custom, to the birds, and came to be known as 'the raven's bone.'
140. A spy has sought my land. Roderick refers, as appears later, to the 'Knight of Snowdoun' of Canto I.
150. glaive, sword.
153. sable pale. An heraldic term, applied to a black perpendicular stripe in a coat of arms.
174. stance, station, foundation.
231. Cambus-kenneth's fane. The ruins of Cambus-kenneth Abbey are still to be seen on the banks of the Forth near Stirling.
262. mavis and merle, thrush and blackbird.
283. darkling was the battle tried. Scott first wrote 'blindfold' in place of 'darkling.'
285. pall. A rich cloth, from which mantles of noblemen were made. Vair. A fur much used for the garments of nobility in medieval times.
298. wonn'd, an obsolete equivalent of 'dwelt.'
306. fairies' fatal green. The elves or gnomes wore green, and were angered when any mortal ventured to wear that color. For this or some other reason green was held an unlucky color in many parts of Scotland.
308. thou wert christened man. Urgan, as appears later, was a mortal, who had fallen under the spell of the elves and lived their life, but who still retained some of the privileges and immunities which belonged, according to medieval belief, to all persons who had been baptized into the Christian church.
371. Dunfermline. An Abbey sixteen miles northwest of Edinburgh.
385. my former guide. This is Red Murdoch, of whom Roderick Dhu speaks, see 144 ff.
531. The Allan and the Devan are two streams which descend from the hills of Perthshire into the lowland plain.
555. from Maudlin's charge. Maudlin, as a proper name, is a corruption of Magdalen. The curious development of meaning which has taken place in the word should be looked out in the dictionary.
559. peasant pitched a bar. 'Pitching the bar' was a feat of strength like the modern 'putting the shot.' It was usually indulged in by the peasantry at fairs and on the village greens.
564. that savage groom. The mad woman refers to Red Murdoch, the guide.
594. a stag of ten. With ten branches on his antlers.
CANTO FIFTH
46. shingles, declivities or 'slides' of small broken stone.
124. While Albany with feeble hand. After the death of James IV at Flodden Field the regency was held first by the mother of the young king, and then by the Duke of Albany. The latter was forced by the Estates to leave Scotland in 1624, and soon after the regency fell practically, though, not constitutionally, into the hands of the king's step-father, Archibald Douglas, Earl of Angus. See introduction on the historical setting of the poem.
198. curlew. A shore-bird, with a long curved bill.
253. jack. A coat of mail made of leather or heavy padded cloth.
301. On Bochastle the moldering lines, etc. East of Lake Vennachar, in the moor of Bochastle, are some traces of the Roman occupation, in the form of mounds and intrenchments.
409. mountain-cat. 'Catamount' is the common name in America.
461. palfrey. A saddle-horse as distinguished from a war-horse.
465. weed, garment. The word is now restricted to the phrase 'widow's weeds.'
490–497. Torry, Lendrick, Deanstown, Doune, Blair-Drummond, Ochtertyre, and Kier, are all on the Teith, between Bochastle and Sterling.
525. by Saint Serle. The necessities of rime compel the poet to choose a very obscure saint from the calendar.
532. postern gate, the small rear gate of a castle, generally used by the servants only.
584. jennet. A small Spanish horse, originally a cross between native and Arabian stock.
611. morricers, morrice dancers. The morrice or morris was an old dance, imported into England from Spain. Believed to be a corruption of 'Moorish.'
613. butts, the targets for archery practice.
614. Bold Robin Hood and all his band. It is of course not meant that the renowned outlaw himself and his followers were there, but masqueraders representing these traditional characters. All the names that follow occur in one or other of the legends and ballads which gathered about Robin Hood's name.
622. the white, i.e., the white center of the target.
660. Ladies Rock. A hillock between the Castle and Grayfriar's church, from which the court ladies viewed the games.
872. lily lawn. A conventional phrase in old ballad poetry, without any very definite meaning.
CANTO SIXTH
42. harness, armor and other war gear.
60. halberd, a weapon consisting of a battle-ax and pike at the end of a long staff. brand, a poetical word for sword.
92. black-jack, a large drinking can of tarred or waxed leather.
95. Drink upsees out. 'Upsees' is a corruption of a Dutch Bacchanalian interjection.
103. cure. Parish or charge. placket. Petticoat.
104. lurch, swindle, leave in difficulty.
306. prore, poetical form of 'prow.'
377. erne, eagle.
Stanza XVII. Notice how both rime and rhythm mirror the growing excitement of the conflict.
452. As their Tinchel cows the game. The 'Tinchel' was a circle of hunters, surrounding a herd of deer and gradually closing in on them.
488. linn, the word here means waterfall.
586. Bothwell's lord, Douglas. See note to II, xiii, 141.
591. How Roderick brooked his minstrelsy. 'Brooked' is not used in its strong sense of 'endured,' but in the weaker one of 'received'; we should say colloquially 'how he took it.'
APPENDIX
(Adapted, and enlarged, from the
HELPS TO STUDY
Life of Scott
What prominent traits of Scott's character can be traced to his ancestors (pp. 9, 10)?
How did he regard the members of his clan, especially the chief (pp. 19, 20)?
What characteristic is represented in his refusal to learn Latin and Greek at school?
What was his own method of obtaining an education? In what did he become proficient (p. 12)?
How did he regard his legal studies? How did they benefit him in his later work?
How was he first interested in ballad-writing?
Tell of the composition, publication, and popularity of his first poems (pp. 20 ff.).
In what business venture did he become involved, and what was the final outcome? What defect in his character is it charged that his business relations brought to light (pp. 24, 25)?
Tell of the composition of his novels. Why were they published incognito?
