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BOOK V
MEN OF ENGLAND
ОглавлениеMen of England! who inherit
Rights that cost your sires their blood!
Men whose undegenerate spirit
Has been proved on land and flood:
By the foes ye've fought uncounted,
By the glorious deeds ye've done,
Trophies captured—breaches mounted,
Navies conquer'd—kingdoms won!
Yet remember, England gathers
Hence but fruitless wreaths of fame,
If the virtues of your fathers
Glow not in your hearts the same.
What are monuments of bravery,
Where no public virtues bloom?
What avail in lands of slavery
Trophied temples, arch, and tomb?
Pageants!—let the world revere us
For our people's rights and laws,
And the breasts of civic heroes
Bared in Freedom's holy cause.
Yours are Hampden's Russell's glory,
Sydney's matchless shade is your,—
Martyrs in heroic story,
Worth a thousand Agincourts!
We're the sons of sires that baffled
Crown'd and mitred tyranny:
They defied the field and scaffold,
For their birthrights—so will we.
CAMPBELL.
[Notes: Thomas Campbell, born 1777, died 1844. Author of the 'Pleasures of Hope,' 'Gertrude of Wyoming,' and many lyrics. His poetry is careful, scholarlike and polished. Men whose undegenerate spirit, &c. In prose, this would run, "(Ye) men whose spirit has been proved (to be) undegenerate," &c. The word "undegenerate," which is introduced only as an epithet, is the real predicate of the sentence.
By the foes ye've fought uncounted. "Uncounted" agreeing with "foes."
Fruitless wreaths of fame. A poetical figure, taken from the wreaths of laurel given as prizes in the ancient games of Greece. "Past history will give fame to a country, but nothing more fruitful than fame, unless its virtues are kept alive."
Trophied temples, i.e., Temples hung (after the fashion of the ancients) with trophies.
Arch, i.e., the triumphal arch erected by the Romans in honour of victorious generals.
Pageants = "these are nought but pageants."
And (for) the beasts of civic heroes. Civic heroes, those who have striven for the rights of their fellow citizens.
Hampden, i.e., John Hampden (born 1594, died 1643), the maintainer of the rights of the people in the reign of Charles I. He resisted the imposition of ship-money, and died in a skirmish at Chalgrove during the Civil War.
Russell, i.e., Lord William Russell, beheaded in 1683, in the reign of Charles II. on a charge of treason. He had resisted the Court in its aims at establishing the doctrine of passive obedience.
Sydney, i.e., Algernon Sydney. The friend of Russell, who met with the same fate in the same year.
Sydney's matchless shade. Shade = spirit or memory.
Agincourt. The victory won by Henry V. in France, in 1415.
Crown'd and mitred tyranny. Explain this.]
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