Part 17

The pair[2] have reached that fearful chasm, How tempting to bestride! For lordly Wharf is there pent in With rocks on either side. 20

The[3] striding-place is called THE STRID, A name which it took of yore: A thousand years hath it borne that name, And shall a thousand more.

And hither is young Romilly come, 25 And what may now forbid That he, perhaps for the hundredth time, Shall bound across THE STRID?

He sprang in glee,--for what cared he 29 That the river was strong, and the rocks were steep?-- But the greyhound in the leash hung back, And checked him in his leap.

The Boy is in the arms of Wharf, And strangled by[4] a merciless force; For never more was young Romilly seen 35 Till he rose a lifeless corse.

Now there is[5] stillness in the vale, And long,[6] unspeaking, sorrow: Wharf shall be to pitying hearts A name more sad than Yarrow. 40

If for a lover the Lady wept, A solace she might borrow From death, and from the passion of death:-- Old Wharf might heal her sorrow.

She weeps not for the wedding-day 45 Which was to be to-morrow: Her hope was a further-looking hope, And hers is a mother's sorrow.

He was a tree that stood alone, And proudly did its branches wave; 50 And the root of this delightful tree Was in her husband's grave!

Long, long in darkness did she sit, And her first words were, "Let there be In Bolton, on the field of Wharf, 55 A stately Priory!"

The stately Priory was reared;[C] And Wharf, as he moved along, To matins joined a mournful voice, Nor failed at even-song. 60

And the Lady prayed in heaviness That looked not for relief! But slowly did her succour come, And a patience to her grief.

Oh! there is never sorrow of heart 65 That shall lack a timely end, If but to God we turn, and ask Of Him to be our friend![D]

There were few variations in the text of this poem, from 1815 to 1850; but I have found, in a letter of Dorothy Wordsworth's to her friend Miss Jane Pollard, the mother of Lady Monteagle--who kindly sent it to me--an earlier version, which differs considerably from the form in which it was first published in 1815. The letter is dated October 18th, 1807, and the poem is as follows:--

"_What is good for a bootless bene?_" The Lady answer'd, "_endless sorrow_." _Her_ words are plain; but the Falconer's words Are a path that is dark to travel thorough.

These words I bring from the Banks of Wharf, Dark words to front an ancient tale: And their meaning is, whence can comfort spring When prayer is of no avail?

"What is good for a bootless bene?" The Falconer to the Lady said, And she made answer as ye have heard, For she knew that her Son was dead.

She knew it from the Falconer's words And from the look of the Falconer's eye, And from the love that was in her heart For her youthful Romelli.

Young Romelli to the Woods is gone, And who doth on his steps attend? He hath a greyhound in a leash, A chosen forest Friend.

And they have reach'd that famous Chasm Where he who dares may stride Across the River Wharf, pent in With rocks on either side.

And that striding place is call'd THE STRID, A name which it took of yore; A thousand years hath it borne that name, And shall a thousand more.

And thither is young Romelli come; And what may now forbid That He, perhaps for the hundredth time, Shall bound across the Strid?

He sprang in glee; for what cared he That the River was strong, and the Rocks were steep? But the greyhound in the Leash hung back And check'd him in his leap.

The Boy is in the arms of Wharf, And strangled with a merciless force; For never more was young Romelli seen, Till he was a lifeless corse.

Now is there stillness in the vale And long unspeaking sorrow, Wharf has buried fonder hopes Than e'er were drown'd in Yarrow.[E]

If for a Lover the Lady wept A comfort she might borrow From death, and from the passion of death; Old Wharf might heal her sorrow.

She weeps not for the Wedding-day That was to be to-morrow,[F] Her hope was a farther-looking hope And hers is a Mother's sorrow.

Oh was he not a comely tree? And proudly did his branches wave; And the Root of this delightful Tree Is in her Husband's grave.

Long, long in darkness did she sit, And her first word was, "Let there be At Bolton, in the Fields of Wharf A stately Priory."

And the stately Priory was rear'd, And Wharf as he moved along, To Matins joined a mournful voice, Nor fail'd at Even-song.

