PR 4963 .fl7 1917 Copy 1 Number 45 ■ ■^ ^—v " ' i i uniimnm ^^^^^^^^^^^D RIVERSIDE LITERATURE SERIES 1. Longfellow's Evangeline. 2. Longfellow's Courtship of Miles Standish. 3. Dramatization of Miles Standish. 4. Whittier's Snow- Bound, etc. 5. Whittier's Mabel Martin. 6. Holmes's Grandmother's Story. 7. 8, 9. Hawthorne's Grandfather's Chair. 10. Hawthorne's Biographical Series. 11. Longfellow's Children's Hour, etc. 12. Outlines — Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes, Lowell. 13. 14. Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha. 15. Lowell's Under the Old Elm, etc. 16. Bayard Taylor's Lars. 17. 18. Hawthorne's Wonder-Book. ^ 19, 20. Franklin's Autobiography. 21. Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, e,tc. 22, 23. Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales, v 24. Washington's Farewell Addresses, etc, 25, 26. Longfellow's Golden Legend. 27. Thoreau's Forest Trees, etc. 28. Burroughs's Birds and Bees. 29. Hawthorne's Little Datfydowndilly, etc. 30. Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal, etc. 31. Holmes's My Hunt after the Captain, etc. 32. Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech, etc. 33-35. Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn. 36. Burroughs's Sharp Eyes, etc. 37. Warner's A-Hunting of the Deer, etc. 38. Longfellow's Building of the Ship, etc. 39. Lowell's Books and Libraries, etc. 40. Hawthorne's Tales of the White Hills. 41. Whittier's Tent on the Beach, etc. 42. Emerson's Fortune of the Republic, etc. 43. Bryant's Ulysses among the Phseacians. 44. Edgeworth's Waste not, Want not, etc. 45. Maeaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. 46. Old Testament Stories. 47. 48. Scudder's Fables and Folk Stories. 49, 50. Andersen's Stories. 51. Irving's Rip Van Winkle, etc. 52. Irvhig's The Voyage, etc. 53. Scott's Lady of the Lake. 54. Bryant's Thaiiatopsis, etc. 55. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, 56. Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration. 57. Dickens's Christinas Carol. 58. Dickens's Cricket on the Hearth. 59. Verse and Prose for Beginners in Reading. 60. 61. The Sir Roger de Ooverley Papers. 62. Fiske's War of Independence. 6.3. Longfellow's Paul Revere 's Ride, etc. 64-66. Lambs' Tales from Shakespeare. 67. Shakespeare's Julius C*sar. 68. Goldsmith's Deserted Village, etc. 69. Hawthorne's The Old Manse, etc. 70. 71. Selection from Whittier's Child Life. 72. Milton's'Minor Poems. 73. Tennyson's Enoch Arden, etc. 74. Gray's Elegy ; Cowper's John Gilpin. 75. Scudder's George Washington. 76. Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality. ?7. Burns's Cotter's Saturday Night, etc. 78. Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield, 79. Lamb's Old China, etc. 80. Coleridge's Ancient Mariner ; Campbell's Lochiel's Warning, etc. 81 . Holmes' s Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. 82. Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales. 83. Eliot's Silas Marner. 84. Dana's Two Years Before the Mast. 85. Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days. . 86. Scotfs Ivanlioe. 87= Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. 88. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. 89, 90. Swift's Gulliver's Voyages. 91. Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables. 92. Burroughs's A Buncli of Herbs, etc. 93. Shakespeare's As You Like It. 94. Milton's Paradise Lost. Books I-III. 95-98. Cooper's Last of tlie Moliicans. 99. Tennyson's Cuming of Arthur, etc. • 1(K3. Burke's Conciliatiun witli tlie Colonies. 101. Pope's Hiad. Books I, VI, XXII, XXlV 102. Macaulay's Johnson and Goldsmith. 103. Macaulay's Milton. 104. Macaulay's Addison. 105. Carlyle's Essaj' on Burns. 106. Shakespeare's Macbeth. 107. 108. Grimms' Tales. 109. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 110. De Quincey's Flight of a Tartar Tribe. 111. Tennyson's Princess. 112. Cranch's ^neid. Books I-III, 113. Poems from Emerson. 114. Peabody's Old Greek Folk Stories. 115. Browning's Pied Piper of Hauielin, et( 116. Shakespeare's Hamlet. 117. 118. Stories trom the Arabian Nights. 119, 120. Poe's Poems and Tales. 121. Speech by Hayne on Foote's Resolution. 122. Speech by Webster in Reply to Hayne. 123. Lowell's Democracy, etc. 124. Aldrich's The Cruise of the Dolphm. 125. Dryden's Palamon and Arcite. 126. Ruskin's King of the Golden River, etc. 127. Keats's Ode on a Grecian Urn, etc. 128. Byron's Prisoner of Chillon, etc. 129. Plato's Judgment of Socrates. 130. Emerson's The Superlative, etc. 131. Emerson's Nature, etc. 132. Arnold's Solirab and Rustum, etc. 133. Schurz's Abraham Lincoln. 134. Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel. 135. Chaucer's Prologue. 1.36. Chaucer's Tlie Knight's Tale. etc. 137. Bryant's Iliad. Bks. I, VI, XXII, XXIV. 138. Hawthorne's The Custom Hovi.se, etc. 139. Howells's Doorstep .\cquaintanoe, etc. 140. Tliackeray's Henry Esmond. 141. Higginson'.^ Three Outdoor Papers. 142. Ruskins Sesame and Lilies, 143. Plutarch's Alexander the Great. 144. Scudder's The Book of Legends. 145. Hawthorne's Tlie Gentle Boy, etc, 146. Longfellow's Giles Corey. (See also hack covers.) (74) W\)t HibersiDe iliterature ^txit& LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, THE AKMADA, IVRY, AND THE BATTLE OF NASEBY THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY WITH INTRODUCTIONS, AND EXPLANATORY NOTES BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY ,^*c^ k^ CONTENTS n !■.■?' PAGE Iktroduction 5 hokatius 14 The Battle of the Lake Kegillus 41 Virginia 74 The Prophecy of Capys 101 The Armada 118 IvRY, A Song of the Huguenots 124 The Battle of Naseby 129 ILLUSTRATIONS Portrait of Lord Macaulay Frontispiece "Above the surges they saw his crest appear" . . 36 Temples of Vesta and Castores 72 The Roman Forum 84 COPYRIGHT, 1S9O, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. COPY-RIGHT, 1917, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED JC -h Wiit 33liberKibe '^xtii CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS U . S . A ©CU4fi7868 uUL 17 1917 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, INTRODUCTION. THAT what is called the history of the kings and early consuls of Rome is to a great extent fabulous, few scholars have, since the time of Beaufort, ventured to deny. It is certain that, more than three hundred and sixty years after the date ordinarily assigned for the foundation of the city, the public records were, with scarcely an exception, destroyed by the Gauls. It is certain that the oldest annals of the commonwealth were compiled more than a century and a half after the destruction of the records. It is certain, therefore, that the great Latin writers of a later period did not possess those materials without which a trustworthy account of the infancy of the republic could not possi- bly be framed. They own, indeed, that the chronicles to which they had access were filled with battles that were never fought, and consuls that were never inau- gurated ; and we have abundant proof that, in those chronicles, events of the greatest importance, such as the issue of the war with Porsena, and the issue of the war with Brennus, were grossly misrepresented. Under these circumstances a wise man will look with great suspicion on the legend which has come down to us. He will, perhaps, be inclined to regard the princes who 6 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. are said to have founded the civil and reUgious institu- tions of Rome, the son of Mars, and the husband of Egeria, as mere mythological personages, of the same class with Perseus and Ixion. As he draws nearer and nearer to the confines of authentic history, he will become less and less hard of belief. He will admit that the most important parts of the nan'ative have some foundation in truth. But he will distrust almost all the details, not only because they seidom rest on any solid evidence, but also because he will constantly detect in them, even when they are within the limits of physi- cal possibility, that peculiar character, more easily un- derstood than defined, which distinguishes the creations of the imagination from the realities of the world in which we live. The early history of Rome is, indeed, far more po- etical than anything else in Latin literature. The loves of the Vestal and the God of War, the cradle laid among the reeds of Tiber, the fig-tree, the she-wolf, the shepherd's cabin, the recognition, the fratricide, the rape of the Sabines, the death of Tarj^eia, the fall of Hostus Hostilius, the struggle of Mettus Curtius through the marsh, the women rushing with torn raiment and dishevelled hair between their fathers and their hus- bands, the nightly meetings of Numa and the Nymph by the well in the sacred grove, the fight of the three Romans and the three Albans, the purchase of the Sibylline books, the crime of Tullia, the simulated mad- ness of Brutus, the ambiguous reply of the Delphian oracle to the Tarquins, the wrongs of Lucretia, the he- roic actions of Horatius Codes, of Scaevola, and of Cloelia, the battle of Regillus won by the aid of Castor and Pollux, the defence of Cremera, the touching story INTRODUCTION. 1 of Coriolanus, the still more touching story of Virginia, the wild legend about the draining of the Alban lake, the combat between Valerius Corvus and the gigantic Gaul, are among the many instances which will at once suggest themselves to every reader. The Latin literature which has come down to us is of later date than the commencement of the Second Punic War, and consists almost exclusively of words fashioned on Greek models. The Latin metres, heroic, elegiac, lyric, and dramatic, are of Greek origin. The best Latin epic poetry is the feeble echo of the Iliad and Odyssey. The best Latin eclogues are imitations of Theocritus. The plan of the most finished didactic poem in the Latin tongue was taken from Hesiod. The Latin tragedies are bad copies of the masterpieces of Sophocles and Euripides. The Latin comedies are free translations from Demophilus, Menander, and Apollo- dorus. The Latin philosophy was borrowed, without alteration, from the Portico and the Academy ; and the great Latin orators constantly proposed to themselves as patterns the speeches of Demosthenes and Lysias. But there was an earlier Latin literature, a literature truly Latin, which has wholly perished, — which had, indeed, almost perished long before those whom we are in the habit of regarding as the greatest Latin writers were born. That literature abounded with met- rical romances, such as are found in every country where there is much curiosity and intelligence, but little reading and writing. All human beings, not utterly savage, long for some information about past times, and are delighted by narratives which present pictures to the eye of the mind. But it is only in very enlightened 8 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. communities that books are readily accessible. Metrical composition, therefore, which, in a highly civilized na- ion is a mere luxury, is, in nations Imperfectly civil- zed, almost a necessary of life, and is valued less on jiccount of the pleasure vt^hich it gives to the ear than on account of the help which it gives to the memory. A man who can invent or embellish an interesting story, and p'lt it into a form which others may easily retain in their recollection, will always be highly esteemed by a people eager for amusement and information, but desti- tute of libraries. Such is the origin of ballad-poetry, a species of composition which scarcely ever fails to spring up and flourish in every society, at a certain point in the progress towards refinement. As it is agreeable to general experience that, at a certain stage in the progress of society, ballad-poetry should flourish, so is It also agreeable to general experi- ence that, at a subsequent stage in the progress of soci- ety, ballad-poetry should be undervalued and neglected. Knowledge advances ; manners change ; great foreign models of composition are studied and imitated. The phraseology of the old minstrels becomes obsolete. Their versification, which, having received its laws only from the ear, abounds in irregularities, seems licentious and uncouth. Their simplicity appears beggarly when compared with the quaint forms and gaudy coloring of such artists as Cowley and Gongora. The ancient lays, unjustly despised by the learned and polite, linger for a time in the memory of the vulgar, and are at length too often Irretrievably lost. We cannot wonder that the bal- lads of Rome should have altogether disappeared, when we remember how very narrowly, in spite of the inven* INTRODUCTION. 9 tion of printing, those of our own country and those of Spain escaped the same fate. There is, indeed, little doubt that oblivion covers many English songs equal to any that were published by Bishop Percy, and many Spanish songs as good as the best of those which have been so happily translated by Mr. Lockhart. Eighty years ago England possessed only one tattered copy of Childe Waters and Sir Cauline, and Spain only one tattered copy of the noble poem of the Cid. The snuff of a candle, or a mischievous dog, might in a moment have deprived the world forever of any of those fine compositions. Sir Walter Scott, who united to the fire of a great poet the minute curiosity and patient dili- gence of a great antiquary, was but just in time to save the precious reliques of the Minstrelsy of the Border. In Germany, the lay of the Nibelungs had been long utterly forgotten, when, in the eighteenth century, it was for the first time printed from a manuscript in the old library of a noble family. In truth, the only people who, through their whole passage from simplicity to the highest civilization, never for a moment ceased to love and admire their old ballads, were the Greeks. That the early Romans should have had ballad-poetry, and that this poetry should have perished, is, therefore, not strange. It would, on the contrary, have been strange if these things had not come to pass ; and we should be justified in pronouncing them highly proba/- ble, even if we had no direct evidence on the subject ; but we have direct evidence of unquestionable authority. The proposition, then, that Rome had ballad-poetry is not merely in itself highly probable, but is fully proved \>j direct evidence of the greatest weight. 10 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. This proposition being established, it becomes easy to understand why the early history of the city is un- like almost everything else in Latin literature, — native where almost everything else is borrowed, imaginative where almost everything else is prosaic. We can scarcely hesitate to pronounce that the magnificent, pathetic, and truly national legends, which present so striking a contrast to all that surrounds them, are bro- ken and defaced fragments of that early poetry which, even in the age of Cato the Censor, had become anti- quated, and of which Tully had never heard a line. That this poetry should have been suffered to perish will not appear strange when we consider how complete was the triumph of the Greek genius over the public mind of Italy. It is probable that at an early period Homer and Herodotus furnished some hints to the Latin minstrels ; but it was not until after the war with Pyr- rhus that the poetry of Rome began to put off its old Ausonian character. The transformation was soon con- summated. The conquered, says Horace, led captive the conquerors. It was precisely at the time at which the Roman people rose to unrivalled political ascend- ency thp'.; they stooped to pass under the intellectual yoke. It was precisely at the time at which the scep° tre departed from Greece that the empire of her lan= guage and of her arts became universal and despotic. The revolution, indeed, was not effected without a strug« ^le. Nsevius seems to have been the last of the ancient line of poets. Ennius was the founder of a new dynasty. Ncevius celebrated the First Punic War in Saturnian verse, the old national verse of Italy. Ennius sang the Second Punic War in numbers borrowed from -the Iliad. The elder poet, in the epitaph which he wrote INTRODUCTION. 