Chapter 9
34. _Plinlimmon_. One of the loftiest of the Welsh mountains, being 2463 feet in height. It is really a group of mountains, three of which tower high above the others, and on each of these is a _carnedd_, or pile of stones. The highest of the three is further divided into two peaks, and on these, as well as on another prominent part of the same height, are other piles of stones. These five piles, according to the common tradition, mark the graves of slain warriors, and serve as memorials of their exploits; but some believe that they were intended as landmarks or military signals, and that from them the mountain was called _Pump-lumon_ or _Pum-lumon_, "the five beacons"--a name somehow corrupted into _Plinlimmon_. Five rivers take their rise in the recesses of Plinlimmon--the Wye, the Severn, the Rheidol, the Llyfnant, and the Clywedog.
35. _Arvon's shore_. "The shores of Caernarvonshire, opposite the isle of Anglesey" (Gray). _Caernarvon_, or _Caer yn Arvon_, means the camp in Arvon.
38. "Camden and others observe that eagles used annually to build their aerie among the rocks of Snowdon, which from thence (as some think) were named by the Welsh _Craigian-eryri_, 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, etc., can testify; it even has built its nest in the peak of Derbyshire [see Willoughby's Ornithology, published by Ray]" (Gray).
40. _Dear as the light_. Cf. Virgil, _Æn._ iv. 31: "O luce magis dilecta sorori."
41. _Dear as the ruddy drops_. Gray quotes Shakes. _J. C._ ii. 1:
"As dear to me as are the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart."
Cf. also Otway, _Venice Preserved_:
"Dear as the vital warmth that feeds my life, Dear as these eyes that weep in fondness o'er thee."
42. Wakefield quotes Pope: "And greatly falling with a fallen state;" and Dryden: "And couldst not fall but with thy country's fate."
44. _Grisly_. See on _Eton Coll._ 82. Cf. _Lycidas_, 52:
"the steep Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie."
48. "See the Norwegian ode that follows" (Gray). This ode (_The Fatal Sisters_, translated from the Norse) describes the _Valkyriur_, "the choosers of the slain," or warlike Fates of the Gothic mythology, as weaving the destinies of those who were doomed to perish in battle. It begins thus:
"Now the storm begins to lower (Haste, the loom of hell prepare), Iron sleet of arrowy shower Hurtles in the darken'd air.
"Glittering lances are the loom, Where the dusky warp we strain, Weaving many a soldier's doom, Orkney's woe, and Randver's bane.
* * * * * *
"Shafts for shuttles, dipt in gore, Shoot the trembling cords along; Swords, that once a monarch bore, Keep the tissue close and strong.
* * * * * *
"(Weave the crimson web of war) Let us go, and let us fly, Where our friends the conflict share, Where they triumph, where they die."
51. Cf. Dryden, _Sebastian_, i. 1:
"I have a soul that, like an ample shield, Can take in all, and verge enough for more."
55. "Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkeley Castle" (Gray). The 1st ed. and that of 1768 have "roofs;" the modern eds. "roof."
Berkeley Castle is on the southeast side of the town of Berkeley, on a height commanding a fine view of the Severn and the surrounding country, and is in a state of perfect preservation. It is said to have been founded by Roger de Berkeley soon after the Norman Conquest. About the year 1150 it was granted by Henry II. to Robert Fitzhardinge, Governor of Bristol, who strengthened and enlarged it. On the right of the great staircase leading to the keep, and approached by a gallery, is the room in which it is supposed that Edward II. was murdered, Sept. 21, 1327. The king, during his captivity here, composed a dolorous poem, of which the following is an extract:
"Moste blessed Jesu, Roote of all vertue, Graunte I may the sue, In all humylyte, Sen thou for our good, Lyste to shede thy blood, An stretche the upon the rood, For our iniquyte. I the beseche, Most holsome leche, That thou wylt seche For me such grace, That when my body vyle My soule shall exyle Thou brynge in short wyle It in reste and peace."
Walpole, who visited the place in 1774, says: "The room shown for the murder of Edward II., and the shrieks of an agonizing king, I verily believe to be genuine. It is a dismal chamber, almost at the top of the house, quite detached, and to be approached only by a kind of foot-bridge, and from that descends a large flight of steps, that terminates on strong gates; exactly a situation for a _corps de garde_."
56. Cf. Hume's description: "The screams with which the agonizing king filled the castle."
57. _She-wolf of France_. "Isabel of France, Edward the Second's adulterous queen" (Gray). Cf. Shakes. 3 _Hen. VI._ i. 4: "She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France;" and read the context.
