II. 3.

*Fill high the sparkling bowl,

"The rich repaft prepare,

"Reft of a crown, he yet may fhare the feaft:

"Close by the regal chair

"Fell Thirft and Famine fcowl

"A baleful fimile upon their baffled Gueft.

* Richard the Second, (as we are told by Archbishop Scroop and the confederate Lords in their manifefto, by Thomas of: Walfingham, and all the older Writers,) was ftarved to death. The story of his affaffination by Sir Piers of Exon, is of much later date.

"Heard

"Heard ye the din of * battle bray,

"Lance to lance, and horfe to horse?

Long Years of havock urge their destined [course, "And thro' the kindred fquadrons mow their [way.

"Ye Towers of Julius+, London's lasting shame, "With many a foul and midnight murther fed, "Revere his Confort's faith, his Father's || fame, "And spare the meek § Ufurper's holy head.

*Ruinous civil wars of York and Lancaster.

Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, &c. believed to be murthered fecretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of 'that ftructure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Cæfar.

Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic fpirit, who ftruggled hard to fave her Husband and her Crown.

Henry the Fifth.

§ Henry the Sixth very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the Crown.

"Above, below, the * rofe of fnow,

"Twined with her blushing foe, we spread :

"The bristled + Boar in infant-gore

"Wallows beneath the thorny shade.

"Now, Brothers, bending o'er th' accurfed

*The white and red rofes, devices of York and Lancaster.

+ The filver Boar was the badge of Richard the Third ; whence he was usually known in his own time by the name of the Bear.

III. I.

"Edward, lo! to fudden fate

(Weave we the woof. The thread is fpun)

"* Half of thy heart we confecrate.

(The web is wove. The work is done.)"

Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn

• Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn :

* Eleanor of Caftile died a few years after the conqueft of Wales. The heroic proof fhe gave of her affection for her Lord is well known. The monuments of his regret, and forrow for the loss of her, are ftill to be seen at Northampton, Geddington, Waltham, and other places.

2

• In

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

But oh! what folemn fcenes on Snowdon's

[height 'Descending flow their glitt'ring skirts unroll?

Vifions of glory, fpare my aching fight,

Ye unborn Ages, crowd not on my foul!

'No more our long-loft * Arthur we bewail.

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

[hail!

* It was the common belief of the Welch nation, that King Arthur was ftill alive in Fairy-Land, and fhould return again to reign over Britain.

+ Both Merlin and Talieffin had prophefied, that the Welch fhould regain their sovereignty over this island; which seemed to be accomplished in the House of Tudor.