THE GRAVE OF KING ARTHUR. King Henry the Second, having undertaken an expedition into Ireland, to suppress a rebellion raised by Roderick, King of Connaught, commonly called O'Connor Dun, or the brown Monarch of Ireland,' was entertained, in his passage through Wales, with the songs of the Welsh bards. The subject of their poetry was King Arthur, whose history had been so disguised by fabulous inventions that the place of his burial was in general scarcely known or remembered. But in one of these Welsh poems, sung before Henry, it was recited, that King Arthur, after the battle of Camlan, in Cornwall, was interred at Glastonbury Abbey, before the high altar, yet without any external mark or memorial. Afterwards Henry visited the abbey, and commanded the spot described by the bard to be opened: when, digging near twenty feet deep, they found the body, deposited under a large stone, inscribed with Arthur's name. This is the groundwork of the following Ode: but, for the better accommodation of the story to our present purpose, it is told with some slight variations from the Chronicle of Glastonbury. The castle of Cilgarran, where this discovery is supposed to have been made, now a romantic ruin, stands on a rock descending to the river Teivi, in Pembrokeshire; and was built by Roger Montgomery, who led the van of the Normans at Hastings. STATELY the feast, and high the cheer; And warlike splendour, Henry sat; A thousand torches flamed aloof: VOL. III. E W. To grace the gorgeous festival, Of Radnor's inmost mountains rude), And to the strings of various chime 'O'er Cornwall's cliffs the tempest roar'd, When Arthur ranged his red-cross ranks * Tintaggel or Tintadgel Castle, where King Arthur is said to have been born, and to have chiefly resided. Some of its huge fragments still remain, on a rocky peninsular cape, of a prodigious declivity towards the sea, and almost inaccessible from the land side, on the northern coasts of Cornwall. W. Yet in vain a paynim foe Arm'd with fate the mighty blow; She pillow'd his majestic head; By gales of Eden ever fann'd, His knightly table to restore, And brave the tournaments of yore.' They ceased; when on the tuneful stage Advanced a bard of aspect sage; His silver tresses, thin besprent, And thus he waked the warbling wire- Not from fairy realms I lead With songs of Uther's glorious son, Never yet in rhyme enroll'd, Nor sung nor harp'd in hall or bower; What time the glistening vapours fled 'When Arthur bow'd his haughty crest, No princess, veil'd in azure vest, *Or Glyder, a mountain in Caernarvonshire. W. Snatch'd him, by Merlin's potent spell, But when he fell, with winged speed Bore him to Joseph's towered fane, And the long blaze of tapers clear, Each trace that Time's slow touch had worn; And long, o'er the neglected stone, Oblivion's veil its shade has thrown: The faded tomb, with honour due, 'Tis thine, O Henry, to renew! Thither, when Conquest has restored Yon recreant isle, and sheath'd the sword, When Peace with palm has crown'd thy brows, Haste thee to pay thy pilgrim vows; There, observant of my lore, The pavement's hallow'd depth explore; And thrice a fathom underneath Dive into the vaults of death. Glastonbury Abbey, said to be founded by Joseph of Arimathea, in a spot anciently called the island, or valley, of Avalonia. W. |