The Lady of the Lake
53. Uam-Var. "Ua-Var, as the name is pronounced, or more properly
Uaigh-mor, is a mountain to the north-east of the village of Callander,
in Menteith, deriving its name, which signifies the great den, or
cavern, from a sort of retreat among the rocks on the south side, said,
by tradition, to have been the abode of a giant. In latter times, it was
the refuge of robbers and banditti, who have been only extirpated within
these forty or fifty years. Strictly speaking, this stronghold is not a
cave, as the name would imply, but a sort of small enclosure, or recess,
surrounded with large rocks and open above head. It may have been
originally designed as a toil for deer, who might get in from the
outside, but would find it difficult to return. This opinion prevails
among the old sportsmen and deer-stalkers in the neighborhood" (Scott).
54. Yelled. Note the emphatic force of the inversion, as in 59 below.
Cf. 38 above.
Opening. That is, barking on view or scent of the game; a hunting term.
Cf. Shakespeare, M. W. iv. 2. 209: "If I bark out thus upon no trail
never trust me when I open again."
The description of the echo which follows is very spirited.
66. Cairn. Literally, a heap of stones; here put poetically for the
rocky point which the falcon takes as a look-out.
69. Hurricane. A metaphor for the wild rush of the hunt.
71. Linn. Literally, a deep pool; but often = cataract, as in Bracklinn,
ii. 270 below (cf. vi. 488), and sometimes = precipice.
73. On the lone wood. Note the musical variation in the measure here;
the 1st, 3d, and 4th syllables being accented instead of the 2d and 4th.
It is occasionally introduced into iambic metre with admirable effect.
Cf. 85 and 97 below.
76. The cavern, etc. See on 53 above.
80. Perforce. A poetical word. See on 46 above.
84. Shrewdly. Severely, keenly; a sense now obsolete. Shrewd originally
meant evil, mischievous. Cf. Shakespeare, A. Y. L. v. 4. 179, where it
is said that those
"That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us
Shall share the good of our returned fortune."
In Chaucer (Tale of Melibocus) we find, "The prophete saith: Flee
shrewdnesse, and do goodnesse" (referring to Ps. xxxiv. 14).
89. Menteith. The district in the southwestern part of Perthshire,
watered by the Teith.
91. Mountain and meadow, etc. See on 35 above. Moss is used in the
North-of-England sense of a boggy or peaty district, like the famous
Chat Moss between Liverpool and Manchester.
93. Lochard. Loch Ard is a beautiful lakelet, about five miles south
of Loch Katrine. On its eastern side is the scene of Helen Macgregor's
skirmish with the King's troops in Rob Roy; and near its head, on the
northern side, is a waterfall, which is the original of Flora MacIvor's
favorite retreat in Waverley. Aberfoyle is a village about a mile and a
half to the east of the lake.
95. Loch Achray. A lake between Loch Katrine and Loch Vennachar, lying
just beyond the pass of the Trosachs.
97. Benvenue. A mountain, 2386 feet in height, on the southern side of
Loch Katrine.
98. With the hope. The MS. has "with the THOUGHT," and "flying HOOF" in
the next line.
102. 'Twere. It would be. Cf. Shakespeare, Macb. ii. 2. 73: "To know my
deed, 't were best not know myself."
103. Cambusmore. The estate of a family named Buchanan, whom Scott
frequently visited in his younger days. It is about two miles from
Callander, on the wooded banks of the Keltie, a tributary of the Teith.
105. Benledi. A mountain, 2882 feet high, northwest from Callander. The
name is said to mean "Mountain of God."
106. Bochastle's heath. A moor between the east end of Loch Vennachar
and Callander. See also on v. 298 below.
107. The flooded Teith. The Teith is formed by streams from Loch Voil
and from Loch Katrine (by way of Loch Achray and Loch Vennachar), which
unite at Callander. It joins the Forth near Stirling.
111. Vennachar. As the map shows, this "Lake of the Fair Valley" is the
most eastern of the three lakes around which the scenery of the poem
lies. It is about five miles long and a mile and a half wide.
112. The Brigg of Turk. This brig, or bridge (cf. Burns's poem of The
Brigs of Ayr), is over a stream that comes down from Glenfinlas and
flows into the one connecting Lochs Achray and Vennachar. According to
Graham, it is "the scene of the death of a wild boar famous in Celtic
tradition."
114. Unbated. Cf. Shakespeare, M. of V. ii. 6. 11:
"Where is the horse that doth untread again
His tedious measures with the unbated fire
That he did pace them first?"
115. Scourge and steel. Whip and spur. Steel is often used for the sword
(as in v. 239 below: "foeman worthy of their steel"), the figure being
of the same sort as here--"the material put for the thing made of it."
Cf. v. 479 below.
117. Embossed. An old hunting term. George Turbervile, in his Noble Art
of Venerie or Hunting (A.D. 1576), says: "When the hart is foamy at the
mouth, we say, that he is emboss'd." Cf. Shakespeare, T. of S. ind. 1.
17: "Brach Merriman, the poor cur, is emboss'd;" and A. and C. iv. 13.
3:
"the boar of Thessaly
Was never so emboss'd."
120. Saint Hubert's breed. Scott quotes Turbervile here: "The hounds
which we call Saint Hubert's hounds are commonly all blacke, yet
neuertheless, the race is so mingled at these days, that we find them
of all colours. These are the hounds which the abbots of St. Hubert haue
always kept some of their race or kind, in honour or remembrance of the
saint, which was a hunter with S. Eustace. Whereupon we may conceiue
that (by the grace of God) all good huntsmen shall follow them into
paradise."
127. Quarry. The animal hunted; another technical term. Shakespeare uses
it in the sense of a heap of slaughtered game; as in Cor. i. 1. 202:
"Would the nobility lay aside their ruth,
And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry
With thousands of these quarter'd slaves," etc.
Cf. Longfellow, Hiawatha:
"Seldom stoops the soaring vulture
O'er his quarry in the desert."
130. Stock. Tree-stump. Cf. Job, xiv. 8.
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.
180. And on the hunter, etc. The MS. reads:
"And on the hunter hied his pace,
To meet some comrades of the chase;"
and the 1st ed. retains "pace" and "chase."
184. The western waves, etc. This description of the Trosachs was
written amid the scenery it delineates, in the summer of 1809. The
Quarterly Review (May, 1810) says of the poet: "He sees everything
with a painter's eye. Whatever he represents has a character of
individuality, and is drawn with an accuracy and minuteness of
discrimination which we are not accustomed to expect from mere verbal
description. It is because Mr. Scott usually delineates those objects
with which he is perfectly familiar that his touch is so easy, correct,
and animated. The rocks, the ravines, and the torrents which he exhibits