Shout, and fill the hirlass horn,
Round the dirge-feast quaff till morn;
Songs and joy sound o'er the heath,
For he died the warrior's death!
Garlands fling upon the fire,
His shall be a noble pyre!
And his tomb befit a king,
Encircled with a regal ring
Which shall to latest time declare,
That a princely chief lies there,
Who died to set his country free,
Who fell for British liberty;
His renown the harp shall sing
To mail clad chief and battle-king,
And fire the mighty warrior's soul
Long as eternal ages roll!
The Notes to each Tragedy are very abundant. Indeed, they are of the most
laborious research. We quote an extract relative to "grinning skulls" as
terrifically interesting:
"The British warriors preserved the bones of their enemies whom they slew;
and Strabo says of the Gauls (who were, as he informs us, far less
uncivilized than the Britons, but still nearly resembled them in their
manners and customs,) that when they return from the field of battle they
bring with them the heads of their enemies fastened to the necks of their
horses, and afterwards place them before the gates of their cities. Many
of them, after being anointed with pitch or turpentine, they preserve in
baskets or chests, and ostentatiously show them to strangers, as a proof
of their valour; not suffering them to be redeemed, even though offered
for them their weight in gold. This account is also confirmed by Diodorus.
Strabo says that Posidonius declared he saw several of their heads near
the gates of some of their towns,--a horrid barbarism, continued at
Temple-bar almost down to the present period."
Lastly, _Speaking and Moving Stones_:
"Girald Cambrensis gives an account of a speaking-stone at St. David's in
Pembrokeshire. 'The next I shall notice is a very singular kind of a
monument, which I believe has never been taken notice of by any
antiquarian. I think I may call it an oracular stone: it rests upon a bed
of rock, where a road plainly appears to have been made, leading to the
hole, which at the entrance is three feet wide, six feet deep, and about
three feet six inches high. Within this aperture, on the right hand, is a
hole two feet diameter, perforated quite through the rock sixteen feet,
and running from north to south. In the abovementioned aperture a man
might lie concealed, and predict future events to those that came to
consult the oracle, and be heard distinctly on the north side of the rock,
where the hole is not visible. This might make the credulous Britons think
the predictions proceeded solely from the rock-deity. The voice on the
outside was distinctly conveyed to the person in the aperture, as was
several times tried.'--_Arch. Soc. Ant. Lond_. vol. viii.
"The moving stones, or Logans, were known to the Phoenicians as well us
the Britons. Sanconiatho, in his Phoenician History, says, that Uranus
devised the Boetylia, Gr.; Botal or Bothal, Irish; Bethel, Heb., or stones
that moved _as having life_.--Damascius, an author in the reign of
Justinian, says he had seen many of these Boetylia, of which wonderful
things were reported, in Mount Libanus, and about Heliopolis, in Syria."
The volume, a handsome octavo of more than 500 pages, has been, we
perceive, published by subscription: the list contains about 400 names,
with the King at the head. This is sterling patronage, yet not greater, if
so great, as Mr. Pennie deserves. The Preface, we think, somewhat
unnecessarily long: it needed but few words to commend the drama of our
early history to the lovers of literature, among whom we do not reckon him
who is insensible to the charms of such plays as Cymbeline, Julius Caesar,
the Winter's Tale, or Macbeth. Mr. Pennie mentions the popularity of
Pizarro, "which faintly attempts to delineate the customs of the Peruvians"
as a reason for "the hope that is in him" respecting the fate of his own
tragedies. To our minds, Pizarro is one of the most essentially dramatic
or stage-plays of all our stock pieces. It is of German origin, though
Sheridan is said to have written it over sandwiches and claret in Drury
Lane Theatre. The country, the scenery, and costume have much to do with
this stage effect, and even aid the strong excitement of conflicting
passions which pervades every act. Its representation is a scene-shifting,
fidgeting business, but its charms tempt us almost invariably to sit it
out.
Returning to Mr. Pennie's Tragedies, we must add that a more delightful
collection of notes was never appended to any poem. Would that all
commentators had so assiduously illustrated their text. Here is none of
the literary indolence by which nine out of ten works are disfigured, nor
the fiddle-faddle notes which some folks must have written in their dreams.
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