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Table of contents
Preface
ARGUMENT.
CANTO FIRST.
CANTO SECOND.
CANTO THIRD.
CANTO FOURTH.
CANTO FIFTH.
CANTO SIXTH.
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES.
NOTES.
Introduction.
Canto First.
Canto Second.
Canto Third.
Canto Fourth.
Canto Fifth.
Canto Sixth.
FOOTNOTES:
Preface
When
I first saw Mr. Osgood's beautiful illustrated edition of The Lady of
the Lake, I asked him to let me use some of the cuts in a cheaper
annotated edition for school and household use; and the present
volume is the result.The
text of the poem has given me unexpected trouble. When I edited some
of Gray's poems several years ago, I found that they had not been
correctly printed for more than half a century; but in the case of
Scott I supposed that the text of Black's so-called "Author's
Edition" could be depended upon as accurate. Almost at the
start, however, I detected sundry obvious misprints in one of the
many forms in which this edition is issued, and an examination of
others showed that they were as bad in their way. The "Shilling"
issue was no worse than the costly illustrated one of 1853, which had
its own assortment of slips of the type. No two editions that I could
obtain agreed exactly in their readings. I tried in vain to find a
copy of the editio princeps (1810) in Cambridge and Boston, but
succeeded in getting one through a London bookseller. This I
compared, line by line, with the Edinburgh edition of 1821 (from the
Harvard Library), with Lockhart's first edition, the "Globe"
edition, and about a dozen others English and American. I found many
misprints and corruptions in all except the edition of 1821, and a
few even in that. For instance in i. 217 Scott wrote "Found in
each cliff a narrow bower," and it is so printed in the first
edition; but in every other that I have seen "cliff"
appears in place of clift,, to the manifest injury of the passage. In
ii. 685, every edition that I have seen since that of 1821 has "I
meant not all my heart might say," which is worse than nonsense,
the correct reading being "my heat." In vi. 396, the
Scottish "boune" (though it occurs twice in other parts of
the poem) has been changed to "bound" in all editions since
1821; and, eight lines below, the old word "barded" has
become "barbed." Scores of similar corruptions are recorded
in my Notes, and need not be cited here.I
have restored the reading of the first edition, except in cases where
I have no doubt that the later reading is the poet's own correction
or alteration. There are obvious misprints in the first edition which
Scott himself overlooked (see on ii. 115, 217,, Vi. 527, etc.), and
it is sometimes difficult to decide whether a later reading—a
change of a plural to a singular, or like trivial variation—is a
misprint or the author's correction of an earlier misprint. I have
done the best I could, with the means at my command, to settle these
questions, and am at least certain that the text as I give it is
nearer right than in any edition since 1821 As all the variae
lectiones are recorded in the Notes, the reader who does not approve
of the one I adopt can substitute that which he prefers.I
have retained all Scott's Notes (a few of them have been somewhat
abridged) and all those added by Lockhart.
1
My own I have made as concise as possible. There are, of course, many
of them which many of my readers will not need, but I think there are
none that may not be of service, or at least of interest, to some of
them; and I hope that no one will turn to them for help without
finding it.Scott
is much given to the use of Elizabethan words and constructions, and
I have quoted many "parallelisms" from Shakespeare and his
contemporaries. I believe I have referred to my edition of
Shakespeare in only a single instance (on iii. 17), but teachers and
others who have that edition will find many additional illustrations
in the Notes on the passages cited.While
correcting the errors of former editors, I may have overlooked some
of my own. I am already indebted to the careful proofreaders of the
University Press for the detection of occasional slips in quotations
or references; and I shall be very grateful to my readers for a
memorandum of any others that they may discover.Cambridge,
June 23, 1883..
ARGUMENT.
CANTO FIRST.
The
Chase.Harp
of the North! that mouldering long hast hung
On the witch-elm that shades Saint Fillan's spring
And down the fitful breeze thy numbers flung,
Till envious ivy did around thee cling,
Muffling with verdant ringlet every string,—
O Minstrel Harp, still must thine accents sleep?
Mid rustling leaves and fountains murmuring,
Still must thy sweeter sounds their silence keep,
Nor bid a warrior smile, nor teach a maid to weep?
Not thus, in ancient days of Caledon,
10
Was thy voice mute amid the festal crowd,
When lay of hopeless love, or glory won,
Aroused the fearful or subdued the proud.
At each according pause was heard aloud
Thine ardent symphony sublime and high!
Fair dames and crested chiefs attention bowed;
For still the burden of thy minstrelsy
Was Knighthood's dauntless deed, and Beauty's matchless eye.
O, wake once more! how rude soe'er the hand
That ventures o'er thy magic maze to stray;
O, wake once more! though scarce my skill command
Some feeble echoing of thine earlier lay:
Though harsh and faint, and soon to die away,
And all unworthy of thy nobler strain,
Yet if one heart throb higher at its sway,
The wizard note has not been touched in vain.
Then silent be no more! Enchantress, wake again!I.
The stag at eve had drunk his fill, Where
danced the moon on Monan's rill, And deep
his midnight lair had made In lone
Glenartney's hazel shade; But when the
sun his beacon red Had kindled on
Benvoirlich's head, The deep-mouthed
bloodhound's heavy bay Resounded up the
rocky way, And faint, from farther
distance borne, Were heard the clanging
hoof and horn.II.
As Chief, who hears his warder call, 'To
arms! the foemen storm the wall,' The
antlered monarch of the waste Sprung from
his heathery couch in haste. But ere his
fleet career he took, The dew-drops from
his flanks he shook; Like crested leader
proud and high Tossed his beamed frontlet
to the sky; A moment gazed adown the
dale, A moment snuffed the tainted
gale, A moment listened to the cry,
That thickened as the chase drew nigh;
Then, as the headmost foes appeared, With
one brave bound the copse he cleared,
And, stretching forward free and far,
Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var.III.
Yelled on the view the opening pack;
Rock, glen, and cavern paid them back; To
many a mingled sound at once The awakened
mountain gave response. A hundred dogs
bayed deep and strong, Clattered a
hundred steeds along, Their peal the
merry horns rung out, A hundred voices
joined the shout; With hark and whoop and
wild halloo, No rest Benvoirlich's echoes
knew. Far from the tumult fled the
roe, Close in her covert cowered the
doe, The falcon, from her cairn on
high, Cast on the rout a wondering
eye, Till far beyond her piercing
ken The hurricane had swept the
glen. Faint, and more faint, its failing
din Returned from cavern, cliff, and
linn, And silence settled, wide and
still, On the lone wood and mighty hill.IV.
Less loud the sounds of sylvan war
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!
Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!