Select Poems Of Thomas Gray Part 22

55. "Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkeley Castle" (Gray).

The 1st ed. and that of 1768 have "roofs;" the modern eds. "roof."

Berkeley Castle is on the southeast side of the town of Berkeley, on a height commanding a fine view of the Severn and the surrounding country, and is in a state of perfect preservation. It is said to have been founded by Roger de Berkeley soon after the Norman Conquest. About the year 1150 it was granted by Henry II. to Robert Fitzhardinge, Governor of Bristol, who strengthened and enlarged it.

On the right of the great staircase leading to the keep, and approached by a gallery, is the room in which it is supposed that Edward II. was murdered, Sept. 21, 1327. The king, during his captivity here, composed a dolorous poem, of which the following is an extract:

"Moste blessed Jesu, Roote of all vertue, Graunte I may the sue, In all humylyte, Sen thou for our good, Lyste to shede thy blood, An stretche the upon the rood, For our iniquyte.

I the beseche, Most holsome leche, That thou wylt seche For me such grace, That when my body vyle My soule shall exyle Thou brynge in short wyle It in reste and peace."

Walpole, who visited the place in 1774, says: "The room shown for the murder of Edward II., and the shrieks of an agonizing king, I verily believe to be genuine. It is a dismal chamber, almost at the top of the house, quite detached, and to be approached only by a kind of foot-bridge, and from that descends a large flight of steps, that terminates on strong gates; exactly a situation for a _corps de garde_."

56. Cf. Hume's description: "The screams with which the agonizing king filled the castle."

57. _She-wolf of France_. "Isabel of France, Edward the Second's adulterous queen" (Gray). Cf. Shakes. 3 _Hen. VI._ i. 4: "She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France;" and read the context.

60. "Triumphs of Edward the Third in France" (Gray).

61. Cf. Cowley: "Ruin behind him stalks, and empty desolation;" and Oldham, _Ode to Homer_:

"Where'er he does his dreadful standard bear, Horror stalks in the van, and slaughter in the rear."

63. For _victor_ the MS. has "conqueror;" also in next line "the" for _his_; and in 65, "what ... what" for _no_ ... _no_.

64. "Death of that king, abandoned by his children, and even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and his mistress" (Gray).

67. "Edward the Black Prince, dead some time before his father"

(Gray).

69. The MS. has "hover'd in thy noontide ray," and in the next line "the rising day."

In _Agrippina_, a fragment of a tragedy, published among the posthumous poems of Gray, we have the same figure:

"around thee call The gilded swarm that wantons in the suns.h.i.+ne Of thy full favour."

71. "Magnificence of Richard the Second's reign. See Froissard and other contemporary writers" (Gray).

For this line and the remainder of the stanza, the MS. has the following:

"Mirrors of Saxon truth and loyalty, Your helpless, old, expiring master view!

They hear not: scarce religion does supply Her mutter'd requiems, and her holy dew.

Yet thou, proud boy, from Pomfret's walls shalt send A sigh, and envy oft thy happy grandsire's end."

On the pa.s.sage as it stands, cf. Shakes. _M. of V._ ii. 6:

"How like a younger, or a prodigal, The scarfed bark puts from her native bay," etc.

Also Spenser, _Visions of World's Vanitie_, ix:

"Looking far foorth into the Ocean wide, A goodly s.h.i.+p with banners bravely dight, And flag in her top-gallant, I espide Through the maine sea making her merry flight.

Faire blew the winde into her bosome right; And th' heavens looked lovely all the while That she did seeme to daunce, as in delight, And at her owne felicitie did smile," etc.;

and again, _Visions of Petrarch_, ii.:

"After, at sea a tall s.h.i.+p did appeare, Made all of heben and white yvorie; The sailes of golde, of silke the tackle were: Milde was the winde, calme seem'd the sea to bee, The skie eachwhere did show full bright and faire: With rich treasures this gay s.h.i.+p fraighted was: But sudden storme did so turmoyle the aire, And tumbled up the sea, that she (alas) Strake on a rock, that under water lay, And perished past all recoverie."

See also Milton, _S. A._ 710 foll.

72. _The azure realm_. Cf. Virgil, _Ciris_, 483: "Caeruleo pollens conjunx Neptunia regno."

73. Note the alliteration. Cf. Dryden, _Annus Mirab._ st. 151:

"The goodly London, in her gallant trim, The phoenix-daughter of the vanish'd old, Like a rich bride does to the ocean swim, And on her shadow rides in floating gold."

75. _Sweeping whirlwind's sway_. Cf. the posthumous fragment by Gray on _Education and Government_, 48: "And where the deluge burst with sweepy sway." The expression is from Dryden, who uses it repeatedly; as in _Geo._ i. 483: "And rolling onwards with a sweepy sway;" _Ov.

Met._: "Rus.h.i.+ng onwards with a sweepy sway;" _aen._ vii.: "The branches bend beneath their sweepy sway," etc.

76. _That hush'd in grim repose_, etc. Cf. Dryden, _Sigismonda and Guiscardo_, 242:

"So, like a lion that unheeded lay, Dissembling sleep, and watchful to betray, With inward rage he meditates his prey;"

and _Absalom and Achitophel_, 447:

"And like a lion, slumbering in the way, Or sleep dissembling, while he waits his prey."

77. "Richard the Second (as we are told by Archbishop Scroop and the confederate Lords in their manifesto, by Thomas of Walsingham, and all the older writers) was starved to death. The story of his a.s.sa.s.sination by Sir Piers of Exon is of much later date" (Gray).

79. _Reft of a crown_. Wakefield quotes Mallet's ballad of _William and Margaret_:

"Such is the robe that kings must wear When death has reft their crown."

82. _A baleful smile_. The MS. has "A smile of horror on." Cf.

Milton, _P. L._ ii. 846: "Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TRAITOR'S GATE OF THE TOWER.]

83. "Ruinous wars of York and Lancaster" (Gray). Cf. _P. L._ vi. 209: "Arms on armour clas.h.i.+ng brayed."

84. Cf. Shakes. 1 _Hen. IV._ iv. 1: "Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse;" and Ma.s.singer, _Maid of Honour_: "Man to man, and horse to horse."

87. "Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, etc., believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Caesar" (Gray). The MS. has "Grim towers."

88. _Murther_. See on _murthorous_, p. 105.

89. _His consort_. "Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown" (Gray).

_His father_. "Henry the Fifth" (Gray).

[Ill.u.s.tration: HENRY V.]

90. _The meek usurper_. "Henry the Sixth, very near being canonized.