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As a poet, the "virtue" and power of Scott appear best in his songs. of the highest excellence, and may even take rank with some of Shakspere's. They come from the very depths of a deep passionate nature, that never in any other form so openly confessed its inmost character, but was for the most part reserved and seemingly conventional They are the very cries of Scott's most secret spirit; sometimes, as he writes them, he becomes almost inarticulate with feeling; at least, he cannot find current words that are adequate to his emotion. This is the real explanation of those wild burdens, composed of strange fancy-woven melodious syllables, that he used in his Lyrics with such a weird effect (as "Eleu Loro" in "Where shall the lover rest," &c. Marmion). They are the voice of Nature herself, speaking a certain mysterious tongue of her own, not according to any human grammar. Shakspere, too, often has recourse to these rudimentary sounds-this primitive, unorganised language; and so other Elizabethan poets, often with a most pathetic accent. During the latter part of the seventeenth century and during the eighteenth these refrains are unknown-a significant fact. The poets of those days felt no need of any mystic utterances. They could say well enough all they had to say in the ordinary speech. It was a sign of the revival of a profounder poetry about the beginning of this century, that once more the imperfectness of the current dialects was felt, once more men were visited by thoughts too deep for received phraseologies. Scott was no supreme master of language like Wordsworth, or Shelley, or Coleridge. He could not utter the thoughts that arose in him with any fine subtilty of analysis. When his nature was deeply stirred within him, it found its relief in melodized unworded sounds, which in fact often speak more significantly and deeply than the seemingly distincter utterances to which they form a sort of diapason.

In his longer pieces Scott's poetical genius shines less manifestly. One reason is that his 'Lays" were for the most part inspired by other than poetical motives. The writer's object in them is antiquarian and historical, both in their form and in their subject-matter. For their form, he aims at reproducing the Metrical Romances of Chivalry. It is true that he does not quite succeed in doing that—it was impossible that he should succeed; but that is his aim. His ambition was to be what he calls a 'Minstrel "-to be a Trouvère. He adopted with certain variations the favourite measures of those medieval rhapsodists; he threw himself with the utmost ardour into their times; he recalled the scenes and forms of life amid which they lived. The Lay of the Last Minstrel is a fine poetic handbook of the Middle Ages, as Scott could see them. It is the work of an enthusiastic archeologist with no contemptible gift of measure and of rhyme, rather than of a purely poetizing spirit. It displays much imaginative power, but it is rather historical imagination than artistic. So in Marmion we have six brilliant chapters describing the life of the early sixteenth century-the Castle, the Convent, the Inn, the Camp, the Court, the Battle. To convey information about an olden time, which had supreme fascinations for Scott, is in short the prime impelling purpose of these infant Epics. Apollo lays aside his singing-robe, and leaving the heights of Parnassus for the Professor's chair delivers glowing, though not always accurate, lectures on the Manners and Customs of the Middle Ages. In these labours of revival and imitation and learning, Scott's creative power never at all worthily expressed itself. It is a most notable fact that his wonderful gift of humour found no place for itself in them. It cannot be said that they contain a single figure in any way comparable with those numerous real living and moving human beings that spring into life in his prose works. They are indeed rather echoes than voices. The only poetical form which could possibly have comprehended Scott's genius in all its breadth was the Dramatic. Dramatic power, in the untechnical sense, he possessed in the highest degree. It is difficult to believe that, had he lived in the Elizabethan age, he would not have ranked high amongst the "old masters" of our drama, to whom as towards his spiritual brothers he felt himself always strongly drawn in his sympathies. He is one of the very few who since Shakspere's time have seemed to be endowed with something of Shakspere's nature. But, as it proved, he could express himself in the dramatic form even less worthily than in the metrical romance. It would seem as if every great age and every great genius have their own form of expression, which dies with them. The Drama in Scott's time was an obsolete

