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50
GRAY'S POEMS
Ye[V 1] towers of Julius,[N 1] London's lasting shame, With many a foul and midnight murder fed,Revere his consort's[N 2] faith, his father's fame, And spare the meek usurper's holy[V 2] head.[N 3] 90Above, below, the rose of snow,[N 4]Twin'd with her blushing foe, we spread:


[N 5]

[1]

Variants

  1. ↑ V. 87. Ye] Grim. ms.
  2. ↑ V. 90. Holy] Hallow'd. ms.

Notes

  1. ↑ V. 87. Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, &c., believed to be murdered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Cæsar.Gray.
  2. ↑ V. 89. Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who struggled hard to save her husband and her crown. Gray.
    Ibid. Henry the Fifth. Gray.Gray. Gray.
  3. ↑ V. 90. Henry the Sixth, very near being canonized. The line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown.Gray.
  4. ↑ V. 91. The white and red roses, devices of York and Lancaster.Gray.
    "——— no, Plantagenet,'Tis not for fear, but anger—that thy cheeks Blush for pure shame, to counterfeit our roses."Henry VI. pt. i. act ii. sc 4.
  5. ↑ V. 93. The silver boar was the badge of Richard the Third; whence he was usually known in his own time by the name of the Boar.Gray.

    "Nor easier fate the bristled boar is lent."

  1. ↑ The crest, or bearing of a warrior (says Scott in his notes to the Lay of the Last Minstrel, p. 300), was often used as a "nom de guerre." Thus Richard III. acquired his well-known epithet,—"the Boar of York." In the violent satire on Cardinal Wolsey, commonly but erroneously imputed to Dr. Bull, the Duke of Buckingham is called the Beautiful Swan; and the Duke of Norfolk, or Earl of Surrey, the White Lion. See Dr. Nott. Surrey, i. p. 302, 304.
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