Sir Charles Murray of Ratcliffe, too, Sir David Lamb, so well esteemed, And the Lord Maxwell, in like case, Of fifteen hundred Englishmen, Next day did many widows come, They washed their wounds in brinish tears, Their bodies, bathed in purple gore, They kissed them dead a thousand times, The news was brought to Edinburgh, Was with an arrow slain: "O heavy news!" King James did say, 66 Scotland can witness be, I have not any captain more Of such account as he." Like tidings to King Henry came, Within as short a space, That Percy of Northumberland Was slain in Chevy Chace. "Now God be with him," said our king, "Sith 'twill no better be; I trust I have within my realm, (1) Sith-since. Another form is silhence, whence came since. "Yet shall not Scots nor Scotland say, For brave Earl Percy's sake." This vow full well the king performed, In one day fifty knights were slain, And of the rest, of small account, Thus ended the hunting of Chevy Chace, God save the king! and bless this land FEMALE NAMES. IN Christian world MARY the garland wears; (1) Humbledown-Humbleton, or Homildon Hill, in Northumberland, where a battle took place in 1402, in which the Earl of Northumberland and his son, Hotspur, gained a complete victory over the Scots. (2) Thus ended-This battle at Homildon Hill, which was occasioned by the hunting in Chevy Chace, is called the ending of the hunting. (3) Debate-this word, formerly used to denote every kind of contest, has in course of time come to mean verbal strife only. Having displayed in the beginning of this ballad the tributes of praise which its merits have elicited, it is but fair to add, at the close, a contrary opinion delivered by a great authority. Dr. Johnson, in his "Life of Addison," while ridiculing Addison for having praised the ballad in the "Spectator," speaks of the "chill and lifeless imbecility of the poem," and adds:-" The story cannot possibly be told in a manner that shall make less impression on the mind:"—an opinion which, when compared with Dr. Percy's, given in a former note, proves how widely "doctors" may "differ." Among the lesser lights how Lucy1 shines! Of coarsest household stuff And is not CLARE for love excuse enough? Lamb. SWIMMING.2 CHEERED by the milder beam, the sprightly youth Instant emerge; and through the obedient wave, (1) Lucy-from the Latin lux, lucis, light. The graceful ingenuity displayed in this and the next two lines well deserves attention. "Among the lesser lights how Lucy shines," is exceedingly apt, and scarcely less so, "What air of fragrance Rosamond (from the Latin rosa, rose, and munda, pure or sweet) throws round." (2) This passage is extracted from the "Summer" of Thomson's " Seasons." (3) Gazing i. e. gazing at. This licence of leaving out words is very frequently employed by Thomson. See below, "headlong down the circling flood," i. e. into the flood; and "the limbs knit," i. e. became knit or compacted into strength. E Thus life redoubles; and is oft preserved Thomson. (1) Illapse-sliding into, occurrence. This "swift illapse of accident disastrous," is a very pedantic and unpleasing expression. (2) Even the word "even" belongs to the next clause, though for convenience' sake placed here. The construction in prose would be, From the body's purity, even the mind, &c. (3) Rays of virtue shine-because tears are frequently the indication of repent ance. (4) Love or pity, &c.—all which passions, though so diverse in their character, find relief through the same natural channel. 1 The sage's and the poet's theme,' That law which moulds a tear, And bids it trickle from its source, That law preserves the earth a sphere, Rogers. A PSALM OF LIFE.3 "Be up and doing." TELL me not, in mournful numbers, Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Funeral marches to the grave. (1) The sage's, &c.—The tear which stimulates the poet's fancy, impels the philosopher to inquire scientifically into its origin, the cause of its shape, trickling down, &c. (2) Law-the law of gravitation. (3) "No poet has more beautifully expressed the depth of his conviction, that life is an earnest reality, something with eternal issues and dependencies; that this earth is no scene of revelry, a market of sale, but an arena of contest, and a hall of doom. This is the inspiration of his [Longfellow's] 'Psalm of Life.””— Gilfillan. |