Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

"Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face 7, "Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace.

"What strings symphonious tremble in the air, "What strains of vocal transport round her play! "Hear from the grave, great Talliessin m, hear; “They breathe a soul to animate thy clay. "Bright Rapture calls, and, soaring as she sings, "Waves in the eye of Heav'n her many-colour'd "wings.

III. 3.

"The verse adorn again

"Fierce War, and faithful Love n, "And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest.

1 Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face. 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 tartnesse of her princelie "checkes."

m Hear from the grave, great Talliessin.

Talliessin, chief of the Bards, flourished in the sixth century. His works are still preserved, and his memory held in high veneration among his countrymen.

n Fierce War, and faithful Love.

Fierce wars and faithful loves shall moralize my

song.

Spencer's Proem to the Fairy Queen.

"In buskin'd measures move o "Pale Grief, and pleasing Pain,

"With Horror, Tyrant of the throbbing breast. "A voice, as of the Cherub Choir, f,

"Gales from blooming Eden bear;

"And distant warblings lessen on my ear, g

"That lost in long futurity expire.

"Fond impious Man, think'st thou yon sanguine "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 assign. "Be thine Despair, and sceptred Care, "To triumph, and to die, are mine."

o In buskin'd measures move.

Shakespeare.

A voice, as of the cherub-choir.

Milton.

q And distant warblings lessen on my ear. The succession of Poets after Milton's time.

G

He spoke; and headlong from the mountain's height Deep in the roaring tide he plung'd to endless "night. [19]

[19] The original argument of this Ode, as its author had set it down on one of the pages of his common-place book, was as follows: "The army of Ed"ward I. as they march through a deep valley, are "suddenly stopped by the appearance of a venerable "figure seated on the summit of an inaccessible rock, "who, with a voice more than human, reproaches the "king with all the misery and desolation which he "had brought on his country; foretells the misfor66 tunes of the Norman race, and with prophetic spi"rit declares, that all his cruelty shall never extin

guish the noble ardour of poetic genius in this island; "and that men shall never be wanting to celebrate 66 true virtue and valour in immortal strains, to ex(6 pose vice and infamous pleasure, and boldly censure 66 tyranny and oppression. His song ended, he pre"cipitates himself from the mountain, and is swal"lowed up by the river that rolls at its foot."

ODE FOR MUSIC.

[This Ode was performed in the Senate-House at Cambridge, July 1, 1769, at the Installation of his Grace Augustus-Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, Chancellor of the University. To give the reader an idea of its musical arrangement, we have printed it with the divisions adopted by the Composer, Dr. Randall, then Music Professor at Cambridge.]

AIR.

"HENCE, avaunt, ('tis holy ground)
"Comus, and his midnight-crew,
"And Ignorance with looks profound,
"And dreaming Sloth of pallid hue,
"Mad Sedition's cry profane,

"Servitude that hugs her chain,

"Nor in these consecrated bowers

"Let painted Flatt'ry hide her serpent-train in flowers.

CHORUS.

"Nor Envy base, nor creeping Gain,

"Dare the Muse's walk to stain,

"While bright-eyed Science watches round: "Hence, away, 'tis holy ground!"

RECITATIVE.

From yonder realms of empyrean day
Bursts on my ear th' indignant lay :
There sit the sainted Sage, the Bard divine,
The Few, whom Genius gave to shine
Thro' every unborn age, and undiscover'd clime.
Rapt in celestial transport they;

Yet hither oft a glance from high

They send of tender sympathy,

To bless the place where on their opening soul
First the genuine ardour stole.

'Twas Milton struck the deep-ton'd shell,
And, as the choral warblings round him swell,
Meek Newton's self bends from his state sublime,
And nods his hoary head, and listens to the rhyme.

AIR.

"Ye brown o'er-arching Groves,
"That Contemplation loves,

« ForrigeFortsett »