As the cruel and unmerited fate, which terminated the bright career of
Wallace, appeared to that ingenious gentleman who furnished me with
this design, to be the object on which the mind especially rests in
contemplating the history of his life, he has given to the block the
principal place here. To this melancholy symbol, the crown of laurel,
which, as we learn from the English chroniclers, was contemptuously
put on the head of the hero during his trial at Westminster, is with
great propriety transferred. Before it appears the fatal axe; also,
the target of Wallace, together with the sword of his faithful friend
Longueville, exactly copied from that preserved under this name in
the house of Kinfauns. The headless body appears from behind. In the
back-ground, rays of light are seen to dart forth, giving ground of
hope that the dark clouds, which envelope this dismal scene, should be
dispelled; and intimating, according to the sense of the inscription,
that this cruel act of the tyrannical Edward, by which he hoped to
extinguish the spirit of liberty in our native land, should only excite
it anew,--the fall of Wallace being immediately succeeded by the
intrepid appearance of Bruce, as asserting his claim to independent
royalty.
* * * * *
By some of my learned friends, who are acquainted with the manuscripts
of the preceding poems, I may be censured, perhaps, because I have
rendered the contraction [symbol] by _ss_, instead of making it to
denote _is_. I have not done so unadvisedly; and I could not have acted
otherwise without sacrificing my own conviction. I preferred this mode
for several reasons.
Another well known contraction, totally different in form, is used
throughout these manuscripts, where there can be no doubt that _is_ is
meant. Had I adopted a different plan, I would have been laid under
the necessity of rendering the contraction in a variety of modes. I
must frequently have viewed it as signifying _se_. But here, in many
places, I met with an obstacle that seemed insurmountable;--a different
contraction being employed for denoting a word of this form, sometimes
in the same verse, as in _The Bruce_, B. VIII. 353.
The king thus, that wes wycht and wys,
And rycht _awise_ at _diuiss_, &c.
Here both contractions occur. If I did not give to the sign so
ambulatory and indefinite a character, I must often have used a double
_i_, where it could not be supposed that the writer meant to introduce
it. Thus I must have given _maiss_, makes, in the form of _maiis_;
_raiss_, arose, as _raiis_; _cheiss_, choose, as _cheiis_; _pass_, a
strait and steep passage, as _pais_; and _leiss_, loss, as _leiis_, &c.
&c.
The rhythm, as well as the sense, would also, in different instances,
have materially suffered. Thus, in B. IX. 259, where we read;
And with all thair mycht schot egrely
Amang the _horss men_, that thar raid;
It would have been,
Amang the _horsis men_ that thar raid.
In reading these poems, it must be observed, that, although _is_,
the mark of the plural, is more generally to be viewed as a distinct
syllable, this rule does not apply universally. _Scottis_, for
example, is sometimes to be read _Scott-is_; at other times, when the
rhythm requires an abbreviation, as if _Scots_. Even monosyllables are
occasionally to be lengthened; as _armes_, denoting armour, must at
times be pronounced _armés_. The same liberty seems to have been taken
by Chaucer and other old English poets.
In the following Glossary, I do not pretend to explain all the words
that may stumble a reader who is not well acquainted with our ancient
language; for this would have almost required a volume. But I have
not overlooked a single term that seemed to demand attention. For
further elucidation, and for the explanation of some words that may
have been overlooked here, I beg leave to refer to my _Dictionary of
the Scottish Language_. It will greatly aid the reader of these works,
if he recollect that many common words appear here under a disguised
orthography, especially by the frequent use of _w_ for _v_.
A