COMMENTARY NOTES

II.1 The queen and the four like-named members of her retinue (Mary Fleming, Mary Seaton, Mary Beaton, Mary Livingston).
II.13f. Buchanan was presumably thinking of the physical system of the Greek philosopher Empedocles, in which the cosmos is bound together by Love and torn apart by Strife.
III.20 Coral.
III.33 Minvera bore a Gorgon as the boss on her shield.
IV.1 - 10 Meter: anapaestic dimeters.
IV.7 Molossan hounds were favorite hunting dogs in antiquity.
IV.11 - 26 Meter: iambic dimeters.
IV.27 - 34 Meter: hendecasyllables.
IV.35 - 46 Meter: dactylic hexameters alternating with iambic trimeters.
IV.47 - 58 Meter: iambic trimeters catalectic.
V.13 - 28 Meter: Sapphic stanzas.
V.29 - 48 Meter: iambic dimeters.
V.32 By a misprint, the printed transcription has senecta a deterreat.
V.38 Scipio and Laelius were two friends who serve as the principle interlocutors in Cicero’s De Amicitia. The implication seems to be that alliance between sovereigns is something that transcends normal human friendships.