And O! beside these simple knaves, To such coarse joys as these, The green-wood and the wold; And love the more, that of their maze By ancient bards is told, NOTES. CANTO I. Note 1. Introduction. Stanza viii. Like COLLINS, ill-starr'd name! COLLINS, according to Johnson, by indulging some peculiar habits of thought, was eminently delighted with those flights of imagination which pass the bounds of nature, and to which the mind is reconciled only by a passive acquiescence in popular traditions. He loved fairies, genii, giants, and monsters; he delighted to rove through the meanders of enchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of golden palaces, to repose by the waterfalls of Elysian gardens.»> Note 2. Stanza i. tha Baron of Triermain. ing in John de Vaux, about the year 1665, his daughter! The third in descent from the above-mentioned John Richmond became the representative of the families of Vaux, of Triermain, Caterlen, and Torcrossock, by his marriage with Mabel de Vaux, the heiress of them. His grandson Henry Richmond died without issue, leaving five sisters co-heiresses, four of whom married. but Margaret, who married William Gale, Esq. of Whitehaven, was the only one who had male issue surviving. She had a son, and a daughter married to Henry Curwen of Workington, Esq., who represented, the county of Cumberland for many years in Parisment, and by her had a daughter married to Joha Christian, Esq. (now Curwen). John, son and heir of William Gale, married Sarah, daughter and heiress of Christopher Wilson of Bardsea-hall, in the county of Lancaster, by Margaret, aunt and co-heiress of Thomas Braddyl, Esq. of Braddyl, and Cornishead Priory, in the same county, and had issue four sons and two daugh ters:-1st. William Wilson, died an infant; 2d. Wilson, | who upon the death of his cousin, Thomas Braddy, Triermain was a fief of the Barony of Gilsland, in Cumberland; it was possessed by a Saxon family at the time of the Conquest, but, « after the death of Gilmore, Lord of Tryermaine and Torcrossock, Hubert Vaux gave Tryermaine and Torcrossock to his second son, Ranulph Vaux, which Ranulph afterwards became heir to his elder brother Robert, the founder of Laner-without issue, succeeded to his estates and took the cost, who died without issue. Ranulph, being Lord of all Gilsland, gave Gilmore's lands to his own younger son, named Roland, and let the barony descend to his eldest son Robert, son of Ranulph. Ronald had issue Alexander, and he Ranulph, after whom succeeded Robert, and they were named Rolands successively, that were lords thereof, until the reign of Edward the Fourth. That house gave for arms, Vert, a bend dexter, chequey, or and gules.»-BURN's Antiquities of Westmoreland and Cumberland, vol. II, p. 482. This branch of Vaux, with its collateral alliances, is now represented by the family of Braddyl of Cornishead Priory, in the county palatine of Lancaster; for it appears that, about the time above mentioned, the house of Triermain was united to its kindred family Vaux of Caterien, and, by marriage with the heiress of Delamore and Leybourne, became the representative of those ancient and noble families. The male line fail name of Braddyl, in pursuance of his will, by the kings sign manual; 3d. William, died young, and, 4th. Heary Richmond, a lieutenant-general of the army, married Sarah, daughter of the Rev. R. Baldwin; Margaret married Richard Greaves Townley, Esq. of Fulbourne, in the county of Cambridge, and of Bellfield, in the county of Lancaster; Saralı married to George Bigland, of Bigland-ball, in the same county. Wilson Braddyl, eldest son of John Gale, and grandson of Margaret Richmond, marrid Jane, daughter and heiress of Matthias Gale, Esq. of Cargill-ball, in the county of Cumberland, by Jane, daughter and heiress of the Rev. S. Bennet, D. D.; and, as the eldest surviving male branch of the families above-mentioned, he quarters, in addition to his own, their paternal coats in į the following order, as appears by the records in the College of Arms. 1st. Argent, a fess azure, between three salticrs of the same, charged with an anchor between 2 lions' heads erazed, or,-Gale. 2d. Or, 2 bars gemelles gules, and a chief or,-Richmond. 