The Lady of the Lake
are not the imperfect sketches of a hurried traveller, but the finished
studies of a resident artist." See also on 278 below.
Ruskin (Modern Painters, iii. 278) refers to "the love of color" as
a leading element in Scott's love of beauty. He might have quoted the
present passage among the illustrations he adds.
195. The native bulwarks, etc. The MS. has "The mimic castles of the
pass."
196. The tower, etc. Cf. Gen. xi. 1-9.
198. The rocky. The 1st ed. has "Their rocky," etc.
204. Nor were, etc. The MS. reads: "Nor were these mighty bulwarks
bare."
208. Dewdrop sheen. Not "dewdrops sheen," or "dewdrops' sheen," as
sometimes printed. Sheen = shining, bright; as in v. 10 below. Cf.
Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 10: "So faire and sheene;" Id. iii. 4. 51: "in
top of heaven sheene," etc. See Wb. The MS. has here: "Bright glistening
with the dewdrop sheen."
212. Boon. Bountiful. Cf. Milton, P. L. iv. 242:
"Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art
In beds and curious knots, but nature boon
Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain."
See also P. L. ix. 793: "jocund and boon."
217. Bower. In the old sense of chamber, lodging-place; as in iv. 413
and vi. 218 below. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 58:
"Eftesoones long waxen torches weren light
Unto their bowres to guyden every guest."
For clift (= cleft), the reading of the 1st ed. and unquestionably what
Scott wrote, every other edition that we have seen reads "cliff."
219. Emblems of punishment and pride. See on iii. 19 below.
222, 223. Note the imperfect rhyme in breath and beneath. Cf. 224-25,
256-57, 435-36, 445-46 below. Such instances are comparatively rare
in Scott's poetry. Some rhymes that appear to be imperfect are to be
explained by peculiarities of Scottish pronunciation. See on 363 below.
227. Shaltered. The MS. has "scathed;" also "rugged arms athwart the
sky" in 229, and "twinkling" for glistening in 231. The 1st ed. has
"scattered" for shattered; corrected in the Errata.
231. Streamers. Of ivy or other vines.
238. Affording, etc. The MS. reads:
"Affording scarce such breadth of flood
As served to float the wild-duck's brood."
247. Emerging, etc. The MS. has "Emerging dry-shod from the wood."
254. And now, to issue from the glen, etc. "Until the present road was
made through the romantic pass which I have presumptuously attempted to
describe in the preceding stanzas, there was no mode of issuing out of
the defile called the Trosachs, excepting by a sort of ladder, composed
of the branches and roots of trees" (Scott).
263. Loch Katrine. In a note to The Fair Maid of Perth, Scott derives
the name from the Catterans, or Highland robbers, that once infested the
shores of the lake. Others make it "the Lake of the Battle," in memory
of some prehistoric conflict.
267. Livelier. Because in motion; like living gold above.
270. Benvenue. See on 97 above.
271. Down to. Most editions misprint "down on."
272. Confusedly. A trisyllable; as in ii. 161 below, and in the Lay,
iii. 337: "And helms and plumes, confusedly tossed."
274. Wildering. Bewildering. Cf. Dryden, Aurungzebe, i. 1: "wilder'd in
the way," etc. See also 434 and v. 22 below.
275. His ruined sides, etc. The MS. reads:
"His ruined sides and fragments hoar,
While on the north to middle air."
277. Ben-an. This mountain, 1800 feet high, is north of the Trosachs,
separating that pass from Glenfinlas.
278. From the steep, etc. The MS. reads:
"From the high promontory gazed
The stranger, awe-struck and amazed."
The Critical Review (Aug. 1820) remarks of this portion of the poem (184
fol.): "Perhaps the art of landscape-painting in poetry has never been
displayed in higher perfection than in these stanzas, to which rigid
criticism might possibly object that the picture is somewhat too minute,
and that the contemplation of it detains the traveller somewhat too long
from the main purpose of his pilgrimage, but which it would be an act of
the greatest injustice to break into fragments and present by piecemeal.
Not so the magnificent scene which bursts upon the bewildered hunter
as he emerges at length from the dell, and commands at one view the
beautiful expanse of Loch Katrine."
281. Churchman. In its old sense of one holding high office in the
church. Cf. Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. i. 3. 72, where Cardinal Beaufort is
called "the imperious churchman," etc.
285. Cloister. Monastery; originally, the covered walk around the inner
court of the building.
287. Chide. Here, figuratively, in the modern sense. See in 151 above.
290. Should lave. The 1st ed. has "did lave," which is perhaps to be
preferred.
294. While the deep peal's. For the measure, see on 73 above.
300. To friendly feast, etc. The MS. has "To hospitable feast and hall."
302. Beshrew. May evil befall (see on shrewdly, 84 above); a mild
imprecation, often used playfully and even tenderly. Cf. Shakespeare, 2
Hen. IV. ii. 3. 45:
"Beshrew your heart,
Fair daughter, you do draw my spirits from me
With new lamenting ancient oversights!"
305. Some mossy bank, etc. The MS. reads:
"And hollow trunk of some old tree
My chamber for the night must be."
313. Highland plunderers. "The clans who inhabited the romantic regions
in the neighborhood of Loch Katrine were, even until a late period, much
addicted to predatory excursions upon their Lowland neighbors" (Scott).
317. Fall the worst. If the worst befall that can happen. Cf.
Shakespeare, M. of V. i. 2. 96: "an the worst fall that ever fell, I
hope I shall make shift to go without him."
