 
 
 Price, • 60 Cents. 
 
 Mason's Advanced Grammar. 
 
 Authorized for use in^the Schools of Ontario. Including the principles 
 of Grammatical Analysis. By C. P. Mahon, B. A., F. C. P., Fellow of Uni> 
 versity Collc),'e, London. En!ari>:ed and thoroui^hly revised with Examin- 
 ation Papers adJ-xl by W. Houston, M. A. 
 
 Price, 75 Cents. 
 
 '* I askcd'a Grammar School Innjwctor in the old countr>- to send me the 
 i best granuuar published there. He immediately sent Mason's. The chap- 
 I ters on the analysis of difficult sentences is of itself sufficient to place the 
 j work far beyond any EntjIishGraminar before the Canadian publia"— Alex. 
 ' Sims, M. A., II. M. H. S., Oakvillo. 
 
 Eno:lish Grammar Exercises. 
 
 I 
 
 { Prioe. 
 
 By C. P. Mason. Reprinted from Common School Edition. 
 
 80 Cents. 
 
M. S' ^n^ ^ Cos ^eU) (Ebncational Moxka. 
 
 NEW BOOKS BY DR. McLELLAN. 
 
 The Teacher's Handbook of Algebra. 
 
 Revised »nd enlanrcd. By J. A. McLellan, M. A., LL. D., Inspector of 
 rfo. 
 
 High Schools, Onta: 
 Price, 
 
 $1.25 
 
 Teacher's Hand Book of Algebra.--- 'Part i. 
 
 Containing portions ot tho a ovo miitahle for IntPr- 
 
 .^bridged Edition, 
 mediate Students. 
 
 Price, 
 
 Key to Teacher's Hand Book. 
 
 75 Cents. 
 Price,$1.50. 
 
 It contains over 2,500 Exercises, including about three hundred and fiftv 
 dolved examples, illustrating every type of question set in elementary Alge- 
 bra. I 
 
 It contains complete explanation of Horner's Multiplication and Division, i 
 with application not given in the Text-Bool<s. : 
 
 It contains a full explanation of the principles of symmetry, with numer- ! 
 ous illustrative examples. | 
 
 It contains a more complete illustration of the theory of divisors, with its i 
 ocautifui avplications, than is to be found in any text-boolc. 
 
 It contains what aole mathematical teachers have pronounced to be the 
 " finest chapter on factoring that has ever appeared. 
 
 It contains the latest and best methods of treatment as given by the great 
 Masters of Analysis. 
 
 It contains the finest selections of properly classified equations, with 
 methods of resolution and reduction, that has yet appeared. 
 
 It contains a set of practice papers made up by selecting the best of the 
 questions set by the tniversity of Toronto during twenty years. 
 
 It is a key of the methods, a repertory of exercises, which cannot fail to 
 make the teacher a l)ctter teacher, and the student a more thorough alge- 
 braist. 
 
 Read tho following notices from the leading authorities in Great Britain 
 and United States: 
 
 " This is the work of a Canadian Teacher and Inspector, whose name is 
 honorablv known Irayond the bounds of his native province, for his exer- 
 tions in developing and promoting that admirable system of public instruc- 
 tion, which has placed the Dominion of Canada so high, as regards educa- 
 tion, not only among the British Colonics, but among the ci\ ilTzed nations 
 of the world. We know of no work in this country that exactly occupies 
 the place of Dr. McLollan's, which is not merely a text book of Algebra, in 
 the ordinary sense, but a Manual of Methods for Teachers, illustrating the 
 best and most recent treatment of algebraical problems and solutions of 
 evcr>' kind." 
 
 From Barkks' Edi'cational Monthly, N. Y. 
 
 "The best American Alirebra for Teachers that we have ever c:uuuiiicd.'' 
 
 
I EXAMINATION SERIES. 
 
 ' Canadian History. 
 
 I Ur Jambm L. Uuoiiiw, Inspector of I'ublio Schools, Toronto. 
 
 I Prlro. 25 Cents. 
 
 I . HISTOUY TAUUHT BY TOPICAL METHOD. 
 
 I A PRIUKR IN CANAUIA.N UiSTORY, FUR SCIlOOUt AND STUUKNTS PKBPARINO FUR 
 
 EXAMINATIONS. 
 
 ' 1. The history is divided into periods in ociHirdanct: with the grvut no* 
 tional chanjfcs tlmt liave taken place. 
 
