Marmion | Page 4

the ominous record, emanating from a
Yule-tide retreat, could not be more fitly interrupted than by a battle of
national disaster. Scott, then, may have thought of publishing the
Introductions separately, but it is well that he ultimately allowed his
better judgment to prevail. It is not necessary to dwell on their special
descriptive features, which readily assert themselves and give Scott a
high and honoured place among Nature-poets. His quick and minute
observation, his sense of colour and harmonious effects, and his skill of
arrangement are admirable throughout.

II. COMPOSITION OF 'MARMION.'
In 1791 Scott accompanied an uncle into Northumberland, and made
his first acquaintance with the scene of Flodden. Writing to his friend
William Clerk (Lockhart's Life, ii. 182), he says, 'Never was an affair
more completely bungled than that day's work was. Suppose one army
posted upon the face of a hill, and secured by high grounds projecting
on each flank, with the river Till in front, a deep and still river, winding
through a very extensive valley called Milfield Plain, and the only
passage over it by a narrow bridge, which the Scots artillery, from the
hill, could in a moment have demolished. Add that the English must
have hazarded a battle while their troops, which were tumultuously
levied, remained together; and that the Scots, behind whom the country
was open to Scotland, had nothing to do but to wait for the attack as
they were posted. Yet did twothirds of the army, actuated by the
perfervidum ingenium Scotorum, rush down and give an opportunity to
Stanley to occupy the ground they had quitted, by coming over the
shoulder of the hill, while the other third, under Lord Home, kept their
ground, and having seen their King and about 10,000 of their
countrymen cut to pieces, retired into Scotland without loss.' Fifteen
years after this was written Scott began the composition of 'Marmion,'
and it is interesting to note that, so early in life as the date of this letter
indicates, he was so keenly alive to the great blunder in military tactics
made by James IV and his advisers, and so
manifestly stirred to
eloquent expression of his feeling.
In November 1806 Scott began 'Marmion,' designed as a romance of
Feudalism to succeed the Border study in 'The Lay of the Last
Minstrel.' The circumstances of the time, no doubt, to some extent
prompted the choice of subject. Napoleon was diligently working out
his ambitious scheme of a Western Empire, and plotting the ruin of
Great Britain as an indispensable feature of the arrangement. Scott was
not always intimately acquainted with the details of current politics, but
when a subject fairly roused his interest he was not slow to take part in
its discussion. This is notably illustrated, in this very year 1806, by the
outspoken and energetic political ballad he produced over the acquittal
of Lord Melville from a serious charge. This ballad, which went very

straight to the heart of its subject, and left no doubt as to the party
feeling of the writer, not only arrested general attention but gave
considerable offence to the leaders on the side so sharply handled. It is
given, with an explanation of the circumstances that called it forth, in
Lockhart's Life, ii. 106, 1837 ed.
While, however, party politics was not always a subject that interested
Scott, patriotism was a constituent element of his character. He had a
keen sense of national dignity and honour--as the extract from his
Flodden letter alone sufficiently testifies-- and, had circumstances
demanded it of him, he would almost certainly have distinguished
himself as a trooper on the field of battle. Thus it was not only his love
of a picturesque theme that inspired him with his Tale of Flodden Field,
but likewise his patriotic ardour and his desire to touch the national
heart. 'Marmion' is epical in character and movement; and it is at the
same time a brilliant and suggestive delineation of a national effort,

illustrating keen sense of honour, resolute purpose, and pathetic manly
devotion. James IV was probably wrong, and he was certainly very rash,
in attempting to do battle with Henry VIII, but although his people
were aware of his mistake, and his advisers did all in their power to
dissuade him, he was supported to the last with a heroism that recalls
Thermopylae. This was a display of national character that appealed
directly and powerfully to Scott, prompting him to the production of his
loftiest and most energetic verse. Mournful associations will ever
cluster around the tragic battle of Flodden--that 'most dolent day,' as
Lyndsay aptly calls it--but all the same the record remains of what
heroic men had it in them to do for King and country, where
'Groom fought like noble, squire like knight,
As fearlessly and well.'