109 No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail. 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! Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line; Var. V. 109, 110. No more our long-lost, &c.] 115 "From Cambria's thousand hills a thousand strains Triumphant tell aloud, another Arthur reigns." MS. V. 111, 112. Girt with, &c.] "Youthful knights, and barons bold With dazzling helm, and horrent spear." MS. V. 114. It has been remarked that there is an inaccuracy in this expression, as the Bard, whose own beard is compared to a meteor, would not be struck with the dignity of the short curled beards of Elizabeth's days. See Selections from Gentleman's Magazine, vol. ii. p. 237. V. 116. So Peacham, in his 'Period of Mourning,' p. 16, speaking of Elizabeth: "Where when I saw that brow, that cheeke, that eye Wakefield quotes a stanza from Spenser. Hobbinol's Dittie, in praise of Eliza: "Tell me, have ye seene her angelike face, Like Phoebe fayre ! Her heavenly haveour, her princely grace Can you well compare ? The redde rose medled, with the white yfere In either cheek depeincten lively chere; Her modest eye, Her majestye, When have you seene the like but there ?" England's Helicon, p. 13; and Spenser. ed. Todd, i. 64; and the note of T. Warton. Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face, What strings symphonious tremble in the air, Var. V. 117. Her, her] A, an. мs. V. 117. Speed, relating an audience given by Queen Elizabeth to Paul Dzialinski, ambassador of Poland, says, "And thus she, lion-like rising, daunted the malapert orator no less with her stately port and majestical deporture, than with the tartnesse of her princelie checkes." Gray. See Puttenham, Engl. Poesy, iii. c. 24. p. 249, quoted by Dr. Nott on Surrey, vol. p. 307. See Ellis's Lett. on Engl. Histy. iii. 41: a copy of this speech is in MS. Landsdowne, No. 94, art. 50. V. 121. 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. Gray. On his supposed sepulchre, see Wyndham. Tour in Wales, p. 100. See Evans. Spec. p. 18, who says, "Taliessin's poems, on account of their great antiquity, are very obscure." There is a great deal of the Druidical cabala introduced in his works, especially about the transmigration of souls. Evans says that he had fifty of Taliessin's poems, and that many spurious ones are attributed to him. At p. 56, Evans has translated one of his odes, beginning "Fair Elphin, cease to weep; comforting his friend on his bad success in the salmon-fishery. There is a fuller account of him in Jones. Relics, vol. i. p. 18, 21. vol. ii. p. 12, 19, 31, 34, where many of his poems are translated; and Pennant's Wales, vol. ii. p. 316; and Turner's Vind. of the Ancient British Poems, p. 225, 237. V. 123. From Congreve. Ode to Lord Godolphin, st. vi.: "And soars with rapture while she sings." وو V. 124. "It was as glorious as the eye of Heaven." Cowley. Add Warton. note to Milton, p. 87. "Interest that waves on III. 3. “The verse adorn again Fierce war, and faithful love, And truth severe, by fairy fiction drest. In buskin'd measures move With horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. Gales from blooming Eden bear; And distant warblings lessen on my ear, 125 130 party-colour'd wings." Pope. Dunc. iv. 538. And, "Colours that change where'er they wave their wings." Rape of the Lock, ii. 68. Wakefield cites the Tempest, act iv. sc. 1: Hail, many-colour'd messenger." See Milt. Par. L. vii. 641: "Wings he wore of many a colour'd plume." "Her angel's face As the great eye of Heaven shined bright." Spenser. F. Q. cant. iii. Ovid. Met. iv. 228. "Mundi oculus." And Milton. Il Pens. ver. 141: "Hide me from day's garish eye." Par. Lost, b. v. ver. 171: "Thou sun of this great world, both eye and soul." Shakesp. Rich. II. act iii. sc. 2: "The searching eye of Heaven is hid." V. 126. "Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralize my song." Spenser. Proëme to the F. Q. ray. V. 127. "Truth, Wisdom, Sanctitude severe and pure." V. 128. Shakespeare. Gray. kined stage." Milt. Il Pens. 102. Luke. "Ennobled hath the bus V. 129. F. Queen, vi. c. 9. s. x. "With sweet pleasing payne." ." Dryden. Virg. Ecl. iii. 171. 66 Pleasing pains of love." Luke. V. 130. "Imaginative woe my throbbing breast inspires." Thomson. V. 133. The succession of poets after Milton's time. Gray. Fond impious man, think'st thou yon sanguine cloud, 135 Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day? To-morrow he repairs the golden flood, And warms the nations with redoubled ray. Enough for me; with joy I see V. 135. This apostrophe with its imagery seems taken from Vida: "Impie, quid furis? Tene putas posse illustres abscondere cœli Auricomi flammas, ipsumque extinguere solem? Forsitan humentem nebulam proflare, brevemque Lampas; et aurifluâ face, nubila differet omnia." "Think ye the smoky mist Of sun-boil'd seas can stop the eagle's eye?" but a closer coincidence is in Dekker's Play, "If this be not a good play," &c. p. 73. "Think'st thou, base lord, Because the glorious sun behind black clouds Has awhile hid his beams, he's darken'd for ever, V. 137. "And yet anon repairs his drooping head." Lycidas, 169. "So soon repairs her light, trebling her new-born raies," Fletcher. Purple Island, vi. 64. "That never could he hope his waning to repaire," Ib. st. 70. Add Hor. Od. iv. 7. 13. "Damna tamen celeres reparant cœlestia lunæ.” Lucret. v. 733, On the Moon, "Atque alia illius reparari in parte locoque." Young. N. Thoughts, "A golden flood of endless day." Luke. V. 141. There is a passage in the Thebaid of Statius, iii. 81, similar to this, describing a bard who had survived his companions: "Sed jam nudaverat ensem Magnanimus vates, et nunc trucis ora tyranni, Nunc ferrum aspectans, nunquam tibi sanguinis hujus The diff'rent doom our fates assign. Be thine despair, and sceptred care; To triumph, and to die, are mine." 140 He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height Deep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless night.* Jus erit, aut magno feries imperdita Tydeo Compare also the conclusion of the first Olymp. of Pindar, ver. 184, which Gray seems to have had in his mind: Εἴη σὲ τε τοῦτον Ὑψοῦ χρόνον πατεῖν, ἐμέ Τε τοσσάδε νικαφόροις This similarity has apparently struck the author of the late Translations, as I judge by his language: v. R. Heber. Poems, P. 94. V. 143. "Medias præceps tunc fertur in undas, Lucan. ix. 122. 66 Præceps aerii specula de montis in undas, Deferar; extremum hoc munus morientis habeto," Virg. Ecl. viii. 58. * The original argument of this ode, as Mr. Gray had set it down in one of the pages of his common-place book, was as follows: "The army of Edward I., as they march through a deep valley, (and approach Mount Snowdon, Ms.) are suddenly stopped by the appearance of a venerable figure seated on the summit of an inaccessible rock, who, with a voice more than human, reproaches the king with all the misery and desolation (desolation and misery, Ms.) which he had brought on his country; foretells the misfortunes of the Norman race, and with prophetic spirit declares, that all his cruelty shall never extinguish the noble ardour of poetic genius in this island; and that men shall never be wanting to celebrate true virtue and valour in immortal strains, to expose vice and infamous pleasure, and boldly censure tyranny and oppression. His E |