Marmion Part 20

line 16. our forest hills. Selkirkshire is poetically called 'Ettrick Forest'; hence the description of the soldiers from that district killed at Flodden as 'the flowers of the forest.'

line 22. Cp. Hamilton of Bangour's allusion (Ode III. 43) to the appearance of winter on these heights;--

'Cast up thy eyes, how bleak and bare He wanders on the tops of Yare!'

line 37. imps (Gr. emphutos, Swed. ympa). See 'Faery Queene,' Book I. (Clarendon Press), note to Introd. The word means (1) a graft; (2) a scion of a n.o.ble house; (3) a little demon; (4) a mischievous child. The context implies that the last is the sense in which the word is used here. Cp. Beattie's 'Minstrel,' i. 17:--

'Nor cared to mingle in the clamorous fray Of squabbling imps,'

line 50. round. Strictly speaking, a round is a circular dance in which the performers hold each other by the hands. The term, however, is fairly applicable to the frolicsome gambols of a group of lambs in a spring meadow. Certain rounds became famous enough to be individualised, as e.g. Sellenger's or St. Leger's round, mentioned in the May-day song, 'Come La.s.ses and Lads.' Cp. Macbeth, iv. 1; Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 2; and see note on Comus, line 144, in 'English Poems of Milton,' vol. i. (Clarendon Press).

line 53. Lockhart, in a foot-note to his edition of 'Marmion,'

quotes from the 'Monthly Review' of May, 1808: 'The "chance and change" of nature--the vicissitudes which are observable in the moral as well as the physical part of the creation--have given occasion to more exquisite poetry than any other general subject....

The Ai, ai, tai Malaki of Moschus is worked up again to some advantage in the following pa.s.sage-- "To mute," &c.'

lines 61, 62. The inversion of reference in these lines is an ill.u.s.tration of the rhetorical figure 'chiasmus.' Cp. the arrangement of the demonstrative p.r.o.nouns in these sentences from 'Kenilworth':--'Your eyes contradict your tongue. That speaks of a protector, willing and able to watch over you; but these tell me you are ruined.'

line 64. Cp. closing lines of Wordsworth's 'Ode on Intimations of Immortality' (finished in 1806):--

'To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.'

lines 65-8. Nelson fell at Trafalgar, Oct. 21, 1805; Pitt died Jan.

23, 1806.

line 72. Gadite wave. The epithet is derived from Gades, the Roman name of the modern Cadiz.

line 73. Levin = lightning. See Canto I, line 400. Spenser uses the phrase 'piercing levin' in the July eclogue of the 'Shepheards Calendar,' and in 'Faery Queene,' III. v. 48. The word still occasionally occurs in poetry. Cp. Longfellow, 'Golden Legend,' v., near end:--

'See! from its summit the lurid levin Flashes downward without warning! '

line 76. fated = charged with determination of fate. Cp. All's Well that Ends Well, i. I. 221--

'The fated sky Gives us free scope.'

line 82. Hafnia, is Copenhagen. The three victories are, the battle of the Nile, 1798; the battle of the Baltic, 1801; and Trafalgar, 1805.

lines 84-86. Pitt (1759-1806) became First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1783, and from 1785 onwards the facts of his career are a const.i.tuent part of national history. He faced with success difficulties like bread riots, mutinies in the fleet in 1797, disturbances by the 'United Irishmen,' and the alarming threats of Napoleon. In 1800 the Union of Ireland with Great Britain gave Irishmen new motives for living, and in 1803 national patriotism, stirred and guided by Pitt, was manifested in the enrolment of over three hundred thousand volunteers prepared to withstand the vaunted 'Army of England.' In spite of his distinguished position and eminent services, Pitt died L40,000 in debt, and his responsibilities were promptly met by a vote of the House of Commons.

lines 97-108. These picturesque lines, with their varied and suggestive metaphors, were interpolated on the blank page of the MS.

The reference in the expression 'tottering throne' in line 104 is to the threatened insanity of George III.

lines 109-125. Pitt's patriotism was consistent and thorough. The anxious, troubled expression his face, betrayed in his latest appearances in the House of Commons, Wilberforce spoke of as 'his Austerlitz look,' and there seems little doubt that the burden of his public cares hastened his end. This gives point to the comparison of his fate with that of Aeneas's pilot Palinurus (Aeneid v. 833).

lines 127-141. Charles James Fox (1749-1806) was second son of the first Lord Holland, whose indulgence tended to spoil a youth of unusual ability and precocity. Extravagant habits, contracted at an early age, were not easily thrown off afterwards, but they did not interfere with Fox's efficiency as a statesman. His rivalry with Pitt dates from 1783. Their tombs are near each other in Westminster Abbey.

line 146. Cp. in Gray's 'Elegy':--

'Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.'

line 153. Jeffrey, in his criticism of 'Marmion' in the 'Edinburgh Review,' found fault with the tribute to Fox, and cavilled in particular at the expression 'Fox a Briton died.' He argued that Scott praised only the action of Fox in breaking off the negotiations for peace with Napoleon, while insinuating that the previous part of his career was unpatriotic. Only a special pleader could put such an unworthy interpretation on the words.

lines 155-65. By the result of the battle of Austerlitz (December, 1805) Napoleon seemed advancing towards general victory. Prussia hastily patched up a dishonourable peace on terms inconsistent with very binding pledges, and the Russian minister at Paris compromised his country by yielding to humiliating proposals on the part of France. All this changed Fox's view of the position, and he broke off the negotiations for peace which had been begun in accordance with a policy he had long advocated.

line 161. There is a probable reference here to Nelson's action at the battle of the Baltic. He disregarded the signal for cessation of fighting given by Sir Hyde Parker, and ordered his own signal to be nailed to the mast.

line 176. Thessaly was noted for witchcraft. The scene of Virgil's eighth Eclogue is laid in Thessaly as appropriate to the introduction of such machinery as enchantments, love-spells, &c. Cp.

