wed thy strains on life's long way,
Through secret woes the world has never known,
When on the weary night dawned wearier day,
And bitterer was the grief devoured alone.--
That I o'erlive such woes, Enchantress! is thine own.

Hark! as my lingering footsteps slow retire,
Some Spirit of the Air has waked thy string!
'Tis now a seraph bold, with touch of fire,
'Tis now the brush of Fairy's frolic wing.
Receding now, the dying numbers ring
Fainter and fainter down the rugged dell;
And now the mountain breezes scarcely bring
A wandering witch-note of the distant spell--
And now, 'tis silent all!--Enchantress, fare thee well!

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES.

Cf. (confer), compare. F.Q., Spenser's Faerie Queene. Fol., following.
Id. (idem), the same. Lockhart, J. G. Lockhart's edition of Scott's
poems (various issues). P.L., Milton's Paradise Lost. Taylor, R. W.
Taylor's edition of The Lady of the Lake (London, 1875). Wb., Webster's
Dictionary (revised quarto edition of 1879). Worc., Worcester's
Dictionary (quarto edition). The abbreviations of the names of
Shakespeare's plays will be readily understood. The line-numbers are
those of the "Globe" edition.

The references to Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel are to canto and
line; those to Marmion and other poems to canto and stanza.

NOTES.

Introduction.

The Lady of the Lake was first published in 1810, when Scott was
thirty-nine, and it was dedicated to "the most noble John James, Marquis
of Abercorn." Eight thousand copies were sold between June 2d and
September 22d, 1810, and repeated editions were subsequently called for.
In 1830, the following "Introduction" was prefixed to the poem by the
author:--

After the success of Marmion, I felt inclined to exclaim with Ulysses in
the Odyssey:

[Greek Letters] Odys. X. 5.

"One venturous game my hand has won to-day--
Another, gallants, yet remains to play."

The ancient manners, the habits and customs of the aboriginal race by
whom the Highlands of Scotland were inhabited, had always appeared to
me peculiarly adapted to poetry. The change in their manners, too, had
taken place almost within my own time, or at least I had learned many
particulars concerning the ancient state of the Highlands from the old
men of the last generation. I had always thought the old Scottish
Gael high