III. 2.

Nor second he* that rode sublime

Upon the seraph-wings of ecstacy,
The secrets of the abyss to spy,

He passed the flaming bounds of place and time :t
The living throne, the sapphire-blaze,+
Where angels tremble while they gaze,
He saw, but, blasted with excess of light,
Closed his eyes in endless night.

Behold where Dryden's less presumptuous car
Wide o'er the fields of glory bear

Two coursers of ethereal race,§

ODE VI.

THE BARD.-PINDARIC.

Advertisement.

The following Ode is founded on a tradition current in Wales, that Edward I. when he completed the conquest of that country, ordered all the bards that fell into his hands to be put to death.

I. 1.

"RUIN seize thee, ruthless king!
Confusion on thy banners wait;
Though fanned by conquest's crimson wing,
They mock the air with idle state.*

With necks in thunder clothed and long resound- Helm nor hauberk'st twisted mail,

ing pace.

III. 3.

Hark! his hands the lyre explore!
Bright-eyed fancy, hovering o'er,
Scatters from her pictured urn
Thoughts that breathe and words that burn;¶
But ah! 'tis heard no more**—
Oh, lyre divine! what daring spirit
Wakes thee now? though he inherit
Nor the pride nor ample pinion
That the Theban eagle bear,+t
Sailing with supreme dominion
Through the azure deep of air,

Yet oft before his infant eyes would run
Such forms as glitter in the muse's ray
With orient hues, unborrowed of the sun;
Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way
Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,

Nor e'en thy virtues, tyrant! shall avail
To save thy secret soul from nightly fears;
From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!"
Such were the sounds that o'er the crested pridet
Of the first Edward scattered wild dismay,
As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy sides
He wound with toilsome march his long array.
Stout Glo'ster stood aghast in speechless trance:
Το
arms, cried Mortimer T, and couched his quiv-
ering lance.

I. 2.

On a rock, whose haughty brow
Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,
Robed in the sable garb of wo,
With haggard eyes the poet stood;
(Loose his beard, and hoary hair**

Streamed like a meteor to the troubled air,++)
And with a master's hand and prophet's fire

Beneath the good how far-but far above the great. Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre.

• Milton.

↑ flammantia mœnia mundi.-Lucretius.

Mocking the air with colours idly spread.

Shaksp. King John. The hauberk was a texture of steel ringlets or rings interwoven, forming a coat of mail that sat close to the body, and adapted itself to every motion.

For the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. And above the firmament, that was over their heads, was the The crested adder's pride.-Dryden's Indian Queen. likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone.-§ Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that mounThis was the appearance of the glory of the Lord.-Eze-tainous tract which the Welsh themselves call Craigian-eryri: kiel, i. 20, 26, 28.

it included all the highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merio

Meant to express the stately march and sounding energy nethshire, as far east as the river Conway. R. Hygden, speakof Dryden's rhymes.

I Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?-Job. Words that weep and tears that speak.-Cowley. "We have had in our language no other odes of the su blime kind than that of Dryden on St. Cecilia's day; for Cowley, who had his merit, yet wanted judgment, style, and harmony, for such a task. That of Pope is not worthy of so great Mr. Mason, indeed, of late days, has touched the true chords, and, with a masterly hand, in some of his chorusses above all, in the last of Caractacus;

a man.

Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread? &c.

it Pindar compares himself to that bird, and his enemies to ravens that croak and clamour in vain below, while it pursues its flight regardless of their noise.

ing of the castle of Conway, built by King Edward L. says,
Ardortum amnis Conway ad clivum montis Erery; and
Matthew of Westminster, (ad un, 1283) Apud Aberconway
ad pedes montis Snowdoniæ fecit erigi castrum forte.
I Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, Earl of Gloucester and

Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward.

¶ Edmund de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore. They both were Lord Marchers, whose lands lay on the borders of Wales, and probably accompanied the king in this expedition.

**The image was taken from a well known picture of Ra. phael, representing the Supreme Being in the vision of Eze. kiel. There are two of these paintings, both believed original; one at Florence, the other at Paris.

↑ Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind.

Milton's Paradise Lost.

"Hark how each giant oak and desert cave
Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath!
O'er thee, oh king! their hundred arms they wave,
Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe;
Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day,

Amazement in his van, with flight combined,
And sorrow's faded form, and solitude behind.
II. 2.

Mighty victor, mighty lord,
Low on his funeral couch he lies*

To high-born Hoel's harp or soft Llewellyn's lay. No pitying heart, no eye, afford

I. 3.

"Cold is Cadwallo's tongue,

That hushed the storiny main;

Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed:

Mountains! ye mourn in vain

Modred, whose magic song

A tear to grace his obsequies!

Is the sable warriort fled?

Thy son is gone; he rests among the dead.

The swarm that in thy noontide beam were born,
Gone to salute the rising morn:

Fair laughs the morn,‡ and soft the zephyr blows,

Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topped head. While proudly riding o'er the azure realm,

On dreary Arvon's* shore they lie,
Smeared with gore and ghastly pale;
Far, far aloof the affrighted ravens sail,
The famished eaglet screams and passes by.
Dear lost companions of my tuneful art,
Deart as the light that visits these sad eyes,
Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart,
Ye died amidst your dying country's cries-
No more I weep. They do not sleep:
On yonder cliffs, a grisly band,

I see them sit; they linger yet,

Avengers of their native land;

With me in dreadful harmony they join,

In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes,

Youth on the prow and pleasure at the helm,
Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,
That hushed in grim repose expects his evening

prey.

