And, wroth to see his kingdom fail, Swinges1 the scaly horror of his folded tail. The oracles are dumb; No voice or hideous hum Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. Can no more divine, With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. The lonely mountains o'er And the resounding shore A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; Edgèd with poplar pale, The parting Genius is with sighing sent; The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. In consecrated earth And on the holy hearth, The Lars and Lemures mourn with midnight plaint. In urns and altars round, A drear and dying sound Affrights the flamens at their service quaint; And the chill marble seems to sweat, While each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat. Peor and Baälim Forsake their temples dim, With that twice-battered god of Palestine; Heaven's queen and mother both, Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine; In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz3 mourn. 1 To move as a lash. Ghosts 2 A Grecian divinity whose temple was at Delphi. of the dead. 4 Priests. 5 The national god of the Moabites, it is thought. • Plural nouns denoting the gods and goddesses of Syria and Palestine. 7 Jupiter, as worshipped in Libya. His statue there had the head and horns of a ram. 8 A Phoenician god. And sullen Moloch,1 fled, Hath left in shadows dread They call the grisly king, In dismal dance about the furnace blue, The brutish gods of Nile as fast, Isis and Orus and the dog Anubis, haste. Nor is Osiris seen In Memphian grove or green, Trampling the unshowered grass with lowings loud; Within his sacred chest; Nought but profoundest hell can be his shroud; The sable-stolèd sorcerers bear his worshiped ark. He feels from Juda's land The dreaded Infant's hand; The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn;" Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine: Our Babe, to show his Godhead true, Can in his swaddling bands control the damnèd crew. So, when the Sun in bed, Pillows his chin upon an orient wave, The flocking shadows pale Troop to the infernal jail, Each fettered ghost slips to his several grave; Fly after the night-steeds, leaving their moon-loved maze. But see! the Virgin blest Hath laid her Babe to rest. Time is our tedious song should here have ending: 1 National god of the Ammonites. 2 Eyes. Heaven's youngest-teemed star Hath fixed her polished car, Her sleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending; Bright-harnessed angels sit in order serviceable. FURTHER READING.-L'Allegro and Il Penseroso (in pamphlet form, by Clark & Maynard, as also the whole of Bk. I. of Paradise Lost). Of Paradise Lost read Bk. I., II. 1-74; 242-330. Bk. II., 50-467; 629-883. Bk. III., 1-55. Bk. IV., 411-735. Bk. V., 153-208. Bk. VI., 171–353; 507-669; 824-892. Bk. VIII., 452-559; 618-753. Bk. IX., 205-392; 494-795. Bk. X., 845-965. Bk. XI., 226-285. Bk. XII., 606-649. PERIOD VI. FROM THE RESTORATION TO SWIFT'S DEATH, 1660-1745. LESSON 34. Brief Historical Sketch.-House of Stuart restored in the person of Charles II., 1660. Twenty-eight of the Regicides arraigned, and thirteen executed. Tea introduced, 1662. Royal Society chartered, same year. First newspaper, the Public Intelligencer, 1663. Star Chamber, monopolies, and Court of High Commission not restored. Sole right of Parliament to grant supplies to the Crown not disputed. Secret treaty made with France, by which Charles II. became a pensioner of Louis XIV. Great Plague in London, 1665-6. Great Fire, 1666. Titus Oates' affair, the "Popish Plot," 1678. Habeas Corpus act passed, 1679. RyeHouse Plot, 1682. Accession of Jas. II., 1685. Revocation of Edict of Nantes, 1685. Invasion of England and of Scotland by Monmouth and Argyle, same year. Jeffreys' bloody assizes follow. Quarrel of the king with the two Universities and Declaration of Indulgence, 1687. Trial of the seven bishops for petitioning to be excused from ordering the Declaration to be read in the churches, 1688. Revolution, by which Wm. of Orange and Mary came to the English throne made vacant by the flight of James, 1688. Grand Alliance of England, Austria, Spain, and the Netherlands against France formed by William, 1689. Irish subdued, 1690. White paper manufactured in England, same year. The Ministry becomes what it is now, the executive committee of the majority of the House of Commons. Bank of England established, 1694. National Debt, 1697, £5,000,000. Second Grand Alliance of England, Holland, Hanover, and Austria, joined afterward by Prussia, the German Empire, and Portugal, is formed by William, and begins, 1702, the War of the Spanish Succession. Marlborough in command of the allied forces. Anne comes to the throne, 1702. National Debt, 1703, £14,000,000. England and Scotland united, 1707. About 1709 first daily newspaper established. Impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell, 1709–10. Marlborough and the Whig party fall, and Oxford and Bolingbroke come into power, 1710. Crown, during the reigns of Wm. III. and Anne, becomes less personal and more official. Veto on bills practically given up, last exercised, 1707. War of the Spanish Succession closed by the treaty of Utrecht, 1713. National Debt, 1714, £54,000,000 (now £800,000,000). George I., founder of the House of Hanover, comes to the throne, 1714. Invasion by the Pretender, son of Jas. II., 1715. Bolingbroke and Oxford impeached, 1715. South Sea Company established 1711, fails 1720. Sir Robt. Walpole Prime Minister, 1721-42. A great Peace Minister, removed the duties from more than 100 articles of export and from 30 of import. George II. comes to the throne, 1727. Methodism founded, at first within the Church, 1727-9. Separation of Methodism from the Church, 1738. Five great hospitals established, 1719-45. LESSON 35. POETRY. CHANGE OF STYLE.- "We have seen the natural style, as distinguished from the artificial, in the Elizabethan poets. Style became not only natural but artistic when it was used by a great genius like Shakespeare or Spenser, for a first rate poet creates rules of art; his work itself is art. But when the art of poetry is making, its rules are not laid down, and the second rate poets, inspired only by their feelings, will write in a natural style unrestrained by rules; that is, they will put their feelings into verse without caring much for the form in which they do it. As long as they live in the midst of a youthful national life, and feel an ardent sympathy with it, their style will be fresh and impassioned, and give pleasure because of the strong feeling that inspires it. But it will also be extravagant and unrestrained in its use of images and words because of its want of art. This is the history of the style of the poets of the middle period of Elizabeth's reign. Afterwards the national life grew chill, and the feelings of the poets also chilled. Then the want of art in the style made itself felt. The far-fetched images, the hazarded meanings, |