sion of fear is mistaken for the glow of courage, and Mervyn goes to fight. Of Lincoya is armed like the Welsh. the battle, the chief incidents are the death of Coanocotzin and the capture of Mervyn. On the voyage, flying fish. 2. Somewhat of Madoc's early character should be given. The buds of genius. Something fine may be made of the last interview between Madoc and Huitziton. Madoc should have saved the ashes of the kings and heroes, and give them to the Book 2. The isocratic system briefly emigrating monarch. This should soften shown by Cadwallon. him; his father's urn; and they should 12. Funeral. Coronation. Coatel. Lin- separate with feelings of affection. coya. I believe after all it will be better not to identify Madoc with Mango Capac, and consequently not lay the scene in Peru. A miracle. The broken idol of Mexitli is found one morning whole in the temple at Patamba, and the banner of the nation above it. It was the voice of a bird that occasioned the migration of the Aztecans. This bird should be supposed the spirit of Coanocotzin. 13. Aztlan. Ceremony of driving away calamity. Ambassadors from Huitziton, warning Madoc to depart. They follow him to the ships, which he then burns. The ships must not be burnt. It would be too like other poems; and the description of the fire would interfere with that of the volcano, for which all my combustible ideas ought to be reserved. The ships should be pulled to pieces, and vessels made of them to act upon the lake, like the galleys, by force of their beaks. 10 and 11. Kenric should be in the battle. Effect of the century's termination. Vessels broken, lights extinguished, women and children veiled with aloe-leaves and shut up. The priests bathe in the pond Ezapan. Unctions of scorpion-poultice and that of infants' blood. Hymn at sunset. Procession to the mountain. The prisoner. Topographical description. The birds fluttering about during the night earthquake. 15. Aztlan. The storm abates, the Welsh put out their galleys to assist the Aztecans. Huitziton resolves to emigrate-the omen drawn from the bird. Tlalala goes to Aztlan, and takes possession of the house where he was born. His wife and child have been saved. He refuses all offers of friendship, and only requests a weapon to die with. This at length he seizes; then veils her face, alluding to the late rites, and stabs himself. Huitziton kindles a fire in a perfectly calm day, to direct his emigration the way the smoke takes. It leads by Aztlan. Madoc brings the ashes himself. Huitziton requests, if ever Patamba should reappear, 3. Shoal of porpoises before the tempest. that respect may be shewn to the remains Their leaping. She is to be shot with arrows. Her brother comes to the Welsh, and goes with them to Aztlan. He rushes to save, or rather revenge her, and the Welsh take his part. Some of the North American tribes held annually the Festival of the Dead, when they dug up all who had died in the preceding year and set food before them. This will make a strong scene; and here I can find a wife for Cadwallon. A young widow about to be compelled to an unwelcome marriage. The lake islands, floating gardens, and dwellings. The sacrifice of the first-born. There must be a book in which Madoc converts his Indians from Paganism. It may hinge upon this sacrifice. The high-priest of the tribe may be a good man. His daughter may have a child, and attempt to conceal it, so that her punishment for this impiety may affect him. And what with his influence, and that of Madoc, the idols overthrown. In Garcilaso, History of Florida, is an instance where the death of the chief occasioned the defeat of the Indians.-P. 202. After reading Garcilaso's Floridan History, I find it was not a place for Europeans to fix in. South America will be better. Up the great river, and somewhere in the interior of that continent. Brazil, or Paraguay, or El Dorado. 7. The opening lines lyrically to group sea scenery, describing all the characteristic appearances, and voyage feelings. A. D. 715. Sacara, the Spanish governor of Merida, when the Moors took that town, is said to have sailed in search of the Fortunate Islands. Carlos Magno, p. 23, a speaking bird; but not understandable, like the guide of Huitziton. David's tyranny. A woman's cruelty murdering the innocent reptile that she fears. Ir is difficult to weave into one thread the two actions. The reformation of the friendly tribe-with the external war. The Priests must be the link. The Pathocas are the auxiliar tribe. Erilyab their chief, a man well minded, but too weak to be virtuous. His son, Rajenet, is a sullen and crafty savage, hostile to the Welsh from jealousy; and because Gwenlhian is refused to him. He therefore leagues in secret with the Aztecans. Gwenlhian must marry a savage. I know only his name-Herma; but he must deserve her. Melamin is the wife of Cadwallon. How he wooed her must be told to Madoc, because it will be a less interruption than that at any other time, and because I want a child born about the period of Madoc's return. This boy the priest Dithial claims as a sacrifice. He leagues with Rajenet. In the great danger, when all hands are called out to rescue Madoc, Rajenet offers to remain and guard the women. Herma does the same from suspicion; thus the one is signalized, and the other got rid of. The priestcraft of Dithial should all be exposed; his coward confession marks him an under character to Tezozomoc. Immediate possession of the crown is one of Rajenet's motives. Erilyab is half tempted by superstition; and the promise that Aztlan will remit all tribute if he will assist to turn out