Here o'er the Martyr-King the marble weeps, ,
And, fast beside him, once-fear'd Edward sleeps :
Whom not th' extended Albion could contain, 315
From old Belerium to the northern main,
The grave unites; where e'en the Great find rest,
And blended lie th' oppressor and th' opprest!

Make sacred Charles's tomb for ever known,
(Obscure the place, and uninscrib’d the stone) 320
Oh fact accurst! what tears has Albion shed,
Heav'ns, what new wounds! and how her old have

bled !

NOTES. by his most beautiful ode on the prospect of this neighbouring college, from which so many ornaments and supports of state and church have proceeded.

Warton. Ver. 314. once-fear'd Edward sleeps :) Edward IV. P.

Ver. 316.] See an account of Belerium, so called from Bellerus, a Cornish giant, that part of Cornwall called the Lands End, in Warton's edition of Milton's Poems, p. 28.

Warton. Cape Cornwall is called by geographers Promontorium Bolericum, but by Diodorus Siculus, v. 21, Belerium. The same place is intended in Milton's Lycidas, v. 160.

Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old. Wakefield. Ver. 319. Make sacred Charles's] Vigneul-Marville, v. 1. p. 152, relates a fact concerning this unhappy Monarch that I do not find mentioned in any history: which he says Lord Clarendon used to mention when he retired to Rouen in Normandy; that one of the first circumstances that gave disgust to the people of England, and to some of the nobility, was a hint thrown out by

Charles

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 321. Originally thus in the MS.

Oh fact accurst! oh sacrilegious brood,
Sworn to Rebellion, principled in blood!
Since that dire morn what tears has Albion shed,
Gods! what new wounds, &c.

She saw her sons with purple death expire,
Her sacred domes involv'd in rolling fire,
A dreadful series of intestine wars,

325
Inglorious triumphs and dishonest scars.
At length great Anna said—“Let Discord cease!"
She said, the world obey'd, and all was Peace!

In that blest moment, from his oozy bed Old father Thames advanc'd his rev'rend head ; 330 His tresses dropp'd with dews, and o'er the stream His shining horns diffus'd a golden gleam;

NOTES.

Charles I. at the beginning of his reign, that he thought all the ecclesiastical revenues that had been seized and distributed by Henry VIII. ought to be restored to the church. Warton.

Ver. 329.] It may gratify a curious reader to see an extract of a letter of Prior to Lord Bolingbroke, written from Paris, May 18, 1713, conc oncerning a medal that was to be struck on the Peace

of VARIATIONS. Ver. 327. Thus in the MS,

Till Anna rose and bade the Furies cease ;

Let there be peace-she said, and all was Peace.
Between Verse 330 and 331, originally stood these lines ;

From shore to shore exulting shouts he heard,
O'er all his banks a lambent light appear’d,
With sparkling flames heav'n's glowing concave shone,
Fictitious stars, and glories not her own.
He saw, and gently rose above the stream;
His shining horns diffuse a golden gleam:
With pearl and gold his tow'ry front was drest,
The tributes of the distant East and West.

P.

IMITATIONS.

Ver. 328. The world obey'd, and all was peace !] “Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, Peace.” Milton.

Gravid on his urn appear'd the moon, that guides
His swelling waters, and alternate tides ;
The figur'd streams in waves of silver roll'd, 335
And on her banks Augusta rose in gold.
Around his throne the sea-born brothers stood,
Who swell with tributary urns his flood:
First the fam'd authors of his ancient name,
The winding Isis and the fruitful Thame; 340
The Kennet swift, for silver eels renown'd;
The Lodden slow, with verdant alders crown'd;
Cole, whose dark streams his flow'ry islands lave;
And chalky Wey, that rolls a milky wave:
The blue, transparent Vandalis appears;

345
The gulphy Lee his sedgy tresses rears ;
And sullen Mole, that hides his diving flood;
And silent Darent, stain'd with Danish blood.

NOTES. of Utrecht, so highly celebrated in this passage : communicated to me by the favour of the late Duchess Dowager of Portland.

“ I dislike your medal, with the motto,

COMPOSITIS VENERANTUR ARMIS.

I will have one of my own design ; the Queen's bust surrounded with laurel, and with this motto,

ANNÆ AUG.

FELICI, PACIFICÆ: Peace in a triumphal car, and the words,

PAX MISSA PER ORBEM. This is ancient, this is simple, this is sense.

Rosier shall execute it, in a manner not seen in England since Simonds's time.”

Warton.

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

Ver. 341. The Kennet swift for silver eels renown's ;]

“ The crystal Trent, for fords and fish renown'd."

Drayton.

High in the midst, upon his urn reclin'd, (His sea-green mantle waving with the wind) 350 The God appear'd: he turn'd his azure eyes Where Windsor-domes and pompous turrets rise; Then bow'd and spoke; the winds forget to roar, And the hush'd waves glide softly to the shore.

NOTES.

Ver. 350.] Our poet was not deterred, from the censure which Addison passed in his Campaign, on raising and personifying rivergods, from giving us this fine description, in which Thames appears and speaks with suitable dignity and importance. How much superior is this picture to that of Boileau's Rhine; who represents the Naiads as alarming the God with an account of the march of the French Monarch; upon which the River God assumes the appearance of an old experienced commander, Alies to a Dutch fort, and exhorts the garrison to dispute the intended passage. The Rhine, marching at their head, and observing Mars and Bellona on the side of the enemy, is so terrified with the view of these superior divinities, that he most gallantly runs away, and leaves the great hero, Louis XIV. in quiet possession of his banks.—So much for a true court poet, who would not have dared to write the eight last lines of this speech of Thames, from v. 415. The lines of Addison in the Campaign were ;

Gods

may descend in factions from the skies, And rivers from their oozy beds arise. I cannot forbear mentioning, that the very first composition that made the young Racine known at Paris was his Ode from the Nymph of the Seine to the Queen, which ode, by the way, was corrected by Chapelain, at that time in high vogue as a critic, and by him recommended to the court.

Warton.

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

Ver. 348. stain'd with Danish blood.]

“ And the old Lee brags of the Danish blood.” Drayton. Ver. 351. His azure eyes.] Milton has green-eyed Neptune ; and Virgil, of Proteus, Geor. “ Ardentes oculos intorsit lumine glauco." Warton's Edition of Milton, p. 311.

Bowles.

“Hail, sacred Peace! hail, long-expected days, That Thames's glory to the stars shall raise ! Tho' Tiber's streams immortal Rome behold, Tho' foaming Hermus swells with tides of gold, From heav'n itself tho' sev’nfold Nilus flows, And harvests on a hundred realms bestows; 360 These now no more shall be the Muse's themes, Lost in my fame, as in the sea their streams. Let Volga's banks wish iron squadrons shine, And groves of lances glitter on the Rhine, Let barb'rous Ganges arm a servile train ; 365 Be mine the blessings of a peaceful reign. No more my sons shall dye with British blood Red Iber's sands, or Ister's foaming flood : Safe on my shore each unmolested swain Shall tend the flocks, or reap the bearded grain ; The shady empire shall retain no trace Of war or blood, but in the sylvan chace; The trumpet sleep while chearful horns are blown, And arms employ'd on birds and beasts alone. Behold! th' ascending Villas on my side, 375 Project long shadows o'er the crystal tide;

VARIATIONS.
Vers 263. Originally thus in the MS.

Let Venice boast her Tow'rs amidst the Main,
Where the rough Adrian swells and roars in vain ;
Here not a Town, but spacious Realm shall have
A sure foundation on the rolling wave.

PARALLEL PASSAGES.
Ver. 354.
“ And roll themselves asleep upon the shore."

Dryden's Ann. Mir.

Stevens.