Thy friendship thus thy judgment wronging, Then rise those crags, that mountam tower, With praises not to me belonging,

Which charm'd my fancy's wakening hour.' In task more meet for mightiest powers,

Though no broad river swept along, Wouldst thou engage my thriftless hours.

To claim, perchance, heroic song; But say, my Erskine, hast thou weigh'd

Though sigh'd no groves in summer gale, That secret power by all obey'd,

To prompt of love a softer tale; Which warps not less the passive mind,

Though scarce a puny streamlet's speed Its source conceald or undefined;

Claim'd homage from a shepherd's reed; Whether an impulse, that has birth

Yet was poetic impulse given, Soon as the infant wakes on earth,

By the green hill and clear blue heaven. One with our feelings and our powers,

It was a barren scene, and wild, And rather part of us than ours;

Where naked cliffs were rudely piled; Or whether fitlier term'd the sway

But ever and anon between Of habit, formd in early day?

Lay velvet tufts of loveliest green; Howe'er derived, its force confest

And well the lonely infant knew Rules with despotic sway the breast,

Recesses where the wall-flower grew, And drags us on by viewless chain,

And honey-suckle loved to crawl While taste and reason plead in vain."

Up the low crag and ruin'd wall. Look east, and ask the Belgian why,

I deem'd such nooks the sweetest shade Beneath Batavia's sultry sky,

The sun in all its round survey'd; He seeks not eager to inhale

And still I thought that shatter'd tower The freshness of the mountain gale,

The mightiest work of human power; Content to rear his whiten'd wall

And marvell d as the aged hind Beside the dank and dull canal ?

With some strange tale bewitch'd my mind, He'll say, from youth he loved to see

Of forayers, who, with headlong foroe, The white sail gliding by the tree.

Down from that strength had spurr'd their horse, Or see yon weatherbeaten hind,

Their southern rapine to renew, Whose sluggish herds before him wind,

Far in the distant Cheviots blue, Whose tatter'd plaid and rugged cheek

And, home returning, filld the hall His northern clime and kindred speak;

With revel, wassel-rout, and brawl.s Through England's laughing meads he goes, Methought that still with trump and clang, And England's wealth around him flows;

The gateway's broken arches rang; Ask, if it would content him well,

Methought grim features, seam'd with scars, At ease in those gay plains to dwell,

Glared through the window's rusty bars,
Where hedge-rows spread a verdant screen, And ever, by the winter hearth,
And spires and forests intervene,

Old tales I heard of woe or mirth,
And the neat cottage peeps between ?

Of lovers' slights, of ladies' charms, No ! not for these will he exchange

Of witches' spells, of warriors' arms; His dark Lochaber's boundless range:

Of patriot battles, won of old Not for fair Devon's meads forsake

By Wallace wight and Bruce the bold; Bennevis grey, and Garry's lake.

Of later fields of feud and fight,

When, pouring from their Highland height, Thus while I ape the measure wild

The Scottish clans, in headlong sway, Of tales that charm'd me yet a child,

Had swept the scarlet ranks away. Rude though they be, still with the chime

While stretch'd at length upon the floor, Return the thoughts of early time;

Again I fought each combat o'er, And feelings, roused in life's first day,

Pebbles and shells, in order laid, Glow in the line, and prompt the lay.

The mimic ranks of war display'd ; 1 “As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath,

Reason itself but gives it edge and power; Receives the larking principle of death;

As Heaven's blest beam turns vinegar more sour," &c. The young disease, that must subdue at length,

Pope's Essay on Man.-ED. Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strep th:

MS.-" The lonely hill, the rocky tower, So, cast and mingled with his very frame,

That caught attention's wakening hour.“ The Mind's disease, its Ruling Passion came;

8 MS.-" Recesses where the woodbine grew." Each vital humour which should feed the whole,

4 Smailholm Tower, in Berwickshire, the scene of the Soon flows to this, in body and in soul;

Author's infancy, is situated about two miles from Dryburgh Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,

Abbey. As the mind opens, and its functions spread,

6 The two next couplets are not in the MS. Imagination plies her dangerous art,

MS. _“ While still with mimic hosts of shells, And pours it all upon the peccant part.