the strangers. Conscious of his own unworthiness, he at last shall give up all his authority, and so rise into respectability. Herma is the victim who escapes, Book 7. The Pathoca chief priest is not a rogue. He should be father of Melamin. His name Urarāja. Erilyab shall be a woman; hating the Aztecans for her husband's death. The new characters then are Erilyab, Rajenet, Herma, Melamin, Uraraja, Dithial. Madoc goes up the Mississippi certainly. The seven old ones make the whole number of prominent savages amount to thir teen. Elen and Gwenlhian must be brought grave. This ought to be as solemn and into the foreground. striking as possible. During the after fes The capture of Madoc must not be at tival, Tlalala's attempt on Caradoc: and the same time with that of Hoel. here we fall into the great road. I have seen the print of a snake-statue as an idol in Yucatan. It may be managed to have this the idol, and make Dithial tame a huge serpent and pass him for the descended deity. Madoc should kill him. The rescued victim is Melamin. To her tribe Cadwallon goes to seek an alliance. In his absence the capture of Madoc hap pens. There is a gap between books 7 and 8, which may be widened. Book 7 will swell into two. Cadwallon shows Madoc an infant of but a few days, the first born of the colony, the child of himself and Melamin. After the rescue of Herma, all being peaceable, Cadwallon accompanied him to his own tribe-no-this is rambling. After the removal to the mountains, they go to form an alliance. The mode of entering a village. The calumet. Quits North American savages. Melamin first seen by her husband's war-pole. Then the festival of the dead. On their return Melamin accompanies her brother. Reverence. Gratitude ripens into love. Cynetha must be kept alive a little longer, that her attentions to him may half win Cadwallon's heart. The lamp-courtship of Canada. Books 7 and 8, in the room of 7, as now. Book 9 follows thus, Dithial demands Cadwallon's child for the snake idol. He has had a dream. He comes again the next day, or rather Rajenet comes, and demands it in Erilyab's name. For the snake idol has put on life, and at night seized one child, which, under protection of the Cambrians, had been refused. The mother tells the tale. A cavern is the temple; at the mouth is the great serpent sunning himself, and in the act of fascinating. Madoc kills him. Rajenet's demand of Gwenlhian. Book 10. A religious ceremony of naming the child it should be done on Cynetha's Book 11 will then be the present 8th, and on 12, 13. 14 (the 11th). When Madoc reaches the settlement, he finds Dithial a prisoner, Rajenet dead. They had seized the opportunity of making their own terms. Meaning to secure the women as hostages. The dog killed Rajenet, and with Herma successfully defended them. The inweaving this throws the battle and capture of Aztlan to book 15. The twelfth remains for book 16. Book 17. The town purified. Dithial's confession. The resignation of Erilyab. Herma's marriage. Eleno? I think so. 18. During that ceremony the war-embassadors. Caradoc retires in envious recollection to the lake banks. Senena follows, and avows herself. Some moonlight scene. Some song that he had taught her. 19. The great lake-battle, now in 13. 14 makes 20. 21. The close. Ilanquel and her child may have escaped, and be by Tlalala led to Madoc. June 6, 1801, Lisbon. Certainly to Bardsey, and there the interview with Llewelyn should be; he has watched his uncle, and follows in a coracle. Were not some Adamites in England then, who died for want of food-as Jane Shore is fabled to have perished. One of these Madoc might relieve in death, and thus be tuned to answer a volunteer priest angrily. The Welsh Indians have a Bible. Madoc will only preach what the feelings of man instinctively assent to; the rest he leaves for times of reason. Surely this is wisdom. Tlalala's first feeling religious on his escape from the lake. Note Aguilar's release from the Indians. Ceremony of the peace at Aztlan, and incensing Madoc. At Huitziton's coronation the Paste-Idol | abandon all to share his brother's sufferings; ground to powder and given to be drank. October 4, 1801.1 Sentence of annihilation pronounced upon Caradoc and Senena. The song, book 4, and the harp incident, are transferable to Madoc himself. Nor can the Cadwallon and Melamin story enter. It is too episodical. Out with Ririd! he is good for nothing. No rupture before Madoc's return, only the gathering of the storm. Cadwallon's narrative therefore communicates little, only the escape of Herma. The arrival of Madoc is while the treason is preparing. Book 8. Therefore an interview with Coanocotzin, wherein no ground for suspicion appears, except that the King intreats Madoc to remove. The demand of the child for sacrifice follows; and the capture of Madoc is concerted between Tezozomoc, Dithial, and Rajenet. I think there might be a brother of Hoitziton, 'cui nomen Hiolqui,' a young man deeply attached to Madoc, and in his absence learning much from Cadwallon, his own inclination rather favoured by the wisdom of his elder brother. Him I would attach to Gwenlhian; and when Hoitziton announces war to Madoc, the elder of intellect should with all affection and feeling and justice refuse to quit the Welsh, with whom he has lived, and to bear arms either against or with them. He should kill Rajenet. In the subsequent defeat of the Aztecans, a heavy grief possesses him, and thus the interest of pity is excited in Gwenlhian. After the earthquake he should 1 See Preface to collected edition of Poems :"It was my wish before Madoc could be considered as completed, to see more of Wales than I had yet seen. This I had some opportunity of doing in the autumn of 1801, with my old friends and schoolfellows, Charles Wynn and Peter Elmsley." P. x. As I transcribe this, the news reaches me that Mr. Wynn is no more. His name and Southey's are indissolubly con. nected together."