Stanza XXXVI. line 1096. ‘This storm of Lichfield Cathedral, which had been garrisoned on the part of the King, took place in the Great Civil War. Lord Brook, who, with Sir John Gill, commanded the assailants, was shot with a musket-ball through the vizor of his helmet. The royalists remarked that he was killed by a shot fired from St. Chad’s Cathedral, and upon St. Chad’s day, and received his death-wound in the very eye with which, he had said, he hoped to see the ruin of all the cathedrals in England. The magnificent church in question suffered cruelly upon this, and other occasions; the principal spire being ruined by the fire of the besiegers.’-SCOTT.

Ceadda, or Chad, after resigning the bishopric of York in 669 A. D., was appointed Bp. of Lichfield, where he ‘lived for a little while in great holiness.’ See Hunt’s ‘English Church in the Middle Ages,’ p. 17.

line 1110. The allusion is to the old fragment on Flodden, which has been so skilfully extended by Jean Elliot and also by Mrs. Cockburn in their national lyrics, ‘The Flowers o’ the Forest.’

line 1117. Once more the poet uses the irony of events with significant force.

Stanza XXXVII. line 1125. There is now a font of stone with a drinking cup, and an inscription on the back of the font runs thus:-

‘Drink, weary pilgrim, drink and stay, Rest by the well of Sybil Grey.’

Stanza XXXVIII. In this stanza the poet indicates the spirit in which romances are written, clearly indicating that those only that have ears will be able to hear. ‘Phonanta sunetoisin’ might be the watchword of all imaginative writers. Cp. Thackeray’s ‘Rebecca and Rowena.’

line 1155. Hall and Holinshed were chroniclers of the sixteenth century, to both of whom Shakespeare was indebted for pliant material.

line 1168. Sir Thomas More, Lord Sands, and Anthony Denny. See Henry VIII.

lines 1169-70. The references are to old homely customs at weddings. See Brand’s ‘Popular Antiquities.’

L’ENVOY.

Scott’s fondness for archaisms makes him add his L’Envoy in the manner of early English and Scottish poets. See e.g. Spenser’s ‘Shepherd’s Calendar’ and the ‘Phoenix’ of James VI.

line 4. Rede, ‘used generally for tale or discourse.’-SCOTT.

line 6. Cp. William Morris’s introduction to ‘Earthly Paradise,’ where the poet calls himself

‘The idle singer of an empty day.’

line 17. This hearty wish is uttered, no doubt, with certain reminiscences of the author’s own school days. His youthful spirit, and his genial sympathy with the young, are prominent features in the character of Sir Walter Scott.

THE END.

Footnotes:

{1} Lockhart quotes:-‘He resumed the bishopric of Lindisfarne, which, owing to bad health, he again relinquished within less than three months before his death.’-RAINE’S St. Cuthbert.

{2} See, on this curious subject, the Essay on Fairies, in the “Border Minstrelsy,” vol. ii, under the fourth head; also Jackson on Unbelief, p. 175. Chaucer calls Pluto the “King of Faerie”; and Dunbar names him, “Pluto, that elrich incubus.” If he was not actually the devil, he must be considered as the “prince of the power of the air.” The most curious instance of these surviving classical superstitions is that of the Germans, concerning the Hill of Venus, into which she attempts to entice all gallant knights, and detains them there in a sort of Fools’ Paradise.

{3} See Pennant’s Tour in Wales.

{4} ‘First Edition-Mr. Brydone has been many years dead. 1825.’

{5} ‘“Lesquels Escossois descendirent la montaigne in bonne ordre, en la maniere que marchent Its Allemans, sans parler, ne faire aucun bruit”-Gazette of the Battle, PINKERTON’S History, Appendix, vol. ii. p. 456.’

Страница 82 из 82

Назад 1…81 82Далее