II. 3.

Fill high the sparkling bowl,s

The rich repast prepare;

Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast.
Close by the regal chair

Fell thirst and famine scowl

A baleful smile upon the baffled guest.
Heard ye the din of battle bray,ll

And weaves with bloody hands the tissue of thy Lance to lance and horse to horse?

line."

II. 1.

'Weave the warp and weave the woof,
The winding-sheet of Edward's race:
Give ample room and verge enough
The characters of hell to trace.

Mark the year and mark the night

When Severn shall re-echo with affright

Long years of havoc urge their destined course,
And through the kindred squadrons mow their
way.

Ye towers of Julius!T London's lasting shame,
With many a foul and midnight murder fed,
Revere his consort's** faith, his father'stt fame,
And spare the meek usurper's‡‡ holy head.
Above, below, the rose of snow,§§

The shrieks of death through Berkley's roofs that Twined with her blushing foe, we spread;

ring,

Shrieks of an agonizing king!

She-wolf of France,¶ with unrelenting fangs
That tearest the bowels of thy mangled mate,

The bristled Boar in infant gore
Wallows beneath the thorny shade.

Death of that king, abandoned by his children, and even

From thee** be born who o'er thy country hangs robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and mistress

The scourge of heaven. What terrors round him wait!

↑ Edward the Black Prince, dead some time before his father. Magnificence of Richard II.'s reign. See Froissard, and other contemporary writers.

Richard II. (as we are told by Archbishop Scroop, and the

• The shores of Caernarvonshire, opposite to the isle of An- confederate lords, in their manifesto, by Thomas of Walsing glesey.

↑ Camden and others observe, that eagles used annually to build their aerie among the rocks of Snowdon, which from thence (as some think) were named by the Welsh, Craigianeryri, or the crags of the eagles. At this day (I am told) the highest point of Snowdon is called The Eagle's Nest. That bird is certainly no stranger to this island, as the Scots, and the people of Cumberland, Westmoreland, &c. can testify: it even has built its nest in the Peak of Derbyshire. [See Wil loughby's Ornithol. published by Ray.]

As dear to me as are the ruddy drops

That visit my sad heart.-Shaksp. Julius Cæsar. 5 See the Norwegian Ode that follows.

Edward II. cruelly butchered in Berkeley Castle. Isabel of France, Edward II's adulterous queen. ** Triumphs of Edward III. in France.

ham, and all the older writers) was starved to death. The story of his assassination by Sir Piers of Exon is of much later date.

1 Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster.

Henry VI., George Duke of Clarence, Edward V., Richard Duke of York, &c. believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgar ly attributed to Julius Cæsar.

**Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who strug gled hard to save her husband and her crown. it Henry V.

Henry VI. very near being canonized. The line of Lan. caster had no right of inheritance to the crown.

$$ The white and red Roses, devices of York and Lancaster. The silver Boar was the badge of Richard III whence he was usually known in his own time by the name of The Boar

"Girt with many a baron bold

Sublime their starry fronts they rear,

And gorgeous dames and statesmen old
In bearded majesty appear;
In the midst a form divine,

Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line,
Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face,§
Attempered sweet to virgin grace.

What strings symphonious tremble in the air!
What strains of vocal transport round her play!
Hear from the grave, great Taliessin!!! hear!
They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.
Bright rapture calls, and, soaring as she sings,
Waves in the eye of heaven her many-coloured
wings.

III. 3.

"The verse adorn again. Fierce war, and faithful love,

Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the conquest of Wales. The heroic proofs she gave of her affection for her lord is well known. The monuments of his regret and sor

row for the loss of her are still to be seen at Northampton, Gaddington Waltham, and other places.

↑ It was the common belief of the Welsh nation, that king Arthur was still alive in Fairyland, and should return again

to reign over Britain.

Both Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied that the Welsh should regair, their sovereignty over this island, which seemed

ADVERTISEMENT.

The Author once had thoughts (in concert with a friend) of giving a history of English poetry. In the introduction to it he meant to have produced some specimens of the style that reigned in ancient times among the neighbouring nations, or those who had subdued the greater part of this island, and were our progenitors: the following three imitations made a part of them. He afterwards dropped his design; especially after he had heard that it was already in the hands of a person well qualified to do it justice both by his taste and his research. es into antiquity.

ODE VII.

THE FATAL SISTERS.

From the Norse tongue.

To be found in the Orcades of Thermodus Torfæus, Hafnia, 1679, folio; and also in Bartholinus. Vitt er orpit fyrir Valfalli, &c.

PREFACE.

IN the eleventh century, Sigurd, Earl of the Orkney islands, went with a fleet of ships, and a considerable body of troops, into Ireland, to the assistance of Sigtryg with the silken Beard, who was then making war on his father-in-law, Brian, king of Dublin. The earl and all his forces were cut to pieces, and Sigtryg was in danger of a total defeat; but the enemy had a greater loss by § Speed, relating an audience given by queen Elizabeth to Paul Dzialinski, ambassador of Poland, says, "And thus she, the death of Brian, their king, who fell in the aclion-like rising, daunted the malapert orator no less with her tion. On Christmas-day (the day of the battle) a stately port and majestical deporture, than with the tartness native of Caithness, in Scotland, saw, at a disof her princelie cheekes." tance, a number of persons on horseback riding tury. His works are still preserved, and his memory held in full speed towards a hill, and seeming to enter into

to be accomplished in the house of Tudor.

Taliessin, the chief of the bards, flourished in the 6th cen

high veneration among his countrymen.

↑ Milton. The succession of the poets after Milton's time.

Proph. What call unknown, what charms pre-Art thou, no prophetess of good,