3d. Or, a fess chequey, or and gules between 9 gerbes gules,-Vaux of Caterlen. 4th. Gules, a fess chequey, or and gules between 6 gerbes or,-Vaux of Torcrossock. 5th. 'Argent, a bend chequey, or and gules, for Vaux of Triermain. 6th. Gules, a cross-patonce, or,-Delamore. CANTO II. Note 1. Stanza x. From Arthur's hand the goblet flew. The author has an indistinct recollection of an adventure somewhat similar to that which is here ascribed to King Arthur, having befallen one of the ancient kings of Denmark. The horn in which the burning 7th. Gules, 6 lions rampant argent, 3, 2, and 1, liquor was presented to that monarch, is said still to Leybourne. 2 Note 3. Stanza vi. And his who sleeps at Dunmailraise. Dunmailraise is one of the grand passes from Cumberland into Westmoreland. It takes its name from a cairn, or pile of stones, erected, it is said, to the memory of Dunmail, the last king of Cumberland. Note 4. Stanza vii. -Penrith's Table Round. A circular entrenchment, about half a mile from Penrith, is thus popularly termed. The circle within the ditch is about one hundred and sixty paces in circumference, with openings, or approaches, directly opposite to each other. As the ditch is on the inner side, it could not be intended for the purpose of defence, and it has reasonably been conjectured, that the inclosure was designed for the solemn exercise of feats of chi valry; and the embankment around for the convenience of the spectators. Note 5. Stanza vii. -Mayburgh's mound and stones of power. Higher up the river Eamont than Arthur's Round Table, is a prodigious inclosure of great antiquity, formed by a collection of stones upon the top of a gen ty-sloping hill, called Mayburgh. In the plain which it incloses there stands erect an unhewn stone of twelve feet in height. Two similar masses are said to have been destroyed during the memory of man. The whole appears to be a monument of druidical times. Note 6. Stanza x. Though never sun-beam could discern The small lake called Scales-tarn lies so deeply embosomed in the recesses of the huge mountain called Saddleback, more poetically Glaramara, is of such great depth, and so completely hidden from the sun, that it is said its beams never reach it, and that the reflection of the stars may be seen at mid-day. Note 7. Stanza xvii. -Tintadgel's spear. Tintadgel Castle, in Cornwall, is reported to have been the birth-place of King Arthur. Note 8. Stanza xvii. -Caliburn in cumbrous length. be preserved in the Royal Museum at Copenhagen. Note 2. Stanza x. Nor tower nor donjon could be spy, ➖➖➖« We now gained a view of the Vale of Saint John, a very narrow dell, hemmed in by mountains, through which a small brook makes many meanderings, washing little inclosures of grass-ground, which stretch up the rising of the hills. In the widest part of the dale you are struck with the appearance of an ancient ruined castle, which seems to stand upon the summit of a little mount, the mountains around forming an amphitheatre. This massive bulwark shows a front of various towers, and makes an awful, rude, and Gothic appearance, with its lofty turrets and ragged battlements; we traced the galleries, the bending arches, the buttresses. The greatest antiquity stands characterized in its architecture; the inhabitants near it assert it is an antediluvian structure. « The traveller's curiosity is roused, and he prepares to make a nearer approach, when that curiosity is put upon the rack by his being assured, that if he advances, certain genii who govern the place, by virtue of their supernatural art and necromancy, will strip it of all its beauties, and, by enchantment, transform the magic walls. The vale seems adapted for the habitation of such beings; its gloomy recesses and retirements look like haunts of evil spirits. There was no delusion in the report; we were soon convinced of its truth; for this piece of antiquity, so venerable and noble in its aspect, as we drew near, changed its figure, and proved no other than a shaken massive pile of rocks, which stand in the midst of this little vale, disunited from the adjoining mountains, and have so much the real form and resemblance of a castle, that they bear the name of the Castle Rocks of St John.»