103. Placket. Explained by some as = stomacher; by others as = petticoat, or the slit or opening in those garments. Cf. Wb. It is often used figuratively for woman, as here. Placket and pot = women and wine.
104. Lurch. Rob. Cf. Shakespeare, Cor. ii. 2. 105: "He lurch'd all swords of the garland;" that is, robbed them all of the prize.
112. The drum. The 1st ed. has "your drum."
116. Plaid. For the rhyme, see on i. 363 above.
124. Store of blood. Plenty of blood. Cf. Milton, L'Allegro, 121: "With store of ladies," etc. See also on the adjective, i. 548 above.
127. Reward thy toil. The MS. goes on thus:
"Get thee an ape, and then at once Thou mayst renounce the warder's lance, And trudge through borough and through land, The leader of a juggler band."
Scott has the following note here: "The jongleurs, or jugglers, as we learn from the elaborate work of the late Mr. Strutt, on the sports and pastimes of the people of England, used to call in the aid of various assistants, to render these performances as captivating as possible. The glee-maiden was a necessary attendant. Her duty was tumbling and dancing; and therefore the Anglo-Saxon version of Saint Mark's Gospel states Herodias to have vaulted or tumbled before King Herod. In Scotland these poor creatures seem, even at a late period, to have been bondswomen to their masters, as appears from a case reported by Fountainhall: 'Reid the mountebank pursues Scot of Harden and his lady for stealing away from him a little girl, called the tumbling-lassie, that dance upon his stage; and he claimed damages, and produced a contract, whereby he bought her from her mother for £30 Scots. But we have no slaves in Scotland, and mothers cannot sell their bairns; and physicians attested the employment of tumbling would kill her; and her joints were now grown stiff, and she declined to return; though she was at least a 'prentice, and so could not run away from her master; yet some cited Moses's law, that if a servant shelter himself with thee against his master's cruelty, thou shalt surely not deliver him up. The Lords, renitente cancellario, assoilzied Harden on the 27th of January (1687)' (Fountainhall's Decisions, vol. i. p. 439)."
136. Purvey. Provide. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. v. 12. 10: "He all things did purvay which for them needfull weare."
147. Bertram, etc. The MS. has "Bertram | his | | such | violence withstood."
152. The tartan screen. That is, the tartan which she had drawn over her head as a veil.
155. The savage soldiery, etc. The MS. has "While the rude soldiery, amazed;" and in 164 below, "Should Ellen Douglas suffer wrong."
167. I shame me. I shame myself, I am ashamed. The very was formerly used intransitively in this sense. Cf. Shakespeare, R. of L. 1143: "As shaming any eye should thee behold;" A. Y. L. iv. 3. 136: "I do not shame to tell you what I was," etc.
170. Needwood. A royal forest in Staffordshire.
171. Poor Rose, etc. The MS. reads:
"'My Rose,'--he wiped his iron eye and brow,-- 'Poor Rose,--if Rose be living now.'"
178. Part. Act; used for the rhyme. The expression is not unlike "do the part of an honest man" (Much Ado, ii. 1. 172), or "act the part," as we should now put it.
183. Tullibardine. The name of an old seat of the Murray family, about twenty miles from Stirling.
199. Errant damosel. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 19: "Th' adventure of the Errant damozell."
209. Given by the Monarch, etc. The MS. has "The Monarch gave to James Fitz-James."
218. Bower. Chamber. See on i. 217 above.
222. Permit I marshal you the way. Permit that I conduct you thither.
233. The vacant purse, etc. The MS. reads:
"The silken purse shall serve for me, And in my barret-cap shall flee""--
a forced rhyme which the poet did well to get rid of.
234. Barret-cap. Cloth cap. Cf. the Lay, iii. 216:
"Old England's sign, St. George's cross, His barret-cap did grace."
He puts the purse in his cap as a favor. See on iv. 686 above.
242. Master's. He means the Douglas, but John of Brent takes it to refer to Roderick. See 305 below.
261. Wot. Know, understand. See on i. 596 above.
276. Rugged vaults. The MS. has "low broad vaults;" and in 279, "stretching" for crushing.
291. Oaken floor. The MS. and 1st ed. have "flinty floor;" and below:
"'thou mayst remain;' And then, retiring, bolt and chain, And rusty bar, he drew again. Roused at the sound," etc.
292, 293. Such... hold. This couplet is not in the 1st ed., and presumably not in the MS., though the fact is not noted by Lockhart.
295. Leech. Physician. Cf. F. Q. iii. 3. 18: "Yf any leaches skill," etc.; and in the preceding stanza, "More neede of leach-crafte hath your Damozell," etc.