-J. W. W. but on the emigration, Hoitziton commands him as his King. His brother, who has acted the father's part toward him, and his dearest and nearest friend to remain. So a fraternal tie is thus established between Hoitziton and Madoc by the marriage of Gwenlhian and Hiolqui, and nothing else of love can be suffered in the poem. Helhua sleeps in the Field of the Spirit before the Great Serpent puts on life, and is warned against the strangers. The Kalendar. THE death of Henry V. The hermit's denunciation at the siege of Dreux.2 He tells him how beautiful he remembered that country, how happy the people. A sermon, and war the text. Crecy. This must be a morality upon the Prince's crest. The only existing effects of that slaughter! Wallace, an ode.3-The populace exulting as he goes to execution, and telling of his rebellion and outlaw life and hiding places. Lay on him the whole weight of such infamy. Then burst out. Bosworth, a ballad.-A woman expecting her husband from that fight, and the utter inconsequence to her of the public event. Mary Magdalen.-A musing on that exquisite picture of Corregio. Lady Day.-A Socinian hymn to the Virgin. Catholic nonsense alluded to. Boatman's evening hymn. The Protestants in an extreme here. What object more deeply interesting than the Mother of Jesus? St. John will furnish two poems. The tale of the robber, and moralizings on his last advice," Love one another." Milton.-A hymn to the memory of the blind republican. Rape of the Sabines.-The part of this history to dwell upon is the reconciliation 2 See "King Henry V. and the Hermit of Dreux."--Poems, p. 432. 3 See "Death of Wallace."-Ibid. p. 128. J. W. W. of the two armies. Like David, I would | ful, anti-puritanical, half catholic. I hate make history instruct mankind. puritan manners. The Battle of Murat affords matter for a long poem. On the anniversary of the fight Henry Holland thinks he knows a mendicant pilgrim by the pile of bones. The beggar Charles, so more to humble himself, relates his history to the man whom he had once so spurned. His obstinate ambition, escape across the lake, and murdering the page. A wounded fugitive, he is healed by a Beguine, a young woman, Swiss, who had lost her betrothed husband in the wars he had occasioned; she is one whom religion has comforted; and whose holy resignation wakes agony in him; he resolves to be known no more, and on the day of the fight annually to visit the pile of bones, the monument of his wickedness. It is remarkable that this pile should have been destroyed on the anniversary of that day. Azincour. The ruinous effects in England of that successful war. Poictiers.-Glory. Detail of the consequences of such a battle. The field of battle. The distant wife. The Conversion of St. Paul.-Conviction blazed on him. But who does not feel the inward monitor at times? Paul the hermit will make a fine serious narrative. The story of St. Agnes is very fine. I wish I believed the miracle, for the rest must be true. St. Cæcilia's is an amusing story. One might have invented it for its singularity. He was an odd angel—a kind of angelic incubus. Heywood would have been puzzled where to class him. I must not forget that admirable picture by Carlo Dolce, at Sir Lambert Blackwood's. Is it possible for poetry to equal it? To the Dii Manes, a Christian hymn. Teresa. The progress of religious enthusiasm. This should be in Spenser's stanza. Christmas. But Good Friday will be a better day for serious musings on Christianity, to condense the moral and political system of Christ. Christmas must be cheer Of my former poems I must remove the New Year's Ode, the First of December, and the Hymn to the Penates. The first of April.-Can I not make a kind of satyrical poem? as, contending for the prize of Folly, and exposing the serious follies of mankind. Easter. I should think the development of my own religious opinions might make an interesting poem. If not, one might indulge the fullness of those devotional feelings, which here every thing seems to curb. Why are they so little understood, and so generally professed only by weak enthusiasts, who render them ridiculous; or knaves, who render them suspected? Perhaps Easter were the best day for a Millenarian hymn. The Confirmation of Magna Charta by Henry III. Narrative blank verse. It might conclude with a solemn repetition of the curses denounced against those who should violate the charter. The Discovery of America, an ode.-Beneficial to Europe, not for its gold, not for the conversion of some savages, but because liberty found shelter there, and returned from thence. John the Baptist.-Herodias requesting his head. Narrative full, and declamatory. Pultowa. Patkul. The future fortunes and reputation of Charles, an invective ode. Llewelyn, an historic ode.—The prophecy alluded to. Glory of the defeated King, yet the event fortunate for Wales. For Lammas Day.-Some particulars may be found in the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 1, p. 92, Cadell, relative to the customs in Mid Lothian on that day. Topographical books should always be consulted. In vol. 4 of Plutarch's Morals is a Pagan vision of a future state, in the tract concerning those whom God is slow to punish. See "The Battle of Pultowa."-Poems, p. 124.-J. W. W. |
