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Baltimore, 1878.
Notes: The Revenge of Hamish
For an appreciation of this fine poem see `Introduction',
pp. xlv, xlvii [Part IV], Mr. J. R. Tait, a friend with whom Mr. Lanier
discussed `The Revenge of Hamish', kindly writes me that the author
took the plot from William Black's novel, `Macleod of Dare'.
In chapter iii. Macleod, of Castle Dare, Mull, tells the story
to his London entertainer; but, as the story of the novel
is identical with that of the poem, it need not be given here.
The novel, I should add, gives the name of the chieftain only,
though, as it has a Hamish in another connection, it doubtless gave Lanier
this name for the henchman. Previous to the reception of Mr. Tait's letter
I supposed that Lanier had borrowed his plot from a poem by Charles Mackay,
`Maclaine's Child, A Legend of Lochbuy, Mull', which in plot
is identical with Lanier's poem, except that the former begins
with the speech of the flogged henchman, here named Evan,
and ends by telling us that the bodies were found and that of Evan was hanged
on a gallows-tree.
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