Front matter
THE POETICAL WORKS OP SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART. CONTENTS The Lay of the Last Minstrel Marmion : A Tale of Flodden Field . * 6 The Lady of the Lake ... lgg The Vision of Don Roderick . " oSa Rokeuy . • ■ . 288 1 he Bridal of Triermain ; or, The Vale os St John . . 408 The Lord of the Isles . o 45a BALLADS. Glenfinlas ; or, Lord Ronald's Coronach . rw The Eve of St John ... .L Cadyow Castle .''!'•■. ' r The Gray Brother. A Fragment . .' ." eC4 Thomas the Rhymer. In Three Parts . .' 55,, War Song of the Royal Edinburgh Light Dragou: 3 5 7 MISCELLANEOUS. Helvellyn .... The Maid of Toro . . . f£? The Palmer . ' " «&> Wandering Willie ... ' <8i The Maid of Neidpath ... ?ga CONTENTS. :v PAGE The Bard's Incantation. Written under the threat of Invasion, in the Autumn of 1804 . . • 5°3 To A Lady. AVith Flowers from a Roman Wall . 5$4 The Violet ....•• 5*5 Hunting Song ...••• 5°5 The Resolve.
In Imitation of an old English Poem . 586 The Dying Bard ...-•• 587 The Norman Horse-Shoe .... 587 The Poacher ....-• 588 Song ....... 59' Epitaph ....... 592 TRANSLATIONS AND IMITATIONS OF GERMAN BALLADS. The AVild Huntsman ..... 593 AA'illiam and Helen ..... 598 The Fire-King ...... 604 Frederick and Alice ..... 607 Tim Erl-King, From the German of Goethe . . SCOTT'S POETICAL WORKS. THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. A POEM. IN SIX CANTOS. " Dum relego, scripsisse pudet ; quia plarima cerno, Me quoque, qui feci, judice, digna lini." TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES,*EARL OF DALKEITH, THIS POEM IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR,
Preface
TO THE FIRST EDITION, 1S05. The Poem now offered to the Public is intended to illustrate the customs and manners, which anciently preA-aded on the Borders of England and Scot hind. The inhabitants, living in a state partly pastoral and partly warlike, and combining habits of constant depredation with the influence of a rude spirit of chivalry, were often engaged in scenes highly susceptible of poetical ornament. As the description of scenery and manners Avas more the object of the Author, than a combined and regular narrative, the plan of the ancient mekrical romance was adopted, Avhich alloAvs greater latitude, in this respect, than would be consistent with the dignity of a regular poem. The Same model offercLt other facilities, as it permits an occasional alteration of measure, which, in some degree, authorises the changes of rhythm in the text.
The machinery also, adopted from popular belief, would have seemed puerile in a poem, which did not partake of the rudeness of the old Ballad, or Metrical Romance. For these reasons, the Poem Avas put into the mouth of an ancient Minstrel, the Uist of the race, who, as he is supposed to have survived the Revolution, might have caught someAvhat of the refinement of modern poetry, without losing the simplicity of his original model. The date of the tale itself is aboui the middle of the sixteenth century, when most of the personages actually flourished. The time occupied by the action is three nights and three days.
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