What can be greater than either the thought or the expression in that stanza? To drive the deer with hound and horn Earl Piercy took his way; The child may rue that is unborn The hunting of that day. This way of considering the misfortunes which this battle would bring upon posterity, not only on those who were born immediately after the battle, and lost their fathers in it, but on Io those also who perished in future battles, which took their rise from this quarrel of the two earls, is wonderfully beautiful, and conformable to the way of thinking among the ancient poets. 20 30 40 What can be more sounding and poetical, or resemble more the majestic simplicity of the ancients, than the following stanzas? The stout Earl of Northumberland A vow to God did make, His pleasure in the Scottish woods With fifteen hundred bowmen bold, Who knew full well, in time of need, To aim their shafts aright. The hounds ran swiftly through the woods, The nimble deer to take; And with their cries the hills and dales Vocat ingenti clamore Citharon Taygetique canes, domitrixque Epidaurus equorum : GEORG. iii. 43. Lo, yonder doth Earl Douglas come, Full twenty hundred Scottish spears, All men of pleasant Tividale, Fast by the river Tweed, etc. The country of the Scotch warriors, described in these two last verses, has a fine romantic situation, and affords a couple of smooth words for verse. If the reader compares the foregoing six lines of the song with the following Latin verses, he will see how much they are written in the spirit of Virgil. Adversi campo apparent hastasque reductis But to proceed: Æn. xi. 605; vii. 682, 7I2. Earl Douglas on a milk-white steed, Rode foremost of the company, Whose armour shone like gold. Turnus ut antevolans tardum præcesserat agmen, &c. Our English archers bent their bows, They closed full fast on ev'ry side, With that there came an arrow keen Out of an English bow, Which struck Earl Douglas to the heart A deep and deadly blow. Eneas was wounded after the same manner by an unknown hand in the midst of a parley. Has inter voces, media inter talia verba, ÆN. xii. 318. But of all the descriptive parts of this song, there are none more beautiful than the four following stanzas, which have a great force and spirit in them, and are filled with very natural circumstances. The thought in the third stanza was never touched by any other poet, and is such an one as would have shined in Homer or Virgil. CC So thus did both these nobles die, He had a bow bent in his hand, Against Sir Hugh Montgomery The gray goose wing that was thereon This sight did last from break of day For when they rung the ev'ning-bell, The battle scarce was done. One may observe likewise, that in the catalogue of the slain the author has followed the example of the greatest ancient poets, not only in giving a long list of the dead, but by diversifying it 20 with little characters of particular persons. And with Earl Douglas there was slain Sir Hugh Montgomery, Sir Charles Carrel, that from the field Sir Charles Murrel of Ratcliff too, Sir David Lamb, so well esteem'd, The familiar sound in these names destroys the majesty of the 30 description; for this reason I do not mention this part of the poem but to show the natural cast of thought which appears in it, as the two last verses look almost like a translation of Virgil. In the catalogue of the English who fell, Witherington's behaviour is in the same manner particularized very artfully, as the 40 reader is prepared for it by that account which is given of him in the beginning of the battle; though I am satisfied that your little buffoon readers (who have seen that passage ridiculed in Hudibras) will not be able to take the beauty of it: for which n reason I dare not so much as quote it. Then stept a gallant squire forth, Who said, I would not have it told That e'er my captain fought on foot, 10 We meet with the same heroic sentiments in Virgil. 20 Non pudet, O Rutuli, cunctis pro talibus unam Non sumus? N. xii. 229. What can be more natural or more moving, than the circumstances in which he describes the behaviour of those women, who had lost their husbands on this fatal day? Next day did many widows come, Their husbands to bewail; They wash'd their wounds in brinish tears, Their bodies bathed in purple blood, They bore with them away: They kiss'd them dead a thousand times, When they were clad in clay. Thus we see how the thoughts of this poem, which naturally arise from the subject, are always simple, and sometimes exquisitely noble; that the language is often very sounding; and that the whole is written with a true poetical spirit. If this song had been written in the Gothic manner, which 30 is the delight of all our little wits, whether writers or readers, it would not have hit the taste of so many ages, and have pleased the readers of all ranks and conditions. I shall only beg pardon for such a profusion of Latin quotations; which I should not have made use of, but that I feared my own judgment would have looked too singular on such a subject, had not I supported it by the practice and authority of Virgil.-C. No. 165. On the Introduction of French military terms into English; letter describing the battle of Blenheim. Si forte necesse est, Fingere cinctutis non exaudita Cethegis Continget: dabiturque licentia sumpia pudenter. HOR. Ars Poet. 48. I have often wished, that as in our constitution there are several persons whose business it is to watch over our laws our liberties and commerce, certain men might be set apart as superintendents of our language, to hinder any words of a foreign coin from passing among us; and in particular to prohibit any French phrases from being current in this kingdom, when those of our own stamp are altogether as valuable. The present war has so adulterated our tongue with strange words, that it would be impossible for one of our great grandfathers to know what 10 his posterity have been doing, were he to read their exploits in a modern newspaper. Our warriors are very industrious in propagating the French language, at the same time that they are so gloriously successful in beating down their power. Our soldiers are men of strong heads for action, and perform such feats as they are not able to express. They want words in their own tongue to tell us what it is they achieve, and therefore send us over accounts of their performances in a jargon of phrases, which they learn among their conquered enemies. They ought however to be provided with secretaries, and assisted by our 20 foreign ministers, to tell their story for them in plain English, and to let us know in our mother-tongue what it is our brave countrymen are about. The French would indeed be in the right to publish the news of the present war in English phrases, and make their campaigns unintelligible. Their people might flatter themselves that things are not so bad as they really are, were they thus palliated with foreign terms, and thrown into shades and obscurity: but the English cannot be too clear in their narrative of those actions, which have raised their country to a higher pitch of glory than it ever yet arrived at, and which 30 will be still the more admired the better they are explained. For my part, by that time a siege is carried on two or three days, I am altogether lost and bewildered in it, and meet with so many inexplicable difficulties, that I scarce know what side has |