11 For himself, and which is a fine specimen of the early Roman diction and versification, plaintively boasted that the Latin language had died with him. Thus, what to Horace appeared to be the first faint dawn of Roman literature, appeared to Naevius to be its hopeless setting. In truth, one literature was setting and another dawn- ing. The victory of foreign taste was decisive ; and indeed we can hardly blame the Romans for turning away with contempt from the rude Jays which had delighted their fathers, and giving their whole admiration to the im- mortal productions of Greece. The national romances, neglected by the great and the refined, whose education had been finished at Rhodes or Athens, continued, it may be supposed, during some generations, to delight the vulgar. While Virgil, in hexameters of exquisite modulation, described the sports of rustics, those rustics were still singing their wild Saturnian ballads. It is not improbable that, at the time when Cicero lamented the irreparable loss of the poems mentioned by Cato, a search among the nooks of the Apennines, as active as the search which Sir Walter Scott made among the de- scendants of the mosstroopers of Liddesdale, might have brought to light many fine remains of ancient min- strelsy. No such search was made. The Latin ballads perished forever. Yet discerning critics have thought that they could still perceive in the early history of Rome numerous fragments of this lost poetry, as the traveller on classic ground sometimes finds, built into the heavy wall of a fort or convent, a pillar rich with acanthus leaves, or a frieze where the Amazons and Bacchanals seem to live. The theatres and temples o^ the Greek and the Roman were degraded into the quar* 12 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. ries of the Turk and the Goth. Even so did the ancient Saturnian poetry become the quarry in which a crowd of orators and annalists found the materials for their prose. It is not difficult to trace the process by which the old songs were transmuted into the form which they now wear. Funeral panegyric and chronicle appear co have been the intermediate links which connected the lost ballads with the histories now extant. From a very early period it was the usage that an oration should be pronounced over the remains of a noble Roman. The orator, as we learn from Polybius, was expected, on such an occasion, to recapitulate all the services which the ancestors of the deceased had, from the earliest time, rendered to the commonwealth. There can be little doubt that the speaker on whom this duty was im- posed would make use of all the stories suited to his purpose which were to be found in the popular lays. There can be little doubt that the family of an eminent man would preserve a copy of the speech which had been pronounced over his corpse. The compilers of the early chronicles would have recourse to these speeches, and the great historians of a later period would have recourse to the chronicles. Such, or nearly such, appears to have been the process by which the lost ballad-poetry of Rome was transformed into history. To reverse that process, to transform some portions of early Roman history back into the poetry out of which they were made, is the object of this work. In the following poems the author speaks, not in, his own person, but in the persons of ancient minstrels who INTRODUCTION. 13 6now only what a Roman citizen, born three or four years before the Christian era, may be supposed to have known, and who are in no wise above the passions and prejudices of their age and nation. To these imagi- nary poe<-s must be ascribed some blunders, which are so obvious that it is unnecessary to point them out. The real blunder would have been to represent these old poets as deeply versed in general history, and studious of chronological accuracy. To them must also be at- tributed the illiberal sneers at the Greeks, the furious /ai'ty spirit, the contempt for the arts of peace, the love of war for its own sake, the ungenerous exultation over the vanquished, which the reader will sometimes observe. To portray a Roman of the age of Camillus or Curius as superior to national antipathies, as mourning over the devastation and slaughter by which empire and triumphs were to be won, as looking on human suffering with the sympathy of Howard, or as treating conquered enemies with the delicacy of the Black Prince, would be to vio« late all dramatic propriety. The old Romans had some great virtues, — fortitude, temperance, veracity, spirit to resist oppression, respect for legitimate author* ity, fidelity in the observing of contracts, disinterested- ness, ardent patriotism ; but Christian charity and chiv alrous generosity were alike unknown to them. It would have been obviously improper to mimic the manner of any particular age or country. Something has been borrowed, however, from our own ballads, and more from Sir Walter Scott, the great restorer of our ballad-poetry. To the Iliad still greater obligations are due ; and those obligations have been contracted with the less hesitation because there is reason to believe that some of the old Latin minstrels really had recourse to that inexhaustible store of poetical images. HORATIUS. There can be little doubt that among those parts of early Roman history which had a poetical origin was the legend of Horatius Codes. We have several ver- sions of the story, and these versions differ from each other in points of no small importance. Polybius, there 2s reason to believe, heard the tale recited over the re- mains of some consul or praetor descended from the old Horatian patricians ; for he introduces it as a sjDecimen of the narratives with which the Romans were in the habit of embellishing their funeral oratory. It is re- markable that, according to him, Horatius defended the bridge alone, and perished in the waters. According to the chronicles which Livy and Dionysius followed, Hora- tius had two companions, swam safe to shore, and was loaded with honors and rewards. It is by no means unlikely that there were two old Roman lays about the defence of the bridge ; and that, while the story which Livy has transmitted to us was preferred by the multitude, the other, which ascribed the whole glory to Horatius alone, may have been the favorite with the Horatian house. The following ballad is supposed to have been made about a hundred and twenty years after the war which it celebrates, and just before the taking of Rome by the Gauls. The author seems to have been an honest, citi- iien, proud of the military glory of his country, sick of HO RATI us, 15 the disputes (jf factions, and much given to pining after good old times which had never really existed. The allusion, however, to the partial manner in which the public lands were allotted could proceed only from a plebeian ; and the allusion to the fraudulent sale of spoils marks the date of the poem, and shows that the poet shared in the general discontent with which the pro- ceedings of Camillus, after the taking of Veii, were regarded. [The legendary history makes an Etruscan dynasty ot three kings, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, and Tarquinius Superbus, to have ruled Rome successively ; but the tyranny of the house became so hateful that the Tarquinian family was banished, and a republic, governed by two magistrates called consuls, chosen annually, was set up 509 B. c, or in the year 244 from the foundation of Rome. Tarquin attempted, first by .atrigue and then by open war, to recover his throne ; it was then that he sought the alliance of Porsena, who ruled over Etruria, and the ballad that follows narrates the exploit of Horatias when the city was defending itself] 16 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. HORATIUS. A. LAY MADE ABOUT THE YEAR OF THE CITI CCCLX Lars Porsena of Clusium By the Nine Gods he swore That the great house of Tarquin Should suffer wrong no more. 8 By the Nine Gods he swore it, And named a trysting day, And bade his messengers ride forth East and west and south and northj, To summon his array. 2 i-o East and west and south and north The messengers ride fast, And tower and town and cottage Have heard the trumpet's blast. Shame on the false Etruscan m Who lingers in his home. When Porsena of Clusium Is on the march for Rome. 3 The horsemen and the footmen Are pouring in amain 1. Lars in the Etruscan tongue signified chieftain. Clusium is the modera tjhiusi. 2. The Romans had a tradition that there were nine great Etruscan gods. HORATIUS. 17 •?o From many a stately market-place ; From many a fruitful plain ; From many a lonely hamlet, Which, hid by beech and pine, Like an eagle's nest, hangs on the cresfc M Of purple Apennine ; From lordly Volaterrse, Where scowls the far-famed hold Piled by the hands of giants For godlike kings of old ; 30 From seagirt Populonia, Whose sentinels descry Sardinia's snowy mountain-tops Fringing the southern sky ; 5 From the proud mart of Pisse, 35 Queen of the western waves, Where ride Massilia's triremes Heavy with fair-haired slaves ; From where sweet Clanis wanders Through corn and vines and flowers ; 26. Volaterrce, modern Vollerra, 2V. "The situation of the Etruscan towns is one of the most striking char. acteristics of Tuscan scenery. Many of them occupy surfaces of table-land surrounded by a series of gullies not visible from a distance. The traveller ihus may be a whole day reaching a pla,ce which in the morning may have- seemed to him but a little way off," — Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries o^ Etruria. 34. Pisce, now Pisa. 3G. Massilia, the ancient Marseilles, which originally was a Greek colony- fl,nd a great commercial centre. 37. The fair-haired slaves were doubtless slaves from Gaul, bought aa And many a banished Roman, And many a stout ally ; And with a mighty following S6 To join the muster came The Tusculan Mamilius, Prince of the Latian name. 13 But by the yellow Tiber Was tumult and affright : ioo From ail the spacious champaign To Rome men took their flight. A mile around the city, The throng stopped up the ways 5 A fearful sight it was to see 105 Through two long nights and days. 14 For aged folks on crutches, And women great with child, *' And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn, in the dale.* The tally which we keep is a kindred word. S6. Sutrium is iSuiri to-day. HO RAT I us. 21 And mothers sobbing over babes That clung to them and smiled, tio And sick men borne in litters High on the necks of slaves, And troops of sunburnt husbandmen With reaping-hooks and staves, 15 And droves of mules and asses ii6 Laden with skins of wine, And endless flocks of goats and sheep, And endless herds of kine, And endless trains of wagons That creaked beneath the weight 120 Of corn-sacks and of household goods, Choked every roaring gate. 16. Now, from the rock Tarpeian, Could the wan burghers spy The line of blazing villages 125 Red in the midnight sky. The Fathers of the City, They sat all night and day. For every hour some horseman came With tidings of dismay. 17 130 To eastward and to westward Have spread the Tuscan bands ; 122. The Tarpeian rock was a cliff on the steepest side of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and overhung the Tiber. 1 23. Burghers, Macaulay uses a very modern word to describe the mes Df Rome. 126. The Fathers of Ihe City, otherwise the Senators of Rome, 22 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Nor house nor fence nor dovecote In Crustumerium stands. Verbenna down to Ostia iW Hath wasted all the plain ; Astur hath stormed Janiculum, And the stout guards are slain. 18 Iwis, in all the Senate, There was no heart so bold, 140 But sore it ached, and fast it beat, When that ill news was told. Forthwith up rose the Consul,. Up rose the Fathers all ; In haste they girded up their gownSj 14B And hied them to the wall. 19 They held a council standing Before the River-Gate ; Short time was there, ye well may guess, For musing or debate. 150 Out spake the Consul roundly : " The bridge must straight go down ; For, since Janiculum is lost. Naught else can save the town." 1&4. Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, vas the port of Romtj. t!>6. Tlie Janiculan hill was on the right bank of the Tiber. 138. Iwis. Compare Lowell's lines in Credidimus Jovem regnare : ■^ " God vanished long ago, iwis, A mere subjective synthesis." Rs meaning is " certainly." 151. The bridge was the Sublician bridge, said to have been thrown across ttie Tiber by Ancua Martius in the year 114 of the city. no RAT JUS. 28 20 Just then a scout came flying, 155 All wild with haste and fear ; *' To arms ! to arms ! Sir Consul. : Lars Porsena is here." On the low hills to westward The Consul fixed his eye, 160 And saw the swarthy storm of dust Rise fast along the sky. 21 And nearer fast and nearer Doth the red whirlwind come ; And louder still and still more loud, 165 From underneath that rolling cloud, Is heard the trumpet's war-note proud, The trampling, and the hum. And plainly and more plainly Now through the gloom appears, ITO Far to left and far to right, In broken gleams of dark-blue light, The long array of helmets bright, The long array of spears. 22 And plainly, and more plainly IT6 Above that glimmering line. Now might ye see the banners Of twelve fair cities shine : But the banner of proud Clusium Was highest of them all, IT7. The Etruscan confederacy was composed of twelve citiet 24 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, 180 The terror of the Umbrian, The terror of the Gaul. 23 And plainly and more plainly Now might the burghers know. By port and vest, by horse and crest, 186 Each warlike Lucumo. There Cilnius of Arretium On his fleet roan was seen ; And Astur of the fourfold shield, Girt with the brand none else may wield^ 190 Tolumnius with the belt of gold, And dark Verbenna from the hold By reedy Thrasymene. 24 Fast by the royal standard, O'erlooking all the war, 195 Lars Porsena of Clusium Sat in his ivory ear. By the right wheel rode Mamilius, Prince of the Latian name ; And by the left false Sextus, 200 That wrought the deed of shame. 184. By port and vest, i. e., by the way he carried himself and by his dress, Vesl, an abbreviation of vesture. 185. L/ucumo was the name given by the Latin writers to the Etruscan chiefs. 192. Thrasj/mene or Trasimenus is Lago di Perugia, and was famous in Roman history as the scene of a victory by Hannibal, the Carthaginian gen- eral, over the Roman forces. 197. Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum married the daughter of Tarquinius. 199. Sextus, a son of Tarquinius, and the one whose wickedness was the Immediate cause of the expulsion of the Tarquins. HORATIUS, 25 25 But when the face of Sextus "Was seen among the foes, A yell that rent the firmament From all the town arose. S06 On the house-tops was no woman But spat towards him and hissed, No child but screamed out curses, And shook its little fist. 26 But the Consul's brow was sad, 210 And the Consul's speech was low, And darkly looked he at the wall, And darkly at the foe. " Their van will be upon us Before the bridge goes down ; ai5 And if they once m^y win the bridge^ What hope to save the town ? " 27 Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the Gate : " To every man upon this earth 220 Death cometh soon or late And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temjiles of his Gods, S36 '* And for the tender mother Who dandled him to rest. 26 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. And for the wife who nurses His baby at her breast, And for the holy maidens 830 Who feed the eternal flame, To save them from false Sextus That wrought the deed of shame ? 