With still less propriety, perhaps we should add—
—Aut ardens evexit ad æthera virtus. VIRG.
The hero’s displeasure is thus forcibly described:
Zounds! quoth great Rollo, with indignant frown,
’Mid British nobles shall a base-born clown,
With air imperious ape a monarch’s nod,
Less fit to sit there than my groom, by G-d[1]?
Longinus, in his chapter on interrogations, proves them to be a source of the sublime. They are, indeed, says Dr. Young, the proper style of majesty incensed. Where, therefore, can they be with more propriety introduced, than from the mouth of our offended hero? Merlin, after sympathizing with him in the justice of these feelings, proceeds to a description of the august assembly they are viewing. The author’s reverence for the religion of his country naturally disposes him first to take notice of the spiritual lords of Parliament—
Yon rev’rend prelates, rob’d in sleeves of lawn,
Too meek to murmur, and too proud to fawn,
Who still submissive to their Maker’s nod,
Adore their sov’reign, and respect their God;
And wait, good men! all worldly things forgot,
In humble hope of Enoch’s happy lot.
We apprehend that the fourth line, by an error in the press, the words “adore and respect,” must have been misplaced; but our veneration for our author will not permit us to hazard even the slightest alteration of the text. The happy ambiguity of the word “Maker,” is truly beautiful.
We are sorry, however, to observe, that modern times afford some instances of exceptions to the above description, as well as one very distinguished one, indeed, to that which follows of the sixteen Peers of Scotland:—
Alike in loyalty, alike in worth,
Behold the sixteen nobles of the north;
Fast friends to monarchy, yet sprung from those
Who basely sold their monarch to his foes;
Since which, atoning for their father’s crime,
The sons, as basely, sell themselves to him:
With ev’ry change prepar’d to change their note,
With ev’ry government prepar’d to vote,
Save when, perhaps, on some important bill,
They know, by second sight, the royal will;
With royal Denbigh hearing birds that sing,
“Oppose the minister to please the king.”
These last lines allude to a well authenticated anecdote, which deserves to be recorded as an instance of the interference of divine Providence in favour of this country, when her immediate destruction was threatened by the memorable India bill, so happily rejected by the House of Lords in the year 1783.