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PREFACE.

THE following Poem is founded upon a Spanish Tradition, particularly detailed in the Notes; but bearing, in general, that Don Roderick, the last Gothic King of Spain, when the Invasion of the Moors was impending, had the temerity to descend into an ancient vault, near Toledo, the opening of which had been denounced as fatal to the Spanish Monarchy. The legend adds, that his rash curiosity was mortified by an emblematical representation of those Saracens who, in the year 714, defeated him in battle, and reduced Spain under their dominion. I have presumed to prolong the Vision of the Revolutions of Spain down to the present eventful crisis of the Peninsula; and to divide it, by a supposed change of scene, into THREE PERIODS. The FIRST of these represents the Invasion of the Moors, the Defeat and Death of Roderick, and closes with the peaceful occupation of the country by the Victors. The SECOND PERIOD embraces the state of the Peninsula, when the conquests of the Spaniards and Portuguese in the East and West Indies had raised to the highest pitch the renown of their arms; sullied, however, by superstition and cruelty. An allusion to the inhumanities of the Inquisition terminates this picture. The LAST PART of the Poem opens with the state of Spain previous to the unparalleled treachery of BONAPARTE; gives

The Vision of Don Roderick appeared in 4to, in July 15, 1811; and in the course of the same year was also inserted in the second volume of the Edinburgh Annual Register-which work was the property of Sir Walter Scott's then publishers, Messrs. John Ballantyne and Co.

The Right Hon. Robert Blair of Avontoun, President of the Court of Sessions, was the son of the Rev. Robert Blair, author of The Grave." After long filling the office of Solicitor-General in Scotland with high distinction, he was elevated to the Presidency in 1808. He died very suddenly on the 20th May, 1811, in the 70th year of his age; and his intimate friend, Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville, having gone into Edinburgh on purpose to attend his remains to the grave, was taken ill not less suddenly, and died there the very hour that the funeral took place, on the 28th of the same month.

In a letter to J. B. S. Morritt, Esq., Edinburgh, July 1,

a sketch of the usurpation attempted upon that unsuspicious and friendly kingdom, and terminates with the arrival of the British succors. It may be farther proper to mention, that the object of the Poem is less to commemorate or detail particular incidents than to exhibit a general and impressive picture of the several periods brought upon the stage. I am too sensible of the respect due to the Public, especially by one who has already experienced more than ordinary indulgence, to offer any apology for the inferiority of the poetry to the subject it is chiefly designed to commemorate. Yet I think it proper to mention, that while I was hastily executing a work, written for a temporary purpose, and on passing events, the task was most cruelly interrupted by the successive deaths of LORD PRESIDENT BLAIR,' and LORD VISCOUNT MELVILLE. In those distinguished characters I had not only to regret persons whose lives were most important to Scotland, but also whose notice and patronage honored my entrance upon active life; and, I may add, with melancholy pride who permitted my more advanced age to claim no common share in their friendship. Under such interruptions, the following verses, which my best and happiest efforts must have left far unworthy of their theme, have, I am myself sensible, an appearance of negligence and incoherence, which, in other circumstances, I might have been able to remove. EDINBURGH, June 24, 1811.

1811, Scott says "I have this moment got your kind letter, just as I was packing up Don Roderick for you. This patriotic puppet-show has been finished under wretched auspices; poor Lord Melville's death so quickly succeeding that of President Blair, one of the best and wisest judges that ever distributed justice, broke my spirit sadly. My official situation placed me in daily contact with the President, and his ability and candor were the source of my daily admiration. As for poor dear Lord Melville, 'tis vain to name him whom we mourn in vain.' Almost the last time I saw him, he was talking of you in the highest terms of regard, and expressing great hopes of again seeing you at Dunira this summer, where I proposed to attend you. Hei mihi! quid hei mihi? humana perpessi sumus. His loss will be long and severely felt here, and Envy is already paying her cold tribute of applause to the worth which she maligned while it walked upon earth.”

The Vision of Don Roderick.

ΤΟ

JOHN WHITMORE, Esq.

