“The readers of Ariosto must give credit for the amiable features with which James is represented, since he is generally considered as the prototype of Zerbino, the most interesting hero of the Orlando Furioso.”

743.  Glided from her stay.  The Ms. has “shrinking, quits her stay.”

Ruskin asks us to “note the northern love of rocks” in this passage, and adds:  “Dante could not have thought of his ’cut rocks’ as giving rest even to snow.  He must put it on the pine branches, if it is to be at peace.”  Taylor quotes Holmes, Autocrat of Breakfast Table:  “She melted away from her seat like an image of snow.”

780.  Pry.  Look pryingly or curiously.  In prose on would not be used with pry.

784.  To speed.  To a fortunate issue; unless speed be the verb, and = pass.

786.  In life’s more low but happier way.  The Ms. has “In lowly life’s more happy way.”

789.  The name of Snowdoun.  Scott says:  “William of Worcester, who wrote about the middle of the fifteenth century, calls Stirling Castle Snowdoun.  Sir David Lindsay bestows the same epithet upon it in his Complaint of the Papingo: 

’Adieu, fair Snawdoun, with thy towers high, Thy chaple-royal, park, and table round; May, June, and July, would I dwell in thee, Were I a man, to hear the birdis sound, Whilk doth agane thy royal rock rebound.’

“Mr. Chalmers, in his late excellent edition of Sir David Lindsay’s works, has refuted the chimerical derivation of Snawdoun from snedding, or cutting.  It was probably derived from the romantic legend which connected Stirling with King Arthur, to which the mention of the Round Table gives countenance.  The ring within which justs were formerly practised in the Castle park, is still called the Round Table.  Snawdoun is the official title of one of the Scottish heralds, whose epithets seem in all countries to have been fantastically adopted from ancient history or romance.

“It appears from the preceding note that the real name by which James was actually distinguished in his private excursions was the Goodman of Ballenguich; derived from a steep pass leading up to the Castle of Stirling, so called.  But the epithet would not have suited poetry, and would besides at once, and prematurely, have announced the plot to many of my country men, among whom the traditional stories above mentioned are still current.”

798.  My spell-bound steps.  The Ms. has

“Thy sovereign back    | to Benvenue.” 
Thy sovereign’s steps |

800.  Glaive.  Sword.  See on iv. 274 above.

803.  Pledge of my faith, etc.  The Ms. has “Pledge of Fitz-James’s faith, the ring.”

808.  A lightening.  Some eds. have “A lightning.”

809.  And more, etc.  The Ms. reads: