The Poetical Works of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. M.P Part 37

Now wound his path beside the woods that hang 99 O'er the green pleasaunce of the sunlit plain, When a young footstep from the forest sprang, And a light hand was on the charger's rein; Surprised, the adventurer halts,--but pleased surveys The friendly face that smiles upon his gaze.

Of all the flowers of knighthood in his train 100 Three he loved best; young Caradoc the mild, Whose soul was fill'd with song; and frank Gawaine,[12]

Whom mirth for ever, like a fairy child, Lock'd from the cares of life; but neither grew Close to his heart, like Lancelot the true.

Gawaine when gay, and Caradoc when grave, 101 Pleased: but young Lancelot, or grave or gay.

As yet life's sea had roll'd not with a wave To rend the plank from those twin hearts away; At childhood's gate instinctive love began, And warm'd with every sun that led to man.

The same sports lured them, the same labours strung, 102 The same song thrill'd them with the same delight; Where in the aisle their maiden arms had hung, The same moon lit them through the watchful night; The same day bound their knighthood to maintain Life from reproach, and honour from a stain.

And if the friends.h.i.+p scarce in each the same, 103 The soul has rivals where the heart has not; So Lancelot loved his Arthur more than fame, And Arthur more than life his Lancelot.

Lost here Art's mean distinctions! knightly troth, Frank youth, high thoughts, crown'd Nature's kings in both.[13]

"Whither wends Arthur?" "Whence comes Lancelot?" 104 "From yonder forest, sought at dawn of day."

"Why from the forest?" "Prince and brother, what, When the bird startled flutters from the spray, Makes the leaves quiver? What disturbs the rill If but a zephyr floateth from the hill?

"And ask'st thou why thy brother's heart is stirr'd 105 By every tremor that can vex thine own?

What in that forest hadst thou seen or heard?

What was that shadow o'er thy suns.h.i.+ne thrown?

Thy lips were silent,--be the secret thine; But half the trouble it conceal'd was mine.

"Did danger meet thee in that dismal lair? 106 'Twas mine to face it as thy heart had done.

'Twas mine----" "O brother," cried the King, "beware, The fiend has snares it shames not man to shun;-- Ah, woe to eyes on whose recoiling sight Opes the dark world beyond the veil of light!

"Listen to Fate; till once more eves in May 107 Welcome BAL-HUAN back to yon sweet sky,[14]

The hunter's lively horn, the hound's deep bay, May fill with joy the VALE OF MELODY,[15]

On spell-bound ears the Harper's tones may fall, Love deck the bower, and Pleasure trim the hall--

"But thou, oh thou, my Lancelot shalt mourn 108 The void, a life withdrawn bequeaths the soul; No mirth shall greet thee in the buxom horn-- Nor flash in liquid suns.h.i.+ne from the bowl; Sorrow shall sit where I have dwelt,--and be A second Arthur in its truth to thee.

"Alone I go;--submit; since thus the Fates 109 And the great Prophet of our race ordain; So shall we drive invasion from our gates, Guard life from shame, and Cymri from the chain; No more than this my soul to thine may tell-- Forgive,--Saints s.h.i.+eld thee!--now thy hand--farewell!"

"Farewell! Can danger be more strong than death-- 110 Loose the soul's link, the grave-surviving vow?

Wilt thou find fragrance ev'n in glory's wreath, If valour weave it for thy single brow?

No!--not farewell! What claim more strong than brother Canst thou allow?"--"My Country is my Mother!"--

At the rebuke of those mild, solemn words, 111 Friends.h.i.+p submissive bow'd--its voice was still'd; As when some mighty bard with sudden chords Strikes down the pa.s.sion he before had thrill'd, Making grief awe;--so rush'd that sentence o'er The soul it master'd;--Lancelot urged no more;

But loosing from the hand it clasp'd, his own, 112 He waved farewell, and turn'd his face away; His sorrow only by his silence shown:-- Thus, when from earth glides summer's golden day, Music forsakes the boughs, and winds the stream; And life, in deep'ning quiet, mourns the beam.

