Page No. Black Prince (5) of Richard II, with the wars of York and Lancaster, the murder of Henry VI (the meek usurper), and of Edward V and his brother (6). He turns to the glory and prosperity following the accession of the Tudors (7), through Elizabeth's reign (8): and concludes with a vision of the poetry of Shakespeare and Milton. 136 CXXIII l. 13 Glo'ster: Gilbert de Clare, son-in-law to Edward. Mortimer, one of the Lords Marchers of Wales. 137 138 139 1. 21 Arvon: the shores of Carnarvonshire opposite Anglesey. 1. 9 She-wolf: Isabel of France, adulterous Queen of Edward II. 1.7 Towers of Julius: the Tower of London, built in part, according to tradition, by Julius Caesar. L. 13 bristled boar: the badge of Richard III. L. 19 Half of thy heart: Queen Eleanor died soon after the conquest of Wales. L. 29 Arthur: Henry VII named his eldest son thus, in deference to British feeling and legend. 141 CXXV The Highlanders called the battle of Culloden, Drumossie. 142 CXXVI lilting, singing blithely: loaning, broad lane: bughts, pens scorning, rallying: dowie, dreary: daffin' and gabbin', joking and chatting: leglin, milkpail: shearing, reaping bandsters, sheaf-binders: lyart, grizzled runkled, wrinkled: fleeching, coaxing: gloaming, twilight bogle, ghost: dool, sorrow. 144 CXXVIII The Editor has found no authoritative text of this poem, in his judgment superior to any other of its class in melody and pathos. Part is probably not later than the seventeenth century: in other stanzas a more modern hand, much resembling Scott's, is traceable. Logan's poem (cxxvII) exhibits a knowledge rather of the old legend than of the old verses. Hecht, promised: the obsolete hight: mavis, thrush: ilka, every : lav'rock, lark: haughs, valley-meadows: twined, parted from: marrow, mate: syne, then. 146 CXXIX The Royal George, of 108 guns, whilst undergoing a partial careening in Portsmouth Harbour, was overset about 10 A.M. Aug. 29, 1782. The total loss was believed to be near 1000 souls. Page No. 143 CXXXI A little masterpiece in a very difficult style: Catullus himself could hardly have bettered it. In grace, tenderness, simplicity, and humour it is worthy of the Ancients; and even more so, from the completeness and unity of the picture presented. 154 CXXXVI Perhaps no writer who has given such strong proo's of the poetic nature has left less satisfactory poetry than Thomson. Yet he touched little which he did not beautify and this song, with 'Rule Britannia' and a few others, must make us regret that he did not more seriously apply himself to lyrical writing. 156 CXL 157 158 160 - I. 1 Aeolian lyre: the Greeks ascribed the origin of their Lyrical Poetry to the colonies of Aeolis in Asia Minor. 1. 15 Thracia's hills: supposed a favourite resort of Mars. Feather'd king (1. 19) the Eagle of Jupiter, admirably described by Pindar in a passage here imitated by Gray. Idalia (1. 25) in Cyprus, where Cytherea (Venus) was especially worshipped. 1. 18 Hyperion: the Sun. St. 6-8 allude to the Poets of the Islands and Mainland of Greece, to those of Rome and of England. 1. 15 Theban Eagle: Pindar. 163 CXLI 1. 11 chaste-eyed Queen: Diana. 164 CXLII Attic warbler: the nightingale. 167 CXLIV sleekit, sleek: bickering brattle, flittering flight : laith, loth: pattle, ploughstaff: whyles, at times: a daimen icker, a corn-ear now and then thrave, shock lave, rest: foggage, aftergrass: snell, biting: but hald, without dwelling-place: thole, bear: cranreuch, hoarfrost: thy lane, alone: a-gley, off the right line, awry. 171 CXLVII Perhaps the noblest stanzas in our language. 176 CXLVIII stoure, dust-storm: braw, smart. 177 CXLIX Scaith, hurt: tent, guard: steer, molest. 179 CLI 181 CLII drumlie, muddy: birk, birch. There can hardly greet, cry: daurna, dare not. CLIII fou, merry with drink: coost, carried: unco skeigh, Page No. a rock in the Firth of Clyde: grat his een bleert, cried till his eyes were bleared: lowpin, leaping: linn, waterfall: sair, sore: smoor'd, smothered: crouse and canty, blythe and gay. 182 CLIV Burns justly named this 'one of the most beautiful songs in the Scots or any other language.' One verse, interpolated by Beattie, is here omitted:-it contains two good lines, but is quite out of harmony with the original poem. Bigonet, little cap; probably altered from beguinette: thraw, twist: caller, fresh. 184 CLV airts, quarters: row, roll: shaw, small wood in a hollow, spinney: knowes, knolls. 185 CLVI jo, sweetheart: brent, smooth: pow, head. 186 CLVII leal, faithful: fain, happy. 187 CLVIII Henry VI founded Eton. 194 CLXI The Editor knows no Sonnet more remarkable than this, which, with CLXII, records Cowper's gratitude to the Lady whose affectionate care for many years gave what sweetness he could enjoy to a life radically wretched. Petarch's sonnets have a more ethereal grace and a more perfect finish; Shakespeare's more passion; Milton's stand supreme in stateliness, Wordsworth's in depth and delicacy. But Cowper's unites with an exquisiteness in the turn of thought which the ancients would have called Irony, an intensity of pathetic tenderness peculiar to his loving and ingenuous nature. There is much mannerism, much that is unimportant or of now exhausted interest in his poems but where he is great, it is with that elementary greatness which rests on the most universal human feelings. Cowper is our highest master in simple pathos. 