B

THE

A R D.

A PINDARIC ODE.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following Ode is founded on a tradition current in Wales, that Edward the First, when he compleated the conqueft of that country, ordered all the Bards, that fell into his hands, to be put to death.

I. 1.

R

UIN feize thee, ruthless king!

Confufion on thy banners wait,

Though, fann'd by Conqueft's crimson wing,
* They mock the air with idle state.
Helm, nor † hauberk's twisted mail,

Nor e'en thy virtues, tyrant, fhall avail
To fave thy fecret foul from nightly fears,
From Cambria's curfe, from Cambria's tears!'

Mocking the air with colours idly spread.

Shakespeare's King John. The hauberk, was a texture of fteel ringlets, or rings interwoven, forming a coat of mail, that fat clofe to the body, and adapted itself to every motion.

Such

Such were the sounds, that o'er the * crested pride
Of the first Edward scatter'd wild difmay,

As down the steep of † Snowdon's fhaggy fide
He wound with toilsome march his long array.
Stout Glo'fter stood aghaft in fpeechlefs trance:
To arms! cried § Mortimer, and couch'd his quivering
lance.

I. 2.

On a rock, whofe haughty brow

Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,

Rob'd in the fable garb of woe,

With haggard eyes the Poet stood;

Loofe his beard, and hoary hair

*** Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air)

*The crefted adder's pride. Dryden's Indian Queen. + 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 Merionethfhire, as far east as the river Conway. R. Hygden, fpeaking of the caftle of Conway, built by King Edward the firft, fays, " Ad "ortum amnis Conway ad clivum montis Erery;" and Matthew of Westminster, (ad ann. 1283,)" Apud Aberconway ad pedes montis Snowdoniæ fecit erigi caftrum forte."

Gilbert de Clare, furnamed the Red, Earl of Gloucefter and Hertford, fon-in-law to King Edward.

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.

The image was taken from a well-known picture of Raphaël, reprefenting the Supreme Being in the vision of Ezekiel : there are two of thefe paintings (both believed original,) one at Florence, the other at Paris. ** Shone, like a meteor, ftreaming to the wind.

Milton's Paradife Loft.

And

And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire,
Struck the deep forrows of his lyre.

• Hark, how each giant-oak, and defert cave,
Sighs to the torrent's aweful voice beneath!

• O'er thee, oh King! their hundred arms they wave, • Revenge on thee in hoarfer murniurs breathe; ‹ Vocal no more, fince Cambria's fatal day,

To high-born Hoel's harp, or foft Llewellyn's lay.`

I. 3.

< Cold is Cadwallo's tongue,

That hush'd the ftormy main:

Brave Urien fleeps upon his craggy

Mountains, ye mourn in vain

Modred, whofe magic fong

bed:

Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-top'd head.

* On dreary Arvon's fhore they lie,

• Smear'd with gore, and ghaftly pale :

Far, far aloof th' affrighted ravens fail;

The famish'd † eagle fcreams, and paffes by.

*The fhores of Caernarvonfhire oppofite to the ifle of Anglefey.

+ Camden and others obferve, that eagles used annually to build their aerie among the rocks of Snowdon, which from thence (as fome think) were named by the Welf Craigian-eryri, or the crags of the eagles. At this day (I am told) the highest point of Snowdon is called The Eagle's Neft. That bird is certainly no franger to this ifland, as the Scots, and the people of Cumberland, Weftmoreland, &c. can testify: it even has built its neft in the Peak of Derbyshire. [See Willoughby's Ornithol. published by Ray.]

Dear loft companions of my tuneful art,

• * Dear, as the light that vifits these sad eyes, • Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart, • Ye died amidst your dying country's cries

• No more I weep. They do not sleep. • On yonder cliffs, a griefly band,

I fee them fit, they linger yet,

• Avengers of their native land:

• With me in dreadful harmony they join,

• And † weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line.'

II.

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

"Mark the year, and mark the night,

" ↑ When Severn shall re-echo with affright "The fhrieks of death, thro! Berkley's roofs that ring; "Shrieks of an agonizing King!

"She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs,

* As dear to me as are the ruddy drops,

That vifit my fad heart- SHAKESP. Jul. Cæfar. + See the Norwegian Ode, that follows.

Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkley

caftle.

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

That

That tears the bowels of thy mangled Mate, ** From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs

The scourge of Heaven.

"wait!

What terrors round him

"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!

"No pitying heart, no eye, afford

"A tear to grace his obfequies.

"Is the fable † Warrior fled ?

"Thy son is gone. He refts among the Dead.

"The Swarm, that in the noon-tide beam were born?

"Gone to falute the rifing Morn.

"Fair laughs the Morn, and foft the Zephyr blows, "While proudly riding o'er the azure realm

"In gallant trim the gilded veffel goes;

"Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm ;

Regardless of the sweeping Whirlwind's sway, "That, hufh'd in grim repofe, expects his evening-prey.

* Triumphs of Edward the Third in France.

+ Death of that King, abandoned by his children, and even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and his miftrefs.

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

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