-HUTCHINSON'S Excursion to the Lakes, p. 121. Note 3. Stanza xi. The Saxons to subjection brought. Arthur is said to have defeated the Saxons in twelve pitched battles, and to have achieved the other feats alluded to in the text. Note 4. Stanza xiii. There Morolt of the iron mace, etc. The characters named in the following stanza are all of them, more or less, distinguished in the romances This was the name of King Arthur's well-known which treat of King Arthur and his Round Table, and word, sometimes also called Excalibar. their names are strung together according to the established custom of minstrels upon such occasions; for example, in the ballad of the marriage of Sir Gawaine: Sir Lancelot, Sir Stephen bolde, They rode with them that daye, Note 5. Stanza xiii. Upon this delicate subject hear Richard Robinson, citizen of London, in his Assertion of King Arthur: «But as it is a thing sufficiently apparent that she (Guenever, wife of King Arthur) was beautiful, so it is a thing doubted whether she was chaste, yea or no. Truly, so far as I can with honestie, I would spare the impayred honour and fame of noble women. But yet the truth of the historie pluckes me by the eere, and willeth me not onely, but commandeth me to declare what the ancients have deemed of her. To wrestle or contend with so great authoritie were indeed unto me a controversie, and that greate »-Assertion of King Arthure. Imprinted by John Wolfe, London, 1582. Note 6. Stanza xviii. There were two who loved their neighbours' wives, And one who loved his own. standyng poole, covered and overflowed all England, fewe books were read in our tongue, savyng certaine bookes of chevalrie, as they said, for pastime and pleasure; which, as some say, were made in the monasteries, by idle monks or wanton chanons. As one for example, La morte d'Arthure; the whole pleasure of which book standeth in two speciall poynts, in open manslaughter and bold bawdrye; in which booke they be counted the noblest knightes that do kill most men without any quarrell, and commit fowlest adoulteries by sutlest shiftes; as Sir Launcelot, with the wife of King Arthur, his master; Sir Tristram, with the wife of King Marke, his uncle; Sir Lamerocke, with the wit of King Lote, that was his own aunt. This is good stuffe for wise men to laugh at, or honest men to take pleasure at, yet I know when God's Bible was banished the court, and La Morte d'Arthure received into the prince's chamber. »>-ASCHAM'S Schoolmaster. Note 7. Stanza xviii. valiant Carodac, Who won the cup of gold. See the comic tale of the Boy and the Mantle, the third volume of Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry, from the Breton or Norman original of which Ariesto is supposed to have taken his tale of the Enchanted << In our forefathers' tyme, when papistric, as a Cup. AND TO THE COMMITTEE OF SUBSCRIBERS FOR RELIEF of the PORTUGUESE SUFFERERS, This Poem, COMPOSED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE FUND UNDER THEIR MANAGEMENT, BY WALTER SCOTT. PREFACE. THE following poem is founded upon a Spanish tradition, particularly detailed in the Notes; but bearing, in general, that Don Roderick, the last Gothic King of Spain, when the invasion of the Moors was impending, had the temerity to descend into an ancient vault, near Toledo, the opening of which had been denounced as fatal to the Spanish monarchy. The legend adds, that his rash curiosity was mortified by an emblematical representation of those Saracens, who, in the year 714, defeated him in battle, and reduced Spain under their dominion. I have presumed to prolong the Vision of the Revolutions of Spain down to the present eventful crisis of the Peninsula; and to divide it, by a supposed change of scene, into THREE PERIODS. The FIRST of these represents the Invasion of the Moors, the Defeat and Death of Roderick, and closes with the peaceful occupation of the country by the victors. The SECOND PERIOD embraces the state of the Peninsula, when the conquests of the Spaniards and Portuguese in the East and West Indies had ra`sed to the highest pitch the renown of their arms; sullied, however, by superstition and cruelty. An