The wrath-beam fell. He shudders.. but too late; The dreadful liquor works the will of Fate. Immortal he is made; but through his veins A stream of poison doth the Amreeta run, Like molten ore, beneath the avenging Eye, 19. The fiery Three, Beholding him, set up a fiendish cry, A song of jubilee ; Come, Brother, come! they sung; too long Henceforth we bear no more The unequal weight; Come, Brother, we are Four! 20. Vain his almightiness, for mightier pain Subdued all power; pain ruled supreme alone; And yielding to the bony hand The unemptied cup, he moved toward the Throne, And at the vacant corner took his stand. Behold the Golden Throne at length complete, And Yamen silently ascends the Judgement-seat. 21. For two alone, of all mankind, to me The Man hath drunk, the Woman's turn is next. She took the fated Cup; and, lifting up Is it not your command, Ye heavenly Powers? as on her knees she fell, The pious Virgin cried; Ye know my innocent will, my heart sincere, Ye govern all things still, And wherefore should I fear! 22. She said, and drank. The Eye of Mercy beam'd From her pure touch, the fated Cup partook. Like one entranced she knelt, Feeling her body melt Till all but what was heavenly pass'd away : Yet still she felt Her Spirit strong within her, the same heart, With the same loves, and all her heavenly part Unchanged, and ripen'd to such perfect state In this miraculous birth, as here on Earth, Dimly our holiest hopes anticipate. 23. Mine! mine! with rapturous joy Ereenia cried, Immortal now, and yet not more divine; Mine, mine, . . . for ever mine! The immortal Maid replied, For ever, ever, thine! 24. Then Yamen said, O thou to whom by Fate, Alone of all mankind, this lot is given, Daughter of Earth, but now the Child of Heaven! Go with thy heavenly Mate, Partaker now of his immortal bliss ; And there recall the hours 25. But that sweet Angel, for she still retain'd Upon her Father fix'd, and spread her hands Go! Yamen said, nor cast that look behind Upon Ladurlad at this parting hour, For thou shalt find him in thy Mother's Bower. 26. The Car, for Carmala his word obey'd, Moved on, and bore away the Maid, While from the Golden Throne the Lord of Death With love benignant on Ladurlad smiled, And gently on his head his blessing laid. As sweetly as a Child, Whom neither thought disturbs nor care encumbers, Tired with long play, at close of summer day, Lies down and slumbers, Even thus as sweet a boon of sleep partaking, By Yamen blest, Ladurlad sunk to rest. Blessed that sleep! more blessed was the waking! For on that night a heavenly morning broke, The light of he..ven was round him when he woke, And in the Swerga, in Yedillian's Bower, All whom he loved he met, to part no more. RODERICK, THE LAST OF THE GOTHS: A TRAGIC POEM. "Tanto acrior apud majores, sicut virtutibus gloria, ita flagitiis pœnitentia, fuit. Sed hæc aliaque, ex veteri memoriâ petita, quotiens res locusque exempla recti, aut solatia mali, poscet, haud absurdè memorabimus.' Taciti Hist. lib. iii. c. 51. ΤΟ GROSVENOR CHARLES BEDFORD, IN LASTING MEMORIAL OF A LONG AND UNINTERRUPTED FRIENDSHIP, BY HIS OLD SCHOOLFELLOW, ROBERT SOUTHEY. "As the ample Moon, In the deep stillness of a summer even Sets forth and magnifies herself; thus feeds From error, disappointment,..nay from guilt; Wordsworth. PREFACE. THE history of the Wisi-Goths for some years before their overthrow is very imperfectly known. It is, however, apparent, that the enmity between the royal families of Chindasuintho and Wamba was one main cause of the destruction of the kingdom, the latter party having assisted in betraying their country to the Moors for the gratification of their own revenge. Theodofred and Favila were younger sons of King Chindasuintho; King Witiza, who was of Wamba's family, put out the eyes of Theodofred, and murdered Favila, at the instigation of that Chieftain's wife, with whom he lived in adultery. Pelayo, the son of Favila, and afterwards the founder of the Spanish monarchy, was driven into exile. Roderick, the son of Theodofred, recovered the throne, and put out Witiza's eyes in vengeance for his father; but he spared Orpas, the brother of the tyrant, as being a Priest, and Ebba and Sisibert, the two sons of Witiza, by Pelayo's mother. It may be convenient thus briefly to premise these circumstances of an obscure portion of history, with which few readers can be supposed to be familiar; and a list of the principal persons who are introduced, or spoken of, may as properly be prefixed to a Poem as to a Play. WITIZA, King of the Wisi-Goths; dethroned and blinded by Roderick. SISIBERT, EBBA, sons of Witiza and of Pelayo's mother. THEODOFRED,... son of King Chindasuintho, blinded by NUMACIAN, ... a renegade, governor of Gegio. King Witiza. COUNT JULIAN, ,.. a powerful Lord among the Wisi-Goths, now a renegade. FLORINDA,..... his daughter, violated by King Roderick. 