wrote about the middle of the fifteenth century, calls Stirling Castle
Snowdoun. Sir David Lindsay bestows the same epithet upon it in his
Complaint of the Papingo:
'Adieu, fair Snawdoun, with thy towers high, Thy chaple-royal, park, and table round; May, June, and July, would I
dwell in thee, Were I a man, to hear the birdis sound, Whilk doth agane
thy royal rock rebound.'
"Mr. Chalmers, in his late excellent edition of Sir David Lindsay's works, has refuted the chimerical derivation of Snawdoun from snedding, or cutting. It was probably derived from the romantic legend which connected Stirling with King Arthur, to which the mention of the Round Table gives countenance. The ring within which justs were formerly practised in the Castle park, is still called the Round Table. Snawdoun is the official title of one of the Scottish heralds, whose epithets seem in all countries to have been fantastically adopted from ancient history or romance.
"It appears from the preceding note that the real name by which James was actually distinguished in his private excursions was the Goodman of Ballenguich; derived from a steep pass leading up to the Castle of Stirling, so called. But the epithet would not have suited poetry, and would besides at once, and prematurely, have announced the plot to many of my country men, among whom the traditional stories above mentioned are still current."
798. My spell-bound steps. The MS. has
Thy sovereign's steps |
800. Glaive. Sword. See on iv. 274 above.
803. Pledge of my faith, etc. The MS. has "Pledge of Fitz-James's faith, the ring."
808. A lightening. Some eds. have "A lightning."
809. And more, etc. The MS. reads:
More deep she deemed the Monarch's ire
Kindled 'gainst him, who, for her sire,
Against his Sovereign broadsword drew;
And, with a pleading, warm and true,
She craved the grace of Roderick Dhu."
813. Grace. Pardon.
825. Stained. Reddened.
829. The Graeme. Jeffrey says: "Malcolm Graeme has too insignificant a part assigned him, considering the favor in which he is held both by Ellen and the author; and in bringing out the shaded and imperfect character of Roderick Dhu as a contrast to the purer virtue of his rival, Mr. Scott seems to have fallen into the common error of making him more interesting than him whose virtues he was intended to set off, and converted the villain of the piece in some measure into its hero. A modern poet, however, may perhaps be pardoned for an error of which Milton himself is thought not to have kept clear, and for which there seems so natural a cause in the difference between poetical and amiable characters."
837. Warder. Guard, jailer.
841. Lockhart quotes here the following extract from a letter of Byron's to Scott, dated July 6, 1812:
"And now, waiving myself, let me talk to you of the Prince Regent. He ordered me to be presented to him at a ball; and after some saying, peculiarly pleasing from royal lips, as to my own attempts, he talked to me of you and your immoralities: he preferred you to every bard past and present, and asked which of your works pleased me most. It was a difficult question. I answered, I thought the Lay. He said his own opinion was nearly similar. In speaking of the others, I told him that I thought you more particularly the poet of princes, as they never appeared more fascinating than in Marmion and The Lady of the Lake. He was pleased to coincide, and to dwell on the description of your James's as no less royal than poetical. He spoke alternately of Homer and yourself, and seemed well acquainted with both."
842. Harp of the North, farewell! Cf. the introduction to the poem.
846. Wizard elm. See on i. 2 above.
850. Housing. Returning to the hive.
858. The grief devoured. For the figure, cf. Ps. xlii. 3, lxxx. 5, and Isa. xxx. 20.
859. O'erlive. Several eds. misprint "o'erlived."
Addendum.