197 CLXIII fancied green: cherished garden. It 198 CLXIV Nothing except his surname appears recoverable with regard to the author of this truly noble poem. should be noted as exhibiting a rare excellence, climax of simple sublimity. -the It is a lesson of high instructiveness to examine the essential qualities which give first-rate poetical rank to lyrics such as 'To-morrow' or 'Sally in our Alley,' when compared with poems written (if the phrase may be allowed) in keys so different as the subtle sweetness of Shelley, the grandeur of Gray and Milton, or the delightful Pastoralism of the Elizabethan verse. Intelligent readers will gain hence a clear understanding of the vast imaginative range of Poetry; - through what wide oscillations the mind and the taste of a nation may pass;-how many are the roads which Truth and Nature open to Excellence. Summary of Book Fourth It proves sufficiently the lavish wealth of our own age in Poetry, that the pieces which, without conscious departure from the standard of Excellence, render this Book by far the longest, were with very few exceptions composed during the first thirty years of the nineteenth century. Exhaustive reasons can hardly be given for the strangely sudden appearance of individual genius: but none, in the Editor's judgment, can be less adequate than that which assigns the splendid national achievements of our recent poetry to an impulse from the frantic follies and criminal wars that at the time disgraced the least essentially civilized of our foreign neighbours. The first French Revolution was rather, in his opinion, one result, and in itself by no means the most important, of that far wider and greater spirit which through enquiry and doubt, through pain and triumph, sweeps mankind round the circles of its gradual development: and it is to this that we must trace the literature of modern Europe. But, without more detailed discussion on the motive causes of Scott, Wordsworth, Campbell, Keats, and Shelley, we may observe that these Poets, with others, carried to further perfection the later tendencies of the Century preceding, in simplicity of narrative, reverence for human Passion and Character in every sphere, and impassioned love of Nature that, whilst maintaining on the whole the advances in art made since the Restoration, they renewed the half-forgotten melody and depth of tone which marked the best Elizabethan writers :that, lastly, to what was thus inherited they added a richness in language and a variety in metre, a force and fire in narrative, a tenderness and bloom in feeling, an insight into the finer passages of the Soul and the inner meanings of the landscape, a larger and wiser Humanity, — hitherto hardly attained, and perhaps unattainable even by predecessors of not inferior individual gen ius. In a word, the Nation which, after the Greeks in their glory, has been the most gifted of all nations for Poetry, expressed in these men the highest strength and prodigality of its nature. They interpreted the age to itself-hence the many phases of thought and style they present:—to sympathize with each, fervently and impartially, without fear and without fancifulness, is no doubtful step in the higher education of the Soul. For, as with the Affections and the Conscience, Purity in Taste is absolutely proportionate to Strength:—and when once the mind has raised itself to grasp and to delight in Excellence, those who love most will be found to love most wisely. Page No. 200 CLXVI stout Cortez: History requires here Balbóa: (A.T.) It may be noticed, that to find in Chapman's Homer the 'pure serene' of the original, the reader must bring with him the imagination of the youthful poet - he must be 'a Greek himself,' as Shelley finely sai of Keats. 206 CLXIX The most tender and true of Byron's smaller poems. CLXX This poem, with ccxxXVI, exemplifies the peculiar skill with which Scott employs proper names :- nor is there a surer sign of high poetical genius. 227 CXCI The Editor in this and in other instances has risked the addition (or the change) of a Title, that the aim of the verses following may be grasped more clearly and immediately. 235 CXCVIII Nature's Eremite: like a solitary thing in Nature. -This beautiful Sonnet was the last word of a poet deserving the title 'marvellous boy' in a much higher sense than Chatterton. If the fulfilment may ever safely be prophesied from the promise, England appears to have lost in Keats one whose gifts in Poetry have rarely been surpassed. Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, had their lives been closed at twenty-five, would (so far as we know) have left poems of less excellence and hope than the youth who, from the petty school and the London surgery, passed at once to a place with them of 'high collateral glory.' It is impossible not to regret that Moore has written so little in this sweet and genuinely national style. 237 CCI A masterly example of Byron's command of strong thought and close reasoning in verse:-as the next is equally characteristic of Shelley's wayward intensity, and CCIV of the dramatic power, the vital identi |