l. 76. Cp. 'Jock o' Hazeldean':—
His sword in battle keen.'
l. 78. buxom ( A.S. bocsum, flexible, obedient, from bugan, to bend ) here means lively, fresh, brisk. Cp. Henry V, iii. 6. 27:
And of buxom valour.'
Stanza VII. l. 112. Cp. Spenser's Epithalamium:—
Ring ye the bels to make it weare away.'
A familiar instance of 'speed' as a trans. verb is in Pope's Odyssey, XV. 83:—'Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.'
Stanza VIII. l. 120. St. Valentine's day is Feb. 14, when birds pair and lovers (till at any rate recent times) exchange artistic tokens of affection. The latter observance is sadly degenerated. See Professor Skeat's note to 'Parlement of Foules,' l. 309, in Chaucer's Minor Poems (Clarendon Press).
l. 122. The myth of Philomela has been a favourite with English sentimental poets. The Elizabethan Barnefield writes the typical lyric on the theme. These lines contain the myth:—
Lean'd her breast against a thorn,
And there sung the dolefullest ditty
That to hear it was great pity.'
Stanza IX. In days when harvesting was done with the sickle, reapers from the Highlands and from Ireland came in large numbers to the Scottish Lowlands and cut the crops. At one time a piper played characteristic melodies behind the reapers to give them spirit for their work. Hence comes—
Wha will bind up the brags of weir?'
in a lyric by Hamilton of Gilbertfield (1665-1751 ). The reaper's song is the later representative of this practice. See Wordsworth's 'Solitary Highland Reaper'—immortalized by her suggestive and memorable singing—and compare the pathetic 'Exile's Song' of Robert Gilfillan (1798-1850):—
Awakes the Sabbath morn;
Nor song of reapers heard
Among the yellow corn.'
