Marmion

Stanza II. lines 27-30. Cp. ‘Faerie Queene,’ III. iv. 7.:-

                                     ‘The surges hore 
      That ‘gainst the craggy clifts did loudly rore, 
      And in their raging surquedry disdaynd 
      That the fast earth affronted them so sore.’

lines 34-6. The cognizance was derived from the commission Brace gave the Good Lord James Douglas to carry his heart to Palestine. The Field is the whole surface of the shield, the Chief the upper portion. The Mullet is a star-shaped figure resembling the rowel of a spur, and having five points.

line 45. Bartisan, a small overhanging turret.

line 46. With vantage-coign, or advantageous corner, cp. ‘Macbeth,’ i. 6. 7.

Stanza III. line 69. Adown, poetical for down. Cp. Chaucer, ‘Monkes Tale,’ 3630, Clarendon Press ed.:-

     ‘Thus day by day this child bigan to crye 
      Til in his fadres barme adoun it lay.’

lines 86-91. Cp. Coleridge’s ‘Christabel,’ line 68.

     ‘I guess, ‘twas frightful there to see 
      A lady so richly clad as she- 
        Beautiful exceedingly.’

Stanza IV. lines 106-9. Cp. ‘Il Penseroso,’ 161-6,-

     ‘There let the pealing organ blow 
      To the full voic’d quire below, 
      In service high, and anthems clear, 
      As may with sweetness, through mine ear, 
      Dissolve me into ecstasies, 
      And bring all Heav’n before mine eyes.’

See also Coleridge’s ‘Dejection,’ v.:-

     ‘O pure of heart! thou need’st not ask of me 
      What this strong music in the soul may be!’ &c.

line 112. ‘I shall only produce one instance more of the great veneration paid to Lady Hilda, which still prevails even in these our days; and that is, the constant opinion, that she rendered, and still renders herself visible, on some occasions, in the Abbey of Streamshalh, or Whitby, where she so long resided. At a particular time of the year (viz. in the summer months), at ten or eleven in the forenoon, the sunbeams fall in the inside of the northern part of the choir; and ‘tis then that the spectators, who stand on the west side of Whitby churchyard, so as just to see the most northerly part of the abbey pass the north end of Whitby church, imagine they perceive, in one of the highest windows there, the resemblance of a woman, arrayed in a shroud. Though we are certain this is only a reflection caused by the splendour of the sunbeams, yet fame reports it, and it is constantly believed among the vulgar, to be an appearance of Lady Hilda in her shroud, or rather in a glorified state; before which, I make no doubt, the Papists, even in these our days, offer up their prayers with as much zeal and devotion, as before any other image of their most glorified saint.” CHARLTON’S History of Whitby, p. 33.’-SCOTT.

Stanza V. line 131. What makes, what is it doing? Cp. Judges xviii. 3: ‘What makest thou in this place?’ The usage is frequent in Shakespeare; as e.g. As Yo Like It, i. I. 31: ‘Now sir! what make you here?’

line 137. Blood-gouts, spots of blood. Cp. ‘gouts of blood,’ Macbeth, ii. I. 46.