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"With me in dreadful harmony they join, "And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy " line (q)."

II. 1.

"Weave the warp, and weave the woof [15], "The winding-sheet of Edward's race [16]. "Give ample room, and verge enough "The characters of hell to trace.

(9) And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line.
See the Norwegian ode [The Fatal Sisters] hereafter.

[15] The Critic before-mentioned asks," Can there be an image more "just, apposite, and nobly imagined than this tremendous tragical "winding-sheet?" In the rest of this stanza the wildness of thought, expression, and cadence, are admirably adapted to the character and situation of the speaker, and of the bloody spectres his assistants. It is not indeed peculiar to it alone, but a beauty that runs throughout the whole composition, that the historical events are briefly sketched out by a few striking circumstances, in which the Poet's office of rather exciting and directing, than satisfying the reader's imagination, is perfectly observed. Such abrupt hints, resembling the several fragments of a vast ruin, suffer not the mind to be raised to the utmost pitch, by one image of horror, but that instantaneously a second and a third are presented to it, and the affection is still uniformly supported.

[16] Dr. Johnson, in his spleen against our Poet, descends to a mean witticism: "Gray (says he) has made weavers of slaughtered bards. "They are then called upon to 'weave the warp, and weave the woof,' "perhaps with no great propriety; for it is by crossing the woof with "the warp that men weave the web or piece." We know not where Johnson acquired his knowledge of the weaving trade; but if our information be correct, the Critic has made a mistake, for it is by the woof's being thrown across the warp, that the manufacture is formed.

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

"The shrieks of death, thro' Berkley's roof that "ring,

"Shrieks of an agonizing King (r)!

"She-wolf of France (s), with unrelenting " fangs,

"That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled Mate, "From thee be born (t), who o'er thy country

" hangs

"The scourge of Heaven. What Terrors round " him wait!

"Amazement in his van, with Flight combin'd, "And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.

II. 2.

"Mighty Victor, mighty Lord, "Low on his funeral couch he lies (u)!

(r) Shrieks of an agonizing King!

Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkley-castle.

(s) She-wolf of France

Isabel of France, Edward the Second's adulterous Queen.

(t) From thee be born, &c.

Triumphs of Edward the Third in France.

(u) Low on his funeral couch he lies.

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

"No pitying heart, no eye, afford "A tear to grace his obsequies.

"Is the sable Warrior fled (r) ?

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Thy son is gone. He rests among the Dead. "The Swarm, that in thy noon-tide beam were

"born?

"Gone to salute the rising Morn.

"Fair laughs the Morn (y), and soft the Zephyr "blows [17],

"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 even❝ing-prey.

(x) Is the sable warrior fled?

Edward the Black Prince, dead some time before his father.

(y) Fair laughs the Morn, &c.

Magnificence of Richard the Second's reign. See Froissard and other contemporary writers.

[17] This, and the five lines that follow, convey, perhaps, the most beautiful piece of imagery in the whole Poem.

II. 3.

"Fill high the sparkling bowl (z),

"The rich repast prepare,

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

"Fell Thirst and Famine scowl

"A baleful smile upon their baffled Guest. "Heard ye the din of battle bray (a),

"Lance to lance, and horse to horse?

"Long years of havock urge their destin'd

" course,

"And thro' the kindred squadrons mow their "way [18].

(z) Fill high the sparkling bowl.

Richard the Second, 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 Sir Piers of Exton, is of much later date.

(a) Heard ye the din of battle bray?

Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster.

[18] This Stanza (as an anonymous writer remarks) has exceeding merit. It breathes in a lesser compass what the Ode breathes at large, the high spirit of Lyric Enthusiasm. The Transitions are sudden and impetuous; the Language full of fire and force; and the Imagery carried, without impropriety, to the most daring height. The manner of Richard's death, by Famine, exhibits such beauties of Personification, as only the richest and most vivid Imagination could supply. From

"Ye Tow'rs of Julius (b), London's lasting

66 shame,

"With many a foul and midnight murder fed, "Revere his Consort's faith (c), his father's

" fame (d),

"And spare the meek Usurper's holy head (e).

thence we are hurried, with the wildest rapidity, into the midst of Battle; and the epithet kindred, places at once before our eyes all the peculiar horrors of Civil War. Immediately, by a transition most striking and unexpected, the Poet falls into a tender and pathetic Address; which, from the sentiments, and also from the numbers, has all the melancholy flow, and breathes all the plaintive softness, of Elegy. Again the Scene changes; again the Bard rises into an allegorical description of Carnage, to which the metre is admirably adapted and the concluding Sentence of personal punishment on Edward is denounced with a solemnity that chills and terrifies.

(b) Ye tow'rs of Fulius.

Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward 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.

(c) Revere his consort's faith

Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown.

Henry the Fifth.

(d)

his father's fame.

(e) And spare the meek usurper's holy head.

Henry the Sixth, very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown.

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