672. Meet = storied windows richly dight." Il Penseroso, 159. Captive thrall is a tautology. bondage. fitting. Compare Genesis ii, 18. 678. Ring: sing. Infinitives, depending on wont. 691. It. See note on line 442 of this canto. 707. Prime is strictly speaking an ecclesiastical term meaning the first twelfth of the time between sunrise and sunset. Scott uses it very loosely here. 740. Snowdoun's Knight. This discovery will probably remind the reader of the beautiful Arabian tale of Il Bondocani. Yet the incident is not borrowed from that elegant story, but from Scottish tradition. James V., of whom we are treating, was a monarch whose good and benevolent intentions often rendered his romantic freaks venial, if not respectable, since, from his anxious attention to the interests of the lower and most oppressed class of his subjects, he was, as we have seen, popularly termed the King of the Commons. For the purpose of seeing that justice was regularly administered, and frequently from the less justifiable motive of gallantry, he used to traverse the vicinage of his several palaces in various disguises. The two excellent comic songs entitled The Gaberlunzie Man and We'll gae nae mair a roving are said to have been founded upon the success of his amorous adventures when travelling in the disguise of a beggar. The latter is perhaps the best comic ballad in any language. SCOTT. 741. As wreath of snow. This is the most beautiful simile in the poem and would hardly have occurred to any but a Northern man. 782. Proselyte = convert. 828. Malcolm Graeme has too insignificant a part assigned him, considering the favor in which he is held both by Ellen and the author; and in bringing out the shaded and imperfect character of Roderick Dhu as a contrast to the purer virtue of his rival, Mr. Scott seems to have fallen into the common error of making him more interesting than him whose virtues he was intended to set off, and converted the villain of the piece in some measure into its hero. A modern poet, however, may perhaps be pardoned for an error of which Milton himself is thought not to have kept clear, and for which there seems so natural a cause in the difference between poetical and amiable characters. - JEFFREY. 830-837. Notice the artful suspense of this passage. 842. Harp of the North. and the contrasts in setting. Compare the opening stanzas of the poem In the first part of this Canto, the action is managed less skilfully than in any other part of the story. The Guard-Room Episode (stanzas i-xi), is neither interesting nor necessary: it puts off unduly the recital of the battle (xv-xxi) which, in turn, coming where it does, distracts_our attention from him who here carries our sympathy (Roderick Dhu). But no one can deny that the conclusion is admirably turned and that it satisfies our sense of poetic justice. |