my reputation.  And I happened to be the only horseman in, when the dogs sett him up at bay; and approaching near him on horsebacke, he broke through the dogs, and run at mee, and tore my horse’s side with his hornes, close by my thigh.  Then I quitted my horse, and grew more cunning (for the dogs had sette him up againe), stealing behind him with my sword, and cut his hamstrings; and then got upon his back, and cut his throate; which, as I was doing, the company came in, and blamed my rashness for running such a hazard’ (Peck’s Desiderata Curiosa, ii. 464).”

138.  Whinyard.  A short stout sword or knife; the same as the whinger of the Lay of Last Minstrel, v. 7: 

    “And whingers, now in friendship bare
     The social meal to part and share,
       Had found a bloody sheath.”

142.  Turned him.  In Elizabethan, and still more in earlier English, personal pronouns were often used reflexively; and this, like many other old constructions, is still used in poetry.

145.  Trosachs.  “The rough or bristled territory” (Graham); the wild district between Lochs Katrine and Vennachar.  The name is now especially applied to the pass between Lochs Katrine and Achray.

147.  Close couched.  That is, as he lay close couched, or hidden.  Such ellipses are common in poetry.

150.  Amain.  With main, or full force.  We still say “with might and main.”

151.  Chiding.  Not a mere figurative use of chide as we now understand it (cf. 287 below), but an example of the old sense of the word as applied to any oft-repeated noise.  Shakespeare uses it of the barking of dogs in M. N. D. iv. 1. 120: 

“never did I hear
Such gallant chiding;”

of the wind, as in A. Y. L. ii. 1. 7:  “And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind;” and of the sea, as in 1 Hen.  IV. iii. 1. 45: 

                            “the sea
    That chides the banks of England;”

and Hen.  VIII. iii. 2. 197:  “the chiding flood.”

163.  The banks of Seine.  James visited France in 1536, and sued for the hand of Magdalen, daughter of Francis I. He married her the following spring, but she died a few months later.  He then married Mary of Guise, whom he had doubtless seen while in France.

166.  Woe worth the chase.  That is, woe be to it.  This worth is from the A. S. weorthan, to become.  Cf.  Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 32: 

                                  “Wo worth the man,
    That first did teach the cursed steele to bight
    In his owne flesh, and make way to the living spright!”

See also Ezek. xxx. 2.

180.  And on the hunter, etc.  The Ms. reads: 

“And on the hunter hied his pace,
To meet some comrades of the chase;”

and the 1st ed. retains “pace” and “chase.”