The Lady of the Lake Chapter 24: Part 24

MS. reads: "Ellen, though more her looks betrayed The simple heart of mountain maid, In speech and gesture, form and grace, Showed she was come of gentle race; 'T was strange, in birth so rude, to find Such face, such manners, and such mind. Each anxious hint the stranger gave, The mother heard with silence grave." 616. Weird women we, etc. See on 35 above. Weird here = skilled in witchcraft; like the "weird sisters" of Macbeth. Down = hill (the Gaelic dun). 622. A harp unseen. Scott has the following note here: "'"They [the Highlanders] delight much in musicke, but chiefly in harps and clairschoes of their own fashion. The strings of the clairschoes are made of brasse wire, and the strings of the harps of sinews; which strings they strike either with their nayles, growing long, or else with an instrument appointed for that use. They take great pleasure to decke their harps and clairschoes with silver and precious stones; the poore ones that cannot attayne hereunto, decke them with christall. They sing verses prettily compound, contayning (for the most part) prayses of valiant men. There is not almost any other argument, whereof their rhymes intreat. They speak the ancient French language, altered a little." [6] "The harp and chairschoes are now only heard of in the Highlands in ancient song. At what period these instruments ceased to be used, is not on record; and tradition is silent on this head. But, as Irish harpers occasionally visited the Highlands and Western Isles till lately, the harp might have been extant so late as the middle of the present century. Thus far we know, that from remote times down to the present, harpers were received as welcome guests, particularly in the Highlands of Scotland; and so late as the latter end of the sixteenth century, as appears by the above quotations, the harp was in common use among the natives of the Western Isles. How it happened that the noisy and inharmonious bagpipe banished the soft and expressive harp, we cannot say; but certain it is, that the bagpipe is now the only instrument that obtains universally in the Highland districts' (Campbell's Journey through North Britain. London, 1808, 4to, i. 175). "Mr. Gunn, of Edinburgh, has lately published a curious Essay upon the Harp and Harp Music of the Highlands of Scotland. That the instrument was once in common use there, is most certain. Cleland numbers an acquaintance with it among the few accomplishments which his satire allows to the Highlanders:-- 'In nothing they're accounted sharp, Except in bagpipe or in harm.'" 624. Soldier, rest! etc. The metre of this song is trochaic; that is, the accents fall regularly on the odd syllables. 631. In slumber dewing. That is, bedewing. For the metaphor, cf. Shakespeare, Rich. III. iv. 1. 84: "the golden dew of sleep;" and J. C. ii. 1. 230: "the honey-heavy dew of slumber." 635. Morn of toil, etc. The MS. has "noon of hunger, night of waking;" and in the next line, "rouse" for reach. 638. Pibroch. "A Highland air, suited to the particular passion which the musician would either excite or assuage; generally applied to those airs that are played on the bagpipe before the Highlanders when they go out to battle" (Jamieson). Here it is put for the bagpipe itself. See also on ii. 363 below. 642. And the bittern sound his drum. Goldsmith (D. V. 44) calls the bird "the hollow-sounding bittern;" and in his Animated Nature, he says that of all the notes of waterfowl "there is none so dismally hollow as the booming of the bittern." 648. She paused, etc. The MS. has "She paused--but waked again the lay." 655. The MS. reads: "Slumber sweet our spells shall deal ye;" and in 657: "Let our slumbrous spells| avail ye | beguile ye." 657. Reveille. The call to rouse troops or huntsmen in the morning. 669. Forest sports. The MS. has "mountain chase." 672. Not Ellens' spell. That is, not even Ellen's spell. On the passage, cf. Rokeby, i. 2: "Sleep came at length, but with a train Of feelings true and fancies vain, Mingling, in wild disorder cast, The expected future with the past." 693. Or is it all a vision now? Lockhart quotes here Thomson's Castle of Indolence: "Ye guardian spirits, to whom man is dear, From these foul demons shield the midnight gloom: Angels of fancy and love, be near. And o'er the blank of sleep diffuse a bloom: Evoke the sacred shades of Greece and Rome, And let them virtue with a look impart; But chief, awhile, O! lend us from the tomb Those long-lost friends for whom in love we smart, and fill with pious awe and joy-mixt woe the heart. "Or are you sportive?--bid the morn of youth Rise to new light, and beam afresh the days Of innocence, simplicity, and truth; To cares estranged, and manhood's thorny ways. What transport, to retrace our boyish plays, Our easy bliss, when each thing joy supplied; The woods, the mountains, and the warbling maze Of the wild books!" The Critical Review says of the following stanza (xxxiv): "Such a strange and romantic dream as may be naturally expected to flow from the extraordinary events of the day. It might, perhaps, be quoted as one of Mr. Scott's most successful efforts in descriptive poetry. Some few lines of it are indeed unrivalled for delicacy and melancholy tenderness." 