Stanza I. line 18. 'This is no poetical exaggeration. In some of the
counties of England, distinguished for archery, shafts of this
extraordinary length were actually used. Thus, at the battle of
Blackheath, between the troops of Henry VII and the Cornish
insurgents, in 1496, the bridge of Dartford was defended by a picked
band of archers from the rebel army, "whose arrows," says Holinshed,
"were in length a full cloth yard." The Scottish, according to
Ascham, had a proverb, that every English archer carried under his
belt twenty-four Scots, in allusion to his bundle of unerring
shafts.'--SCOTT.
Stanza II. line 32. croupe = (1) the buttocks of the horse, as in
Chaucer's 'Fryars Tale,' line 7141, 'thakketh his horse upon the
croupe'; (2) the place behind the saddle, as here and in 'Young
Lochinvar,' below, 351.
line 33. 'The most useful AIR, as the Frenchmen term it, IS
TERRITERR, the courbettes, cabrioles, or un pas et un sault, being
fitter for horses of parade and triumph than for soldiers: yet I
cannot deny but a demivolte with courbettes, so that they be not too
high, may be useful in a fight or meslee; for, as Labroue hath it,
in his Book of Horsemanship, Monsieur de Montmorency having a horse
that was excellent in performing the demivolte, did, with his sword,
strike down two adversaries from their horses in a tourney, where
divers of the prime gallants of France did meet; for, taking his
time, when the horse was in the height of his courbette, and
discharging a blow then, his sword fell with such weight and force
upon the two cavaliers, one after another, that he struck them from
their horses to the ground.'--Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life, p.
48.--SCOTT.
line 35. 'The Scottish burgesses were, like yeomen, appointed to be
armed with bows and sheaves, sword, buckler, knife, spear, or a good
axe instead of a bow, if worth L100: their armour to be of white or
bright harness. They wore WHITE HATS, i.e. bright steel caps,
without crest or visor. By an act of James IV their weapon-schawings
are appointed to be held four times a year, under the aldermen or
bailiffs.'--SCOTT.
lines 40-48. Corslet, a light cuirass protecting the front of the
body; brigantine, a jacket quilted with iron (also spelt
'brigandine'); gorget, a metal covering for the throat; mace, a
heavy club, plain or spiked, designed to bruise armour.
'Bows and quivers were in vain recommended to the peasantry of
Scotland, by repeated statutes; spears and axes seem universally to
have been used instead of them. The defensive armour was the plate-
jack, hauberk, or brigantine; and their missile weapons crossbows
and culverins. All wore swords of excellent temper, according to
Patten; and a voluminous handkerchief round their neck, "not for
cold, but for cutting." The mace also was much used in the Scottish
army! The old poem on the battle of Flodden mentions a band--
"Who manfully did meet their foes,
With leaden mauls, and lances long."
'When the feudal array of the kingdom was called forth, each man was
obliged to appear with forty days' provision. When this was
expended, which took place before the battle of Flodden, the army
melted away of course. Almost all the Scottish forces, except a few
knights, men-at-arms, and the Border-prickers, who formed excellent
light-cavalry, acted upon foot.'--SCOTT.
Stanza III. line 48. swarthy, because of the dark leather of which
it was constructed.
line 54. See above, Introd. to II. line 48.
line 56. Cheer, countenance, as below, line 244. Cp. Chaucer,
'Knightes Tale,' line 55:--
'The eldeste lady of hem alle spak
When sche hadde swowned with a dedly CHERE.'
Stanza IV. line 73. slogan, the war-cry. Cp. Aytoun's 'Burial March
of Dundee':--
'Sound the fife and cry the slogan.'
line 96. The Euse and the Liddell flow into the Esk. For some miles
the Liddell is the boundary between England and Scotland.
line 100. Brown Maudlin, dark or bronzed Magdalene. pied,
variegated, as in Shakespeare's 'daisies pied.' kirtle = short
skirt, and so applied to a gown or a petticoat.
