



Produced by Les Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset.









SOME POEMS BY SIR WALTER SCOTT




Contents:
   Introduction by Henry Morley.
   The Vision of Don Roderick
   The Field of Waterloo
   The Dance of Death
   Romance of Dunois
   The Troubadour
   Pibroch of Donald Dhu



INTRODUCTION.



Since there is room in this volume for more verses than Colonel
Hay's {1}, I have added to them a few poems by Sir Walter Scott; the
first written in 1811 at the time of the struggle with Napoleon in
the Peninsula, the second in 1815, after Waterloo.  Thus there is
over all this volume a thin haze of battle through which we see only
the finer feelings and the nobler hopes of man.  The day is to come
when war shall be no more, but wars have been and may again be
necessary to bring on that day; and it is of such war, not untinged
with the light of heaven, that we have passing shadows in this
little book.

"The Vision of Don Roderick; a Poem, by Walter Scott, Esq.," was
printed at Edinburgh by James Ballantyne & Co. in 1811.  They are
the present representatives of that firm by whom it is here
reprinted.  It was originally inscribed "to John Whitmore, Esq., and
to the Committee of Subscribers for relief of the Portuguese
Sufferers, in which he presides," as a "poem composed for the
benefit of the Fund under their management."

The Legend of Don Roderick will be given in the next volume of our
"Companion Poets," for Robert Southey founded upon it a Romantic
Tale in Verse, which is one of the best tales of the kind in the
English language.  Southey's tale of Roderick himself was written at
the same time when Walter Savage Landor was writing a play upon the
subject, and Scott was, in the piece here reprinted, making it the
starting-point of a vision of the war in the Peninsula.  The fatal
palace of Don Roderick may have been a fable connected with the
ruins of a Roman amphitheatre.  The fable, as translated by Scott
from a Spanish History of King Roderick, was this:-

"One mile on the east side of the city of Toledo, among some rocks,
was situated an ancient Tower of magnificent structure, though much
dilapidated by time, which consumes all:  four estadoes (i.e., four
times a man's height) below it, there was a Cave with a very narrow
entrance, and a gate cut out of the solid rock, lined with a strong
covering of iron, and fastened with many locks; above the gate some
Greek letters are engraved, which, although abbreviated, and of
doubtful meaning, were thus interpreted, according to the exposition
of learned men:- The King who opens this cave and discovers the
wonders will discover both good and evil things.  Many kings desired
to know the mystery of this Tower, and sought to find out the manner
with much care; but when they opened the gate, such a tremendous
noise arose in the Cave that it appeared as if the earth was
bursting; many of those present sickened with fear, and others lost
their lives.  In order to prevent such great perils (as they
supposed a dangerous enchantment was contained within), they secured
the gate with new locks, concluding, that though a king was destined
to open it, the fated time was not yet arrived.  At last King Don
Rodrigo, led on by his evil fortune and unlucky destiny, opened the
Tower; and some bold attendants whom he had brought with him
entered, although agitated with fear.  Having proceeded a good way,
they fled back to the entrance, terrified with a frightful vision
which they had beheld.  The King was greatly moved, and ordered many
torches, so contrived that the tempest in the cave could not
extinguish them, to be lighted.  Then the King entered, not without
fear, before all the others.  He discovered, by degrees, a splendid
hall, apparently built in a very sumptuous manner; in the middle
stood a Bronze Statue of very ferocious appearance, which held a
battle-axe in its hands.  With this he struck the floor violently,
giving it such heavy blows that the noise in the Cave was occasioned
by the motion of the air.  The King, greatly affrighted and
astonished, began to conjure this terrible vision, promising that he
would return without doing any injury in the Cave, after he had
obtained sight of what was contained in it.  The Statue ceased