60. "Triumphs of Edward the Third in France" (Gray).
61. Cf. Cowley: "Ruin behind him stalks, and empty desolation;" and Oldham, _Ode to Homer_:
"Where'er he does his dreadful standard bear, Horror stalks in the van, and slaughter in the rear."
63. For _victor_ the MS. has "conqueror;" also in next line "the" for _his_; and in 65, "what ... what" for _no_ ... _no_.
64. "Death of that king, abandoned by his children, and even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and his mistress" (Gray).
67. "Edward the Black Prince, dead some time before his father" (Gray).
69. The MS. has "hover'd in thy noontide ray," and in the next line "the rising day."
In _Agrippina_, a fragment of a tragedy, published among the posthumous poems of Gray, we have the same figure:
"around thee call The gilded swarm that wantons in the sunshine Of thy full favour."
71. "Magnificence of Richard the Second's reign. See Froissard and other contemporary writers" (Gray).
For this line and the remainder of the stanza, the MS. has the following:
"Mirrors of Saxon truth and loyalty, Your helpless, old, expiring master view! They hear not: scarce religion does supply Her mutter'd requiems, and her holy dew. Yet thou, proud boy, from Pomfret's walls shalt send A sigh, and envy oft thy happy grandsire's end."
On the passage as it stands, cf. Shakes. _M. of V._ ii. 6:
"How like a younger, or a prodigal, The scarfed bark puts from her native bay," etc.
Also Spenser, _Visions of World's Vanitie_, ix:
"Looking far foorth into the Ocean wide, A goodly ship with banners bravely dight, And flag in her top-gallant, I espide Through the maine sea making her merry flight. Faire blew the winde into her bosome right; And th' heavens looked lovely all the while That she did seeme to daunce, as in delight, And at her owne felicitie did smile," etc.;
and again, _Visions of Petrarch_, ii.:
"After, at sea a tall ship did appeare, Made all of heben and white yvorie; The sailes of golde, of silke the tackle were: Milde was the winde, calme seem'd the sea to bee, The skie eachwhere did show full bright and faire: With rich treasures this gay ship fraighted was: But sudden storme did so turmoyle the aire, And tumbled up the sea, that she (alas) Strake on a rock, that under water lay, And perished past all recoverie."
See also Milton, _S. A._ 710 foll.
72. _The azure realm_. Cf. Virgil, _Ciris_, 483: "Caeruleo pollens conjunx Neptunia regno."
73. Note the alliteration. Cf. Dryden, _Annus Mirab._ st. 151:
"The goodly London, in her gallant trim, The phoenix-daughter of the vanish'd old, Like a rich bride does to the ocean swim, And on her shadow rides in floating gold."
75. _Sweeping whirlwind's sway_. Cf. the posthumous fragment by Gray on _Education and Government_, 48: "And where the deluge burst with sweepy sway." The expression is from Dryden, who uses it repeatedly; as in _Geo._ i. 483: "And rolling onwards with a sweepy sway;" _Ov. Met._: "Rushing onwards with a sweepy sway;" _Æn._ vii.: "The branches bend beneath their sweepy sway," etc.
76. _That hush'd in grim repose_, etc. Cf. Dryden, _Sigismonda and Guiscardo_, 242:
"So, like a lion that unheeded lay, Dissembling sleep, and watchful to betray, With inward rage he meditates his prey;"
and _Absalom and Achitophel_, 447:
"And like a lion, slumbering in the way, Or sleep dissembling, while he waits his prey."
77. "Richard the Second (as we are told by Archbishop Scroop and the confederate Lords in their manifesto, by Thomas of Walsingham, and all the older writers) was starved to death. The story of his assassination by Sir Piers of Exon is of much later date" (Gray).
79. _Reft of a crown_. Wakefield quotes Mallet's ballad of _William and Margaret_:
"Such is the robe that kings must wear When death has reft their crown."
82. _A baleful smile_. The MS. has "A smile of horror on." Cf. Milton, _P. L._ ii. 846: "Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile."
83. "Ruinous wars of York and Lancaster" (Gray). Cf. _P. L._ vi. 209: "Arms on armour clashing brayed."
84. Cf. Shakes. 1 _Hen. IV._ iv. 1: "Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse;" and Massinger, _Maid of Honour_: "Man to man, and horse to horse."
87. "Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, etc., believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Cæsar" (Gray). The MS. has "Grim towers."
88. _Murther_. See on _murthorous_, p. 105.
89. _His consort_. "Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown" (Gray).
_His father_. "Henry the Fifth" (Gray).