1 The story of Count Julian and his daughter has been treated as a fable by some authors, because it is not mentioned by the three writers who lived nearest the time. But those writers state the mere fact of the conquest of Spain as briefly as possible, without entering into particulars of any kind; and the best Spanish historians and antiquaries are persuaded that there is no cause for disbelieving the uniform and concurrent tradition of both Moors and Christians. For the purposes of poetry, it is immaterial whether the story be true or false. I have represented the Count as a man both sinned against and sinning, and equally to be com. miserated and condemned. The author of the Tragedy of Count Julian has contemplated his character in a grander point of view, and represented him as a man self-justified in bringing an army of foreign auxiliaries to assist him in delivering his country from a tyrant, and foreseeing, when it is too late to recede, the evils which he is thus bringing upon her. "Not victory that o'ershadows him, sees he! Act V. Scene 2. Parts of this tragedy are as fine in their kind as any thing which can be found in the whole compass of English poetry. Juan de Mena places Count Julian with Orpas, the renegado Archbishop of Seville, in the deepest pit of hell:- I. RODERICK AND ROMANO. LONG had the crimes of Spain cried out to Heaven; "No buenamente te puedo callar Orpas maldito, ni á ti Julian, Pues soys en el valle mas hondo de afan, Que no se redime jamas por llorar: Qual ya crueza vos pudo indignar A vender un dia las tierras y leyes De España, las quales pujança de reyes En años á tantos no pudo cobrar." Copla 91. Had stain'd their country; not because a yoke Of iron servitude oppress'd and gall'd 1 Never has any country been so cursed by the spirit of persecution as Spain. Under the Heathen Emperors it had its full share of suffering, and the first fatal precedent of appealing to the secular power to punish heresy with death, occurred in Spain. Then came the Arian controversy. There was as much bigotry, as much rancour, as little of the spirit of Christianity, and as much intolerance on one part as on the other; but the successful party were better politicians, and more expert in the management of miracles. Near to the city of Osen, or Ossel, there was a famous Catholic church, and a more famous baptistery, which was in the form of a cross. On holy Thursday in every year, the bishop, the clergy, and the people assembled there, saw that the baptistery was empty, and enjoyed a marvellous fragrance which differed from that of any, or all, flowers and spices, for it was an odour which came as the vesper of the divine virtue that was about to manifest itself: Then they fastened the doors of the church and sealed them. On Easter Eve the doors were opened, the baptistery was found full of water, and all the children born within the preceding twelve months were baptised. Theudisclo, an Arian king, set his seal also upon the doors for two successive years, and set a guard there. Still the miraculous baptistery was filled. The third year he suspected pipes, and ordered a trench to be dug round the building; but before the day of trial arrived, he was murdered, as opportunely as Arius himself. The trench was dry, but the workmen did not dig deep enough, and the miracle was continued. When the victory of the Catholic party was complete, it was no longer necessary to keep it up. The same baptistery was employed to convince the Spaniards of their error in keeping Easter. In Brito's time, a few ruins called Oscla, were shown near the river Cambria; the broken baptistery was then called the Bath, and some wild superstitions which the peasantry related bore traces of the original legend. The trick was not uncommon; it was practised in Sicily and in other places. The story, however, is of some value, as showing that baptism was administered only once a year (except in cases of danger), that immersion was the manner, and that infants were baptized. Arianism seems to have lingered in Spain long after