29 ** Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, With all the speed ye may ; 235 I, with two more to help me, Will hold the foe in play. In yon strait path a thousand May w^ell be stopped by three. Now who will stand on either hand, 240 And keep the bridge with me ? '* 30 Then out sjDake Spurius Lartlus ; A Ramnian proud was he : " Lo, I will stand at thy right hand, And keep the bridge with thee." 245 And out spake strong Herniinius ; Of Titian blood was he : " I will abide on thy left side, And keep the bridge with thee." 2?9. The V estal Virgins were bound by vows of celibacy, and kept burning the sacred tire of Vesta. The order survived till near the close of the fourth century of our era. For a very interesting account of the House of the Vestal Virgins, see Lanciani, Ancient Home in the Light of Recent Discov- eries. 242. The Ramnes were one of the three tribes who comprised the Roman Patricians, or noble class. 246. The Tities were another of these three tribes. EORATIUS. 21 31 " Horatius," quoth the Consul, 860 " As thou sayest, so let it be." And straight against that great array Forth went the dauntless Three. For Romans in Rome's quarrel Spared neither land nor gold, 866 Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life. In the brave days of old. 32 Then none was for a party ; Then all were for the state ; Then the great man helped the poorj s6u And the poor man loved the great i Then lands were fairly portioned ; Then spoils were fairly sold : The Romans were like brothers In the brave days of old. 33 S66 Now Roman is to Roman More hateful than a foe, And the Tribunes beard the high. And the Fathers grind the low. As we wax hot in faction, 270 In battle we wax cold : Wherefore men fight not as they fought In the brave days of old. 267. The Tribunes were officers who represented the tribes of the comnnan people or Plehs of Rome. In the time when the ballad is supposed to be written, there were two strong parties, the Fathers or Patricians {Patres), the Common People or Plebs. 28 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, 34 Now while the Three were tightening Their harness on their backs, 276 The Consul was the foremost man To take in hand an axe : And Fathers mixed with Commons Seized hatchet, bar, and crow, And smote upon the planks above, 280 And loosed the jDrops below. 35 Meanwhile the Tuscan army, Right glorious to behold, Came flashing back the noonday light, Rank behind rank, like surges bright 286 Of a broad sea of gold. Four hundred trumpets sounded A peal of warlike glee, As that great host, with measured tread, And spears advanced, and ensigns spread, 290 Rolled slowly towards the bridge's head, Where stood the dauntless Three. 36 The Three stood calm and silent. And looked upon the foes, And a great shout of laughter 295 From all the vanguard rose ; And forth three chiefs came spurring Before that deep array ; 277. Commons. Macaulay, an English Whig, used a political word very dear to him, as representing the rise of English parliamentary government. 280. The props held up the bridge from below. The Latin word for props waa sublicae ; hence the Sublician bridge. HORATIUS. 29 To earth they sprang, their swords they drew, And lifted high their shields, and flew 300 To win the narrow way ; 37 Annus from green Tiferniim, Lord of the Hill of Vines ; And Seius, whose eight hundred slaves Sicken in Ilva's mines ; 30f And Picus, long to Clusium Vassal in peace and war, Who led to fight his Umbrian powers From that gray crag where, girt with towers^ The fortress of Nequinum lowers 810 O'er the pale waves of Nar. 38 Stout Lartius hurled down Aunus Into the stream beneath : Herminius struck at Seius, And clove him to the teeth : 815 At Picus brave Horatius Darted one fiery thrust ; And the proud Umbrian's gilded arms Clashed in the bloody dust. 39 Then Ocnus of Falerii 820 Rushed on the Roman Three ; 301. Tifernum was on the west side of the Apennmes, near the source oi the Tiber. It is now Citta di Castello. 304. Ilva is the modern Elba, renowned as the island to which Napoleon was banished. 309. Nequinum, afterward Narnia and now Narni, on the ban&s. of the Nar. 30 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. And Lausulus of Urgo, The rover of the sea ; And Aruns of Volsinium, Who slew the great wild boar, 325 The great wild boar that had his den Amidst the reeds of Cosa's fen, And wasted fields, and slaughtered men, Along Albinia's shore. 40 Herminius smote dowai Aruns : 330 Lartius laid Ocnus low : Right to the heart of Lausulus Horatius sent a blow. " Lie there," he cried, '• fell pirate ! No more, aghast and pale, ?36 From Ostia's walls the crowd shall mark The track of thy destroying bark. No more Campania's hinds shall fly To woods and caverns when they spy Thy thrice accursed sail." 41 340 But now no sound of laughter Was heard among the foes. A wild and wrathful clamor From all the vanguard rose. Six spears' lengths from the entrance 945 Halted that deep array. And for a space no man came forth To win the narrow way. 322. The Etruscans were pirates as well as merchanta. EORATIUS. 3^ 42 But hark ! the cry is Astur : And lo ! the ranks divide ; ?B0 And the great Ijord of Luna Comes with his stately stride. Upon his ample shoulders Clangs loud the fourfold shield, And in his hand he shakes the brand 356 Which none but he can wield. 43 He smiled on those bold Romans A smile serene and high ; He eyed the flinching Tuscans, And scorn was in his eye. 860 Quoth he, " The she-wolf's litter Stand savagely at bay : But will ye dare to. follow, If Astur clears the way ? '* 44 Then, whirling up his broadsword 36B With both hands to the height, He rushed against Horatius, And smote with all his might. With shield and blade Horatius Right deftly turned the blow. 370 The blow, though turned, came yet too nigh ; It missed his helm, but gashed his thigh : The Tuscans raised a joyful cry To see the red blood flow. 360. The she-icolf:: litter. The reference is to the story of the suckling oi ftomulus and Remus by a she-wolf. 32 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 45 He reeled, and on Herminius 37B He leaned one breathing-space ; Then, like a wild-cat mad with wounds, Sprang right at Astur's face. Through teeth, and skull, and helmet, So fierce a thrust he sped, 380 The good sword stood a handbreadth out Behind the Tuscan's head. 46 And the great Lord of Luna Fell at that deadly stroke, As falls on Mount Alvernus S86 A thunder-smitten oak. Far o'er the crashing forest The giant arms lie spread ; And the pale augurs, muttering low. Gaze on the blasted head. 47 39a On Astur's throat Horatius Right firmly pressed his heel. And thrice and four times tugged amaioj Ere he wrenched out the steel. " And see," he cried, " the welcome, 396 Fair guests, that vvaits you here ^ What noble Lucumo comes next To taste our Roman cheer ? " 48 But at his haughty challenge A sullen murmur ran, EORATIUS. 400 Mingled of wrath and shame and dread, Along that glittering van. There lacked not men of prowess Nor men of lordly race ; For all Etruria's noblest 40B Were round the fatal place. 49 But all Etruria's noblest Felt their hearts sink to see On the earth the bloody corpses, In the path the dauntless Three : iio And, from the ghastly entrance Where those bold Romans stood, All shrank, like boys who unaware. Ranging the woods tu start a hare. Come to the mouth of the dark lair 41B Where, growhng low, a fierce old beai Lies amidst bones and blood. 50 Was none who would be foremost To leatl such r'>e attack : But those behind cried " Forward ! ** 420 And those before cried •' Back ! *' And backward now and forward Wavers the deep array ; And on the tossing sea of steel, To and fro the standards reel ; 425 And the victorious trumpet-peal Dies fitfully away 84 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, 61 Yet one man for one moment Stood out before the crowd ; Well known was he to all the Three, 430 And they gave him greeting loud, " Now welcome, welcome, Sextus ! Now welcome to thy home ! Why dost thou stay, and turn away ? Here lies the road to Rome." 52 436 Thrice looked he at the city ; Thrice looked he at the dead ; And thrice came on in fury, And thrice turned back in dread ; And, white with fear and hatred, 440 Scowled at the narrow way Where, wallowing in a pool of bloodj The bravest Tu^scans lay. 53 But meanwhile axe and lever Have manfully been plied ; 44P And now the bridge hangs tottering Above the boiling tide. '' Come back, come back, Horatius 1 * Loud cried the Fathers all. " Back, Lartius ! back, Herminius i «o Back, ere the ruin fall ! " 54 Back darted Spurius Lartius ; Herminius darted back : HO RATI us. 8S And, as they passed, beneath their feet They felt the timbers crack. «&6 But when they turned their faces, And on the farther shore Saw brave Horatius stand alone. They would have crossed once more^ 55 But with a crash like thunder MO Fell every loosened beam, And, like a dam, the mighty wretik Lay right athwart the stream ; And a long shout of triumph Rose from the walls of Rome, 465 As to the highest turret-tops Was splashed the yellow foam. 56 And, like a horse unbroken When first he feels the rein, The furious river struggled hard, 470 And tossed his tawny mane, And burst the curb, and bounded, Rejoicing to be free, And whirling down, in fierce career Battlement, and plank, and pier, 475 Rushed headlong to the seft. 57 Alone stood brave Horatius, But constant still in mind ; Thrice thirty thousand foes before. And the broad flood behind. 36 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. «80 " Down with him ! " cried false Sextus, With a smile on his pale face. " Now yield thee," cried Lars Porsena, " Now yield thee to our grace." 58 Round turned he, as not deigning 4se Those craven ranks to see ; Naught spake he to Lars Porsena;, To Sextus naught spake he ; But he saw on Palatinus The white porch of his home ; 490 And he spake to the noble river . That rolls by the towers of Rom£ 59 "0 Tiber! father Tiber! To whom the Romans pray, A Roman's life, a Roman's arms, 495 Take thou in charge this day ! " So he spake, and speaking sheathed The good sword by his side. And with his harness on his back Plunged headlong in the tide. 60 500 No sound of joy or sorrow "Was heard from either bank ; But friends and foes in dumb surprise, With parted lips and straining eyes, Stood gazing where he sank ; 505 And when above the surges 488. Mons Palatinus survives in the Palatine hill of modem Rome. 'A-,*! And when above the surges They saw his crest appear, All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, And even the ranks of Tuscany Could scarce forbear to cheer. From drawing by George Scharf, Jr., in " Lays of Ancient Rome," by permission of the publishers, Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. ±1 OR ATI us 37 They saw his crest appear. All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, And even the ranks of Tuscany Could scarce forbear to cheer. 61 810 But fiercely ran the current, Swollen high by months of rain : And fast his blood was flowing, And he was sore in pain, And heavy with his armor, * 615 And spent with changing blowp : And oft they thought him sinking, But still again he rose. 62 Never, I ween, did swimmer, In such an evil ca«e, 620 Struggle through such a raging flood Safe to the landing-place : But his limbs were borne up bravely By the brave heart within, And our good father Tiber 625 Bore bravely up his chin. 525. Macaiilay notes as passages in Englisn literature which he had !n mini when he wrote this : — " Our ladye bare upp herchinne." Ballad of Childe Waters. " Never heavier man and horse Stemmed a midnight torrent's force ; Yet, through good heart and onr Lady's grace, At length he gained the landing-place." Lay of the Last Minstrel 38 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 63 '' Curse on him ! " quoth false Sextus ; *' Will not the villain drown ? But for this stay, ere close of day We should have sacked the town ! " 630 " Heaven help him ! " quoth Lars Porsena, " And brmg him safe to shore ; For such a gallant feat of arms Was never seen before." 64 And now he feels the bottom ; * B36 Now on dry earth he stands ;. Now round him throng the Fathers To press his gory hands ; And now, with shouts and clapping. And noise of weeping loud, 340 He enters through the River-Gate, Borne by the joyous crowd. 65 They gave him of the corn-land, That was of public right. As much as two strong oxen 545 Could plough from morn till night ; And they made a molten image, And set it up on high. And there it stands unto this day To witness if I lien HORATIUS. B9 66 560 It stands in the Comitium, Plain for all folk to see ; Horatius in his harness, Halting upon one knee : And underneath is written, 365 In letters all of gold, How valiantly he kept the bridge In the brave days of old. 67 And still his name sounds stirrJng Unto the men of Rome, 160 As the trumpet-blast that cries to them To charge the Volscian home ; And wives still pray to Juno For boys with hearts as bold As his who kept the bridge so well 565 In the brave days of old. 68 And in the nights of winter. When the cold north-winds blow, And the long howling of the wolves Is heard amidst the snow ; 670 When round the lonely cottage Roars loud the tempest's din, And the good logs of Algidus Roar louder yet within ; 550. The Comitium was that part of the Forum which served as the meet« ing-place of the Roman patricians. 