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thing, incapable of resuscitation; with all Scott's dramatic faculties he could noc write dramas. The one shape in which all the richness of his genius was to be revealed was the Novel. The Novel was for his day and for him what the Drama was for Shakspere and his age. There all his various talents were to find free play-his descriptive and narrative powers, his shrewd observation, his tragic intensity, his lyrical excellence, his infinite humour. Perhaps our own day supplies us with a somewhat parallel instance of failure in the Drama, technically so styled, by one possessed of the highest dramatic spirit in the more general sense of the word. Adam Bede is certainly worth a whole tribe of Spanish Gipsys, great as is the interest of the Spanish Gipsy. It may be remembered that Dickens essayed play' writing with but slight success.

CADYOW CASTLE.

Scott composed this piece the Christmas of 1801 when visiting at Hamilton Palace, Lanarkshire. It has this interest: that it is the first "work in which he grapples with the world of -picturesque incident unfolded in the authentic annals of Scotland." It is inserted here from a wish not to omit Scott's name in this collection, and an unwillingness to represent him by any fragment of a poem; certainly it cannot be regarded as of any great intrinsic merit. It is the work of a 'prentice hand; but the works of such 'prentice hands as Scott must not be neglected. Cadyow or Cadzow Castle was the old baronial seat of the Hamiltons. It stood, where its ruins may still be seen, on the banks of the Evan some two miles from the junction of that stream with the Clyde. Close by are some remains of the Caledonian forest that once covered the whole of southern Scotland.

For accounts of the assassination of the Regent Murray (Jan. 23, 1569-70), see Robertson's History of Scotland, Book V., Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, chap. xxxii. The ballad follows the facts pretty closely. The murderer escaped to France. In the civil wars of that country an attempt was made to engage him, as a known desperado, in the assassination of the Admiral Coligni; but he resented it as a deadly insult. "He had slain a man in Scotland," he said, "from whom he had sustained a mortal injury; but the world could not engage him to attempt the life of one against whom he had no personal cause of quarrel."

148. 1. [What is the meaning of abode here?]

Cadyow was dismantled at the close of the Scotch Civil Wars for its devotion to the cause of Queen Mary.

2. [What is the force of Gothic here? In what other senses is the word used? See Trench's Study of Words.]

4. revel is etymologically but a various form of rebel.

6. [Explain so here.]

10. vaults. See Gray's Elegy, 39.

12. Evan. See Introduction.

[What is the force of hoarser here? Is it the same as in Gray's Bard, 26?]

14. [What "part of speech" is minstrel here?]

15. Scott was at this time busy completing his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

17. thou. He uses thou here, rather than you as in l. 14, because he wishes to be more pointed and emphatic. All this stanza is given to the description of the thou-the Right Hon. Lady Anne Hamilton.

149. 27. As at his own Abbotsford in later years.

31. ashler. Fr. pierre-de-taille, Ital. Pietra riquadrata, Germ. Bunderwerke, Qua. terstein. Various forms of the word are achelor, ashlar, aschelere, astler, &c. See Gloss. of

66

Arch., which work quotes, amongst other passages from Hist. Dunelm. Scrip. tres, CLXXX: et erit [murus] exterius de puro lapide, vocato achiler, plane inscisso, interius vero de fracto lapide, vocato roghwall." Chambers' Etym. Dict. suggests a Celtic derivation, but it looks anything but satisfactory.

32. battled battlemented.

33. keep. Fr. donjon.

It may perhaps be doubted whether Castle chapels were ever surmounted with spires. Such ornaments would have made excellent marks for the enemy. But spire here may =3 the turret pinnacles.

37. [Explain their.]

40. bower. See Prothal. 93.

43. route.

The e belongs to the old Eng. form; see Palsg. apud Wedgwood, and also to the old Fr., which Brachet derives from the Eng rout. According to Wedgwood, this rout is connected with rout, "to snore, to bellow as oxen," and denotes first, a confusion, tumult, and then a mob. It is certainly of the same house with the Germ. rotte. Rout = a defeat, is of different origin.