its defeat. The names Pelayo (Pelagius), and Arias, certainly appear to indicate a cherished heresy, and Brito † must have felt this when he deduced the former name from Saint Pelayo of the tenth century; for how came the Saint by it, and how could Brito have forgotten the founder of the Spanish monarchy ? In the latter half of the eleventh century, the Count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer, Cap de estopa, as he was called, for his bushy head, made war upon some Christians who are said to have turned Arians, and took the castles into which they retired. By the number of their castles, which he gave to those chiefs who assisted him in conquering them, they appear to have been numerous. It is not improbable that those people were really what they are called; for Arian has never been, like Manichæan, a term ignorantly and indiscriminately given to heretics of all descriptions; and there is no heresy which would be so well understood in Spain, and so likely to have revived there. The feelings of the triumphant party toward their opponents, are well marked by the manner in which St. Isidore speaks of the death of the emperor Valens:-"Thraciam ferro incendiisque depopulantur, deletoque Romanorum exercitu, ipsum Valentem jaculo vulneratum, in quadam villa In the sevententh and last council of Toledo, it was decreed that the baptistery should be shut up, and sealed with the episcopal seal, during the whole year, till Good Friday; on that day the bishop, in his pontificals, was to open it with great solemnity, in token that Christ, by his passion and resurrection, had opened the way to heaven for mankind, as on that The children of the soil 2; a private wrong Roused the remorseless Baron. Mad to wreak fugientem succenderunt, ut merito ipse ab eis vivus temporali cremaretur incendio, qui tam pulchras animas ignibus æternis § tradiderat." If the truth of this opinion should be doubted, there is a good Athanasian miracle in the Chronicon of S. Isidore and Melitus, to prove it. A certain Arian, by name Olympius, being in the bath, blasphemed the Holy Trinity, and, behold! being struck by an angel with three fiery darts, he was visibly consumed. With regard to the Arians, the Catholics only did to the others as the others would have done to them; but the persecution of the Jews was equally unprovoked and inhuman. They are said to have betrayed many towns to the Moors; and it would be strange indeed if they had not, by every means in their power, assisted in overthrowing a government under which they were miserably oppressed. St. Isidore has a memorable passage relating to their cruel persecution and compulsory conversion under Sisebut: " Qui initio regni Judæos ad Fidem Christianam permovens æmulationem quidem habuit, sed non secundum scientiam: potestate enim compulit, quos provocare fidei ratione oportuit. Sed sicut est scriptum, sive per occasionem sive per veritatem Christus annuntiatur, in hoc gaudeo et gaudebo.S. Isidor. Christ. Goth. España Sagrada, 6. 502. The Moorish conquest procured for them an interval of repose, till the Inquisition was established, and by its damnable acts put all former horrors out of remembrance. When Toledo was recovered from the Moors by Alonso VI., the Jews of that city waited upon the conqueror, and assured him that they were part of the ten tribes whom Nebuchadnezzar had transported into Spain; not the descendants of the Jerusalem Jews who had crucified Christ. Their ancestors, they said, were entirely innocent of the crucifixion; for when Caiaphas the high-priest had written to the Toledan synagogues to ask their advice respecting the person who called himself the Messiah, and whether he should be slain, the Toledan Jews returned for answer, that in their judgement the prophecies seemed to be fulfilled in this person, and, therefore, he ought not by any means to be put to death. This reply they produced in the original Hebrew, and in Arabic, as it had been translated by command of King Galifre. Alonso gave ear to the story, had the letter rendered into Latin and Castilian, and deposited it among the archives of Toledo. The latter version is thus printed by Sandoval. "Levi Archisinagogo, et Samuel, et Joseph, homes bonos del Aljama de Toledo, á Eleazar Muyd gran Sacerdote, é á Samuel Canud, y Anas, y Cayphas, homes bonos de la Aljama de la Terra Santa, Salud en el Dios de Israel. "Azarias voso home, Maeso en ley nos aduxo las cartas que vos nos embiavades, por las