THE BARD. A PINDARIC ODE. This Ode is founded on a tradition current in Wales, that Edward the First, when he completed the conquest of that country, ordered all the Bards that fell into his hands to be put to death. GRAY. I. 1. "RUIN seize thee, ruthless King!* Tho' fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing, Nor e'en thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail 5 NOTES. * It is the opening of this poem, that the Ode by Soame Jenyns, on a 'Giant run mad with disappointment in Love and Ambition,' is meant to ridicule. See his Poems, p. 118. Park's ed. Ver. 3. Tho' fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing] "Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky, And fan our people cold." Macbeth, act i. sc. 2. Ver. 4. They mock the air with idle state] Mocking the air with colours idly spread." Shakspeare's King John. GRAY. Ver. 5. Helm, nor hauberk's twisted mail] The hauberk was a texture of steel ringlets, or rings interwoven, forming a coat of mail that sat close to the body, and adapted itself to every motion. GRAY. To save thy secret soul from nightly fears, He wound with toilsome march his long array. Stout Glo'ster stood aghast in speechless trance: 10 "To arms!” cried Mortimer, and couch'd his quiv'ring lance. NOTES. "Hawberks and helms are hew'd with many a wound," Dryden's Palamon and Arcite, lib. iii. ver. 1879. Fairfax, in his Translation of Tasso, has joined these words in many places: As canto vii. 38: "Now at his helm, now at his hawberk bright." See also p. 193, 199, 299, of the folio edition of 1624. Ver. 9. That o'er the crested pride] "The crested adder's pride." Dryden's Indian Queen. GRAY. Ver. 11. Of Snowdon's shaggy side] Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that mountainous tract which the Welsh themselves call Craigian-eryri: it included all the highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire, as far east as the river Conway. R. Hygden, speaking of the castle of Conway, built by King Edward the First, says, "Ad ortum amnis Conway ad clivum montis Erery;" and Matthew of Westminster, (ad ann. 1283) "Apud Aberconway ad pedes montis Snowdoniæ fecit erigi castrum forte." GRAY. The epithet "shaggy," applied to "Snowdon's side," is highly appropriate, as Leland says that great woods clothed the different parts of the mountain in his time: see Itin. v. 45. Dyer, in his Ruins of Rome, p. 137: << as Britannia's oaks On Merlin's mount, or Snowdon's rugged sides, Stand in the clouds." Ver. 13. Stout Glo'ster] Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, earl of Gloucester and Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward. GRAY. Ver. 14. "To arms!" cried Mortimer] Edmond de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore. GRAY. They both were Lord Marchers, whose lands lay on the borders of Wales, and probably accompanied the king in this expedition. GRAY. I. 2. On a rock, whose haughty brow Robed in the sable garb of woe, 15 (Loose his beard, and hoary hair Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air) 20 And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire, Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre. NOTES. Ver. 15. On a rock, whose haughty brow] So Homer, Il. T. ver. 151: 'Er' öpgúci xaλλxons. And Mosch. Id. ii. 48: 'Em' doguos alyiancio. Ap. Rhod. i. ver. 178. St. Luke, iv. 29. And Virg. Georg. i. 108: "Ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis." W. Ver. 17. Robed in the sable garb of woe] "Perpetuo marore, et nigra veste senescant," Juvenal. Sat. x. 245. W. Also Propertius, Eleg. IV. vii. 28: "Atram quis lacrimis incaluisse togam." Ver. 19. Loose his beard, and hoary hair] The image was taken from a well-known picture of Raphael, representing the Supreme Being in the vision of Ezekiel. There are two of these paintings, both believed to be originals, one at Florence, the other in the Duke of Orleans' collection at Paris. GRAY. Ver. 20. Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air] "Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind." Par. Lost, i. ver. 535. W. "Her fair yellow locks behind her flew, All as a blazing star doth far outcast His hairy beams and flaming locks disperst." Spenser. The comparison of hair to a meteor, or comet, is not uncommon in poetry. See Hudi bras, Pt. I. cant. i. ver.247: "His tawny beard was th' equal grace Both of his wisdom and his face. This hairy meteor did denounce 66 Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert-cave, 25 Also in his Remains *, p. 135: NOTES. "Which holy vow he firmly kept: And most devoutly wore A grisly meteor on his face." Mr. Todd mentions a passage very similar to the one in the text: "The circumference of his snowy beard like the streaming rays of a meteor appeared," Persian Tales of Inatulla, vol. ii. p. 41. This image is often used metaphorically, as Statii Theb. iii. 332. And see Manilii Astron. i. 836. Ford, in his Perkin Warbeck, p. 25, ed. Weber: Milton has applied it very beautifully to the long streaks of light that appear near the horizon, at the break of the morning: "Love-darting eyes, and tresses like the morn," Comus, ver. 753. Ver. 27. Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day] See some observations on the poetical and proper use of "vocal," as used by Gray in this place, in Huntingford's Apolog. for the Monosh. p. 31. Ver. 28. To high-born Hoel's harp +] Hoel is called high-born, being the son of Owen. * Is there not a curious similarity between a passage in the will of Burke, and one in the mock will of Lord Pembroke in Butler's Remains? "I desire (says Burke) that no monument, beyond a middle-sized tablet, with a small and simple inscription on the church wall, or on the flag-stone, be erected. But I have had in my life-time but too much of noise and compliment." Burke's Will, in Bisset's Life, p. 578. But all my My will is that I have no monument, for then I must have epitaphs and verses. life long I have had but too much of them." Lord Pembroke's Will. Butler's Remains, p. 281. ↑ Hoel's Harp] This passage is copied by Lovibond, in his Complaint of Cambria: "Revere thy Cambria's flowing tongue, VOL. I. Tho' high-born Hoel's lips be dumb; H I. S. "Cold is Cadwallo's tongue, That hush'd the stormy main: Brave Urien sleeps upon Mountains, ye mourn in vain 30 bed: NOTES. Gwynedd, prince of North Wales, by Finnog an Irish damsel. He was one of his father's generals in his wars against the English, Flemings, and Normans, in South Wales; and was a famous bard, as his poems that are extant, testify. See Evans's Specimens, p. 26, 4to. ; and Jones's Relics, vol. ii. p. 36, who says that he wrote eight pieces, five of which are translated by him in his interesting publication. The whole are given in Mr. Owen's translation in Mr. Southey's Madoc, vol. ii. p. 162: and his Lay of Love' sounds sweetly in the numbers of the latter bard. See Madoc, xiv. 136. Ver. 28. Soft Llewellyn's lay] In a Poem to Llewellyn, by Einion the son of Guigan, a similar epithet is given to him (p. 22): "Llewellyn is a tender-hearted prince." And in another Poem to him, by Llywarch Brydydd y Moch (p. 32): "Llewellyn, though in battle he killed with fury, though he burnt like an outrageous fire, yet was a mild prince when the mead horns were distributed." Also in an Ode to him by Llygard Gwr (p. 39), he is called "Llewellyn the mild, and prosperous governor of Gwynedd." Llewellyn's 'soft Lay' is given by Jones in his Relics, vol. ii. p. 64. Ver. 29. Cold is Cadwallo's tongue] Cadwallo and Urien are mentioned by Dr. Evans in his Dissertatio de Bardis,' p. 78, among those bards of whom no works remain. Modred is, I suppose, the famous " Myrddin ab Morvryn," called Merlin the Wild; a disciple of Taliessin, and bard to the Lord Gwenddolaw ab Ceidiaw. He fought under King Arthur in 542 at the battle of Camlau, and accidentally slew his own nephew. He was reckoned a truer prophet, than his predecessor the great magician Merdhin Ambrose. See a poem of his called the Orchard' in Jones's Relics, vol. i. p. 24. I suppose Gray altered the name ( euphoniæ gratia;' as I can no where find a bard mentioned of the name of 'Modred.' Ver. 30. That hush'd the stormy main] "Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song." Mids. N. Dream, act ii. sc. 2. W. Cadwaller's harp no more is strung, And silence sits on soft Llewellyn's tongue." Chalmers's Poets, vol. xvi. p. 295. |