"Ye Tow'rs of Julius*, London's lasting shame, "With many, a foul and midnight murther fed, "Revere his + Confort's faith, his Father's ‡ fame, "And spare the meek || Ufurper's holy head. "Above, below, the $rofe of snow, "Twin'd with her blushing foe, we spread : "The briftled ¶ Boar, in infant gore, "Wallows beneath the thorny fhade. "Now, *Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, &c. believed to be murthered fecretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Cæfar. + Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who ftruggled hard to fave 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 rofes, devices of York and Lancaster. ¶ The filver Boar was the badge of Richard the Third; whence he was ufually known in his own time by the name of the Boar. "Now, Brothers, bending o'er th' accurfed loom, "Stamp we our vengeance deep; and ratify his doom. III. 1. "Edward, lo! to fudden fate "(Weave we the woof. The thread is spun) "Half of thy heart we consecrate. 66 (The web is wove. The work is done.)" "Stay, oh ftay! nor thus forlorn "Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn : In yon bright track, that fires the western skies, "They melt, they vanish from my eyes. "But, * Eleanor of Caftile died a few years after the conqueft of Wales. The heroic proof she gave of her affection for her Lord is well known. The monuments of his regret, and forrow for the lofs of her, are ftill to be feen at Northampton, Geddington, Waltham, and other places. E But, oh! what folemn fcenes on Snowdon's height "Descending flow their glitt'ring skirts unroll? "Vifions of glory, fpare my aching fight, "Ye unborn Ages, crowd not on my foul! "No more our long-loft * Arthur we bewail. "All-hail, ye genuine Kings, Britannia's Iffue hail! III. 2. "Girt with many a Baron bold, Sublime their ftarry fronts they rear; "And gorgeous Dames, and Statesmen old "In bearded majefty, appear. " In * It was the common belief of the Welfh nation, that King Arthur was ftill alive in Fairyland, and fhould return again to reign over Bri tain. + Both Merlin and Talieffin had prophefied, that the Welch fhould regain their fovereignty over this island; which feemed to be accomplished in the House of Tudor. "In the midft a Form divine! "Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line; "Her lyon-port*, her awe-commanding face, "Attemper'd fweet to virgin-grace. "What strings fymphonious tremble in the air, "What strains of vocal transport round her play! "Hear from the grave, great Taliesfint, hear; "They breathe a foul to animate thy clay. "Bright rapture calls, and foaring as fhe fings, "Waves in the eye of Heav'n her many-colour'd wings. The * Speed, relating an audience given by Queen Elizabeth to Paul Dzialinski, Ambassadour of Poland, fays, "And thus fhe, lion-like rifing, "daunted the malapert Orator no less with her "ftately port and majestical deporture, than with "the tartneffe of her princelie checkes." + Talieffin, Chief of the Bards, flourished in the VIth Century. His works are ftill preserved, and his memory held in high veneration among his Countrymen. E 2 |