The Lay of the Last Minstrel. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES EARL OF DALKEITH, THIS POEM IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The Poem, now offered to the Public, is intended to illustrate the customs and manners which anciently prevailed on the Borders of England and Scotland. The inhabitants living in a state partly pastoral and partly warlike, and combining habits of constant depredation with the influence of a rude spirit of chivalry, were often engaged in scenes highly susceptible of poetical ornament. As the description of scenery and manners was more the object of the Author than a combined and regular narrative, the plan of the Ancient Metrical Romance was adopted, which allows greater latitude, in this respect, than would be consistent with the dignity of a regular Poem.1 The same model offered other facilities, as it permits an occasional alteration of measure, which, in some degree, authorises the change of rhythm in the text. The machinery, also, adopted from popular belief, would have seemed puerile in a Poem which did not partake of the rudeness of the old Ballad, or Metrical Romance. For these reasons, the Poem was put into the mouth of an ancient Minstrel, the last of the race, who, as he is supvosed to have survived the Revolution, might have caught somewhat of the refinement of modern poetry, without losing the simplicity of his original model. The date of the Tale itself is about the middle of the sixteenth century, when most of the personages actually flourished. The time occupied by the action is Three Nights and Three Days.3 INTRODUCTION. THE way was long, the wind was cold, "The chief excellence of The Lay consists in the beauty of the descriptions of local scenery, and the accurate picture of customs and manners among the Scottish Borderers at the time it refers to. The various exploits and adventures which occur in those half-civilized times, when the bands of government were so loosely twisted, that every man depended for safety more on his own arm, or the prowess of his chief, than on the civil power, may be said to hold a middle rank between history and private anecdote. War is always most picturesque where it is least formed into a science; it has most variety and interest where the prowess and activity of individuals has most play; and the nocturnal expedition of Diomed and Ulysses to seize the chariot and horses of Rhesus, or a raid of the Scotts or the Kerrs to drive cattle, will make a better figure in verse, than all the battles of the great King of Prussia. The sleuthdog, the beacon-fires, the Jedwood-axes, the moss-troopers, the yell of the slogan, and all the irregular warfare of predatory expeditions, or feuds of hereditary vengeance, are far more captivating to the imagination than a park of artillery and battalions of well-drilled soldiers."—Annual Review, 1804. "It must be observed, that there is this difference between the license of the old romancer, and that assumed by Mr. Scott; the aberrations of the first are usually casual and alight; those of the other premeditated and systematic. The old romancer may be compared to a man who trusts his reins to his horse; his palfrey often blunders, and occasionally breaks his pace, sometimes from vivacity, oftener through indolence. Mr. Scott sets out with the intention of diversifying His wither'd cheek, and tresses gray, his journey by every variety of motion. He is now at a trot, 'Make graceful caprioles, and prance A main objection to this plan is to be found in the shock which verse."-Critical Review, 1805. "From the novelty of its style and subject, and from the spirit of its execution, Mr. Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrei the concurrent voice of the public assigned to it a very exkindled a sort of enthusiasm among all classes of readers; and alted rank, which, on more cool and dispassionate examination, its numerous essential beauties will enable it to maintain. For vivid richness of colouring and truth of costume, carries us back in imagination to the time of action; and we many of its descriptive pictures stand almost unrivalled; it wander with the poet along Tweedside, or among the wild glades of Ettrick Forest."-Monthly Review, May, 1808. 3 "We consider this poem as an attempt to transfer the refinements of modern poetry to the matter and the manner of the ancient metrical romance. The author, enamoured of The last of all the Bards was he, Old times were changed, old manners gone; Had call'd his harmless art a crime. A wandering Harper, scorn'd and poor, He pass'd where Newark's 2 stately tower Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower: the lofty visions of chivalry, and partial to the strains in which they were formerly embodied, seems to have employed all the resources of his genius in endeavouring to recall them to the favour and admiration of the public, and in adapting to the taste of modern readers a species of poetry which was once the delight of the courtly, but has long ceased to gladden any other eyes than those of the scholar and the antiquary. This is a romance, therefore, composed by a minstrel of the present day; or such a romance as we may suppose would have been written in modern times, if that style of composition had continued to be cultivated, and partakes consequently of the improvements which every branch of literature has received since the time of its desertion."-JEFFREY, April, 1805. "Turning to the northward, Scott showed us the crags and tower of Smailholme, and behind it the shattered fragment of Erceldoune, and repeated some pretty stanzas ascribed to the last of the real wandering minstrels of this district, by name Burn: 'Sing Erceldoune, and Cowdenknowes, To see the changes of this age Which fleeting time procureth; Life, vol. vi. p. 78. "This is a massive square tower, now unroofed and ruinous, surrounded by an outward wall, defended by round Banking turrets. It is most beautifully situated, about three miles from Selkirk, upon the banks of the Yarrow, a fierce and precipitous stream, which unites with the Ettricke about a mile beneath the castle. "Newark Castle was built by James II. The royal arms, with the unicorn, are engraved on a stone in the western side of the tower. There was a much more ancient castle in its The Minstrel gazed with wishful eye- The embattled portal arch he pass'd, When kindness had his wants supplied, And the old man was gratified, Began to rise his minstrel pride: And he began to talk anon, Of good Earl Francis, dead and gone, immediate vicinity, called Auldwark, founded, it is said, by Alexander III. Both were designed for the royal residence when the king was disposed to take his pleasure in the extensive forest of Ettricke. Various grants occur in the records of the Privy Seal, bestowing the keeping of the Castle of Newark upon different barons. There is a popular tradition that it was once seized, and held out by the outlaw Murray, a noted character in song, who only surrendered Newark upon condition of being made hereditary sheriff of the forest. A long ballad, containing an account of this transaction, is preserved in the Border Minstrelsy, (vol. i. p. 369.) Upon the marriage of James IV. with Margaret, sister of Henry VIII., the Castle of Newark, with the whole Forest of Ettricke, was assigned to her as a part of her jointure lands. But of this she could make little advantage; for, after the death of her husband, she is found complaining heavily, that Buccleuch had seized upon these lands. Indeed, the office of keeper was latterly held by the family of Buccleuch, and with so firm a grasp, that when the Forest of Ettricke was disparked, they obtained a grant of the Castle of Newark in property. It was within the court-yard of this castle that General Lesly did military execution upon the prisoners whom he had taken at the battle of Philiphaugh. The castle continued to be an occasional seat of the Buccleuch family for more than a century; and here, it is said, the Duchess of Monmouth and Buccleuch was brought up. For this reason, probably, Mr. Scott has chosen to make it the scene in which the Lay of the Last Minstrel is recited in her presence, and for her amusement."-SCHETKY'S Illustrations of the Lay of the Last Minstrel. It may be added that Bowhill was the favourite residence of Lord and Lady Dalkeith, (afterwards Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch), at the time when the poem was composed; the ruins of Newark are all but included in the park attached to that modern seat of the family; and Sir Walter Scott, no doubt, was influenced in his choice of the locality, by the predilection of the charming lady who suggested the subject of his Lay for the scenery of the Yarrow-a beautiful walk on whose banks, leading from the house to the old castle, is called, in memory of her, the Duchess's Walk.-ED. 3 Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth, representative of the ancient Lords of Buccleuch, and widow of the unfor tunate James, Duke of Monmouth, who was beheaded in 1685. ✦ Francis Scott, Earl of Buccleuch, father of the Duchess. And of Earl Walter,' rest him, God! A braver ne'er to battle rode; Though stiff his hand, his voice though weak, The humble boon was soon obtain'd; And then, he said, he would full fain 1 Walter, Earl of Buccleuch, grandfather of the Duchess, and a celebrated warrior. "Mr. W. Dundas, (see Life of Scott, vol. ii. p. 226,) says, that Pitt repeated the lines, describing the old harper's embarrassment when asked to play, and said,-"This is a sort of thing which I might have expected in painting, but could never have fancied capable of being given in poetry."" a "In the very first, rank of poetical excellence, we are Inclined to place the introductory and concluding lines of every canto, in which the ancient strain is suspended, and the feelings and situation of the minstrel himself described in the words of the author. The elegance and the beauty of this setting, if we may so call it, though entirely of modern workmanship, appears to us to be fully more worthy of admiration than the bolder relief of the antiques which it encloses, and leads us to regret that the author should have wasted, in imitation and antiquarian researches, so much of those powers which sem fully equal to the task of raising him an independent repu tation."