9. _The crested pride_. Gray quotes Dryden, _Indian Queen_: "The
crested adder's pride."
11. "Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that mountainous tract
which the Welsh themselves call _Craigian-eryri_: it included all the
highlands of Caernarvonshire and Merionethshire, as far east as the
river Conway. R. Hygden, speaking of the castle of Conway, built by
King Edward the First, says: 'Ad ortum amnis Conway ad clivum montis
Erery;' and Matthew of Westminster (ad ann. 1283), 'Apud Aberconway
ad pedes montis Snowdoniae fecit erigi castrum forte'" (Gray).
It was in the spring of 1283 that English troops at last forced their
way among the defiles of Snowdon. Llewellyn had preserved those
passes and heights intact until his death in the preceding December.
The surrender of Dolbadern in the April following that dispiriting
event opened a way for the invader; and William de Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick, at once advanced by it (Hales).
The epithet _shaggy_ is highly appropriate, as Leland (_Itin._) says
that great woods clothed the mountain in his time. Cf. Dyer, _Ruins
of Rome_:
"as Britannia's oaks
On Merlin's mount, or Snowdon's rugged sides,
Stand in the clouds."
See also _Lycidas_, 54: "Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high;" and _P.
L._ vi. 645: "the shaggy tops."
13. _Stout Gloster_. "Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, Earl of
Gloucester and Hereford, son-in-law to King Edward" (Gray). He had,
in 1282, conducted the war in South Wales; and after overthrowing the
enemy near Llandeilo Fawr, had reinforced the king in the northwest.
14. _Mortimer_. "Edmond de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore" (Gray). It was
by one of his knights, named Adam de Francton, that Llewellyn, not at
first known to be he, was slain near Pont Orewyn (Hales).
On _quivering lance_, cf. Virgil, _Æn._ xii. 94: "hastam quassatque
trementem."
15. _On a rock whose haughty brow_. Cf. Daniel, _Civil Wars_: "A huge
aspiring rock, whose surly brow."
The _rock_ is probably meant for Penmaen-mawr, the northern
termination of the Snowdon range. It is a mass of rock, 1545 feet
high, a few miles from the mouth of the Conway, the valley of which
it overlooks. Towards the sea it presents a rugged and almost
perpendicular front. On its summit is Braich-y-Dinas, an ancient
fortified post, regarded as the strongest hold of the Britons in the
district of Snowdon. Here the reduced bands of the Welsh army were
stationed during the negotiation between their prince Llewellyn and
Edward I. Within the inner enclosure is a never-failing well of pure
water. The rock is now pierced with a tunnel 1890 feet long for the
Chester and Holyhead railway.
17. _Rob'd in the sable garb of woe_. It would appear that Wharton
had criticised this line, for in a letter to him, dated Aug. 21,
1757, Gray writes: "You may alter that '_Robed in_ the sable,' etc.,
almost in your own words, thus,
'With fury pale, and pale with woe,
Secure of Fate, the Poet stood,' etc.
Though _haggard_, which conveys to you the idea of a _witch_, is
indeed only a metaphor taken from an unreclaimed hawk, which is
called a _haggard_, and looks wild and _farouche_, and jealous of its
liberty." Gray seems to have afterwards returned to his first (and we
think better) reading.
19. "The image was taken from a well-known picture of Raphael,
representing the Supreme Being in the vision of Ezekiel. There are
two of these paintings (both believed originals), one at Florence,
the other in the Duke of Orleans's collection at Paris" (Gray).
20. _Like a meteor_. Gray quotes _P. L._ i. 537: "Shone like a meteor
streaming to the wind."
21, 22. Wakefield remarks: "This is poetical language in perfection;
and breathes the sublime spirit of Hebrew poetry, which delights in
this grand rhetorical substitution."