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
enough to have laid aside on the day of battle, as encumbering his
personal exertions. They produce a better evidence, the monarch's
sword and dagger, which are still preserved in the Herald's College
in London. Stowe has recorded a degrading story of the disgrace with
which the remains of the unfortunate monarch were treated in his
time. An unhewn column marks the spot where James fell, still called
the King's Stone.'--SCOTT. See also Mr. Jerningham's 'Norham
Castle,' chap. xi.
line 1084. See above, V. vii, &c.
Stanza XXXVI. line 1096. 'This storm of Lichfield Cathedral, which
had been garrisoned on the part of the King, took place in the Great
Civil War. Lord Brook, who, with Sir John Gill, commanded the
assailants, was shot with a musket-ball through the vizor of his
helmet. The royalists remarked that he was killed by a shot fired
from St. Chad's Cathedral, and upon St. Chad's day, and received his
death-wound in the very eye with which, he had said, he hoped to see
the ruin of all the cathedrals in England. The magnificent church in
question suffered cruelly upon this, and other occasions; the
principal spire being ruined by the fire of the besiegers.'--SCOTT.
Ceadda, or Chad, after resigning the bishopric of York in 669 A. D.,
was appointed Bp. of Lichfield, where he 'lived for a little while
in great holiness.' See Hunt's 'English Church in the Middle Ages,'
p. 17.
line 1110. The allusion is to the old fragment on Flodden, which has
been so skilfully extended by Jean Elliot and also by Mrs. Cockburn
in their national lyrics, 'The Flowers o' the Forest.'
line 1117. Once more the poet uses the irony of events with
significant force.
Stanza XXXVII. line 1125. There is now a font of stone with a
drinking cup, and an inscription on the back of the font runs thus:-
-
'Drink, weary pilgrim, drink and stay,
Rest by the well of Sybil Grey.'
Stanza XXXVIII. In this stanza the poet indicates the spirit in
which romances are written, clearly indicating that those only that
have ears will be able to hear. 'Phonanta sunetoisin' might be the
watchword of all imaginative writers. Cp. Thackeray's 'Rebecca and
Rowena.'
line 1155. Hall and Holinshed were chroniclers of the sixteenth
century, to both of whom Shakespeare was indebted for pliant
material.
line 1168. Sir Thomas More, Lord Sands, and Anthony Denny. See Henry
VIII.
lines 1169-70. The references are to old homely customs at weddings.
See Brand's 'Popular Antiquities.'
L'ENVOY.
Scott's fondness for archaisms makes him add his L'Envoy in the
manner of early English and Scottish poets. See e.g. Spenser's
'Shepherd's Calendar' and the 'Phoenix' of James VI.
line 4. Rede, 'used generally for TALE or DISCOURSE.'--SCOTT.
line 6. Cp. William Morris's introduction to 'Earthly Paradise,'
where the poet calls himself
'The idle singer of an empty day.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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