Stanza XVII. line 316. 'Ceolwolf, or Colwulf, King of
Northumberland, flourished in the eighth century. He was a man of
some learning; for the venerable Bede dedicates to him his
"Ecclesiastical History." He abdicated the throne about 738, and
retired to Holy Island, where he died in the odour of sanctity.
Saint as Colwulf was, however, I fear the foundation of the penance-
vault does not correspond with his character; for it is recorded
among his memorabilia, that, finding the air of the island raw and
cold, he indulged the monks, whose rule had hitherto confined them
to milk or water, with the comfortable privilege of using wine or
ale. If any rigid antiquary insists on this objection, he is welcome
to suppose the penance-vault was intended by the founder for the
more genial purposes of a cellar.
'These penitential vaults were the Geissel-gewolbe of German
convents. In the earlier and more rigid times of monastic
discipline, they were sometimes used as a cemetery for the lay
benefactor of the convent, whose unsanctified corpses were then
seldom permitted to pollute the choir. They also served as places of
meeting for the chapter, when measures of uncommon severity were to
be adopted. But their most frequent use, as implied by the name,
was as places for performing penances, or undergoing punishment.'--
SCOTT.
Stanza XVIII. line 350. 'Antique chandelier.'--SCOTT.
Stanza XIX. line 371. 'That there was an ancient priory at Tynemouth
is certain. Its ruins are situated on a high rocky point; and,
doubtless, many a vow was made to the shrine by the distressed
mariners, who drove towards the iron-bound coast of Northumberland
in stormy weather. It was anciently a nunnery; for Virca, abbess of
Tynemouth, presented St. Cuthbert (yet alive) with a rare winding-
sheet, in emulation of a holy lady called Tuda, who had sent him a
coffin: but, as in the case of Whitby, and of Holy Island, the
introduction of nuns at Tynemouth, in the reign of Henry VIII, is an
anachronism. The nunnery of Holy Island is altogether fictitious.
Indeed, St. Cuthbert was unlikely to permit such an establishment;
for, notwithstanding his accepting the mortuary gifts above
mentioned, and his carrying on a visiting acquaintance with the
abbess of Coldingham, he certainly hated the whole female sex; and,
in revenge of a slippery trick played to him by an Irish princess,
he, after death, inflicted severe penances on such as presumed to
approach within a certain distance of his shrine.'--SCOTT.
line 376. ruth (A. S. hreow, pity) in Early and Middle English was
used both for 'disaster' and 'pity.' These two shades of meaning are
illustrated by Spenser in F. Q., Bk. ii. I. Introd. to Canto where
Falsehood beguiles the Red Cross Knight, and 'workes him woefull
ruth,' and in F. Q. I. v. 9:
'Great RUTH in all the gazers hearts did grow.'
Milton (Lycidas, 163) favours the poetical employment of the word,
which modern poets continue to use. Cp. Wordsworth, 'Ode for a
General Thanksgiving':--
'Assaulting without RUTH
The citadels of truth;'
and Tennyson's 'Geraint and Enid,' II. 102:--
'RUTH began to work
Against his anger in him, while he watch'd
The being he lov'd best in all the world.'
Stanza XX. line 385. doublet, a close-fitting jacket, introduced
from France in the fourteenth century, and fashionable in all ranks
till the time of Charles II. Cp. As You Like It, ii. 4. 6:--'Doublet
and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat.'
line 398. Fontevraud, on the Loire, 8 miles from Saumur, had one of
the richest abbeys in France. It was a retreat for penitents of both
sexes, and presided over by an abbess. 'The old monastic buildings
and courtyards, surrounded by walls, and covering from 40 to 50
acres, now form one of the larger prisons of France, in which about
2000 men and boys are confined, and kept at industrial occupations.'
See Chambers's 'Encyclopaedia,' s. v., and Chambers's Edinburgh
Journal, 2d. S, I. 104.