The Lady of the Lake
Benvenue from the Goblin's Cave; "a magnificent glade, overhung with
birch-trees, by which the cattle, taken in forays, were conveyed within
the protection of the Trosachs" (Black).
279. This sign. That is, the cross. To all, which we should not expect
with bought, was apparently suggested by the antithetical to him in the
preceding line; but if all the editions did not read bought, we might
suspect that Scott wrote brought.
281. The murmur, etc. The MS. has "The slowly muttered deep Amen."
286. The muster-place, etc. The MS. reads "Murlagan is the spot
decreed."
Lanrick Mead is a meadow at the northwestern end of Loch Vennachar.
300. The dun deer's hide, etc. Scott says: "The present brogue of the
Highlanders is made of half-dried leather, with holes to admit and let
out the water; for walking the moors dry-shod is a matter altogether
out of the question. The ancient buskin was still ruder, being made of
undressed deer's hide, with the hair outwards,--a circumstance which
procured the Highlanders the well-known epithet of Red-shanks.
The process is very accurately described by one Elder (himself a
Highlander), in the project for a union between England and Scotland,
addressed to Henry VIII.: 'We go a-hunting, and after that we have slain
red-deer, we flay off the skin by and by, and setting of our barefoot
on the inside thereof, for want of cunning shoemakers, by your grace's
pardon, we play the cobblers, compassing and measuring so much thereof
as shall reach up to our ankles, pricking the upper part thereof with
holes, that the water may repass where it enters, and stretching it up
with a strong thong of the same above our said ankles. So, and please
your noble grace, we make our shoes. Therefore, we using such manner
of shoes, the rough hairy side outwards, in your grace's dominions of
England, we be called Rough-footed Scots' (Pinkerton's History, vol. ii.
p. 397)."
Cf. Marmion, v. 5:
"The hunted red-deer's undressed hide
Their hairy buskins well supplied."
304. Steepy. For the word (see also iv. 374 below) and the line, cf.
Shakespeare, T. of A. i. 1. 75:
"Bowing his head against the steepy mount
To climb his happiness."
309. Questing. Seeking its game. Bacon (Adv. of Learning, v. 5) speaks
of "the questing of memory."
310. Scaur. Cliff, precipice; the same word as scar. Cf. Tennyson's
Bugle Song: "O sweet and far, from cliff and scar;" and in the Idyls of
the King: "shingly scaur."
314. Herald of battle, etc. The MS. reads:
"Dread messenger of fate and fear,
Herald of danger, fate and fear,
Stretch onward in thy fleet career!
Thou track'st not now the stricken doe,
Nor maiden coy through greenwood bough."
322. Fast as the fatal symbol flies, etc. "The description of the
starting of the Fiery Cross bears more marks of labor than most of Mr.
Scott's poetry, and borders, perhaps, on straining and exaggeration; yet
it shows great power" (Jeffrey).
332. Cheer. In its original sense of countenance, or look. Cf.
Shakespeare, M. N. D. iii. 2. 96: "pale of cheer;" Spenser, F. Q. i.
1. 2: "But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;" Dryden, Hind and
Panther, iii. 437: "Till frowning skies began to change their cheer,"
etc.
333. His scythe. The reading of the 1st and other early eds.; "the
scythe" in more recent ones.
342. Alas, thou lovely lake! etc. "Observe Scott's habit of looking at
nature, neither as dead, nor merely material, nor as altered by his
own feelings; but as having an animation and pathos of its own, wholly
irrespective of human passion--an animation which Scott loves and
sympathizes with, as he would with a fellow creature, forgetting himself
altogether, and subduing his own humanity before what seems to him the
power of the landscape.... Instead of making Nature anywise subordinate
to himself, he makes himself subordinate to HER--follows her lead
simply--does not venture to bring his own cares and thoughts into her
pure and quiet presence--paints her in her simple and universal truth,
adding no result of momentary passion or fancy, and appears, therefore,
at first shallower than other poets, being in reality wider and
healthier" (Ruskin).
344. Bosky. Bushy, woody. Cf. Milton, Comus, 313: "And every bosky bourn
from side to side;" Shakespeare, Temp. iv. i. 81: "My bosky acres and my
unshrubb'd down," etc.
347. Seems for the scene, etc. The MS. has "Seems all too lively and too
loud."
349. Duncraggan's huts. A homestead between Lochs Achray and Vennachar,
near the Brigg of Turk.
355. Shot him. See on i. 142 above. Scott is much given to this
construction.
357. The funeral yell, etc. The MS. has "'T is woman's scream, 't is
childhood's wail."
Yell may at first seem too strong a word here, but it is in keeping with
the people and the times described. Besides Scott was familiar with old
English poetry, in which it was often used where a modern writer would
choose another word. Cf. Surrey, Virgil's AEneid: "With wailing great
and women's shrill yelling;" and Gascoigne, De Profundis:
"From depth of doole wherein my soule dooth dwell,
...........
O gracious God, to thee I crie and yell."
362. Torch's ray. The 1st ed. reads "torches ray" and supply;" corrected
in the Errata to read as in the text. Most eds. print "torches' ray."
369. Coronach. Scott has the following note here: "The Coronach of the
Highlanders, like the Ululatus of the Romans, and the Ululoo of the
Irish, was a wild expression of lamentation, poured forth by the
mourners over the body of a departed friend. When the words of it were
articulate, they expressed the praises of the deceased, and the loss the
clan would sustain by his death. The following is a lamentation of this
kind, literally translated from the Gaelic, to some of the ideas of
which the text stands indebted. The tune is so popular that it has since
become the war-march, or gathering of the clan.
