The Lady of the Lake [79]
355. Shot him. See on i. 142 above. Scott is much given to this construction.
357. The funeral yell, etc. The MS. has "'T is woman's scream, 't is childhood's wail."
Yell may at first seem too strong a word here, but it is in keeping with the people and the times described. Besides Scott was familiar with old English poetry, in which it was often used where a modern writer would choose another word. Cf. Surrey, Virgil's AEneid: "With wailing great and women's shrill yelling;" and Gascoigne, De Profundis:
"From depth of doole wherein my soule dooth dwell, . . . . . . . . . . . O gracious God, to thee I crie and yell."
362. Torch's ray. The 1st ed. reads "torches ray" and supply;" corrected in the Errata to read as in the text. Most eds. print "torches' ray."
369. Coronach. Scott has the following note here: "The Coronach of the Highlanders, like the Ululatus of the Romans, and the Ululoo of the Irish, was a wild expression of lamentation, poured forth by the mourners over the body of a departed friend. When the words of it were articulate, they expressed the praises of the deceased, and the loss the clan would sustain by his death. The following is a lamentation of this kind, literally translated from the Gaelic, to some of the ideas of which the text stands indebted. The tune is so popular that it has since become the war-march, or gathering of the clan.
Coronach on Sir Lauchlan, Chief of Maclean.
'Which of all the Senachies Can trace thy line from the root, up to Paradise, But Macvuirih, the son of Fergus? No sooner had thine ancient stately tree Taken firm root in Albin, Than one of thy forefathers fell at Harlaw.-- 'T was then we lost a chief of deathless name.
''T is no base weed--no planted tree, Nor a seedling of last Autumn; Nor a sapling planted at Beltain;[FN#7] Wide, wide around were spread its lofty branches-- But the topmost bough is lowly laid! Thou hast forsaken us before Sawaine.[FN#8]
'Thy dwelling is the winter house;-- Loud, sad, and mighty is thy death-song! Oh! courteous champion of Montrose! Oh! stately warrior of the Celtic Isles! Thou shalt buckle thy harness on no more!'
"The coronach has for some years past been suspended at funerals by the use of the bagpipe; and that also is, like many other Highland peculiarities, falling into disuse, unless in remote districts."
370. He is gone, etc. As Taylor remarks, the metre of this dirge seems to be amphibrachic; that is, made up of feet, or metrical divisions, of three syllables, the second of which is accented. Some of the lines appear to be anapestic (made up of trisyllabic feet, with the last syllable accented); but the rhythm of these is amphibrachic; that is, the rhythmic pause is after the syllable that follows the accent.
"(He) is gone on | the mountain, {Like) a summer- | dried fountain."
Ten lines out of twenty-four are distinctly amphibrachic, as
"To Duncan | no morrow."
So that it seems best to treat the rest as amphibrachic, with a superfluous unaccented syllable at the beginning of the line. Taylor adds: "The song is very carefully divided. To each of the three things, mountain, forest, fountain, four lines are given, in the order 3, 1, 2."
384. In flushing. In full bloom. Cf. Hamlet, iii. 3. 81: "broad blown, as flush as May."
386. Correi. A hallow in the side of a hill, where game usually lies.
387. Cumber. Trouble, perplexity. Cf. Fairfax, Tasso ii. 73: "Thus fade thy helps, and thus thy cumbers spring;" and Sir John Harrington, Epigrams, i. 94: "without all let [hindrance] or cumber."
388. Red. Bloody, not afraid of the hand-to-hand fight.
394. Stumah. "Faithful; the name of a dog" (Scott).
410. Angus, the heir, etc. The MS. reads:
"Angus, the first of Duncan's line, Sprung forth and seized the fatal sign, And then upon his kinsman's bier Fell Malise's suspended tear. In haste