Yet ah! why should they know their fate? .Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies. Thought would destroy their Paradise No more; where ignorance is bliss, "Tis folly to be wise. THE BARD. A PINDARIO ODE. "RUIN seize thet, ruthless king! To save thy secret soul from nightly fears, On a rock, whose haughty brow Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood, With haggard eyes the poet stood; (Loose his beard, and hoary hair "Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert cave, To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay. No more I weep. They do not sleep. Avengers of their native land: II. 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, ring,* Shrieks of an agonizing king; Revere his consort's* faith, his father'st fame Triumphs of Edward the Third in France. & Death of that king, abandoned by his children, and even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and his mistress. Edward the Black Prince, dead some time before his father. Now, brothers, bending o'er th' accursed loom, III. "Edward, lo! to sudden fate (Weave we the woof. The thread is spun.) "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 ; * Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown. Henry the Fifth. Henry the Sixth, very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown. § The white and red roses, devices of York and Lan. caster. The silver-boar was the badge of Richard the Third; whence he was usually known in his own time by the name of The Boar. ¶ 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, Geddington, Waltham, and other places. ** It was the common belief of the Welsh nation, that King Arthur was still alive in Fairy-land, and should re. turn again to reign over Britain. Both Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied, that the Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this island; Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster. ** Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward which seemed to be accomplished in the house of Tudor the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, &c. believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Cæsar. 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. THE DESCENT OF ODIN. AN ODE. [From the same.] IN BARTHOLINUS, DE CAUSIS CONTEMNENDE MORTIS: HAFNIE, 1689, QUARTO. Upreis Odinn allda gautr, &c. UPROSE the King of Men with speed, . And saddled straight his coal-black steed; His shaggy throat he open'd wide, (The groaning Earth beneath him shakes,) Till full before his fearless eyes The portals nine of Hell arise. Right against the eastern gate, Pr. What call unknown, what charms presume, To break the quiet of the tomb? Who is he, with voice unblest, That calls me from the bed of rest? O. A traveller, to thee unknown, Is he that calls, a warrior's son. Pr. Mantling in the goblet see O. Once again my call obey, What danger Odin's child await, Pr. In Hoder's hand the hero's doom: O. Prophetess, my spell obey: Once again arise, and say, Who th' avenger of his guilt, By whom shall Hoder's blood be spilt! Pr. In the caverns of the west, By Odin's fierce embrace comprest, A wondrous boy shall Rinda bear, Who ne'er shall comb his raven-hair, Nor wash his visage in the stream, Nor see the Sun's departing beam: Till he on Hoder's corse shall smile, Flaming on the funeral pile. Now my weary lips I close: Leave me, leave me, to repose. O. Yet awhile my call obey, Prophetess, awake, and say, What virgins these, in speechless woe, That bend to earth their solemn brow, That their flaxen tresses tear, And snowy veils, that float in air. Tell me whence their sorrows rose. Then I leave thee to repose. Pr. Ha! no traveller art thou, King of Men, I know thee now, Mightiest of a mighty line. O. No boding maid of skill divine Art thou, nor prophetess of good; But mother of the giant-brood! Pr. Hie thee hence, and boast at home, Till Lokt has burst his ten-fold chain. THE TRIUMPHS OF OWEN.‡ A FRAGMENT. FROM MR. EVANS'S SPECIMENS OF THE WELSII POETRY; LONDON, 1764, QUARTO. OWEN's praise demands my song, Lok is the evil being, who continues in chains till the twilight of the gods approaches, when he shall break his bonds; the human race, the stars, and Sun, shall disappear; the earth sink in the seas, and fire consume the skies: even Odin himself and his kindred deities shall perish. For a further explanation of this mythology, see Mallet's Introduction to the History of Denmark, 1755, quarto. • Niflheimr, the Hell of the Gothic nations, consisted Owen succeeded his father Griffin in the principality of nine worlds, to which were devoted all such as died of of North Wales, A. D. 112. This battle was fought near sickness, old age, or by any other means than in battle: forty years afterwards. over it presided Hela, the goddess of death. § North Wales. He nor neaps his brooded stores, Dauntless on his native sands The dragon-sont of Mona standr; • Denmark. The red dragon is the device of Cadwallader, which all his descendants bore on their banners. In glittering arms and glory drest, |