st ad veniam, ad vindictam tardus,'

spoken of as 'ruthless,' and the rest of it. But Gray at least felt
that Edward was a real man, while to most of his contemporaries he
could have been little more than 'the figure of an old Gothic king,'
such as Sir Roger de Coverley looked when he sat in Edward's own
chair."]

1. A good example of alliteration.

2. Cf. Shakes. _K. John_, iv. 2: "and vast confusion waits."

4. Gray quotes _K. John_, v. 1: "Mocking the air with colours idly
spread."

5. "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).

Cf. Robert of Gloucester: "With helm and hauberk;" and Dryden, _Pal.
and Arc._ iii. 603: "Hauberks and helms are hewed with many a wound."

7. _Nightly_. Nocturnal, as often in poetry. Cf. _Il Pens._ 84, etc.

9. _The crested pride_. Gray quotes Dryden, _Indian Queen_: "The
crested adder's pride."

11. "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 Snowdoniae fecit erigi castrum forte'" (Gray).

It was in the spring of 1283 that English troops at last forced their
way among the defiles of Snowdon. Llewellyn had preserved those
passes and heights intact until his death in the preceding December.
The surrender of Dolbadern in the April following that dispiriting
event opened a way for the invader; and William de Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick, at once advanced by it (Hales).

The epithet _shaggy_ is highly appropriate, as Leland (_Itin._) says
that great woods clothed the mountain in his time. Cf. Dyer, _Ruins
of Rome_:

"as Britannia's oaks
On Merlin's mount, or Snowdon's rugged sides,
Stand in the clouds."

See also _Lycidas_, 54: "Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high;" and _P.
L._ vi. 645: "the shaggy tops."

13. _Stout Gloster_. "Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, Earl of
Gloucester and Hereford, son-in-law to King Edward" (Gray). He had,
in 1282, conducted the war in South Wales; and after overthrowing the
enemy near Llandeilo Fawr, had reinforced the king in th