VII. The Goblin Page, omitting still Strove now, while blood ran hot and high, By nature fierce, and warm with wine, away. Whom men called Dickon Draw-the-sword. But bit his glove, and shook his head.— Gone was his brand, both sword and sheath; VIII. The dwarf, who fear'd his master's eye 1 See Appendix, Note 4 A. 2 Ibid. Note 4 B. 3 The person bearing this redoubtable nom de guerre was en Elliot, and resided at Thorleshope, in Liddesdale. He occurs in the list of Border riders, in 1597. • See Appendix, Note 4 C. "The appearance and dress of the company assembled in the chapel, and the description of the subsequent feast, in which the hounds and hawks are not the least important personages of the drama, are again happy imitations of those authors from whose rich but unpolished ore Mr. Scott has wrought muck of his most exquisite imagery and description. A society, such as that assembled in Branxholm Castle, inflamed with national prejudices, and heated with wine, seems to have contained in itself sufficient seeds of spontaneous dis Since old Buccleuch the name did gain, When in the cleuch the buck was ta'en.^ IX. The wily page, with vengeful thought, And how Hob Armstrong cheer'd his wife; Back to the hall the Urchin ran; Took in a darkling nook his post, And grinn'd, and mutter'd, "Lost! lost! lost' X. By this, the Dame, lest farther fray They sought the beeves that made their broth, In Scotland and in England both. In homely guise, as nature bade, XI. ALBERT GRÆME. It was an English ladye bright, (The sun shines fair on Carlisle wall,*) order; but the goblin page is well introduced, as applying a torch to this mass of combustibles. Quarrels, highly charac teristic of Border manners, both in their cause and the manner in which they are supported, ensue, as well among the lordly guests, as the yoemen assembled in the buttery."Critical Review, 1805. 6 See Appendix, Note 4 D. 7 "It is the author's object, in these songs, to exemplify the different styles of ballad narrative which prevailed in this island at different periods, or in different conditions of society. The first (ALBERT'S) is conducted upon the rude and simple model of the old Border ditties, and produces its effect by the direct and concise narrative of a tragical occurrence."—JEF FREY. 8 See Appendix, Note 4 E. And she would marry a Scottish knight, For Love will still be lord of all. Blithely they saw the rising sun, When he shone fair on Carlisle wall; But they were sad ere day was done, Though Love was still the lord of all. Her sire gave brooch and jewel fine, For ire that Love was lord of all. For she had lands, both meadow and lea, XII. That wine she had not tasted well, (The sun shines fair on Carlisle wall,) When dead, in her true love's arms, she fell, For Love was still the lord of all! He pierced her brother to the heart, Where the sun shines fair on Carlisle wall: So perish all would true love part, That Love may still be lord of all! And then he took the cross divine, (Where the sun shines fair on Carlisle wall,) And died for her sake in Palestine, So Love was still the lord of all. Now all ye lovers, that faithful prove, XIII. As ended Albert's simple lay, Arose a bard of loftier port; The gentle Surrey loved his lyre— And his the bard's immortal name, And his was love, exalted high XIV. They sought, together, climes afar, And oft, within some olive grove, 1 See Appendix, Note 4 F. 2 First Edit." So sweet their harp and voices join.” complished Surrey, has more of the richness and polish of the Italian poetry, and is very beautifully written in a stanza ro "The second song, that of Fitztraver, the bard of the ac-sembling that of Spenser."-JEFFREY Placed by a couch of Agra's silken loom, And part by moonshine pale, and part was hid in gloom. XIX. Fair all the pageant-but how passing fair Pale her dear cheek, as if for love she pined; And, pensive, read from tablet eburnine, Some strain that seem'd her inmost soul to find :That favour'd strain was Surrey's raptured line, That fair and lovely form, the Lady Geraldine. XX. Slow roll'd the clouds upon the lovely form, O'er my beloved Master's glorious day. The gory bridal bed, the plunder'd shrine, The murder'd Surrey's blood, the tears of Geraldine! XXI. Both Scots, and Southern chiefs, prolong Rose Harold, bard of brave St. Clair ; And watch'd, the whilst, with visage pale, XII. And much of wild and wonderful In these rude isles might fancy cull; Of Chiefs, who, guided through the gloom XXIII. HAROLD.? O listen, listen, ladies gay! No haughty feat of arms I tell ; Soft is the note, and sad the lay, That mourns the lovely Rosabelle. "Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew! And, gentle ladye, deign to stay! Rest thee in Castle Ravensheuch," Nor tempt the stormy firth to-day. "The blackening wave is edged with white : strel's residence in the south. We prefer it, upon the whole, to either of the two former, and shall give it entire to our readers, who will probably be struck with the poetical effect of the dramatic form into which it is thrown, and of the indirect description by which every thing is most expressively told, without one word of distinct narrative."-JEFFREY. 8 "This was a family name in the house of St. Clair. Henry St. Clair, the second of the line, married Rosabelle, fourth daughter of the Earl of Stratherne. See Appendix, Note 4 M. 10 Inch. isle. "Last night the gifted Seer did view A wet shroud swathed' round ladye gay; Then stay thee, Fair, in Ravensheuch : Why cross the gloomy firth to-day?"