No more I weep. They do not sleep. Avengers of their native land: II. "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. She-wolf of France,† with unrelenting fangs, wait! Amazement in his van, with Flight combin'd; "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? Mark the year, and mark the night, ring,* Shrieks of an agonizing king; Revere his consort's faith, his father'st fame, * Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkeley castle. † Isabel of France, Edward the Second's adulterous queen. 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. Now, brothers, bending o'er th' accursed loom, III. "Edward, lo! to sudden fate (Weave we the woof. The thread is spun.) But oh! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height †† Both Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied, that the Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this island; Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster. ** Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward which seemed to be accomplished in the house of Tudor. the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, &c. believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Cæsar. 1 Taliessin, chief of the bards, flourished in the sixth century. His works are still preserved, and his memory held in high veneration among his countrymen. "The verse adorn again Fierce War, and faithful Love, And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest. In buskin'd measures* move Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain, With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. A voice,t as of the cherub-choir, Gales from blooming Eden bear; Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day? The different doom our Fates assign. Be thine Despair, and scepter'd Care: He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height THE FATAL SISTERS. AN ODE. [From the Norse-Tongue.] IN THE ORCADES OF THORMODUS TORFÆUS; HALFNIÆ, 1697, FOLIO; AND ALSO IN BARTHOLINUS. Vitt er oprit fyrir valfalli, &c. Now the storm begins to lower, (Haste, the loom of Hell prepare,) Iron-sleet of arrowy shower Hurtles in the darken'd air. Glittering lances are the loom, Where the dusky warp we strain, Weaving many a soldier's doom, Orkney's woe, and Randver's bane. See the grisly texture grow, ('Tis of human entrails made,) And the weights that play below, Each a gasping warrior's head. * Shakspeare. ↑ Milton. The succession of poets after Milton's time. § The Valkyriur were female divinities, servants of Odin (or Woden) in the Gothic mythology. Their name signifies choosers 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 destined to slaughter, and conducted them to Valkalla, the hall of Odin, or paradise of the brave; where they attended the banquet, and served the departed heroes with horns of mead and ale. Shafts for shuttles, dipt in gore, Shoot the trembling cords along; Sword, that once a monarch bore, Keep the tissue close and strong. Mista, black terrific maid, Sangrida, and Hilda, see, Join the wayward work to aid: "Tis the woof of victory. Ere the ruddy Sun be set, Pikes must shiver, javelins sing, Blade with clattering buckler meet, Hauberk crash, and helmet ring. (Weave the crimson web of war,) Let us go, and let us fly, Where our friends the conflict share, Where they triumph, where they die. As the paths of Fate we tread, Wading through th' ensanguin'd field; Gondula, and Geira, spread O'er the youthful king your shield. We the reins to Slaughter give, Ours to kill, and ours to spare: Spite of danger he shall live: (Weave the crimson web of war.) They, whom once the desert-beach Pent within its bleak domain, Soon their ample sway shall stretch O'er the plenty of the plain. Low the dauntless Earl is laid, Gor'd with many a gaping wound Fate demands a nobler head; Soon a king shall bite the ground Long his loss shall Eirin weep, Ne'er again his likeness see; Long her strains in sorrow steep, Strains of immortality! Horror covers all the heath, Clouds of carnage blot the Sun. Sisters, weave the web of death; Sisters, cease, the work is done Hail the task, and hail the hands! Songs of joy and triumph sing! Joy to the victorious bands; Triumph to the younger king. Mortal, thou that hear'st the tale, Learn the tenor of our song. Scotland, through each winding vale Far and wide the notes prolong. Sisters, hence, with spurs of speed; Each her thundering falchion wield Each bestride her sable steed: Hurry, hurry to the field. THE DESCENT OF ODIN. AN ODE. [From the same.] IN BARTHOLINUS, DE CAUSIS CONTEMNENDE MORTIS; HAFNIE, 1689, QUARTO. Upreis Odinn allda gauir, &c. UPROSE the King of Men with speed, (The groaning Earth beneath him shakes,) 'Till full before his fearless eyes The portals nine of Hell arise. Right against the eastern gate, Pr. What call unknown, what charms presume, Who is he, with voice unblest, O. A traveller, to thee unknown, Is he that calls, a warrior's son. Pr. Mantling in the goblet see O. Once again my call obey, What danger Odin's child await, Pr. In Hoder's hand the hero's doom: O. Prophetess, my spell obey: O. Yet awhile my call obey, And snowy veils, that float in air. Pr. Ha! no traveller art thou, O. No boding maid of skill divine Art thou, nor prophetess of good; But mother of the giant-brood! Pr. Hie thee hence, and boast at home, Till Lokt has burst his ten-fold chain. THE TRIUMPHS OF OWEN. A FRAGMENT. FROM MR. EVANS'S SPECIMENS OF THE WELSH POETRY; LONDON, 1764, QUARTO. OWEN's praise demands my song, Owen swift, and Owen strong; Fairest flower of Roderic's stem, Gwyneth's shield, and Britain's gem. Lok is the evil being, who continues in chains till the twilight of the gods approaches, when he shall break his bonds; the human race, the stars, and Sun, shall disappear; the earth sink in the seas, and fire consume the skies: even Odin himself and his kindred deities shall perish. For a further explanation of this mythology, see Mallet's Introduction to the History of Denmark, 1755, quarto. Owen succeeded his father Griffin in the principality Niflheimr, the Hell of the Gothic nations, consisted of nine worlds, to which were devoted all such as died of of North Wales, A. D. 112. This battle was fought near sickness, old age, or by any other means than in battle: forty years afterwards. over it presided Hela, the goddess of death. § North Wales. He nor heaps his brooded stores, Dauntless on his native sands The dragon-sont of Mona stands; In glittering arms and glory drest, TOBIAS SMOLLETT. TOBIAS SMOLLETT, well known in his time for collection, as the author of "The Tears of Scotthe variety and multiplicity of his publications, was land," the "Ode to Leven-Water," and some other born in 1720, at Dalquhurn, in the county of Dum- short pieces, which are polished, tender, and picbarton. He was educated under a surgeon in turesque; and, especially, of an "Ode to IndepenGlasgow, where he also attended the medical lec-dence," which aims at a loftier flight, and perhaps tures of the University; and at this early period he has few superiors in the lyric style. gave some specimens of a talent for writing verses. Smollett married a lady of Jamaica: he was, As it is on this ground that he has obtained a place unfortunately, of an irritable disposition, which inin the present collection, we shall pass over his volved him in frequent quarrels, and finally shortvarious characters of surgeon's mate, physician, his- ened his life. He died in the neighborhood of Legtoriographer, politician, miscellaneous writer, and horn, in October, 1771, in the fifty-first year of his especially novelist, and consider his claims as a minor age. poet of no mean rank. He will be found, in this |