90. _The meek usurper_. "Henry the Sixth, very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown" (Gray). See on _Eton Coll._ 4. The MS. has "hallow'd head."
91. _The rose of snow_, etc. "The white and red roses, devices of York and Lancaster" (Gray).
Cf. Shakes. 1 _Hen. VI._ ii. 4:
"No, Plantagenet, 'Tis not for shame, but anger, that thy cheeks Blush for pure shame, to counterfeit our roses."
93. _The bristled boar_. "The silver boar was the badge of Richard the Third; whence he was usually known in his own time by the name of _the Boar_" (Gray). Scott (notes to _Lay of Last Minstrel_) says: "The crest or bearing of a warrior was often used as a _nom de guerre_. Thus Richard III. acquired his well-known epithet, 'the Boar of York.'" Cf. Shakes. _Rich. III._ iv. 5: "this most bloody boar;" v. 2: "The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar," etc.
98. See on 48 above.
99. _Half of thy heart_. "Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the conquest of Wales. The heroic proof she gave of her affection for her lord is well known.[2] The monuments of his regret and sorrow for the loss of her[3] are still to be seen at Northampton, Geddington, Waltham, and other places" (Gray). Cf. Horace, _Od._ i. 3, 8: "animae dimidium meae."
[Footnote 2: See Tennyson, _Dream of Fair Women_:
"Or her who knew that Love can vanquish Death, Who kneeling, with one arm about her king, Drew forth the poison with her balmy breath, Sweet as new buds in spring."]
[Footnote 3: Gray refers to the "Eleanor crosses," erected at the places where the funeral procession halted each night on the journey from Hardby, in Nottinghamshire (near Lincoln), where the queen died, to Westminster. Of the thirteen (or, as some say, fifteen) crosses only three now remain--at Northampton, Geddington, and Waltham. The one at Charing Cross in London has been replaced by a fac-simile of the original. These monuments were all exquisite works of Gothic art, fitting memorials of _la chère Reine_, "the beloved of all England," as Walsingham calls her.]
101. _Nor thus forlorn_. In MS. "nor here forlorn;" in next line, "Leave your despairing Caradoc to mourn;" in 103, "yon black clouds;" in 104, "They sink, they vanish;" in 105, "But oh! what scenes of heaven on Snowdon's height;" in 106, "their golden skirts."
107. Cf. Dryden, _State of Innocence_, iv. 1: "Their glory shoots upon my aching sight."
109. "It was the common belief of the Welsh nation that King Arthur was still alive in Fairyland, and would return again to reign over Britain" (Gray).
In the MS. this line and the next read thus:
"From Cambria's thousand hills a thousand strains Triumphant tell aloud, another Arthur reigns."
110. "Both Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied that the Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this island; which seemed to be accomplished in the house of Tudor" (Gray).
111. _Many a baron bold_. Cf. _L'Allegro_, 119: "throngs of knights and barons bold."
The reading in the MS. is,
"Youthful knights, and barons bold, With dazzling helm, and horrent spear."
112. _Their starry fronts_. Cf. Milton, _Ode on the Passion_, 18: "His starry front;" Statius, _Theb._ 613: "Heu! ubi siderei vultus."
115. _A form divine_. Elizabeth. Wakefield quotes Spenser's eulogy of the queen, _Shep. Kal._ Apr.:
"Tell me, have ye seene her angelick face, Like Phoebe fayre? Her heavenly haveour, her princely grace, Can you well compare? The Redde rose medled with the White yfere, In either cheeke depeincten lively chere; Her modest eye, Her Majestie, Where have you seene the like but there?"
117. "Speed, relating an audience given by Queen Elizabeth to Paul Dzialinski, ambassador of Poland, says: 'And thus she, lion-like rising, daunted the malapert orator no less with her stately port and majestical deporture, than with the tartnesse of her princelie checkes'" (Gray). The MS. reads "A lion-port, an awe-commanding face."
121. "Taliessin, chief of the bards, flourished in the sixth century. His works are still preserved, and his memory held in high veneration among his countrymen" (Gray).
As Hales remarks, there is no authority for connecting him with Arthur, as Tennyson does in his _Holy Grail_.
123. Cf. Congreve, _Ode to Lord Godolphin_: "And soars with rapture while she sings."
124. _The eye of heaven_. Wakefield quotes Spenser, _F. Q._ 1. 3. 4,
"Her angel's face As the great eye of heaven shined bright."
Cf. Shakes. _Rich. II._ iii. 2: "the searching eye of heaven."
_Many-colour'd wings_. Cf. Shakes. _Temp._ iv. 1: "Hail, many-colour'd messenger;" and Milton, _P. L._ iii. 642:
"Wings he wore Of many a colour'd plume sprinkled with gold."
