. William Shakespere : a biography. ed Itis pleasant to believe that some snatches of old minstrelsy might have recreatedhis solitary journey as he rode near the border-land. Sir Waller Scott, in the delightful introduction to his Minstrelsy of theScottish Border, says, The accession of James to the English crown convertedthe extremity into the centre of his kingdom. The Scottish poet would seemto have borrowed the idea from a very humble English brother of the craft:— For now those crowns ai-e both in one combind,Those former borders that each one coiifindAppears to me (as I do underst
. William Shakespere : a biography. ed Itis pleasant to believe that some snatches of old minstrelsy might have recreatedhis solitary journey as he rode near the border-land. Sir Waller Scott, in the delightful introduction to his Minstrelsy of theScottish Border, says, The accession of James to the English crown convertedthe extremity into the centre of his kingdom. The Scottish poet would seemto have borrowed the idea from a very humble English brother of the craft:— For now those crowns ai-e both in one combind,Those former borders that each one coiifindAppears to me (as I do understand)To be almost the oentre of the land :This was a blessed heaven-expounded riildleTo thrust great kingdoms skirts into tlie mi»*. [Carlisle.] that Scotland had its sun and sky, its sheep, and corn, and good ale. But hetells us that in former times this border-land Was the cursd climate of rebellious crimes. According to him, and he was not far wrong, pell-mell fury and hurly-burly,spoiling and wasting, sharking, shifting, cutting throats, and thieving, con-stituted the practice both of Annaudale and Cumberland. When Taylor madehis pilgrimage, the existing generation would have a very fresh recollection ofthese outrages of former times. If Shakspere travelled over this ground, hewould be more familiar with the passionate hatreds of the borderers, and wouldhear many a song which celebrated their deadly feuds, and kept alive the spiritof rapine and vengeance. As recently as 1596 the famous Raid of Carlisle hadtaken place, when the Lord of Buccleuch, then Warden of Liddesdale, sur-prised the Castle of Carlisle, and carried off a daring Scotch freebooter, Kin-mont Willie, who had been illegally seized by the Warden o
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookpublisherlondon, booksubjectshakespearewill
