And if perhaps no Cassiopeian spark
(Which in the North did thy first rising mark) 130
Shine o'er thy hearse; the breath of our just praise
Shall to the firmament thy virtues raise;
Then fix, and kindle them into a star,
Whose influence may crown thy glorious war.
_----O Famâ ingens, ingentior armis,
Rex Gustave, quibus Coelo te laudibus aequem?_
Virgil. _Aeneid. lib. 2._ [11?]
[_Gustavus Adolphus._] This piece had been
previously printed in the _Swedish Intelligencer_, 1633, with
other elegies on the subject, one of which (in Malone MS. 21)
is also ascribed to King, but without any other evidence, and
(as Hannah seems to be right in thinking) very improbably. He
gives some variants, only two of which seem to me important
enough to reproduce. There are also versions in Rawlinson
Poetic MS. 26, fol. 51, and 160, fol. 39.]
[Line: 4 throes] Orig. 'thro_w_s'.]
[Lines: 6-7 Hannah in his note, though in his text he
had followed _1657_, as above, prefers the reading of the
_Intelligencer_--a full-stop at 'it', and 'To begin', which
is to a certain extent supported by a capitalized 'To' in his
MS., though there is not a full-stop. He has two notes on the
subject, and for a moment I was perplexed. But I feel certain
that the _1657_ text is right. Hannah's parallel from King's
prose, 'I begin there where all must end', is specious, but
not convincing. On the other hand, 'To begin, &c.' is wanted
to complete 'for less' and to explain 'sin'. Honour, as the
next sentence further tells us, perished with Gustavus, and it
is a solecism to attempt to continue it in verse. This is,
in the Archdeacon's words elsewhere, 'frigid and artificial'
enough; but it is also sufficiently 'metaphysical'.]
[Line: 10 Orig. has full-stop at 'snuff', but this (which
Hannah keeps and does not comment on) leaves nothing to
complete 'as'.]
[Line: 11 airy] For the 'ayerie' of edition and Malone MS.,
the _Intelligencer_, and Rawlinson MS. 160 have 'fiery'--I
think, in the context, better.]
[Line: 96. Orig. note. _Magis triumphati quam victi_. Tacit.
_de Mor. Ger._]
[Lines: 135-7 The end quotation (from _Aen._ xi. 124-5) is not
in MS.]
_To my Noble and Judicious Friend Sir Henry Blount upon his Voyage._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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