The Lady of the Lake in the Hugh Glass narrative and Gansevoort Melville's New York High School

The writer calling himself "Borderer" in late 1830 and early 1831 was soaked in Sir Walter Scott, as John Myers Myers figured out in his book on the Hugh Glass saga. Myers did not look at the other "Borderer" material in Scenes and Adventures in the Army, namely the interpolated tales of Sha-wa-now and Mah-za-pa-mee.  Like the story of Hugh Glass, both were originally published in the St Louis Beacon.  In 1835, both were again published over the signature of P.S.G.C. in the Military and Naval Magazine of the United States.  There, as in the St Louis Beacon, the story of Sha-wah-now is titled A Tale of the Rocky Mountains. Before republication in the Southern Literary Messenger, the Rocky Mountain tale of Sha-wa-now featured this direct quotation from The Lady of the Lake, Canto I:

The owlets started from their dream,
The eagles answered with their scream,
Round and around the sounds were cast,
Till echo seem'd an answering blast

Myers did recognize the romanticized duel between the Arikara Indian scout and Hugh Glass (as told by "Borderer," and later the narrator of Scenes and Adventures in the Army) as a dramatic recasting of the combat between Roderick Dhu and Fitz-James in Canto V of The Lady of the Lake.

Four years before the St Louis Beacon printing of the Hugh Glass story by "Borderer," Gansevoort Melville, Herman's older brother, is on record for his association in High School with this same Canto V of Scott's famous poem. Gansevoort was crowned best speaker (See Hershel Parker's biography, V1.36-7) before a packed assembly. For an encore he recited Halleck's Marco Bozzaris. As Parker also recounts in Melville: The Making of the Poet, a popular scene between Roderick Dhu and Fitz-James was subsequently enacted by two older boys--prompted by eleven-year-old Gansevoort. We know about Gansevoort's performance and prize from a December 28, 1826 letter by his naturally proud mother. Below is an excerpt from Maria Gansevoort Melville's letter to her mother Mrs. Peter Gansevoort, as printed in the 1984 article by Henry Murray, "Another Triumph for Maria's Firstborn":

... it was crowded we could with difficulty find a place to stand, after mounting Helen being the shortest of the party on a Desk, we turned to the Forum & saw Master Gansevoort making his Bow, he was the second call'd on to speak, he spoke rather faster than usual being unaccustomed to so large an audience otherwise he spoke well, when he had got through, two young men, tall, & about 20 years of age spoke the humorous piece of Doctor Pangloss & jac Doulass, then succeeded three or four more small boys, when those two tall Gentlemen again appear'd upon the Forum & spoke the Dialogue between Roderick Dhu, & Fitz James.  One thing really had a fine effect, Roderick Dhu Whistles when his clan arise & show themselves on all sides.  The Boys who were seated on a raised platform at the end of the room, at the sound of the Whistle at once arose & the clatter &c. had a fine effect. In the mean while Master Gansevoort was seated on the Forum at the side of Chancellor Kent with the Lady of the Lake in his hand prompting those two tall Gentlemen, one in particular--who could not remember his part, the other spoke well. (Melville Society Extracts No. 58)

‘Have then thy wish!’— He whistled shrill
And he was answered from the hill;
Wild as the scream of the curlew,
From crag to crag the signal flew.
Instant, through copse and heath, arose
Bonnets and spears and bended bows
On right, on left, above, below,
Sprung up at once the lurking foe;
From shingles gray their lances start,
The bracken bush sends forth the dart,
The rushes and the willow-wand
Are bristling into axe and brand,
And every tuft of broom gives life
‘To plaided warrior armed for strife.
That whistle garrisoned the glen
At once with full five hundred men,
As if the yawning hill to heaven
A subterranean host had given.

(From The Lady of the Lake, Canto 5, The Combat)