line 273.  Arthur is the hero of the ‘Faery Queene.’  In his explanatory letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, Spenser says, ’I chose the historye of King Arthure, as most fitte for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many mens former workes, and also furthest from the daunger of envy, and suspicion of present time.’

line 274.  Milton is said to have meditated in his youth the composition of an epic poem on Arthur and the Round Table.  In ‘Paradise Lost’ ix. 26, he states that the subject of that poem pleased him ‘long choosing and beginning late,’ and references both in ‘Paradise Lost’ and ‘Paradise Regained’ prove his familiarity with the Arthurian legend.  Cp.  Par.  Lost, i. 580, and Par.  Reg. ii. 358.

line 275.  Scott quotes from Dryden’s ‘Essay on Satire,’ prefixed to the translation of Juvenal, regarding his projected Epic.  ’Of two subjects,’ says Dryden, ’I was doubtful whether I should choose that of King Arthur conquering the Saxons, which, being further distant in time, gives the greater scope to my invention; or that of Edward the Black Prince, in subduing Spain, and restoring it to the lawful prince, though a great tyrant, Pedro the Cruel....I might perhaps have done as well as some of my predecessors, or at least chalked out a way for others to amend my errors in a like design; but being encouraged only with fair words by King Charles ii, my little salary ill paid, and no prospect of a future subsistence, I was then discouraged in the beginning of my attempt; and now age has overtaken me, and want, a more insufferable evil, through the change of the times, has wholly disabled me.’

lines 281-3.  Dryden’s dramas, certain of his translations, and various minor pieces adapted to the prevalent taste of his time, are unworthy of his genius.  Pope’s reflections on the poet forgetful of the dignity of his office, with the allusion to Dryden as an illustration (’Satires and Epistles,’ v. 209), may be compared with this passage;—­

     ’I scarce can think him such a worthless thing,
      Unless he praise some monster of a king;
      Or virtue, or religion turn to sport,
      To please a lewd, or unbelieving court. 
      Unhappy Dryden!  In all Charles’s days,
      Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays.’

line 283.  Cp.  Gray’s ‘Progress of Poesy,’ 103—­

’Behold, where Dryden’s less presumptuous car
Wide o’er the fields of glory bear
Two coursers of ethereal race,
With necks in thunder cloth’d, and long-resounding pace’;

and Pope’s ‘Satires and Epistles,’ v. 267—­

                            ’Dryden taught to join
      The varying verse, the full-resounding line,
      The long majestic march, and energy divine.’

line 286.  To break a lance is to enter the lists, to try one’s strength.  The concussion of two powerful knights would suffice to shiver the lances.  Hence comes the figurative use.  Cp.  I Henry vi. iii. 2,—­