Algernon Charles Swinburne

“ Swinburne's ballad follows Leyden's in no respect, except in the indispensable particular of the boiling of Lord Soulis as a wizard. The three fair mays and the raiding of Eastness and Westness appear to be Swinburne's invention, but they follow exactly the ancient type of border minstrelsy. Everything which regarded the castle of Hermitage was romantically precious to this latest lover of Mary Queen of Scots.
What led Swinburne to the story of "Lord Scales" it is not easy to conjecture. ”

“ It seems to be certain that the ballads of Swinburne which we print in this collection, were regarded by Rossetti, and probably by Morris also, as too rough and bare for publication, and that only such as possessed a pre-Raphaelite colouring or costume were permitted to pass the ordeal. But Swinburne persisted in his private conviction that a kind of poetry much closer to the old rievers' and freebooters' loosely-jointed and rambling folk-poems might be attempted, and he carefully preserved the ballads which we have the privilege of publishing to-day. ”

“ Cockerell suggested that the editing should be handed over to Swinburne. "Oh, no!' answered Morris, "that would never do. He would be writing-in verses that no one would be able to tell from the original stuff!" The ballads we publish to-day will show the complete justice of Morris's remark.
There is not much to be said with regard to the individual ballads or their sources in history. So far as can be discovered, no ancient ballad of "Lord Soulis" exists, but the hero, in whose legend Sir Walter Scott took a vivid interest, was a historical personage. ”

“ He found that distraction was rife among the friends of the Republic, and that hope was dying out, "like a forgotten tale." It was at this moment, almost without question, that Swinburne composed his Ode to Mazzini, in the hour of suspense. The careful reader will not fail to observe that the poet has not yet heard of any acts which Mazzini has performed on the soil of Italy. Had the insurrections at Genoa (June 1857) and Leghorn occurred, or had the attack on Naples, led by Pisacane, Mazzini's friend, been made, the poet must have celebrated them in his verse. ”

“ A barony of Scales was founded in 1299, and continued to exist until 1460, when the seventh and last Lord Scales, who had been a great enemy of the common people and a supporter of Henry IV against Jack Cade at home and the Normans abroad, is said to have been murdered. ”