133. Turn to bay. Like stand at bay, etc., a term used when the
stag, driven to extremity, turns round and faces his pursuers. Cf.
Shakespeare, 1. Hen. VI. iv. 2. 52, where it is used figuratively (as in
vi. 525 below):
"Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel,
And make the cowards stand aloof at bay;"
and T. of S. v. 2. 56: "'T is thought your deer does hold you at a bay,"
etc.
137. For the death-wound, etc. Scott has the following note here: "When
the stag turned to bay, the ancient hunter had the perilous task of
going in upon, and killing or disabling, the desperate animal. At
certain times of the year this was held particularly dangerous, a
wound received from a stag's horn being then deemed poisonous, and more
dangerous than one from the tusks of a boar, as the old rhyme testifies:
'If thou be hurt with hart, it bring thee to thy bier,
But barber's hand will boar's hurt heal, therefore thou
need'st not fear.'
At all times, however, the task was dangerous, and to be adventured upon
wisely and warily, either by getting behind the stag while he was gazing
on the hounds, or by watching an opportunity to gallop roundly in upon
him, and kill him with the sword. See many directions to this purpose
in the Booke of Hunting, chap. 41. Wilson, the historian, has recorded
a providential escape which befell him in the hazardous sport, while a
youth, and follower of the Earl of Essex:
'Sir Peter Lee, of Lime, in Cheshire, invited my lord one summer to hunt
the stagg. And having a great stagg in chase, and many gentlemen in the
pursuit, the stag took soyle. And divers, whereof I was one, alighted,
and stood with swords drawne, to have a cut at him, at his coming out of
the water. The staggs there being wonderfully fierce and dangerous, made
us youths more eager to be at him. But he escaped us all. And it was my
misfortune to be hindered of my coming nere him, the way being sliperie,
by a falle; which gave occasion to some, who did not know mee, to speak
as if I had falne for feare. Which being told mee, I left the stagg,
and followed the gentleman who [first] spake it. But I found him of that
cold temper, that it seems his words made an escape from him; as by his
denial and repentance it appeared. But this made mee more violent in the
pursuit of the stagg, to recover my reputation. And I happened to be the
only horseman in, when the dogs sett him up at bay; and approaching near
him on horsebacke, he broke through the dogs, and run at mee, and tore
my horse's side with his hornes, close by my thigh. Then I quitted my
horse, and grew more cunning (for the dogs had sette him up againe),
stealing behind him with my sword, and cut his hamstrings; and then got
upon his back, and cut his throate; which, as I was doing, the company
came in, and blamed my rashness for running such a hazard' (Peck's
Desiderata Curiosa, ii. 464)."
138. Whinyard. A short stout sword or knife; the same as the whinger of
the Lay of Last Minstrel, v. 7:
"And whingers, now in friendship bare
The social meal to part and share,
Had found a bloody sheath."
142. Turned him. In Elizabethan, and still more in earlier English,
personal pronouns were often used reflexively; and this, like many other
old constructions, is still used in poetry.
145. Trosachs. "The rough or bristled territory" (Graham); the wild
district between Lochs Katrine and Vennachar. The name is now especially
applied to the pass between Lochs Katrine and Achray.
147. Close couched. That is, as he lay close couched, or hidden. Such
ellipses are common in poetry.
150. Amain. With main, or full force. We still say "with might and
main."
151. Chiding. Not a mere figurative use of chide as we now understand it
(cf. 287 below), but an example of the old sense of the word as applied
to any oft-repeated noise. Shakespeare uses it of the barking of dogs in
M. N. D. iv. 1. 120:
"never did I hear
Such gallant chiding;"
of the wind, as in A. Y. L. ii. 1. 7: "And churlish chiding of the
winter's wind;" and of the sea, as in 1 Hen. IV. iii. 1. 45:
"the sea
That chides the banks of England;"
and Hen. VIII. iii. 2. 197: "the chiding flood."
163. The banks of Seine. James visited France in 1536, and sued for the
hand of Magdalen, daughter of Francis I. He married her the following
spring, but she died a few months later. He then married Mary of Guise,
whom he had doubtless seen while in France.
166. Woe worth the chase. That is, woe be to it. This worth is from the
A. S. weorthan, to become. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 32:
"Wo worth the man,
That first did teach the cursed steele to bight
In his owne flesh, and make way to the living spright!"
See also Ezek. xxx. 2.