m which I
have removed nothing but the old spelling.

_First Dane_.
Fly, fly, ye Danes! Magnus, the chief, is slain;
The Saxons come, with Aella at their head;
Let's strive to get away to yonder green;
Fly, fly! this is the kingdom of the dead.

_Second Dane_.

O gods! have Romans at my anlace bled?
And must I now for safety fly away?
See! far besprenged all our troops are spread,
Yet I will singly dare the bloody fray.
But no; I'll fly, and murder in retreat;
Death, blood, and fire shall mark the going of my feet.

The following repetitions are, if I mistake not, quite modern:

Now Aella _look'd_, and _looking_ did exclaim;

and,

He _falls_, and _falling_ rolleth thousands down.

As is also this antithetical comparison of the qualities of a war-horse
to the mental affections of the rider:

Bring me a steed, with eagle-wings for fight,
Swift as my wish, and as my love is, strong.

There are sometimes single lines, that bear little relation to the
place in which they stand, and seem to be brought in for no other
purpose than their effect on the ear. This is the contrivance of a
modern and a youthful poet.

Thy words be high of din, but nought beside,

is a line that occurs in Aella, and may sometimes be applied to the
author himself.

Nothing indeed is more wonderful in the Rowley poems than the masterly
style of versification which they frequently display. Few more exquisite
specimens of this kind can be found in our language than the Minstrel's
song in Aella, beginning,

O sing unto my roundelay.

A young poet may be expected to describe warmly and energetically
whatever interests his fancy or his heart; but a command of numbers
would seem to be an art capable of being perfected only by long-continued
and diligent endeavours. It must be recollected, however, that much might
be done in the time which was at Chatterton's disposal, when that time
was undivided by the study of any other language but his own.
We see, in the instance of Milton's juvenile poems in Latin, not to
mention others, to what excellence this species of skill may be brought,
even in boyhood, where the organs are finely disposed for the perception
of musical delight; and if examples of the same early perfection be
rarer in our own tongue, it may be because so much labour is seldom or
ever exacted, at that age, in the use of it.

Tyrwhitt, whose critical acumen had enabled him to detect a
suppo