l. 430. still = always. Cp., inter alia, 440 and 452 below. See 'still vexed Bermoothes,' Tempest, i. 2. 229 and cp. Hamlet, ii. 2. 42,—
'Thou still hast been the father of good news.'
Stanza XXVI. l. 452. Scott quotes from Rabelais the passage in which the monk suggests to Gargantua that in order to induce sleep they might together try the repetition of the seven penitential psalms. 'The conceit pleased Gargantua very well; and, beginning the first of these psalms, as soon as they came to Beati quorum they fell asleep, both the one and the other.' Cp. Chaucer's Monk and the character of Accidia in 'Piers the Plowman,' Passus V.
l. 453. ave, an address to the Virgin Mary, beginning 'Ave Maria'; creed, a profession of faith, beginning with Credo. It has been objected to this line that the creed is not an essential part of the rosary, and that ten aves and one paternoster would have been more accurate. It should, however, be noticed that both Friar John and young Selby know more of other matters than the details of religious devotion.
Stanza XXVII. l. 459. 'A Palmer, opposed to a Pilgrim, was one who made it his sole business to visit different holy shrines; travelling incessantly, and subsisting by charity: whereas the Pilgrim retired to his usual home and occupations, when he had paid his devotions at the particular spot which was the object of his pilgrimage. The Palmers seem to have been the Quæstionarii of the ancient Scottish canons 1242 and 1296. There is in the Bannatyne MS. a burlesque account of two such persons, entitled, "Simmy and his Brother." Their accourtements are thus ludicrously described (I discard the ancient spelling):—
Two tabards of the tartan;
They counted nought what their clouts were
When sew'd them on, in certain.
Syne clampit up St. Peter's keys,
Made of an old red gartane;
St. James's shells, on t'other side, shews
As pretty as a partane
Тое,
On Symmye and his brother."'—Scott.
With this account of the Palmer, cp. 'Piers the Plowman,' v. 523:
In a withewyndes wise • ywounden aboute.
A bolle and a bagge • he bare by his syde;