- ""Tis not because Lord Lindesay's heir ""Tis not because the ring they ride, And Lindesay at the ring rides well, But that my sire the wine will chide, If 'tis not fill'd by Rosabelle." O'er Roslin all that dreary night, A wondrous blaze was seen to gleam; "Twas broader than the watch-fire's light, And redder than the bright moon-beam. It glared on Roslin's castled rock, It ruddied all the copse-wood glen; "Twas seen from Dryden's groves of oak, And seen from cavern'd Hawthornden. Seem'd all on fire that chapel proud, Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffin'd lie, Each Baron, for a sable shroud, Sheathed in his iron panoply. Seem'd all on fire within, around, And glimmer'd all the dead men's mail.* Blazed battlement and pinnet high, There are twenty of Roslin's barons bold First Edit. "A wet shroud roll'd." 2 First Edit. "It reddened," &c. 3 First Edit. "Both vaulted crypt," &c. See Appendix, Note 4 N. " 5 First Edit." But the kelpie rung and the mermaids sung.' 6 "I observe a great poetic climax, designed, doubtless, in the two last of these songs, from the first."-ANNA SEWARD, "We (G. Ellis and J. H. Frere) entertain some doubts about the propriety of dwelling so long on the minstrel songs in the last canto. I say we doubt, because we are not aware of your having ancient authority for such a practice; but though the attempt was a bold one, inasmuch as it is not usual to add a whole canto to a story which is already finished, we are far from wishing that you had left it unattempted."-Ellis to Scott. "The sixth canto is altogether redundant; for the Joem should certainly have closed with the union of the And each St. Clair was buried there, With candle, with book, and with knell; But the sea-caves rung, and the wild winds surg,' The dirge of lovely Rosabelle. XXIV. So sweet was Harold's piteous lay," Scarce mark'd the guests the darken'd hail, Though, long before the sinking day, A wondrous shade involved them all: It was not eddying mist or fog, And yet, as it came on apace, Each one could scarce his neighbour's face, Could scarce his own stretch'd hand behold. A secret horror check'd the feast, Even the high Dame stood half aghast, The elvish page fell to the ground, And, shuddering, mutter'd," Found! found. found!" XXV. Then sudden, through the darken'd air, So broad, so bright, so red the glare, Full through the guests' bedazzled band And fill'd the hall with smouldering smoke, It broke, with thunder long and loud, Dismay'd the brave, appall'd the proud,From sea to sea the larum rung; On Berwick wall, and at Carlisle withal, To arms the startled warders sprung. When ended was the dreadful roar, The elvish dwarf was seen no more!7 lovers, when the interest, if any, was at an end. But what could I do? I had my book and my page still on my hands, and must get rid of them at all events, Manage them as I would, their catastrophe must have been insufficient to occupy an entire canto; so I was fain to eke it out with the songs of the minstrels."-Scott to Miss Seward-Life, vol. ii. pp. 218 222. 999 7 "The Goblin Page is, in our opinion, the capital deformity of the poem. We have already said the whole machinery is useless; but the magic studies of the lady, and the rifled tomb of Michael Scott, give occasion to so much admirable poetry, that we can, on no account, consent to part with them. The page, on the other hand, is a perpetual bur den to the poet and to the readers; it is an undignified and improbable fiction, which excites neither terror, admiration, nor astonishment, but needlessly debases the strain of the whole work, and excites at once our incredulity and con XXVI. Some heard a voice in Branksome Hall, And some the waving of a gown. XXVII. The anxious crowd, with horror pale, And he a solemn sacred plight To some bless'd saint his prayers address'd; Some to St. Mary of the Lowes, Some to the Holy Rood of Lisle, Some to our Ladye of the Isle ; scenes of which he is the hero; and in reading these passages we really could not help suspecting that they did not stand in the romance when the aged minstrel recited it to the royal Charles and his mighty earls, but were inserted afterwards to suit the taste of the cottagers among whom he begged his tempt. He is not a 'tricksy spirit,' like Ariel, with whom the imagination is irresistibly enamoured, nor a tiny monarch, like Oberon, disposing of the destinies of mortals; he rather appears to us to be an awkward sort of a mongrel between Puck and Caliban, of a servile and brutal nature, and limited in his powers to the indulgence of petty malignity, and the in-bread on the border. We entreat Mr. Scott to enquire inte fliction of despicable injuries. Besides this objection to his character, his existence has no support from any general or established superstition. Fairies and devils, ghosts, angels, and witches, are creatures with whom we are all familiar, and who excite in all classes of mankind emotions with which we can easily be made to sympathize. But the history of Gilpin Horner was never believed out of the village where he is said to have made his appearance, and has no claims upon the credulity of those who were not originally of his acquaintance. There is nothing at all interesting or elegant in the the grounds of this suspicion, and to take advantage of any decent pretext he can lay hold of for purging the 'Lay' of this ungraceful intruder. We would also move for a quo warranto against the Spirits of the River and the Mountain ; for though they are come of a very high lineage, we do not know what lawful business they could have at Branksome Castle in the year 1550.”—JEFFREY. 1 See Appendix, Note 4 0. 2 Ibid. Note 4 P. a See the Author's Introduction to the 'Lay,' p. 4. |