And the Lady pray'd in heaviness That wish'd not for relief; But slowly did her succour come, And a patience to her grief.

Oh! there is never sorrow of heart That shall lack a timely end, If but to God we turn, and ask Of him to be our Friend.

The poem of Samuel Rogers, to which Wordsworth refers in the Fenwick note, is named _The Boy of Egremond_. It begins--

"Say, what remains when Hope is fled?" She answered, "endless weeping!"

In a letter to Wordsworth in 1815, Charles Lamb wrote thus of _The Force of Prayer_, "Young Romilly is divine; the reasons of his mother's grief being remediless. I never saw parental love carried up so high, towering above the other loves. Shakspeare had done something for the filial in Cordelia, and, by implication, for the fatherly too, in Lear's resentment; he left it for you to explore the depths of the maternal heart.... When I first opened upon the just mentioned poem, in a careless tone, I said to Mary, as if putting a riddle, '_What is good for a bootless bene?_' To which, with infinite presence of mind (as the jest-book has it), she answered, 'A shoeless pea.' It was the first joke she ever made.... I never felt deeply in my life if that poem did not make me feel, both lately and when I read it in MS." (_The Letters of Charles Lamb_, edited by Alfred Ainger, vol. i. p. 288.)--ED.

VARIANTS:

[1] 1820.

... from ... 1815.

[2] 1820.

And the Pair ... 1815.

[3] 1850.

This ... 1815.

[4] 1820.

... with ... 1815.

[5] 1820.

Now is there ... 1815.

[6] 1815.

And deep ... 1827.

The text of 1837 returns to that of 1815.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] See _The White Doe of Rylstone_.--W. W. 1820.

[B] Charles Lamb wrote to Wordsworth, May 1819, of Rogers--"He has been re-writing your Poem of the Strid, and publishing it at the end of his 'Human Life.' Tie him up to the cart, hangman, while you are about it." (_The Letters of Charles Lamb_, edited by Alfred Ainger, vol. ii. p. 20.)--ED.

[C] The Lady Alice De Romilly built not only Bolton Priory, but the nave of Carlisle Cathedral, and the chancel of Crosthwaite Parish Church at Keswick.--ED.

[D] "Young Romilly" was a son of Fitz Duncan, Earl of Murray in Scotland, whose Cumbrian estates extended from Dunmail Raise to St. Bees. This "Boy of Egremond" was second cousin of Malcolm, King of Scotland; and by the marriage of Fitz Duncan's sister (Matilda the Good) with Henry I. of England, he stood in the same relation to Henry II. of England. Fitz Duncan married Alice, the only daughter and heiress of Robert de Romilly, lord of Skipton. Compare Ferguson's _History of Cumberland_, p. 175.--ED.

[E] Alluding to a Ballad of Logan's.--W. W. 1807.

[F] From the same Ballad.--W. W. 1807.

COMPOSED WHILE THE AUTHOR WAS ENGAGED IN WRITING A TRACT, OCCASIONED BY THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA. 1808

Composed 1808.--Published 1815

This sonnet was included among those "dedicated to Liberty."--ED.

Not 'mid the World's vain objects that[1] enslave The free-born Soul--that World whose vaunted skill In selfish interest perverts the will, Whose factions lead astray the wise and brave-- Not there; but in dark wood and rocky cave, 5 And hollow vale which foaming torrents fill With omnipresent murmur as they rave Down their steep beds, that never shall be still: Here, mighty Nature! in this school sublime I weigh the hopes and fears of suffering Spain; 10 For her consult the auguries of time, And through the human heart explore my way; And look and listen--gathering, whence[2] I may, Triumph, and thoughts no bondage can restrain.

Wordsworth began to write on the Convention of Cintra in November 1808, and sent two articles on the subject to the December (1808) and January (1809) numbers of _The Courier_. The subject grew in importance to him as he discussed it: and he threw his reflections on the subject into the form of a small treatise, the preface to which was dated 20th May 1809. The full title of this (so-called) "Tract" is "Concerning the Relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal to each other, and to the common Enemy, at this crisis; and specifically as affected by the Convention of Cintra: the whole brought to the test of those Principles, by which alone the Independence and Freedom of Nations can be Preserved or Recovered."--ED.

