And must thy lyre,* so long divine, 30 Degenerate into hands like mine?

'Tis something, in the dearth of fame,
Though linked among a fettered race,
To feel at least a patriot's shame,

E'en as I sing, suffuse my face; 35 For what is left the poet here?

40

For Greeks a blush-for Greece a tear.

Must we but weep o'er days more blessed?
Must we but blush? Our fathers bled.
Earth! render back from out thy breast
A remnant of our Spartan dead!
Of the three hundred * grant but three
To make a new Thermopyla!

What! silent still? and silent all? Ah! no ;-the voices of the dead 45 Sound like a distant torrent's fall,

55 You have the Pyrrhic dance as yetWhere is the Pyrrhic phalanx * gone? Of two such lessons, why forget

*

The nobler and the manlier one? You have the letters Cadmus gave60 Think ye he meant them for a slave?

Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!
We will not think of themes like these!
It made Anacreon's song divine :

He served-but served Polycrates 65 A tyrant; but our masters then Were still, at least, our countrymen.

70

The tyrant of the Chersonese *

Was freedom's best and bravest friend :
That tyrant was Miltiades!

Oh that the present hour would lend

Thy lyre. Poetry is here likened to the music of a lyre or harp. The ancient Greeks excelled in poetry.

Of the three hundred. At Thermopylæ, a famous pass in the north-east of Greece, 10,000 Persians,under Xerxes, were engaged by 300 Spartans, under Leonidas, whose followers were all slain.

Samian wine! Samos, an island on the coast of Asia Minor, opposite Ionia, famous for its wine.

And shed, &c., to make wine from the juice of the grape that grows on the island of Scio, off the coast of Asia Minor.

Bacchanal, a worshipper of Bacchus, one who indulges in drink. Phalanx, a compact body of soldiers.

Cadmus, the inventor of letters, and king of Thebes, which city he founded. He came to Greece B.C. 1550. Polycrates, a king of Samos.

The Chersonese, the peninsula of the Morea, Greece. The inhabitants invested Miltiades, the hero of Marathon, with the sovereign power.

THE GLOVE AND THE LIONS.—Leigh Hunt.

King Fran- KING FRANCIS * was a hearty king, and loved a royal

cis, Francis

I. of France.

Gallant,

showy, splendid. Crowning,

complete,

perfect.

Valour,

bravery.

Royal beasts,

the lions; the

sport,

And one day, as his lions strove, sat looking on the

court:

The nobles filled the benches round, the ladies by

their side,

And 'mongst them Count de Lorge, with one he hoped

to make his bride:

And truly 'twas a gallant* thing to see that crown

*

ing show,

*

lion is called Valour and love, and a king above, and the royal

the king of

beasts.

beasts

below.

5

*

Ramped and roared the lions, with horrid laughing
jaws;

They bit, they glared,* gave blows like beams, a wind
went with their paws;

With wallowing might and stifled roar they rolled on

one another.

IO Till all the pit, with sand and mane, was in a thun-
derous smother;

The bloody foam above the bars came whizzing
through the air;

Said Francis then: "Faith, gentlemen, we're better
here than there!"

De Lorge's love o'erheard the king, a beauteous, lively
dame,

With smiling lips, and sharp bright eyes, which
always seemed the same :

15 She thought: "The Count, my lover, is as brave as

brave can be ;

Ramped, leaped about in a furious manner.

Glared, looked fiercely.

Thunderous,

a noise like thunder.

He surely would do desperate* things to show his love Desperate,

of me!

*

King, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is

*

fearless of danger, rash, furious. Occasion,

divine, I'll drop my glove to prove his love; great glory opportunity, will be mine!"

She dropped her glove to prove his love; then looked

on him and smiled;

20 He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions

wild :

The leap was quick; return was quick; he soon

regained his place;

Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the
lady's face!

"In truth," cried Francis, "rightly done!" and he

rose from where he sat :

time, chance. Prove, try, test.

