SCENE IX.

_Chorus._ _1st Song._

_Rejoice, O Britain!_ _Britain, O, rejoice!_ _The stormy cloud pass'd o'er,_ _And only made a noise._ _A clattering sound was heard,_ _And still we felt no wound:_ _Rejoice, rejoice,_ _Thou happy Britons' ground._

_O that sweet Plenides,_ _Eloquent Orone,_ _Were now to chant our victories_ _With a melodious tone;_ _And rousing echo from the dales,_ _With Harmony to sound:_ _Rejoice, rejoice,_ _Thou happy Britons' ground._

_2d Song_

_Gang, ye lads and lasses,_ _Sa wimble and sa wight:_ _Fewl mickle teen betide ye,_ _If ye ligg in this plight._ _Be bonny, buxom, jolly,_ _Trip haydegues[325] belive;_ _And gif night gars the welkin merk,_ _Tom piper do you blive._

_Hidder, eke and shidder,_ _With spic'd sew ycram'd;_ _Sa that unneath thilke borrels_ _May well ne yede, ne stand:_ _As leefe as life do weete it,_ _When timbarins giu sound;_ _Fore harvest gil prankt up in lathe,_ _To loute it low around._[326]

FOOTNOTES:

[301] [An allusion to a belief which is mentioned in many of our early plays. See Dyce's Middleton, iv. 495.]

[302] Helmet.

[303] _i.e._, The roofs of the temples. "De _tholis_ pendent laqueata circum Arma."

[304] Pallas being feigned by the poets to have been bred in Jupiter's brain.

[305] _i.e._, The Romans, who owed their founders, Romulus and Remus, to the care of _Faustulus_, who was shepherd to the tyrant Amulius.--_Steevens._

[306] The goddess of the morning.--_Steevens._

[307] The goddess of revenge. Baxter, in his "Glossary," says she is corruptly so called, and that her true name should be Andrasta.

[308] A mace [here seems to mean a sceptre, but properly stands for a club.]

[309] Geoffrey of Monmouth says, "His (Nennius's) funeral exequies were performed with regal pomp, and Cæsar's sword put into the tomb with him, which he kept possession of when struck into his shield in the combat. The name of the sword was _Crocea Mors_, Yellow Death, as being mortal to everybody that was wounded with it."--Bk. iv. c. 4, Thompson's translation, 1718, p. 102.

[310] By Geoffrey of Monmouth said to be the great grandson of Æneas. After being banished from Italy, on account of accidentally killing his father, he arrived at Britain, to which he gave his own name. He built _Trinovantum_, or London, and dying, left the government of the nation to his sons.

[311] _Dunwallo Molmutius_, son of Cloton, King of Cornwall. After a reign of 40 years he died, and was buried at Trinovantum, near the Temple of Concord.--"Geoffrey of Monmouth," bk. ii. c. 17. [Compare p. 484.]

[312] So in "King Henry IV., Part. II."--

"And darkness be the burier of the dead."

_--Steevens._

[313] Frankincense.--_Steevens._

[314] One of the horses of the Sun.--_Steevens._

[315] Perhaps _Pylius_, _i.e._, Nestor--

"Illius ad tactum Pylius juvenescere possit."

--_Steevens._

[316] The song of triumph.

[317] This expression of contempt I have seen in other ancient writers. It is used in the first scene of Marlowe's "Edward II."--

"As for the multitude, they are but sparks Rak'd up in embers of their poverty; _Tanti_; I'll fan first on the wind," &c.

There is, perhaps, some omission after it, as the line is imperfect, which might explain the meaning of the exclamation.--_Collier._

[318] Old copy, _piles_.

[319] _i.e._, His government, authority. Hitherto it was misprinted--

"Bought with a _frowning_ brow and popular grace."

The right reading is restored from the quarto.--_Collier._

[320] [Old copy, _King. So when._]

[321] Alternate singing.--_Steevens._

[322] _Charmers_ are _enchanters_ or _magicians_. So in "Othello," act iii. sc. 4--

"That handkerchief Did an Egyptian to my mother give; She was a _charmer_, and could almost read The thoughts of people."

And again in "The Two Noble Kinsmen," act v. sc. 4--

"Oh, you heavenly _charmers_, What things you make of us!"

[323] _i.e._, Perceptive, feeling. Falstaff observes that sack makes the mind _apprehensive_, quick, &c.

[324] _I reck not how_ is the true reading: Mr Reed allowed it to stand according to the error of the old copy, _I wreak not how_; but to _reck_ and to _wreak_ are words of a totally different signification. To _reck_ means to _care for_, while to _wreak_ means to _revenge_.