Marmion Part 36

"So mony guid as of ye Dovglas beinge, Of ane surname was ne'er in Scotland seine.

I will ye charge, efter yat I depart, To holy grawe, and thair bury my hart; Let it remane ever BOTHE TYME AND HOWR, To ye last day I sie my Saviour.

I do protest in tyme of al my ringe, Ye lyk subject had never ony keing."

'This curious and valuable relic was nearly lost during the Civil War of 1745-6, being carried away from Douglas Castle by some of those in arms for Prince Charles. But great interest having been made by the Duke of Douglas among the chief partisans of the Stuart, it was at length restored. It resembles a Highland claymore, of the usual size, is of an excellent temper, and admirably poised.'-- SCOTT.

Stanza XVI. line 461. Scott quotes:--

'O Dowglas! Dowglas Tender and trew.'--The Houlate.

line 470. There are two famous sparrows in literature, the one Lesbia's sparrow, tenderly lamented by Catullus, and the other Jane Scrope's sparrow, memorialised by Skelton in the ' Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe.'

line 475. The tears of such as Douglas are of the kind mentioned in Cowley's 'Prophet,' line 20:--

'Words that weep, and tears that speak.'

Stanza XVII. line 501. 'The ancient cry to make room for a dance or pageant.'--SCOTT.

Cp. Romeo and Juliet, i. 5. 28: 'A hall! a hall! give room,' &c.

line 505. The tune is significant of a Scottish invasion of England.

See Scott's appropriate song to the 'ancient air,' 'Monastery,' xxv.

Reference is made in I Henry II, ii. 4. 368, to the head-dress of the Scottish soldiers, when Falstaff informs Prince Hal that Douglas is in England, 'and a thousand BLUE-CAPS more.'

Stanza XIX. line 545. Many of the houses in Old Edinburgh are built to a great height, so that the common stairs leading up among a group of them have sometimes been called 'perpendicular streets.'

Pitch, meaning 'height,' is taken from hawking, the height to which a bird rose depending largely on the pitch given it.

Stanza XX. line 558. St. Giles's ma.s.sive steeple is one of the features of Edinburgh. The ancient church, recently renovated by the munificence of the late William Chambers, is now one of the most imposing Presbyterian places of worship in Scotland.

line 569. For bowne see above, IV. 487.

line 571. A certain impressiveness is given by the sudden introduction of this pentameter.

Stanza XXI. Jeffrey, in reviewing' Marmion, 'fixed on this narrative of the Abbess as a pa.s.sage marked by 'flatness and tediousness,' and could see in it 'no sort of beauty nor elegance of diction.' The answer to such criticism is that the narrative is direct and practical, and admirably suited to its purpose.

line 585. Despiteously, despitefully. 'Despiteous' is used in 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' V. xix. Cp. Chaucer's 'Man of Lawe,' 605 (Clarendon Press ed.):--

'And sey his wyf despitously yslayn.'

line 587. 'A German general, who commanded the auxiliaries sent by the d.u.c.h.ess of Burgundy with Lambert Simnel. He was defeated and killed at Stokefield. The name of this German general is preserved by that of the field of battle, which is called, after him, Swart- moor.--There were songs about him long current in England. See Dissertation prefixed to RITSON'S Ancient Songs, 1792, p. lxi.'-- SCOTT.

line 588. Lambert Simnel, the Pretender, made a scullion after his overthrow by Henry VII.

line 590. Stokefield (Stoke, near Newark, county Nottingham) was fought 16 June, 1487.

line 607. 'It was early necessary for those who felt themselves obliged to believe in the divine judgment being enunciated in the trial by duel, to find salvos for the strange and obviously precarious chances of the combat. Various curious evasive shifts, used by those who took up an unrighteous quarrel, were supposed sufficient to convert it into a just one. Thus, in the romance of "Amys and Amelion," the one brother-in-arms, fighting for the other, disguised in his armour, swears that HE did not commit the crime of which the Steward, his antagonist, truly, though maliciously, accused him whom he represented. Brantome tells a story of an Italian, who entered the lists upon an unjust quarrel, but, to make his cause good, fled from his enemy at the first onset. "Turn, coward!" exclaimed his antagonist. "Thou liest," said the Italian, "coward am I none; and in this quarrel will I fight to the death, but my first cause of combat was unjust, and I abandon it." "Je vous laisse a penser," adds Brantome, "s'il n'y a pas de l'abus la."

