The Poetical Works of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. M.P Part 65

"Ergo," quoth Gawaine,--"first, the sacred cloak; 103 Next, when two parties, but concur _pro temp._ Their joint opinions only should be spoke By that which has most cause to fear the hemp.

Wherefore, my friend, this scarf supplies the gag To keep the cat symbolic--in the bag!"

So said, so done, before the Priest was able 104 To prove his counter interest in the case, The Knight had bound him with the victim's cable!

Closed up his mouth and cover'd up his face, His sacred robe with hands profane had taken, And left him that which Gawaine had forsaken.

Then Gawaine stepp'd into the blissful air, 105 Oh, the bright wonder of the Northern Night!

With Ocean's heart of music heaving there, Under its starry robe!--and all the might Of rock and sh.o.r.e, and islet deluge-riven, Distinctly dark against the l.u.s.trous heaven!

Calm lay the large rude Nature of the North, 106 Glad as when first the stars rejoicing sang, And fresh as when from kindling Chaos forth (A thought of G.o.d) the young Creation sprang; When man in all the present Father found, And for the Temple, paused and look'd around!

Nature, thou earliest Gospel of the Wise, 107 Thou never-silent Hymner unto G.o.d!

Thou Angel-Ladder lost amid the skies, Though at the foot we dream upon the sod!

To thee the Priesthood of the Lyre belong-- They hear Religion and reply in Song!

If he hath held thy wors.h.i.+p undefiled 108 Through all the sins and sorrows of his youth, Let the Man echo what he heard as Child From the far hill-tops of melodious Truth, Leaving on troubled hearts some lingering tone Sweet with the solace thou hast given his own!

NOTES TO BOOK VIII.

1.--Page 332, stanza xi.

_Frank were those times of trustful Chevisaunce._

Chevisaunce.--SPENSER.

2.--Page 332, stanza xiv.

_Roved the same pastures when the Mead-month smiled._

The MEAD-MONTH, June.

3.--Page 334, stanza xxv.

_And the strong seid compell'd revealing ghosts._

Magic.

4.--Page 334, stanza xxvii.

_Till the Last Twilight darken round the G.o.ds._

At Ragnarok, or the Twilight of the G.o.ds, the Aser and the Giants are to destroy each other, and the whole earth is to be consumed.

5.--Page 334, stanza xxviii.

_Stands my great Sire--the Saxon's Herman-Saul._

Herman-Saul (or Saule), often corruptly written Irminsula, Armensula, &c., the name of the celebrated Teuton Idol, representing an armed warrior on a column, destroyed by Charlemagne, A.D. 772.

6.--Page 334, stanza xxix.

_Far from our dangers Astrild woos thy hand._

Astrild, the Cupid of the Northern Mythology.

7.--Page 334, stanza x.x.xi.

_Than Beorn, the Incarnate Fenris of the main._

Fenris, the Demon Wolf, Son of Asa Lok.

8.--Page 336, stanza xliv.

_Dark, save when swift and sharp, and griding through._

Griding.--MILTON. "The _griding_ sword with discontinuous wound," &c.

9.--Page 338, stanza lv.

_Lonely he strays till aethra sees again Her starry children smiling on the main._

Both the Pleiades and the Hyades are said to be the daughters of aethra, one of the Oceanides, by Atlas.

10.--Page 338, stanza lviii.

_Reign storm-girt Arcas, and the Mother Star._

_Ursa Major_ and _Ursa Minor_, near the North Pole, supposed by the Poets to be Arcas and his mother.

11.--Page 339, stanza lxiv.

_And from the rapture woke!--All fiercely round, &c._

The reader will perhaps perceive, that the above pa.s.sage, containing the Vision of aegle, is partially borrowed from the apparition of Clorinda, in Ta.s.sO.--_Cant._ xii.

12.--Page 341, stanza lx.x.x.

_Is it the Freya, whom your scalds have sung._

Freya is the G.o.ddess of love, beauty, and Hymen; the Scandinavian Venus.

13.--Page 343, stanza xc.

_O Dog skoinophagous--a tooth for mine!_--

Id est, "rope-eating"--a compound adjective borrowed from such Greek as Sir Gawaine might have learned at the then flouris.h.i.+ng college of Caerleon. The lessons of education naturally recur to us in our troubles.