"Dread messenger of fate and fear,
Herald of danger, fate and fear,
Stretch onward in thy fleet career!
Thou track'st not now the stricken doe,
Nor maiden coy through greenwood bough."
322. Fast as the fatal symbol flies, etc. "The description of the
starting of the Fiery Cross bears more marks of labor than most of Mr.
Scott's poetry, and borders, perhaps, on straining and exaggeration; yet
it shows great power" (Jeffrey).
332. Cheer. In its original sense of countenance, or look. Cf.
Shakespeare, M. N. D. iii. 2. 96: "pale of cheer;" Spenser, F. Q. i.
1. 2: "But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;" Dryden, Hind and
Panther, iii. 437: "Till frowning skies began to change their cheer,"
etc.
333. His scythe. The reading of the 1st and other early eds.; "the
scythe" in more recent ones.
342. Alas, thou lovely lake! etc. "Observe Scott's habit of looking at
nature, neither as dead, nor merely material, nor as altered by his
own feelings; but as having an animation and pathos of its own, wholly
irrespective of human passion--an animation which Scott loves and
sympathizes with, as he would with a fellow creature, forgetting himself
altogether, and subduing his own humanity before what seems to him the
power of the landscape.... Instead of making Nature anywise subordinate
to himself, he makes himself subordinate to HER--follows her lead
simply--does not venture to bring his own cares and thoughts into her
pure and quiet presence--paints her in her simple and universal truth,
adding no result of momentary passion or fancy, and appears, therefore,
at first shallower than other poets, being in reality wider and
healthier" (Ruskin).
344. Bosky. Bushy, woody. Cf. Milton, Comus, 313: "And every bosky bourn
from side to side;" Shakespeare, Temp. iv. i. 81: "My bosky acres and my
unshrubb'd down," etc.
347. Seems for the scene, etc. The MS. has "Seems all too lively and too
loud."
349. Duncraggan's huts. A homestead between Lochs Achray and Vennachar,
near the Brigg of Turk.
355. Shot him. See on i. 142 above. Scott is much given to this
construction.
357. The funeral yell, etc. The MS. has "'T is woman's scream, 't is
childhood's wail."
Yell may at first seem too strong a word here, but it is in keeping with
the people and the times described. Besides Scott was familiar with old
English poetry, in which it was often used where a modern writer would
choose another word. Cf. Surrey, Virgil's AEneid: "With wailing great
and women's shrill yelling;" and Gascoigne, De Profundis:
"From depth of doole wherein my soule dooth dwell,
...........
O gracious God, to thee I crie and yell."
362. Torch's ray. The 1st ed. reads "torches ray" and supply;" corrected
in the Errata to read as in the text. Most eds. print "torches' ray."
369. Coronach. Scott has the following note here: "The Coronach of the
Highlanders, like the Ululatus of the Romans, and the Ululoo of the
Irish, was a wild expression of lamentation, poured forth by the
mourners over the body of a departed friend. When the words of it were
articulate, they expressed the praises of the deceased, and the loss the
clan would sustain by his death. The following is a lamentation of this
kind, literally translated from the Gaelic, to some of the ideas of
which the text stands indebted. The tune is so popular that it has since
become the war-march, or gathering of the clan.
Coronach on Sir Lauchlan, Chief of Maclean.
'Which of all the Senachies
Can trace thy line from the root, up to Paradise,
But Macvuirih, the son of Fergus?
No sooner had thine ancient stately tree
Taken firm root in Albin,
Than one of thy forefathers fell at Harlaw.--
'T was then we lost a chief of deathless name.
''T is no base weed--no planted tree,
Nor a seedling of last Autumn;
Nor a sapling planted at Beltain; [7]
Wide, wide around were spread its lofty branches--
But the topmost bough is lowly laid!
Thou hast forsaken us before Sawaine. [8]
'Thy dwelling is the winter house;--
Loud, sad, and mighty is thy death-song!
Oh! courteous champion of Montrose!
Oh! stately warrior of the Celtic Isles!
Thou shalt buckle thy harness on no more!'
"The coronach has for some years past been suspended at funerals by
the use of the bagpipe; and that also is, like many other Highland
peculiarities, falling into disuse, unless in remote districts."
370. He is gone, etc. As Taylor remarks, the metre of this dirge seems
to be amphibrachic; that is, made up of feet, or metrical divisions,
of three syllables, the second of which is accented. Some of the lines
appear to be anapestic (made up of trisyllabic feet, with the last
syllable accented); but the rhythm of these is amphibrachic; that is,
the rhythmic pause is after the syllable that follows the accent.
"(He) is gone on | the mountain,
{Like) a summer- | dried fountain."