AND TO THE

COMMITTEE OF SUBSCRIBERS FOR RELIEF OF THE PORTUGUESE SUFFERERS,

IN WHICH HE PRESIDES,

THIS POEM,

(THE VISION OF DON RODERICK,)

COMPOSED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE FUND UNDER THEIR MANAGEMENT,'

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That clangs to Britain victory, to Portugal revenge! A Nation's choral hymn for tyranny o'erthrown.

1The letters of Scott to all his friends have sufficiently shown the unflagging interest with which, among all his personal labors and anxieties, he watched the progress of the great contest in the Peninsula. It was so earnest, that he never on any journey, not even in his very frequent passages between Edinburgh and Ashestiel, omitted to take with him the largest and best map he had been able to procure of the seat of war; upon this he was perpetually pouring, tracing the marches and counter-marches of the French and English by means of black and white pins; and not seldom did Mrs. Scott complain of this constant occupation of his attention and her carriage. In the beginning of 1811, a committee was formed in London to collect subscriptions for the relief of the Portuguese, who had seen their lands wasted, their vines torn up, and their houses burnt in the course of Massena's last unfortunate campaign; and Scott, on reading the advertisement, immediately addressed Mr. Whitmore, the chairman, begging that the committee would allow him to contribute to their fund the profits, to whatever they might amount, of a poem which he proposed to write upon a subject connected with the localities of the patriotic struggle. His offer was of course accepted; and THE VISION OF DON RODERICK was begun as soon as the Spring

vacation enabled him to retire to Ashestiel.

"The poem was published, in 4to, in July; and the imme diate proceeds were forwarded to the board in London. His friend the Earl of Dalkeith (afterwards Duke of Buccleuch) writes thus on the occasion:- Those with ampler fortunes and thicker heads may easily give one hundred guincas to a subscription, but the man is really to be envied who can draw that sum from his own brains, and apply the produce so beneficially and to so exalted a purpose.'"-Life of Scott, vol. iii. pp. 312, 315.

2 MS.-"Who sung the changes of the Phrygian jar." MS.-"Claiming thine ear 'twixt each loud trumpetchange."

"The too monotonous close of the stanza is sometimes diversified by the adoption of fourteen-foot verse,-a license in poetry which, since Dryden, has (we believe) been altogether abandoned, but which is nevertheless very deserving of revival, so long as it is only rarely and judiciously used. The very first stanza in this poem affords an instance of it; and, introduced thus in the very front of the battle, we cannot help cou sidering it as a fault, especially clogged as it is with the association of a defective rhyme-change, revenge.”—Critical Review, Aug. 1811.

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And, if the glow of feudal chivalry

Beam not, as once, thy nobles' dearest pride, Iberia! oft thy crestless peasantry

Have seen the plumed Hidalgo quit their side, Have seen, yet dauntless stood-'gainst fortune fought and died.

XII.

"And cherish'd still by that unchanging race,1 Are themes for minstrelsy more high than thine;

Of strange tradition many a mystic trace,
Legend and vision, prophecy and sign;
Where wonders wild of Arabesque combine

With Gothic imagery of darker shade, Forming a model meet for minstrel line. [said: Go, seek such theme!"-The Mountain Spirit With filial awe I heard--I heard, and I obey'd.2

The Vision of Don Roderick.

I.

REARING their crests amid the cloudless skies, And darkly clustering in the pale moonlight, Toledo's holy towers and spires arise,

As from a trembling lake of silver white. Their mingled shadows intercept the sight

Of the broad burial-ground outstretch'd below, And naught disturbs the silence of the night; All sleeps in sullen shade, or silver glow, All save the heavy swell of Teio's ceaseless flow."

II.

All save the rushing swell of Teio's tide,

Or, distant heard, a courser's neigh or tramp; Their changing rounds as watchful horsemen ride,

To guard the limits of King Roderick's camp. For, through the river's night-fog rolling damp, Was many a proud pavilion dimly seen,* Which glimmer'd back, against the moon's fair lamp,

1 MS." And lingering still 'mid that unchanging race." "The Introduction, we confess," says the Quarterly Reviewer, "does not please us so well as the rest of the poem, though the reply of the Mountain Spirit is exquisitely written." The Edinburgh critic, after quoting stanzas ix. x. and xi. says: The Introduction, though splendidly written, is too long for so short a poem; and the poet's dialogue with his native mountains is somewhat too startling and unnatural. The most spirited part of it, we think, is their direction to Spanish themes."