573. The Romans brought some of their firewood from the hill of Algidua about a dozen miles to the southeast of the town. 40 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 69 When the oldest cask is opened, 67B And the largest lamp is lit ; When the chestnuts glow in the embers, And the kid turns on the spit ; When young and old in circle Around the firebrands close ; R80 When the girls are weaving baskets, And the lads are shaping bows ; 70 When the goodman mends his armor. And trims his helmet's plume ; When the goodwif e's shuttle merrily 685 Goes flashing through the loom, — With weeping and with laughter Still is the story told, How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old. THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS The following poem is supposed to have been pro- duced ninety years after the lay of Horatius. Some persons mentioned in the lay of Horatius make their appearance again, and some appellations and epithets used in the lay of Horatius have been purposely re- peated ; for, in an age of ballad-poetry, it scarcely ever fails to happen, that certain phrases come to be appro- priated to certain men and things, and are regularly ajDplied to those men and things by every minstrel. The principal distinction between the lay of Horar tius and the lay of the Lake Regillus is, that the former is meant to be purely Roman, while the latter, though na- tional in its general spirit, has a slight tincture of Greek learning and of Greek superstition. The story of the Tarquins, as it has come down to us, appears to have been compiled from the works of several popular poets ; and one at least of those poets appears to have visited the Greek colonies in Italy, if not Greece itself, and to have had some acquaintance with the works of Homer and Herodotus. Many of the most striking adventures of the house of Tarquin, before Lucretia makes her appearance, have a Greek character. . , . The Battle of the Lake Regillus is in all respects a Homeric battle, except that the combatants ride astride on their horses, instead of driving chariots. The mass of fighting men is hardly mentioned. The leaders single each other out, and engage hand to hand. The 42 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. great object of the warriors on "both sides is, as in the Iliad, to obtain possession of the spoils and bodies of the slain ; and several circumstances are related which forcibly remind us of the great slaughter round the corpses of Sarpedon and Patroclus. In the following' poem, therefore, images and incl dents have been borrowed, not merely without scruple, but on principle, from the incomparable battle-pieces of Homer. The popular belief at Rome, from an early period, seems to have been that the event of the great day of Regillus was decided by supernatural agency. Castor and Pollux, it was said, had fought, armed and mounted, at the head of the legions of the commonwealth, aiid had afterwards carried the news of the victory with incredible speed to the city. The well in the Forum at which they had alighted was pointed out. Near the well rose their ancient temple. A great festival was kept to their honor on the ides of Quintilis, supposed to be the anniversary of the battle ; and on that day sump- tuous sacrifices were offered to them at the public charge. One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was regarded during many ages with superstitious awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse's hoof, was discern- ible in the volcanic rock ; and this mark was believed to have been made by one of the celestial chargers. How the legend originated cannot now be ascertained : but we may easily imagine several ways in which it might have originated ; nor is it at all necessary to sup' pose, with Julius Frontinus, that two young men were dressed up by the Dictator to personate the sons of Leda. It is probable that Livy is correct when he says that BATTLE OF THE LAKE RE GILL US, 43 fche Roman general, in the hour of peril, vowed a tem- ple to Castor. If so, nothing could be more natural than that the multitude should ascribe the victory to the favor of the Twin Gods. When such was the prevailing sentiment, any man who chose to declare that, in the midst of the confusion and slaughter, he had seen two godlike forms on white horses scattering the Latines, would find ready credence. We know, indeed, that in modern times a very similar story actually found cre- dence among a people much more civilized than the Romans of the fifth century before Christ. A chaplain of Cortes, writing about thirty years after the conquest of Mexico, in an age of printing-presses, libraries, univer- sities, scholars, logicians, jurists, and statesmen, had the face to assert that in one enorafjement aoainst the Indiana St. James had appeared on a grey horse at the head of the Castilian adventurers. Many of these adventurers were living when this lie Was printed. One of them, honest Bernal Diaz, wrote an account of the expedition. He had the evidence of his own senses against the legend ; but he seems to have distrusted even the evi- dence of his own senses. He says that he was in the battle, and that he saw a gray horse with a man on his back, but that the man was, to his thinking, Fran- cesco de Morla, and not the ever-blessed apostle St. James. " Nevertheless," Bernal adds, " it may be that the person on the grey horse was the glorious apostle St. James, and that I, sinner that I am, was unworthy to see him." The Romans of the age of Cincinnatus were probably quite as credulous as the Spanish subjects of Charles the Fifth. It is therefore conceivable that the appearance of Castor and Pollux may have become an article of faith before the generation which had fought at Regillus had passed away. Nor could anything be 44 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. more natural than that the poets of the next age should embellish this story, and make the celestial horsemen bear the tidings of victory to Rome. ... It was or- dained that a grand muster and inspection of the eques- trian body [the knights of RomeJ should be part of the ceremonial performed on the anniversary of the battle of Regillus in honor of Castor and Pollux, the two equestrian gods. All the knights, clad in purple and crowned with olive, were to meet at a Temple of Mars in the suburbs. Thence they were to ride in state to the Forum, where the Temple of the Twins stood. This pageant was, during several centuries, considered as one of the most splendid sights of Rome. In the time of Dionysius the cavalcade sometimes consisted of five thousand horsemen, all persons of fair re23ute and easy fortune. There can be no doubt that the Censors, who insti- tuted this august ceremony, acted in concert with the Pontiffs, to whom, by the constitution of Rome, the superintendence of the public worship belonged ; and it is probable that those high religious functionaries were, as usual, fortunate enough to find in their books or tradi- tions some warrant for the innovation. The following poem was supposed to have been made for this great occasion. [The battle of Lake Regillus was the last attempt of the Tarquins to regain their supremacy in Rome. Tarquin applied to his son-in-law, Octavius Mamilius of Tusculum, to aid him. A confederacy of thirty Latin cities supported him, and Rome, which called itself Latin, thus had the appearance of being in revolt. The Romans appointed Aulus Posthumius dictator, and their victory over the confederacy marked the beginning of tlie Roman supremacy in Italy.] BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 45 THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. i LAY SUXG AT THE FEAST OF CASTOR AXD POLLUX ON THE IDES OF QUINTILIS, IN THE YEAR OF THE CITY CCCCLI. Ho, trumpets, sound a war-ii-ote ! Ho, lictors, clear the way ! The Knights will ride in all their pride Along the streets to-day. 5 To-day the doors and windows Are hung with garlands all, From Castor in the Forum To Mars without the wall. Each Knight is robed in purple, 10 With olive each is crowned ; A gallant war-horse under each Paws haughtily the ground. While flows the Yellow River, While stands the Sacred Hill, 16 The proud Ides of Quintilis Shall have such honor stilL Gay are the Mai-tian Kalends : 2. The lictors were the body-guard of the magistrates, and were armed with rods and axes. 3. Macaulay gives a modern name to members of the Roman order, whc might be said to correspond with the Knights of the Order of St. George. 7. That is, from the Temple of Castor within the Forum to the Temple of Mars. 13. The yellow Tiber, from the yellow sands which colored the water. 15. The Roman year began with March. QuintUis, the fifth month, was therefore July ; the Ides was the middle of the month. 17. The Kalends was the first day of the month. On the first of March 46 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. December's Nones are gay : But the proud Ides, when the squadron rides, 30 Shall be Rome's whitest day. Unto the Great Twin Brethren We keep this solemn feast. Swift, swift, the Great Twin Brethren Came spurring from the east. 26 They came o'er wild Parthenius, Tossing in waves of pine, O'er Cirrha's dome, o'er Adria's foam, O'er purple Apennine, From where with flutes and dances 80 Their ancient mansion rings, In lordly Lacedsemon, The City of two kings, To where, by Lake Regillus, Jnder the Porcian height, the sacred fire was rekindled on the hearth of the Temple of Vesta. It wag New Year's Day, and one of festivity. 18. December''s Nones, the fifth of December. 21. The Great Twin Brethren, Castor and Pollux, were the Box and Cox of ancient mythology. They are held by some to have represented the alterna- tion of sun and moon. 25. They came o''er wild Parthenius. " These lines describe the course oi the mysterious riders from their Eastern birthplace. The Parthenian range is the eastern barrier of the Arkadian or central highlands of the Pelopon- nese. Cirrha was the port on the Corinthian gulf for the landing of pil- grims for the great shrine of Delplii. Adria or Hadria was the name by which the Romans spoke of the Adriatic Sea ; and the Apennines formed the backbone of Italy, which the twin riders had to cross before they could reacJ Rome." — Cox. 31. Sparta, the city of the Lacedaemonians, was said to be the city of Cae > ior and Pollux, who were sometimes spoken of as the brotherc of Helen, wife of Menel.aus, the chieftain of the Lacedaemonians. 32. Anciently there were two heads of the Spartan state. BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 41 36 All in the lands of Tusculum, Was fought the glorious fight Now on the place of slaughter Are cots and sheepfolds seen, And rows of vines, and fields of wheat, 10 And apple-orchards green ; The swine crush the big acorns That fall from Corne's oaks. Upon the turf by the Fair Fount The reaper's pottage smokes. « The fisher baits his angle ; The hunter twangs his bow ; Little they think on those strong limbs That moulder deep below. Little they think hpw sternly 30 That day the trumpets pealed ; How in the slippery swamp of blood Warrior and war-horse reeled ; How wolves came with fierce gallop, And crows on eager wings, 36 To tear the flesh of captains. And peck the eyes of kings ; How thick the dead lay scattered Under the Porcian height ; How through the gates of Tusculum 30 Raved the wild stream of flight ; And how the Lake Regillus Bubbled with crimson foam, What time the Thirty Cities Came forth to war with Rome. >i. Tusculum was near the modern Frascati, and stood on the height named Mha, Lonea. i8 LAYS OF ANCIENT BOMB. 4 65 But, Roman, when thou standest Upon that holy giound, Look thou with heed on the dark rock That girds the dark lake round, So shalt thou see a hoof-mark JO Stamped deep into the flint : It was no hoof of mortal steed That made so strange a dint : There to the Great Twin Brethren Vow thou thy vows, and pray 78 That they, in tempest and in fight, Will keep thy head alway. Since last the Great Twin Brethren Of mortal eyes were seen, Have years gone by an hundred 30 And fourscore and thirteen. That summer a Virginius Was Consul first in place ; The second was stout Aulus, Of the Posthumian race. m The Herald of the Latines From Gabii came in state : The Herald of the Latines Passed through Rome's Eastern Gate The Herald of the Latines ^0 Did in our Forum stand ; And there he did his office, A sceptre in his hand. BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 49 *' Hear, Senators and people Of the good town of Rome, 95 The Thirty Cities charge you To bring the Tarquins home > And if ye still be stubborn, To work the Tarquins wrong, The Thirty Cities warn you, ioo Look that your walls be strong.'^'' Then spake the Consul Aulu^, He spake a bitter jest : " Once the jays sent a message Unto the eagle's nest : lOB Now yield thou up thine eyrie Unto the carrion-kite, Or come forth valiantly, and face The jays in mortal fight. Forth looked in wrath the eagle ; uo And carrion-kite and jay. Soon as they saw his beak and claift Fled screaming far away.'* 8 The Herald of the Latines Hath hied him back in state | 115 The Fathers of the City Are met in high debate. Thus spake the elder Consul, An ancient man and wise * 5(? LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. " Now hearken, Conscript Fatlierss aao To that which I advise. In seasons of great peril 'T is good that one bear sway ; Then choose we a Dictator, Whom all men shall obey. 125 Camerium knows how dee2)ly The sword of Aulus bites, And all our city calls him The man of seventy fights. Then let him be Dictator Z30 For six months and no more, And have a Master of the Knights., And axes twenty-four." So Aulus was Dictator, ' The man of seventy fights ; 135 He made ^butius Elva His Master of the Knights. On the third morn thereafter, 4t dawning of the day, Did Aulus and ^butius 140 Set forth with their array. Sempronius Atratinus Was left in charge at home With boys, and with gray-headed men, To keep the walls of Rome. 145 Hard by the Lake Regillus Our camp was pitched at night ; 119. The Conscript Fathers were those members of the Patrician (patres) virder whose names were written down {conscripti) in the Senate roll. T32. Each of the two Consuls had twelve Lictors. The Dictator was now to have all of these. BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGLLLUS. 51 Eastward a mile the Latlnes lay, Under the Porcian height. ' Far over hill and valley ISO Their mighty host was spread ; 4-nd with their thousand watch-fires The midnight sky was red. 10 Up rose the golden morning Over the Porcian height, 1B5 The proud Ides of Quintilis Marked evermore with white. Not without secret trouble Our bravest saw the foes ; For girt by threescore thousand spears. 160 The thirty standards rose. From every warlike city That boasts the Latian namev Foredoomed to dogs and vultures, That gallant army came ; 165 From Setia's purple vineyards, From Norba's ancient wall, From the white streets of Tusculum, The proudest town of all ; From where the Witch's Fortress 170 O'erhangs the dark-blue seas ; From the still glassy lake that sleeps Beneath Aricia's trees, — Those trees in whose dim shadow The ghastly priest doth reign, 165. Setia, modern Sezze. 166. Norba, modern Norma. 169. The WitcL'i Fortress was Circeii, so called because it was tha mc^ posed home of Circe. 52 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 176 The priest who slew the slayer, And shall himself be slain ; From the drear banks of Ufens, AYhere flights of marsh-fowl play, And buffaloes lie wallowing 180 Through the hot summer's day ; From the gigantic watch-towers, No work of earthly men, Whence Cora's sentinels o'erlook The never-ending fen ; 185 From the Laurentian jungle, The wild hog's reedy home ; From the green steeps whence Anio leaps In floods of snow-white foam. n Aricia, Cora, Norba, 190 Velitrae, with the might Of Setia and of Tusculum, Were marshalled on the right: The leader was Mamilius, Prince of the Latian name ; 196 Upon his head a helmet Of red gold shone like flame ; High on a gallant charger 175. " According to the story told by Pausanias, Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, on being raised from the dead by Ji^sculapius, crossed the sea and tame to Aricia, where he dedicated a temple to Artemis. The priest of this cemple was to be a runaway slave who had conquered his opponent in single combat. Thus a slave who challenged the existing priest and slew him would himself at once become the priest, and remain so till he should himself be worsted by another." — Ccx. 177. The Ufens reappears in modem Italy in U,ITsnto, on the banks of the Poutatore. 183. Cora, now ^JfL BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 53 Of dark-gray hue he rode ; Over his gilded armor 200 A vest of purple flowed, Woven in the land of sunrise By Syria's dark-browed daughters, And by the sails of Carthage brought Far o'er the southern waters. 12 206 Lavinium and Laurentum Had on the left their post, With all the banners of the marshy And banners of the coast. Their leader was false Sextus, 210 That wrought the deed of shame : With restless pace and haggard face To his last field he came. Man said he saw strange visions Which none beside might see, 215 And that strange sounds were in his ears Which none might hear but he, A woman fair and stately, But pale as are the dead, Oft through the watches of the night 220 Sat spinning by his bed. And as she plied the distaff. In a sweet voice and low. She sang of great old houses. And fights fought long ago. sss So spun she, and so sang she, Until the east was gray. 209. See the lay of Horatius> staoaa 24k 54 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Then pointed to her bleeding breast. And shrieked, and fled away. 13 But in the centre thickest 230 Were ranged the shields of foes, And from the centre loudest The cry of battle rose. There Tibur marched and Pedum Beneath proud Tarquin's rule, S36 And Ferentinum of the rock, And Gabii of the pool. There rode the Volscian succors : There, in a dark stern ring, The Roman exiles gathered close 240 Around the ancient king. Though white as Mount Soracte, When winter nights are long, His beard flowed down o'er mail and belt. His heart and hand were strong ; 34S Under his hoary eyebrows Still flashed forth quenchless rage, And, if the lance shook in his gripe, 'T was more with hate than age. Close at his side was Titus 250 On an Apulian steed, Titus, the youngest Tarquin, Too good for such a breed. 