126. Gray quotes Spenser, _F. Q._ Proeme, 9:
"Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize my song."
128. "Shakespeare" (Gray). Cf. _Il Penseroso_, 102: "the buskin'd stage;" that is, the tragic stage.
129. _Pleasing pain_. Cf. Spenser, _F. Q._ vi. 9, 10: "sweet pleasing payne;" and Dryden, _Virg. Ecl._ iii. 171: "Pleasing pains of love."
131. "Milton" (Gray).
133. "The succession of poets after Milton's time" (Gray).
135. _Fond_. Foolish. See on _Prog. of Poesy_, 46.
On the couplet, cf. Dekker, _If this be not a good play_, etc.:
"Thinkest thou, base lord, Because the glorious Sun behind black clouds Has awhile hid his beams, he's darken'd forever, Eclips'd never more to shine?"
137. Cf. _Lycidas_, 169: "And yet anon repairs his drooping head;" and Fletcher, _Purple Island_, vi. 64: "So soon repairs her light, trebling her new-born raies."
141. Mitford remarks that there is a passage (which he misquotes, as usual) in the _Thebaid_ of Statius (iii. 81) similar to this, describing a bard who had survived his companions:
"Sed jam nudaverat ensem Magnanimus vates, et nunc trucis ora tyranni, Nunc ferrum adspectans: 'Nunquam tibi sanguinis hujus Jus erit, aut magno feries imperdita Tydeo Pectora; _vado equidem exsultans_ et _ereptaque fata_ Insequor, et comites feror expectatus ad umbras; _Te_ Superis, fratrique.' Et jam media orsa loquentis Abstulerat plenum capulo latus."
Cf. also a passage in Pindar (_Olymp._ i. 184), which Gray seems to have had in mind:
[Greek: Eiê se te touton Hupsou chronon patein, eme Te tossade nikaphorois Homilein, k. t. l.
143. Cf. Virgil, _Ecl._ viii. 59:
"Praeceps aërii specula de montis in undas Deferar; extremum hoc munus morientis habeto."
As we have given Johnson's criticism on _The Progress of Poesy_, we append his comments on this "Sister Ode:"
"'The Bard' appears, at the first view, to be, as Algarotti and others have remarked, an imitation of the prophecy of Nereus. Algarotti thinks it superior to its original; and, if preference depends only on the imagery and animation of the two poems, his judgment is right. There is in 'The Bard' more force, more thought, and more variety. But to copy is less than to invent, and the copy has been unhappily produced at a wrong time. The fiction of Horace was to the Romans credible; but its revival disgusts us with apparent and unconquerable falsehood. _Incredulus odi_.
"To select a singular event, and swell it to a giant's bulk by fabulous appendages of spectres and predictions, has little difficulty; for he that forsakes the probable may always find the marvellous. And it has little use; we are affected only as we believe; we are improved only as we find something to be imitated or declined. I do not see that 'The Bard' promotes any truth, moral or political.
"His stanzas are too long, especially his epodes; the ode is finished before the ear has learned its measures, and consequently before it can receive pleasure from their consonance and recurrence.
"Of the first stanza the abrupt beginning has been celebrated; but technical beauties can give praise only to the inventor. It is in the power of any man to rush abruptly upon his subject, that has read the ballad of 'Johnny Armstrong,'
'Is there ever a man in all Scotland--'
"The initial resemblances, or alliterations, 'ruin, ruthless, helm or hauberk,' are below the grandeur of a poem that endeavours at sublimity.
"In the second stanza the Bard is well described; but in the third we have the puerilities of obsolete mythology. When we are told that 'Cadwallo hush'd the stormy main,' and that 'Modred made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head,' attention recoils from the repetition of a tale that, even when it was first heard, was heard with scorn.
"The _weaving_ of the _winding-sheet_ he borrowed, as he owns, from the Northern Bards; but their texture, however, was very properly the work of female powers, as the act of spinning the thread of life is another mythology. Theft is always dangerous; Gray has made weavers of slaughtered bards by a fiction outrageous and incongruous. They are then called upon to 'Weave the warp, and weave the woof,' perhaps with no great propriety; for it is by crossing the _woof_ with the _warp_ that men weave the _web_ or piece; and the first line was dearly bought by the admission of its wretched correspondent, 'Give ample room and verge enough.' He has, however, no other line as bad.
