This combined compendium condenses the poem, editorial history, textual variants, and the historical-literary annotations attached to Sir Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake (1810), chiefly as presented in W. J. Rolfe’s annotated school edition (Boston, 1883) with supplementary attention to Lockhart’s notes and later collation remarks, especially on Canto VI and early impressions.

The Lady of the Lake is a narrative in six cantos set around Loch Katrine and the Trosachs (western Perthshire), each canto corresponding to one day. Formally, Scott prefaces cantos with one or more Spenserian stanzas; the principal narrative meter is iambic octosyllabic couplets enriched by songs, ballads and lyric inserts in varied measures. The dramatic skeleton follows: a stag-hunt and the arrival of the stranger (James Fitz‑James) in Canto I; domestic life and intruding Highland politics on Ellen Douglas’s isle in Canto II; the clan-mustering under the Fiery Cross in Canto III; prophetic augury in Canto IV; the combat in the Trosachs and Roderick Dhu’s death in Canto V; and the Stirling aftermath, disclosures, and reconciliations in Canto VI. Themes include topographical description, Highland custom (Fiery Cross, coronach), supernatural belief (second sight, Taghairm), chivalric honor, and the interplay of loyalty and law.

Rolfe’s preface explains his editorial method: after collating the 1810 first edition with subsequent issues (notably the Edinburgh 1821 “Author’s Edition”), he restored many first-edition readings where later printings had introduced corruptions and documented all variant readings and explanatory notes to aid students. Lockhart’s apparatus and subsequent commentary are integrated here: they record divergences among Scott’s autograph MS, the 1810 text, later printings, and editorial interpolations. Numerous emendations concern single words (e.g., the famous “mouldering” vs. MS “martial”), omitted or interpolated couplets, metrical adjustments, and occasional slipped-in lines (some appended on slips, e.g. vi. 561–568). Early misprints, wrong genders, misread place-names, and Lockhart’s restorations are noted; collation of Scott’s octavo second edition shows careful revision though some trivial misprints persisted.

The commentary supplies detailed historical, topographical, and cultural elucidation: identification of Katrine, Achray, Vennachar, Benvenue, Bochastle, Cambuskenneth, Stirling Castle features and local traditions (Cromwellian episodes, graves, battle-lore); explanations of arms and Highland fencing practice; and descriptions of social entertainments (morrice dances, archery prizes, jongleurs). Literary parallels — Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Byron, and continental sources — illuminate diction and archaisms. Critical notes record contemporary reception (Jeffrey’s praise and objection to the guard-room scene; Taylor’s defense) and point out editorial curiosities and lapses. The edition’s glossary and variant register make it particularly serviceable for school use and bibliographical study of Scott’s textual practice.