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THE
LADY OF THE LAKE
(1810)
by Sir Walter Scott Reviewed by Patrick Killough I. REVIEW for http://www.amazon.com Reviewer's Rating of THE LADY OF THE LAKE * * * * * FIVE STARS TITLE OF THIS REVIEW: "And Snowdoun's Knight is Scotland's King." INTRODUCTORY SYNOPSIS: The hero of THE LADY OF THE LAKE is James Stewart. To Ellen Douglas, the Lady of the Lake, he calls himself James Fitz-James and The Knight of Snowdoun. When, on a second visit, she declines his invitation to come with him to Stirling and become either James's wife (her interpretation) or his mistress (James's intent), the kind-hearted amourist proves a good loser and gives Ellen a ring to admit her instantly to his chum King James V should she ever need help. At poem's end, Ellen comes to Stirling to plead for both her imprisoned father, Lord James Douglas, onetime mentor of the youthful monarch, and for her lover Malcolm Graeme, a ward of the king. James Fitz-James keeps Ellen in suspense as he leads her in to present her to the King. But where is the King, Ellen wonders, as she looks about? Why is everyone focused on her escort? "To
him each lady's look was lent,
On him each courtier's eye was bent; 'Midst furs and silks and jewels sheen, He stood, in simple Lincoln green, The centre of the glittering ring, -- And Snowdoun's Knight is Scotland's King." (Canto VI, Stanza xxvi) The playful king soon reveals that her father and he have made peace. His ward, Malcolm Graeme, had offered the Douglas shelter despite the King's general loathing of the clan which had held him virtual captive during his boyhood. Will Ellen not plead for him? No? Then he must be chained. "His
chain of gold the King unstrung,
END INTRODUCTORY SYNOPSISThe links o'er Malcolm's neck he flung, Then gently drew the glittering band, And laid the clasp on Ellen's hand." (Canto VI, Stanza xxix) KIng James V (1512 - 1542) was the father of Mary Queen of Scots. There are similarities in character both to England's Henry V and Baghdad's Haroun al Raschid. James V was a good, strong king, protector of the poor, often going out among them in disguise, either to detect and correct their woes or to woo their daughters. He died young, forecasting correctly that the Stewart dynasty would end in less than two centuries "with a lass" (Queen Anne) as it had begun with a lass, the daughter of Robert the Bruce. Scott's poem THE LADY OF THE LAKE sketches six days in the life of a good-hearted, randy, grudge-bearing, high tempered young monarch. The title of the six cantos sketch the tale's progress: The Lake. The Island. The Gathering. The Prophecy. The Combat. The Guard-Room. -- I. The Lake. James Fitz-James, lost hunting a stag in the Trossachs of Scotland, is given a night's hospitality by Ellen, the lady of the lake, and by the mother of the castle's owner, on an island in Loch Katrine belonging to Roderick Dhu (Black Roderick). Roderick, with his aged mother Margaret, shelters Ellen and her banished father, the once mighty Lord James Douglas. Fitz-James is smitten by Ellen. But leaves at dawn. -- II. The Island. The island's owner, Roderick Dhu, is rowed to his island fortress while his hardy followers sing "Hail to the Chief," which has become the American Presidential processional hymn. Ellen's father also returns, with her young admirer Malcolm Graeme in tow. Roderick asks Ellen's hand but this is denied by her father. Ellen's two admirers quarrel and Malcolm then swims the length of Loch Katrine rather than be indebted to Roderick for a boat. -- III. The Gathering. Believing that King James means to march into the Trossachs to subdue Clan Alpine, clan chief Roderick Dhu has the wild Brian the Hermit peform semi-pagan rites, then sends out the burning cross to assemble his liege men for war at Lanrick mead. Duncan, Ellen and the minstrel Allan hide from the King in the Goblin Cave. -- IV. The Prophecy. The hermit Brian prophesies that whichever chief "spills the foremost foeman's life, that party conquers in the strife" (Stanza vi). James Fitz-James arrives on foot planning to take Ellen to safety behind royal lines. But he is being led into a trap by a man of Roderick. Ellen will not leave. James gives Ellen a ring to gain instant admission to King James should she ever need him. Fleeing pursuit. James meets Blanche of Devan, a mad woman whose brand new bridegroom had been murdered by Roderick during a raid into the Scottish lowlands. She asks for vengeance. The guide shoots off an arrow at James but kills Blanche instead. James pursues and kills the traitor guide. He later comes upon Roderick. Neither recognizes the other though they exchange frank views. They spend a hospitable evening together before departing at dawn for a proper dueling place. -- V. The Combat. Once just beyond Roderick's mountain fiefdom, they duel. Terribly wounded, Roderick grapples James and would have killed him but his strength fails. James bugles for help and has the wounded man carried to Stirling castle. En route James recognizes Lord James of Douglas, who is coming to Stirling to give himself up for the cause of peace between King and Clan Alpine. James allows Douglas entry to the castle grounds, where a popular athletic contest is about to take place. The aging but still incomparably powerful and gifted Douglas enters the contests and wins at archery, wrestling and hurling. The king gives awards but otherwise ignores him. At last, Douglas identifies himself and his reason for surrendering and is led