Stout Glo'ster stood aghast (i) in speechless trance: To arms! cried Mortimer (k), and couch'd his quiv'ring lance. I. 2. On a rock, whose haughty brow (Loose his beard, and hoary hair (1) Stream'd, like a meteor (m), to the troubled air) [13] (i) Stout Glo'ster stood aghast Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, son in-law to King Edward. (k) To arms! cried 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. (1) Loose his beard, and hoary hair. The image was taken from a well-known picture of Raphael, representing the Supreme Being in the vision of Ezekiel. There are two of these paintings, both believed original, one at Florence, the other `at Paris. (m) Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air. Shone, like a meteor, streaming to the wind. [13] Moses breaking the tables of the law, by Parmegiano, was a figure which Mr. Gray used to say came still nearer to his meaning than the picture of Raphael. And with a Master's hand, and Prophet's fire, Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert-cave, Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath! "O'er thee, oh King! their hundred arms they "wave, Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe; "Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day, "To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay. I. 3. "Cold is Cadwallo's tongue, "That hush'd the stormy main: "Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed: "On dreary Arvon's shore (n) they lie, "Smear'd with gore, and ghastly pale: Far, far aloof th' affrighted ravens sail; (n) On dreary Arvon's shore The shores of Caernarvonshire opposite to the isle of Anglesey. "The famish'd Eagle screams, and passes by (o). "Dear lost companions of my tuneful art, "Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes (p), "Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart, "Yedied amidst your dying country's cries"No more I weep [14]. They do not sleep. "On yonder cliffs, a grisly band, "I see them sit, they linger yet, (0) The famish'd eagle screams, and passes by. Camden and others observe, that eagles used annually to build their ærie among the rocks of Snowdon, which from thence (as some think) were named by the Welsh Craigianeryri, or the crags of the eagles. At this day (I am told) the highest point of Snowdon is called the Eagle's nest. That bird is certainly no stranger to this island, as the Scots, and the people of Cumberland, Westmoreland, &c. can testify: it even has built its nest in the Peak of Derbyshire. (See Willoughby's Ornithol. published by Ray.) (p) Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes. As dear to me as are the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart Shakespeare's Ful. Cæsar.. Mr. Gray might also recollect these lines: Dear as the vital warmth that feeds my life, Dear as these eyes that weep in fondness o'er thee. Otway. [14] Here (says an anonymous Critic) a vision of triumphant revenge is judiciously made to ensue, after the pathetic lamentation which precedes it. Breaks-double rhymes-an appropriated cadenceand an exalted ferocity of language forcibly picture to us the uncon trollable tumultuous workings of the prophet's stimulated bosom. |