'GEORGE ELLIS, to whom this Introduction is addressed, is "the well-
known coadjutor of Mr. Canning and Mr. Frere in the "Anti-Jacobin,"
and editor of "Specimens of Ancient English Romances," &c. He died
10th April, 1815, aged 70 years; being succeeded in his estates by
his brother, Charles Ellis, Esq., created in 1827 Lord Seaford.'--
LOCKHART. See 'Life of Scott' and 'Dictionary of National
Biography.'
line 36. See Introd. to Canto II.
line 37. 'The Old Town of Edinburgh was secured on the north side by
a lake, now drained, and on the south by a wall, which there was
some attempt to make defensible even so late as 1745. The gates, and
the greater part of the wall, have been pulled down, in the course
of the late extensive and beautiful enlargement of the city. My
ingenious and valued friend, Mr. Thomas Campbell, proposed to
celebrate Edinburgh under the epithet here borrowed. But the "Queen
of the North" has not been so fortunate as to receive from so
eminent a pen the proposed distinction.'--SCOTT.
line 57. 'Since writing this line, I find I have inadvertently
borrowed it almost verbatim, though with somewhat a different
meaning, from a chorus in "Caractacus":--
"Britain heard the descant bold,
She flung her white arms o'er the sea,
Proud in her leafy bosom to enfold
The freight of harmony."'-SCOTT.
line 58. For = instead of.
lines 60-1. gleam'st, with trans. force, is an Elizabethanism. Cp.
Shakespeare's Lucrece, line 1378:--
'Dying eyes gleamed forth their ashy lights.'
line 67. See 'Faerie Queene,' III. iv.
line 78. "For every one her liked, and every one her loved."
Spenser, as above.'--SCOTT.
line 106. A knosp is an architectural ornament in form of a bud.
lines 111-12. See Genesis xviii.
line 118. 'Henry VI, with his Queen, his heir, and the chiefs of his
family, fled to Scotland after the battle of Towton. In this note a
doubt was formerly expressed whether Henry VI came to Edinburgh,
though his Queen certainly did; Mr. Pinkerton inclining to believe
that he remained at Kirkcudbright. But my noble friend, Lord Napier,
has pointed out to me a grant by Henry, of an annuity of forty marks
to his Lordship's ancestor, John Napier, subscribed by the King
himself, AT EDINBURGH, the 28th day of August, in the thirtyninth
year of his reign, which corresponds to the year of God, 1461. This
grant, Douglas, with his usual neglect of accuracy, dates in 1368.
But this error being corrected from the copy of Macfarlane's MSS.,
p. 119, to, removes all scepticism on the subject of Henry VI being
really at Edinburgh. John Napier was son and heir of Sir Alexander
Napier, and about this time was Provost of Edinburgh. The hospitable
reception of the distressed monarch and his family, called forth on
Scotland the encomium of Molinet, a contemporary poet. The English
people, he says,--
"Ung nouveau roy creerent,
Par despiteux vouloir,
Le vieil en debouterent,
Et son legitime hoir,
Qui fuytyf alia prendre
D'Ecosse le garand,
De tous siecles le mendre,
Et le plus tollerant."
Recollection des Avantures'--SCOTT.
line 120. 'In January, 1796, the exiled Count d'Artois, afterwards
Charles X of France, took up his residence in Holyrood, where he
remained until August, 1799. When again driven from his country, by
the revolution of July, 1830, the same unfortunate Prince, with all
the immediate members of his family, sought refuge once more in the
ancient palace of the Stuarts, and remained there until 18th
September, 1833.'--LOCKHART.
line 140. 'Mr. Ellis, in his valuable Introduction to the "Specimens
of Romance," has proved, by the concurring testimony of La
Ravaillere, Tressan, but especially the Abbe de la Rue, that the
courts of our Anglo-Norman Kings, rather than those of the French
monarch, produced the birth of Romance literature. Marie, soon after
mentioned, compiled from Armorican originals, and translated into
Norman-French, or Romance language, the twelve curious Lays of which
Mr. Ellis has given us a precis in the Appendix to his Introduction.
The story of Blondel, the famous and faithful minstrel of Richard I,
needs no commentary.'--SCOTT.
line 141. for that = 'because,' a common Elizabethan connective.
line 165. '"Come then, my friend, my genius, come along,
Oh master of the poet and the song!"
Pope to Bolingbroke.'--LOCKHART.
Cp. also the famous 'guide, philosopher, and friend,' in 'Essay on
Man,' IV. 390.
lines 166-175. For a curious and characteristic ballad by Leyden on
Ellis, see 'Life of Scott' i. 368; and for references to his state
of ealth see 'Life,' ii, 17, in one of Scott's letters.
line 181. 'At Sunning-hill, Mr. Ellis's seat, near Windsor, part of
the first two cantos of Marmion were written.'--LOCKHART. Ascot
Heath is about six miles off.