THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES EARL OF DALKEITH, THIS POEM IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. www PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The Poem, now offered to the Public, is intended to illustrate the customs and manners which anciently prevailed on the Borders of England and Scotland. 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 as more the object of the Author than a combined and regular narrative, the plan of the Ancient Metrical Romance was adopted, which allows greater latitude, in this respect, than would be consistent with the dignity of a regular Poem. The same model offered other facilities, as it permits an occasional alteration of measure, which, in some degree, authorizes the change 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 last of the race, who, as he is supposed to have survived the Revolution, might have caught somewhat of the refinement of modern poetry, without losing the simplicity of his original model. The date of the Tale itself is about 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. THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. INTRODUCTION. THE way was long, the wind was cold, The Minstrel was infirm and old; Old times were changed,old manners gone; A wandering Harper, scorn'd and poor, He pass'd where Newark's stately tower Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower: The Minstrel gazed with wishful eyeNo humbler resting-place was nigh, Newark's stately tower. A ruined tower now; situated three miles from Selkirk, on the banks of the Yarrow. With hesitating step at last, But never closed the iron door When kindness had his wants supplied, And how full many a tale he knew, And, would the noble Duchess deign He thought even yet, the sooth to speak, t The Duchess. Anne, the heiress of Buccleuch, who had been married to the unhappy Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II. He was beheaded for rebellion against James II, 1685. Earl Francis. The Duchess's late father. § Walter, Earl of Buccleuch, grandfather of the Duchess, and a celebrated warrior. |