Marmion | Page 9

to follow Mr. Rolfe in
several alterations he has made on Lockhart; but he introduces one
emendation which readily commends itself to the reader's intelligence,
and it is adopted in the present volume. This is in the punctuation of the
opening lines in the first stanza of Canto II. Lockhart completes a
sentence at the end of the fifth line, whereas the sense manifestly
carries the period on to the eleventh line. In the third Introd., line 228,
the reading of the earlier editions is followed in giving 'From me'
instead of 'For me,' as the meaning is thereby simplified and made more
direct. In III. xiv. 234, the modern versions of Lockhart's text give
'proudest princes VEIL their eyes,' where Lockhart himself agrees with
the earlier editions in reading 'VAIL'. The restoration of the latter form
needs no defence. The Elizabethan words in the Poem are not
infrequent, giving it, as they do, a certain air of archaic dignity, and
there can be little doubt that 'vail' was Scott's word here, used in its
Shakespearian sense of 'lower' or 'cast down,' and recalling Venus as
'she vailed her eyelids.'
MARMION
A TALE OF FLODDEN FIELD
IN SIX CANTOS
Alas! that Scottish maid should sing
The combat where her lover fell!

That Scottish Bard should wake the string,
The triumph of our foes
to tell!
LEYDEN.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
HENRY, LORD MONTAGUE
&c. &c. &c.
THIS ROMANCE IS INSCRIBED
BY
THE AUTHOR

ADVERTISEMENT
* * *
It is hardly to be expected, that an
Author whom the Public have honoured with some degree of applause,
should not be again a trespasser on their kindness. Yet the Author of
MARMION must be supposed to feel some anxiety concerning its
success, since he is sensible that he hazards, by this second intrusion,
any reputation which his first Poem may have procured him. The
present story turns upon the private adventures of a fictitious character;
but is called a Tale of Flodden Field, because the hero's fate is
connected with that memorable defeat, and the causes which led to it.
The design of the Author was, if possible, to apprize his readers, at the
outset, of the date of his Story, and to prepare them for the manners of
the Age in which it is laid. Any Historical Narrative, far more an
attempt at Epic composition, exceeded his plan of a Romantic Tale; yet
he may be permitted to hope, from the popularity of THE LAY OF
THE LAST MINSTREL, that an attempt to paint the manners of the
feudal times, upon a broader scale, and in the course of a more
interesting story, will not be unacceptable to the Public.
The Poem opens about the commencement of August, and concludes
with the defeat of Flodden, 9th September, 1513.
Ashestiel, 1808,
MARMION.
INTRODUCTION TO CANTO FIRST.
TO WILLIAM STEWART ROSE, ESQ.
Ashestiel, Ettrick Forest.
November's sky is chill and drear,
November's leaf is red and sear:

Late, gazing down the steepy linn,
That hems our little garden in,

Low in its dark and narrow glen, 5 You scarce the rivulet might ken,

So thick the tangled greenwood grew,
So feeble trill'd the streamlet
through:
Now, murmuring hoarse, and frequent seen
Through bush
and brier, no longer green, 10 An angry brook, it sweeps the glade,


Brawls over rock and wild cascade,
And, foaming brown with double
speed,
Hurries its waters to the Tweed.
No longer Autumn's glowing red 15 Upon our Forest hills is shed;
No
more, beneath the evening beam,
Fair Tweed reflects their purple
gleam;
Away hath pass'd the heather-bell
That bloom'd so rich on
Needpath-fell; 20 Sallow his brow, and russet bare
Are now the
sister-heights of Yair.
The sheep, before the pinching heaven,
To
sheltered dale and down are driven,
Where yet some faded herbage
pines, 25 And yet a watery sunbeam shines:
In meek despondency
they eye
The withered sward and wintry sky,
And far beneath their
summer hill,
Stray sadly by Glenkinnon's rill: 30 The shepherd shifts
his mantle's fold,
And wraps him closer from the cold;
His dogs no
merry circles wheel,
But, shivering, follow at his heel;
A cowering
glance they often cast, 35 As deeper moans the gathering blast.
My imps, though hardy, bold, and wild,
As best befits the mountain
child,
Feel the sad influence of the hour,
And wail the daisy's
vanish'd flower; 40 Their summer gambols tell, and mourn,
And
anxious ask,--Will spring return,
And birds and lambs again be gay,

And blossoms clothe the hawthorn spray?
Yes, prattlers, yes. The daisy's flower 45 Again shall paint your
summer bower;
Again the hawthorn shall supply
The garlands you
delight to tie;
The lambs upon the lea shall bound,
The wild birds
carol to the round, 50 And while you frolic light as they,
Too short
shall seem the summer day.
To mute and to material things
New life revolving summer brings;

The genial call dead Nature hears, 55 And in her glory reappears.
But
oh! my Country's wintry state
What second spring shall renovate?

What powerful call shall bid arise
The buried warlike