NOTES TO BOOK I.

1.--Page 201, stanza iv.

_While Cymri's dragon, from the Roman's hold, Spread with calm wing o'er Carduel's domes of gold._

The Carduel of the FABLIAUX is not easily ascertained: it is here identified with Caerleon on the Usk, the favourite residence of Arthur, according to the Welch poets. This must have been a city of no ordinary splendour in the supposed age of Arthur, while still fresh from the hands of the Roman; since, so late as the twelfth century, Giraldus Cambrensis, in his well-known description, speaks as an eye-witness of the many vestiges of its former splendour.

"Immense palaces, ornamented with gilded roofs, in imitation of Roman magnificence, a tower of prodigious size, remarkable hot baths, relics of temples," &c. (Giraldus Cambrensis, Sir R. h.o.a.re's translation, vol. i. p. 103.) Geoffrey of Monmouth (1. ix. c. 12) also mentions, admiringly, the gilt roofs of Caerleon, a subject on which he might be a little more accurate than in those other details in his notable chronicle, not drawn from the same ocular experience.

The luxurious Romans, indeed, had bequeathed to the chiefs of Britain abodes of splendour and habits of refinement which had no parallel in the Saxon domination. Sir F. Palgrave truly remarks, that even in the fourteenth century the edifices raised in Britain by the Romans were so numerous and costly as almost to excel any others on this side of the Alps. Caerleon (Isca Augusta) was the Roman capital of Siluria, the garrison of the renowned Second or Augustan legion, and the Palatian residence of the Praetor. It was not, however, according to national authority, founded by the Romans, but by the mythical Belin Mawr, three centuries before Caesar's invasion. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the dragon was the standard of the Cymry (a word, by the way, which I trust my Welch readers will forgive me for spelling Cymri).

2.--Page 203, stanza xviii.

_And through the vale the shrill BON-LEF-HER rings._

The shout of war.

3.--Page 204, stanza xix.

_So from the ROCK OF BIRDS the shout of war._

The Rock of Birds--CRAIG Y DERYN--so called from the number of birds (chiefly those of prey) that breed on them.

4.--Page 206, stanza x.x.xiii.

_And found no billow where its beam could rest._

"Qual d'acqua chiara il tremolante lume," &c.--ARIOSTO, canto viii., stanza 71.

5.--Page 207, stanza xlv.

_Where sate DUW-IOU, ere his reign was lost._

Duw-Iou (the Tara.n.u.s of Lucan), the most solemn and august, though not the most popular of the Druidical divinities; answering to the cla.s.sic Jupiter.

6.--Page 209, stanza liv.

_And the Pale Horse rose ghastly o'er the dead._

The White Horse, the standard of the Saxons.

7.--Page 211, stanza lxx.

_Shook to the foot-tread of invading Gaul._

PAUSAN. _Phoc._ c. 28.

8.--Page 212, stanza lxxvi.

_Of polish'd Chivalry, the primal ten._

The ten manly games (Gwrolgampau).

9.--Page 212, stanza lxxvii.

_Which HEUS, the Guardian, taught the Celt to wield._

HEUS is the same deity as ESUS, or HESUS, mentioned in Lucan, the Mars of the Celts. According to the Welch triads, HEUS (or HU--Hu Gadarn; _i. e._ the mighty Guardian, or Inspector) brought the people of Cymry first into this isle, from the summer country called Defrobanni (in the Tauric Chersonese), over the Hazy Sea (the German Ocean). Davies, in his Celtic Researches, observes that some commentator, at least as old as the twelfth century, repeatedly explains the situation of Defrobanni as "that on which Constantinople now stands." "This comment," adds Davies, "would not have been made without some authority; it belongs to an age which possessed many doc.u.ments relating to the history of the Britons which are now no longer extant."