"No love," quoth he, "but vanity,* sets love a task Vanity, little like that!"

CONSCIENCE.-Shakspeare.

WHAT stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is he armed, that hath his quarrel just;
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

pride, idle show.

E

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS.*—H. G. Bell.

HENRY GLASSFORD BELL (1814-1874) was educated for the law, and was, at the time of his death, the Sheriff of Lanarkshire. He had very considerable literary taste, and was a frequent contributor to the Magazines.

I LOOKED far back into other years, and lo! in
bright array

[away.

I saw, as in a dream, the forms of ages passed
It was a stately convent* with its old and

lofty walls,

And gardens with their broad green walks,
where soft the footstep falls;

And o'er the antique * dial-stone the creeping 5
shadow passed,

And, all around, the noon-day sun a drowsy
radiance* cast.

No sound of busy life was heard, save from the

cloister* dim

[holy hymn. The tinkling of the silver bell, or the sisters' And there five noble maidens * sat beneath the orchard trees,

In

that first budding spring of youth when all
its prospects please;

And little recked* they, when they sang, or
knelt at vesper prayers,

That Scotland knew no prouder names-held
none more dear than theirs

And little even the loveliest thought, before the
holy shrine,

*

ΙΟ

Of royal blood and high descent from the
ancient Stuart line;
Calmly her happy days flew on, uncounted in 15
their flight,
[tinuing light.
And as they flew, they left behind a long-con-

The scene was changed. It was the court, the
gay court of Bourbon,

And 'neath a thousand silver lamps a thou-
sand courtiers* throng:

*Mary, Queen of Scots, was born at Linlithgow in 1542, a few days before the death of her father, James V. In 1558 she was married to Francis, the Dauphin of France, who died the next year, and Mary returned to Scotland in 1561. Her own subjects rebelled, and defeated her troops at Langside in 1568. She then fled to England, where she was executed by order of Elizabeth in 1587.

20

And proudly kindles Henry's

*

eye-well Henry, Mary's father

pleased, I ween,* to see [chivalry :The land assemble all its wealth of grace and Grey Montmorency,* o'er whose head has passed a storm of years,

Strong in himself and children, stands the first

his

among peers;

And next the Guises,* who so well fame's
steepest heights assailed,

And walked ambition's diamond ridge, where
bravest hearts have failed-

25 And higher yet their path shall be, stronger
shall wax their might,

For before them Montmorency's star shall pale
its waning light.

Here Louis, Prince of Condé,* wears his all-
unconquered sword,

With great Coligni* by his side: each name a
household word.

And there walks she of Medicis,* that proud
Italian line,

[Catherine.

30 The mother of a race of kings-the haughty
The forms that follow in her train a glorious
sunshine make-

A milky way of stars that grace a comet's
glittering wake;

in-law, Henry II. of France.

I ween, I am sure, I
know.

Grey Montmorency,
Anne de Montmor-

ency, a peer, marquis,

and constable of France, was one of

the greatest generals

of the 16th century.

The Guises, a princely

family of Lorraine, a province in the north

east of France.

But fairer far than all the rest who bask* on Bask, &c., those who

Fortune's tide,

*

Effulgent in the light of youth, is she, the

new-made bride!

35 The homage of a thousand hearts-the fond,

deep love of one

The hopes that dance around a life whose
charms are but begun,-

They lighten up her chestnut eye, they mantle

o'er her cheek,

They sparkle on her open brow, and high

souled joy bespeak:

Ah! who shall blame, if scarce that day,
through all its brilliant hours,

40 She thought of that quiet convent's calm, its
sunshine and its flowers?

The scene was changed. It was a bark* that

slowly held its way,

A bark, a ship; this scene represents Mary on her voyage from France to Scotland in 1561.

And o'er its lee* the coast of France in the light, the sheltered side

of evening lay;

of the ship.