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1. 461. The reference is to Edward I, who went as Prince Edward to Palestine in 1270, so that the legend at this point embodies an anachronism. Edward became king in 1274. His shield and banner were emblazoned with 'three leopards courant of fine gold set on red.'

Stanza XXIV. 1. 472. Largs, on the coast of Ayrshire, opposite Bute.

1. 479. The ravens on the Norse banners were said to flutter their wings before a victory, and to let them droop in prospect of a defeat.

1. 487. For an account of the expedition to Copenhagen in 1801, see Southey's "Life of Nelson," chap. vii.'-LOCKHART. There may possibly be a reference to the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807.

Stanza XXV. 1. 497. The slight wound was due to the start mentioned in 1. 462. He had been warned against letting his heart fail him.

1. 503. Scott quotes thus from the essay on 'Fairy Superstitions' in the 'Border Minstrelsy,' vol. ii., to show 'whence many of the particulars of the combat between Alexander III and the Goblin Knight are derived':

'Gervase of Tilbury (Otia Imperial ap. Script. rer. Brunsvic, vol. i. p. 797), relates the following popular story concerning a fairy knight: "Osbert, a bold and powerful baron, visited a noble family in the vicinity of Wandlebury, in the bishopric of Ely. Among other stories related in the social circle of his friends, who, according to custom, amused each other by repeating ancient tales and traditions, he was informed, that if any knight, unattended, entered an adjacent plain by moonlight, and challenged an adversary to appear, he would be immediately encountered by a spirit in the form of a knight. Osbert resolved to make the experiment, and set out, attended by a single squire, whom he ordered to remain without the limits of the plain, which was surrounded by an ancient intrenchment. On repeating the challenge, he was instantly assailed by an adversary, whom he quickly unhorsed, and seized the reins of his steed. During this operation, his ghostly opponent sprung up, and darting his spear, like a javelin, at Osbert, wounded him in the thigh. Osbert returned in triumph with the horse, which he committed to the care of his servants. The horse was of a sable colour, as well as his whole accoutrements, and apparently of great beauty and vigour. He remained with his keeper till cock-crowing, when, with eyes flashing fire, he reared, spurned the ground, and vanished. On dis

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arming himself, Osbert perceived that he was wounded, and that one of his steel boots was full of blood." Gervase adds, that, 66 as long as he lived, the scar of his wound opened afresh on the anniversary of the eve on which he encountered the spirit." Less fortunate was the gallant Bohemian knight, who travelling by night with a single companion, came in sight of a fairy host, arrayed under displayed banners. Despising the remonstrances of his friend, the knight pricked forward to break a lance with a champion, who advanced from the ranks apparently in defiance. His companion beheld the Bohemian overthrown, horse and man, by his aerial adversary; and returning to the spot next morning, he found the mangled corpses of the knight and steed."-Hierarchy of Blessed Angels, p. 554.

'Besides these instances of Elfin chivalry above quoted, many others might be alleged in support of employing fairy machinery in this manner. The forest of Glenmore, in the North Highlands, is believed to be haunted by a spirit called Lham-dearg, in the array of an ancient warrior, having a bloody hand, from which he takes his name. He insists upon those with whom he meets doing battle with him; and the clergyman, who makes up an account of the district, extant in the Macfarlane MS., in the Advocates' Library, gravely assures us, that, in his time, Lham-dearg fought with three brothers whom he met in his walk, none of whom long survived the ghostly conflict. Barclay, in his "Euphormion," gives a singular account of an officer who had ventured, with his servant, rather to intrude upon a haunted house, in a town in Flanders, than to put up with worse quarters elsewhere. After taking the usual precautions of providing fires, lights, and arms, they watched till midnight, when, behold! the severed arm of a man dropped from the ceiling; this was followed by the legs, the other arm, the trunk, and the head of the body, all separately. The members rolled together, united themselves in the presence of the astonished soldiers, and formed a gigantic warrior, who defied them both to oombat. Their blows, although they penetrated the body, and amputated the limbs, of their strange antagonist, had, as the reader may easily believe, little effect on an enemy who possessed such powers of self-union; nor did his efforts make more effectual impression upon them. How the combat terminated I do not exactly remember, and have not the book by me; but I think the spirit made to the intruders on his mansion the usual proposal, that they should renounce their redemption; which being declined, he was obliged to retreat.

The most singular tale of this kind is contained in an extract

communicated to me by my friend Mr. Surtees of Mainsforth, in the Bishopric, who copied it from a MS. note in a copy of Burthogge "On the Nature of Spirits," 8vo, 1694, which had been the property of the late Mr. Gill, attorney-general to Egerton, Bishop of Durham. "It was not," says my obliging correspondent "in Mr. Gill's own hand, but probably an hundred years older, and was said to be, E libro Convent. Dunelm. per T. C. extract., whom I believe to have been Thomas Cradocke, Esq., barrister, who held several offices under the See of Durham a hundred years ago. Mr. Gill was possessed of most of his manuscripts." The extract, which, in fact, suggested the introduction of the tale into the present poem, runs thus:

