FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  
What strains of vocal transport round her play! Hear from the grave, great Taliessin,[23] hear! They breathe a soul to animate thy clay. Bright Rapture calls, and, soaring as she sings, Waves in the eye of Heaven her many-colour'd wings. III.--3. 'The verse adorn again, Fierce War and faithful Love, And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction dress'd. In buskin'd measures move Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain, With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. A voice[24] as of the cherub-choir Gales from blooming Eden bear, And distant warblings[25] lessen on my ear, That lost in long futurity expire. Fond, impious man! think'st thou yon sanguine cloud, Raised by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day? To-morrow he repairs the golden flood, And warms the nations with redoubled ray. Enough for me: with joy I see The different doom our Fates assign; Be thine despair and sceptred care; To triumph and to die are mine.' He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height, Deep in the roaring tide, he plunged to endless night. [Footnote 1: 'Hauberk:' 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.] [Footnote 2: 'Stout Glo'ster:' Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward.] [Footnote 3: 'Mortimer:' Edmond de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore. They both were Lords Marchers, whose lands lay on the borders of Wales, and probably accompanied the King in this expedition.] [Footnote 4: 'Arvon's shore:' the shores of Caernarvonshire, opposite to the isle of Anglesey.] [Footnote 5: 'King:' Edward II., cruelly butchered in Berkley Castle.] [Footnote 6: 'She-wolf of France:' Isabel of France, Edward II.'s adulterous queen.] [Footnote 7: 'From thee:' triumphs of Edward III. in France.] [Footnote 8: 'Funeral couch:' death of that king, abandoned by his children, and even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and his mistress.] [Footnote 9: 'Sable warrior:' Edward the Black Prince, dead some time before his father.] [Footnote 10: 'Fair laughs the morn:' magnificence of Richard II.'s reign; see Froissard, and other contemporary writers.] [Footnote 11: 'Sparkling bowl:' Richard II. was starved to death; the story of his assassination by Sir Piers of Exon is of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127  
128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Footnote
 

Edward

 

France

 

Mortimer

 

Richard

 
hauberk
 
Wigmore
 

texture

 
Edmond
 

Marchers


expedition

 

accompanied

 
ringlets
 

borders

 
Hauberk
 

motion

 
adapted
 
Gilbert
 

Hertford

 

interwoven


Gloucester

 

surnamed

 

forming

 

father

 

laughs

 

warrior

 

Prince

 

magnificence

 

assassination

 

starved


Froissard

 
contemporary
 

writers

 

Sparkling

 

mistress

 
courtiers
 

Castle

 
adulterous
 

Isabel

 
Berkley

butchered
 

opposite

 
Caernarvonshire
 
Anglesey
 

cruelly

 

children

 
abandoned
 

robbed

 
moments
 

triumphs