To each his fuff'rings: all are men,

Condemn'd alike to groan;

The tender for another's pain,

Th' unfeeling for his own.

Yet ah! why should they know their fate?

95

Since forrow never comes too late,

And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy their paradise.

No more; where ignorance is blifs,
"Tis folly to be wife.

THE

BARD.

A PINDARIC ODE.a

BY THE SAME.

100

I. 1.

RUIN feize thee, ruthless King!

• Confufion on thy banners wait,

a This Ode is founded on a tradition current in Wales, that Edward the aft, when he compleated the conquest of that country, ordered all the Bards, that fell into his hands, to be put to death.

Tho' fann'd by Conqueft's crimson wing,
They mock the air with idle state.

Helm, nor b Hauberk's twifted mail,

5

Nor e'en thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail

To fave thy fecret foul from nightly fears, From Cambria's curfe, from Cambria's tears !' Such were the founds, that o'er the crefted pride Of the firft Edward scatter'd wild dismay, As down the steep of Snowdon's fhaggy fide He wound with toilfome march his long array. Stout & Glo'fter ftood aghast in speechless trance: To arms! cried Mortimer, and couch'd his quiv'ring lance.

b The Hauberk was a texture of steel ringlets, or rings interwoven, forming a coat of mail, that fat close to the body, and adapted itself to every motion.

c Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that mountainous tract which the Welch themselves call Craigianeryri: it included all the highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire as far east as the river Conway, R. Hygden, fpeaking of the castle of Conway, built by king Edward the firft, fays, "Ad ortum amnis Conway ad clivum montis Erery;" and Matthew of Westminster, (ad ann. 1283,) "Apud Aberconway ad pedes montis Snowdonia fecit erigi caftrum forte."

d Gilbert de Clare, furnamed the Red, earl of Gloucefter and Hertford, fon in law to king Edward.

• Edmond de Mortimer, lord of Wigmore.

They both were Lords-Marchers, whofe lands lay on the borders of Wales, and probably accompanied the king in this expedition.

I. 2.

On a rock, whofe haughty brow

Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,

Robed in the fable garb of woe,'

With haggard eyes the Poet ftood;

15

(Loose his beard, and hoary hair

(Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air) 20 And with a Master's hand, and Prophet's fire, Struck the deep forrows of his lyre.

Hark, how each giant-oak, and defert cave,

Sighs to the torrent's aweful voice beneath!

O'er thee, oh King! their hundred arms they

wave,

Revenge on thee in hoarfer murmurs breathe ;

Vocal no more, fince Cambria's fatal day,

25

• Tohigh-born Hoel's harp, or foft Llewellyn's lay.

• Modred, whose magic fong

• Made hugh Plinlimmon bow his cloud-top'd head.

<f On dreary Arvon's fhore they lie,

• Smear'd with gore, and ghaftly pale :

35

f The fhores of Caernarvonshire oppofite to the ifle of Anglefey.

Far, far aloof th' affrighted ravens fail;
The famish'd Eagle fcreams, and paffes by.
Dear loft companions of my tuneful art,

Dear, as the light that vifits these fad eyes, 40
Dear, as the ruddy drops that warm my heart,
Ye died amidst your dying country's cries-
¿No more I weep. They do not fleep.

On yonder cliffs, a griesly band.
I fee them fit, they linger yet,
Avengers of their native land:

45

With me in dreadful harmony they join, [line! And weave with bloody hands the tiffue of thy

'Camden,' and others obferve, that eagles ufed annually to build their aerie among the rocks of Snowdon, which from thence (as fome think) were named by the Welsh Craigian eryri, or the crags of the eagles. At this day (I am told) the highest point of Snowdon is called the eagle's neft. That bird is certainly no stranger to this island, as the Scots, and the people of Cumberland, Weftmoreland, &s. can testify: it even has built its neft in the Peak of Derbythire. [See Willoughby's Ornithol. published by Ray.]

h See the Norwegian Ode, that follows. The fubje& of this ode ought not, perhaps, to have been followed in The Bard. The Gothic manners had little, if any thing, in common with thofe of the Celts, who do not appear to have been even acquainted with the Runic mythology. Brfides, in the time of Edw. I. it is well known, that thefe Welsh or British poets muft, like the rest of their nation, have professed Christianity, with which the incantations here defcribed feem altogether incompatible.

II. I.

"Weave the warp, and weave the woof, "The winding-sheet of Edward's race. "Give ample room, and verge enough "The characters of hell to trace.

50

"Mark the year, and mark the night, "i When Severn fhall re-echo with affright "The fhrieks of death, through Berkley's roofs

that ring;

"Shrieks of an agonizing King!

55

She-Wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs, "That tear'ft the bowels of thy mangled Mate, * 1 From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs "The fcourge of Heav'n. What Terrors round him wait!

60

"Amazement in his van, with Flight combin'd; "And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.

II. 2.

"Mighty Victor, mighty Lord,

"m Low on his funeral couch he lies!

i Edward the fecond, cruelly butchered in Berkley-castle.

k Ifabel of France, Edward the fecond's adulterous queen. I Triumphs of Edward the third in France.

m Death of that king, abandoned by his children, and even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and his mistress.