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"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 thro' Berkley's roofs that ring,
"Shrieks of an agonizing king*!

"She-wolf of Francet, 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 heaven. What terrors round him
wait!

"Amazement in his van, with Flight combin'd,
"And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.

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II.2.

Mighty victor, mighty lord,

"Low on his fun'ral couch he lies §!

"No pitying heart, no eye, afford

"A tear to grace his obsequies!

"Is the sable warrior || fled?

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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, "While proudly riding o'er the azure realm,

"In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes,

"Youth on the prow and pleasure at the helm,

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Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway,

"That hush'd in grim repose expects his ev'ning prey.

* Edward II. cruelly butchered in Berkley Castle.

Isabel of France, Edward II.'s adulterous queen.

Triumphs of Edward III. 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 died some time before his father.

Magnificence of Richard II.'s reign. See Froissard and other contemporary writers.

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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, "Heard ye the din of battle bray †,

"Lance to lance and horse to horse?

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Long years of havock urge their destin'd course, And thro' the kindred squadrons now their way. "Ye Tow'rs of Julius! 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 Boartt in infant gore "Wallows beneath the thorny shade.

"Now, brothers! bending o'er the accursed loom, "Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom.

* Richard II. (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 St. Piers of Exton is of much later date.

Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster.

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

? Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown.

Henry V.

Henry VI. 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 II1, whence he was usually known in his own time by the name of The Boar.

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III. 1.

"Edward, lo! to sudden fate

"(Weave we the woof; the thread is spun)
"Half of thy heart* we consecrate;

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(The web is wove; the work is done.") 'Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn

Leave me unbless'd, unpity'd here to mourn.

In yon bright tract, that fires the western skies,
They melt, they vanish from my eyes.

'But oh! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height,
'Descending slow, their glitt'ring skirts unrol!
Visions of glory! spare my aching sight,
'Ye unborn ages crowd not on my soul!
'No more our long-lost Arthurt we bewail:
'All hail, ye genuine Kings, Britannia's issue, hail!

III. 2.

'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,

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

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⚫ Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the conquest of Wales. The heroic proof she gave of her affection for her lord is well krown. The monuments of his regret and sorrow 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 would return again to reign over Britain.

Both Merlin and Talliessin had prophesied that the Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this island, which seemed to be accomplished in the house of Tudor.

Speed, relating an audience given by Queen Elizabeth to Paul Dzialinski, ambassador of Poland, says, "And thus

'What strings symphonious tremble in the air!
'What strains of vocal transport round her play!
'Hear from the grave, great Talliessin! hear!
They breathe a soul to animate thy clay.

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Bright Rapture calls, and soaring as she sings,

Waves in the eye of heav'n her many-colour'd wings.

The verse adorn again

III. 3.

Fierce War, and Faithful Love †, 'And Truth severe, by fairy fiction drest. In buskin'd measures move t 'Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain,

'With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. A voices as of the cherub-choir

'Gales from blooming Eden bear,

And distant warblings|| lessen on my ear,
That lost in long futurity expire.

'Fond impious man! think'st thou yon sanguine cloud 'Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day? 'To-morrow he repairs the golden flood,

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And warms the nations with redoubled ray.

Enough for me: with joy I see

The different doom our Fates assign!

Be thine despair and sceptred care;

To triumph and to die are mine.'

He spoke, and, headlong from the mountain's height, Deep, in the roaring tide, he plung'd to endless night.

"she, lion-like rising, daunted the malapert orator no less "with her stately port and majestical deporture, than with "the tartness of her princelie checkes."

* Talliessin, chief of the Bards, flourished in the sixth century. His works are still preserved, and his memory held in high veneration among his countrymen.

+Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralize my song. Spenser's Proem to the Fairy Queen.

Shakespeare.

? Milton.

The succession of Poets after Milton's time.

ODE VII.

THE FATAL SISTERS.

From the Norse Tongue.

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 Sictryg 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 Sictryg was in danger of a total defeat; but the enemy had a greater loss by the death of Brian, their king, who fell in the action. Christmas day, (the day of the battle) a native of Caithness, in Scotland, saw, at a distance, a number of persons on horseback riding full speed towards a hill, and seeming to enter into it. Curiosity led him to follow them, till looking through an opening in the rocks, he saw twelve gigantic figures, resembling women: they were all employed about a loom; and as they wore they sung the following dreadful song, which, when they had finished, they tore the web into twelve pieces, and each taking her portion, gallopped six to the north and as many to the south.

[OW the storm begins to low'r,

(Haste, the loom of hell prepare,)

Iron-sleet of arrowy show'r

Hurtlest in the darken'd air.

• How quick they wheel'd, and flying, behind them shot Sharp sleet of arrowy show'r--

+ The noise of battle hurtled in the air.

Milt, Par. Reg.

Shak. Jul. Cas.

Note The Valkyriur were female divinities, servants of Odin (or Wodin) in the Gothic mythology. Their name signifies Chusers of the Slain. They were mounted on swift horses, with drawn swords in their hands, and in the throng of battle selected such as were destin'd to slaughter, and conducted them to Valkalia, (the Hall of Odin, or Paradise of the Brave) where they attended the banquet, and served the departed heroes with horas of mead and ale.

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