VARIANTS:

[1] 1820.

... which ... 1815.

[2] 1827.

... where ... 1815.

COMPOSED AT THE SAME TIME AND ON THE SAME OCCASION

Composed 1808.--Published 1815

One of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."--ED.

I dropped my pen; and listened to the Wind That sang of trees up-torn and vessels tost-- A midnight harmony; and wholly lost To the general sense of men by chains confined Of business, care, or pleasure; or resigned 5 To timely sleep. Thought I, the impassioned strain, Which, without aid of numbers, I sustain, Like acceptation from the World will find. Yet some with apprehensive ear shall drink A dirge devoutly breathed o'er sorrows past; 10 And to the attendant promise will give heed-- The prophecy,--like that of this wild blast, Which, while it makes the heart with sadness shrink, Tells also of bright calms that shall succeed.

1809

The poems belonging to the years 1809 and 1810 were mainly sonnets--although _The Excursion_ was being added to at intervals. Of twenty-four which were included by Wordsworth, in the final arrangement of his poems, among those "dedicated to National Independence and Liberty," fourteen belong to the year 1809, and ten to 1810. It is difficult to ascertain the principle which guided him in determining the succession of these sonnets. They were not placed in chronological order; nor is there any historical or topographical reason for their being arranged as they were. I have therefore felt at liberty to depart from his order, to the following extent.

The six sonnets referring to the Tyrolese have been brought together in one group. Those containing allusions to Spain might have been similarly treated; but the sonnets on Schill, the King of Sweden, and Napoleon--as arranged by Wordsworth himself--do not break the continuity of the series on Spain, in the same way that the insertion of those on Palafox and Zaragoza interferes with the unity of the Tyrolean group; and the re-arrangement of the latter series enables me more conveniently to append to it a German translation of the sonnets, and a paper upon them, by Alois Brandl.--ED.

TYROLESE SONNETS

I

HOFFER

Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]

The six sonnets of this Tyrolean group were placed among the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."--ED.

Of mortal parents is the Hero born By whom the undaunted Tyrolese are led? Or is it Tell's great Spirit, from the dead Returned to animate an age forlorn? He comes like Phoebus through the gates of morn 5 When dreary darkness is discomfited, Yet mark his modest[1] state! upon his head, That simple crest, a heron's plume, is worn.[2] O Liberty! they stagger at the shock From van to rear--and with one mind would flee, 10 But half their host is buried:[3]--rock on rock Descends:--beneath this godlike Warrior, see! Hills, torrents, woods, embodied to bemock The Tyrant, and confound his cruelty.

The expectation that the Germans would rise against the French in 1807 was realised only in the Tyrol. Andreas Hofer, an innkeeper in the Passeierthal, was the chief of the Tyrolese leaders. More than once he called his countrymen to arms, and was successful for a time. The Bavarians, however, defeated him, in October 1809. He was tried by court-martial, and shot in 1810.--ED.

VARIANTS:

[1] 1815.

... simple ... 1809.

[2] 1815.

A Heron's feather for a crest is worn. 1809.

[3] 1837.

... at the shock; The Murderers are aghast; they strive to flee And half their Host is buried:-- ... 1809.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] In _The Friend_, October 26.--ED.

II

"ADVANCE--COME FORTH FROM THY TYROLEAN GROUND"

Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]

Advance--come forth from thy Tyrolean ground, Dear Liberty! stern Nymph of soul untamed; Sweet Nymph, O rightly of the mountains named! Through the long chain of Alps from mound to mound And o'er the eternal snows, like Echo, bound; 5 Like Echo, when the hunter train at dawn Have roused her from her sleep: and forest-lawn, Cliffs, woods and caves, her viewless steps resound And babble of her pastime!--On, dread Power! With such invisible motion speed thy flight, 10 Through hanging clouds, from craggy height to height, Through the green vales and through the herdsman's bower-- That all the Alps may gladden in thy might, Here, there, and in all places at one hour.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] In _The Friend_, October 26.--ED.

