[741] suffer.
[742] death.
[743] The dramatic incidents of the raid have been immortalized in famous ballads like “Johnnie Armstrong,” “The Sang of the Outlaw Murray,” and “The Border Widow’s Lament.”
[744] History of Scotland, vol. ii., p. 361, and note z. The historian shows that the attempt to poison the king was by no means the first capital offence of which Lady Glammis had been convicted, though her youth and beauty were used by the reforming party to excite popular feeling against James.
[745] Orlando Furioso, canto xiii., stanzas 8 and 9.
[746] Sibbald’s Chronicle of Scottish Poetry.
[747] Irving’s History of Scottish Poetry, p. 145.
[748] The failure of Dunbar, Asloan, and Lyndsay to mention James I. upon the strength of “The Kingis Quair” may be accounted for by the situation of that poem, the only copy now known to exist being that contained in the Selden MS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. No such argument can account for the overlooking of popular pieces like “Christis Kirk” and “Peblis to the Play” had they been then in existence.
[749] In “Christis Kirk” occur the expressions—
and in “The Justyng” we find—
[750] See Murray’s Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland, pp. 56 and 69.
[751] Rogers’ Poetical Remains of King James I., 1873.
[752] In 1526–27, according to the Treasurer’s Accounts, £13 6s. 8d. was paid “to Johne Murray the Kingis barbour, for corsbowis, windaiss, and ganzies” (crossbows, pulleys, and arrows). And Alexander Scot in his poem “Of May,” circa 1550, describes the merry gathering of archers “To schute at buttis, at bankis, and brais.”
[753] Introduction to The Kingis Quair, Scottish Text Society, 1883–84.
[754] In The Daily News, March 19, 1892.
[755] Beltane, believed to be from the Gaelic Beal-tein, or Baal fire, was the great Druid festival of the first of May. The sports of Beltane, it appears, were celebrated at Peebles till a recent date, when a market was established, known as the Beltane Fair.
[756] when each person sets forth.
[757] By outland.
[758] went.
[759] clad.
[760] time, occasion.
[761] turmoil.
[762] For preparation and sport.
[763] kerchiefs.
[764] gloomy.
[765] Said she.
[766] collarette.
[767] permitted not.
[768] band, ribbon.
[769] so foolish and playful.
[770] knew.
[771] weep not.
[772] lost.
[773] market.
[774] so badly sunburnt.
[775] carry my rags, i.e. woven cloth.
[776] shall once venture.
[777] look by stealth.
[778] Man, woman, and prentice-lad (Hob, caile, curdower).
[779] Gathered out thick-fold.
[780] thronged out.
[781] steadings unnumbered.
[782] over the plain.
[783] started in that place.
[784] lively.
[785] become not weary.
[786] clear, mild.
[787] raised a high rough song.
[788] fared.
[789] wood.
[790] way.
[791] conceit, opinion.
[792] that.
[793] dispose of.
[794] remainder.
[795] play the fool with.
[796] Swiftly.
[797] encountered.
[798] young woman.
[799] maukin, a little maid.
[800] to play the mate so.
[801] override.
[802] too good.
[803] go.
[804] Laughed.
[805] Was come.
[806] jollity.
[807] words wondrous brave.
[808] Have done (?).
[809] “Set up the board,” he calls soon.
[810] dance, party.
[811] napery be white.
[812] good woman, hostess.
[813] wall.
[814] Wait till we reckon our lawing (bill).
[815] that ye owe.
[816] laugh.
[817] scorn.
[818] twopence half-penny.
[819] over stupid.
[820] deserved a blow.
[821] pointed staff.
[822] Wincing as he were mad.
[823] uproar.
[824] earth.
[825] clearance, settlement.
[826] slid.
[827] Thirty-three lay there.
[828] Tumbling about.
[829] distiller’s waste.
[830] A hawker on the market street.
[831] debate, battle.
[832] overtake.
[833] Two lines of the stanza have here apparently been lost.
[834] glimpse.
[835] separate.
[836] leaped.
[837] girthing.
[838] At once.
[839] dirtied.
[840] became.
[841] low-born.
[842] counsel.
[843] Go home his ways.
[844] defiled.
[845] See how.
[846] treated.
[847] great.
[848] hinder.
[849] know.
[850] fatigued.
[851] then.
[852] By the time that.
[853] notches (of bows).
[854] broil.
[855] grovelling.
[856] Had rather given.
[857] Ere.
[858] favourite.
[859] a dance now unknown.
[860] jerked, rocked.
[861] how.
[862] dwelling.
[863] performs wondrous long.
[864] laughed.
[865] hence your ways.
[866] enough.
[867] So fiercely fire-hot.
[868] Tibbie, Isabella.
[869] latch.
[870] encountered.
[871] all the men to cackle.
[872] quite nothing.
[873] the wenches and wooers parted.
[874] Alison.
[875] damsel.
[876] swooned that sweet one of the glen foot.
[877] sipped, uttered a sipping sound.
[878] weeping.
[879] shock of lips, i.e. osculation.
[880] The Christ’s Kirk of the poem, in Tytler’s opinion, was that near Dunideer in Aberdeenshire. About the burial ground of the ancient kirk was a green where, so late as the end of last century, a yearly fair was still held on the 1st of May. “In former times,” says Tytler, “this fair was continued during the night, from which circumstance it was called by the country people Sleepy Market. On such occasions it was natural that such disorders as are so humorously described by the royal author should have taken place.”
[881] merriment, disorder.
[882] wooers.
[883] think.
[884] Kittie, now the common abbreviation of Catherine, was in James’s time the general name for a playful girl.
[885] prepared.
[886] gay of manners.
[887] doeskin.
[888] coarse woollen.
[889] Lincoln-green.
[890] simple, foolish.
[891] approached.
[892] goats, kids.
[893] slim, dainty.
[894] the ruddy part of the face.
[895] skin.
[896] Full.
[897] frail, i.e., she was love-sick.
[898] death.
[899] girded.
[900] mocked him by making mouths.
[901] go hang himself.
[902] counted.
[903] clucks.
[904] distaffs.
[905] how he did launch (the fiddle bow).
[906] shrill.
[907] an ancient dance.
[908] forsake.
[909] behaved.
[910] stepping in with long strides.
[911] course.
[912] Flat-footed.
[913] bounds.
[914] He leaped till he lay on his buttocks.
[915] exerted.
[916] coughed.
[917] began.
[918] dragged.
[919] drove him side-wise (gable-wards).
[920] The angry man clutched the stave.
[921] did not they have by the ears.