[Footnote 31: It is a blemish in this fine passage that a couplet in the
past tense should be interposed for the sake of the rhyme, in the midst
of a description in the present tense.]
[Footnote 32: Originally:
And wolves with howling fill, &c.
The author thought this an error, wolves not being common in England at
the time of the Conqueror.--POPE.]
[Footnote 33: "The temples," "broken columns," and "choirs," of the
poet, suppose a much statelier architecture than belonged to the rude
village churches of the Saxons. With the same exaggeration the hamlets
which stood on the site of the New Forest are converted by Pope into
"cities," and "towns."]
[Footnote 34: William did not confine his oppression to the weak and
succumb to the strong. The statement that he was "awed by his nobles" is
opposed to the contemporary testimony of the Saxon chronicle. "No man,"
says the writer, "durst do anything against his will; he had earls in
his bonds who had done against his will, and at last he did not spare
his own brother, Odo; him he set in prison." "His rich men moaned," says
the chronicler again, "and the poor men murmured, but he was so hard
that he recked not the hatred of them all."]
[Footnote 35: The language is too strong. "When his power or interest
was concerned," says Lingard, "William listened to no suggestions but
those of ambition or avarice, but on other occasions he displayed a
strong sense of religion, and a profound respect for its institutions."
While resisting ecclesiastical usurpation, and depriving individuals who
were disaffected or incompetent, of their preferment, he upheld the
church and its dignitaries, and left both in a more exalted position
than he found them.]
[Footnote 36: It is incorrect to say that William was denied a grave. As
his body was about to be lowered into the vault in the church of St.
Stephen, which he had founded at Caen, a person named Fitz-Arthur
forbade the burial, on the plea that the land had been taken by violence
from his father, but the prelates having paid him sixty shillings on the
spot, and promised him further compensation, the ceremony was allowed to
proceed.]
[Footnote 37: "An open space between woods," is Johnson's definition of
"lawn," which is the meaning here, and at ver. 21 and 149. The term has
since been appropriated to the dressed green-sward in gardens.]
[Footnote 38: Richard, second son of William the Conqueror.--POPE.
Richard is said by some to have been killed by a stag in the New Forest,
by others to have been crushed against a tree by his horse.]
[Footnote 39: This verse is taken from one of Denham's in his
translation of the Second AEneis: