The Poetical Works of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. M.P Part 73

1.--Page 366, stanza iii.

_A second Sun his lurid front uprears!_

The apparition of two or more suns in the polar firmament is well known. Mr. Ellis saw six--they are most brilliant at daybreak--and though diminished in splendour, are still visible even after the appearance of the real sun.

2.--Page 369, stanza xxvi.

_And tread where erst the Sire of freemen trod._

Thor's visit to the realms of Hela and Lok forms a prominent incident in the romance of Scandinavian mythology.

3.--Page 370, stanza x.x.xvii.

_Enormous couch'd fang'd Iguanodon._

Dr. Mantell, in his "Wonders of Geology," computes the length of the Iguanodon (formerly an inhabitant of the Wealds of Suss.e.x) at one hundred feet.

4.--Page 371, stanza x.x.xix.

_Herds, that through all the thunders of the surge._

The Deinotherium--supposed to have been a colossal species of hippopotamus.

5.--Page 371, stanza xli.

_The Troll's swart people, in their inmost home._

In Scandinavian mythology, the evil spirits are generally called Trolls (or Trolds). The name is here applied to the malignant race of Dwarfs, whose homes were in the earth, and who could not endure the sun.

6.--Page 373, stanza liii.

_Dreamless of thrones--and the fierce Visigoth._

Visigoth, _poetice_ for the Spanish ravagers of Mexico and Peru.

7.--Page 373, stanza liv.

_Calm brows that brood the doom of breathless kings!_

Napoleon.

8.--Page 377, stanza lx.x.xvi.

_That calm grand brow the son of aegir eyed._

aegir, the G.o.d of the Ocean, the Scandinavian Neptune.

9.--Page 380, stanza ciii.

_And bloodstain'd altars cursed the mountain sod._

The testimony to be found in cla.s.sical writers as to the original purity of the Druid worship, before it was corrupted into the idolatry which existed in Britain at the time of the Roman conquest, is strongly corroborated by the Welsh triads. These triads, indeed, are of various dates, but some bear the mark of a very remote antiquity--wholly distinct alike from the philosophy of the Romans and the mode of thought prevalent in the earlier ages of the Christian era; in short, anterior to all the recorded conquests over the Cymrian people. These, like proverbs, appear the wrecks and fragments of some primaeval ethics, or philosophical religion. Nor are such remarkable alone for the purity of the notions they inculcate relative to the Deity; they have often, upon matters less spiritual, the delicate observation, as well as the profound thought, of reflective wisdom. It is easy to see in them how identified was the Bard with the Sage--that rare union which produces the highest kind of human knowledge. Such, perhaps, are the relics of that sublimer learning which, ages before the sacrifice of victims in wicker idols, won for the Druids the admiration of the cautious Aristotle, as ranking among the true enlighteners of men--such the teachers who (we may suppose to have) instructed the mystical Pythagoras; and furnished new themes for meditation to the musing Brahman. Nor were the Druids of Britain inferior to those with whom the Sages of the western and eastern world came more in contact. On the contrary, even to the time of Caesar, the Druids of Britain excelled in science and repute those in Gaul; and to their schools the Neophytes of the Continent were sent.

In the Stanzas that follow the description of the more primitive Cymrians, it is a.s.sumed that the rude Druid remains _now_ existent (as at Stonehenge, &c.), are coeval only with the later and corrupted state of a people degenerated to idol-worship, and that the Cymrians previously possessed an architecture, of which no trace now remains, more suited to their early civilization. If it be true that they worshipped the Deity only in his own works, and that it was not until what had been a symbol pa.s.sed into an idol, that they deserted the mountain-top and the forest for the temple, they would certainly have wanted the main inducement to permanent and lofty architecture. Still it may be allowed, at least to a poet, to suppose that men so sensible as the primitive Saronides, would have held their schools and colleges in places more adapted to a northern climate than their favourite oak groves.

10.--Page 380, stanza civ.

_And wing'd the shaft of Scythian Abaris._

The arrow of Abaris (which bore him where he pleased) is supposed by some to have been the loadstone. And Abaris himself has been, by some ingenious speculators, identified with a Druid philosopher.

BOOK XI.

ARGUMENT.

