Talymalfra's rocky shore

Echoing to the battle's roar.

Check'd by the torrent-tide of blood,
Backward Meinai rolls his flood;
While, heap'd his master's feet around,
Prostrate warriors gnaw the ground.
Where his glowing eye-balls turn,
Thousand banners round him burn:
Where he points his purple spear,
Hasty, hasty rout is there,
Marking with indignant eye

Fear to stop, and shame to fly.
There confusion, terror's child,

Conflict fierce, and ruin wild,

Agony, that pants for breath,

25

30

35

Despair and honourable death.

40

NOTES.

conflict on the shore of Pylus, between the Athenians and the Spartans under the gallant Brasidas. Thucyd. Bel. Pelop. lib. iv. cap. 12."

Ver. 27. Check'd, &c.] This and the three following lines are not in the former editions, but are now added from the author's MSS. MASON.

Ver. 31. Where his glowing eye-balls turn] From this line, to the conclusion, the translation is indebted to the genius of Gray, very little of it being in the original, which closes with a sentiment omitted by the translator: "And the glory of our Prince's wide-wasting sword shall be celebrated in a hundred languages, to give him his merited praise."

* Of Aneurin, styled the Monarch of the Bards. He flourished about the time of Taliessin, A. D. 570.* This Ode is extracted from the Gododin. Specimens, p. 71 and 73.

See Mr. Evans's

"Aneurin with the flowing Muse, King of Bards, brother to Gildas Albanius the his torian, lived under Mynyddawg of Edinburgh, a prince of the North, whose Eurdorchogion, or warriors wearing the golden torques, three hundred and sixty-three in number, were all slain, except Aneurin and two others, in a battle with the Saxons at Cattraeth, on the eastern coast of Yorkshire. His Gododin, an heroic poem written on that event, is perhaps the oldest and noblest production of that age." Jones's Relics, vol. i. p. 17.-Taliessin composed a poem called 'Cunobiline's Incantation,' in emulation of excelling the Gododin of Aneurin his rival. He accomplished his aim, in the opinion of subsequent bards; by condensing the prolixity, without losing the ideas, of his opponent.

Ver. 3. Upon Deïra's squadrons hurl'd] The kingdom of Deïra included the counties of

* Mr. Jones, in his Relics, vol. i. p. 17, says, that Aneurin flourished about A.D. 510.

VOL. I.

Yorkshire, Durham, Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. See Jones's Relics, vol. i. p.17.

Ver. 7. Cian] In Jones's Relics it is spelt Kian.'

Ver. 11. To Cattraeth's vale in glitt'ring row] In the rival poem of Taliessin mentioned before, this circumstance is thus expressed: "Three, and threescore, and three hundred heroes flocked to the variegated banners of Cattraeth; but of those who hastened from the flowing mead-goblet, save three, returned not. Cynon and Cattraeth with hymns they commemorate, and me for my blood they mutually lament." See Jones's Relics, vol. ii. p. 14." The great topic perpetually recurring in the Gododin, is, that the Britons lost the battle of Cattraeth, and suffered so severely, because they had drank their mead too profusely. The passages in the Gododin are numerous on this point." See Sharon Turner's Vindication of the Anc. British Poems, p. 51.

Ver. 20. But none from Cattraeth's vale return] In the Latin translation: "Ex iis autem, qui nimio potu madidi ad bellum properabant, non evasere nisi tres.”

Ver. 21. Conan] Properly Conon,' or, as in the Welsh, 'Chynon.'

And I, the meanest of them all,

That live to weep and sing their fall.

HAVE ye seen the tusky boar,*
Or the bull, with sullen roar,
On surrounding foes advance?
So Caradoc bore his lance.

CONAN's name,† my lay, rehearse,
Build to him the lofty verse,
Sacred tribute of the bard,
Verse, the hero's sole reward.
As the flame's devouring force;
As the whirlwind in its course;
As the thunder's fiery stroke,
Glancing on the shiver'd oak;
Did the sword of Conan mow
The crimson harvest of the foe.

24

NOTES.

Ver. 23. And I, the meanest of them all] In the Latin translation: "Et egomet ipse sanguine rubens, aliter ad hoc carmen compingendum non superstes fuissem."

*This and the following short fragment ought to have appeared among the Posthumous Pieces of Gray; but it was thought preferable to insert them in this place, with the preceding fragment from the Gododin. See Jones's Relics, vol. i. p.17.

+ In Jones's Relics, vol. i. p. 17, it is Vedel's name;' and in turning to the original I see 'Rhudd Fedel,' as well as in the Latin translation of Dr. Evans, p. 75.

SONNET

ON

THE DEATH OF MR. RICHARD WEST.

In vain to me the smiling mornings shine,

And redd'ning Phoebus lifts his golden fire:
The birds in vain their amorous descant join ;
Or chearful fields resume their green attire:
These ears, alas! for other notes repine,

A different object do these eyes require:
My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine;
And in my breast the imperfect joys expire.
Yet morning smiles the busy race to chear,

And new-born pleasure brings to happier men:
The fields to all their wonted tribute bear:
To warm their little loves the birds complain:
I fruitless mourn to him that cannot hear,
And weep the more, because I weep in vain.

5

10

NOTES.

Ver. 14. And weep the more, because I weep in vain] A line similar to this occurs in Cibber's Alteration of Richard the Third, act ii. sc. 2:

"So we must weep, because we weep in vain."