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
line 81. The Red-Cross hero is Sir Sidney Smith, the famous admiral,
who belonged to the Order of Knights Templars. The eight-pointed
Templar's cross which he wore throughout his career is said to have
belonged to Richard Coeur-de-Lion. In early life, with consent of
the Government, Smith distinguished himself with the Swedes in their
war with Russia. He was frequently entrusted with the duty of
alarming the French coast, and once was captured and imprisoned, in
the Temple at Paris, for two years. His escape was effected by a
daring stratagem on the part of the French Royalist party. He and
his sailors helped the Turks to retain St. Jean d'Acre against
Napoleon, till then the 'Invincible,' who retired baffled after a
vain siege of sixty days (May, 1799). Had Acre been won, said
Napoleon afterwards, 'I would have reached Constantinople and the
Indies--I would have changed the face of the world.' See Scott's
'Life of Napoleon,' chap. xiii.
line 91. For metal'd see above, Introd. to I. 308.
line 92. For warped = 'frozen,' cp. As You Like It, ii. 7. 187,
where, addressing the bitter sky, the singer says:--
'Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp,
As friends remember'd not.'
line 94. The reference is to Sir Ralph Abercromby, who commanded the
expedition to Egypt, 1800-1, and fell at the battle of Alexandria.
Sir Sidney Smith was wounded in the same battle, and had to go home.
lines 100-10. Scott pays compliment to his friend Joanna Baillie
(1764-1851), with chivalrous courtesy asserting that she is the
first worthy successor of Shakespeare. 'Count Basil' and 'De
Montfort' are the two most remarkable of her 'Plays of the
Passions,' of which she published three volumes. 'De Montfort' was
played in London, Kemble enacting the hero. Several of Miss
Baillie's Scottish songs are among standard national lyrics.
line 100. Cp. opening of 'Lady of the Lake.'
lines 115-28. Lockhart notes the resemblance between this passage
and Pope's 'Essay on Man,' II. 133-148.
line 134. Cp. Goldsmith's 'Traveller,' 293:--
'The slow canal, the yellow-blossom'd vale,
The willow-tufted bank, the gliding sail.'
Batavia is the capital of the Dutch East Indies, with canals,
architecture, &c., after the home model.
line 137. hind, from Early Eng. hyne, servant (A. S. hina) is quite
distinct from hind, a female stag. Gavin Douglas, translating Tyrii
coloni of Aen. I. 12, makes them 'hynis of Tyre.' Shakespeare (Merry
Wives, iii. 5. 94) uses the word as servant, 'A couple of Ford's
knaves, his HINDS, were called forth.' The modern usage implies a
farm-bailiff or simply a farm-servant.
line 149. Lochaber is a large district in the south of
Invernesshire, having Ben Nevis and other Grampian heights within
its compass. It is a classic name in Scottish literature owing to
Allan Ramsay's plaintive lyric, 'Lochaber no more.'
line 153. For early influences, see Lockhart's Life, vol. i.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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