3 The Monthly Review, for 1811, in quoting this stanza, says--" Scarcely any poet, of any age or country, has excelled Mr. Scott in bringing before our sight the very scene which he is describing-in giving a reality of existence to every object on

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VI.

Full on the Prelate's face, and silver hair,

The stream of failing light was feebly roll'd:' But Roderick's visage, though his head was bare, Was shadow'd by his hand and mantle's fold. While of his hidden soul the sins he told,

Proud Alaric's descendant could not brook," That mortal man his bearing should behold, Or boast that he had seen, when Conscience shook, [look.3 Fear tame a monarch's brow, Remorse a warrior's

VII.

The old man's faded cheek wax'd yet more pale, As many a secret sad the King bewray'd; As sign and glance eked out the unfinish'd tale, When in the midst his faltering whisper staid. "Thus royal Witiza' was slain," he said; "Yet, holy Father, deem not it was I." Thus still Ambition strives her crimes to shade."Oh! rather deem 'twas stern necessity! Self-preservation bade, and I must kill or die.

VIII.

"And if Florinda's shrieks alarm'd the air,
If she invoked her absent sire in vain,
And on her knees implored that I would spare,
Yet, reverend priest, thy sentence rash refrain!
All is not as it seems-the female train

Know by their bearing to disguise their
mood:"-

But Conscience here, as if in high disdain, Sent to the Monarch's cheek the burning blood[stood. He stay'd his speech abrupt—and up the Prelate

1 MS.-"The feeble lamp in dying lustre

roll'd."

The waves of broken light were feebly MS. The haughty monarch's heart could evil brook." The Quarterly Reviewer says The moonlight scenery of the camp and burial-ground is evidently by the same powerful hand which sketched the Abbey of Melrose; and in this picture of Roderick's confession, there are traits of even a higher cast of sublimity and pathos."

The Edinburgh Reviewer introduces his quotations of the i. li. v. and vi, stanzas thus-"The poem is substantially divided into two compartments;-the one representing the fabuloes or prodigious acts of Don Roderick's own time, and the other the recent occurrences which have since signalized the same quarter of the world. Mr. Scott, we think, is most at home in the first of these fields; and we think, upon the whole, has most success in it. The opening affords a fine specimen of his unrivalled powers of description."

The reader may be gratified with having the following lines, from Mr. Southey's Roderick, inserted here :

"Then Roderick knelt

Before the holy man, and strove to speak:

'Thou seest,' he cried, thou seest'-but memory And suffocating thoughts represt the word,

And shudderings, like an ague fit, from head

To foot convulsed him: till at length, subduing

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His nature to the effort, he exclaim'd,

Spreading his hands, and lifting up his face,

As if resolved in penitence to bear

A human eye upon his shame-Thou seest
Roderick the Goth! That name should have sufficed

To tell the whole abhorred history:

He not the less pursued,-the ravisher,

The cause of all this ruin!'-Having said,

In the same posture motionless he knelt,

Arms straiten'd down, and hands outspread, and eyes
Raised to the Monk, like one who from his voice
Expected life or death."-

Mr. Southey, in a note to these lines, says, "The vision of Don Roderick supplies a singular contrast to the picture which is represented in this passage. I have great pleasure in quoting the stanzas (v. and vi.); if the contrast had been intentional, it could not have been more complete."

4 The predecessor of Roderick upon the Spanish throne, and slain by his connivance, as is affirmed by Rodriguez of Toledo, the father of Spanish history.

MS." He spare to smite the shepherd, lest the sheep b

lost."

MS." And guide me, prelate, to that secret room." 7 See Appendix, Note F.

MS." Or pause the omen of thy fate to weigh! Bethink, that brazen portal would afford."

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