-JEFFREY. See Appendix, Note A. 5 "The ancient romance owes much of its interest to the lively picture which it affords of the times of chivalry, and of those usages, manners, and institutions, which we have been accustomed to associate in our minds, with a certain combination of magnificence with simplicity, and ferocity with romantic honour. The representations contained in those performances, however, are, for the most part too rude and naked to give complete satisfaction. The execution is always extremely unequal; and though the writer sometimes touche upon the appropriate feeling with great effect and felicity, still this appears to be done more by accident than design; and he wanders away immediately into all sorts of ridiculous or uninteresting details, without any apparent consciousness of incongruity. These defects Mr. Scott has corrected with admirable address and judgment in the greater part of the work now before us; and while he has exhibited a very strik ing and impressive picture of the old feudal usages and institutions, he has shown still greater talent in engrafting upon those descriptions all the tender or magnanimous emotions ta which the circumstances of the story naturally give rise. Without impairing the antique air of the whole piece, or vio lating the simplicity of the ballad style, he has contrived. this way, to impart a much greater dignity and more powerful interest to his production, than could ever be obtained by the unskilful and unsteady delineations of the old romancers. Nothing, we think, can afford a finer illustration of this remark, than the opening stanzas of the whole poem; they transport us at once into the days of knightly daring and feuda. hostility, at the same time that they suggest, in a very interesting way, all those softer sentiments which arise out of some parts of the description."-JEFFREY. See Appendix, Note B. See Appendix, Note C. See Appendix, Note D, and compare these stanzas with the description of Jamie Telfer's appearance at BranksomeHall, (Border Minstrelsy, vol. ii. p. 5,) to claim the protection "Auld Buccleuch"-and the ensuing scene, (page 9,)— VII. Such is the custom of Branksome-Hall Many a valiant knight is here; But he, the chieftain of them all, Bards long shall tell How Lord Walter fell !5 When startled burghers fled, afar, VIII. Can piety the discord heal, Or stanch the death-feud's enmity? In mutual pilgrimage, they drew ; For chiefs, their own red falchions slew: While Cessford owns the rule of Carr, While Ettrick boasts the line of Scott, The slaughter'd chiefs, the mortal jar, The havoc of the feudal war, Shall never, never be forgot !8 IX. In sorrow o'er Lord Walter's bier Old Teviot's maids and matrons lent. Had lock'd the source of softer woe; And burning pride, and high disdain, Forbade the rising tear to flow; Until, amid his sorrowing clan, Her son lisp'd from the nurse's knee"And if I live to be a man, My father's death revenged shall be !" "The Scotts they rade, the Scotts they ran, Sae starkly and sae steadilie! And aye the ower-word o' the thrang Was-Rise for Branksome readilie," &c. Compare also the Ballad of Kinmont Willie, (vol. ii. p. 53.) "Now word is gane to the bauld keeper, In Branksome ha' where that he lay," &c.-ED. 4 There are not many passages in English poetry more im pressive than some parts of Stanzas vii. viii. ix.-JEFFREY. See Appendix, Note E. • Edinburgh. 7 The war-cry, or gathering-word, of a Border clan. 8 See Appendix, Note F. 9 Orig. (1st Edition.) "The Ladye dropp'd nor sigh nor tear. Then fast the mother's tears did seek To dew the infant's kindling cheek. X. All loose her negligent attire, All loose her golden hair, Hung Margaret o'er her slaughter'd sire, And wept in wild despair, But not alone the bitter tear Had filial grief supplied; For hopeless love, and anxious fear, XI. Of noble race the Ladye came, Of Bethune's line of Picardie :3 By feat of magic mystery; For when, in studious mood, he paced St. Andrew's cloister'd hall, 5 His form no darkening shadow traced Upon the sunny wall!" XII. And of his skill, as bards avow, That chafes against the scaur's red side? Is it the echo from the rocks? That moans old Branksome's turrets round? XIII. At the sullen, moaning sound, The ban-dogs bay and howl; I See Appendix, Note G. (The name is spelt differently by the various families who bear it. Carr is selected, not as the most correct, but as the most poetical reading.) 2 See Appendix, Note H. 4 See Appendix, Note K. 8 See Appendix, Note I. 8 Scaur, a precipitous bank of earth. |