In 1791 Scott accompanied an uncle into Northumberland, and made his
first acquaintance with the scene of Flodden. Writing to his friend
William Clerk (Lockhart's Life, ii. 182), he says, 'Never was an
affair more completely bungled than that day's work was. Suppose
one army posted upon the face of a hill, and secured by high grounds
projecting on each flank, with the river Till in front, a deep and
still river, winding through a very extensive valley called Milfield
Plain, and the only passage over it by a narrow bridge, which the
Scots artillery, from the hill, could in a moment have demolished.
Add that the English must have hazarded a battle while their troops,
which were tumultuously levied, remained together; and that the
Scots, behind whom the country was open to Scotland, had nothing to
do but to wait for the attack as they were posted. Yet did two-
thirds of the army, actuated by the perfervidum ingenium Scotorum,
rush down and give an opportunity to Stanley to occupy the ground
they had quitted, by coming over the shoulder of the hill, while the
other third, under Lord Home, kept their ground, and having seen
their King and about 10,000 of their countrymen cut to pieces,
retired into Scotland without loss.' Fifteen years after this was
written Scott began the composition of 'Marmion,' and it is
interesting to note that, so early in life as the date of this
letter indicates, he was so keenly alive to the great blunder in
military tactics made by James IV and his advisers, and so
manifestly stirred to eloquent expression of his feeling.
In November 1806 Scott began 'Marmion,' designed as a romance of
Feudalism to succeed the Border study in 'The Lay of the Last
Minstrel.' The circumstances of the time, no doubt, to some extent
prompted the choice of subject. Napoleon was diligently working out
his ambitious scheme of a Western Empire, and plotting the ruin of
Great Britain as an indispensable feature of the arrangement. Scott
was not always intimately acquainted with the details of current
politics, but when a subject fairly roused his interest he was not
slow to take part in its discussion. This is notably illustrated,
in this very year 1806, by the outspoken and energetic political
ballad he produced over the acquittal of Lord Melville from a
serious charge. This ballad, which went very straight to the heart
of its subject, and left no doubt as to the party feeling of the
writer, not only arrested general attention but gave considerable
offence to the leaders on the side so sharply handled. It is given,
with an explanation of the circumstances that called it forth, in
Lockhart's Life, ii. 106, 1837 ed.
While, however, party politics was not always a subject that
interested Scott, patriotism was a constituent element of his
character. He had a keen sense of national dignity and honour--as
the extract from his Flodden letter alone sufficiently testifies--
and, had circumstances demanded it of him, he would almost certainly
have distinguished himself as a trooper on the field of battle.
Thus it was not only his love of a picturesque theme that inspired
him with his Tale of Flodden Field, but likewise his patriotic
ardour and his desire to touch the national heart. 'Marmion' is
epical in character and movement; and it is at the same time a
brilliant and suggestive delineation of a national effort,
illustrating keen sense of honour, resolute purpose, and pathetic
manly devotion. James IV was probably wrong, and he was certainly
very rash, in attempting to do battle with Henry VIII, but although
his people were aware of his mistake, and his advisers did all in
their power to dissuade him, he was supported to the last with a
heroism that recalls Thermopylae. This was a display of national
character that appealed directly and powerfully to Scott, prompting
him to the production of his loftiest and most energetic verse.
Mournful associations will ever cluster around the tragic battle of
Flodden--that 'most dolent day,' as Lyndsay aptly calls it--but all
the same the record remains of what heroic men had it in them to do
for King and country, where
'Groom fought like noble, squire like knight,
As fearlessly and well.'
Scott intended to work slowly and carefully through his new poem,
but, as he explains in the 1830 Introduction, circumstances
interrupted his design. 'Particular passages,' he says, 'of a poem,
which was finally called "Marmion," were laboured with a good deal
of care, by one by whom much care was seldom bestowed.' The
publication, however, was hastened by 'the misfortunes of a near
relation and friend.' Lockhart (Life, ii. 115) explains that the
reference is to 'his brother Thomas's final withdrawal from the
profession of Writer to the Signet, which arrangement seems to have
been quite necessary towards the end of 1806.' At any rate, the
poem was finished in a shorter time than had been at first intended.
The subject suited Scott so exactly that, even in default of a
special stimulus, there need be no surprise at the rapidity of his
composition after he had fairly begun to move forward with it.
Dryden, it may be remembered, was so held and fascinated by his
'Alexander's Feast' that he wrote it off in a night. Cowper had a
similar experience with 'John Gilpin,' and Burns's powerful dramatic
tale, 'Tam O'Shanter,' was produced with great ease and rapidity.
De Quincey records that, in his own case, his very best work was
frequently done when he was writing against time. Scott's energy
and fluency of composition are clearly indicated in the following
passage in Lockharts Life, ii. 117:--
'When the theme was of a more stirring order, he enjoyed pursuing it
over brake and fell at the full speed of his Lieutenant. I well
remember his saying, as I rode with him across the hills from
Ashestiel to Newark one day in his declining years--"Oh, man, I had
many a grand gallop among these braes when I was thinking of
'Marmion,' but a trotting canny pony must serve me now." His
friend, Mr. Skene, however, informs me that many of the more
energetic descriptions, and particularly that of the battle of
Flodden, were struck out while he was in quarters again with his
cavalry, in the autumn of 1807. "In the intervals of drilling," he
says, "Scott used to delight in walking his powerful black steed up
and down by himself upon the Portobello sands, within the beating of
the surge; and now and then you would see him plunge in his spurs
and go off as if at the charge, with the spray dashing about him.
As we rode back to Musselburgh, he often came and placed himself
beside me to repeat the verses that he had been composing during
these pauses of our exercise."'
This is wholly in keeping with the production of such poetry of
movement as that of 'Marmion,' and it deserves its due place in
estimating the work of Scott, just as Wordsworth's staid and sober
walks around his garden, or among the hills by which he was
surrounded, are carefully considered in connexion with his
deliberate, meditative verse. Scott wrote the Introduction to Canto
IV just a year after he had begun the poem, and between that time
and the middle of February 1808 the work was finished. There is no
rashness in saying that rapidity of production did not detract from
excellence of result. Indeed, it is admiration rather than
criticism that is challenged by the reflection that, in these short
months, the poet should have turned out so much verse of high and
enduring quality.