allusion to the inhumanities of the Inquisition terminates this picture. The LAST PART of the poem opens with the state of Spain previous to the unparalleled treachery of BONAPARTE; gives a sketch of the usurpation attempted upon that unsuspicious and friendly kingdom, and terminates with the arrival of the British succours. It may be farther proper to men tion, that the object of the poem is less to commemo rate or detail particular incidents, than to exhibit a general and impressive picture of the several periods brought upon the stage. I am too sensible of the respect due to the Public, especially by one who has already experienced more than ordinary indulgence, to offer any apology for the inferiority of the poetry to the subject it is chiefly designed to commemorate. Yet I think it proper to mention, that while I was hastily executing a work, written for a temporary purpose, and on passing events, the task was cruelly interrupted by the successive deaths of Lord President BLAIR, and Lord Viscount MELVILLE. In those distinguished characters, I had not only to refret persons whose lives were most important to Scothand, but also whose notice and patronage honoured my entrance upon active life; and I may add, with melancholy pride, who permitted my more advanced age to claim no common share in their friendship. Under such interruptions, the following verses, which my best and happiest efforts must have left far unworthy of their theme, have, I am myself sensible, an appearance of negligence and incoherence, which, in other circumstances, I might have been able to remove. X. Explore those regions, where the flinty crest Than the fierce Moor, float o'er Toledo's fane, «There, of Numantian fire a swarthy spark Beam not, as once, thy nobles' dearest pride, Have seen the plumed Hidalgo quit their side, III. But of their monarch's person keeping ward, Their post beneath the proud cathedral hold; Who, for the cap of steel and iron mace, Bear slender darts, and casques bedeck'd with gold, While silver-studded belts their shoulders grace, Where ivory quivers ring in the broad falchion's place. IV. In the light language of an idle court, They murmur'd at their master's long delay, And held his lengthen'd orisons in sport :— << What! will Don Roderick here till morning stay, To wear in shrift and prayer the night away? And are his hours in such dull penance past, For fair Florinda's plunder'd charms to pay'»-(5) Then to the east their weary eyes they cast, Have seen, yet dauntless stood-gainst fortune fought | And wish'd the lingering dawn would glimmer forth a Proud Alaric's descendant could not brook, VISION OF DON RODERICK. That mortal man his bearing should behold, I. REARING their crests amid the cloudless skies, And darkly clustering in the pale moon-light, Toledo's holy towers and spires arise, As from a trembling lake of silver white. Their mingled shadows intercept the sight Of the broad burial-ground outstretch'd below, And nought disturbs the silence of the night; All sleeps in sullen shade, or silver glow, All save the heavy swell of Teio's ceaseless flow. II. All save the rushing swell of Teio's tide, Or distant heard, a courser's neigh or tramp, Their changing rounds as watchful horsemen ride, To guard the limits of King Roderick's camp. For, through the river's night-fog rolling damp, Was many a proud pavilion dimly seen, Which glimmer'd back, against the moon's fair lamp, Tissues of silk and silver-twisted sheen, And standards proudly pitch'd, and warders arm'd be tween. Or boast that he had seen, when conscience shook, Fear tame a monarch's brow, remorse a warrior's long VII. The old man's faded cheek wax'd yet more pale, « Yet, holy father, deem not it was I.»Thus still ambition strives her crime to shade«Oh rather deem 't was stern necessity! Self-preservation bade, and I must kill or die. VIII. « And if Florinda's shrieks alarm'd the air, Know by their bearing to disguise their mood:- Sent to the monarch's cheek the burning bloodHe stay'd his speech abrupt—and up the prelate stooK The predecessor of Roderick upon the Spanish throme, and slain by his connivance, as is affirmed by Rodriguez of Taimia, the father of Spanish history. 1 |