184. The western waves, etc. This description of the Trosachs was written amid the scenery it delineates, in the summer of 1809. The Quarterly Review (May, 1810) says of the poet: "He sees everything with a painter's eye. Whatever he represents has a character of individuality, and is drawn with an accuracy and minuteness of discrimination which we are not accustomed to expect from mere verbal description. It is because Mr. Scott usually delineates those objects with which he is perfectly familiar that his touch is so easy, correct, and animated. The rocks, the ravines, and the torrents which he exhibits are not the imperfect sketches of a hurried traveller, but the finished studies of a resident artist." See also on 278 below.
Ruskin (Modern Painters, iii. 278) refers to "the love of color"as a leading element in Scott's love of beauty. He might have quoted the present passage among the illustrations he adds.
195. The native bulwarks, etc. The MS. has "The mimic castles of the pass."196. The tower, etc. Cf. Gen. xi. 1-9.
198. The rocky. The 1st ed. has "Their rocky," etc.
204. Nor were, etc. The MS. reads: "Nor were these mighty bulwarks bare."208. Dewdrop sheen. Not "dewdrops sheen," or "dewdrops' sheen,"as sometimes printed. Sheen = shining, bright; as in v. 10below. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 10: "So faire and sheene;" Id. iii. 4. 51: "in top of heaven sheene," etc. See Wb. The MS. has here: "Bright glistening with the dewdrop sheen."212. Boon. Bountiful. Cf. Milton, P. L. iv. 242:
"Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice art In beds and curious knots, but nature boon Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain."See also P. L. ix. 793: "jocund and boon."
217. Bower. In the old sense of chamber, lodging-place; as in iv. 413 and vi. 218 below. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 1. 58:
"Eftesoones long waxen torches weren light Unto their bowres to guyden every guest."For clift (= cleft), the reading of the 1st ed. and unquestionably what Scott wrote, every other edition that we have seen reads "cliff."219. Emblems of punishment and pride. See on iii. 19 below.
222, 223. Note the imperfect rhyme in breath and beneath. Cf.
224-25, 256-57, 435-36, 445-46 below. Such instances are comparatively rare in Scott's poetry. Some rhymes that appear to be imperfect are to be explained by peculiarities of Scottish pronunciation. See on 363 below.
227. Shaltered. The MS. has "scathed;" also "rugged arms athwart the sky" in 229, and "twinkling" for glistening in 231.
The 1st ed. has "scattered" for shattered; corrected in the Errata.
231. Streamers. Of ivy or other vines.
238. Affording, etc. The MS. reads:
"Affording scarce such breadth of flood As served to float the wild-duck's brood."247. Emerging, etc. The MS. has "Emerging dry-shod from the wood."254. And now, to issue from the glen, etc. "Until the present road was made through the romantic pass which I have presumptuously attempted to describe in the preceding stanzas, there was no mode of issuing out of the defile called the Trosachs, excepting by a sort of ladder, composed of the branches and roots of trees" (Scott).
263. Loch Katrine. In a note to The Fair Maid of Perth, Scott derives the name from the Catterans, or Highland robbers, that once infested the shores of the lake. Others make it "the Lake of the Battle," in memory of some prehistoric conflict.
267. Livelier. Because in motion; like living gold above.
270. Benvenue. See on 97 above.
271. Down to. Most editions misprint "down on."272. Confusedly. A trisyllable; as in ii. 161 below, and in the Lay, iii. 337: "And helms and plumes, confusedly tossed."274. Wildering. Bewildering. Cf. Dryden, Aurungzebe, i. 1:
"wilder'd in the way," etc. See also 434 and v. 22 below.
275. His ruined sides, etc. The MS. reads:
"His ruined sides and fragments hoar, While on the north to middle air."277. Ben-an. This mountain, 1800 feet high, is north of the Trosachs, separating that pass from Glenfinlas.
278. From the steep, etc. The MS. reads:
"From the high promontory gazed The stranger, awe-struck and amazed."The Critical Review (Aug. 1820) remarks of this portion of the poem (184 fol.): "Perhaps the art of landscape-painting in poetry has never been displayed in higher perfection than in these stanzas, to which rigid criticism might possibly object that the picture is somewhat too minute, and that the contemplation of it detains the traveller somewhat too long from the main purpose of his pilgrimage, but which it would be an act of the greatest injustice to break into fragments and present by piecemeal. Not so the magnificent scene which bursts upon the bewildered hunter as he emerges at length from the dell, and commands at one view the beautiful expanse of Loch Katrine."281. Churchman. In its old sense of one holding high office in the church. Cf. Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. i. 3. 72, where Cardinal Beaufort is called "the imperious churchman," etc.
285. Cloister. Monastery; originally, the covered walk around the inner court of the building.
287. Chide. Here, figuratively, in the modern sense. See in 151 above.
290. Should lave. The 1st ed. has "did lave," which is perhaps to be preferred.
294. While the deep peal's. For the measure, see on 73 above.
300. To friendly feast, etc. The MS. has "To hospitable feast and hall."302. Beshrew. May evil befall (see on shrewdly, 84 above); a mild imprecation, often used playfully and even tenderly. Cf.
Shakespeare, 2 Hen. IV. ii. 3. 45:
"Beshrew your heart, Fair daughter, you do draw my spirits from me With new lamenting ancient oversights!"305. Some mossy bank, etc. The MS. reads:
"And hollow trunk of some old tree My chamber for the night must be."313. Highland plunderers. "The clans who inhabited the romantic regions in the neighborhood of Loch Katrine were, even until a late period, much addicted to predatory excursions upon their Lowland neighbors" (Scott).
317. Fall the worst. If the worst befall that can happen. Cf.