 2. The history of each period is tfiven topically instead of in chronolog- 
 ical order. 
 
 3. Examination questions are given at the end of each chapter. 
 
 4. Examination papers, selected from the otHcial examinations of the 
 diiferent provinces, are given in ttie Appendix. 
 
 5. Student's review outlines, to enable a student to thorouj^hly test his 
 own proi^rciis, are inserted at the end of each chapter. 
 
 6. Special attention is paid to the ediujiitiunai, sovial and commercial 
 progress of the country. 
 
 7. Constitutional growth is treated in a brief but coinpreliensive cxur- 
 uiiM. 
 
 4ir By the aid of this work students can pre])arc and review for exam- 
 inations in Canadian History more quickly than by the use of any other 
 work. 
 
 Epoch Primer of English History. 
 
 By ItKV. M. Crkiouton, M. A., Late Fellow and Tutor of Morton Uollego, 
 
 Oxford. 
 
 Authorized by the Education L)u,urtment for use in Public Schools, 
 and fo> .admission to the High Schools of Ontario. 
 
 Its adaptability to Public School use over all other School Histories will 
 bo shown by the fact that— 
 
 In a brief compass of one hundred and eighty pages it covers all the 
 work rc(|Uired for pupils preparing for entrance to High Wcliools. 
 
 The price is 1<)8S than one-half that of the other authorized histories. 
 
 In using the ether Histories, pupils are compelled to read nearly three 
 times as much in otier to secure the same results. 
 
 Creighton's Epoch Primer has been adopted by the Toronto School 
 IBoard, and many of the principal Public Schools in Ontario. 
 
 I 
 
8B. J- dage ^ €00 £ittD €bttrational SEotks. 
 
 Authorized for use in the Schools of Ontario. 
 The Epoch Primer of English History. 
 
 By Rev. M. Crbiouton, M. A., Late Fellow and Tutor of Morton Colleirt, 
 
 Oxford. 
 
 Sixth Edition, ■ ^ • P rice. 30 Cents. 
 
 Most thorough. ' Abkrprrn jmrnal. 
 
 This vohinio, taken with the eight nnall volumes containing^ the Re- 
 counts of the different epoche, presonte what may bo regarded ait the mniit 
 tliorough course of elementary Ennrlish History ever pul)li8hcd. 
 
 What was needed. Toronto Pailv Alobb. 
 
 It is just such a manual as is needed by public school pupils who are 
 going up for a High School course. 
 
 Used in separate sclioois. M. Stafford, Prirst 
 
 We are using this History in our Convent and Separate Schools in Lind. 
 say. 
 
 Very concise. Hamilton Tiurs. 
 
 A very concise little book that shoxild be used In the Schools. In its 
 
 pa;^'us will be found iiicidentfl of English History from A. D. 43 to 1S70, in' 
 
 tcri'sting alike to young and old. 
 
 — o— 
 A favorite. London Advrrtisbr. 
 
 The book will prove a favorite with tcacheni preparing pupils for the 
 entrance examinations to the High Schools. 
 
 Very attractive. British Wmo, Kinobton. 
 
 This little book, of one hundred and forty pai^cs, presents history in a 
 
 very attractive shaiie. 
 
 
 
 Wisely arranged. Canada Presbyterian. 
 
 The epochs chosen for the division of English History are well marked 
 
 •'not mere artificial milestones, arbitrarily erected by the author, but reaj J 
 
 natural landmarks, consisting of great and important events or remarkable 
 
 changes. 
 
 
 
 InterestinsT. Yarmoi'tii Tribvne, Nova Scotia. 
 
 With a perfect freedom from all looseness of style the interest is so well 
 
 sustained throughout the narrative that those who commence to read it 
 
 will flno it difficult tc leave off with its iicrusal incomplete. 
 
 o— 
 
 Comprehensive. Litrrart World. 
 
 The special value of this historical outline is that it gives the reader a 
 comprehensive view of the course of memorable events and epochs. 
 
 
THE BEST ELEMENTARY TEXT-BOOK OF THE YEAR. 
 
 Gage's Practical Speller. 
 
 A MANUAL OF SPELLING AND DICTATION. 
 Price, 
 
 SO Cents. 
 
 Sixty copies ordered. if ount Forist Aovocati. 
 
 After careful inspect on we unheiitatingly pronounce it the best spell- 
 \ng book ever in use in our public schools. The Practical Speller secures 
 an easy access to its contents by the very systematic arrangements of the 
 words in topical classes ; a permanent impression on the memory by the 
 frequent review of ditflcult words ; and a saving of time and effort by the 
 selection of only such word's as are ditflcult and of oonnnon ocairrence 
 Mr. Ueid, H. S. Master heartily recommends the work, and ordered some 
 sixty copies. It is a book that should be on every business uian's tal>le a« 
 well as in the school room. 
 
