Marmion

with the Arthurian legend. Cp. Par. Lost, i. 580, and Par. Reg. ii. 358.

line 275. Scott quotes from Dryden’s ‘Essay on Satire,’ prefixed to the translation of Juvenal, regarding his projected Epic. ‘Of two subjects,’ says Dryden, ‘I was doubtful whether I should choose that of King Arthur conquering the Saxons, which, being further distant in time, gives the greater scope to my invention; or that of Edward the Black Prince, in subduing Spain, and restoring it to the lawful prince, though a great tyrant, Pedro the Cruel....I might perhaps have done as well as some of my predecessors, or at least chalked out a way for others to amend my errors in a like design; but being encouraged only with fair words by King Charles II, my little salary ill paid, and no prospect of a future subsistence, I was then discouraged in the beginning of my attempt; and now age has overtaken me, and want, a more insufferable evil, through the change of the times, has wholly disabled me.’

lines 281-3. Dryden’s dramas, certain of his translations, and various minor pieces adapted to the prevalent taste of his time, are unworthy of his genius. Pope’s reflections on the poet forgetful of the dignity of his office, with the allusion to Dryden as an illustration (‘Satires and Epistles,’ v. 209), may be compared with this passage;-

     ‘I scarce can think him such a worthless thing, 
      Unless he praise some monster of a king; 
      Or virtue, or religion turn to sport, 
      To please a lewd, or unbelieving court. 

      Unhappy Dryden! In all Charles’s days, 
      Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays.’

line 283. Cp. Gray’s ‘Progress of Poesy,’ 103-

     ‘Behold, where Dryden’s less presumptuous car 
      Wide o’er the fields of glory bear 
      Two coursers of ethereal race, 
      With necks in thunder cloth’d, and long-resounding pace’;

and Pope’s ‘Satires and Epistles,’ v. 267-

                            ‘Dryden taught to join 
      The varying verse, the full-resounding line, 
      The long majestic march, and energy divine.’

line 286. To break a lance is to enter the lists, to try one’s strength. The concussion of two powerful knights would suffice to shiver the lances. Hence comes the figurative use. Cp. I Henry VI. iii. 2,-

     ‘What will you do, good greybeard? break a lance, 
      And run a tilt at death within a chair?’

lines 288-309. The Genius of Chivalry is to be resuscitated from the deep slumber under which baneful spells have long effectually held him. The appropriateness of this is apparent when the true meaning of Chivalry is considered. Scott opens his ‘Essay on Chivalry’ thus:-’The primitive sense of this well-known word, derived from the French Chevalier, signifies merely cavalry, or a body of soldiers serving on horseback; and it has been used in that general acceptation by the best of our poets, ancient and modern, from Milton to Thomas Campbell.’ See Par. Lost, i. 307, and Battle of Hohenlinden.

line 294. To spur forward his horse on an expedition of adventures, like Spenser’s Red Cross Knight. For the accoutrements and the duties of a knight see Scott’s ‘Essay on Chivalry’ (Miscellaneous Works, vol. vi.). Cp. ‘Faery Queene,’ Book I, and (especially for the personified abstractions from line 300 onwards) Montgomerie’s allegory, ‘The Cherrie and the Slae.’

line 312. Ytene’s oaks. ‘The New Forest in Hampshire, anciently so called.’-SCOTT. Gundimore, the residence of W. S. Rose, was in this neighbourhood, and in an unpublished piece entitled ‘Gundimore,’ Rose thus alludes to a visit of Scott’s:-

     ‘Here Walter Scott has woo’d the northern muse; 
      Here he with me has joy’d to walk or cruise; 
      And hence has prick’d through Yten’s holt, where we 
      Have called to mind how under greenwood tree, 
      Pierced by the partner of his “woodland craft,” 
      King Rufus fell by Tyrrell’s random shaft.’