Coronach on Sir Lauchlan, Chief of Maclean.
'Which of all the Senachies
Can trace thy line from the root, up to Paradise,
But Macvuirih, the son of Fergus?
No sooner had thine ancient stately tree
Taken firm root in Albin,
Than one of thy forefathers fell at Harlaw.--
'T was then we lost a chief of deathless name.
''T is no base weed--no planted tree,
Nor a seedling of last Autumn;
Nor a sapling planted at Beltain; [7]
Wide, wide around were spread its lofty branches--
But the topmost bough is lowly laid!
Thou hast forsaken us before Sawaine. [8]
'Thy dwelling is the winter house;--
Loud, sad, and mighty is thy death-song!
Oh! courteous champion of Montrose!
Oh! stately warrior of the Celtic Isles!
Thou shalt buckle thy harness on no more!'
"The coronach has for some years past been suspended at funerals by
the use of the bagpipe; and that also is, like many other Highland
peculiarities, falling into disuse, unless in remote districts."
370. He is gone, etc. As Taylor remarks, the metre of this dirge seems
to be amphibrachic; that is, made up of feet, or metrical divisions,
of three syllables, the second of which is accented. Some of the lines
appear to be anapestic (made up of trisyllabic feet, with the last
syllable accented); but the rhythm of these is amphibrachic; that is,
the rhythmic pause is after the syllable that follows the accent.
"(He) is gone on | the mountain,
{Like) a summer- | dried fountain."
Ten lines out of twenty-four are distinctly amphibrachic, as
"To Duncan | no morrow."
So that it seems best to treat the rest as amphibrachic, with a
superfluous unaccented syllable at the beginning of the line. Taylor
adds: "The song is very carefully divided. To each of the three things,
mountain, forest, fountain, four lines are given, in the order 3, 1, 2."
384. In flushing. In full bloom. Cf. Hamlet, iii. 3. 81: "broad blown,
as flush as May."
386. Correi. A hallow in the side of a hill, where game usually lies.
387. Cumber. Trouble, perplexity. Cf. Fairfax, Tasso ii. 73: "Thus
fade thy helps, and thus thy cumbers spring;" and Sir John Harrington,
Epigrams, i. 94: "without all let [hindrance] or cumber."
388. Red. Bloody, not afraid of the hand-to-hand fight.
394. Stumah. "Faithful; the name of a dog" (Scott).
410. Angus, the heir, etc. The MS. reads:
"Angus, the first of Duncan's line,
Sprung forth and seized the fatal sign,
And then upon his kinsman's bier
Fell Malise's suspended tear.
In haste the stripling to his side
His father's targe and falchion tied."
439. Hest. Behest, bidding; used only in poetry. Cf. Shakespeare, Temp.
iii. 1. 37: "I have broke your hest to say so;" Id. iv. 1. 65: "at thy
hest," etc.
452. Benledi saw the Cross of Fire, etc. Scott says here: "Inspection
of the provincial map of Perthshire, or any large map of Scotland, will
trace the progress of the signal through the small district of lakes and
mountains, which, in exercise of my imaginary chieftain, and which, at
the period of my romance, was really occupied by a clan who claimed a
descent from Alpine,--a clan the most unfortunate and most persecuted,
but neither the least distinguished, least powerful, nor least brave of
the tribes of the Gael.
"The first stage of the Fiery Cross is to Duncraggan, a place near
the Brigg of Turk, where a short stream divides Loch Achray from Loch
Vennachar. From thence, it passes towards Callander, and then, turning
to the left up the pass of Leny, is consigned to Norman at the Chapel of
Saint Bride, which stood on a small and romantic knoll in the middle of
the valley, called Strath-Ire. Tombea and Arnandave, or Adrmandave,
are names of places in the vicinity. The alarm is then supposed to pass
along the Lake of Lubnaig, and through the various glens in the district
of Balquidder, including the neighboring tracts of Glenfinlas and
Strath-Gartney."
453. Strath-Ire. This valley connects Lochs Voil and Lubnaig. The
Chapel of Saint Bride is about half a mile from the southern end of Loch
Lubnaig, on the banks of the River Leny, a branch of the Teith (hence
"Teith's young waters"). The churchyard, with a few remains of the
chapel, are all that now mark the spot.
458. Until, where, etc. The MS. reads:
"And where a steep and wooded knoll
Graced the dark strath with emerald green."
465. Though reeled his sympathetic eye. That is, his eye reeled in
sympathy with the movement of the waters--a poetic expression of what
every one has felt when looking into a "dizzily dancing" stream.
478. That morning-tide. That morning time. Tide in this sense is now
used only in a few poetic compounds like eventide, springtide, etc. See
iv. 59 below. For its former use, cf. Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 29: "and rest
their weary limbs a tide;" Id. iii. 6. 21: "that mine may be your paine
another tide," etc. See also Scott's Lay, vi. 50: "Me lists not at this
tide declare."
483. Bridal. Bridal party; used as a collective noun.
485. Coif-clad. Wearing the coif, or curch. See on 114 above; as also
for snooded.
488. Unwitting. Unknowing. Cf. 367 above. For the verb wit, see on i.
596 above.
495. Kerchief. Curch, which is etymologically the same word, and means a
covering for the head. Some eds. print "'kerchief," as if the word were
a contraction of handkerchief.
508. Muster-place. The 1st ed. has "mustering place;" and in 519
"brooks" for brook.
510. And must he, etc. The MS. reads: "And must he then exchange the
hand."
528. Lugnaig's lake. loch Lubnaig is about four miles long and a mile
broad, hemmed in by steep, and rugged mountains. The view of Benledi