Again my sport the combat tells"Nature its mother, Habit is its nurse;

Onward the Scottish Lion bore, Wit, Spirit, Faculties, but make it worse;

The scatter'd Southron fled before."

And onward still the Scottish Lion bore,
And still the scatter'd Southron fled before.'

Still, with vain fondness, could I trace,
Anew, each kind familiar face,
That brighten'd at our evening fire !
From the thatch'd mansion's grey-hair'd Sire,
Wise without learning, plain and good,
And sprung of Scotland's gentler blood;
Whose eye, in age, quick, clear, and keen,
Show'd what in youth its glance had been ;
Whose doom discording neighbours sought,
Content with equity unbought;3
To him the venerable Priest,
Our frequent and familiar guest,
Whose life and manners well could paint
Alike the student and the saint ;*
Alas! whose speech too oft I broke
With gambol rude and timeless joke :
For I was wayward, bold, and wild,
A self-will'd imp, a grandame's child;
But half a plague, and half a jest,
Was still endured, beloved, caress’d.

By glen and streamlet winded still,
Where stunted birches hid the rill.
They might not choose the lowland road,
For the Merse forayers were abroad,
Who, fired with hate and thirst of prey,
Had scarcely fail'd to bar their way.
Oft on the trampling band, from crown
Of some tall cliff, the deer look'd clown;
On wing of jet, from his repose
In the deep heath, the black-cock rose ;
Sprung from the gorse the timid roe,
Nor waited for the bending bow;
And when the stony path began,
By which the naked peak they wan,
Up flew the snowy ptarmigan.
The noon had long been pass'd before
They gain'd the height of Lammermoor ;8
Thence winding dowu the northern way,
Before them, at the close of day,
Old Gifford's towers and hamlet lay.7

For me, thus nurtured, dost thou ask
The classic poet's well-conn'd task?
Nay, Erskine, nay—On the wild hill
Let the wild heath-bell flourish still;
Cherish the tulip, prune the vine,
But freely let the woodbine twine,
And leave, untrimm'd the eglantine:
Nay, my friend, nay–Since of thy praise
Hath given fresh vigour to my lays;
Since oft ihy judgment could refine
My flatten'd thought, or cumbrous line;
Still kind, as is thy wont, attend,
And in the minstrel spare the friend.
Though wild as cloud, as stream, as gale,
Flow forth, flow unrestrain'd, my Tale!

II.
No summons calls them to the tower,
To spend the hospitable hour.
To Scotland's camp the Lord was gone;
His cautious dame, in bower alone,
Dreaded her castle to unclose,
So late, to unknown friends or foes.

On through the hamlet as they paced,
Before a porch, whose front was graced
With bush and flagon trimly placed,

Lord Marmion drew his rein:
The village inn seem'd large, though rude;8
Its cheerful fire and hearty food

Might well relieve his train.
Down from their seats the horsemen sprung,
With jingling spurs the court-yard rung;
They bind their horses to the stall,
For forage, food, and firing call,
And various clamour fills the hall:
Weighing the labour with the cost,
Toils everywhere the bustling host.

Marmion.

CANTO THIRD

The Hostel, or kun.

1. The livelong day Lord Marmion rode: The mountain path the Palmer show'd,

III.
Soon, by the chimney's merry blaze,
Through the rude hostel might you gaze;
Might see, where, in dark nook aloof,
The rafters of the sooty roof

Bore wealth of winter eheer;

the lines,

See notes on The Eve of St. John.

minister of Mertoun, in which parish Smailholm Tower is Robert Scott of Sandyknows, the grandfather of the Pret. | situated. Upon revising the Poem, it seems proper to mention that 5 MS.-" They might not choose the easier road.

