"Get thee an ape, and then at once
Thou mayst renounce the warder's lance,
And trudge through borough and through land,
The leader of a juggler band."
Scott has the following note here: "The jongleurs, or jugglers, as we
learn from the elaborate work of the late Mr. Strutt, on the sports and
pastimes of the people of England, used to call in the aid of various
assistants, to render these performances as captivating as possible.
The glee-maiden was a necessary attendant. Her duty was tumbling and
dancing; and therefore the Anglo-Saxon version of Saint Mark's Gospel
states Herodias to have vaulted or tumbled before King Herod. In
Scotland these poor creatures seem, even at a late period, to have
been bondswomen to their masters, as appears from a case reported by
Fountainhall: 'Reid the mountebank pursues Scot of Harden and his lady
for stealing away from him a little girl, called the tumbling-lassie,
that dance upon his stage; and he claimed damages, and produced a
contract, whereby he bought her from her mother for £30 Scots. But we
have no slaves in Scotland, and mothers cannot sell their bairns; and
physicians attested the employment of tumbling would kill her; and her
joints were now grown stiff, and she declined to return; though she was
at least a 'prentice, and so could not run away from her master; yet
some cited Moses's law, that if a servant shelter himself with thee
against his master's cruelty, thou shalt surely not deliver him up. The
Lords, renitente cancellario, assoilzied Harden on the 27th of January
(1687)' (Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 439)."
136. Purvey. Provide. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 10: "He all things did
purvay which for them needfull weare."
147. Bertram, etc. The MS. has "Bertram | his |
| such | violence withstood."
152. The tartan screen. That is, the tartan which she had drawn over her
head as a veil.
155. The savage soldiery, etc. The MS. has "While the rude soldiery,
amazed;" and in 164 below, "Should Ellen Douglas suffer wrong."
167. I shame me. I shame myself, I am ashamed. The very was formerly
used intransitively in this sense. Cf. Shakespeare, R. of L. 1143: "As
shaming any eye should thee behold;" A. Y. L. iv. 3. 136: "I do not
shame to tell you what I was," etc.