III

FEELINGS OF THE TYROLESE

Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]

The Land we from our fathers had in trust, And to our children will transmit, or die: This is our maxim, this our piety; And God and Nature say that it is just. That which we _would_ perform in arms--we must! 5 We read the dictate in the infant's eye; In the wife's smile; and in the placid sky; And, at our feet, amid the silent dust Of them that were before us.--Sing aloud Old songs, the precious music of the heart! 10 Give, herds and flocks, your voices to the wind! While we go forth, a self-devoted crowd, With weapons grasped in fearless hands,[1] to assert Our virtue, and to vindicate mankind.

VARIANTS:

[1] 1837.

With weapons in the fearless hand, 1809.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] In _The Friend_, December 21.--ED.

IV

"ALAS! WHAT BOOTS THE LONG LABORIOUS QUEST"

Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]

Alas! what boots the long laborious quest Of moral prudence, sought through good and ill; Or pains[1] abstruse--to elevate the will, And[2] lead us on to that transcendent rest Where every passion shall the sway attest 5 Of Reason, seated on her sovereign hill; What is it but a vain and curious skill, If sapient Germany must lie deprest, Beneath the brutal sword?--Her haughty Schools Shall blush; and may not we with sorrow say, 10 A few strong instincts and a few plain rules, Among the herdsmen of the Alps, have wrought More for mankind at this unhappy day Than all the pride of intellect and thought?

See the paper by Alois Brandl appended to this series of sonnets, p. 218. Wordsworth had probably no means of knowing anything of Fichte's "Addresses to the German Nation," delivered weekly in Berlin, from December 1807 to March 1808. (See _Fichte_, by Professor Adamson, pp. 84-91.)--ED.

VARIANTS:

[1] 1815.

... pain ... 1809.

[2] 1815.

Or ... 1809.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] In _The Friend_, November 16, under the title, _Sonnet suggested by the efforts of the Tyrolese, contrasted with the present state of Germany_.--ED.

V

ON THE FINAL SUBMISSION OF THE TYROLESE

Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]

It was a _moral_ end for which they fought; Else how, when mighty Thrones were put to shame, Could they, poor Shepherds, have preserved an aim, A resolution, or enlivening thought? Nor hath that moral good been _vainly_ sought; 5 For in their magnanimity and fame Powers have they left, an impulse, and a claim Which neither can be overturned nor bought. Sleep, Warriors, sleep! among your hills repose! We know that ye, beneath the stern control 10 Of awful prudence, keep the unvanquished soul: And when, impatient of her guilt and woes, Europe breaks forth; then, Shepherds! shall ye rise For perfect triumph o'er your Enemies.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] In _The Friend_, December 21, under the title, _On the report of the submission of the Tyrolese_.--ED.

VI

"THE MARTIAL COURAGE OF A DAY IS VAIN"

Composed 1810?[A]--Published 1815

The martial courage of a day is vain, An empty noise of death the battle's roar, If vital hope be wanting to restore, Or fortitude be wanting to sustain, Armies or kingdoms. We have heard a strain 5 Of triumph, how the labouring Danube bore A weight of hostile corses: drenched with gore Were the wide fields, the hamlets heaped with slain. Yet see (the mighty tumult overpast) Austria a Daughter of her Throne hath sold! 10 And her Tyrolean Champion we behold Murdered, like one ashore by shipwreck cast, Murdered without relief. Oh! blind as bold, To think that such assurance can stand fast!

FOOTNOTES:

[A] I retain this Tyrolese sonnet amongst the others belonging to the same theme; but, as Hofer was shot in 1810, it was probably written in that year.--ED.

* * * * *

I append to this series of sonnets on the Tyrol and the Tyrolese the translation of a paper contributed by Alois Brandl, a Tyrolean, to the _Neue Freie Presse_ of October 22, 1880. Herr Brandl was for some time in England investigating the traces of a German literary influence on Coleridge, Wordsworth, and their contemporaries.

