< In yon bright track, that fires the western skies,

They melt, they vanish from my eyes.

But oh what folemn fcenes on Snowdon's height

• Descending flow their glitt'ring fkirts unroll?

Visions of glory, fpare my aching fight,

Ye unborn Ages, crowd not on my soul !

h

'No more our long-loft Arthur we bewail.

6

All-hail, 'ye genuine Kings, Britannia's Iffue, hail!

It was the common belief of the Welsh nation, that King Arthur was still alive in Fairy-Land, and should return again to reign over Britain.

Both Merlin and Talieffin had prophefied, that the Welsh should regain their fovereignty over this island; which feemed to be accomplished in the House of Tudor.

III. 2.

'Girt with many a Baron bold

Sublime their starry fronts they rear;

And gorgeous Dames, and Statesmen old

• In bearded majefty, appear.

In the midst a Form divine!

'Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-Line;

• Her lion-port*, her awe-commanding face,

Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace.

Speed, relating an audience given by Queen Elizabeth to Paul Dzialinfki, Ambaffadour of Poland, fays, And thus fhe, lion-like xifing, daunted the malapert Orator no less with her ftately port and 'majestical deporture, than with the tartneffe of her princelie checkes.

• What

What ftrings fymphonious tremble in the air,

What ftrains of vocal tranfport round her play;

"Hear from the grave, great Talieffin', hear;

They breathe a foul to animate thy clay,

• Bright Rapture calls, and foaring, as the fings,

• Waves in the eye of Heav'n her many-colour'd wings.

Talieffin, Chief of the Bards, flourished in the VIth Century.' His works are ftill preserved, and his memory held in high veneration among his countrymen.

III. 3.

The verfe adorn again

m Fierce War, and faithful Love,

'And Truth fevere, by fairy Fiction dreft.

'With Horror, Tyrant of the throbbing breast.

A° Voice, as of the Cherub-Choir,

• Gales from blooming Eden bear;

And diftant warblings leffen on my ear,

That loft in long futurity expire.

Fierce wars and faithful loves fhall moralize my fong.

Shakespear.

• Milton.

Spenfer's Proëme to the Fairy Queer

P The fucceffion of Poets after Milton's time.

• Fond

• Fond impious Man, think'ft thou, yon fanguine cloud,

Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the Orb of day?

To-morrow he repairs the golden flood,

' And warms the nations with redoubled ray.

Enough for me: With joy I see

The different doom our Fates affign.

Be thine Despair, and scept'red Care;

'To triumph, and to die, are mine.'

He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height

Deep in the roaring tide he plung'd to endless night.