Lady of the Lake

practice?

566. brook to wield. 'Brook' commonly means 'endure.' What is its exact meaning here?

573. Ferragus, or Ascabart. Two giants whose names appear frequently in medieval romances of chivalry. The first is better known as Ferran, under which name he figures in the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto. Ascabart plays a part in the old English metrical romance of Sir Bevis of Hampton.

580. To whom, though more than kindred knew. This is a very obscure expression for Scott, who is usually so careful to make himself clear. The meaning seems to be: Ellen regarded her as a mother, though that was more than the actual kinship of the two justified (literally 'knew how to recognize').

591. Knight of Snowdoun, James Fitz-James. As appears later in the poem, these were not his true name and title, though he was entitled to bear them.

622. a harp unseen. In modern Scotland the bagpipe has altogether taken the place of the harp. A writer of the sixteenth century says: 'They (the Highlanders) take great delight to deck their harps with silver and precious stones; the poor ones that cannot attain thereunto deck them with crystal. They sing verses prettily compounded (i.e., composed) containing for the most part praises of valiant men.'

638. pibroch. (Pronounced pee-brock.) A wild tumultuous tune played on the bagpipes in the onset of battle.

642. bittern. A wading bird, allied to the heron.

657. reveille. As the rhyme shows, this word is pronounced reh- vail'yah here. The common pronunciation in the United States is rev-a-lee'. It is the drum-beat or bugle-call at dawn to arouse soldiers.

CANTO SECOND

1. blackcock. See note to I, 440.

7. minstrel grey. Until well on in the eighteenth century it was customary for Highland chieftains to keep in their service a bard, whose chief duty it was to sing the exploits of the ancestors of the line.

69. Lead forth his fleet. What kind of figure is contained in the word fleet as applied to the flock of ducks?

131. harp, which erst Saint Modan swayed. St. Modan was not a harper, as Scott elsewhere ingenuously confesses, adding, however, that 'Saint Dunstan certainly did play upon that instrument.'

141. Wailed loud through Bothwell's bannered hall. The minstrel tries to account for the strange way in which his harp gives back mournful sounds instead of the joyous ones he is trying to evoke, by calling to Ellen's mind two other occasions when it behaved similarly. One of these was when it foreboded the death of Ellen's mother; the other when it foreboded the exile of the Douglasses during the minority of James V. For particulars, see the introduction on the historical setting of the poem. Bothwell Castle is on the Clyde, a few miles from Glasgow.

159. From Tweed to Spey. The Tweed is in the extreme southern part, the Spey in the northern part, of Scotland.

200. Lady of the Bleeding Heart. The minstrel calls Ellen so because a bleeding heart was the heraldic emblem of the Douglas family.

206. strathspey. A dance, named from the district of Strath Spey, in the north of Scotland. It resembled the reel, but was slower.

213. Clan-Alpine's pride. Clan Alpine was the collective name of the followers of Roderick Dhu, who figures later in the poem as Ellen's rejected suitor and the enemy of the mysterious 'Knight of Snowdoun' who has just taken his departure from the island.

216. Lennox foray. Lennox is the district south of Menteith, in the Lowlands. It was the scene of innumerable forays and 'cattle-drives.'

221. In Holy-Rood a knight he slew. Holyrood is the royal castle at Edinburgh, where the court usually was held. It was deemed a heinous and desperate offense to commit an act of blood in the royal residence or its immediate neighborhood, since such an act was an indirect violation of the majesty of the king, and a breaking of 'the king's peace.' It was for this offense that Roderick Dhu was exiled, and compelled to live like an outlaw in his mountain fastness.

227. Who else dared give. Notice how skilfully Scott manages to give us the relations of the chief characters of the poem to each other, and to show that Ellen's father, pursued by the hatred of James V, has been given the island shelter in Loch Katrine by Roderick Dhu who is about to make his appearance in the story.

236. Full soon may dispensation sought. A papal dispensation was necessary, because Ellen and Roderick Dhu were cousins. See next note.

249. All that a mother could bestow. Here again the poet takes the indirect way of making clear his point, namely that the matron introduced in the first canto is the mother of Roderick Dhu. The phrase 'an orphan in the wild,' is in apposition with the following phrase 'her sister's child'—i.e., Ellen herself. From this it appears that Lady Margaret is Ellen's aunt, and that Roderick Dhu is, therefore, Ellen's cousin.

260. Maronnan's cell. A chapel at the eastern extremity of Loch Lomond, dedicated to the rather obscure saint here named.

270. Bracklinn's thundering wave. The reference is to a cascade made by a mountain torrent at the Bridge of Bracklinn, near the village of Callender in Menteith. Notice how Scott's numerous references to places in the region where the poem is laid tend gradually to give us an idea of the richness and diversity of the landscape.

274. claymore. A large two-handed sword.

305. Thy father's battle-brand. Some swords, especially those which had been magically forged, were held to possess the property of drawing themselves from their scabbard at the approach of their owner's deadly enemy. This is the first vague hint which Scott gives us as to the real identity of the 'Knight of Snowdoun.' To throw a further glamor of romance about the prophetical weapon, he tells us that it was given by fairies to an ancestor of its present owner, namely, to Archibald, third Duke of Angus, called Tine-man (Loseman) because he always lost his men in battle, and that this gift was made while Archibald was in league with Harry Hotspur.

319. Beltane game. The sports of May Day.

327. canna. Cotton grass.

Stanza XVI. In this and the two following stanzas notice how skillfully description and narrative are woven together, and how the picture gains in detail and distinctness as the boats approach.

334. barges. What change has occurred in the use of this word?

335. Glengyle ... Brianchoil. Why does the poet introduce these proper names? Are they of any value as information?

343. tartans. See note to I, xix, 363.

395. The chorus first could Allan know. The chorus was the first part of the song which the harper, listening from the shore, could distinctly make out.

408. Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu. The words vich and dhu are Gaelic, the first meaning 'descendant of,' the second 'black or swarthy.' King Alpine was the half-mythical ancestor from whom the clan of Alpine sprung. The line means, therefore, 'Black Roderick, descendant of Alpine.' Compare II, xii, 220, where Allan-bane calls the chieftain 'Black Sir Roderick.'

410. Blooming at Beltane. See note to II, 319.

416. Breadalbane. A large district in the western part of the county of Perth.

419–426. Glen Fruin, Bannochar, Glenn Luss, Ross-dhu, Leven-glen. What, in simple language, should you say was the value of this array of obscure names in the song?

431. the rose-bud that graces yon islands. To whom do the singers metaphorically refer?

497. Percy's Norman pennon. Captured by the Douglas in the raid which led to the battle