Nor fcorn'd to mark the fun, at mattins due, Stream through the storied window's holy hue. 50

And O, young Prince, be thine his moral praife; Nor feek in fields of blood his warrior bays. War has its charms terrific. Far and wide

we have the chequer'd shade,” ver. 96. But it is" on a sunshine holyday." This image has doubtless been often noticed; but I do not remember "the cloifter's moonlight-chequer'd floor," except in the "With due feet to walk the ftudious cloifters pale" is one of the occupations of Milton's penfive man.

text.

V. 50. Stream through the ftoried window's holy hue.]“ Storied, or painted with ftories, that is, hiftories," as Warton explains it in his curious note on the following from Il Penferofo:

And ftoried windows richly dight

Cafting a dim religious light. Ver. 159.

And fo in Grave of Arthur, ver. 15. " the ftoried tapestry," and in Sonnet V. ver. 10. "the ftately-ftoried hall. The image of "the fun ftreaming through ftoried windows" occurs in Bp. Lowth's Genealogy of Chrift, written while he was a scholar of Winchester College addreffing the Artift, he fays

While through thy work the rifing day fball ftream. Compare Virgil, Æn. iii. 152:

qua fe

Plena per infertas fundebat Luna fenefiras.

V. 53. War has its charms terrific, &c.] Compare the following paffage from Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia; "And now the often changing fortune began alfo to change the hue of the battels; "for at the first, though it were terrible, yet terror was decked fo bravely with rich furniture, gilt fwords, fhining armours, plea"fant pencils, that the eye with delight had fcarce leifure to be "afraid : but now all universally defiled with dust, broken armour, "mangled bodies, took away the mask, and fet forth Horror in bis own “borrible manner.” B. iii.

56

When stands th' embattled host in banner'd pride;
O'er the vext plain when the fhrill clangors run,
And the long phalanx flashes in the fun;
When now no dangers of the deathful day
Mar the bright scene, nor break the firm array;
Full oft, too rafhly glows with fond delight
The youthful breast, and asks the future fight; 60
Nor knows that Horror's form, a spectre wan,
Stalks, yet unfeen, along the gleamy van.

May no fuch rage be thine: no dazzling ray Of fpecious fame thy stedfast feet betray.

Dryden's Palamon and Arcite, B. ii.

And pleafing was the terror of the field.

V. 54. When stands th' embattled host in banner'd pride;] Milton, Par. Loft, ii. 885.

V. 62.

van."

a banner'd boft,

Under fpread enfigns marching.

the gleamy van.] Par. Loft, vi. 107:

"The cloudy

V. 63. May no fuch rage be thine: no dazzling ray, &c.] Apparently imitated from the ftrong and manly verfes of Bp. Lowth (at that time Fellow of New College and Poetry Profeffor) on the death of Frederic Prince of Wales, in the Epicedia Oxonienfia. After describing several famous conquerors, whom he confiders as scourges in the hand of Providence to punish the crimes of mankind, he thus addreffes the furviving fon of the Prince : Let no fuch frantic thirst thy foul inflame,

Of hateful glory and of guilty fame.

Britain from thee no fuch mean triumphs craves,

Britain disdains a subject world of flaves, &c.

It is to be lamented that the poems of fo good a man and so ner

Be thine domestic glory's radiant calm,

65

Be thine the fceptre wreath'd with many a palm: Be thine the throne with peaceful emblems hung, The filver lyre to milder conqueft ftrung!

70

Instead of glorious feats achiev'd in arms, Bid rifing arts display their mimic charms! Just to thy country's fame, in tranquil days, Record the past, and roufe to future praise : Before the public eye, in breathing brass, Bid thy fam'd father's mighty triumphs pass: Swell the broad arch with haughty Cuba's fall, 75 And clothe with Minden's plain th' historic hall.

vous a writer as the late Bp. of London fhould, from the smallness of their number, be likely to be loft to the world.

V. 71. Juft to thy country's fame, in tranquil days, &c.] Compare the following from Pope's Windfor Foreft:

Or raise old warriors, whofe ador'd remains
In weeping vaults her hallow'd earth contains,
With Edward's acts adorn the fhining page,
Stretch his long triumphs down through every age,

Draw monarchs chain'd and Creffi's glorious field, &c. Ver. 301. Pope's judgment might have prevented him from adopting the error, which Verrio had fallen into, in having represented the Kings of France and Scotland chained, in his picture of the triumph of the Black Prince at Windfor. The courteous manner, in which Edward the IIId and his fon behaved to their royal prifoners, is their great glory and distinction.

V. 73.in breathing brafs,] Virg. Æn. vi. 847. "fpirantia æra."

Then mourn not, Edward's Dome, thine an

cient boast,

Thy tournaments, and lifted combats loft!

From Arthur's Board, no more, proud castle,

mourn

ray,

Adventurous Valour's Gothic trophies torn!
Those elfin charms, that held in magic night
Its elder fame, and dimm'd its genuine light,
At length diffolve in Truth's meridian
And the bright Order bursts to perfect day:
The mystic round, begirt with bolder peers, 85
On Virtue's base its refcued glory rears;
Sees Civil Prowess mightier acts achieve,
Sees meek Humanity distress relieve;

Adopts the Worth that bids the conflict cease,
And claims its honours from the Chiefs of Peace.

V, 84. the bright Order] Horace has " lucidus Ordo,” but in a fense altogether different. Art. Poet. ver. 41.

V. 85. The myftic round,] Arthur's round table, called above, ver. 79. "Arthur's board." Tradition confiders the Order of the Garter, as a revival of Arthur's fabled institution of the round table.

VERSES

ON

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS's PAINTED WINDOW

AT NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD.

(Written in 1782.)

AH, ftay thy treacherous hand, forbear to trace
Thofe faultlefs forms of elegance and grace!
Ah, ceafe to fpread the bright transparent mass,
With Titian's pencil, o'er the speaking glass!
Nor steal, by strokes of art with truth combin'd,
The fond illufions of my wayward mind!
For long, enamour'd of a barbarous age,
A faithlefs truant to the claffic page;
Long have I lov'd to catch the fimple chime
Of minstrel-harps, and spell the fabling rime; 10

V. 3. the bright transparent mafs,] Pope's Epifle to Jervas: Or blend in beauteous tints the colour'd mass.

Ibid.

-to catch the fimple chime

Of minftrel-harps, and spell the fabling rime ;]

By the "chime of minftrel-harps" is meant the mufic, and by the

fabling rime" the legendary poetry, which conftantly accompa