306. Prore. Prow (Latin prora); used only in poetry.
309. Astrand. On strand (cf. ashore), stranded.
316. At sea. The MS. has "on main," and "plain" for lea in the rhyme. The 1st ed. and that of 1821 have "on sea."
334. Has never harp, etc. The MS. reads:
"Shall never harp of minstrel tell Of combat fought so fierce and well."
348. Strike it! Scott says: "There are several instances, at least in tradition, of persons so much attached to particular tunes, as to require to hear them on their death-bed. Such an anecdote is mentioned by the late Mr. Riddel of Glenriddel, in his collection of Border tunes, respecting an air called the 'Dandling of the Bairns,' for which a certain Gallovidian laird is said to have evinced this strong mark of partiality. It is popularly told of a famous freebooter, that he composed the tune known by the name of Macpherson's Rant while under sentence of death, and played it at the gallows-tree. Some spirited words have been adapted to it by Burns. A similar story is recounted of a Welsh bard, who composed and played on his death-bed the air called Dafyddy Garregg Wen. But the most curious example is given by Brantome of a maid of honor at the court of France, entitled Mademoiselle de Limeuil: 'Durant sa maladie, dont elle trespassa, jamais elle ne cessa, ainsi causa tousjours; car elle estoit fort grande parleuse, brocardeuse, et tres-bien et fort a propos, et tres-belle avec cela. Quand l'heure de sa fin fut venue, elle fit venir a soy son valet (ainsi que les filles de la cour en ont chacune un), qui s'appelloit Julien, et scavoit tres-bien jouer du violon. "Julien," luy dit elle, "prenez vostre violon, et sonnez moy tousjours jusques a ce que vous me voyez morte (car je m'y en vais) la Defaite des Suisses, et le mieux que vous pourrez, et quand vous serez sur le mot, 'Tout est perdu,' sonnez le par quatre ou cing fois, le plus piteusement que vous pourrez," ce qui fit l'autre, et elle-mesme luy aidoit de la voix, et quand ce vint "tout est perdu," elle le reitera par deux fois; et se tournant de l'autre coste du chevet, elle dit a ses compagnes: "Tout est perdu a ce coup, et a bon escient;" et ainsi deceda. Voila une morte joyeuse et plaisante. Je tiens ce conte de deux de ses compagnes, dignes de foi, qui virent jouer ce mystere' (OEuvres de Brantome, iii. 507). The tune to which this fair lady chose to make her final exit was composed on the defeat of the Swiss of Marignano. The burden is quoted by Panurge in Rabelais, and consists of these words, imitating the jargon of the Swiss, which is a mixture of French and German:
'Tout est verlore, La Tintelore, Tout est verlore bi Got.'"
362. With what, etc. This line is not in the MS.
369. Battle of Beal' au Duine. Scott has the following note here:
"A skirmish actually took place at a pass thus called in the Trosachs, and closed with the remarkable incident mentioned in the text. It was greatly posterior in date to the reign of James V.
'In this roughly-wooded island [13] the country people secreted their wives and children and their most valuable effects from the rapacity of Cromwell's soldiers during their inroad into this country, in the time of the republic. These invaders, not venturing to ascend by the ladders along the lake, took a more circuitous road through the heart of the Trosachs, the most frequented path at that time, which penetrates the wilderness about half way between Binean and the lake by a tract called Yea-chilleach, or the Old Wife's Bog.
'In one of the defiles of this by-road the men of the country at that time hung upon the rear of the invading enemy, and shot one of Cromwell's men, whose grave marks the scene of action, and gives name to that pass. [14] In revenge of this insult, the soldiers resolved to plunder the island, to violate the women, and put the children to death. With this brutal intention, one of the party, more expert than the rest, swam towards the island, to fetch the boat to his comrades, which had carried the women to their asylum, and lay moored in one of the creeks. His companions stood on the shore of the mainland, in full view of all that was to pass, waiting anxiously for his return with the boat. But just as the swimmer had got to the nearest point of the island, and was laying hold of a black rock to get on shore, a heroine, who stood on the very point where he meant to land, hastily snatching a dagger from below her apron, with one stroke severed his head from the body. His party seeing this disaster, and relinquishing all future hope of revenge or conquest, made the best of their way out of their perilous situation. This amazon's great grandson lives at Bridge of Turk, who, besides others, attests the anecdote' (Sketch of the Scenery near Callander, Stirling, 1806, p. 20). I have only to add to this account that the heroine's name was Helen Stuart."