704. Grisly. Grim, horrible; an obsolete word, much used in old poetry. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 30: "her darke griesly looke;" Shakespeare, 1 Hen. VI. i. 4. 47: "My grisly countenance made others fly," etc. See also iv. 322, etc. below. 723. Played, etc. The MS. reads: "Played on/ the bosoms of the lake, / Lock Katrine's still expanse; The birch, the wild rose, and the broom Wasted around their rich perfume... The birch-trees wept in balmy dew; The aspen slept on Benvenue; Wild were the heart whose passions' power Defied the influence of the hour." 724. Passion's. The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; some recent eds. have "passions'." 738. Orisons. The 1st ed. has "orison" both here and in 740 (the ed. of 1821 only in the latter); but the word is almost invariably plural, both in poetry and prose--always in Shakespeare and Milton. Canto Second. 7. A minstrel gray. "That Highland chieftains, to a late period, retained in their service the bard, as a family officer, admits of very easy proof. The author of the Letters from the North of Scotland, an officer of engineers, quartered at Inverness about 1720, who certainly cannot be deemed a favorable witness, gives the following account of the office, and of a bard, whom he heard exercise his talent of recitation:--'The bard is killed in the genealogy of all the Highland families, sometimes preceptor to the young laird, celebrates in Irish verse the original of the tribe, the famous warlike actions of the successive heads, and sings his own lyricks as an opiate to the chief, when indisposed for sleep; but poets are not equally esteemed and honored in all countries. I happened to be a witness of the dishonour done to the muse, at the house of one of the chiefs, where two of these bards were set at a good distance, at the lower end of a long table, with a parcel of Highlanders of no extraordinary appearance, over a cup of ale. Poor inspiration! They were not asked to drink a glass of wine at our table, though the whole company consisted only of the great man, one of his near relations, and myself. After some little time, the chief ordered one of them to sing me a Highland song. The bard readily obeyed, and with a hoarse voice, and in a tune of few various notes, began, as I was told, one of his own lyricks; and when he had proceeded to the fourth of fifth stanza, I perceived, by the names of several persons, glens, and mountains, which I had known or heard of before, that it was an account of some clan battle. But in his going on, the chief (who piques himself upon his school-learning) at some particular passage, bid him cease, and cryed out, "There's nothing like that in Virgil or Homer." I bowed, and told him I believed so. This you may believe was very edifying and delightful'" (Scott). 15. Than men, etc. "It is evident that the old bard, with his second-sight, has a glimmering notion who the stranger is. He speaks below {311} of 'courtly spy,' and James's speech had betrayed a knowledge of the Douglas" (Taylor). 20. Battled. The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; "battle" in most others. Cf. i. 626 above. 22. Where beauty, etc. The MS. has "At tourneys where the brave resort." The reference is to the tournaments, "Where," as Milton says (L'Allegro, 119), "throngs of knights and barons bold. In weeds of peace, high triumphs hold, With store of ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence, and judge the prize Of wit or arms, while both contend To win her grace whom all commend." Cf. 87 below. 26. Love's. The reading of the 1st ed. and that of 1821; most eds. have "love." 29. Plaided. The plaid was properly the dress of a Highlander, though it was worn also in the Lowlands. 51. The Harper on the islet beach. "This picture is touched with the hand of the true poet" (Jeffrey). 56. As from. As if from. Cf. 64 and 83 below. This ellipsis was common in Elizabethan English. Cf. Shakespeare, Macb. ii. 2. 28: "One cried 'God bless us!' and 'Amen' the other, As they had seen me with these hangman's hands." 65. In the last sound. For the measure, see on i. 73 above. 69. His fleet. That is, of ducks. Cf. i. 239 above. 80. Would scorn. Who would scorn. See on i. 528 above. 84. Turned him. See on i. 142 above, and cf. 106 below. 86. After. Afterwards; as in Shakespeare, Temp. ii. 2. 10: "And after bite me," etc. The word is not now used adverbially of time, though we may say "he followed after," etc. The 1st ed. reads "that knight." 94. Parts. Departs; as often in poetry and earlier English. Cf. Goldsmith, D. V. 171: "Beside the bed where parting life was laid;" Gray, Elegy, 1: "the knell of parting day," etc. On the other hand, depart was used in the sense of part. In the Marriage Service "till death us do part" is a corruption of "till death us depart." Wiclif's Bible, in Matt. xix. 6, has "therfor a man departe not that thing that God hath ioyned." 103. Another