 Is a necessity. Prbsb. Wit.nbs8, Halifax. 
 
 We have alreail^' had repeated occasion to speak highly of the Educa- 
 tional Series of which this book is one. The " Speller" is a necessity ; and 
 we have seen no book which we can recommend more heartily than the one 
 
 ijufore us. 
 
 
 
 Good print. Bowmanvillr Obskrvrr. 
 
 The " Practical Speller " is a credit to the publishers in its general get 
 up, classification of subjects, and clearness of treatment. The child who 
 uses this hook will not have damaged eyesight through bad print. 
 
 What it is. STRATIinOY AOR. 
 
 It is a series of graded lessons, containing the words in general use, 
 with abbreviations, etc. ; words of similar pronunciation and different si^h:!!- 
 i:ig a collection of the most difficult words in the language, and a number 
 of literary selections which may be used for dictation lessons, and commit' 
 tod to memory by the pupils. ^ 
 
 Qvery teacher should introduce It. Canadian Statesman. 
 
 It is an improvement on the old spelling book. Every teacher should 
 introduce it into his classes 
 
 o 
 
 The best yet seen. Colcmkhter ant, Nova Scotia. 
 
 It is away ahead of any"8peller"that we have heretofore seen. Our public 
 schools want a good spelling book. The publicatici \tfora us is the best 
 we have yet seen. 
 
. Jf. (Sage ^ €00. <|ieto d^burationnl ^orks. 
 I The Canada School Journal 
 
 I HAS RKCBIVID AN IIONORABLI tlBNTION AT PARIS RXIIIBITION, ^878. 
 
 Adopted lo' "carly every County in Canada. 
 
 nctwniinended by the Minister of Education, Ontario. 
 
 Kcconuncnded liy tlie Council of f*u\A\c. Instriiction, Quebec. 
 I Ito(!oniuiendcd by Cliicf iSupt. of education, New RninswicJt. 
 
 Rcconinjcndcc liy Chief Supi. of (Education, Nova Scotia. 
 : Kcconunendod by Chief Supt. of Education, British Columbia. 
 I llcxMuiucndcd by Chief Ktipt. of Education, Mauitolia. 
 
 IT IH KDITRD HV 
 
 ! A Committee of some of tlic r^cadin;; Educationists in Ontario, assistcti 
 I by able Provincial Editors in the Provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia, New. 
 i Itmnswick, Prircc Edward Island, Manitcl>a, and Brit'sh Coluuiltia, thus 
 I havintf each section of thj Dominion fully rcpresenteil. 
 
 rOSTAISH TWENTV-POITR l>AOE(t OF RRADINO MATTRIJ. 
 
 Live Editorials : Contributioiis on iuiportant Educational topics; Selec- 
 tions—Readings for the School Room ; and Notes and News ironi each Pro- 
 vince. 
 
 Practical T)rpart.mrnt will always contain useful hints on methods of 
 teaching different subjects. 
 
 M.tTiiKMATiCAL DKrAKT.ME.NT gives solutious to difficult problems also on j 
 Examination Papers. { 
 
 Official Departmknt contains such regulations as may be issued from I 
 time to time. / 
 
 Subscription, SI 00 per annum, strictly in advance. 
 
 Rbad tiir Following Lkhrr Faoji Joii.n Oreenlkaf Wiiittier, the Fa- | 
 Moia American Pokt. I 
 
 I have also received a No. of the " Canada School Journal," which seems | 
 to me the brightest and mosf; readal)Ic of E<lucatioua Maj;azinus I am vent- 
 truly thy friend, John Grecnleaf Whitticr. 
 
 A Club of 1,000 Subscribers from Nova Scotia. 
 ' (Copy) EorcATioN Offick, nAi!FAX, N. S., Nov. 17, 1878. j 
 
 Messn. AnAM MiLLRR & Co., Torojito, Ont. 
 
 Dear Sirs,— In order to meet the wishes of our teachers in x'arious })artfl ' 
 
 of the Province, and to sefiurc for them the advantage of your excellent ; 
 ' periodical, I hereby subscribe in their behalf for one thousand (1,000; copies ; 
 ' at club rates mentioned in your recent estecnie<i favor. Subscriptions wil| j 
 i begin with .'anuarj- issue, and lists will l>e forwarded to your office in a few , 
 ( days. Yours tmly, j 
 
 '< David Alli'on, Chief Supt. oi Education. ; 
 
 ' Address. W. J. OAOE & CO., Toronto, Canada 
 
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