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. ↩
“Shone, like a meteor, streaming to the wind.”
—Milton’s Paradise Lost, I 537.
The shores of Caernarvonshire opposite to the isle of Anglesey. ↩
Cambden 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 Ornithol., published by Ray.) ↩
“As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
—Julius Caesar, II 1.
That visit my sad heart.”
See “The Fatal Sisters.” ↩
Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkley-Castle. ↩
Isabel of France, Edward the Second’s adulterous Queen. ↩
Triumphs of Edward the Third in France. ↩
Death of that King, abandoned by his Children, and even robbed in his last moments by his Courtiers and his Mistress. ↩
Edward, the Black Prince, dead some time before his Father. ↩
Magnificence of Richard the Second’s reign. See Froissard and other contemporary writers. ↩
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. ↩
Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster. ↩
Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, etc., believed to be murthered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Caesar. ↩
Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her Husband and her Crown. ↩
Henry the Fifth. ↩
Henry the Sixth very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the Crown. ↩
The white and red roses, devices of York and Lancaster. ↩
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. ↩
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. The monuments of his regret and sorrow for the loss of her, are still to be seen at Northampton, Geddington, Waltham, and other places. ↩
It was the common belief of the Welsh nation, that King Arthur was still alive in Fairyland, and should return again to reign over Britain. ↩
Accession of the Line of Tudor. 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. ↩
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 tartness of her princely cheeks.” ↩
Taliessin, Chief of the Bards, flourished in the VI Century. His works are still preserved, and his memory held in high veneration among his countrymen. ↩
“Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralize my song.”
—Spenser, Proeme to the Fairy Queen.
Shakespeare. ↩
Milton. ↩
The succession of Poets after Milton’s time. ↩
“Awake, my glory; awake, lute and harp.”
—David’s Psalms.
Pindar styles his own poetry, with its musical accompaniments, Αἰοληίς μολπὴ, Αἰολίδες χορδαὶ, Αἰολίδων πνοαὶ αὐλῶν, Aeolian song, Aeolian strings, the breath of the Aeolian flute.
The subject and simile, as usual with Pindar, are united. The various sources of poetry, which gives life and lustre to all it touches, are here described; its quiet majestic progress enriching every subject (otherwise dry and barren) with a pomp of diction and luxuriant harmony of numbers; and its more rapid and irresistible course, when swollen and hurried away by the conflict of tumultuous passions. ↩
Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of the soul. The thoughts are boriowed from the first Pythian of Pindar. ↩
This is a weak imitation of some incomparable lines in the same Ode. ↩
Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body. ↩
Μαρμαρυγὰς θηεῖτο ποδων· θαύμαζε δὲ θυμῷ.
—Homer, Od. Θ 265.
Λάμπει δ’ ἐπὶ πορφυρέησί
—Phrynichus, apud Athenaeum.
Παρείησι φῶς ἕρωτος.
To compensate the real and imaginary ills of life, the Muse was given to mankind by the same Providence that sends the day, by its cheerful presence, to dispel the gloom and terrors of the night. ↩
“Or seen the Morning’s well-appointed Star
—Cowley.
Come marching up the eastern hills afar.”
Extensive influence of poetic genius over the remotest and
