II. 1.

"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.
Mark the year, and mark the night,
When Severn shall re-echo with affright

The shrieks of death through Berkley's roofs that ring,
Shrieks of an agonizing king!1

She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs,

That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled mate,
From thee3 be born who o'er thy country hangs

The scourge of heaven. What terrors round him wait!
Amazement in his van, with Flight combined,
And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.

II. 2.

"Mighty victor, mighty lord,

Low on his funeral couch he lies! 4
No pitying heart, no eye afford

A tear to grace his obsequies!

Is the sable warrior 5 fled?

Thy son is gone; he rests among the dead.

The swarm that in thy noontide beam were born?
Gone to salute the rising morn:

Fair laughs the morn 6, and soft the zephyr blows,
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;

1 Edward II.

2 Isabel of France, Edward II.'s adulterous queen.

3 Triumphs of Edward III. in France.

4 Death of that king abandoned by his children, and even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers.

5 Edward the Black Prince died some time before his father.

6 Magnificence of Richard II.'s reign.

7 Richard II. (as we are told by Archbishop Scroop, and the confederate Lords, in their manifesto, by Thomas of Walsingham, and all the older writers) was starved to death. The story of his assassination by St. Piers of Exon is of much later date.

Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast.
Close by a regal chair

Fell Thirst and Famine scowl

A baleful smile upon the baffled guest.
Heard ye the din of battle bray1,

Lance to lance and horse to horse?

Long years of havock urge their destined course,
And through the kindred squadrons mow their way.
Ye towers of Julius !2 London's lasting shame!
With many a foul and midnight murder fed,
Revere his consort's3 faith, his father's fame,
And spare the meek usurper's5 holy head.
Above, below, the Rose of snow,
Twined with her blushing foe, we spread;
The bristled Boar in infant gore

Wallows beneath the thorny shade.

Now, brothers! bending o'er the accursed loom,
Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom.

III. 1.

"Edward, lo! to sudden fate

(Weave we the woof; the thread is spun) Half of thy heart we consecrate;

(The web is wove; the work is done.")

Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn

Leave me unbless'd, unpitied here to mourn.

In yon bright tract, that fires the western skies,
They melt, they vanish from my eyes.

But oh! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height,
Descending slow, their glittering skirts unroll!
Visions of glory! spare my aching sight!
Ye unborn ages crowd not on my soul!

1 Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster.

2 Henry VI., George Duke of Clarence, Edward V., Richard Duke of York, &c., believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is attributed to Julius Cæsar.

3 Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit.

4 Henry V.

5 Henry VI. very near being canonised. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown.

6 The white and red Roses, devices of York and Lancaster.

7 The silver Boar was the badge of Richard III., whence he was usually known in his own time by the name of The Boar.

8 Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the conquest of Wales. The heroic proof she gave of her affection for her lord is well known. The monuments of his regret and sorrow for the loss of her are still to be seen at Northampton, Gaddington, Waltham, and Charing Cross; or the cross of chere reine, dear queen.

No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail:
All hail, ye genuine kings2, Britannia's issue, hail! 3

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,
Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face,
Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace.

What strings symphonious tremble in the air!
What strains of vocal transport round her play!
Hear from the grave, great Taliessin!+ 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.

'The verse adorn again

III. 3.

Fierce War, and faithful Love 5,

And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction dress'd.

In buskin'd measures move6

Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain,

With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast.
A voice as of the cherub-choir

Gales from blooming Eden bear,

8

And distant warblings lessen on my ear,

That lost in long futurity expire.

1 It was the common belief of the Welsh nation, that King Arthur was still alive in Fairyland, and should return again to reign over Britain.

2 Both Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied that the Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this island, which seemed to be accomplished in the House of Tudor.

3 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 tartness of her princelie checkes."

4 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.

5

Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralise my song.
Spenser's Fairy Queen.
7 Milton.

6 Shakspeare.

8 The succession of Poets after Milton's time.

Fond impious man! think'st thou yon sanguine cloud,
Raised 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

The different doom our Fates assign!
Be thine Despair and sceptred Care;
To triumph and to die are mine.'

He spoke, and, headlong from the mountain's height,
Deep, in the roaring tide, he plunged to endless night.

HENCE, loathed Melancholy 2,

Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born,
In Stygian cave forlorn,

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy!
Find out some uncouth cell,

Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,

And the night raven sings;

There under ebon shades, and low-brow'd rocks,

As ragged as thy locks,

In dark Cimmerian5 desert ever dwell.

But come, thou goddess fair and free,

In heav'n yclep'd Euphrosyne,

But by men, heart-easing Mirth;

Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee

Jest, and youthful jollity,

Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles,

Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles,

Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek;
Sport that wrinkled Care derides,
And Laughter holding both his sides.
Come, and trip it, as you go,
On the light fantastic toe;

And in thy right hand lead with thee

The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty;

L'Allegro, an Italian word, the cheerful man. Milton was an excellent Italian scholar, and wrote poems in that language.

2 The reader will remark the playful exaggeration of these introductory

verses.

3 Cerberus, the fabulous three-headed dog of Orcus, i. e. the nether world. 4 Stygian, the Styx, a fabulous river in Orcus.

5 The Cimmerians, a northern people, the same as the Cimbri, or Cwmry, supposed by the Greeks to inhabit regions of perpetual darkness.

6 Ycleped, called: y an obsolete prefix to the participle,

7 Euphrosyne, Greek, cheerfulness, mirth.

8 Hebe, youth.

D