50. scud is connected with A.S. scéotan, our modern shoot. The grammatical construction here is noticeable, scud not usually governing an object. case without a preposition to help it. Comp. the boating phrase "to shoot a bridge." Walk is used in a similar way, when people speak colloquially of "walking a country." So "walked the waves," in Milton's Lyc. 173, where see note.

53. See Introduction.

60. the Mountain Bull.

"There was long preserved in this forest the breed of the Scottish wild cattle, until their ferocity occasioned their being extirpated about forty years ago. Their appearance was beautiful, being milk-white, with black muzzles, horns, and hoofs. he bulls are described by ancient authors as having white manes; but those of latter days had lost that peculiarity, perhaps by intermixture with the tame breed." (Globe Ed. of Scott.) See Scott's note to Castle Dangerous. This breed survives now only at Chillingham Castle in Northumberland.

62. swarthy is cognate with Germ. schwartz.

150. 68. sound the pryse. The Prise was the note or notes blown at the death of the stag. See Sir Tristrem, Fytte Third, xli. :

i.e. three notes or more.

"He blew priis as he can

Thre mot other mare."

Sir Eglamour of Artois, 298-30ɔ (Camd. Soc.):

"Then had Syr Egyllamoure don to dedd

A grete herte, & tan the hedd,

The pryce he blewe fulle schylle."

See notes to

According to some, the pryce consisted of "two longe notes and the recl ate." Syr Gawayne, p. 322. The word, like nearly all other words in English connected with the chase, is Norman-French. It is in fact the same word with the Fr. prise, lit. a capture, and

our prize.

72. dight. A. S. dihtan, to arrange, dress, &c.
[What is meant by cheer here?]

73. clan is a Keltic word, of the Gadhelic branch.
78. [Explain still here.]

Gael, and Irish clann.

81. Claud Lord Claud Hamilton, second son of the Duke of Chatelherault and "Com:entator" of the Abbey of Paisley; a firm adherent of Queen Mary, for whom he fought at Langside.

83. buxom. See note to L'Alleg. 24.

85. Woodhouselee was on the bank of the Esk, near Auchendinny. The final syllable

is lea a meadow.

87. hear hs. Obs. the plural.

89. war wane, want, the negative prefix un, Lat. vanus, are all of the same family. 91. sate. Perhaps this e was originally added to shew that the chief vowel was long. The A. S. pret. is sæt. We now pronounce the a short, and have dropped the final e.

94. See Introduction. Bothwellhaugh had been pardoned for his part taken at Langside, but amerced of his property. The lands so forfeited were bestowed upon one of the Regent's favourites.

151. 101. wildered bewildered; but this word is scarcely ever now used in its strict

sense

108. Arran brand.

110. resistless. Less (= A. S. los, connected with our loss, lose, not with our less) is not often compounded with verbs. Besides resistless occur ceaseless, and hireless; Gower has haveless. See Stud. Man. Eng. Lang., Lect. vi.

110. headlong. See note to D. Vill. 29.

III. poniard Fr. poignard = It. pugnale = Lat. pugio.

112. jaded. See note to Twa Dogs, 220.

steed is akin to stud, A. S. stod.

117. selle, the Fr. selle. See Faerie Q. II. ii. 11, &c.

120. carbine Fr. carabine, old Fr. calabrin, from calabre, an old stone-hurling engine, whose name was afterwards transferred to the musket. So musket originally denoted a sparrow-hawk.

124. drink

So bibere aure in Latin, as Hor. Od. II. xvii. 32:

"Sed magis

Pugnas et exactos tyrannos

Densum humeris bibit aure vulgus."