Stanza V. For unrivalled illustration of what Celtic chiefs and
clansmen were, see 'Waverley' and 'Rob Roy.'
lines 130-5 Cp. opening of Chapman's Homer's Iliad III.:--
'The Trojans would have frayed
The Greeks with noises, crying out, in coming rudely on
At all parts, like the cranes that fill with harsh confusion
Of brutish clanges all the air. '
Stanza VI. lines 143-157. Cp. Dryden's 'Palamon and Arcite,' iii.
1719-1739:--
'The neighing of the generous horse was heard,
For battle by the busy groom prepar'd:
Rustling of harness, rattling of the shield,
Clattering of armour furbish'd for the field,' &c.
line 157. following = feudal retainers.--SCOTT. To the poet's
explanation Lockhart appends the remark that since Scott thought his
note necessary the word has been 'completely adopted into English,
and especially into Parliamentary parlance.'
line 166. Scott says:--'In all transactions of great or petty
importance, and among whomsoever taking place, it would seem that a
present of wine was a uniform and indispensable preliminary. It was
not to Sir John Falstaff alone that such an introductory preface was
necessary, however well judged and acceptable on the part of Mr.
Brook; for Sir Ralph Sadler, while on an embassy to Scotland in
1539-40, mentions, with complacency, 'the same night came Rothesay
(the herald so called) to me again, and brought me wine from the
King both white and red.'--Clifford's Edition, p. 39.
line 168. For weeds see above, I. Introd. 256.
Stanza VII. line 172. For wassell see above, I. xv. 231; and cp.
'merry wassail' in 'Rokeby,' III. xv.
line 190. Cp. above, IV. Introd. 3.
line 200. An Elizabethan omission of relative.
Stanza VIII. The admirable characterisation, by which in this and
the two following stanzas the King, the Queen, and Lady Heron are
individually delineated and vividly contrasted, deserves special
attention. There is every reason to believe that the delineations,
besides being vivid and impressive, have the additional merit of
historical accuracy.
line 213. piled = covered with a pile or nap. The Encyclopaedic
Dict., s. v., quotes: 'With that money I would make thee several
cloaks and line them with black crimson, and tawny, three filed
veluet.'--Barry; Ram Alley, III. i.
line 221. A baldric (remotely from Lat. balteus, a girdle) was an
ornamental belt passing over one shoulder and round the other side,
and having the sword suspended from it. Cp. Pope's Iliad, III. 415:-
-
'A radiant BALDRIC, o'er his shoulder tied,
Sustained the sword that glittered at his side.'
See also the 'wolf-skin baldric' in 'Lay of the Last Minstrel,' III.
xvi.
Stanza IX. line 249. 'Few readers need to be reminded of this belt,
to the weight of which James added certain ounces every year that he
lived. Pitscottie founds his belief that James was not slain in the
battle of Flodden, because the English never had this token of the
iron-belt to show to any Scottishman. The person and character of
James are delineated according to our best historians. His romantic
disposition, which led him highly to relish gaiety, approaching to
license, was, at the same time, tinged with enthusiastic devotion.
These propensities sometimes formed a strange contrast. He was wont,
during his fits of devotion, to assume the dress, and conform to the
rules, of the order of Franciscans; and when he had thus done
penance for some time in Stirling, to plunge again into the tide of
pleasure. Probably, too, with no unusual inconsistency, he sometimes
laughed at the superstitions observances to which he at other times
subjected himself. There is a very singular poem by Dunbar,
seemingly addressed to James IV, on one of these occasions of
monastic seclusion. It is a most daring and profane parody on the
services of the Church of Rome, entitled:--
"Dunbar's Dirige to the King,
Byding ewer lang in Striviling.
We that are here, in heaven's glory,
To you that are in Purgatory,
Commend us on our hearty wise;
I mean we folks in Paradise,
In Edinburgh, with all merriness,
To you in Stirling with distress,
Where neither pleasure nor delight is,
For pity this epistle wrytis," &c.
See the whole in Sibbald's Collection, vol. i. p. 234.'--SCOTT.
