was divorced by the council of King John, and the said Earle had married the daughter of the Earle Ferrers. King John being now in extremity, and mindinge to impute the fault to them that would not appease his fury aforetime, reprehended fometimes one, and fometimes an other of his nobility, as traytors, calling them jealous, whose beds (as he bragged) he had defiled, and defloured their daughters. The Chronicle of Dunmow faith, this difcord arofe betwixt the king and his barons because of Mawde, called the faire, daughter to Robert Fitz Walter, whom the king loved, but her father would not confent, and thereupon enfued war throughout England. The king spoiled especially the caftle Baynard in London, and other holds, and houfes of the Barons. Robert Fitz Walter, Roger Fitz Robert, and Richard Mount Fitchet, paffed over into France; fome also went into Wales, and fome into Scotland, and did great damage to the king. Whilest Mawde the Faire remained at Dunmow, there came a meifenger unto her from king John about his fuit in love; but because she would not agree, the meffenger poifoned a boiled or potched egge against she was hungerie, whereof the died, and was buried in the quire at Dunmow." STOW'S ANNALES, 1615. Ed. p. 170.

Page 95.

As there we ftood, the countrie round we ey'd, &c.

If we confider the time in which this was written, we cannot but admire the juftnefs and propriety of the rural scenery here selected.

How the gray fhepherd. The epithet gray refers to his dress and not his age. Thus Drayton defcribes the fame character:

The Shepheard ware afbrepe-gray cloke,

Which was of the fineft loke

That could be cut with sheere.

Page 100.

DOWSABELL.

This public entry of Henry and Bolinbroke, is thus intro duced and defcribed by Shakipeare.

Scene

3. The Duke of York's Palace. Enter York and bis Dutchess.

Dutch. My Lord, you told me you would tell the rest,
When weeping made you break the ftory off,

Of our two coufins coming into London.

York. Where did I leave?

Dutch. At that fad ftop, my Lord,

Where rude mif-govern'd hands, from window tops,

Threw duft and rubbish on King Richard's head.

York. Then, as I faid. the Duke, great Bolingbroke,
Mounted upon a hot and firey fteed,

Which his afpiring rider feem'd to know,

With flow but stately pace kept on his courfe :
While all tongues cry'd, God jave thee Bolingbroke!

You would have thought the very windows fpake;

So many greedy looks of young and old

Through cafements darted their defiring eyes
Upon his vifage; and that all the walls

With painted imagʼry had said at once,
Jefu preferve thee! welcome, Bolingbroke!
Whilft he, from one fide to the other turning,
Bareheaded, lower than his proud fteed's neck
Bespoke them thus, "I thank you, country-men;"
And thus ftill doing, thus he pafs'd along.

Dutch. Alas! poor Richard, where rides he the while?
York. As in a theatre, the eyes of men,

After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage,

Are idly bent on him that enters next,
Thinking his prattle to be tedious:

Even fo, or with much more contempt, men's eyes.
Did fcowl on Richard; no man cry'd, God fave him!
No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home;
But duft was thrown upon his facred head;
Which with fuch gentle forrow he shook off,
His face ftill combating with tears and fmiles,
The badges of his grief and patience;

That had not God, for fome ftrong purpose, steel'd
The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted,
And barbarism itself have pitied him.

But Heaven hath a hand in these events,

To whofe high will we bound our calm contents,
To Bolingbroke are we sworn subjects now,
Whofe ftate and honour I for aye allow.

Page 102. Are these the triumphs for thy victories? In the fame fpirit with Virgil's,

Hi noftri reditus expectatique triumphi!

Page 106.

RICHARD II.

II Æn. 54.

Thefe heares, of age are meffengers, &c.

See Dr. Percy's Ballads, who has printed the following fine traditional lines, being part of an old fong which he profeffes to have received from a friend:

his reverend lockes

In comelye curles did wave;

And on his aged temples grewe

The bloemes of the grave.

Page 107.

p. 160. vol. II.

Were not the fmother'd children buried deep?

There is much nature in this fpirited interrogation.

Page 109.

he takes his helmet bright,

Which like a twinkling ftarre with trembling light
Sends radiant luftre through the darkfome aire :

This description of a piece of armour is as fine as any thing I am able to. recollect of the kind. Let the reader compare it with the following lines of Glover:

L 3

his

his glittering fhield

Whofe fpacious orb collects th' effulgent beams
Which from his throne meridian Phoebus caft,
Flames like another fun.

