Ballads and Poems Illustrating English History (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1908 Excerpt: ... NOTES. BOADICEA. Boadioea was queen of the British tribe of the Ieeni. In 61, angered by the treatment to which she was subjected by the Romans, she headed a revolt against them. Being defeated, she died, either in battle, or of grief, or by her own hand, according to various accounts. 6. Druid, the ancient British priest. 20. Gaul: it was the Goths who overthrew the Roman Empire. 31. eagles: the Roman standard. 38, 40. them refers to ' the bard's prophetio words, ' 1. 33. William Cowper (1731--1800) stands in English poetry in a position midway between the artificial school of Pope and the 'return to nature' of which Wordsworth is the type. KING CANUTE. On the death of Ethelred in 1016, Canute became king of Northumbria and Mercia, and when Edmund, king of East England and Wessex, died later in the year, Canute was left sole king. The incident recorded in the poem is traditional. 5. silversticks and goldsticks: courtiers of a much later date; it is an humorous anachronism. 11. gleemen: minstrels. 65. the Jewish captain: Joshua. See Joshua, x. 13. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811--1863) was mainly a novelist and satirical writer, and only an occasional poet. This poem is a mock-antique, containing more than one anachronism. It is supposed to be sung by the knight of Ivanhoe in Thackeray's burlesque Rebecca and Bowena, a comic continuation and parody of Sir Walter Scott's HE NEVER SMILED AGAIN. 1. The bark was called the White Ship, and the prince was William, the only son of Henry I. The ship sank on 25 November, 1120, and tradition records that Henry never smiled afterwards. D. G. Eossetti (1828--1882) wrote a fine ballad The White Ship on the same episode. 19. The tourney: tournaments or jousts were the sport of knights. Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1793--183..