'He bare a burdoun ybounde . with a brode liste,
In a withewyndes wise . ywounden aboute.
A bolle and a bagge . he bare by his syde;
An hundredth of ampulles . on his hatt seten,
Signes of Synay . and shelles of Galice;
And many a cruche on his cloke . and keyes of Rome,
And the vernicle bifore . for men shulde knowe,
And se bi his signes . whom he soughte hadde.'
In connexion with this, Prof. Skeat draws attention to the romance
of Sir Isumbras and to Chaucer's Prol. line 13.
line 467. Loretto, in Ancona, Italy, is the site of a sanctuary of
the Virgin, entitled Santa Casa, Holy House, which enjoys the
reputation of having been the Virgin's residence in Nazareth, and
the scene of the Annunciation, &c.
Stanza XXVIII. line 483. haggard wild is a twofold adj. in the
Elizabethan fashion, like 'bitter sweet,' 'childish foolish,' and
other familiar examples.
line 490. Science appears to support this theory. See various
examples in Sir Erasmus Wilson's little work, 'Healthy Skin.' Many
of the cases are within the writer's own knowledge, and all the
others are historical or otherwise well authenticated. He mentions
Sir T. More the night before his execution; two cases reported by
Borellus; three by Daniel Turner; one by Dr. Cassan; and in a note
he recalls John Libeny, a would-be assassin of the Emperor of
Austria, 'whose hair turned snow-white in the forty-eight hours
preceding his execution.' See 'Notes and Queries,' 6th S. vols. vi.
to ix., and 7th S. ii. Not only fear but sorrow is said to cause the
hair to turn white very suddenly. Byron makes his Prisoner of
Chillon say that his white hairs have not come to him
'In a single night,
As men's have grown from sudden fears.'
Stanza XXIX. line 506. 'St. Regulus (Scottice, St. Rule), a monk of
Patrae, in Achaia, warned by a vision, is said, A. D. 370, to have
sailed westward, until he landed at St. Andrews, in Scotland, where
he founded a chapel and tower. The latter is still standing; and,
though we may doubt the precise date of its foundation, is certainly
one of the most ancient edifices in Scotland. A cave, nearly
fronting the ruinous castle of the Archbishops of St. Andrews, bears
the name of this religion person. It is difficult of access; and the
rock in which it is hewed is washed by the German Ocean. It is
nearly round, about ten feet in diameter, and the same in height. On
one side is a sort of stone altar; on the other an aperture into an
inner den, where the miserable ascetic, who inhabited this dwelling,
probably slept. At full tide, egress and regress are hardly
practicable. As Regulus first colonised the metropolitan see of
Scotland, and converted the inhabitants in the vicinity, he has some
reason to complain that the ancient name of Killrule (Cella Reguli)
should have been superseded, even in favour of the tutelar saint of
Scotland. The reason of the change was, that St. Rule is said to
have brought to Scotland the relics of Saint Andrew.'--SCOTT.
line 509. 'St. Fillan was a Scottish saint of some reputation.
Although Popery is, with us, matter of abomination, yet the common
people still retain some of the superstitions connected with it.
There are in Perthshire several wells and springs dedicated to St.
Fillan, which are still places of pilgrimage and offerings, even
among the Protestants. They are held powerful in cases of madness;
and, in some of very late occurrence, lunatics have been left all
night bound to the holy stone, in confidence that the saint would
cure and unloose them before morning. [See various notes to the
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.]'--SCOTT.
line 513. Cp. Macbeth, v. 3. 40:--
'Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased?'
and Lear, iii. 4. 12:--
'The tempest in my mind
Doth from my senses take all feeling else
Save what beats there.'
Stanza XXX. line 515. With 'midnight draught,' cp. Macbeth's
'drink,' ii. 1. 31, and the 'posset,' ii. 2. 6. See notes to these
passages in Clarendon Press Macbeth.
Stanza XXXI. line 534. 'In Catholic countries, in order to reconcile
the pleasures of the great with the observances of religion, it was
common, when a party was bent for the chase, to celebrate mass,
abridged and maimed of its rites, called a hunting-mass, the brevity
of which was designed to correspond with the impatience of the
audience.'--Note to 'The Abbot,' new edition.
line 538. Stirrup-cup, or stirrup-glass, is a parting-glass of
liquor given to a guest when on horseback and ready to go.