Since Scott's time Dunbar's poems have been edited, with perfect
scholarship and skill, by David Laing (2 vols. post 8vo. 1824), and
by John Small (in l885) for the Scottish Text Society. See Dict. of
Nat. Biog.
lines 254-9. This perfect description may be compared, for accuracy
of observation and dexterous presentment, with the steed in 'Venus
and Adonis,' the paragon of horses in English verse. Both writers
give ample evidence of direct personal knowledge.
Stanza X. line 261. 'It has been already noticed [see note to stanza
xiii. of Canto I.] that King James's acquaintance with Lady Heron of
Ford did not commence until he marched into England. Our historians
impute to the King's infatuated passion the delays which led to the
fatal defeat of Flodden. The author of "The Genealogy of the Heron
Family" endeavours, with laudable anxiety, to clear the Lady Ford
from this scandal; that she came and went, however, between the
armies of James and Surrey, is certain. See PINKERTON'S History, and
the authorities he refers to, vol. ii. p. 99. Heron of Ford had
been, in 1511, in some sort accessory to the slaughter of Sir Robert
Kerr of Cessford, Warden of the Middle Marches. It was committed by
his brother the bastard, Lilburn, and Starked, three Borderers.
Lilburn and Heron of Ford were delivered up by Henry to James, and
were imprisoned in the fortress of Fastcastle, where the former
died. Part of the pretence of Lady Ford's negotiations with James
was the liberty of her husband.'--SCOTT.
line 271. love = beloved. Cp. Burns's 'O my love is like a red red
rose.'
line 273. '"Also the Queen of France wrote a love-letter to the King
of Scotland, calling him her love, showing him that she had suffered
much rebuke in France for the defending of his honour. She believed
surely that he would recompense her again with some of his kingly
support in her necessity; that is to say, that he would raise her an
army, and come three foot of ground on English ground, for her sake.
To that effect she sent him a ring off her finger, with fourteen
thousand French crowns to pay bis expenses." PITSCOTTIE, p.110.--A
turquois ring--probably this fatal gift--is, with James's sword and
dagger, preserved in the College of Heralds, London.'--SCOTT.
lines 287-8. The change of movement introduced by this couplet has
the intended effect of arresting the attention and lending pathos to
the description and sentiment.
Stanza XI. line 302. The wimple was a covering for the neck, said to
have been introduced in the reign of Edward I. See Chaucer's
'Prologue,' 151:--
'Ful semely hire wympel i-pynched was.'
line 307. Cp. 2 Henry IV, iii. 2. 9, 'By yea and nay, sir.'
line 308. Cp. refrain of song, ''Twas within a mile o' Edinburgh
Town,' in Johnson's Museum :--
'The lassie blush'd, and frowning cried, "No, no, it will not
do;
I cannot, cannot, wonnot, wonnot, mannot buckle too."'
Stanza XII. The skilful application of the anapaest for the
production of the brilliant gallop of 'Lochinvar' has been equalled
only by Scott himself in his 'Bonnets o' Bonnie Dundee.' Cp. Lord
Tennyson's 'Northern Farmer' (specially New Style), and Mr.
Browning's 'How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix.' 'The
ballad of Lochinvar,' says Scott, 'is in a very slight degree
founded on a ballad called " Katharine Janfarie," which may be found
in the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," vol. ii. Mr. Charles
Gibbon's 'Laird o' Lamington' is based on the same legend.
line 332. 'See the novel of "Redgauntlet" for a detailed picture of
some of the extraordinary phenomena of the spring-tides in the
Solway Frith.'--LOCKHART.
line 344. galliard (Sp. gallarda, Fr. gaillarda), a lively dance.
Cp. Henry V, i. 2, 252, 'a nimble galliard,' and note on expression
in Clarendon Press ed.
line 353. scaur, cliff or river bank. Cp. Blackie's 'Ascent of
Cruachan' in 'Lays of the Highlands and Islands,' p. 98:--
'Scale the SCAUR that gleams so red.'