"Sweet William was a woodsman true,
He stole poor Blanche's heart away;
His coat was of the forest hue,
And sweet he sung the Lowland Lay."
590. The toils are pitched. The nets are set. Cf. Shakespeare, L. L. L.,
iv. 3. 2: "they have pitched a toil," etc. "The meaning is obvious.
The hunters are Clan-Alpine's men; the stag of ten is Fitz-James; the
wounded doe is herself" (Taylor).
594. A stag of ten. "Having ten branches on his antlers" (Scott). Nares
says that antlers is an error here, the word meaning "the short brow
horns, not the branched horns;" but see Wb. Cf. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, i.
2:
"Aud a hart of ten,
Madam, I trow to be;"
and Massinger, Emperor of the East, iv. 2:
"He'll make you royal sport; he is a deer
Of ten, at least."
595. Sturdily. As Taylor notes, the "triple rhymes" in this song are "of
a very loose kind."
609. Blanche's song. Jeffrey says: "No machinery can be conceived more
clumsy for effecting the deliverance of a distressed hero than the
introduction of a mad woman, who, without knowing or caring about the
wanderer, warns him by a song to take care of the ambush that was set
for him. The maniacs or poetry have indeed had a prescriptive right to
be musical, since the days of Ophelia downwards; but it is rather a rash
extension of this privilege to make them sing good sense, and to make
sensible people be guided by them."
To this Taylor well replied: "This criticism seems unjust. The cruelty
of Roderick's raids in the Lowlands has already been hinted at, and
the sight of the Lowland dress might well stir associations in the poor
girl's mind which would lead her to look to the knight for help and
protection and also to warn him of his danger. It is plain, from
Murdoch's surprise, that her being out of her captors' sight is looked
on as dangerous, from which we may infer that she is not entirely
crazed. Her song is not the only hint that Fitz-James follows. His
suspicions had already twice been excited, so that the episode seems
natural enough. As giving a distinct personal ground for the combat in
canto v., it serves the poet's purpose still further. Without it,
we should sympathize too much with the robber chief, who thinks that
'plundering Lowland field and fold is naught but retribution true;' but
the sight of this sad fruit of his raids wins us back to the cause of
law and order."