"It was in the year 1809; Napoleon was at the height of his career of victory; and England alone of all his opponents held the supremacy at sea. For years the English were the only representatives of freedom in Europe. At last it seemed that two fortunate allies arose to join their cause--the insurgents in Spain and in the little land of Tyrol. No wonder then that now British poets sympathised with the victors at the hill of Isel, and praised their courage and their leaders, and at last, when they were overcome by superior forces, laid the laurel wreath of tragic heroism on their graves.

"Thirty or forty years before, English poets would scarcely have shown such a lively interest in a war of independence in a foreign country. They stood under the curse of narrow-mindedness and one-sidedness both in politics and in art, so that their smooth-running verses neither sought nor found a response even in the hearts of their own fellow-countrymen. The poets who appeared before the public in the year 1798 with the famous 'Lyrical Ballads' were the first to strike out a new path. Although differing considerably from one another in other respects, they agreed in their opposition to the conventionality of the old school."

. . . . .

"Wordsworth lived in a simple little house on the romantic lake of Grasmere, in the heart of the mountains of Westmoreland. He studied more in his walks over heath and field than in books, and entered with interest into the questions affecting the good of the country people around him. All this of necessity impelled him to take a warm interest in the herdsmen of the Alps.

"But the Tyrolese inspired him with still greater interest on political grounds. Like all the lake poets, he was an enthusiastic admirer, not of the French revolution, but of the republic as long as it seemed to desire the realization of the ideas of Liberty, Fraternity, Equality, and the rest of Rousseau's Arcadian notions; and it was a bitter disillusion for him, as well as for Klopstock, when this much-praised home of the free rights of man resolved itself into the empire of Napoleon. From this moment he took his place on the side of the enemies of France, and particularly on the side of the Tyrolese, since they had never lost the natural simplicity of their habits, and had regained the hereditary freedom, of which they had been deprived, with the sword. Thus arose the curious paradox, that a republican poet glorified spontaneously the cause of an exceedingly monarchical and conservative country.

"Wordsworth gave vent to his enthusiasm in six sonnets, which, as far as power of language and vigour of thought are concerned, form interesting companion-pieces to the poems of the contemporary Tyrolese poet Alois Weissenbach. In the first three sonnets the splendour of the Alpine world, which he knew from his journeys in Switzerland, forms the background of the picture. In the foreground he sees a band of brave and daring men, in whose hearts he thought he could find all his own moral pathos. Many of the features which he has introduced certainly show more ideal fancy than knowledge of detail; but it was not his purpose to compose a correct report of the war, but to give an exciting description of the heroes of this struggle for independence, in order that, even though they themselves should be overpowered, their spirit might arise again among his own fellow-countrymen. In the fourth sonnet, in his enthusiasm for the Tyrolese, he has treated the German universities with unnecessary severity; but this does not prove any intentional want of fairness on his part, for at that time our universities stood under general discredit in England as the hotbeds of the wildest metaphysics and political dreams. The events of the year 1813 would probably induce Wordsworth to view them in a more favourable light. Similarly the sixth sonnet is not quite just to Austria; in particular Wordsworth has made decidedly too little allowance for the fact that the Emperor Franz I. ceded the Tyrol quite against his own will under the pressure of circumstances. But in this case we must not simply impute all the blame to the poet; for as we see from the diary of his friend Southey, his information as to the doings of Austria was of a most vague and unfavourable character. We, however, cannot have any wish to impute to Austria the sins of ill-advised diplomacy."

The following are Herr Brandl's German translations of five of Wordsworth's sonnets:--

1

Andreas Hofer.

Von Sterblichen geboren sei der Held, Der den Tirolern todeskühn gebeut? Ist etwa Tell's Geist aus der Ewigkeit Gekehrt, zu wecken die verlor'ne Welt?

Er kommt wie Phöbus aus dem Morgenzelt, Wenn sich die Finsterniß der Nacht zerstreut, Und doch, wie schlicht! Ein Falkenschweif nur dreut Von seinem Hut und füllt sein Wappenfeld.