quales nos faziades saber cuemo passava la facienda del Propheta Nazaret, que diz que facie muchas sennas. Colo por esta vila, non ha mucho, un cierto Samuel, fil de Amacias, et fablo nusco, et reconto muchas bondades deste home, que ye, que es home homildoso et manso, que fabla con los laçeriados, que faz á todos bien, é que faciendole á el mal, el non faz mal á ninguem; et que es home fuerte con superbos et homes malos, et que vos malamente teniades enemiga con el, por quanto en faz el descubria vosos pecados, ca por quanto facia esto, le aviades mala voluntad. Et perquirimos deste home, en que año, 6 mes 6 dia, avia nacido: et que nos lo dixesse: falamos que el día de la sua Natividade foron vistos en estas partes tres soles muelle á muelle, fizieron soldemente un sol; et cuemo nosos day the hope was opened of obtaining redemption through the holy sacrament of baptism.-Morales, 12. 62. 3. + Monarchia Lusitana, 2. 7. 19. 1 Père Tomich. c. 34. f. 25. Hist. Goth. apud Florez. Espana Sagrada, t. 6. 486. Espana Sagrada, t. 6. 474. His vengeance for his violated child On Roderick's head, in evil hour for Spain, For that unhappy daughter and himself, is gentilitious, or national to the Jews, we cannot well concede. And if, (according to good relations,) where they may freely speak it, they forbear not to boast that there are at present many thousand Jews in Spain, France, and England, and some dispensed withal even to the degree of priesthood, it is a matter very considerable, and could they be smelled out, would much advantage not only the church of Christ, but also the coffers of princes. The ground that begat or propagated this assertion might be the distasteful averseness of the Christian from the Jew upon the villany of that fact, which made them abominable, and stink in the nostrils of all men.' Which real practice and metaphorical expression did after proceed into a literal construction, but was a fraudulent illation; for such an evil savour their father Jacob acknowledged in himself, when he said his sons had made him stink in the land, that is, to be abominable unto the in padres cataron esta senna, asmados dixeron que cedo el Messias nacería, et que por aventura era ja nacido. Catad hermanos si por aventura ha ja venido et non le ayades acatado. Relataba tambien el susodicho home, que el suo pay le recontava, que ciertos Magos, homes de mucha sapiencia, en la sua Natividade legaron á tierra santa, perquiriendo logar donde el niño sancto era nacido; y que Herodes voso Rey se asmo, et diposito junto á homes sabios de sua vila, é perquirio donde nasceria el Infante, por quien perquirian Magos, et le respondieron, en Betlem de Juda, segun que Micheas depergino profeto. Et que dixeron aqueles Magos, que una estrella de gran claredad, de luenne aduxo á tierra santa: catad non sea esta quela profezia, cataran Reyes, et andaran en claridad de la sua Natividade. Otrosi, catad non persigades al que forades tenudos mucho honrar et recibir de bon talante. Mais fazed lo que tuvieres por bien aguisada; nos vos dezimos que nin por consejo, nin por noso alvedrio veni-habitants thereof. Another cause is urged by Campegius, remos en consentimiento de la sua morte. Ca, si nos esto fiziessemos, logo seria nuesco, que la profezia que diz, congregaronse de consuno contra el Sennor, et contra el suo Messias. E damos vos este consejo, maguera sodes homes de muyta sapença, que tengades grande aficamento sobre tamana fazienda, porque el Dios de Israel enojado con vusco, non destruya casa segunda de voso segundo templo. Ca sepades cierto, cedo ha de ser destruyda; et por esta rason nosos antepassados, que salieron de captiverio de Babylonia, siendo suo Capitane Pyrro, que embio Rey Cyro, et aduxo nusco muytas riqueças que tollo de Babylonia el año de sesenta et nueve de captividade, et foron recebidos en Toledo de Gentiles que y moravan et edificaron una grande Aljama, et non quisieron bolver á Jerusalem otra vegada á edificar Temple, aviendo ser destruido otra vegada. De Toledo catorze dias del mes Nisan, Era de Cesar diez y ocho, y de Augusto Octaviano setenta y uno."