Since our first edition appeared we have had the privilege of examining a copy of Scott's 2d ed. (1810), belonging to Mr. E. S. Gould, of Yonkers, N. Y. This 2d ed. is in smaller type than the 1st, and in octavo form, the 1st being in quarto. A minute collation of the text with that of the 1st ed. and our own shows that Scott carefully revised the poem for this 2d ed., and that the changes he afterwards made in it were few and unimportant. For instance, the text includes the verbal changes which we have adopted in i. 198, 290, 432, ii. 103, 201, 203, 534, iii. 30, 173, 190, 508, v. 106, 253, 728, 811, iv. 6, 112, 527, 556, 567, etc. In vi. 291 fol. it reads (including the omissions and insertions) as in our text. In i. 336, 340, the pointing is the same as in the 1st ed.; and in i. 360, the reading is "dear." In ii. 865, 866, it varies from the pointing of the 1st ed.; but we are inclined to regard this as a misprint, not a correction. In ii. 76 this 2d ed. has "lingerewave" for "lingerer wave," and in ii. 217 it repeats the preposterous misprint of "his glee" from the 1st ed. If Scott could overlook such palpable errors as these, he might easily fail to detect the misplacing of a comma. We have our doubts as to i. 336, 340, where the 1st and 2d eds. agree; but there a misprint may have been left uncorrected, as in ii. 217.
Jan. 25, 1884.
FOOTNOTES:
1 (return)
[ One of Scott's (on vi. 47)
has suffered badly in Lockhart's edition. In a quotation from Lord
Berners's Froissart (which I omit) a whole page seems to have dropped out,
and the last sentence, as it now stands, is made up of pans of the one
preceding and the one following the lost matter. It reads thus (I mark the
gap): "There all the companyons made them[... ] breke no poynt of that ye
have ordayned and commanded.,' This is palpable nonsense, but it has been
repeated without correction in every reprint of Lockhart's edition for the
last fifty years.]
2 (return)
[ Lockhart says: "The lady
with whom Sir Walter Scott held this conversation was, no doubt, his aunt,
Miss Christian Rutherford; there was no other female relation DEAD when
this Introduction was written, whom I can suppose him to have consulted on
literary questions. Lady Capulet, on seeing the corpse of Tybalt,
exclaims,—
3 (return)
[ Lockhart quotes Byron, Don
Juan, xi. 55:
Like to the champion in the fisty ring,
Is called on to support his claim, or show it,
Although 't is an imaginary thing," etc.]
4 (return)
[ "Sir Walter reigned before
me," etc. (Don Juan, xi. 57).]
5 (return)
[ The Spenserian stanza,
first used by Spenser in his Faerie Queene, consists of eight lines of ten
syllables, followed by a line of twelve syllables, the accents throughout
being on the even syllables (the so-called iambic measure). There are
three sets of rhymes: one for the first and third lines; another for the
second, fourth, fifth, and seventh; and a third for the sixth, eighth, and
ninth.]
6 (return)
[ Vide Certayne Matters
concerning the Realme of Scotland, etc., as they were Anno Domini 1597.
London, 1603.]
7 (return)
[ See on ii. 319 above.]
8 (return)
[ Hallowe'en.]
9 (return)
[ To the raven that sat on
the forked tree he gave his gifts.]
10 (return)
[ "This story is still
current in the moors of Staffordshire, and adapted by the peasantry to
their own meridian. I have repeatedly heard it told, exactly as here, by
rustics who could not read. My last authority was a nailer near Cheadle"
(R. Jamieson).]
11 (return)
[ See Scottish Historical
and Romantic Ballads, Glasgow, 1808, vol. ii. p. 117.]
12 (return)
[ A champion of popular
romance; see Ellis's Romances, vol. iii.]
13 (return)
[ "That at the eastern
extremity of Loch Katrine, so often mentioned in the text."]
14 (return)
[ "Beallach an duine."]
15 (return)
[ "The reader will find
this story told at greater length, and with the addition in particular of
the King being recognized, like the Fitz-James of the Lady of the Lake, by
being the only person covered, in the First Series of Tales of a
Grandfather, vol. iii, p. 37. The heir of Braehead discharged his duty at
the banquet given to King George IV. in the Parliament House at Edinburgh,
in 1822" (Lockhart).]