For many a forayer was abroad."

6 See Notes to “ The Bride of Lammermoor." Waverley "Whose doom discording neighbours sought,

Novels, vols. xiii. and xiv. Content with equity unbought :"

7 The village of Gifford lies about four miles from Haddinghave been unconsciously borrowed from a passage in Dryden's ton : close to it is Yester House, the seat of the Marquis of beautiful epistle to John Driden of Chesterton.—1808. Note Tweeddale, and a little farther up the stream, which descends

from the hills of Lammermoor, are the remains of the old * MS.-" The student, gentleman, and paint.".

From his true maiden's breast,

And rested with his head a space, Parted for ever?

Reclining on his hand. Where, through groves deep and high,

His thoughts I scan not; but I ween, Sounds the far billow,

That, could their import have been seen, Where early violets die,

The meanest groom in all the hall, Under the willow.

That e'er tied courser to a stall,

Would scarce have wish'd to be their prey, CHORUS.

For Lutterward and Fontenaye. Eleu loro, &c. Soft shall be his pillow.

XIII. There, through the summer day,

High minds, of native pride and force, Cool streams are laving;

Most deeply feel thy pangs, Remorse ! There, while the tempests sway,

Fear, for their scourge, mean villains have, Scarce are boughs waving;

Thou art the torturer of the brave! There, thy rest shalt thou take,

Yet fatal strength they boast to steel Parted for ever,

Their minds to bear the wounds they feel, Never again to wake,

Even while they writhe beneath the smart Never, O never!

Of civil conflict in the heart.

For soon Lord Marmion raised his head, CHORUS.

And, smiling, to Fitz-Eustace said, Eleu loro, &c. Never, O never!

“ Is it not strange, that, as ye sung,

Seem'd in mine ear a death-peal rung,
XI.

Such as in nunneries they toll
Where shall the traitor rest,

For some departing sister's soul? He, the deceiver,

Say, what may this portend?”— Who could win maiden's breast,

Then first the Palmer silence broke, Ruin, and leave her?

(The elong day he had not spoke,) In the lost battle,

“ The death of a dear friend.". Borne down by the flying, Where mingles war's rattle

XIV.
With groans of the dying.

Marmion, whose steady heart and eye
Ne'er changed in worst extremity;

Marmion, whose soul could scantly brook, Eleu loro, &c. There shall he be lying.

Even from his King, a haughty look ;

Whose accent of command controllid, Her wing shall the eagle flap

In camps, the boldest of the boldO'er the false-hearted;

Thought, look, and utterance fail'd him now, His warm blood the wolf shall lap,

Fall’n was his glance, and flush'd his brow: Ere life be parted.

For either in the tone, Shame and dishonour sit

Or something in the Palmer's look, By his grave ever;

So full upon his conscience strook, Blessing shall hallow it,

That answer he found none. Never, 0 never !

Thus oft it haps, that when within

They shrink at sense of secret sin,
CHORUS.

A feather daunts the brave;
Eleu loro, &c. Never,
never!

A fool's wild speech confounds the wise,

And proudest princes vail their eyes
XII.

Before their meanest slave.
It ceased, the melancholy sound;
And silence sunk on all around.

XV.
The air was sad; but sadder still

Well might he falter !-By his aid It fell on Marmion's ear,

Was Constance Beverley betray'i. And plain'd as if disgrace and ill,

Not that he augurd of the doom, And shameful death, were near.

Which on the living closed the tomb: He drew his mantle past his face,

But, tired to hear the desperate maids Between it and the band,

Threaten by turns, beseech, upbraid ;

CHORUS.

See Appendix, Note 2 0. . M8.-" Marmion, whose pride

Even from his King, a scornful look." 3 MS.-" But tired to hear the furious maid."

