Page:Marmion - Walter Scott (ed. Bayne, 1889).pdf/271

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
NOTES: CANTO III.
241

For references to Susquehanna and the home-longing of the exile, see Campbell's 'Gertrude of Wyoming,' I. i-vi. The introduction of reaping-machines has minimised the music and poetry of the harvest field.

Stanzas X, XI. The two pictures in the song are very effectively contrasted both in spirit and style. The lover's resting-place has features that recall the house of Morpheus, 'Faery Queene,' I.-i. 40-1. Note the recurrence of the traitor's doom in Marmion's troubled thoughts, in VI. xxxii. The burden 'eleu loro' has been somewhat uncertainly connected with the Italian ela loro, 'alas! for them.'

Stanza XIII. ll, 201-7. One of the most striking illustrations of this is in Shakespeare's delineation of Brutus, who is himself made to say (Julius Caesar, ii, 1. 18):—

''The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins Remorse from power.'

For the sentiment of the text cp. the character of Ordonio in Coleridge's 'Remorse,' the concentrated force of whose dying words is terrible, while indicative of native nobility:—

'I stood in silence like a slave before herThat I might taste the wormwood and the gall, And satiate this self-accusing heart With bitterer agonies than death can give.'

l. 211. 'Among other omens to which faithful credit is given among the Scottish peasantry, is what is called the "dead-bell," explained by my friend James Hogg to be that tinkling in the ears which the country people regard as the secret intelligence of some friend's decease. He tells a story to the purpose in the "Mountain Bard," p. 16 [pp. 31-2, 3rd edit.].'—Scott.

Cp. Tickell's 'Lucy and Colin,' and this perfect stanza in Mickle's 'Cumnor Hall,' quoted in Introd. to 'Kenilworth':—

'The death-bell thrice was heard to ring,An aerial voice was heard to call, And thrice the raven flapp'd its wingAround the towers of Cumnor Hall.'

l. 217. Cp. Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1. 286: 'The death. of a dear friend would go near to make a man look sad.'

Stanza XIV. ll. 230-5. Cp. the effect of Polonius on the King (Hamlet, iii. 1. 50)—

'How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!'

Hamlet himself, ib. l. 83, says:—

'Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.'

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.