Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field in Six CantosScott, Walter
General
Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field in Six Cantos
Scott, Walter
Flodden, Battle of, England, 1513 -- Poetry
Stanza XII. line 215. Suppose we = Let us suppose. This is an
Elizabethanism. Cp. Macbeth, i. I. 10:--
'Hover through the fog and filthy air,'
where hover = hover we.
Stanza XIII. line 234. Scott quotes from 'A True Account,'
circulated at Whitby, concerning the consequences of a boar-hunt on
Eskdale-side, belonging to the Abbot of Whitby. The boar, being hard
pressed, made for a hermitage and died just within the door. Coming
up, the three leaders--William de Bruce, Lord of Uglebarnby, Ralph
de Percy, Lord of Smeaton, and a freeholder named Allatson--in their
disappointment and wrath set upon the hermit, whom they fatally
wounded. When the abbot afterwards came to the dying hermit, and
told him his assailants would suffer extreme penalty for their
ruthless conduct, the hermit asked the gentlemen to be sent for, and
said he would pardon them on certain conditions. 'The gentlemen
being present bade him save their lives.--Then said the hermit, "You
and yours shall hold your lands of the Abbot of Whitby, and his
successors, in this manner: That, upon Ascension-day, you, or some
of you, shall come to the wood of the Stray-heads, which is in
Eskdale-side, the same day at sun-rising, and there shall the
abbot's officer blow his horn, to the intent that you may know where
to find him; and he shall deliver unto you, William de Bruce, ten
stakes, eleven strout stowers, and eleven yethers, to be cut by you,
or some of you, with a knife of one penny price: and you, Ralph de
Percy, shall take twenty-one of each sort, to be cut in the same
manner; and you, Allatson, shall take nine of each sort, to be cut
as aforesaid, and to be taken on your backs and carried to the town
of Whitby, and to be there before nine of the clock the same day
before mentioned. At the same hour of nine of the clock, if it be
full sea, your labour and service shall cease; and if low water,
each of you shall set your stakes to the brim, each stake one yard
from the other, and so yether them on each side with your yethers;
and so stake on each side with your strout stowers, that they may
stand three tides, without removing by the force thereof. Each of
you shall do, make, and execute the said service, at that very hour,
every year, except it be fall sea at that hour; but when it shall so
fall out, this service shall cease. You shall faithfully do this, in
remembrance that you did most cruelly slay me; and that you may the
better call to God for mercy, repent unfeignedly of your sins, and
do good works. The officer of Eskdale-side shall blow, Out on you!
Out on you! Out on you! for this heinous crime. If you, or your
successors, shall refuse this service, so long as it shall not be
full sea at the aforesaid hour, you or yours shall forfeit your
lands to the Abbot of Whitby, or his successors. This I entreat, and
earnestly beg, that you may have lives and goods preserved for this
service: and I request of you to promise, by your parts in Heaven,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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