Elsewhere he says, very sensibly, upon the confidence which those who had a righteous cause entertained of victory: "Un autre abus y avoit-il, que ceux qui avoient un juste subjet de querelle, et qu'on les faisoit jurer avant entrer au camp, pensoient estre aussitost vainqueurs, voire s'en a.s.suroient-t-ils du tout, mesmes que leurs confesseurs, parrains et confidants leurs en respondoient tout-a- fait, comme si Dieu leur en eust donne une patente; et ne regardant point a d'autres fautes pa.s.ses, et que Dieu en garde la punition a ce coup la pour plus grande, despiteuse, et exemplaire."--Discours sur le Duels.'--SCOTT.

Stanza XXII. line 612. Recreant, a coward, a disgraced knight. See 'Lady of the Lake,' V. xvi:--

'Let recreant yield who fears to die';

and cp. 'caitiff recreant,' Richard II, i. 2. 53.

line 633. The Tame falls into the Trent above Tamworth.

Stanza XXIII. line 662. Quaint, neat, pretty, as in Much Ado, iii.

4. 21: 'A fine, quaint, graceful, and excellent fashion.'

Stanza XXIV. line 704. St. Withold, St. Vitalis. Cp. King Lear, iii.

4. III. Clarendon Press ed., and note. This saint was invoked in nightmare.

Stanza XXV. line 717. Malison, curse.

line 717. 'The Cross of Edinburgh was an ancient and curious structure. The lower part was an octagonal tower, sixteen feet in diameter, and about fifteen feet high. At each angle there was a pillar, and between them an arch, of the Grecian shape. Above these was a projecting battlement, with a turret at each corner, and medallions, of rude but curious workmanship, between them. Above this rose the proper Cross, a column of one stone, upwards of twenty feet high, surmounted with a unicorn. This pillar is preserved in the grounds of the property of Drum, near Edinburgh. The Magistrates of Edinburgh, in 1756, with consent of the Lords of Session, (proh pudor!) destroyed this curious monument, under a wanton pretext that it enc.u.mbered the street; while, on the one hand, they left an ugly ma.s.s called the Luckenbooths, and, on the other, an awkward, long, and low guard-house, which were fifty times more enc.u.mbrance than the venerable and inoffensive Cross.

'From the tower of the Cross, so long as it remained, the heralds published the acts of Parliament; and its site, marked by radii, diverging from a stone centre, in the High Street, is still the place where proclamations are made.'--SCOTT.

See Fergusson's 'Plainstanes,' Poems, p. 48. The Cross was restored by Mr. Gladstone in 1885, to commemorate his connexion with Midlothian as its parliamentary representative.

line 735. 'This supernatural citation is mentioned by all our Scottish historians. It was, probably, like the apparition at Linlithgow, an attempt, by those averse to the war, to impose upon the superst.i.tious temper of James IV. The following account from Pitscottie is characteristically minute, and furnishes, besides, some curious particulars of the equipment of the army of James IV. I need only add to it, that Plotc.o.c.k, or Plutock, is no other than Pluto. The Christians of the middle ages by no means disbelieved in the existence of the heathen deities; they only considered them as devils, and Plotc.o.c.k, so far from implying any thing fabulous, was a synonyme of the grand enemy of mankind." {2} "Yet all thir warnings, and uncouth tidings, nor no good counsel, might stop the King, at this present, from his vain purpose, and wicked enterprize, but hasted him fast to Edinburgh, and there to make his provision and famishing, in having forth of his army against the day appointed, that they should meet in the Barrow-muir of Edinburgh: That is to say, seven cannons that he had forth of the Castle of Edinburgh, which were called the Seven Sisters, casten by Robert Borthwick, the master-gunner, with other small artillery, bullet, powder, and all manner of order, as the master-gunner could devise.

