PART I

LINE 1. It is an ancient Mariner. This abrupt way of beginning a ballad is not uncommon.

12. Eftsoons, very soon, speedily.

23. kirk, church. The word is still used in Scotland.

32. bassoon, a bass wind instrument.

36. minstrelsy, musicians.

51. They had crossed the equator and were going towards the south

pole.

56. sheen, gleam.

57. ken, see, recognize.

62. swound, swoon, fainting fit.

63. Albatross, a large South Sea bird.

65. It was a superstition among sailors that the albatross brought good luck.

69. thunder-fit, thunder-clap.

71. The ship has now turned and is sailing northward.

75. shroud, a sail rope. It extends from the head of the mast to the side of the ship.

76. vespers, evenings.

82. The foolish, useless shooting of the friendly albatross is supposed to be the cause of all the troubles that followed.

PART II

98. uprist, uprose.

127. in reel and rout, in a lively dance and in crowds.

128. death-fires, strange lights, sometimes called 'corpse-candles,' which, according to an old superstition, foreshadowed the death of the person who saw them.

152. wist, knew, perceived.

PART III

164. Gramercy, great thanks. It is here used simply as an exclamation. 178. Heaven's Mother, the Virgin Mary.

184. gossameres, gossamers, spider webs. 209. clomb, old form for climbed.

212. the star-dogged Moon. "It is a common superstition among sailors that something evil is about to happen whenever a star dogs the moon" (Coleridge).

PART IV

245. or ever, before.

PART V

294. Mary Queen, the Virgin Mary.

297. silly, here equivalent to useless.

314. sheen, bright, shining.

348. corses. 'Corse' is the poetic form for corpse.

379. The spirit, the spirit of the polar regions, which had been offended by the useless killing of the albatross.

PART VI

The two voices that speak here are the voices mentioned in line 396. 452. But soon there breathed a wind on me. Because the ancient mariner had repented of his cruelty in killing the albatross, the polar spirit became his friend and sent a magic breeze which blew him back to his own country.

489. by the holy rood. The "holy rood" was the cross on which Christ was crucified. The expression came into such common use that it lost all sense of profanity.

509. Hermit, a religious recluse.

512. shrieve, shrive. The line means that the hermit will hear him confess his sin and grant him pardon.

PART VII

524. trow, think, imagine.

535. ivy-tod, ivy bush.

WALTER SCOTT

From THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL

BREATHES THERE A MAN WITH SOUL SO DEAD

These fine stanzas are taken from the sixth canto of the Lay of the Last Minel, and are there put into the mouth of the old singer who is telling the story. But they give such perfect expression to Scott's own love of country, that it has seemed worth while to take them from their setting.

LINE 17. Caledonia, the poetic name for Scotland.

26. of all bereft. The old minstrel who is speaking had lost all his friends and children.

30. Yarrow, a famous little river in the Border country.

32. Ettrick, a little stream flowing into the Yarrow.

30-33. These four lines are carved on the monument to Scott in Selkirk, the chief town of the county, of which he was for many years the sheriff.

A WEARY LOT IS THINE, FAIR MAID

This perfect song is taken from Scott's long poem, Rokeby, where it is put into the mouth of an unhappy minstrel who has sunk to be the companion and accomplice of a band of robbers.

LINE 4. the rue, a plant regarded as an emblem of sorrow. bitter juice was obtained from it.

A very

7. Lincoln green, a woolen cloth dyed with a color produced at the town of Lincoln in England. It was worn by foresters especially. 12. fain, gladly.

HUNTING SONG

This song preserves the tone of the old hunting choruses which in former days summoned lords and ladies at daybreak to the noble sport of the chase.

LINE 3. the jolly chase, the hunting party.

5. couples. Before being loosed to hunt the stag, the hounds were leashed together in couples.

13. foresters. It was the duty of the foresters to go out in the night before a hunt and track the stag to his lair, whence he was roused in the early morning by the hunters.

29. baulk, stop.

