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 9. Leaguer, the besiegers' camp. Cp. Longfellow's 'Evangeline,'
I. 5,--
'Like to a gipsy camp, or a LEAGUER after a battle.'
Stanza II. lines 27-30. Cp. 'Faerie Queene,' III. iv. 7.:--
'The surges hore
That 'gainst the craggy clifts did loudly rore,
And in their raging surquedry disdaynd
That the fast earth affronted them so sore.'
lines 34-6. The cognizance was derived from the commission Brace
gave the Good Lord James Douglas to carry his heart to Palestine.
The FIELD is the whole surface of the shield, the CHIEF the upper
portion. The MULLET is a star-shaped figure resembling the rowel of
a spur, and having five points.
line 45. Bartisan, a small overhanging turret.
line 46. With vantage-coign, or advantageous corner, cp. 'Macbeth,'
i. 6. 7.
Stanza III. line 69. Adown, poetical for down. Cp. Chaucer, 'Monkes
Tale,' 3630, Clarendon Press ed.:--
'Thus day by day this child bigan to crye
Til in his fadres barme ADOUN it lay.'
lines 86-91. Cp. Coleridge's 'Christabel,' line 68.
'I guess, 'twas frightful there to see
A lady so richly clad as she--
Beautiful exceedingly.'
Stanza IV. lines 106-9. Cp. 'Il Penseroso,' 161-6,--
'There let the pealing organ blow
To the full voic'd quire below,
In service high, and anthems clear,
As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstasies,
And bring all Heav'n before mine eyes.'
See also Coleridge's 'Dejection,' v.:--
'O pure of heart! thou need'st not ask of me
What this strong music in the soul may be!' &c.
line 112. 'I shall only produce one instance more of the great
veneration paid to Lady Hilda, which still prevails even in these
our days; and that is, the constant opinion, that she rendered, and
still renders herself visible, on some occasions, in the Abbey of
Streamshalh, or Whitby, where she so long resided. At a particular
time of the year (viz. in the summer months), at ten or eleven in
the forenoon, the sunbeams fall in the inside of the northern part
of the choir; and 'tis then that the spectators, who stand on the
west side of Whitby churchyard, so as just to see the most northerly
part of the abbey pass the north end of Whitby church, imagine they
perceive, in one of the highest windows there, the resemblance of a
woman, arrayed in a shroud. Though we are certain this is only a
reflection caused by the splendour of the sunbeams, yet fame reports
it, and it is constantly believed among the vulgar, to be an
appearance of Lady Hilda in her shroud, or rather in a glorified
state; before which, I make no doubt, the Papists, even in these our
days, offer up their prayers with as much zeal and devotion, as
before any other image of their most glorified saint." CHARLTON'S
History of Whitby, p. 33.'--SCOTT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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