line 133.  ‘The Minstrel’ is Beattie’s chief poem; it is one of the few poems in well-written Spenserian stanza.

line 147.  Ps. lxviii. 5.

line 151.  Prov. xxvii. 10.

line 155.  For account of Sir W. Forbes, see his autobiographical ‘Memoirs of a Banking House’; Chambers’s ‘Eminent Scotsmen’; and ‘Dictionary of National Biography.’

line 163.  Cp.  Pope, ‘Essay on Man,’ iv. 380, and Boileau, ’L’Art Poetique, ’Chant I:—­

     ’Heureux qui, dans ses vers, sait d’une voix legere
      Passer du grave au doux, du plaisant an severe.’

line 172.  ‘Tirante el Blanco,’ a Spanish romance by Johann Martorell (1480), praised in ‘Don Quixote.’

line 174.  ’Camp was a favourite dog of the Poet’s, a bull terrier of extraordinary sagacity.  He is introduced in Raeburn’s portrait of Sir Walter Scott, now at Dalkeith Palace.’—­Lockhart.

line 181.  Cp.  Tempest, v. i. 93.

line 191.  ’Colin Mackenzie, Esq., of Portmore.  See “Border Minstrelsy,” iv. 351.’—­Lockhart.  Mackenzie had been Scott’s friend from boyhood, and he received his copy of ‘Marmion’ at Lympstone, where he was, owing to feeble health, as mentioned in the text.  He was a son-in-law of Sir William Forbes, and in acknowledging receipt of the poem he said, ’I must thank you for the elegant and delicate allusion in which you express your friendship for myself—­Forbes—­ and, above all, that sweet memorial of his late excellent father.’—­ ‘Life of Scott,’ ii. 152.

line 194.  ’Sir William Rae of St. Catherine’s, Bart., subsequently Lord Advocate of Scotland, was a distinguished member of the volunteer corps to which Sir Walter Scott belonged; and he, the Poet, Mr. Skene, Mr. Mackenzie, and a few other friends, had formed themselves into a little semi-military club, the meetings of which were held at their family supper tables in rotation.’—­Lockhart.

line 195.  ’The late Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, Bart., son of the author of the “Life of Beattie."’—­Lockhart.

line 196.  The Mimosa pudica, or sensitive plant.  See Shelley’s poem on the subject:—­

     ’The Sensitive Plant was the earliest
      Upgathered into the bosom of rest;
      A sweet child weary of its delight,
      The feeblest and yet the favourite,
      Cradled within the embrace of night.’

line 200.  Cp.  ‘L’Allegro,’ 31, ‘Sport that wrinkled Care derides.’

line 206.  See King Lear, iii. 4. 138, where Edgar, as Poor Tom, says that he has had ’three suits to his back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride, and weapon to wear.’

CANTO FOURTH.

line 31.  ‘Alias “Will o’ the Wisp.”  This personage is a strolling demon or esprit follet, who, once upon a time, got admittance into a monastery as a scullion, and played the monks many pranks.  He was also a sort of Robin Goodfellow, and Jack o’ Lanthern.  It is in allusion to this mischievous demon that Milton’s clown speaks,—­