ROSABELLE

This romantic ballad is taken from the Lay of the Last Minstrel. In the fifth canto of that poem there is a great meeting of Scotch and English chieftains in Branksome Castle. During the feast the minstrels, who have accompanied their lords, enter into a contest of song, and Harold, the bard of St. Clair, sings this pathetic story of the fate of a noble lady of his master's house.

LINE 5. These words, as far as line 16, are spoken by a ferryman, or pilot, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth, the arm of the sea

which separates Edinburgh and the surrounding districts from the north of Scotland. He is trying to persuade Rosabelle and her company not to cross the Firth in view of the coming storm.

7. Ravensheuch, the raven's crag, a castle on the north shore of the Firth, belonging to the St. Clairs.

Iv. inch, island.

13. the gifted Seer. According to an old Scotch superstition, some people were supposed to have the gift of second sight, by which they foresaw future events. To see the image of a man or woman wrapped in a shroud was a sure sign of that person's approaching death.

17-24. These lines are spoken by Rosabelle.

17. Lindesay, the name of a noble Scotch family. The heir of this family was Rosabelle's lover.

18. Roslin, a famous castle now in ruins, a few miles south of Edinburgh, which belonged for centuries to the St. Clairs.

21. the ring they ride. This was a favorite sport of knights and gentlemen in the old days of tournaments. A ring was loosely suspended from a horizontal beam resting on two upright posts. The players rode at full speed through the archway thus made and tried to carry off the ring on their lance points. To do this required a firm seat, a true eye, and a steady hand.

29. castled rock. Roslin castle is built on a huge rock towering over a deep glen.

31. Dryden, an old castle near Roslin.

32. Hawthornden, another castle a mile or two below Roslin. The rock on which it is built is honeycombed with small caves.

33. that chapel. Roslin chapel, a little way from Roslin castle, is one of the most beautiful little churches in Great Britain. It is the burial place of the house of St. Clair.

34. uncoffin'd.

It was an ancient custom in the house of St. Clair to array a dead baron in full armor and to lay him uncoffined in the family vault of Roslin chapel.

36. panoply, full suit of armor.

38. sacristy, that part of the church where the sacred vessels and robes are kept. — altar's pale, the part around the altar inclosed by the railing.

39. pillar. The pillars which support the roof of Roslin chapel are beautifully carved, as are the battlements and buttresses mentioned in the next stanza.

41. pinnet, a pinnacle

50. candle... book... knell. The candles on the altar, the prayers for the dead read from the mass book, and the tolling of the bell mark the full ceremonies of a solemn funeral.

THE CAVALIER

This song, like that on page 181, is put in the mouth of Edmund, the minstrel in Robeky. The scene of that story is laid in England just after Cromwell's victory at Marston Moor had crushed the king's party in the north. It is sung to Matilda, a Cavalier lady, whose father and lover had been captured in that battle.

LINE 6. long flowing hair, the mark of the Cavalier, as the closecropped hair was of the Puritan, or Roundhead.

13. Fairfax, Waller, two Puritan leaders.

17. Derby and Cavendish, two English nobles who fought for Charles I. 18. Erin, the poetic name for Ireland. — Ormond, the Royalist leader in Ireland. Montrose, the great Cavalier general in Scotland.

19. Skippon, Massey, Brown, three subordinate Puritan commanders.

THOMAS CAMPBELL

YE MARINERS OF ENGLAND

England's greatness has for centuries depended upon the strength of her splendid navy. Never was this fact more clearly realized than in 1800, the year in which Campbell wrote this "naval ode." At that time England, in the midst of her long struggle against Napoleon, found herself suddenly confronted by an alliance of the northern powers, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, who were determined to wrest from her the sovereignty of the seas. In view of this danger a strong fleet under the command of Parker and Nelson was dispatched to the Baltic to crush the forces of the allies before they could unite. Fired by the prospect of a tremendous struggle with Russia and her allies, Campbell composed this great ode in honor of England's naval glory. In accordance with his usual custom he altered and corrected the poem long after its first appearance. This accounts for the reference to Nelson's death in the second stanza.