"Rem miram hujusmodi quæ nostris temporibus evenit, teste viro nobili ac fide dignissimo, enarrare haud pigebit. Radulphus Bulmer, cum e castris, quæ tunc temporis prope Norham posita erant, oblectationis causa, exiisset, ac in ulteriore Tueda ripå praædam cum canibus leporariis insequeretur, forte cum Scoto quodam nobili, sibi antehac, ut videbatur, familiariter cognito, congressus est; ac, ut fas erat inter inimicos, flagrante bello, brevissimâ interrogationis morâ interpositâ, alterutros invicem incitato cursu infestis animis petiere. Noster, primo occursu, equo præacerrimo hostis impetu labante, in terram eversus pectore et capite læso, sanguinem, mortuo similis, evomebat. Quem ut se ægre habentem comiter allocutus est alter, pollicitusque, modo auxilium non abnegaret, monitisque obtemperans ab omni rerum sacrarum cogitatione abstineret, nec Deo, Deiparæ Virgini, Sanctove ullo, preces aut vota efferret vel inter sese conciperet, se brevi eum sanum validumque restiturum esse. Præ angore oblata conditio accepta est; ac veterator ille nescio quid obscæni murmuris insusurrans, prehensa manu, dicto citius in pedes sanum ut antea sublevavit. Noster autem, maxima præ rei inauditâ novitate formidine perculsus, MI JESU! exclamat, vel quid simile; ac subito respiciens nec hostem nec ullum alium conspicit, equum solum gravissimo nuper casu afflictum, per summam pacem in rivo fluvii pascentem. Ad castra itaque mirabundus revertens, fidei dubius, rem primo occultavit, dein, confecto bello, Confessori suo totam asseruit. Delusoria procul dubio res tota, ac mala veteratoris illius aperitur fraus, qua hominem Christianum ad vetitum tale auxilium pelliceret. Nomen utcunque illius (nobilis alias ac clari) reticendum duco, cum haud dubium sit quin Diabolus, Deo permittente, formam quam libuerit, immo angeli lucis, sacro oculo Dei teste, posse assumere.'

The MS. chronicle, from which Mr. Cradocke took this curious

extract, cannot now be found in the Chapter Library of Durham, or, at least, has hitherto escaped the researches of my friendly correspondent.

'Lindesay is made to allude to this adventure of Ralph Bulmer, as a well-known story, in the 4th Canto, Stanza xxii. p. 103.

'The northern champions of old were accustomed peculiarly to search for, and delight in, encounters with such military spectres. See a whole chapter on the subject in BARTHOLINUS De Causis contemptæ Mortis a Danis, p. 253.'

1. 508. Sir Gilbert Hay, as a faithful adherent of Bruce, was created Lord High Constable of Scotland. See note in 'Lord of the Isles,' II. xiii. How 'the Haies had their beginning of nobilitie' is told in Holinshed's Scottish Chronicle,' I. 308.

Stanza XXVI. 1. 510. Quaigh, a wooden cup, composed of staves hooped together.'-SCOTT.

Stanza XXVIII. 1. 551. Darkling, adv. (not adj. as in Keats's 'darkling way' in 'Eve of St. Agnes'), really means' in the dark.' Cp. 'Lady of the Lake,' IV. (Alice Brand) :

'For darkling was the battle tried';

and see Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 2. 86; King Lear, i. 4. 237. Lord Tennyson, like Keats, uses the word as an adj. in 'In Memoriam,' xcix :

'Who tremblest through thy darkling red.'

Cp. below, V. Introd. 23, ‘darkling politician.' For scholarly discussion of the term, see Notes and Queries, VII. iii. 191.

Stanza XXX. 11, 585-9. Iago understands the 'contending flow' of passions when in a glow of self-satisfied feeling he exclaims:

• Work on,

My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught.'
Othello, iv. I. 44.

Stanza XXXI. 1. 597. Yode, used by old poets for went.'SCOTT. It is a variant of 'yod' or 'yede,' from A.S. eóde, I went. Cp. Lat. eo, I go. See Clarendon Press 'Specimens of Early English,' II. 71 :

'Thair scrippes, quer thai rade or yode,

Tham failed neuer o drinc ne fode.'

Spenser writes, 'Faerie Queene,' II. vii. 2 :

'So, long he yode, yet no adventure found.'

1. 599. Selle, saddle. Cp. 'Faerie Queene,' II. v. 4:—

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On his horse necke before the quilted sell.'

INTRODUCTION TO CANTO FOURTH.

'James Skene, Esq., of Rubislaw, Aberdeenshire, was Cornet in the Royal Edinburgh Light Horse Volunteers; and Sir Walter Scott was Quartermaster of the same corps.'-Lockhart.

For Skene's account of the origin of this regiment, due in large measure to 'Scott's ardour,' see 'Life of Scott,' i. 258.

1. 2. See Taming of the Shrew, i. 4. 135, and 2 Henry IV, v. 3. 143, where a line of an old song is quoted :

"Where is the life that late I led?'

1. 3. See As you Like It, ii. 7. 12.

1. 7. Scott made the acquaintance of Skene, recently returned from a lengthened stay in Saxony, about the end of 1796, and profited much by his friend's German knowledge and his German books. In later days he utilized suggestions of Skene's in 'Ivanhoe' and Quentin Durward.' See 'Life of Scott,' passim, and specially i. 257, and iv. 342.

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1. 37. Blackhouse, a farm 'situated on the Douglas-burn, then tenanted by a remarkable family, to which I have already made allusion that of William Laidlaw.'—' Life,' i. 328. Ettrick Pen is a hill in the south of Selkirkshire.

1. 46. Various illustrations of the Poetry and Novels of Sir Walter Scott, from designs by Mr. Skene, have since been published.' -LOCKHART.

1. 48. Probably the first reference in poetry to the Scottish heather is, says Prof. Veitch (Feeling for Nature,' ii. 52), in Thomson's 'Spring,' where the bees are represented as daring

'The purple heath, or where the wild thyme grows.'

11. 55-97. With this striking typical winter piece, cp. in Thomson's' Winter,' the vivid and pathetic picture beginning :In his own loose-revolving fields, the swain

Disastered stands.'

See also Burns's 'Winter Night,' which by these lines may have suggested Scott's 'beamless sun' :—

'When Phoebus gies a short-liv'd glow'r

Far south the lift,

Dim-dark'ning thro' the flaky show'r,

Or whirling drift.'.

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