LEONIDAS.

Page 113. Thrice happy you, tbat look as from the shore, &c.

Suave mari magro turbantibus æquora ventis,
E terrâ magnum alterius fpectare laborem;
Non quia vexari quemquam eft jucunda voluptas,
Sed quibus ipfe malis careas, quia cernere fuave eft.

Lucret. 2 Lib.

On the fubject of kindred fenfations to this, I have been always pleafed with the following patlage in Dr. Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands. "We came in the afternoon to Slanes.Caft, built upon the margin of the fea, fo that the walls of one of the towers feem only a continuation of a perpendicular rock, the foot of which is beaten by the waves. To walk round the houfe feemed impracticable; from the windows the eye wanders over the fea that feparates Sco land from Norway, and when the winds beat with violence must enjoy all the terrifick grandeur of the tempestuous ocean. I would not for my amuiement wish for a storm; but as ftorms, whether wished or not, will fometimes happen, I may say, without violation of humanity, that I should willingly look out upon them from Slanes Caftle." p. 36.

NOTES.

N O T E S.

VOLUME II.

Page 3.

Keenly they hunted, &c.

To this and the fucceeding lines, may with justice be applied, what Dr. Warton has observed of fome lines of Pope. "The metaphors in the fucceeding lines, drawn from the field-fports of fetting and shooting, feem below the dignity of the fubject." 2 Vol. 124, on Pope.

Page 6. There is a moral charm in these little pieces of Southwell, that will prejudice most readers of feeling in favour of their author; fhould these volumes meet with fuccefs, the publisher of them will make it his buisness 'to collect and republish the better part of Southwell's poetry, which is now entirely forgotten, and very fcarce. Bolton, in his Hypercritica, makes mention of him. "Never must be forgotten St. Peter'sComplaint, and those other ferious poems faid to be father Southwell's: the English whereof, as it is most proper, fo the sharpness and light of wit is very rare in them."

Page 9. Pope had a fimilar idea in his intended Ode on the Folly of Ambition, the sketch of which is preferv'd in Ruffhead, p. 424.

Whereon when as the gazing paffenger, &c.

Page 9.

And there Ambri plac'd in memory, &c.

See Selden's Notes to Drayton's Poly Olbion. Song 3. Mr. Warton's Hift. of Eng. Poetry, 1 Vol. p. 53.

Page 10.

And are become a traitor to their name.

Thus Drayton fpeaking of the fame place. Poly-Olbion, 3 Song.

Ill did thofe mighty men to trust thee with their story
That haft forgot their names, who rear'd thee for their glory:
For all their wondrous coft, thou that haft ferv'd them fo
What 'tis to trust to tombs, by thee we eafily know.

Sacred is here used in the fenfe of accurfed like the auri facra fames of Virgil.

En. 57.

Page 15.

Page 16.

But fince our life so fast away doth flide, &c.

Life's ftream for obfervation will not stay,

It hurries all too faft to mark their way:

In vain fedate reflections we would make,

When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take.
On human actions reafon tho' you can,

It may be reafon, but it is not man;
His principles of action once explore,
That inftant 'tis his principle no more.

Pope's Epift. to Sir R. Temple.

Where is th' Affyrian Lion's golden hide, &c.

Thus Spenfer in "The Ruines of Time."

What now is of th' Affyrian Lionefs,

Of whom no footing now on earth appears ?
What of the Perfian bear's outrageoufnefs,
Whose memory is quite worn out with years?
Who of the Grecian Libbard now ought hears,

That over-ran the Eaft with greedy powre,
And left his welps their Kingdoms to devour?

P. 9. Hugh. Edit.

And that black Vulture, which with deathfull wing
Ore-fhadores half the earth-

Mr. Hayley, in his Effay on Hiftory, has a very bold and magnificent image of this kind. He is about to defcribe Livy, Ep. i.

Of mightier fpirit, of majestic frame;

With powers proportion'd to the Roman fame,
When Rome's fierce Eagle bis broad wings unfurl'd
And shadow'd with his plumes the fubject world
In bright pre-eminence, &c.

Page