Whore haughty son®}could never brook,

And wroth, because in wild despair,'

| And, pent within the narrow cell, She practised on the life of Clare;

How will her spirit chafe and swell! Iis fugitive the Church he gave,

How brook the stern monastic laws! Though not a victim, but a slave;

| The penance how-and I the cause ! And deem'd restraint in convent strange

Vigil and scourge-perchance even worse!” Would hide her wrongs, and her revenge.

And twice be rose to ery, "To horse !”_ Himself, proud Henry's favourite peer,

And twice his Sovereign's mandate came, Held Romish thunders idle fear,

Like damp upon a kindling flame; Secure his pardon he might hold,

And twice he thought, “ Gave I not charge For some slight mulct of penance-gold.

She should be safe, though not at large! Thus judging, he gave secret way,

They durst not, for their island, shred
When the stern priests surprised their prey. One golden ringlet from her head.”
His train but deem'd the favourite page
W'as left behind, to spare his age;

XVIII.
Or other if they deem'd, none dared

While thus in Marmion's bosom strove To mutter what he thought and heard :

Repentance and reviving love, Woe to the vassal, who durst pry

Like whirlwinds, whose contending sway Into Lord Marmion's privacy !

I've seen Loch Vennachar obey,

Their Host the Palmer's speech had
XVI.

heard, His conscience slept-be deem'd her well,

And, talkative, took up the word: And safe secured in distant cell;

Ay, reverend Pilgrim, you, who stray But, waken’d by her favourite lay,

From Scotland's simple land away, And that strange Palmer's boding say,

To visit realms afar, That fell so ominous and drear,

Full often learn the art to know Full on the object of his fear,

Of future weal, or future woe, To aid remorse's venom'd throes,

By word, or sign, or star; Dark tales of convent-vengeance rose;

Yet might a knight his fortune bear, And Constance, late betray'd and scorn'd,

If, knight-like, he despises fear, All lovely on his soul return'd;

Not far from hence ;-if fathers old Lovely as when, at treacherous call,

Aright our hamlet legend told.”She left her convent's peaceful wall,

These broken words the menials move, Crimson'd with shame, with terror mute,

(For marvels still the vulgar love,) Dreading alike escape, pursuit,

And, Marmion giving license cold, Till love, victorious o'er alarms,

His tale the host thus gladly told :-
Hid fears and blushes in his arms.

XIX.
XVII.

The Hast's Tale. “ Alas!” he thought, “ how changed that mien ! “ A Clerk could tell what years have flown How changed these timid looks have been,

Since Alexander fillid our throne, Since years of guilt, and of disguise,

(Third monarch of that warlike name,) Have steeld her brow, and arm'd her eyes !

And eke the time when here he came No more of virgin terror speaks

To seek Sir Hugo, then our lord: The blood that mantles in her cheeks;

A braver never drew a sword; Fierce, and unfeminine, are there,

A wiser never, at the hour Frenzy for joy, for grief despair ;

Of midnight, spoke the word of power: And I the cause for whom were given

The same, whom ancient records call Her peace on earth, her hopes in heaven!

The founder of the Goblin-Hall." Would,” thought he, as the picture grows,

I would, Sir Knight, your longer stay “ I on its stalk had left the rose !

Gave you that cavern to survey. Oh, why should man's success remove

Of lofty roof, and ample size, The very charms that wake his love!

Beneath the castle deep it lies: Her convent's peaceful solitude

To hew the living rock profound, Is now a prison harsh and rude;

The floor to pave, the arch to round,

I MS.-" Incensed, because in wild despair."
9 The MS. reads :-

“ Since fiercer passions wild and high,
Have fushd her cheek with deeper dye,
And years of guilt, and of disguise,
Hare steel'd her brow, and arm'd her eyes,

And I the canse

for whom were given Her peace on earth, her hopes in heaven! How will ber ardent spirit swell,

And chafe within the narrow cell!" 3 MS." From this plain simple land away." • See Appendiı, Note 2 P.