"The third stanza of the second ternary is commended, I think, beyond its merit. The personification is indistinct. _Thirst_ and _Hunger_ are not alike; and their features, to make the imagery perfect, should have been discriminated. We are told, in the same stanza, how 'towers are fed.' But I will no longer look for particular faults; yet let it be observed that the ode might have been concluded with an action of better example; but suicide is always to be had, without expense of thought."
HYMN TO ADVERSITY.
This poem first appeared in Dodsley's _Collection_, vol. iv., together with the "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." In Mason's and Wakefield's editions it is called an "Ode," but the title given by the author is as above.
The motto from Æschylus is not in Dodsley, but appears in the first edition of the poems (1768) in the form given in the text. The best modern editions of Æschylus have the reading, [Greek: ton (some, tôi) pathei mathos]. Keck translates the passage into German thus:
"Ihn der uns zur Sinnigkeit leitet, ihn der fest den Satz Stellet, 'Lehre durch das Leid.'"
Plumptre puts it into English as follows:
"Yea, Zeus, who leadeth men in wisdom's way, And fixeth fast the law Wisdom by pain to gain."
Cf. Mrs. Browning's _Vision of Poets_:
"Knowledge by suffering entereth, And life is perfected by death."
1. Mitford remarks: "[Greek: Atê], who may be called the goddess of Adversity, is said by Homer to be the daughter of Jupiter (_Il._ [Greek: t.] 91: [Greek: presba Dios thugatêr Atê, hê pantas aatai). Perhaps, however, Gray only alluded to the passage of Æschylus which he quoted, and which describes Affliction as sent by Jupiter for the benefit of man." The latter is the more probable explanation.
2. Mitford quotes Pope, _Dunciad_, i. 163: "Then he: 'Great tamer of all human art.'"
3. _Torturing hour_. Cf. Milton, _P. L._ ii. 90:
"The vassals of his anger, when the scourge Inexorable, and the torturing hour, Calls us to penance."
5. _Adamantine chains_. Wakefield quotes Æschylus, _Prom. Vinct._ vi.: [Greek: Adamantinôn desmôn en arrêktois pedais]. Cf. Milton, _P. L._ i. 48: "In adamantine chains and penal fire;" and Pope, _Messiah_, 47: "In adamantine chains shall Death be bound."
7. _Purple tyrants_. Cf. Pope, _Two Choruses to Tragedy of Brutus_: "Till some new tyrant lifts his purple hand." Wakefield cites Horace, _Od._ i. 35, 12: "Purpurei metuunt tyranni."
8. _With pangs unfelt before_. Cf. Milton, _P. L._ ii. 703: "Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before."
9-12. Cf. Bacon, _Essays_, v. (ed. 1625): "Certainly, Vertue is like pretious Odours, most fragrant when they are incensed [that is, burned], or crushed:[1] For _Prosperity_ doth best discover Vice;[2] But _Adversity_ doth best discover Vertue."
[Footnote 1: So in his _Apophthegms_, 253, Bacon says: "Mr. Bettenham said: that virtuous men were like some herbs and spices, that give not their sweet smell till they be broken or crushed."]
[Footnote 2: Cf. Shakespeare, _Julius Cæsar_, ii. 1: "It is the bright day that brings forth the adder."]
Cf. also Thomson:
"If Misfortune comes, she brings along The bravest virtues. And so many great Illustrious spirits have convers'd with woe, Have in her school been taught, as are enough To consecrate distress, and make ambition E'en wish the frown beyond the smile of fortune."
16. Cf. Virgil, _Æn._ i. 630: "Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco."
18. _Folly's idle brood_. Cf. the opening lines of _Il Penseroso_:
"Hence, vain deluding Joys, The brood of Folly, without father bred!"
20. Mitford quotes Oldham, _Ode_: "And know I have not yet the leisure to be good."
22. _The summer friend_. Cf. Geo. Herbert, _Temple_: "like summer friends, flies of estates and sunshine;" Quarles, _Sion's Elegies_, xix.: "Ah, summer friendship with the summer ends;" Massinger, _Maid of Honour_: "O summer friendship." See also Shakespeare, _T. of A._ iii. 6:
"_2d Lord_. The swallow follows not summer more willing than we your lordship.
"_Timon_ [_aside_]. Nor more willingly leaves winter; such summer-birds are men;"
and _T. and C._ iii. 3:
"For men, like butterflies, Shew not their mealy wings but to the summer."
Mitford suggests that Gray had in mind Horace, _Od._ i. 35, 25:
"At vulgus infidum et meretrix retro Perjura cedit; diffugiunt cadis Cum faece siccatis amici Ferre jugum pariter dolosi."
25. _In sable garb_. Cf. Milton, _Il Pens._ 16: "O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue."