ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following Ode is founded on a tradition current in Wales, that Edward the Firft, when he compleated the conqueft of that country, ordered all the Bards, that fell into his hands, to be put to death.

I. 1.

UIN feize thee, ruthless king!

"R"

• Confufion on thy banners wait,

Though, fann'd by Conqueft's crimson wing, *They mock the air with idle state.

Helm, nor† hauberk's twisted mail,

Nor e'en thy virtues, tyrant, fhall avail
To fave thy fecret foul from nightly fears,
From Cambria's curfe, from Cambria's tears!'

*Mocking the air with colours idly spread.

Shakespeare's King John. + The hauberk was a texture of steel ringlets, or rings interwoven, forming a coat of mail, that fat clofe to the body, and adapted itself to every motion.

Such

2.

Such were the founds, that o'er the * crested pride
Of the first Edward scatter'd wild dismay,
As down the steep of † Snowdon's faggy fide
He wound with toilsome march his long array.
Stout | Glo'ster ftood aghast in speechless trance:
To arms! cried & Mortimer, and couch'd his quivering
lance.

I. On a rock, whofe haughty brow Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood; Rob’d in the fable garb of woe, With haggard eyes the Poet stood ; (l Loose his beard, and hoary hair .. ** Stream’d, like a meteor, to the troubled air) * - The crested adder's pride. Dryden's Indian Queen.

+ Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that mountainous tract, which the Welsh themselves call Craigian-eryri : it included all the highlands of Caernarvonihire and Merionethshire, as far east as the river Conway. R. Hygden, speaking of the castle of Conway, built by King Edward the first, says, “ Ad “ ortum amnis Conway ad clivum montis Erery;" and Matthew of Westminster, (ad ann. 1283,) “ Apad “ Aberconway ad pedes montis Snowdoniæ fecit erigi 46 castrum forte."

I Gilbert de Clare, furnamed the Red, Earl of Gloua cester and Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward.

§ Edmond de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore.

They both were Lords-Marchers, whose lands lay on the borders of Wales, and probably accompanied the king in this expedition.

|| The image was taken from a well-known picture of Raphaël; representing the Supreme Being in the n of Ezekiel : there are two of these paintings (both

i original,) one at Florence, the other at Paris. ione, like a meteor, Itreaming to the wind.

Milton's Paradise Lost.

And

And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire,
Struck the deep forrows of his lyre.

Hark, how each giant-oak, and defert cave,
Sighs to the torrent's aweful voice beneath!

O'er thee, oh King! their hundred arms they wave,
Revenge on thee in hoarfer murmurs breathe;
< Vocal no more, fince Cambria's fatal day,
To high-born Hoel's harp, or foft Llewellyn's lay.

I. 3.

Cold is Cadwallo's tongue,

That hufh'd the stormy main :

Brave Urien fleeps upon his craggy

Mountains, ye mourn in vain

Modred, whofe magic fong

bed:

• Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-top'd head.

* On dreary Arvon's fhore they lie,

Smear'd with gore, and ghaftly pale:

Far, far aloof th' affrighted ravens fail;

The famih'd + eagle fcreams, and paffes by.

The fhores of Caernarvonfhire oppofite to the inte of Anglesey.

+ Camden and others obferve, that eagles ufed annually to build their aerie among the rocks of Snowdon, which from thence (as fome 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 Neft. That bird is certainly no ftranger to this ifland, as the Scots, and the people of Cumberland, Weftmoreland, &c. can teftify: it even has built its neft in the Peak of Derbyshire. [See Willoughby's Ornithol. published by Ray.]

'Dear loft companions of my tuneful art,
< * Dear, as the light that visits thefe fad eyes,
• Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart,
Ye died amidft your dying country's cries
No more I weep. They do not fleep.

On yonder cliffs, a griefly band,

• I see them fit, they linger yet, Avengers of their native land:

• With me in dreadful harmony they join,

And † weave with bloody hands the tiffue of thy line."

II. I.

"Weave the warp, and weave the woof, "The winding-fheet of Edward's race. "Give ample room, and verge enough "The characters of hell to trace.

"Mark the year, , and mark the night,

"When Severn fhall re-echo with affright

«The shrieks of death, thro' Berkley's roofs that ring; "Shrieks of an agonizing King!

"She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs,

* As dear to me as are the ruddy drops,

That vifit my fad heart- SHAKESP. Jul. Cæfar. + See the Norwegian Ode, that follows.

Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkleycaftle.

Ifabel of France, Edward the Second's adulterous Queen.

* That

That tears the bowels of thy mangled Mate,

* From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs "The fcourge of Heaven.

"wait!

What terrors round him

Amazement in his van, with Flight combin'd; "And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.

"Mighty Victor, mighty Lord,

"Low on his funeral couch he lies!

"No pitying heart, no eye, afford
"A tear to grace his obfequies.

"Is the fable ‡ Warrior fled?

66

Thy fon is gone. He rets among the Dead.

"The Swarm, that in the noon-tide beam were born? "Gone to falute the rifing Morn.

"Fair || laughs the Morn, and foft the Zephyr blows, "While proudly riding o'er the azure realm

"In gallant trim the gilded veffel goes;

"Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm ; "Regardless of the fweeping Whirlwind's fway, "That, hush'd in grim repofe, expects his evening-prey.

*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 fome time before his father.

Magnificence of Richard the Second's reign. Sce Froiffard, and other contemporary writers.