to prison. -- VI. The Guard-Room. Ellen and the minstrel Allan pass through the guard-room occupied by foreign mercenaries. She awaits audience with the King. Allan asks to be admitted to his imprisoned master. The warder thinks Roderick Dhu is meant. The dying Roderick asks Allan to sing of the battle just ended by the King's truce. Meanwhile, the King has made peace with the imprisoned Douglas. Still in his assumed role, James leads Ellen in to an audience with the king. He cannot grant her mercy to the newly dead Roderick. And her reconciled father needs no mercy. He teases Ellen to intercede for Malcolm. When she does not, the King places a golden chain on Malcolm's neck and places its clasp in Ellen's hand. She may now marry the Graeme. THE LADY OF THE LAKE is made up of hundreds of gorgeous lines, mostly iambic tetrameters, of descriptions of nature, hunting, mobilization of a highland army, politics, character and love. You can read this poem aloud in two hours. Its music will ring with you forever. -OOO- TAGS: walter scott, scotland, bards and minstrels, hail to the chief, king james v II. REVIEW for http://www.barnesandnoble.com TITLE OF THIS REVIEW: Scotland: "O who would wish to be thy king?" James Stewart, James V of Scotland (1512 - 1542), became king when 17 months old. He died unwounded after losing a battle to the English when barely 30 years old. He left an infant daughter as heir: Mary Queen of Scots. His mother was Margaret Tudor, sister of England's King Henry VIII. King James's widowed mother remarried, Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus in 1525. For three years James's stepfather kept him a virtual prisoner till he escaped in 1528 and began to act as king in his own name. His hatred for the mighty Douglas earl extended to all major figures of the Douglas clan. Walter Scott's THE LADY OF THE LAKE is a narrative poem of 1810 in six cantos. It sketches six days in the young king's life and relates it to a fictitious brother of the Earl of Angus, James Douglas, and his beautiful young daughter Ellen. The King hates the very name of Douglas and has banished the entire clan leadership from Scotland, including Ellen's father. The two have taken refuge on an island in Loch Katrine in the Trossachs highlands with Black Roderick (Roderick Dhu) head of the rebellious Clan Alpine, which included its most numerous branch, the MacGregors. The king, who loves to wander among his people anonymously, loses his way while hunting a stag, is given hospitality as "James Fitz-James, Knight of Snowdoun," develops a crush on Ellen and returns to Stirling Castle. Meanwhile Lord James Douglas and Helen's preferred suitor, Malcolm Graeme, come to Roderick's castle. Word arrives that King James is about to invade Clan Alpine land. James and Ellen Douglas therefore seek shelter elsewhere to spare the Clan. Roderick gathers his followers for battle, after a pagan ritual and the sending of his messenger, Malise, to rally every able-bodied man by means of the burning cross. Later the King mortally wounds Roderick, is reconciled to James Douglas and approves Ellen's marrying young Malcolm Graeme. I love, and hope that you will as well, the color and music of Scott's verses and will complete this review by sharing two passages with you without comment. There are many other verses as good or better. --Canto Three, Stanza XII: Roderick Dhu despatches his man Malise to carry the burning cross summoning the clansmen to battle. Stanza after stanza Malise courses over river and up mountain. Speed is the motif. The Brian mentioned is the half-crazed hermit who has blooded and burnt the sticks of yew and formed them into a cross. Doom befall any follower of Roderick who did not instantly leave plow, bride or other duty to race toward Lanrick mead. "Then Roderick with impatient look
From Brian’s hand the symbol took: ‘Speed, Malise, speed’ he said, and gave The crosslet to his henchman brave. ’The muster-place be Lanrick mead— Instant the time—–speed, Malise, speed!’ Like heath-bird, when the hawks pursue, A barge across Loch Katrine flew: High stood the henchman on the prow; So rapidly the barge-men row, The bubbles, where they launched the boat, Were all unbroken and afloat, Dancing in foam and ripple still, When it had neared the mainland hill; And from the silver beach’s side Still was the prow three fathom wide, When lightly bounded to the land The messenger of blood and brand." --Canto Five, Stanza xxx: King James, angered by the fickle mob's rising resentment at his arresting Lord James Douglas, after the latter had come to make peace with Clan Alpine, rides haughtily back into Stirling Castle. Earlier the same subjects had cheered their king. How fickle is their loyalty. He speaks aside to his trusted aide, Lord Lennox, like some latter-day Coriolanus: The
offended Monarch rode apart,
