MELROSE ABBEY

THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL, CANTO II. 1–18; 70–128

I

If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright,

Go visit it by the pale moonlight;

For the gay beams of lightsome day
Gild but to flout the ruins gray.

5 When the broken arches are black in night,
And each shafted oriel glimmers white;
When the cold light's uncertain shower
Streams on the ruined central tower;
When buttress and buttress, alternately,
10 Seem framed of ebon and ivory ;

When silver edges the imagery,

And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die;

When distant Tweed is heard to rave,

And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave,

15 Then go - but go alone the while

Then view Saint David's ruined pile;
And, home returning, soothly swear

Was never scene so sad and fair!

VII

70 Again on the knight looked the churchman old, And again he sighed heavily;

For he had himself been a warrior bold,

And fought in Spain and Italy.

And he thought on the days that were long since by, 75 When his limbs were strong, and his courage was high:

Now, slow and faint, he led the way
Where, cloistered round, the garden lay;
The pillared arches were over their head,

And beneath their feet were the bones of the dead.

VIII

80 Spreading herbs and flowerets bright Glistened with the dew of night;

85

Nor herb nor floweret glistened there
But was carved in the cloister-arches as fair.
The monk gazed long on the lovely moon,
Then into the night he looked forth;
And red and bright the streamers light
Were dancing in the glowing north.
So had he seen, in fair Castile,

The youth in glittering squadrons start,

90 Sudden the flying jennet wheel,

And hurl the unexpected dart.

He knew, by the streamers that shot so bright,
That spirits were riding the northern light.

IX

95

By a steel-clenched postern door

They entered now the chancel tall;
The darkened roof rose high aloof

On pillars lofty and light and small:
The keystone that locked each ribbed aisle
Was a fleur-de-lys or a quatre-feuille ;

100 The corbels were carved grotesque and grim;
And the pillars, with clustered shafts so trim,
With base and with capital flourished around,
Seemed bundles of lances which garlands had bound.

X

Full many a scutcheon and banner riven 105 Shook to the cold night-wind of heaven, Around the screened altar's pale;

ΠΙΟ

And there the dying lamps did burn
Before thy low and lonely urn,

O gallant Chief of Otterburne!

And thine, dark Knight of Liddesdale !
O fading honors of the dead!

O high ambition lowly laid!

115

I 20

XI

The moon on the east oriel shone

Through slender shafts of shapely stone,
By foliaged tracery combined;

Thou wouldst have thought some fairy's hand
'Twixt poplars straight the osier wand

In many a freakish knot had twined,

Then framed a spell when the work was done,
And changed the willow wreaths to stone.
The silver light, so pale and faint,

Showed many a prophet and many a saint,

Whose image on the glass was dyed;
Full in the midst, his cross of red
125 Triumphant Michael brandished,

And trampled the Apostate's pride,
The moonbeam kissed the holy pane,

And threw on the pavement a bloody stain.

(6) oriel. Cf. Tennyson's correct use of the word in "Lancelot and Elaine":

"All in an oriel on the summer side,

Vine-clad, of Arthur's palace.

(12) scrolls.

What two lines in Gray's "Elegy" are recalled?

(14) owlet. Cf. Gray's "Elegy," 10.

Has Scott thrown into this description subjective feelings and sentiments or has the fourteenth century ruin been described as Scott usually portrays nature, objectively? Ruskin says: "Observe Scott's habit of looking at nature, neither as dead, nor merely material, nor as altered by his own feelings; but as having an animation and pathos of its own, wholly irrespective of human passions." Cf. Congreve's description of the interior of a cathedral in his "The Mourning Bride," Act II. I:

dreadful!

"'Tis

How reverend is the face of this tall pile,
Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads,
To bear aloft its arched and ponderous roof,
By its own weight made steadfast and immoveable,
Looking tranquillity! It strikes an awe
And terror on my aching sight; the tombs
And monumental caves of death look cold,
And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart.
Give me thy hand, and let me hear thy voice;
Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear

Thy voice my own affrights me with its echoes."

Compare Scott's attitude toward the external world with that of Byron's depicted in his description of the Coliseum by moonlight.

The "Lay of the Last Minstrel" begins with a feast in Branksome Hall. While the knights are making merriment prior to departure, the Ladye who has gone to her bower hears spirits of the flood and of the mountain decree the destiny of her daughter, that she must marry the hated Lord Cranstoun. The Ladye has so much pride that she will defy fate's oracle, and sends William of Deloraine to Melrose Abbey, wherein is the tomb of the Wizard, Michael Scott, who had had buried with him the magical volume which could be used by the goblin to prevent the marriage; but as subsequent events prove, as in Macbeth's forcing of his witches to furnish his security, the means to prevent disaster cause it. After all, Lord Cranstoun wins the Ladye's daughter by the goblin's spell. In the lines that have been omitted (19-69) Deloraine appears at the abbey, arouses the porter, passes the wicket, enters the cell of the priest, and announces to him the purpose

of his nightly visit. (109) Chief of Otterburne. James, Earl of Douglas. The battle of Otterburne was fought on August 15, 1388, for which read the ballad of Chevy Chase. (110) dark Knight of Liddesdale. William Douglas, who treacherously killed Sir Alexander Ramsay. He lived in the time of David II. In Melrose are buried Alexander II. and Robert Bruce's heart. (113) east oriel. According to Scott, it is a matchless piece of Gothic architecture. (121-123) Cf. Milton's "Il Penseroso":

(125-126)

"And storied windows richly dight,

Casting a dim religious light."

"Triumphant Michael brandished,

And trampled the Apostate's pride. . . ."

Cf. Tennyson's "Idylls of the King," The Last Tournament, where Tristram is describing King Arthur:

(127-128)

"The moonbeam kissed the holy pane,

And threw on the pavement a bloody stain."

Cf. Keats' "Eve of St. Agnes," where Madeline kneeling is covered with "gules" on account of the moonbeams passing through the coloured casement window:

"Full on this casement shone the wintry moon,

And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast,"

etc. It is hardly necessary to add that Scott and Keats have committed blessed impossibilities with the moonlight.

BATTLE OF BEAL' AN DUINE

THE LADY OF THE LAKE, CANTO VI, XV-XIX

XV

"The minstrel came once more to view

370 The eastern ridge of Benvenue,

For ere he parted, he would say

Farewell to lovely Loch Achray