“Dunbar’s Dirige to the King,
          Byding ewer lang in Striviling. 
      We that are here, in heaven’s glory,
      To you that are in Purgatory,
      Commend us on our hearty wise;
      I mean we folks in Paradise,
      In Edinburgh, with all merriness,
      To you in Stirling with distress,
      Where neither pleasure nor delight is,
      For pity this epistle wrytis,” &c.

See the whole in Sibbald’s Collection, vol. i. p. 234.’—­Scott.

Since Scott’s time Dunbar’s poems have been edited, with perfect scholarship and skill, by David Laing (2 vols. post 8vo. 1824), and by John Small (in l885) for the Scottish Text Society.  See Dict. of Nat.  Biog.

lines 254-9.  This perfect description may be compared, for accuracy of observation and dexterous presentment, with the steed in ’Venus and Adonis,’ the paragon of horses in English verse.  Both writers give ample evidence of direct personal knowledge.

Stanza X. line 261.  ’It has been already noticed [see note to stanza xiii. of Canto I.] that King James’s acquaintance with Lady Heron of Ford did not commence until he marched into England.  Our historians impute to the King’s infatuated passion the delays which led to the fatal defeat of Flodden.  The author of “The Genealogy of the Heron Family” endeavours, with laudable anxiety, to clear the Lady Ford from this scandal; that she came and went, however, between the armies of James and Surrey, is certain.  See PINKERTON’S History, and the authorities he refers to, vol. ii. p. 99.  Heron of Ford had been, in 1511, in some sort accessory to the slaughter of Sir Robert Kerr of Cessford, Warden of the Middle Marches.  It was committed by his brother the bastard, Lilburn, and Starked, three Borderers.  Lilburn and Heron of Ford were delivered up by Henry to James, and were imprisoned in the fortress of Fastcastle, where the former died.  Part of the pretence of Lady Ford’s negotiations with James was the liberty of her husband.’—­Scott.

line 271. love = beloved.  Cp.  Burns’s ’O my love is like a red red rose.’

line 273. ’"Also the Queen of France wrote a love-letter to the King of Scotland, calling him her love, showing him that she had suffered much rebuke in France for the defending of his honour.  She believed surely that he would recompense her again with some of his kingly support in her necessity; that is to say, that he would raise her an army, and come three foot of ground on English ground, for her sake.  To that effect she sent him a ring off her finger, with fourteen thousand French crowns to pay bis expenses.”  Pitscottie, p.110.—­A turquois ring—­probably this fatal gift—­is, with James’s sword and dagger, preserved in the College of Heralds, London.’—­Scott.

lines 287-8.  The change of movement introduced by this couplet has the intended effect of arresting the attention and lending pathos to the description and sentiment.