With bitter thought and swelling heart, And would not now vouchsafe again Through Stirling streets to lead his train. ’O Lennox, who would wish to rule This changeling crowd, this common fool? Hear’st thou,’ he said, ’the loud acclaim With which they shout the Douglas name? With like acclaim the vulgar throat Strained for King James their morning note; With like acclaim they hailed the day When first I broke the Douglas sway; And like acclaim would Douglas greet If he could hurl me from my seat. Who o’er the herd would wish to reign, Fantastic, fickle, fierce, and vain? Vain as the leaf upon the stream, And fickle as a changeful dream; Fantastic as a woman’s mood, And fierce as Frenzy’s fevered blood. Thou many-headed monster-thing, O who would wish to be thy king?— -OOO- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= III. REVIEW for epinions.com Title of this Review: "Hail to the Chief!" Pros Why a popular king groans of Scotland: "O who would wish to be thy king?" Cons Some archaic English expressions. Some Highland Gaelic phrases. Sometimes implausible failure to penetrate thin disguises. The Bottom Line From now on, when America's president enters the room to "Hail to the Chief," you will recall its source, Walter Scott's THE LADY OF THE LAKE. The lines sing themselves. Full Review At age 17 months James Stewart (1512 - 1542) became King James of Scotland. He was half a Welsh Tudor through his mother, a daughter of Henry VII and sister of Henry VIII of England. Teen-age James's step father, Earl Archibald Douglas, held him a virtual captive for three years while he ruled in the youngster's name. James, however, eventually made a daring break for freedom, took up the reins of power and promptly exiled all leading Douglases from his Kingdom. King James V bore a deep, passionate grudge forever against the Douglases. Walter Scott's 1810 long poem THE LADY OF THE LAKE is a narrative in six fast moving cantos about six days in the life of James Stewart. Like Shakespeare's Prince Hal or the Sultan Haroun al Raschid of Baghdad, Scotland's king liked to go out among his people in disguise. This habit was widely known or guessed at and, on balance, warmly applauded. The young man was acclaimed "the king of commons." At times his goal was to learn hands on and to correct the wrongs of the little people; on some occasions, however, he seduced (or at least tried to seduce ) their pretty daughters. James V also brought the mighty feudal lairds and earls of Scotland to heel. When he died, he left his newborn daughter, Mary Queen of Scots, a very weak hand to play. THE LADY OF THE LAKE lays out the difficult, dangerous steps by which the King becomes reconciled to Lord James Douglas, a fictitious near kinsman of the mighty Earl of Angus who was the monarch's step-father. James Douglas, a powerful but aging giant, and his gorgeous teen age daughter Ellen are being defiantly sheltered in a castle on Loch Katrine by Black Roderick, chief of the Clans Alpine and MacGregor which support the Douglases against Stewart rule. The elder James Douglas and his brother's stepson had once been companionable when the King was a boy. But now, like all leading Douglases, James the elder has been exiled from Scotland. Lost while hunting deer, James Stewart tells the hospitable Ellen, who is the Lady of the Lake, that he is James Fitz-James, the Knight of Lowdoun. He falls in love with the Lady of the Lake but accepts rejection good naturedly when he guesses that she loves young Malcolm Graeme, a royal ward. Clan Alpine rises against the king after Black Roderick sends out in greatest haste a chief's traditional burning cross to assemble them. Roderick is bested by Fitz-James in a duel and taken to Stirling Castle where he dies. At the end, the king has made peace with James Douglas and reveals himself to Ellen to whom he grants permission to wed Malcolm Graeme. The poem lends itself to reading aloud and this can easily be done from beginning to end in two hours or less. Here are some excerpts of its music: -- Unable to sleep while overnighting as guest in absent Roderick's castle, Fitz-James wonders why everything on Loch Katrine reminds him of Douglases: starting with the girl and the giant sword (brand) which had fallen from the wall when he entered Roderick's castle: CANTO ONE, Stanza xxxv: He felt its calm, that warrior guest,
While thus he communed with his breast:— ’Why is it, at each turn I trace Some memory of that exiled race? Can I not mountain maiden spy, But she must bear the Douglas eye? Can I not view a Highland brand, But it must match the Douglas hand? Can I not frame a fevered dream, But still the Douglas is the theme? And the verses that inspired America's Presidential Processional, "Hail To The Chief." Oarsmen bringing Roderick Dhu ("the Black") across Lake Katrine to his castle, chant of his glory and of the symbol of Clan Alpine, the pine tree. CANTO TWO: Stanza xix: Boat Song:
Hail to the Chief who in triumph advances! Honored and blessed be the ever-green Pine! Long may the tree, in his banner that glances, Flourish, the shelter and grace of our line! Heaven send it happy dew, Earth lend it sap anew, Gayly to bourgeon and broadly to grow, While every Highland glen Sends our shout back again, ‘Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! ieroe!’ Read THE LADY OF THE LAKE for its popular young King and the gradual damping of his hatred of Douglases in respect of Lord James and his beauteous daughter Ellen. Taste the exotic mountain scenery of highland Scotland's rugged Trossachs. Witness the pagan rites behind the burning of yew wood to make a burning cross sent to summon the clans. Watch the mighty Lord Douglas win public games at Stirling Castle in archery, wrestling and hurling only to be coolly treated now by the once fond king who grudgingly gives him his well earned prizes. Sing the rollicking, sometimes political and bitter verses of this masterpiece by Sir Walter Scott, the man who put Scotland on the world's map. -OOO- Recommended: Yes http://www.patrickkillough.com/books/sirws_ladylake.html See also for background http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/works/novels/well.html |