Whose influence may crown thy glorious war.
——O Famâ ingens, ingentior armis,
Rex Gustave, quibus Coelo te laudibus aequem?
Virgil. Aeneid. lib. 2. [11?]
Gustavus Adolphus.] This piece had been previously printed in the Swedish Intelligencer, 1633, with other elegies on the subject, one of which (in Malone MS. 21) is also ascribed to King, but without any other evidence, and (as Hannah seems to be right in thinking) very improbably. He gives some variants, only two of which seem to me important enough to reproduce. There are also versions in Rawlinson Poetic MS. 26, fol. 51, and 160, fol. 39.
4 throes] Orig. 'throws'.
6-7 Hannah in his note, though in his text he had followed 1657, as above, prefers the reading of the Intelligencer—a full-stop at 'it', and 'To begin', which is to a certain extent supported by a capitalized 'To' in his MS., though there is not a full-stop. He has two notes on the subject, and for a moment I was perplexed. But I feel certain that the 1657 text is right. Hannah's parallel from King's prose, 'I begin there where all must end', is specious, but not convincing. On the other hand, 'To begin, &c.' is wanted to complete 'for less' and to explain 'sin'. Honour, as the next sentence further tells us, perished with Gustavus, and it is a solecism to attempt to continue it in verse. This is, in the Archdeacon's words elsewhere, 'frigid and artificial' enough; but it is also sufficiently 'metaphysical'.
10 Orig. has full-stop at 'snuff', but this (which Hannah keeps and does not comment on) leaves nothing to complete 'as'.
11 airy] For the 'ayerie' of edition and Malone MS., the Intelligencer, and Rawlinson MS. 160 have 'fiery'—I think, in the context, better.
96. Orig. note. Magis triumphati quam victi. Tacit. de Mor. Ger.