Scott himself revised 'Marmion' in 1831, and the interleaved copy
which he used formed the basis of the text given by Lockhart in the
uniform edition of the Poetical Works published in 1833. This will
remain the standard text. It is that which is followed in the
present volume, in which there will be found only three--in reality
only two--important instances of divergence from Lockhart's
readings. The earlier editions have been collated with that of
1833, and Mr. W. J. Rolfe's careful and scholarly Boston edition has
likewise been consulted. It has not been considered necessary to
follow Mr. Rolfe in several alterations he has made on Lockhart; but
he introduces one emendation which readily commends itself to the
reader's intelligence, and it is adopted in the present volume.
This is in the punctuation of the opening lines in the first stanza
of Canto II. Lockhart completes a sentence at the end of the fifth
line, whereas the sense manifestly carries the period on to the
eleventh line. In the third Introd., line 228, the reading of the
earlier editions is followed in giving 'From me' instead of 'For
me,' as the meaning is thereby simplified and made more direct. In
III. xiv. 234, the modern versions of Lockhart's text give 'proudest
princes VEIL their eyes,' where Lockhart himself agrees with the
earlier editions in reading 'VAIL'. The restoration of the latter
form needs no defence. The Elizabethan words in the Poem are not
infrequent, giving it, as they do, a certain air of archaic dignity,
and there can be little doubt that 'vail' was Scott's word here,
used in its Shakespearian sense of 'lower' or 'cast down,' and
recalling Venus as 'she vailed her eyelids.'
MARMION
A TALE OF FLODDEN FIELD
IN SIX CANTOS
Alas! that Scottish maid should sing
The combat where her lover fell!
That Scottish Bard should wake the string,
The triumph of our foes to tell!
LEYDEN.