Having just finished reading (for the second time) Charlotte Bronte’s brilliant Jane Eyre (1847) it seemed timely to mention this quarto first edition of Marmion; A Tale of Flodden Field by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1808 by Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh and William Miller and John Murray, London.
On a cold and stormy evening Jane Eyre sits by the fire in her cottage – ‘I lit a candle, took down Marmion, and beginning’ – (the verse below is quoted), adding after ‘I soon forgot storm in music.’
Sir Walter Scott (1771 – 1832) was a Scottish lawyer, poet, novelist and playwright. His most popular works include The Lady of the Lake, Ivanhoe, Waverley and Rob Roy.
Marmion – Scott’s second major work, is an epic poem with the fictional anti-hero Lord Marmion killed at the Battle of Flodden which was fought in 1513 between England and Scotland in Northumberland. England won the battle but many were killed including King James IV of Scotland.
An old hand written note, perhaps by a previous owner, was tucked into the pages to which it refers and reads:
Marmion First Edition 1808 page XXI Notes
This ‘old’ Northumbrian ballad was in truth the composition of Mr Surtees. If he only meant to test the acuteness of Sir Walter the bait took too well and when repentance came it was too late to confess the imposition. See Reminiscences of Old Edinburgh by (Sir) Daniel Wilson (published Edin: David Douglas 1878) Vol I page 9.
Scott wrote in Note XII (on page xxi) for the First Canto that the ballad ‘was taken down from the recitation of a woman eighty years of age, mother of one of the miners in Alston-moor, by the agent for the lead mines there, who communicated it to my friend and correspondent, Mr Surtees, Esquire of Mainsforth.’ Scott then continues describing Mr Surtees fictional account of the elderly woman’s memories of the ballad.
Marmion contains the famous phrase in Canto VI, XVII –
‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive!’