LIX. Thus on the chill Lapponian's dreary land, Torrents are hurl'd; green hills emerge; and lo, The trees with foliage, cliffs with flowers are crown'd; Pure rills through vales of verdure warbling go; And wonder, love, and joy, the peasant's heart o'erflow.5 LX. Here pause, my Gothic lyre, a little while : The leisure hour is all that thou canst claim. But on this verse if Montague should smile, New strains ere long shall animate thy frame: And her applause to me is more than fame; For still with truth accords her taste refined. At lucre or renown let others aim; I only wish to please the gentle mind, Whom Nature's charms inspire, and love of human kind. NOTES TO BOOK I. There is hardly an ancient ballad, or romance, wherein a Minstrel or a Harper appears, but he is characterised, by way of eminence, to have been" of the north countrie." It is probable, that under this appellation were formerly comprehended all the provinces to the north of the Trent. See Percy's Essay on the English Minstrels. 2 Brightness, splendour. The word is used by some late writers, as well as by Milton. 3 Allusion to Shakspeare. Macbeth. How now, ye secret, black, and midnight hags, Witches. A deed without a name. 4 See the fine old ballad, called The Children in the Wood. 5 Spring and autumn are hardly known to the Laplanders. About the time the sun enters Cancer, their fields, which a week before were covered with snow, appear on a sudden full of grass and flowers. Scheffer's History of Lapland, p. 16. O |