'Behold, where Dryden's less presumptuous car Wide o'er the fields of glory bear Two coursers of ethereal race, With necks in thunder cloth'd, and long-resounding pace'; and Pope's 'Satires and Epistles,' v. 267-- 'Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full-resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine.' line 286. To break a lance is to enter the lists, to try one's strength. The concussion of two powerful knights would suffice to shiver the lances. Hence comes the figurative use. Cp. I Henry VI. iii. 2,-- 'What will you do, good greybeard? break a lance, And run a tilt at death within a chair?' lines 288-309. The Genius of Chivalry is to be resuscitated from the deep slumber under which baneful spells have long effectually held him. The appropriateness of this is apparent when the true meaning of Chivalry is considered. Scott opens his 'Essay on Chivalry' thus:--'The primitive sense of this well-known word, derived from the French Chevalier, signifies merely cavalry, or a body of soldiers serving on horseback; and it has been used in that general acceptation by the best of our poets, ancient and modern, from Milton to Thomas Campbell.' See Par. Lost, i. 307, and Battle of Hohenlinden. line 294. To spur forward his horse on an expedition of adventures, like Spenser's Red Cross Knight. For the accoutrements and the duties of a knight see Scott's 'Essay on Chivalry' (Miscellaneous Works, vol. vi.). Cp. 'Faery Queene,' Book I, and (especially for the personified abstractions from line 300 onwards) Montgomerie's allegory, 'The Cherrie and the Slae.' line 312. Ytene's oaks. 'The New Forest in Hampshire, anciently so called.'--SCOTT. Gundimore, the residence of W. S. Rose, was in this neighbourhood, and in an unpublished piece entitled 'Gundimore,' Rose thus alludes to a visit of Scott's:-- 'Here Walter Scott has woo'd the northern muse; Here he with me has joy'd to walk or cruise; And hence has prick'd through Yten's holt, where we Have called to mind how under greenwood tree, Pierced by the partner of his "woodland craft," King Rufus fell by Tyrrell's random shaft.' line 314. 'The "History of Bevis of Hampton" is abridged by my friend Mr. George Ellis, with that liveliness which extracts amusement even out of the most rude and unpromising of our old tales of chivalry. Ascapart, a most important personage in the romance, is thus described in an extract:-- "This geaunt was mighty and strong, And full thirty foot was long. He was bristled like a sow; A foot he had between each brow; His lips were great, and hung aside; His eyen were hollow, his mouth was wide; Lothly he was to look on than, And liker a devil than a man. His staff was a young oak, Hard and heavy was his stroke." Specimens of Metrical Romances, vol. ii. p. 136.