14 Now on each side the leaders Gave signal for the charge ; 268 And on each side tJie footmep BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS, 65 Strode on with lance and targe ; And on each side the horsemen Struck their spurs deep in gore, And front to front the armies 260 Met with a mighty roar : And under that great battle The earth with blood was red ; And, like the Pomptine fog at morn, The dust hung overhead ; 365 And louder still and louder Rose from the darkened field The braying of the war-horns, The clang of sword and shield, The rush of squadrons sweeping 270 Like whirlwinds o'er the plain, The shouting of the slayers, And screeching of the slain. 15 False Sextus rode out foremost ; His look was high and bold ; 275 His corselet was of bison's hide, Plated with steel and gold. As glares the famished eagle From the Digentian rock On a choice lamb that bounds alone 280 Before Bandusia's flock, Herminius glared on Sextus, And came with eagle speed, Herminius on black Auster, Brave champion on brave steed ; 26a. The Pomptine, usually called the Pontine, marshes extended over the iowlanda of Latium, 56 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 285 In his right hand the broadsword Tliat kept the bridge so well, And on his helm the crown he won When proud Fidenae fell. Woe to the maid whose lover 290 Shall cross his path to-day ! False Sextus saw, and trembled, And turned, and fled away. As turns, as flies, the woodman In the Calabrian brake, 295 When through the reeds gleams the round eye Of that fell speckled snake ; So turned, so fled, false Sextas, And hid him in the rear. Behind the dark Lavinian ranks, 300 Bristling with crest and spear. 16 But far to north ^butius. The Master of the Knights, Gave Tubero of Norba To feed the Porcian kites. 305 Next under those red horse-hoofs Flaccus of Setia lay ; Better had he been pruning Among his elms that day. Mamilius saw the slaughter, 310 And tossed his golden crest, And towards the Master of the Knights Through the thick battle pressed. JEbutius smote Mamilius So fiercely on the shield 315 That the great lord of Tusculum BATTLE OF THE LAKE RE GILL US. 57 Wellnigh rolled on the field. Mamilius smote ^butius, With a good aim and true, Just where the neck and shoulder join, 320 And pierced him through and through ; And brave - trician ; the purple gown was worn by the consul and knights on public occff- sions. 116. The curule chair was the chair of state. It is represented often in modern statuary, as in the statue of Lincoln in Chicago. The consuls used a car or chariot in the triumphal processions after a war, and wore a wreath or garland of laurel. 117. There were ten cohorts in every Roman legion, but the number of men in a legion varied. 120. One of the greatest grievances of the Plebeians lay in the usury prac- ticed by the Patricians, and the cruelty of the laws regarding debt. 90 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, % Still let your haggard debtors bear all their fathers bore ; Still let your dens of torment be noisome as of yore ; No fire when Tiber freezes; no air in dogstar heat; And store of rods for free-born backs, and holes for free-born feet. 126 Heap heavier still the fetters ; bar closer still the grate ; Patient as sheep we yield us up unto your cruel hate. But, by the Shades beneath us, and by the gods above, Add not unto your cruel hate your yet more cruel love ! Have ye not graceful ladies, whose spotless lineage springs 130 From Consuls, and High Pontiffs, and ancient Al- ban kings ? Ladies, who deign not on our paths to set their ten- der feet, Who from their cars look down with scorn upon the wondering street. Who in Corinthian mirrors their own proud smiles behold. And breathe of Capuan odors, and shine with Span- ish gold ? 135 Then leave the poor Plebeian his single tie to life — The sweet, sweet love of daughter, of sister, aiiG of wife, 133. Corinth, in Greece, was famous for its luxurious living. VIRGINIA. 91 The gentle speech, the balm for all that his vexed soul endures, The kiss, in which he half forgets even such a yoke as yours. Still let the maiden's beauty swell the father's breast with pride ; 140 Still let the bridegroom's arms infold an unpolluted bride. Spare us the inexpiable wrong, the unutterable shame. That turns the coward's heart to steel, the slug- gard's blood to flame. Lest, when our latest hope is fled, ye taste of our despair. And learn by proof, in some wild hour, how much the wretched dare." 146 Straightway Virginius led the maid a little space aside, To where the reeking shambles stood, piled up with horn and hide, Close to yon low dark archway, where, in a crim- son flood. Leaps down to the great sewer the gurgling stream of blood. Hard by, a flesher on a block had laid his whittle down ; 150 Virginius caught the whittle up, and hid it in his gown. Aad then his eyes grew very dim, and his throat began to swell, And in a hoarse, changed voice he spake, " Fare- well, sweet child ! Farewell ! 92 LA YS OF ANCIENT ROME. Oh, how I loved my darling! Though stern 1 sometimes be, To thee, thou know'st I was not so. Who could be so to thee ? I6t And how my darling loved me ! How glad she was to hear My footstep on the threshold when I came back last year ! And how she danced witli pleasure to see my civic crown, And took my sword, and hung it up, and brought me forth my gown ! Now all those things are over, — yes, all thy pretty ways, 160 Thy needlework, thy prattle, thy snatches of old lays; And none will grieve when I go forth, or smile when I return, Or watch beside the old man's bed, or weep upon his urn. The house that was the happiest within the Roman walls. The house that envied not the wealth of Capua's marble halls, 165 Now, for the brightness of thy smile, must have eternal gloom, And for the music of thy voice, the silence of the tomb. The time is come. See how he points his eager hand this way ! ji57. The civic crQirn oi oak leaves was conferred on a soldier wlio had luved a comrade in battle by killing his opponent. 168. The gown or toga was the mark of the Roman citizen. VIRGINIA. 93 See how his eyes gloat on thy grief, like a kite's upon the prey ! With all his wit, he little deems that, sj^urned, be- trayed, bereft, 170 Thy father hath in his despair one fearful refuge left. He little deems that in this hand I clutch what still can save Thy gentle youth from taunts and blows, the por- tion of the slave ; Yea, and from nameless evil, that passeth taunt and blow, — Foul outrage which thou knowest not, which thou shalt never know. Mb Then clasp me round the neck once more, and give me one more kiss ; And now, mine own dear little girl, there is no way but this." With that he lifted high the steel, and smote her in the side, And in her blood she sank to earth, and with one sob she died. Then, for a little moment, all people held their breath ; 180 And through the crowded Forum was stillness as of death ; And in another moment brake forth from one and all A cry as if the Volscians were coming o'er the wall. Some with averted faces shrieking fled hom^ amain ; 94 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Some ran to call a leech ; and some ran to lift the slain ; 185 Some felt her lips and little wrist, if life might there be found ; And some tore up their garments fast, and strove to stanch the wound. In vain they ran, and felt, and stanched, for never truer blow That good right arm had dealt in fight against a Volscian foe. When Appius Claudius saw that deed, he shud- dered and sank down, iflo And hid his face some little space with the corner of his gown, Till, with white lips and bloodshot eyes, Virginius tottered nigh, And stood before the judgment-seat, and held the knife on high. " O dwellers in the nether gloom, avengers of the slain. By this dear blood I cry to you, do right between us twain ; 195 And even as Appius Claudius hath dealt by me and mine, Deal you by Appius Claudius and all the Claudian line"! " Sc spake the slayer of his child, and turned, and went his way ; But first he cast one haggard glance to where the body lay. And writhed, and groaned a fearful groan, and then, with steadfast feet. VIRGINIA. 95 200 Strode right across the market-place unto the Sa- cred Street. Then uj3 sprang Appius Claudius : " Stop him, alive or dead ! Ten thousand pounds of copper to the man who brings his head ! " He looked upon his clients ; but none would work his will. He looked upon his lictors ; but they trembled and stood still. 205 And, as Virginius through the press his way in silence cleft, Ever the mighty multitude fell back to right and left. And he hath passed in safety unto his woful home, And there ta'en horse to tell the camp what deeds are done in Rome. By this the flood of people was swollen from every side, 210 And streets and porches round were filled with that o'erflowing tide ; And close around the body gathered a little train Of them that were the nearest and dearest to the slain. They brought a bier, and hung it with many a cypress crown, And gently they uplifted her, and gently kid her down. 316 The face of Appius Claudius wore the Claudiao scowl and sneer. 96 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. And in the Claiidian note he cried, " What doth this rabble here ? Have they no crafts to mind at home, that hither- ward they stray ? Ho ! lictors, clear the market-place, and fetch the corpse away ! " The voice of grief and fury till then had not been loud ; 520 But a deep sullen murmur wandered among t- ', crowd, Like the moaning noise that goes before the /uirl- wind on the deep, Or the growl of a fierce watch-dog but 1 -^-f aroused from sleep. But when the lictors at that word, al yeomen all and strong, Each with his axe and sheaf o' twigs, went down into the throng, ,25 Those old men say, who saw that day of sorrow and of sin. That in the Roman Forum was never such a din. The wailing, hooting, cursing, the howls of grief and hate. Were heard beyond the Pincian Hill, beyond the Latin Gate. But close around the body, where stood the little train 30 Of them that were the nearest and dearest to the slain, No cries were there, but teeth set fast, low whis- pers and black frowns, And breaking up of benches, and girding up of gowns ; T was well the lictors might not pierce to where the maiden lay. VIRGINIA. 97 Else surely had they been all twelve torn limb from limb that day. I3S Right glad they were to struggle back, blood stream- ing from their heads, With axes all in splinters, and raiment all in shreds. Then Appius Claudius gnawed his lip and the blood left his cheek ; And thrice he beckoned with his hand, and thrice he strove to speak ; And thrice the tossing Forum set up a frightful yell: 240 " See, see, thou dog ! what thou hast done ; and hide thy shame in hell ! Thou that wouldst make our maidens slaves must first make slaves of men. Tribunes ! Hurrah for Tribunes ! Down with the wicked Ten ! " * And straightway, thick as hailstones, came whiz- zing through the air Pebbles, and bricks, and potsherds, all round the curule chair ; 245 And upon Appius Claudius great fear and trem* bling came ; For never was a Claudius yet brave against aught but shame. Though the great houses love us not, we own, to do them right. That the great houses, all save one, have borne them well in fight. Still Caius of Corioli, his triumphs and his wrongs, 243. Caius of Corioli. Coriolanus took his name from the town he ha3 conquered. See note to line 104 98 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 2B0 His vengeance and his mercy, live in our camp-fire songs. Beneath the yoke of Furius oft have Gaul and Tuscan bowed ; And Rome may bear the pride of him of whom herself is proud. .But evermore a Claudius shrinks from a stricken field, And changes color like a maid at sight of sword and shield. 165 llie Claudian triumphs all were won within the city towers ; The Claudian yoke was n^ver pressed on any necks but ours. A Cossus, like a wild - cat, sj^rings ever at the face ; A Fabius rushes like a boar against the shouting chase ; But the vile Claudian litter, raging with currish spite, iteo Still yelps and snaps at those who run, still runs from those who smite. So now 't was seen of Appius. When stones be- gan to fly, He shook, and crouched, and wrung his hands, and smote upon his thigh. " Kind clients, honest hctors, stand by me in this fray ! Must I be torn in pieces ? Home, home, the near- est way ! " 251. Marcus Furius Camillus of Tusculum delivered Rome from the Gaula 257. Cosstis was the surname of a house belonging to the gens Cornelia. 258. The Fabian gens was noted for its bravery. VIRGINIA. 99 265 While yet he spake, and looked around with a be- wildered stare, Four sturdy lictors put their necks beneath the curule chair ; And fourscore clients on the left, and fourscore on the right, Arrayed themselves with swords and staves, and loins girt up for fight. But, though without or staff or sword, so furious was the throng, 270 That scarce the train with might and main could bring their lord along. Twelve times the crowd made at him ; five times they seized his gown ; Small chance was his to rise again, if or.ce they got him down. And sharper came the pelting ; and evermore the yell- " Tribunes ! we will have Tribunes ! " rose wdth a louder swell. 275 And the chair tossed as tosses a bark with tat- tered sail When raves the Adriatic beneath an eastern gale, When the Calabrian sea-marks are lost in clouds of spume, And the great Thunder Cape has donned his veil of inky gloom. One stone hit Appius in the mouth, and one beneath the ear ; 280 And ere he reached Mount Palatine, he swooned with pain and fear. 278. The Thunder Cape was a region of volcanic fire on the eastern coast oi the Adriatic, facing the modern Brindisi. 100 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. His cursed head, that he was wont to hold so high with pride, Now, like a drunken man's, hung down, and swayed from side to side ; And when his stout retainers had brought him to his door, His face and neck were all one cake of filth and clotted gore. 285 As Appius Claudius was that day, so may his grandson be ! God send Rome one such other sight, and send me there to see ! THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. It can hardly be necessary to remind any reader that, according to the popular tradition, Romulus, after he had slain his grand-uncle, Amulius, and restored his grandfather Numitor, determined to quit Alba, the he- reditary domain of the Sylvian princes, and to found a new city. The gods, it was added, vouchsafed the clear- est signs of the favor with which they regarded the en- terprise, and of the high destinies reserved for the young colony. This event was likely to be a favorite theme of the old Latin minstrels. They would naturally attribute the project of Romulus to some divine intimation of the power and prosperity which it was decreed that his city should attain. They would probably introduce seers fore- telling the victories of unborn consuls and dictators, and the last great victory would generally occupy the most conspicuous place in the prediction. There is nothing strange in the supposition that the poet who was employed to celebrate the first great triumph of the Ro- mans over the Greeks might throw his song of exulta- tion into this form. The occasion was one likely to excite the strongest feelings of national pride. A great outrage had been followed by a great retribution. Seven years before this time, Lucius Posthumius Megellus, who sprang from one of the noblest houses of Rome, and had been thrice Consul, was sent ambassador to Tarentum, with charge 102 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. to demand reparation for grievous injuries. The Taren. tines gave hira audience in their theatre, where he ad- dressed them in such Greek as he could command, which, we may well believe, was not exactly such as Cineas would have spoken. An exquisite sense of the ridiculous belonged to the Greek character ; and closely connected with this faculty was a strong propensity to flippancy and impertinence. When Posthumius placed an accent wrong, his hearers burst into a laugh. Wlien he remonstrated, they hooted him, and called him a bar- barian ; and at length hissed him off the stage as if he had been a bad actor. As the grave Roman retired, a buffoon, who, from his constant drunkenness, was nick- named the Pint Pot, came up with gestures of the gross- est indecency, and bespattered the senatorial gown with filth. Posthumius turned round to the multitude, and held up the gown, as if appealing to the universal law of nations. The sight only increased the insolence of the Tarentines. They clapped their hands, and set up a shout of laughter which shook the theatre. " Men of Tarentum," said Posthumius, " It will take not a little blood to wash this gown." Rome, in consequence of this insult, declared war against the Tarentines. The Tarentines sought for allies beyond the Ionian Sea. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, came to their help with a large army ; and, for the first time, the two great nations of antiquity were fairly matched against each other. The fame of Greece in arms, as well as in arts, was then at the height. Half a century earlier, the career of Alexander had excited the admiration and terror of all nations from the Ganges to the Pillars of Hercules. Hoyal houses, founded by Macedonian captains, stiU THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. lOS reigned at Antioch and Alexandria. That barbarian warriors, led by barbarian chiefs, should win a pitched battle against Greek valor guided by Greek science, seemed as incredible as it would now seem that the Bur- mese or the Siamese should, in the open plain, put to flight an equa/ Jiumber of the best English troops. The Tarentines were convinced that their countrymen were irresistible in war ; and this conviction had emboldened them to treat with the grossest indignity one whom they regarded as the representative of an inferior race. Of the Greek generals then living, Pyrrhus was indisput- ably the first. Among the troops who were trained in the Greek discipline, his Epirotes ranked high. His expedition to Italy was a turning-point in the history of the world. He found there a people who, far inferior to the Athenians and Corinthians in the fine arts, in the speculative sciences, and in all the refinements of life, were the best soldiers on the face of the earth. Their arms, their gradations of rank, their order of battle, tlieir method of intrenchment, were all of Latian origin, and had all been gradually brought near to perfection, not by the study of foreign models, but by the genius and experience of many generations of great native commanders. The first words which broke from the king, when his practised eye had surveyed the Roman encampment, were full of meaning : " These barba- rians," he said, " have nothing barbarous in their mili- tary arrangements." He was at first victorious ; for his own talents were superior to those of the captains who were opposed to him ; and the Romans were not pre- pared for the onset of the elephants of the East, which were then for the first time seen in Italy, — moving mountains, with long snakes for hands. But the victo- 104 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. ries of the Epirotes were fiercely disputed, dearly pur» chased, and altogether unprofitable. At length, Manius Curius Dentatus, who had in his first consulship won two triumphs, was again placed at the head of the Ro* man Commonwealth, and sent to encounter the invaders. A great battle was fought near Beneventum. Pyrrhus was completely defeated. He repassed the sea ; and the world learned with amazement that a people had been discovered who, in fair fighting, were superior to the best troops that had been drilled on the system of Parmenio and Antigonus. The conquerors had a good right to exult in their suc- cess, for their glory was all their own. They had not learned from their enemy how to conquer him. It was with their own national arms, and in their own national battle array, that they had overcome weapons and tac- tics long believed to be invincible. The pilum and the broadsword had vanquished the Macedonian spear. The legion had broken the Macedonian phalanx. Even the ele^^hants, when the surprise produced by their first ap pearance was over, could cause no disorder in the steady yet flexible battalions of Rome. It is said by Florus, and may easily be believed, that the triumph far surpassed in magnificence any that Rome had previously seen. The only spoils which Pa pirius Cursor and Fabius Maximus could exhibit were flocks and herds, wagons of rude structure, and heaps of spears and helmets. But now, for the first time, the riches of Asia and the arts of Greece adorned a Roman pageant. Plate, fine stuffs, costly furniture, rare ani- mals, exquisite paintings and sculptures, formed part of the procession. At the banquet would be assembled .1 crowd of warriors and statesmen, among whom Ma THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 105 nius Curius Dentatus would take the highest room. Caius Fabricius Luscinus, then, after two consulships arid two triumjjhs, Censor of the Commonwealth, would doubtless occupy a place of honor at the board. In sit- uations less conspicuous probably lay some of those whc were, a few years later, the terror of Carthage — Caius Duilius, the founder of the maritime gTeatness of his country ; Marcus Atilius Regulus, who owed to defeat a renown far higher than that which he had derived from his victories ; and Caius Lutatius Catulus, who, while suffering from a grievous wound, fought the great battle of the Agates, and brought the First Punic War to d, triumphant close. It is impossible to recount the names of these eminent citizens, without reflecting that they were all, without exception, Plebeians, and would, but for the ever-memorable struggle maintained by Caius Licinius and Lucius Sextius, have been doomed to hide in obscurity, or to waste in civil broils, the capacity and energy which prevailed against Pyrrhus and Hamilcar. On such a day we may suppose that the patriotic en- thusiasm of a Latin poet would vent itself in reiterated shouts of " lo Triumphe," such as were uttered by Horace on a far less exciting occasion, and in boasts resembling those which Virgil, two hundred and fifty years later, put into the mouth of Anchises. The superiority of some foreign nations, and especially of the Greeks, in the lazy arts of peace, would be admitted with disdain^ f ul candor ; but preeminence in all the qualities which fit a people to subdue and govern mankind would be claimed for the Komans. The following lay belongs to the latest age of Latin ballad-poetry. Nsevius and Livius Andronicus were probably among the children whose mothers held them 106 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. up to see the chariot of Curius go by. The minstrel who sang on that day might possibly have lived to read the first hexameters of Ennius, and to see the first com- edies of Plautus. His poem, as might be expected, shows a much wider acquaintance with the geography, manners, and productions of remote nations than would have been found in compositions of the age of Camillus. But he troubles himself little about dates ; and having heard travellers talk with admiration of the Colossus of Rhodes, and of the structures and gardens with wliich the Macedonian kings of Syria had embellished their residence on the banks of the Orontes, he has never ;Ilought of inquiring whether these things existed in the di^e of Romulus. THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. A. LAY SUNG AT THE BAXQUET IN THE CAPITOL, ON THE DAY WHEREON" MANIUS CURIUS DEXTATUS, A SECOND TIME CONSUL, TRIUMPHED OVER KING PYR- RHUS AND THE TARENTINES, IN THE YEAR OF THE CITY CCCCLXXIX. Now slain is King Amulius, Of the great Sylvian line, Who reigned in Alba Longa, On the throne of Aventine. Slain is the Pontiff Camera, Who spake the words of doom! 6. The words of doom to Rhea Ilia, or Sylvia, the daughter of Numitor, whose twin children, Romulus and Remus, were to be thrown into the Tiber, vhile the mother was buried ahve. THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 101 " The children to the Tiber •, The mother to the tomb/* 2 In Alba's lake no fisher 10 His net to-day is flinging ; On the dark rind of Alba's oaks To-day no axe is ringing ; The yoke hangs o'er the manger; The scythe lies in the hay ; 16 Through all the Alban villages No work is done to-day. And every Alban burgher Hath donned his whitest gown ; And every head in Alba 30 Weareth a poplar crown ; And every Alban doorpost With boughs and flowers is gay ; For to-day the dead are living ; The lost are found to-day. 4 w They were doomed by a bloody king ; They were doomed by a lying priest ; They were cast on the raging flood ; They were tracked by the raging beast. Raging beast and raging flood 30 Alike have spared the prey ; And to-day the dead are living ; The lost are found to-day. iOb LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 5 The troubled river knew them, And smoothed his yellow foam, 86 And gently rocked the cradle That bore the fate of Rome. The ravening she-wolf knew them, And licked them o'er and o'er, And gave them of her own fierce mUfe, 40 Rich with raw flesh and gore. Twenty winters, twenty springs, Since then have rolled away ; And to-day the dead are living, The lost are found to-day. 6 15 Blithe it was to see the twins. Right goodly youths and tall. Marching from Alba Longa To their old grandsire's hall. Along their path fresh garlands 60 Are hung from tree to tree ; Before them stride the pipers. Piping a note of glee. 7 On the right goes Romulus, With arms to the elbows red,, -fi And in his hand a broadsword. And on the blade a head, — A head in an iron helmet, With horse-hair hanging down, A shaggy head, a swarthy head. THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 109 30 Fixed in a ghastly frown, — The head of King Amulius Of the great Sylvian line, Who reigned in Alba Longa, On the throne of Aventine. 8 98 On the left side goes Remus, With wrists and fingers red, And in his hand a boar-spear, And on the point a head, — • A wrinkled head and aged, 30 With silver beard and hair, And holy fillets round it. Such as the pontiffs wear, — The head of ancient Gamers, Who spake the .words of doom: « " The children to the Tiber ; The mother to the tomb." 9 Two and two behind the twins Their trusty comrades go, Four-and-forty valiant men, 80 With club, and axe, and bow. On each side every hamlet Pours forth its joyous crowd, Shouting lads and baying dogs And children laughing loud, 80 And old men weeping fondly As Rhea's boys go by. And maids who shriek to see the heads. Yet, shrieking, press more nigh. 110 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 10 So they marched along the lake ♦, 90 They marched by fold and staE, By cornfield and by vineyard, Unto the old man's hall. 11 In the hall-gate sate Capys, Capys, the sightless seer ; 96 From liead to foot he trembled As Romulus drew near. And up stood stiff his thin white hair, And his blind eyes flashed fire : *'HailI foster-child of the wondrous nurse? ioo Hail ! son of the wondrous sire I 12 " But thou, — what dost thou here In the old man's peaceful hall ? "What doth the eagle in the coop, The bison in the stall ? los Our corn fills many a garner ; Our vines clasp many a tree ; Our flocks are white on many a hili ; But these are not for thee» 13 " For thee no treasure ripens no In the Tartessian mine : For thee no ship brings precious bales 100. The god Mars was assumed to be the father of Romulus aud Bemua 110. The Tartessian mine was the Tarshisk of the Bible. THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. HI Across the Libyan brine ; Thou shalt not drink from amber z Thou shalt not rest on down ; lie Arabia shall not steep thy locks, Nor Sidon tinge thy gown. 14 " Leave gold and myrrh and jewels, Rich table and soft bed, To them who of man's seed are born, 3.20 Whom woman's milk have fed. Thou wast not made for lucre, For pleasure, nor for rest ; Thou, that art sprung from the War-god's loins, And hast tugged at the she-wolf's breast. 15 125 " From sunrise unto sunset All earth shall hear thy fame ; A glorious*city thou shalt build. And name it by thy name. And there, unquenched through ages, wo Like Vesta's sacred iire, Shall live the spirit of thy nurse. The spirit of thy sire. 16 "The ox toils through the furrow, Obedient to the goad ; iS6 The patient ass, up flinty paths, Plods with his weary load ; 112. Lfbya being northwestern Africa, the Libyan brine is the Mediteixa liean. 112 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, With whine and bound the spaniel His master's whistle hears ; And the sheep yields her patiently 340 To the loud clashing shears. n " But thy nurse will hear no master f Thy nurse will bear no load ; And woe to them that shear her, And woe to them that goad ! i45 When all the pack, loud baying, Her bloody lair surrounds, She dies in silence, biting hard, Amidst the dying hounds. 18 *' Pomona loves the orchard ; 150 And Liber loves the vine ; And Pales loves the straw-built shed Warm with the breath 6f kine ; And Venus /oves the whispers Of plighted youth and maid, M In April's ivory moonlight Beneath the chestnut shade. 19 *' But thy father loved the clashing Of broadsword and of shield ; He loves to drink the steam that reeks 160 From the fresh battle-field 149. Pomona was the goddess of fruit. 150. Liber, or Bacchus. 151. Pales was a rustic divinity. THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 113 He smiles a smile more dreadful Than his own dreadful frown, When he sees the thick black cloud of smoke Go up from the conquered town. 20 166 "And such as is the War-god, The author of thy line, And such as she who suckled thee, Even such be thou and thine. Leave to the soft Campanian i70 His baths and his perfumes ; Leave to the sordid race of Tyre Their dyeing-vats and looms : Leave to the sons of Carthage The rudder and the oar : IT6 Leave to the Greek his marble Nymphs And scrolls of wordy lore. 21 ** Thine, Roman, is the pilum ; Roman, the sword is thine, The even trench, the bristling mound, 180 The legion's ordered line ; And thine the wheels of triumjDh, Which with their laurelled train Move slowly up the shouting streets To Jove's eternal fane. 169. The inhabitants of the Campania, the fertile district below Latium, fielded to the seductions of an unwarlike life. 171. The Tyrians were occupied only with manufactures and commerce. 173. The Carthaginians had the carrying trade of the Old World. y^".. The pilum was the long Roman spear. 114 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 22 180 " Beneath thy yoke the Volscian Shall veil his lofty brow ; Soft Capua's curled revellers Before thy chairs shall bo\T ; The Lucumoes of Arnus 190 Shall quake thy rods to see ; And the proud Samnite's heart of sted Shall yield to only thee. 23 *' The Gaul shall come against thee From the land of snow and night ; 196 Thou shalt give his fair-haired armies To the raven and the kite. 24 ** The Greek shall come against thee, The conqueror of the East. Beside him stalks to battle 200 The huge earth-shaking beast, The beast on whom the castle With all its guards doth stand, The beast who hath between his eyes The serpent for a hand. 206 First march the bold Epirotes, Wedged close with shield and spear ; And the ranks of false Tarentum Are glittering in the rear. 193. The prediction points to the invasion by the Gauls under Brenuus 197. The Greek invader is Pyrrhus, king of Epeiros. 