125. quarry. Fr. curée, Lat. corata, “viscères et poumons d'un animal, de cor cœur; la curée étant proprement les poumons et les entrailles du cerf que l'on donne aux chiens après la chasse." (Brachet). Quarrel, a dispute, is a quite distinct word-from Lat. querela. o'er dale and down. A favourite phrase in the old Metrical Romances.

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127. base-born = bastard. See apud Wedgwood, who derives from the Gael. baos, lust, fornication, a bast ibore" (Rob. Gl. 516), "begetin o bast" (Arthur and Merlin), "born in baste" (Hall).

129. [Linlithgow. Where exactly is this town?]

[What is meant by side here?]

131. bigot. Derived by some from Visigoth (see Taylor's Words and Places); by others, from Span. bigote moustache (hombre de bigote = man of spirit and viĝour); by others it is held to be pretty much identical with the Flem. beguin, the common stem being the Ital. bigio = grey, the word referring originally to the dress worn by certain religionists in the 13th century (see Wedgwood's Etym. Dict.).

152. 135. [Explain settled.]

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137. hackbut or hagbut="the arquebus with a hooked stock." (Fairholt's Costume in England, Gloss.) "Arquebus is said to be derived from the Italian arca-bonza (corrupted from bocca) signifying a bow with a mouth. Hack but, or hagbush, is perhaps from the old German hakenbüsche, a hook and gun, or any cylindrical vessel.” (Eccleston's Eng. Antiq.

bent cocked. A word, properly applying to a bow, is here transferred to a gun. Many terms of the old artillery were transferred to the new. See note on carbine, l. 120. The carbine with which the Regent was shot is still preserved at Hamilton

Palace.

140. Scottish pikes and English bows. "In all ages the bow was the English weapon of victory, and though the Scots, and perhaps the French, were superior in the use of the

spear, yet this weapon was useless, after the distant bow had decided the combat." (Scott's "Advertisement" to Halidon Hill.)

141. Morton, James Douglas, Earl of Morton, was the chief of Darnley's accomplices in the murder of Rizzio.

note.)

1 141

144. [What part of the sentence is clan ?]

Macfarlanes. Lennox Highlanders.

145 Glencairn Earl of Glencairn, "a steady adherent of the Regent." (Scott's

Parkhead George Douglas of Parkhead, a natural brother of Morton.

Cf.

147. Lindesay = Lord Lindsay of the Byres, "the most ferocious and brutal of the Regent's faction, and as such was employed to extort Mary's signature to the deed of resignation presented to her in Lochleven Castle." So Scott's note. See also Tales of a Grandfather, chap. xxxii. and the Abbot, chap. xxii.

149. pennon'd spears.

"Pennon, a small flag at the head of a knight's lance" (Fair

holt). Pennant is a various form.

150. [Explain plumage.]

153. vizor "the moveable face-guard of a helmet" (Fairholt). From the Fr. visiere, which is of course ultimately from video. Visard is cognate.

155. truncheon is the Fr. tronçon, from tronc, Lat. truncus. The termination is dim., as in bâton, musketoon, &c.

157. sadden'd made serious. Comp. Rosalind's "sad brow and true maid," As you Like it, III. ii. 228.

161. parts. See Gray's Elegy, l. 1.

166. [What part of the sentence is love here ?]

167. As Llewellyn in the Welsh version of one of the oldest tales of the Indo-European It had been recently told in English in a pleasing manner by the Hon. W. R. Spencer :

race.

"Hell-hound! my child's by thee devoured,'

The frantic father cried;

And to the hilt his vengeful sword

He plunged in Gelert's side."

See the whole version in Chambers' Cycl. of Eng. Lit. ii. 380—1. For references to old foreign versions, see Dasent's Popular Tales from the Norse.

broaches. Brooch is cognate.

170. [What part of the verb, and what of the sentence, is roll?] 153. 173. This is a strange use of groan for groan out, groan away. felon's is virtually an adj. here. [Quote similar phrases.] 39. [What is the meaning of for here ?]

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