The Siege of Carduel--The Saxon forces--Stanzas relative to Ludovick the Vandal, in explanation of the failure of his promised aid, and in description of the events in Vandal-land--The preparations of the Saxon host for the final a.s.sault on the City, under cover of the approaching night--The state of Carduel--Discord--Despondence--Famine--The apparent impossibility to resist the coming Enemy--Dialogue between Caradoc and Merlin--Caradoc hears his sentence, and is resigned--He takes his harp and descends into the town--The progress of Song; in its effects upon the mult.i.tude--Caradoc's address to the people he has roused, and the rush to the Council Hall--Meanwhile the Saxons reach the walls----The burst of the Cymrians--The Saxons retire into the plain between the Camp and the City, and there take their stand--The battle described--The single combat between Lancelot and Harold--Crida leads on his reserve; the Cymrians take alarm and waver--The prediction invented by the n.o.ble devotion of Caradoc--His fate--The enthusiasm of the Cymrians, and the retreat of the enemy to their Camp--The first entrance of a Happy Soul into Heaven--The Ghost that appears to Arthur, and leads him through the Cimmerian tomb to the Realm of Death--The sense of time and s.p.a.ce are annihilated--Death, the Phantasmal Everywhere--Its brevity and nothingness--The condition of soul is life, whether here or hereafter--Fate and Nature identical--Arthur accosted by his Guardian Angel--After the address of that Angel (which represents what we call Conscience), Arthur loses his former fear both of the realm and the Phantom--He addresses the Ghost, which vanishes without reply to his question--The last boon--The destined Soother--Arthur recovering, as from a trance, sees the Maiden of the Tomb--Her description--The Dove is beheld no more--Strange resemblance between the Maiden and the Dove--Arthur is led to his ship, and sails at once for Carduel--He arrives on the Cymrian territory, and lands with Gawaine and the Maiden, near Carduel, amidst the ruins of a hamlet devastated by the Saxons--He seeks a Convent, of which only one tower, built by the Romans, remains--From the hill-top he surveys the walls of Carduel and the Saxon encampment--The appearance of the holy Abbess, who recognizes the King, and conducts him and his companions to the subterranean grottos built by the Romans for a summer retreat--He leaves the Maiden to the care of the Abbess, and concerts with Gawaine the scheme for attack on the Saxons--The Virgin is conducted to the cell of the Abbess--Her thoughts and recollections, which explain her history--Her resolution--She attempts to escape--Meets the Abbess, who hangs the Cross round her neck, and blesses her--She departs to the Saxon Camp.

King Crida's hosts are storming Carduel! 1 From vale to mount one world of armour shines, Round castled piles for which the forest fell, Spreads the white war-town of the Teuton lines; To countless clarions countless standards swell; King Crida's hosts axe storming Carduel!

There, all its floods the Saxon deluge pours; 2 All the fierce tribes; from those whose fathers first, With their red seaxes from the southward sh.o.r.es, Carved realms for Hengist,--to the bands that burst Along the Humber, on the idle wall Rome built for manhood rotted by her thrall.

There, wild allies from many a kindred race, 3 In Cymrian lands hail Teuton thrones to be: Dark Jutland wails her absent populace,-- And large-limb'd sons, his waves no more shall see, Leave Danube desolate! afar they roam Where halts the Raven there to find a home!

But wherefore fail the Vandal's promised bands? 4 Well said the Greek, "Not till his latest hour Deem man secure from Fortune;" in our hands We clutch the sunbeam when we grasp at power;-- No strength detains the unsubstantial prize, The light escapes us as the moment flies.

And monarchs envied Ludovick the Great! 5 And wisdom's seers his wiles did wisdom call, And Force stood sentry at his castle gate, And Mammon soothed the murmurers in the hall; For Freedom's forms disguised the despot's thought-- He ruled by synods--and the synods bought!

Yet empires rest not or on gold or steel; 6 The old in habit strike the gnarled root; But vigorous faith--the young fresh sap of zeal, Must make the life-blood of the planted shoot-- And new-born states, like new religions, need Not the dull code, but the impa.s.sion'd creed.

Give but a cause, a child may be a chief! 7 What cause to hosts can Ludovick supply?

Swift flies the Element of Power, _Belief_, From all foundations hollow'd to a lie.

One morn, a riot in the streets arose, And left the Vandal crownless at the close.

A plump of spears the riot could have crush'd! 8 "Defend the throne, my spearmen!" cried the king.

The spearmen arm'd, and forth the spearmen rush'd, When, woe! they took to reason on the thing!

And then conviction smote them on the spot, That for that throne they did not care a jot.

With scuff and sc.u.m, with urchins loosed from school, 9 Thieves, gleemen, jugglers, beggars, swell'd the riot; While, like the G.o.ds of Epicurus, cool On crowd and crown the spearmen look'd in quiet, Till all its heads that Hydra call'd "The Many,"

Stretch'd hissing forth without a stroke at any.

At first Astutio, wrong but very wise, 10 Disdain'd the Hydra as a fabled creature, The vague invention of a Poet's lies, Unknown to Pliny and the laws of Nature-- Nor till the fact was past philosophizing, Saith he, "That's Hydra, there is no disguising!

"A Hydra, Sire, a Hercules demands; 11 So if not Hercules, a.s.sume his vizard."

The advice is good--the Vandal wrings his hands, Kicks out the Sage--and rushes to a wizard.