200. Pyrrhus made use of the elephant. THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 115 25 *' The ranks of false Tarentum no Like hunted sheep shall fly ; In vain the bold Epirotes Shall round their standards die. And Apennine's gray vultures Shall have a noble feast 318 On the fat and the eyes Of the huge earth-shaking beast. 26 ** Hurrah ! for the good weapons That keep the War-god's land. Hurrah ! for Rome's stout pilum 320 In a stout Roman hand. Hurrah ! for Rome's short broadswo«^ That through tlie thick array Of levelled spears and serried shields Hews deep its gory way. 27 325 " Hurrah ! for the great triumph That stretches many a mile. Hurrah ! for the wan captives That pass in endless file. Ho ! bold Epirotes, whither 2M Hath the Red King ta'en flight? Ho ! dogs of false Tarentum, Is not the gown washed white ? 28 " Hurrah ! for the gTeat triumph That stretches many a mile. 230. The word Pjjrrhus means red- 116 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. 236 Hurrah ! for the rich dye of Tyre, And the fine web of Nile, The hebnets gay with plumage Torn from the pheasant's wings, The belts set thick with starry gems 240 That shone on Indian kings. The urns of massy silver. The goblets rough with gold, The many-colored tablets bright With loves and wars of old, M5 The stone that breathes and struggle% The brass that seems to speak, — Such cunning they who dwell on high Have given unto the Greek. 29 " Hurrah ! for Manius Curius, 260 The bravest son of Rome, Thrice in utmost need sent forth. Thrice drawn in triumph home. Weave, weave for Manius Curius The third embroidered gown: 266 Make ready the third lofty car. And twine the third green crown | And yoke the steeds of Rosea With necks like a bended bow. And deck the bull, Mevania's bull, 360 The bull as white as snow. 30 ** Blest and thrice blest the Roman Who sees Rome's brightest day, Who sees that long victorious pomp THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 117 Wind down the Sacred Way, isti And through the bellowing Forum And round the Suppliant's Grove, Up to the everlasting gates Of Ca2Jitolian Jove. 31 ** Then where, o'er two bright havens, 370 The towers of Corinth frown ; Where the gigantic King of Day On his own Rhodes looks down ; Where soft Orontes murmurs Beneath the laurel shades ; 276 Where Nile reflects the endless length Of dark-red colonnades ; Where m the still deep water, Sheltered froip waves and blasts, Bristles the dusky forests 380 Of Byrsa's thousand masts ; Where fur-clad hunters wander A.midst the northern ice ; Where through the sand of morning-land The camel bears the spice ; 9M Where Atlas flings his shadow Far o'er the western foam, — Shall be great fear on all who hear The mighty name of Rome." ttt The gigantic Colossus of Rhodes, which was a statue to the Min 273. The city of Antioch was on the banks of the Orontes. =280. Byrsa, the BibHcal Bozra, was the citadel of Carthage. 285. The reference is to the great mountain range of northwestern Africa 118 THE ABM AD A. THE ARMADA. A FRAGMENT. In 15S7, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, was executed. This ended the hope of the English Catholics that the crown of Eng-land would pass to a monarch who would restore their Church. Philip II of Spain, a Catholic king with whom England had long been actually — but not admittedly — at war, now determined to win the Eng- lish kingdom for himself. He began to assemble a great fleet in order to invade England. Drake caused a postponement by sailing into Cadiz harbor and destroying some fifty ships ; but about a year later, July 29, I088, the " Great Armada "" of lo4 vessels, apparently the most formidable array that the world had ever seen, set sail from Coruiia and descended upon the English coast. Under the leadership of Drake, Howard, Hawkins, Frobisher, Raleigh, and others, the English fleet of some eighty vessels big and little — the largest smaller than the smallest Spaniard — sallied forth to do or die. For a week a running fight was kept up. Roughly handled, the great Spanish ships sought to escape by sailing around Scotland. Eventually only fifty-three vessels of the original Armada succeeded in returning to Spain. Macaulay's poem — which is merely a fragment, not a complete work — tells how the English people rose to the demands of the hour when news of the Armada's approach reached them. Pecul- iarly picturesque is the account of how the warning spread from Cornwall through Devonshire, Somersetshire, and Wiltshire : and of how Bristol and London, Ely and Lincoln passed the word on until finally like wildfire it had traversed and encircled the entire island. One should refer to a map of England while reading the poem in order to appreciate the full significance of Macaulay's allusions. Attend, all ye who list to hear our noble Eng- land's praise ; I tell of the thrice famous deeds she wrought in an- cient days, THE ARMADA. 119 When that great fleet invincible against her bore in vain The richest spoils of Mexico, the stoutest hearts of Spain. 6 It was about the lovely close of a warm summer day, There came a gallant merchant-ship full sail to Ply- mouth Bay ; Her crew hath seen Castile's black fleet, beyond Au- rigny's isle, At earliest twilight, on the waves lie heaving many a mile. At sunrise she escaped their van, by God's especial grace ; 10 And the tall Pinta, till the noon, had held her close in chase. Forthwitli a guard at every gun was placed along the wall; The beacon blazed upon the roof of Edgecumbe's lofty hall; Many a light fishing-bark put out to pry along the coast, And with loose reign and bloody spur rode inland many a post. 15 With his white hair unbonneted, the stout old sheriff comes ; Behind him march the halberdiers ; before him sound the drums ; 6. Plymouth Bay : on the English Channel, between Cornwall and Devon- shu-e. 7. Aurigny : Alderney, off the coast of France. 12. Edgecumbe: a promontory in Cornwall. 16. halberdiers : a halberd was a weapon shaped so as to serve both as axe and spear. 120 THE ABMABA. His yeomen round the market cross make clear an ample space ; For there behooves him to set up the standard of Her Grace. And haughtily the trumpets peal, and gayly dance the bells, 20 As slow upon the laboring wind the royal blazon swells. Look how the Lion of the sea lifts up his ancient crown, And underneath his deadly paw treads the gay lilies down. So stalked he when he turned to flight, on that famed Picard field, Bohemia's plume, and Genoa's bow, and Caesar's eagle shield. 25 So glared he when at Agincourt in wrath he turned to bay, And crushed and torn beneath his claws the princely hunters lay. Ho ! strike the flagstaff deep, sir Knight ; ho I scatter flowers, fair maids ; Ho I gunners, fire a loud salute ; ho ! gallants, draw your blades ; 21. the Lion of the sea : England. 22. the gay lilies : the device upon the flag of France. 23. Picard field: Cr(5cy (134G) in Picardy, where Edward III of England defeated Philip VI of France. 24. Bohemia'' s plume : the King of Bohemia had been an ally of France at the battle of Crt5cy. His crest was three feathers (afterwards adopted by the Prince of Wales). 24. Genoa'' s bow: other allies of France at Cr^cy were Genoese bowmen from Liturgia. 24. Csesar^s eagle shield: Charles, the son of the King of Bohemia, was also King of the Romans. The princes who bore this title, might — as did Charlemagne and his successors — regard themselves as heirs to the Roman Emperors, all of whom used to adopt the name of Caesar. The eagle was the military symbol of Rome. 25. Agincourt : a battle won by Henry V of England over the French, 1415. THE ARMADA. 121 Thou sun, shine on her joyously ; ye breezes, waft her wide; 30 Our glorious semper eadem, the banner of our pride. The freshening breeze of eve unfurled that banner's massy fold ; The parting gleam of sunshine kissed that haughty scroll of gold ; Night sank upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea. Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be. 35 From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay, That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day; For swift to east and s\yift to west the ghastly war- flame spread. High on St. Michael's Mount it shone : it shone on Beachy Head. Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire, 40 Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twinkling points of fire. 30. Semper eadem: " Always the same " — motto of Queen Elizabeth. 35. Eddystone: a reef in tlie English Channel, near Plymouth. Berwick : a town upon the Tweed, the river marking the boundary be- tween England and Scotland. Ly7in : in Norfolk, a county on the eastern coast. Milford Bay : in Wales. By referring to these four places, Macaulay practically bounds England, south, north, east, and west. 38. St. MichaeVs 3Iount: a lofty rock, off Penzance, Cornwall. Beachy Head: a headland in Sussex. Between these two points lies almost the entire southern shore of Eng- land. 122 THE ARMADA. The fisher left his skiff to rock on Tamar's glittering waves ; The rugged miners poured to war from Mendip's sun- less caves ; O'er Longleat's towers, o'er Cranbourne's oaks, the fiery herald flew : He roused the shepherds of Stonehenge, the rangers of Beaulieu. 45 Right sharp and quick the bells all night rang out from Bristol town, And ere the day three hundred horse had met on Clifton down ; The sentinel on Whitehall gate looked forth into the night, And saw o'erhanging Richmond Hill the streak of blood-red light. Then bugle's note and cannon's roar the deathlike silence broke, 50 And with one start, and with one cry, the royal city woke. At once on all her stately gates arose the answering fires ; At once the wild alarum clashed from all her reeling spires ; From all the batteries of the Tower pealed loud the voice of fear ; And all the thousand masts of Thames sent back a louder cheer : 41. Tamar''s: a river in Devonshire. 42. Mendip''s sunless caves: the mines in Somersetshire. 43-44. Longleat, Stonehenge : in Wiltshire. 43-44. Cranbourne : in Dorsetshire ; Beaulieu: in the county of Hants. 45. Bristol: on the Avon River, 118 miles west of London. 46. Clifton : a suburb of Bristol. 47. Whitehall : then a royal palace in London. 48. Richmond Hill : on tlie outskirts of London. 53. the Tower : the Tower of London. THE AUMADA. 123 55 And from the furthest wards was heard the rush of hurrying feet, And the broad streams of pikes and flags rushed down each roaring street ; And broader still became the blaze, and louder still the din. As fast from every village round the horse came spur- ring in : And eastward straight from wild Blackheath the war- like errand went, 60 And roused in many an ancient hall the gallant squires of Kent. Southward from Surrey's pleasant hills flew those bright couriers forth ; High on bleak Hampstead's swarthy moor they started for tlie north ; And on, and on, without a pause untired they bounded still : All night from tower to tower they sprang ; they sprang from hill to hill : 66 Till the proud peak unfurled the flag o'er Darwin's rocky dales, Till like volcanoes flared to heaven the stormy hills of Wales, Till twelve fair counties saw the blaze on Malvern's lonely height. Till streamed in crimson on the wind the Wrekin's crest of light, 59. Blackheath : a suburb of London, to the southeast. 60. Kent : a county in the southeastern part of England. 61. Surrey: a county next west of Kent. 62. Hampstead : a suburb of Loudon, to the northwest. 65. Darwin : the Derwent in Derbyshire, a county near the center of Eng- land. 67. Malvern Hills: these separate Worcestershire from Herefordshire. 68. the Wrekin : a hill in Shropshire, the county north of Herefordshire. 124 . IVRY. Till broad and fierce the star came forth on Ely's stately fane, 70 And tower and hamlet rose in arms o'er all the bound- less plain ; Till Belvoir's lordly terraces the sign to Lincoln sent, And Lincoln sped the message on o'er the wide vale of Trent ; Till Skiddaw saw the fire that burnt on Gaunt's em- battled pile, And the red glare on Skiddaw roused the burghers of Carlisle. IVRY. A SONG OF THE HUGUENOTS. Ivry commemorates the great victory of 1590 won by the Hu- guenots or French Protestants, under Henry of Navarre, over the Catholics. The struggle between the two factions was political as well as religious. Henry was fighting for his rightful possession, the throne of France, against the forces of the Catholic or Holy League and the powerful Guise family, whose leaders in this bat- tle were the dukes of Mayenne and Aumale. Philip II of Spain was also pitted against Henry in his contest for the throne. The Catholic armies included many hired troops from the Low Coun- tries (Philip's possessions), and from Switzerland and Austria. Macaulay makes frequent allusions to these in the poem. 69. Ely: a cathedral town in Cambridgeshire some seventy miles north- east of London. 71. Lincoln : a cathedral town in Lincolnshire, some sixty miles northwest of Ely. 71. Belvoir : the Duke of Rutland's house on the borders of Lincolnshire. 72. Trent : a river flowing through five or more of the interior countjes of England, emptying into the Humber. 73. Skiddaw: a mountain in Cumberland, the most northwesterly county in England. 73. GnunVs embattled pile : Lancaster Castle, in the county of Lancashire. 74. Carlisle : the capital of Cumberland. IV RY. 125 Now glory to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are ! And glory to our Sovereign Liege, King Henry of Navarre ! Now let there be the merry sound of music and of dance, Through thy corn-fields green, and sunny vines, O pleasant land of France ! s And thou, Rochelle, our own Rbchelle, proud city of the waters, Again let rapture light the eyes of all thy mourning daughters. As thou wert constant in our ills, be joyous in our joy, For cold, and stiff, and still are they who wrought thy walls annoy. Hurrah ! Hurrah ! a single field hath turned the chance of war, 10 Hurrah ! Hurrah ! for Ivrj, and Henry of Navarre. Oh ! how our hearts were beating wlien, at the dawn of day, We saw the army of the League drawn out in long , array ; With all its priest-led citizens, and all its rebel-peers, And Appenzel's stout infantry, and Egmont's Flem- ish spears. 15 There rode the brood of false Lorraine, the curses of our land ; And dark Mayenne was in the midst, a truncheon in his hand : 5 La Rochelle : on the coast of France ; the stronghold of the Huguenots during the religious wars. 15. the brood of false Lorraine : the Guises were the most famous branch of the great ducal family of Lorraine, which played an important part in French history. 126 IVEY. And, as we looked on them, we thought of Seine's empurpled flood, And good Coligni's hoary hair all dabbled with his blood ; And we cried unto the living God, who rules the fate of war, 20 To fight for his own holy name, and Henry of Na- varre. The king is come to marshall us, in all his armor drest. And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest. He looked upon his people, and a tear was in his eye ; He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and high. 25 Right graciously he smiled on us, as rolled from wing to wing, Down all our line, a deafening shout, " God save our Lord the King ! " " And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may, For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray. Press where ye see my white plume shine, amidst the ranks of war, 30 And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre." Hurrah ! the foes are moving. Hark to the mingled din Of fife, and steed, and trump, and drum, and roaring culver in ! 