10. Caledon. Caledonia, the Roman name of Scotland.
14. Each according pause. That is, each pause in the singing. In Marmion, ii. 11, according is used of music that fills the intervals of other music:
“Soon as they neared his turrets
strong,
The maidens raised Saint
Hilda’s song,
And with the sea-wave
and the wind
Their voices, sweetly
shrill, combined,
And made
harmonious close;
Then, answering from
the sandy shore,
Half-drowned amid the
breakers’ roar,
According
chorus rose.”
The Ms. reads here:
“At each according pause thou
spokest aloud
Thine ardent sympathy
sublime and high.”
28. The stag at eve had drunk his fill. The metre of the poem proper is iambic, that is, with the accent on the even syllables, and octosyllabic, or eight syllables to the line.
29. Monan’s rill. St. Monan was a Scotch martyr of the fourth century. We can find no mention of any rill named for him.
31. Glenartney. A valley to the north-east of Callander, with Benvoirlich (which rises to the height of 3180 feet) on the north, and Uam-Var (see 53 below) on the south, separating it from the valley of the Teith. It takes its name from the Artney, the stream flowing through it.
32. His beacon red. The figure is an appropriate one in describing this region, where fires on the hill-tops were so often used as signals in the olden time. Cf. the Lay, iii. 379:
“And soon a score of
fires, I ween,
From height, and hill,
and cliff, were seen,
Each with warlike tidings
fraught;
Each from each the signal
caught,” etc.
34. Deep-mouthed. Cf. Shakespeare, 1 Hen. Vi. ii. 4. 12: “Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;” and T. of S. ind. 1. 18: “the deep-mouthed brach” (that is, hound).
The Ms. reads:
“The bloodhound’s notes
of heavy bass
Resounded hoarsely up
the pass.”
35. Resounded ... rocky. The poet often avails himself of “apt alliteration’s artful aid,” as here, and in the next two lines; most frequently in pairs of words.
38. As Chief, etc. Note here, as often, the simile put before that which it illustrates,—an effective rhetorical, though not the logical, arrangement.
45. Beamed frontlet. Antlered forehead.
46. Adown. An instance of a purely poetical word, not admissible in prose.
49. Chase. Here put for those engaged in the chase; as in 101 and 171, below. One of its regular meanings is the object of the chase, or the animal pursued.