Sabrina, the Severn; whose legendary tale Milton has so exquisitely told in the Comus.—Isca, the Usk.
[10.—Page 259, stanza xxxviii.]
Drawn on the sands lay coracles of hide.
The ancient British boats, covered with coria or hydes—"The ancient Britons," as Mr. Pennant observes, "had them of large size, and even made short voyages in them, according to the accounts we receive from Lucan."—Pennant, vol. i. p. 303.
In Cymrian lands—where still the torque of gold.
The twisted chain, or collar, denoted the chiefs of all the old tribes known as Gauls to the Romans. It is by this badge that the critics in art have rightly decided that the statue called "The Dying Gladiator" is in truth meant to personify a wounded Gaul. The collar, or torque, was long retained by the chiefs of Britain—and allusions to it are frequent in the songs of the Welsh.
[12.—Page 261, stanza xlviii.]
The story heard, the son of royal ban.
According to the French romance-writers, Lancelot was the son of King Ban of Benoic, a tributary to the Cymrian crown. The Welch claim him, however, as a national hero, in spite of his name, which they interpret as a translation from one of their own—Paladr-ddelt, splintered spear. (Lady C. Guest's Mabinogion, vol. i. p. 91.) In a subsequent page, Lancelot tells the tale (pretty nearly as it is told in the French romance) which obtained him the title of "Lancelot of the Lake."—See note in Ellis's edition of Way's Fabliaux, vol. ii. p. 206.