- Sandoval, 71. Had Alonso been as zealous as some of his Gothic predecessors, or his most Catholic successors, he might have found a fair pretext in this letter for ordering all the Jews of Toledo to the font, unless they would show cause why they should adhere to the opinion of Caiaphas and the Jerusalem Jews, rather than to that of their own ancestors. General Vallancy believes that the Spanish Jews were brought into the Peninsula by Nebuchadnezzar, and admits these Toledans as authority. He quotes Count de Gebelin, and refers to Strabo and Ezekiel. The proof from Ezekiel rests upon the word Orb, Earb, Warb, or Gharb; which is made into Algarve ! A Jew in Tirante el Blanco (p. 2. c. 74. f. 243.) explains the difference between the different races of Jews. They are three, he says. One the progeny of those who took counsel for the death of Christ and they were known by this, that they were in continual motion, hands and feet, and never could rest; neither could their spirit ever be still, and they had very little shame. The second were the descendants of those who put in execution and assisted at the various parts of the sufferings and death of Christ, and they never could look any man in the face, nor could they, without great difficulty, ever look up to heaven. The third were the children of David, who did all they could to prevent the death of Christ, and shut themselves up in the temple that they might not witness it. These are affable, good men, who love their neighbours; a quiet peaceable race, who can look any where. Thomas Tamaio de Vargas, the editor of the spurious Luitprand, says, that not only many Hebrew words are mixed with the old Spanish, but that, pró dolor! the black and stinking Jewish blood had been mingled with the most pure blood of the Spaniards. (p. 96.) They were very anxious, he says, to intermarry, and spoil the pure blood. And he adds, that the Spaniards call them putos, quia putant. But," says Sir Thomas Browne, that an unsavoury odour and much received by Christians; that this ill savour is a curse derived upon them by Christ, and stands as a badge or brand of a generation that crucified their Salvator. But this is a conceit without all warrant, and an easy way to take off dispute in what point of obscurity soever.”— Vulgar Errors, Book iv. ch. 10. The Mahommedans also hold a like opinion of the unsavouriness of the Jews, and account for it by this legend which is given by Sale. "Some of the children of Israel abandoned their dwellings because of a pestilence, or, as others say, to avoid serving in a religious war; but as they fled, God struck them all dead in a certain valley. About eight days or more after, when their bodies were corrupted, the Prophet Ezekiel happening to pass that way, at the sight wept; whereupon God said to him, Call to them, O Ezekiel, and I will restore them to life.' And accordingly, on the prophet's call, they all arose, and lived several years after; but they retained the colour and stench of dead corpses as long as they lived, and the clothes they wore were changed as black as pitch, which qualities they transmitted to their posterity. One of our own travellers* tells us of a curious practical application of this belief in Barbary. "The Moors of Tangier," he says, "when they want rain, and have prayed in vain for it, set the Jews to work, saying, that though God would not grant it to the prayers of the faithful, he would to the Jews, in order to be rid of their stink." Ludicrous as this is, South has a passage concerning the Jews, which is little more reasonable, in one of his sermons. "The truth is," he says, "they were all along a cross, odd, untoward sort of people, and such as God seems to have chosen, and (as the Prophets sometimes phrase it) to have espoused to himself, upon the very same account that Socrates espoused Xantippe, only for her extreme ill conditions, above all that he could possibly find or pick out of that sex: and so the fittest argument both to exercise and declare his admirable patience to the world.”— Vol. i. 421. Of the condition of slaves under the Spanish Wisigoths, I have given an account in the Introduction to the Chronicle of the Cid. This also, like the persecution of the Jews, must greatly have facilitated the Moorish conquest. Another facilitating cause was, that notwithstanding their frequent civil disturbances, they had in great measure ceased to be a warlike people. The many laws in the Fuero Juzgo, for compelling men to military service, prove this. These laws are full of complaints that the people would avoid the service if they could. Habits of settled life seem throughout Europe to have effeminated the northern conquerors, till the Normans renovated the race, and the institutions of chivalry and the crusades produced a new era. Hist. of the Captivity of Thomas Pellew, p. 257. |