Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field in Six CantosScott, Walter
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Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field in Six Cantos
Scott, Walter
Flodden, Battle of, England, 1513 -- Poetry
Stanza XXVI. line 452. Scott quotes from Rabelais the passage in
which the monk suggests to Gargantua that in order to induce sleep
they might together try the repetition of the seven penitential
psalms. 'The conceit pleased Gargantua very well; and, beginning the
first of these psalms, as soon as they came to Beati quorum they
fell asleep, both the one and the other.' Cp. Chaucer's Monk and the
character of Accidia in 'Piers the Plowman,' Passus V.
line 453. ave, an address to the Virgin Mary, beginning 'Ave Maria';
creed, a profession of faith, beginning with Credo. It has been
objected to this line that the creed is not an essential part of the
rosary, and that ten aves and one paternoster would have been more
accurate. It should, however, be noticed that both Friar John and
young Selby know more of other matters than the details of religious
devotion.
Stanza XXVII. line 459. 'A PALMER, opposed to a PILGRIM, was one who
made it his sole business to visit different holy shrines;
travelling incessantly, and subsisting by charity: whereas the
Pilgrim retired to his usual home and occupations, when he had paid
his devotions at the particular spot which was the object of his
pilgrimage. The Palmers seem to have been the Quaestionarii of the
ancient Scottish canons 1242 and 1296. There is in the Bannatyne MS.
a burlesque account of two such persons, entitled, "Simmy and his
Brother." Their accoutrements are thus ludicrously described (I
discard the ancient spelling):--
"Syne shaped them up, to loup on leas,
Two tabards of the tartan;
They counted nought what their clouts were
When sew'd them on, in certain.
Syne clampit up St. Peter's keys,
Made of an old red gartane;
St. James's shells, on t'other side, shews
As pretty as a partane
Toe,
On Symmye and his brother."'--SCOTT.
With this account of the Palmer, cp. 'Piers the Plowman,' v. 523:--
'He bare a burdoun ybounde . with a brode liste,
In a withewyndes wise . ywounden aboute.
A bolle and a bagge . he bare by his syde;
An hundredth of ampulles . on his hatt seten,
Signes of Synay . and shelles of Galice;
And many a cruche on his cloke . and keyes of Rome,
And the vernicle bifore . for men shulde knowe,
And se bi his signes . whom he soughte hadde.'
In connexion with this, Prof. Skeat draws attention to the romance
of Sir Isumbras and to Chaucer's Prol. line 13.
line 467. Loretto, in Ancona, Italy, is the site of a sanctuary of
the Virgin, entitled Santa Casa, Holy House, which enjoys the
reputation of having been the Virgin's residence in Nazareth, and
the scene of the Annunciation, &c.
Stanza XXVIII. line 483. haggard wild is a twofold adj. in the
Elizabethan fashion, like 'bitter sweet,' 'childish foolish,' and
other familiar examples.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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