18. Admiral Coligni {or Coligny) : a famous Huguenot leader, who per- ished in the massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Night, 1572. 30. oriflamme: an ensign or banner. Originally the ancient battle- atandard of France. WRY. 127 The fiery Duke is pricking fast across St. Andre's plain, With all the hireling chivalry of Guelclers and Al- mayne. 35 Now by the lips of those ye love, fair gentlemen of France, Charge for the golden lilies, — upon them with the lance. A thousand spurs are strikhig deep, a thousand spears in rest, A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow- white crest ; And in they burst, and on they rushed, while, like a guiding star, 40 Amidst the thickest carnage blazed the helmet of Na- varre. Now, God be praised, the day is ours. Mayenne hath turned his rein, D'Aumale hath cried for quarter. The Flemish count is slain. Their ranks are breaking like thin clouds before a Biscay gale ; The field is heaped with bleeding steeds, and flags, and cloven mail. 45 And then we thought on vengeance, and, all along our van, "Remember St. Bartholomew!" was passed from man to man. But out spake gentle Henry, " No Frenchman is my foe : Down, down, with every foreigner, but let your breth- ren go." 128 IVRY. Oh ! was there ever such a knight, in friendship or in war, M As our Sovereign Lord, King Henry, the soldier of Navarre ? Right well fought all the Frenchmen who fought for France to-day ; And many a lordly banner God gave them for a prey. But we of the religion have borne us best in fight ; And the good Lord of Rosny hath ta'en the cornet white ; 55 Our own true Maximilian the cornet white hath ta'en, The cornet white with crosses black, the flag of false Lorraine. Up with it high ; unfurl it wide ; that all the host may know How God hath humbled the proud house which wrought his church such woe. Then on the ground while trumpets sound their loud- est point of war, 60 Fling the red shreds, a footcloth meet for Henry of Navarre. Ho ! maidens of Vienna ; ho ! matrons of Lucerne ; Weep, weep, and rend your hair for those who never shall return. Ho ! Philip, send, for charity, thy Mexican pistoles, That Antwerp monks may sing a mass for thy poor spearmen's souls. 55. Maximilian, Baron de Rosny, was the friend and adviser of Henry of Navarre. A cornet is the standard of a troop of cavalry. The word was first applied to the bearer of the standard ; hence, its derived meaning. 63. ]nstoles: Spanish gold coins. In modern times they have been worth about $4.00, but were formerly of much greater value. THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. 129 65 Ho ! gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms be bright ; Ho ! burghers of St. Genevieve, keep watch and ward to-night; For our God hath crushed the tyrant, our God hath raised the slave. And mocked the counsel of the wise, and the valor of the brave. Then glory to his holy name, from whom all glories are ; 70 And glory to our Sovereign Lord, King Henry of Navarre. THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. By Ohadiah Bind-the{r-ki7igs-in-chains-a7id-their- nohles-with-links-of-iron., Serjeant in Breton's regi- ment. Naseby was the decisive battle of the English Civil War. The Parliamentarians under Fairfax and Cromwell defeated the Roy- alists under Charles I and Prince Rupert, June 14, 1645. Crom- well, nominally second in command, was really responsible for the victory. Prince Rupert broke the left wing of the Parliamentary army, but allowed his men to gallop off in pursuit. Cromwell's wing drove the King's cavalry before him, and then re-formed to break up his center, which was thus attacked both in front and rear. The Cavaliers were pursued to within two miles of Leicester. King Charles lost more than half of his army in killed and prison- ers, all his cannon and baggage, and his private correspondence, which helped afterwards to decide his fate. This poem represents the enthusiasm for their cause, and the violent hatred for the Court and Church party, which animated some of the Puritans. 66. St. Genevieve : the patron saint of Paris. Ivry is forty miles west of that city. 180 THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. Oh ! wherefore come ye forth, in triumph from the North, With your hands, and your feet, and your raiment all red ? And wherefore doth your rout send forth a joyous shout ? And whence be the grapes of the wine-press which ye tread ? 5 Oh, evil was the root, and bitter was the fruit. And crimson was the juice of the vintage that we trod ; For we trampled on the throng of the haughty and the strong. Who sat in the high places, and slew the saints of God. It was about the noon of a glorious day of June, 10 That w^e saw their banners dance, and their curiasses shine. And the Man of Blood was there, with his long essenced hair, And Astley, and Sir Marmaduke, and Rupert of the Rhine. Like a servant of the Lord, with his Bible and his sword. The General rode along us to form us to the fight, 15 When a murmuring sound broke out, and swell'd into a shout. Among the godless horsemen upon the tyrant's right. 11. the Man of Blood: Charles I. 12. Rupert of the Rhine : Charles's nephew. His mother married a noble- man of Germany ; hence the allusion to the Rhine. THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. 131 And hark ! like the roar of the billows on the shore, Tiie cry of battle rises along their charging line ! For God ! for the Cause ! for the Church, for the Laws ! 20 For Charles King of England, and Rupert of the Rhine! The furious German comes, with his clarions and his drums. His bravoes of Alsatia, and pages of Whitehall ; They are bursting on our flanks. Grasp your pikes, close your ranks ; For Rupert never comes but to conquer or to fall. 25 They are here ! They rush on ! We are broken ! We are gone ! Our left is borne before them like stubble on the blast. O Lord, put forth thy might I O Lord, defend the right ! Stand back to back, in God's name, and fight it to the last. Stout Skippon hath a wound ; the centre hath given ground : 30 Hark ! hark ! — What means the trampling of horse- men on our rear ? Whose banner do I see, boys ? 'T is he, thank God, 't is he, boys. Bear up another minute : brave Oliver is here. 22. Alsatia : a notorious part of London, infested with thieves and rascals. 29. Skippon : a Parliamentary general. 132 THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. Their heads all stooping low, their points all in a row, Like a whirlwind on the trees, like a deluge on the dykes, 35 Our cuirassiers have burst on the ranks of the Accurst, And at a shock have scattered the forest of his pikes. Fast, fast, the gallants ride, in some safe nook to hide Their coward heads, predestined to rot on Temple Bar: And he — he turns, he flies : — shame on those cruel eyes 40 That bore to look on torture, and dare not look on war. Ho ! comrades, scour the plain ; and ere ye stri^) the slain, First give another stab to make your search secure. Then shake from sleeves and pockets their broad-pieces and lockets. The tokens of the wanton, the plunder of the poor. 45 Fools ! your doublets shone with gold, and your hearts were gay and bold, When you kissed your lily hands to your lemans to-day ; And to-morrow shall the fox, from her chambers in the rocks. Lead forth her tawny cubs to howl above the prey. 38. Temple Bar: the heads of persons guilty of treason were impaled on this gate, at the entrance to the City of London. 43. broad-pieces : gold coins vorth twenty shillings, broader and thinner than the guinea. 4G. lemans: sweethearts. THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. 133 Where be your tongues that late mocked at heaven and hell and fate, 50 And the fingers that once were so busy with your blades, Your perfum'd satin clothes, your catches and your oaths, Your stage-plays and your sonnets, your diamonds and your spades ? Down, down, forever down, with tlie mitre and the crown. With the Belial of the Court, and the Mammon of the Pope ; 55 Tlieie is woe in Oxford Halls ; there is wail in Dur- ham's Stalls : The Jesuit smites his bosom ; the Bishop rends his cope. And She of the seven hills shall mourn her children's ills, And tremble when she thinks on the edge of Eng- land's sword; 51. catches: songs. 52. stage-plays . . . diamonds . . . spades: the Puritans considered card- playing and the theater immoral. 52. sonnets : love-poems, or poems dealing with light and frivolous subjects, which the Puritans would liave considered wicked. 53. mitre: i. e., the Pope, with whom the Puritans associated Bishop Laud and Charles's party in the Church. 54. Belial : means " wickedness " in the Old Testament ; the term is ap- plied to Satan in the New Testament. 54. 3[ammon : the personification of riches and worldliness. St. Matt. vi. 24, St. Luke xvi. 9. 55. Oxford Halls : the Oxford colleges were on the King's side. 55. in Durham'' s Stalls: among tlie clergy attached to Durham Cathedral. 56. Jesuit : an order of priests founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1534. 56. cope: a sleeveless, hooded mantle worn by the priests. 57. She of the seven hills: Rome, the city of the Popes. 134 THE BATTTE OF NASEBY. And the Kings of earth in fear shall shudder when they hear 60 Wliat the hand of God hath wrought for the Houses and the Word. 60. the Houses : Parliament. RIVERSIDE LITERATURE SERIES 147. Pope's Rape of the Lock'ecc. 148. Hawthorne's Marble Faun. 149. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, 150. Ouida's Dog of Flanders, etc. 151. Ewing's Jatkanapes, etc. 152. Martineau's Tlie Peasant and the Prince. 153. Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. 154. Shakespeare's Tempest. 155. Irving's Life of Goldsmith. 150. Tennyson's Gareth and Lynette, etc. 157. The Song of Roland. 158. Malory's Merlin and Sir Balin. 159. Beowulf. 160. Spenser's Faerie Queene. Book I. 161. Dickens's Tale of Two Cities. 162. Prose and Poetry of Cardinal Newman, 163. Shakespeare's Henry V. 164. De Qunicey's Joan of Arc, etc. 165. Scott's Quentin Durward. 166. Carlyle's Heroe? and Hero-Worship. 167. Longfellow's Autobiographical Poems. 168. Shelley's Poems. 169. Lowell's My Garden Acquaintance, etc. 170. Lamb's Essays of Elia 171. 172. Emerson's Essays 173. Kate Douglas Wiggin's Flag-Raising. 174. Kate Douglas Wiggin's Finding a Home. 175. Whittier's Autobiograpliicai Poems. 17(). Burroughs's Afoot and Afloat. 177. Bacon's Essays. i78. Selections from John Ruskin. 179. King Arthur Stories from Malory. ISO. Palmer's Odyssey. 181. Goldsmith's The Good-Nature. Thoreau's Camping in the Maine Woods. 187, 188. Huxley's Autobiography, and Es.^ays. 189. Byron's Childe Harold, Canto IV, etc. 190. Wasliington's Farewell Address, and Web- ster's Bunker Hill Oration. 191. The Second Shepherds' Play, etc. 192. Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford. 193. Williams's ^neid. 194. Irving's Bracebridge Hall. Selections. '195. Thoreau's Walden. 196. Sheridan's The Rivals. 197. Barton's Captains of Industry. Selected. 198. 199. Macaulay'sLord Clive, and W. Hast- ings 200. Howells's The Rise of Silas Lapham. 201 Harris's Little Mr.Tliimblefinger Stories. 202. Jewett s The Niglit Before Thanksgiving, 203. Shuraway's Nibeluntrenlied. 204. Slieffield's Old Testament Narrative. 20.".. Powers's A Dickens Reader. 2(M;. Goethe's Faust. Part I. 21 >7. Cooper's The Spy. 208. Aldrich's Story of a Bad Boy. 209. Warner's Being a Boy. 210. Kate Douglas Wiggin's Polly Oliver's Problem. {Continued) 11. Milton's Areopagitica, etc. 212. Sliakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. 213. Hemingway's Le Morte Arthur, 214. Moores"s Life of Columbus. 215. Bret Harte's Tennessee's Partner, etc, 210. Ralph Roister Doister. 217. Gorboduc. {In preparatioii .) 218. Selected Lyrics from Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley. 219. Selected Lyrics from Dryden, Collins, Gray, Cowper, and Burns. 220. Southern Hoems. 221. Mat^aulay's Speeches on Copyright; Lin- coln's Cooper Union Address. 222. Briggs's College Life. 223. Selections from the Prose Writings of Mat- thew Arnold. 224. Perry's American Mind and American Idealism. 225. Newman's University Subjects, 226. Burroughs's Studies in Nature and l.it- eratui-e . 227. Bryce's Promoting Good Citizenship. 228. Selected English Letters. 229. Jewett's Play Day Stories. 230. Grenfell's Adrift on an Ice-Pan, 231. Muir's Stickeen. 232. Harte's Waif of the Plains, etc. {In preparulioii.) 233. Tennyson's The Coming of Arthur, the Holy Grail and the Passing of Arthur. 234. Selected Essays. 235. Briggs's To College Girls. 236. Lowell's Literary Essays. (Selected.) 1^37. Scott's Marmion. 238. Short Stories. 239. Selections from American Poetry. 240. Howells's The Parlor Car, and The Sleep- ing Car. 241. Mills's The Story of a Thousand- Year Pine, etc. 242. Eliot's The Training for an Effective Life. 243. Bryant's Iliad. Abridged Edition. M4 Lockwood's English Sonnets. 245. Aiitin's At School in the Promised Land, 24(;. Sliepard's Shakespeare Questions. 247. Muir's The Boyhood of a Naturalist. 248. Buswell's Life of Johnson. Abridged 249. Palmer's Self-Cultivation in English, and The Glory of the Imperfect. 2.50. Sheridan s The School for Scandal. 251. Sir Gavvaii. and the Green Knight, and Piers the Ploughman. 252. Howells's A Modern Instance. 253. Helen Keller's The Story of My Life. {See also back cover.) (75) RIVERSIDE LITERATiTPi: crDirc ,^, , ., LIBRARY OF CONGRESS {Continued) EXTRA NUMBER American Authors and their Birthdays. Biographical Sketches of American Au- thors. Warriner's Teaching of English Classics in the Grades. Scudder's Literature in School. Longfellow Leaflets. Whittier Leaflets. Holmes Leaflets. Thomas's How to Teach English Clas- sics, Holbrook's Northland Heroes. The Riverside Song Book. Lowell's Fable for Critics. Selections frojii American Authors. Lowell Leaflets. Holbrook's Hiawatha Primer. Selections from English Authors. Hawthorne ' s Twice-Told Tales. Selected. S Irving lect. T Litera U A Dra; wat r HolbrouB. o DuuK 01 ryaiure Myths. W Brown's In the Days of Giants. A' Poems for the Study of Language. y Warner's In the "Wilderness. Z Nine Selected Poems. A A rr DD EE Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner and Lowell's The Vision of Sir Launfal. Poe's The Raven, Whittier's Snow- Bound, and Longfellow's The Court- ship of Miles Standish. Selections for Study and Memorizing. Sharps The Year Out-jf-Doors. Poems for Memorizing, LIBRARY BINDING 135-136. Chaucer's Prologue, The Knight's Tale, and The Nun's Priest's Tale. 160. Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book I. 166. Carlyle's Heroes and Hero- Worship. 168. Shelley's Poems. Selected. 177. Bacon's Essays. 178. Selections from the Works of John Ruskin. 181-182. Goldsmith's The Good-Katured Man, and She Stoops to Conquer. 183. Old English and Scottish Ballads. 187-188. Huxley's Autobiography and Selected Essays. 191. Second Shepherd's Play, Everyman, etc. 211. Milton's Areopagitica, etc. 216. Ralph Roister Doister. 222. Briggs's College Life. 223. Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold. 224. Perry's The American Mind and American Idealism^ 225. Newman's University Subjects. 225. BurroughP's Studies in Nature and Literature. 227. Bryce's Promoting Good Citizenshi;j. 235. Briggs's To College Girls. 236. Selected Literary Essays from James Russell T.owell. 242. Eliot's The Training for an Effective Life. 244. Lockwood's English Sonnets. 246 . Shepard ' s Shakespeare Questi ons . 248. Boswell's Life of Johnson. Abridged. 250. Sheridan's The School for Scandal. 251. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Piers the Ploughman. 252. Howells's A Modern Instance. K. Minimum College Requirements in English for Study, Complete cnfaloi^ue aud price lisf free jtpou application HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO (76)