Lo! in the vale of years, beneath, A grisly troop are seen, The painful family of Death, More hideous than their Queen: This racks the joints, this fires the veins, To each his sufferings: all are men, The tender for another's pain, Th' unfeeling for his own. Yet, ah! why should they know their fate? 3) THE BAR D. (A Pindaric Ode.) I. I. ,,Ruin seize thee, ruthless king *)! " " Confusion on thy banners wait, Tho' fann'd by conquest's crimson wing, They mock the air with idle state. ,, Helm, nor hauberks 2) twisted mail, Nor e'en thy virtues, tyrant, shall avail To save thy secret soul from nightly fears, ,,From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears!" Such were the sounds, that o'er the crested pride Of the first Edward scatter'd wild dismay, As down the steep of Snowdon's ') shaggy side 1) Edward the first, when he compleated the conquest of Wa les, ordered all the Bards that fell into his hands to be put to death. 2) A texture of steel ringlets forming a coat of mail, that sat close to the body, and adapted itself to every motion. 3) A name given by the Saxons to that mountainous tract, which He wound with toilsome march his long array. Stout Glo'ster *) stood aghast in speechless trance: 1. 2. On a rock, whose haughty brow Frown's o'er old Conway's foaming flood, With huggard eyes the Poet stood; (Loose his beard, and hoary hair Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air) „Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert cave, " Sighs to the torrents awful voice beneath! „O'er thee, oh king! their hundred arms they weave, ,,Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe; "Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day, " To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay. stormy main: ,,Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed: ,, Mountains, ye mourn in vain ,,Modred, whose magic song ,,Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-top'd head. the Welsh themselves call Craigian-eryri. It included all the Highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire as far as east the river Conway. *) Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward, and Edmond de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore; they both were LordMarchers, who probably accompanied the king in his expedition. 5) The shores of Caernarvonshire opposite to the isle of Anglesey. 6) 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 Craigian-eryri, or the crags of the eagles. At this day, (I am told) the highest point of Snowdon is called the Eagle's Nest. Dear, as the light that visits these sad eyes, ,,Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart, Ye died amidst your dying country's cries ,,No more I weep. They do not sleep. ,,On yonder cliffs, a griesly band, ,,I see them sit, they linger yet, ,, Avengers of their native land: ,,With me in dreadful harmony they join, And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line." ,,Weave the warp, and weafe the woof, ,,The winding-sheet of Edward's race, دو Give ample room, and verge enough The characters of hell to trace. Mark the year, and mark the night, ,, When Severn 7) shall re-echo with affright, " The shrieks of death, through Berkeley's roofs that ring: Shrieks of an agonizing king! ,, She-wolf) of France, with unrelenting fangs, " That tears the bowels of thy mangled mate, ,,From thee be born 9), 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." II. 2. Mighty Victor, mighty Lord, Low 10) on his funeral couch he lies! ,,No pitying heart, no eye afford , A tear to grace his obsequies. ,, Is the sable warrior 11) fled? Thy son 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 12), and soft the Zephyr blows, 7) Edward the second, cruelly butchered in Berkeley - Castle. 8) Isabel of France, Edward the second's adulterous queen. 7) Triumphs of Edward the third in France. 10) Death of that king. abandoned by his children, and even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and his mistress. 1) Edward the black prince, dead some time before his father. 12) Magnificence of Richard the second's reign. See Froissard and other contemporary writers. While proudly riding o'er the azure realm ,,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. 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 13) scowl „A baleful smile upon their baffled guest. the din of battle 14) bray, Lance to lance, and horse to horse? ,,Long years ,,And through the kindred squadrons mow their way. ,,Above, below, the 19) rose of snow, ,, Wallows beneath the thorny shade. ,,Now, brothers, bending o'er th' accursed loom, " 22 III. I. Eduard, lo! to sudden fate (Weave we the woof. The thread is spun.) ,,Half 21) of thy heart we consecrate. 13) Richard the second was starved to death. 1+)-Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster. 15) Henry the sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edwarth the fifth etc., believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London, the oldest part of which is vulgarly attributed to Julius Cæsar. 16) Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown. 17) Henry the fifth. 18) Henry the sixth, very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown. 19) The white and red roses, devices of York and Lancaster. 20) The silver-boar was the badge of Richard the third, whence he was usually known by the name of the Boar. 21) Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the ,,(The web is wove. The work is done.) Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn ,, Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn: But oh! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height ,Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul! ,,No more our long-lost Arthur 22) we bewail. Girt with many a baron bold ,, Sublime their starry fronts they rear. rear; ,,And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old ,,In bearded majesty, appear. ,,In the midst a form divine! ,, Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line; ,,What strings symphonious tremble in the air, What strains of vocal transport round her play! ,,Hear from the grave, great Taliessin 25), hear; ,,They breathe a soul to animate thy clay, ,, Bright rapture calls, and soaring, as she sings, Waves in the eye of heaven her many-colour'd wings. Fierce war, and faithful love, ,,And truth severe, by fairy fiction drest. ,,In buskin'd 2) measures move Conquest of Wales. The heroic proof she gave of her affection for her Lord is well known, The monuments of his regret, an sorrow for the loss of her, are still to be seen at Northampton Geddington, Waltham and other places. 22) It was a conmon belief of the Welsh nation, that king Arthur was still alive in Fairyland, and should return again to reign over Britain. Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied, that the Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this island, which seemed to be sc complished in the house of Tudor. 24) Queen Elizabeth. Taliessin, Chief of the Bards flourish'd in the VIth Century. 26) Shakspeare. 21. |