787. Coilantogle's ford. On the Teith just below its exit from Loch Vennachar.
791. The bittern's cry. See on i. 642 above.
797. And slept, etc. The MS. has "streak" and "lake" for beam and stream.
Canto Fifth.
1. Fair as the earliest beam, etc. "This introductory stanza is well worked in with the story. The morning beam 'lights the fearful path on mountain side' which the two heroes of the poem are to traverse, and the comparison which it suggest enlists our sympathy for Roderick, who is to be the victim of defeat" (Taylor).
5. And lights, etc. The MS. has "And lights the fearful way along its side."
10. Sheen. See on i. 208.
14. The dappled sky. Cf. Milton, L'Allegro, 44: "Till the dappled dawn doth rise;" and Shakespeare, Much Ado, v. 3. 25:
"and look, the gentle day,
Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about
Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray."