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III. 1.

Far from the fun and fummer gale,

In thy green lap was Nature's darling † laid,
What time, where lucid Avon ftray'd

To him the mighty Mother did unvail
Her awful face; the dauntless child
Stretch'd forth his little arms, and fmil'd.

This pencil take (she said) whose colours clear
Richly paint the vernal year ;

Thine too thefe golden keys, immortal boy!
This can unlock the gates of Joy,

Of Horror that, and thrilling Fears,

Or ope the facred fource of fympathetic Tears.

III. 2.

Nor fecond he that rode fublime

Upon the feraph-wings of Ecftacy,
The fecrets of th' abyss to spy,

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He pafs'd the flaming bounds of place and time: §
The living throne, the fapphire-blaze, ||
Where angels tremble while they gaze,
He faw, but, blafted with excefs of light,
Clos'd his eyes in endless night.

Behold where Dryden's lefs prefumptuous car
Wide o'er the fields of glory bear

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$- -fiammantia monia mundi.

Lucretius.

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For the fpirit of the living creature was in the wheels. And above the firmament, that was over their heads, was the likenefs of a throne, as the appearance of a fapphire ftone. -

This was the appearance of the glory of the Lord.

Ezekiel i. 20, 26, 28.

Two courfers of ethereal race, t

[ing pace.

With necks in thunder cloth'd ‡ and long-refound

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Hark! his hands the lyre explore!

Bright-ey'd Fancy, hov'ring o'er,
Scatters from her pictur'd urn

Thoughts that breathe and words that burn; §

But ah! 'tis heard no more —

Oh, lyre divine! what daring fpirit
Wakes thee now? tho' he inherit
Nor the pride nor ample pinion
That the Theban eagle bear, ¶
Sailing with fupreme dominion
Thro' the azure deep of air,

Yet oft' before his infant

eyes

would run

Such forms as glitter in the Muse's ray

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+ Meant to express the stately march and founding energy of Dryden's rhymes.

Haft thou clothed his neck with thunder? Job. S Words that weep and tears that speak. Cowley. We have had in our language no other odes of the fublime kind than that of Dryden on St. Cecilia's day; for Cowley, who had his merit, yet wanted judgment, flyle, and harmony, for fuch a tafk. That of Pope is not worthy of fo great a man. Mr. Mafon, indeed, of late days, has touched the true chords, and, with a masterly hand, in fome of his choruffes -above all, in the last of Caracacus;

Hark! heard ye not yon' footstep dread? &c.

¶ Pindar compares himfelf to that bird, and his enemies to ravens that croak and clamour in vain below, while it purfues it's fight regardless of their noife.

With orient hues, unborrow'd of the fun;
Yet fhall he mount, and keep his distant way
Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,

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Beneath the good how far-but far above the great.

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The following Ode is founded on a Tradition current in Wales, that Edward I. when he completed the Conqueft of that Country, ordered all the Bards that fell into his Hands to be put to Death.

I. 1.

RUIN feize thee, ruthless King!

Confufion on thy banners wait;

'Tho' fann'd by Conqueft's crimson wing,

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They mock the air with idle ftate. *

'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!"
Such were the founds that o'er the crested pride
Of the firft Edward fcatter'd wild difmay,

* Mocking the air with colours idly spread.

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Shakefp. King John. +The hauberk was a texture of fleel ringlets or rings interwoven, forming a coat of mail that fat clofe to the body, and adapted itfelf to every motion.

The crefted adder's pride. Dryden's Indian Queer.

As down the fteep of Snowdon's fhaggy fide§
He wound with toilfome march his long array.
Stout Glo'fter ftood aghaft in fpeechlefs trance:
To arms cry'd Mortimer,¶ and couch'd his quiv’-
ring lance.

I. 2.

On a rock, whofe haughty brow

Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,

Rob'd in the fable garb of Wo,

With haggard eyes the poet ftood;

(Loose his beard, and hoary hair

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

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S Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that mountainous track which the Welfh themselves call Craigian-eryri: it included all the highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merionethfhire, as far eaft as the river Conway. R. Hygden, fpeaking of the Caftle of Conway, built by King Edward I. fays, Ardortum amnis Conway ad clivum montis Erery; and Matthew of Westminster, (ad an. 1283) Apud Aberconway ad pedes montis Snowdonia 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, whofe 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 Raphael, representing the Supreme Being in the vifion of Ezekiel. There are two of these paintings, both believed original; one at Florence, the other at Paris.

† Shone like a meteor ftreaming to the wind. Milton's Paradife Loft.

d with a mafter's hand and prophet's fire uck the deep forrows of his lyre.

ark how each giant oak and defert cave

ighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath!

'er thee, oh King! their hundred arms they wave, evenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe; ocal no more, fince Cambria's fatal day,

o highborn Hoel's harp or foft Llewellyn's lay.

1. 3.

-ld is Cadwallo's tongue,

at hufh'd the ftormy main ;

ave Urien fleeps upon his craggy bed:

ountains! ye mourn in vain

odred, whofe magic fong

26

30

ade huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topp'd head.

■ dreary Arvon's ‡ fhore they lie,

ear'd with gore and ghaftly pale; -, far aloof th' affrighted ravens fail,

e famifh'd eagle § fcreams and paffes by.

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The fhores of Caernarvonshire, oppofite to the f Anglefey..

Camden and others obferve, that eagles ufed any to build their aerie among the rocks of Snow. which from thence (as fome think) were named, e Welfh, Craigian-eryri, or the Crags of the EaAt this day (I am told) the highest point of don is called The Eagle's Neft. That bird is nly no ftranger to this ifland, as the Scots, and eople of Cumberland, Weftmoreland, &c. can : it even has built it's neft in the Peak of Der

[See Willoughby's Orni,kol. published by Ray.J

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