Horace, Epode v. 21, and Ode I. xxvii. 21:--

'Quae saga, quis te solvere Thessalis Magus venenis, quis poterit deus?'

In his 'Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft,' Letter III., Scott, obviously basing his information on Horace, writes thus:--'The cla.s.sic mythology presented numerous points in which it readily coalesced with that of the Germans, Danes, and Northmen of a later period. They recognised the power of Erictho, Canidia, and other sorceresses, whose spells could perplex the course of the elements, intercept the influence of the sun, and prevent his beneficial operation upon the fruits of the earth; call down the moon from her appointed sphere, and disturb the original and destined course of nature by their words and charms, and the power of the evil spirits whom they evoked.'

line 181. Lees is properly pl. of lee (Fr.lie = dregs), the sediment or coa.r.s.er parts of a liquid which settle at the bottom, but it has come to be used as a collective word without reference to a singular form. For phrase, cp. Macbeth, ii. 3. 96:--

'The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees Is left this vault to brag of.'

line 185. Cp. Byron's 'Age of Bronze':--

'But where are they--the rivals!--a few feet Of sullen earth divide each winding-sheet.'

line 199. hea.r.s.e, from Old Fr. herce = harrow, portcullis. In early English the word is used in the sense of 'harrow' and also of 'triangle,' in reference to the shape of the harrow. By-and-by it came to be used variously for 'bier,' 'funeral carriage,' ornamental canopy with lighted candles over the coffins of notable people during the funeral ceremony, the permanent framework over a tomb, and even the tomb itself. Cp. Spenser's Shep. Cal., November Eclogue:--

'Dido, my deare, alas! is dead, Dead, and lyeth wrapt in lead.

O heavie herse!'

The gloss to this is, 'Herse is the solemne obsequie in funeralles.'

Cp. also Ben Jonson's 'Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke':--

'Underneath this sable herse Lies the subject of all verse.'

line 203. The 'Border Minstrel' is an appropriate designation of the author of 'Contributions to the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border'

and the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel.' In the preface to the latter work, written in 1830, Scott refers to the two great statesmen as having 'smiled on the adventurous minstrel.' This is the only existing evidence of Fox's appreciation. Pitt's praise of the Lay his niece, Lady Hester Stanhope, reported to W. S. Rose, who very naturally pa.s.sed it on to Scott himself. The Right Hon. William Dundas, in a letter to Scott, mentions a conversation he had had with Pitt at his table, in 1805, and says that Pitt both expressed his desire to advance Scott's professional interests and quoted from the Lay the lines describing the embarra.s.sment of the harper when asked to play. 'This,' said he, 'is a sort of thing which I might have expected in painting, but could never have fancied capable of being given in poetry.'--Lockhart's Life of Scott, ii. 34.

line 204. Gothic. This refers to both subject and style, neither being cla.s.sical.

line 220. Lockhart quotes from Rogers's 'Pleasures of Memory':--

'If but a beam of sober reason play, Lo! Fancy's fairy frostwork melts away.'

lines 233-48. In these lines the poet indicates the sphere in which he had previously worked with independence and success. Like Virgil when proceeding to write the AEneid, he is doubtful whether his devotion to legendary and pastoral themes is sufficient warrant for attempting heroic verse. The reference to the tales of shepherds in the closing lines of the pa.s.sage recalls the advice given (about 1880) to his students by Prof. Shairp, when lecturing from the Poetry Chair at Oxford. 'To become steeped,' he said, 'in the true atmosphere of romantic poetry they should proceed to the Borders and learn their legends, under the twofold guidance of Scott's "Border Minstrelsy" and an intelligent local shepherd.'

line 256. steely weeds = steel armour. 'Steely' in Elizabethan times was used both literally and figuratively. Shakespeare, 3 Henry VI.

ii. 3. 16, has 'The steely point of Clifford's lance,' and Fisher in his 'Seuen Psalmes' has 'tough and stely hertes.' For a modern literal example, see Crabbe's 'Parish Register':--

'Steel through opposing plates the magnet draws, And STEELY atoms calls from dust and straws.'

WEEDS in the sense of dress is confined, in modern English, to widows' robes. In Elizabethan times it had a general reference, as e.g. Spenser's 'lowly Shephards weeds' in the Introduction to 'Faery Queene.' Cp. below, Canto V. line 168, VI. line 192.

line 258. The Champion is Launcelot, the most famous of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. See Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King,' especially 'Lancelot and Elaine,' and William Morris's 'Defence of Guenevere.'