Still in thy song should vanquish'd France appear, And bleed for ever under Britain's spear. Let softer strains ill-fated Henry mourn, 310 And palms eternal flourish round his urn. rest, And blended lie th' oppressor and th' opprest; 316 Make sacred Charles's tomb for ever known, (Obscure the place, and uninscrib'd the stone) 320 NOTES. vol. iii. 59.) and with less taste, Verrio's exuberant pencil was ready at pouring out gods, goddesses, kings, emperors, and triumphs, over those public surfaces, on which the eye never rests long enough to criticise, and where one should be sorry to place the works of a better master, I mean, ceilings and staircases. He received, in all, for his various works, the sum of £.6,845. Ver. 311. Henry mourn,] Henry VI. P. How could he here omit the mention of Eton College, founded by this unfortunate King, and the Chapel of King's College in Cambridge. But Gray has made ample amends for this omission, by his most beautiful ode on the prospect of this neighbouring college, from which so many ornaments and supports of state and church have proceeded. Ver. 314. once-fear'd Edward sleeps:] Edward IV. P. Ver. 316.] See an account of Belerium, so called from Bellerus a Cornish giant, that part of Cornwall called the Lands End, in Warton's edition of Milton's Poems, p. 28. Ver. 319. Make sacred Charles's] Vigneal-Marville, v. 1. p. 152. relates a fact concerning this unhappy Monarch that I do not find mentioned in any history; which, he says, Lord Clarendon used to mention when he retired to Rouen in Normandy; that Oh fact accurst! what tears has Albion shed, Heav'ns, what new wounds! and how her old have bled! She saw her sons with purple death expire, A dreadful series of intestine wars, 325 At length great ANNA said "Let discord cease!" 329 VARIATIONS. Ver. 321. Originally thus in the MS. Oh fact accurst! oh sacrilegious brood, Sworn to Rebellion, principled in blood! Since that dire morn what tears has Albion shed, Ver. 327. Thus in the MS. Till Anna rose and bade the Furies cease; Let there be peace-she said, and all was Peace. NOTES. one of the first circumstances that gave disgust to the people of England, and to some of the nobility, was a hint thrown out by Charles I. at the beginning of his reign, that he thought all the ecclesiastical revenues that had been seized and distributed by Henry VIII. ought to be restored to the church. Ver. 322.] To say that the plague in London, and its consumption by fire, were judgments inflicted by Heaven for the murder of Charles I. is a very extraordinary stretch of Tory principles indeed. Ver. 329.] It may gratify a curious reader to see an extract of a letter of Prior to Lord Bolingbroke, written from Paris, May 18, 1713, concerning a medal that was to be struck on the Peace of Utrecht, so highly celebrated in this passage: communicated to me by the favour of the late Dutchess Dowager of Portland. His tresses drop'd with dews, and o'er the stream The figur'd streams in waves of silver roll❜d, 335 The winding Isis and the fruitful Thame : 340 The Kennet swift, for silver eels renown'd; The Lodden slow, with verdant alders crown'd; VARIATIONS. Between Verse 330 and 331, originally stood these lines, With sparkling flames heav'n's glowing concave shone, He saw, and gently rose above the stream; His shining horns diffuse a golden gleam : With pearl and gold his tow'ry front was drest, NOTES. "I dislike your medal, with the motto, COMPOSITIS VENERANTUR ARMIS P. I will have one of my own design; the Queen's bust surrounded with laurel, and with this motto, ANNE AUG. FELICI, PACIFICE: Peace in a triumphal car, and the words, PAX MISSA PER ORBEM. This is ancient, this is simple, this is sense. Rosier shall execute it, in a manner not seen in England since Simonds's time." Ver. 337.] He has copied, and equalled, the Rivers of Spenser, Drayton, and Milton. Ver. 341.] The word renown'd, says a true poet, Dr. Darwin, 345 Cole, whose dark streams his flow'ry islands lave; High in the midst, upon his urn reclin❜d, (His sea-green mantle waving with the wind) 350 NOTES. does not present the idea of a visible object to the mind, and is thence prosaic. Ver. 350.] Whenever the river Thames is mentioned, I am afraid the disgraceful and impotent criticism of Dr. Johnson on a passage in Gray's Odes, will recur to the mind of the reader. I heartily wish, for the sake of its author, who had more strong sense than a just relish for true poetry, that this strange and unwarrantable remark of his, could be sunk into oblivion. Our poet was not deterred, from the censure which Addison passed in his Campaign on raising and personifying rivergods, from giving us this fine description, in which Thames appears and speaks with suitable dignity and importance. How much superior is this picture to that of Boileau's Rhine; who represents the Naïads as alarming the God with an account of the march of the French Monarch; upon which the River God assumes the appearance of an old experienced commander, flies to a Dutch fort, and exhorts the garrison to dispute the intended passage. The Rhine, marching at their head, and observing Mars and Bellona on the side of the enemy, is so terrified with the view of these superior divinities, that he most gallantly runs away, and leaves the great hero Louis XIV. in quiet possession of his banks.-So much for a true court poet, who would not have dared to write the eight last lines of this speech of Thames, from v. 415. The lines of Addison in the Campaign were ; Gods may descend in factions from the skies, And rivers from their oozy beds arise. I cannot forbear mentioning, that the very first composition 356 360 The God appear'd: he turn'd his azure eyes Shall tend the flocks, or reap the bearded grain; VARIATIONS. Ver. 363. Originally thus in the MS. Let Venice boast her Tow'rs amidst the Main, 365 371 NOTES. that made the young Racine known at Paris, was his Ode from the Nymph of the Seine to the Queen, which ode, by the way, was corrected by Chapelain, at that time in high vogue as a critic, and by him recommended to the court. |