The Lady of the Lake eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 305 pages of information about The Lady of the Lake.

The Lady of the Lake eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 305 pages of information about The Lady of the Lake.

722.  We now must share.  The Ms. has “my sire must share;” and in 725 “The murky grotto’s noxious air.”

733.  Bow us.  See on i. 142, and cf. 749 below.

754.  Lanrick height.  Overlooking Lanrick Mead.  See on 286 above.

755.  Where mustered, etc.  The Ms. reads: 

    “Where broad extending far below,
     Mustered Clan-Alpine’s martial show.”

On the first of these lines, cf. i. 88 above.

773.  Yell.  See on 357 above.

774.  Bochastle’s plain.  See on i. 106 above.

Canto Fourth.

2.  And hope, etc.  The Ms. has “And rapture dearest when obscured by fears.”

5.  Wilding.  Wild; a rare word, used only in poetry.  Cf.  Tennyson, Geraint and Enid:  “And like a crag was gay with wilding flowers.”  Spenser has the noun (= wild apples) in F. Q. iii. 7. 17:  “Oft from the forrest wildings he did bring,” etc.  Whom is used on account of the personification.

9.  What time.  Cf. ii. 307 and iii. 15 above.

19.  Braes of Doune.  The undulating region between Callander and Doune, on the north side of the Teith.  The Doune of 37 below is the old Castle of that name, the ruins of which still form a majestic pile on the steep banks of the Teith.  It figures in Waverley as the place where the hero was confined by the Highlanders.

36.  Boune.  Prepared, ready; a Scottish word.  Cf. 157 and vi. 396 below.

42.  Bide.  Endure; not to be printed ’bide, as if a contraction of abide.  Cf.  Shakespeare, Lear, iii. 4. 29:  “That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,” etc.

Bout.  Turn (of fortune).

47.  Repair.  That is, to repair.

55.  ’T is well advised.  Well thought of, well planned.  Cf. advised careful, well considered; as in M. of V. i. 1. 142:  “with more advised watch,” etc.

The Ms. reads: 

   “’Tis well advised—­a prudent plan,
     Worthy the father of his clan.”

59.  Evening-tide.  See on iii. 478 above.

63.  The Taghairm.  Scott says here:  “The Highlanders, like all rude people, had various superstitious modes of inquiring into futurity.  One of the most noted was the Taghairm, mentioned in the text.  A person was wrapped up in the skin of a newly-slain bullock, and deposited beside a waterfall, or at the bottom of a precipice, or in some other strange, wild, and unusual situation, where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of horror.  In this situation, he revolved in his mind the question proposed; and whatever was impressed upon him by his exalted imagination, passed for the inspiration of the disembodied spirits, who haunt these desolate recesses.  In some of the Hebrides they attributed the same oracular power to a large black stone by the sea-shore, which they approached with certain solemnities, and considered the first fancy which came into their own minds, after they did so, to be the undoubted dictate of the tutelar deity of the stone, and, as such, to be, if possible, punctually complied with.”

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The Lady of the Lake from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.