'"In this meantime, when they were taking forth their artillery, and the King being in the Abbey for the time, there was a cry heard at the Market-cross of Edinburgh at the hour of midnight, proclaiming as it had been a summons, which was named and called by the proclaimer thereof, the summons of Plotc.o.c.k; which desired all men to compear, both Earl, and Lord, and Baron, and all honest gentlemen within the town, (every man specified by his own name,) to compear, within the s.p.a.ce of forty days, before his master, where it should happen him to appoint, and be for the time, under the pain of disobedience. But whether this summons was proclaimed by vain persons, night-walkers, or drunken men, for their pastime, or if it was a spirit, I cannot tell truly: but it was shewn to me, that an indweller of the town, Mr. Richard Lawson, being evil disposed, ganging in his gallery-stair foreanent the Cross, hearing this voice proclaiming this summons, thought marvel what it should be, cried on his servant to bring him his purse; and when he had brought him it, he took out a crown, and cast over the stair, saying, 'I appeal from that summons, judgment, and sentence thereof, and take me all whole in the mercy of G.o.d, and Christ Jesus his son.' Verily, the author of this, that caused me write the manner of this summons, was a landed gentleman, who was at that time twenty years of age, and was in the town the time of the said summons; and thereafter, when the field was stricken, he swore to me, there was no man that escaped that was called in this summons, but that one man alone which made his protestation, and appealed from the said summons: but all the lave were perished in the field with the king."'

Stanza XXIX. line 838. 'The convent alluded to is a foundation of Cistertian nuns, near North Berwick, of which there are still some remains. It was founded by Duncan, Earl of Fife, in 1216.'--SCOTT.

line 840. Two rocky islands off North Berwick.

Stanza x.x.x. line 899. Nares says: 'In the solemn form of excommunication used in the Romish Church, the bell was tolled, the book of offices for the purpose used, and three candles extinguished, with certain ceremonies.' Cp. 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' VI. xxiii. 400, for the observance at a burial service.

Stanza. x.x.xI. line 914. 'This relates to the catastrophe of a real Robert de Marmion, in the reign of King Stephen, whom William of Newbury describes with some attributes of my fict.i.tious hero: "h.o.m.o bellicosus, ferosia, et astucia, fere nullo suo tempore impar." This Baron, having expelled the monks from the church of Coventry, was not long of experiencing the divine judgment, as the same monks, no doubt, termed his disaster. Having waged a feudal war with the Earl of Chester, Marmion's horse fell, as he charged in the van of his troop, against a body of the Earl's followers: the rider's thigh being broken by the fall, his head was cut off by a common foot- soldier, ere he could receive any succour. The whole story is told by William of Newbury.'--SCOTT.

line 926. The story of Judith and Holofernes is in the Apocrypha.

line 928. See Judges iv.

line 931. St. Antony's fire is erysipelas.

Stanza x.x.xII. line 947. This line, omitted in early editions, was supplied by Lockhart from the MS.

Stanza x.x.xIII. line 973. Tantallon, owing to its position, presents itself suddenly to those approaching it from the south.

line 980. Lockhart annotates thus:--

'During the regency (subsequent to the death of James V) the Dowager Queen Regent, Mary of Guise, became desirous of putting a French garrison into Tantallon, as she had into Dunbar and Inchkeith, in order the better to bridle the lords and barons, who inclined to the reformed faith, and to secure by citadels the sea-coast of the Frith of Forth. For this purpose, the Regent, to use the phrase of the time "dealed with" the (then) Earl of Angus for his consent to the proposed measure. He occupied himself, while she was speaking, in feeding a falcon which sat upon his wrist, and only replied by addressing the bird, but leaving the Queen to make the application.

"The devil is in this greedy gled--she will never be fou." But when the Queen, without appearing to notice this hint, continued to press her obnoxious request, Angus replied, in the true spirit of a feudal n.o.ble, "Yes, Madam, the castle is yours; G.o.d forbid else. But by the might of G.o.d, Madam!" such was his usual oath, "I must be your Captain and Keeper for you, and I will keep it as well as any you can place there.'" -SIR WALTER SCOTT'S Provincial Antiquities, vol.

ii. p. 167.--Prose Works, vol. vii. p. 436.