These hands the sabre’s hilt shall clasp,
Your hearts shall have the blade!”
As Carlyle’s version is although a spirited not a faithful one, the Editor is induced to present a literal translation, from Translations of Ancient Arabian Poetry, by C. J. Lyall, 1885, 8vo., p. 10. The contest was not a battle but one of the frequent skirmishes between neighbouring clans. Sabla is Carlyle’s rendering of Sahbal a Wady, in Arabia, overlooked by twin peaks.
[26]. [W. H. Ireland, the Shakespeare forger.—Ed.]
[27]. [The above ballad refers to an attempt by Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford, to escape the payment of the Assessed Taxes upon twenty-five of his servants, on the plea that as the Helpers did not wear a Livery, and were engaged by the week, they were not liable to the duty. This defence was, however, unsuccessful.—Ed.]
[28]. Twaie coneynge Clerks.—Coneynge is the participle of the verb to ken or know. It by no means imports what we now denominate a knowing one: on the contrary, twaie coneynge clerks means two intelligent and disinterested clergymen.
[29]. Seely is evidently the original of the modern word silly. A seely wight, however, by no means imports what is now called a silly fellow, but means a man of simplicity of character, devoid of all vanity, and of any strange, ill-conducted ambition, which, if successful, would immediately be fatal to the man who indulged it.
[30]. Good advisament means—cool consideration.
[31]. [Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford, died after a severe surgical operation, March 2, 1802, at the early age of thirty-six. “The Duke of Bedford’s energetic and capacious mind,” says Lord Ossory, “his enlarged way of thinking, and elevated sentiments, together with the habits and pursuits of his life, peculiarly qualified him for his high station and princely fortune. He was superior to bad education and disadvantages for forming his character, and turned out certainly a first-rate man, though not free from imperfections. His uprightness and truth were unequalled; his magnanimity, fortitude and consideration, in his last moments, taken so unprepared as he was, were astonishing.”
On the 16th March, C. J. Fox, in moving for a new writ for the borough of Tavistock, vacated by Lord John Russell, who had succeeded to the titles and estates of his deceased brother, took occasion to pronounce a beautiful and glowing eulogium on his departed friend and firm supporter.—Ed.]