319. But scarce again, etc. The MS. reads:
"The bugle shrill again he wound,
And lo! forth starting at the sound;"
and below:
"A little skiff shot to the bay.
The hunter left his airy stand,
And when the boat had touched the sand,
Concealed he stood amid the brake,
To view this Lady of the Lake."
336. Strain. The 1st ed. has a comma after strain, and a period after
art in 340. The ed. of 1821 points as in the text.
342. Naiad. Water nymph.
343. And ne'er did Grecian chisel, etc. The MS. reads:
"A finer form, a fairer face,
Had never marble Nymph or Grace,
That boasts the Grecian chisel's trace;"
and in 359 below, "a stranger tongue."
353. Measured mood. The formal manner required by court etiquette.
360. Dear. This is the reading of the 1st ed. and almost every other
that we have seen. We are inclined, however, to believe that Scott wrote
"clear." The facsimiles of his handwriting show that his d's and cl's
might easily be confounded by a compositor.
363. Snood. The fillet or ribbon with which the Scotch maidens bound
their hair. See on iii. 114 below. It is the rich materials of snood,
plaid, and brooch that betray her birth.
The rhyme of plaid with maid and betrayed is not imperfect, the Scottish
pronunciation of plaid being like our played.
385. One only. For the inversion, cf. Shakespeare, J. C. i. 2. 157:
"When there is in it but one only man;" Goldsmith, D. V. 39: "One only
master grasps the whole domain," etc.
393. Awhile she paused, etc. The MS. reads:
"A space she paused, no answer came,--
'Alpine, was thine the blast?' the name
Less resolutely uttered fell,
The echoes could not catch the swell.
'Nor foe nor friend,' the stranger said,
Advancing from the hazel shade.
The startled maid, with hasty oar,
Pushed her light shallop from the shore."
and just below:
"So o'er the lake the swan would spring,
Then turn to prune its ruffled wing."
404. Prune. Pick out damaged feathers and arrange the plumage with the
bill. Cf. Shakespeare, Cymb. v. 4. 118:
"his royal bird
Prunes the immortal wing," etc.
408. Wont. Are wont, or accustomed; now used only in the participle. The
form here is the past tense of the obsolete won, or wone, to dwell. The
present is found in Milton, P. L. vii. 457:
"As from his lair the wild beast, where he wons
In forest wild, in thicket, brake, or den."
Cf. Spenser, Virgil's Gnat:
"Of Poets Prince, whether we woon beside
Faire Xanthus sprincled with Chimaeras blood,
Or in the woods of Astery abide;"
and Colin Clouts Come Home Againe:
"I weened sure he was out God alone,
And only woond in fields and forests here."
See also iv. 278 and 298 below.
409. Middle age. As James died at the age of thirty (in 1542), this is
not strictly true, but the portrait in other respects is quite accurate.
He was fond of going about disguised, and some of his freaks of this
kind are pleasantly related in Scott's Tales of a Grandfather. See on
vi. 740 below.
425. Slighting, etc. "Treating lightly his need of food and shelter."
432. At length. The 1st ed. has "at last."
433. That Highland halls were, etc. The MS. has "Her father's hall was,"
etc.
434. Wildered. See on 274 above.
438. A couch. That is, the heather for it. Cf. 666 below.
441. Mere. Lake; as in Windermere, etc.
443. Rood. Cross, or crucifix. By the rood was a common oath; so by the
holy rood, as in Shakespeare, Rich. III. iii. 2. 77, iv. 4. 165. Cf. the
name of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. See ii. 221 below.
451. Romantic. The MS. has "enchanting."
457. Yesternight. We have lost this word, though we retain yesterday.
Cf. yester-morn in v. 104 below. As far = as far back as.
460. Was on, etc. The MS. reads: "Is often on the future bent." If
force of evidence could authorize us to believe facts inconsistent with
the general laws of nature, enough might be produced in favor of the
existence of the second-sight. It is called in Gaelic Taishitaraugh,
from Taish, an unreal or shadowy appearance; and those possessed of
the faculty are called Taishatrin, which may be aptly translated
visionaries. Martin, a steady believer in the second-sight, gives the
following account of it:--
'The second-sight is a singular faculty of seeing an otherwise invisible
object without any previous means used by the person that uses if for
that end: the vision makes such a lively impression upon the seers, that
they neither see nor think of any thing else, except the vision, as long
as it continues; and then they appear pensive or jovial, according to
the object that was represented to them.
'At the sight of a vision, the eyelids of the person are erected, and
the eyes continue staring until the object vanish. This is obvious to
others who are by when the persons happen to see a vision, and occurred
more than once to my own observation, and to others that were with
me....
'If a woman is seen standing at a man's left hand, it is a presage that
she will be his wife, whether they be married to others, or unmarried at
the time of the apparition.
'To see a spark of fire fall upon one's arm or breast is a forerunner of
a dead child to be seen in the arms of those persons; of which there are
several fresh instances....
'To see a seat empty at the time of one's sitting in it, is a presage
of that person's death soon after' (Martin's Description of the Western
Islands, 1716, 8vo, p. 300, et seq.).
"To these particulars innumerable examples might be added, all attested
by grave and credible authors. But, in despite of evidence which neither
Bacon, Boyle, nor Johnson were able to resist, the Taish, with all its
visionary properties, seems to be now universally abandoned to the use
of poetry. The exquisitely beautiful poem of Lochiel will at once occur
to the recollection of every reader" (Scott).