Behold where Dryden's less presumptuous car Wide o'er the fields of glory bear Two coursers of ethereal race, With necks in thunder clothed, and long-resounding pace. III. 3. Hark, his hands the lyre explore! Scatters from her pictured urn Thoughts, that breathe, and words, that burn. But ah! 'tis heard no more—— Oh! lyre divine, what daring Spirit Through the azure deep of air: Such forms, as glitter in the Muse's ray Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate, Beneath the Good how far-but far above the Great. * We have had in our language no other odes of the sublime 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 a man. Mr. Mason, in-leed, of late days, has touched the true chords, aud with a masterly hand in some of lus Choruses,—above all in the last of Caractacus; 'Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread " &c. ↑ Pindar. RUIN seize thee, ruthless king! To save thy secret soul from nightly fears, He wound with toilsome march his long array. Stout Glo'sters stood aghast in speechless trance; "To arms!' cried Mortimer,|| and couch'd his quivʼring lance. J. 2. On a rock, whose haughty brow Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood, Robed in the sable garb of woe, With haggard eyes the Poet stood (Loose his beard, and hoary hair Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air); *This Ode is founded on a tradition current in Wales, that Edward the First, when he completed the conquest of that country, ordered all the bards that fell into his hands to be put to death. + 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. ↑ Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that mountainous tract which the Welsh themselves call Craigion-eryri: it included all the highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire, as far east as the river Conway. R. flygden, speaking of the Castle of Conway, built by King Edward the First, says, Ad ortum annis Conway ad clivum montis Erery;' and Matthew of Westminster, (ad ann. 1283), 'Apud Aberconway ad pedes montis Snowdonia fecit erigi castrum forte.' § Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, earl of Gloucester and Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward. Edmond de Mortimer, lord of Wigmore. They both were Lords-Marchers, whose lands lay on the borders of Wales, and probably accompanied the king in this expedition. And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire, 'Hark, how each giant oak, and desert cave, Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath ! To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay. I. 3. • Cold is Cadwallo's tongue, That hush'd the stormy main: Brave Urien, sleeps upon his craggy bed: Mountains, ye mourn in vain Modred, whose magic song Made huge Plinli̇mmon bow his cloud-topp'd head. Smear'd with gore, and ghastly pale : Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes, On yonder cliffs, a griesly band, I see them sit; they linger yet, With me in dreadful harmony they join, And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line.' The shores of Caernarvonshire opposite to the i-le of Anglesey. + 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 Craigían eryri, 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 Willoughby's Ornithol. published by Ray.) See the Norwegian Öde, that follows. g 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; The shrieks of death, through Berkley's roof that ring, Shrieks of an agonizing king! +She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs, That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled mate, From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs The scourge of Heav'n! What terrors round him wait! 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! No pitying heart, no eye, afford A tear to grace his obsequies. Is the sable Warrior fled? Thy sun is gone. He rests among the dead. The swarm, that in thy noon-tide beam were born? Gone to salute the rising Morn. Fair laughs the Morn, and soft the Zephyr blows, In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes ; Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway, That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his evening prey. * Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkley Castle. + Isabel of France, Edword the Second's adulterous queen. 1 Triumphs of Edward the Third in France. § Death of that king, abandoned by his children, and even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and his mistress. Edward the Black Prince, dead some time before his father. other contemporary writers. II. 3. * Fill high the sparkling bowl, 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 their baffled guest. Lance to lance, and horse to horse? Long years of havock urge their destin'd 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's[] fame, And spare the meek¶ usurper's holy head! Above, below, the **rose of snow, Twin'd with her blushing foe, we spread: The bristled boar in infant gore Wallows beneath the thorny shade. Now, brothers, bending o'er th' accursed loom, Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom. III. ). "Edward, lo! to sudden fate (Weave we the woof. The thread is spun.) Richard the Second (as we are told by Archbishop Scroop and the confederate lords in their manifesto, by Thomas of Walsingham, and all the older writers) was starved to death. The story of his assassination, by Sir Piers, of Exon, is of much later date. ↑ Kainous civil wars of York and Lancaster. Hnry the Sixth, George duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth, Richard duke of York, &c. believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgariy attributed to Julius Cæsar. Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown. Henry the Firth. Heury the Sixth, very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster 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 the Third: whence he was usually known, in his own time, by the name of the Boar, H |