{1b} _One of the mountains_.—The scene these opening lines describe was one with which the Bard was perfectly familiar. He had often climbed the slopes of the Vale of Ardudwy to view the glorious panorama around him from Bardsey Isle to Strumble Head, the whole length of rock-bound coast lay before him, while behind was the Snowdonian range, from Snowdon itself to Cader Idris; and often, no doubt, he had watched the sun sinking “far away over the Irish Sea, and reaching his western ramparts” beyond the Wicklow Hills. {1c} _Master Sleep_.—Cp.: Such sleepy dulness in that instant weigh’d My senses down. —_Dante: Inf. C.I._ (_Cary’s trans_.) Now leaden slumber with life’s strength doth fight. —_Shakespere_: _Lucrece_, _124_. {4a} _Such a fantastic rout_.—Literally “such a battle of Camlan.” This was the battle fought between Arthur and his nephew Medrod about the year 540 on the banks of the Camel between Cornwall and Somerset, where Arthur received the wounds of which he died. The combatants being relatives and former friends, it was characterised with unwonted ferocity, and has consequently come to be used proverbially for any fray or scene of more than usual tumult and confusion. So all day long the noise of battle roll’d Among the mountains by the winter sea, Until King Arthur’s table, man by man, Had fallen in Lyonness about their Lord. —_Tennyson_: _Morte d’Arthur_. {4b} _To lampoon my king_.—The Bard commenced this Vision in the reign of William III. (v. also p. 17, “to drink the King’s health”) and completed it in that of Queen Anne, who is mentioned towards the end of the Vision. {7} _The Turk and old Lewis of France_.—The Sultan Mustapha and Lewis XIV. are thus referred to. {14} _Clippers_.—The context seems to demand this meaning, that is, “those who debase coin of the realm,” rather than “beggars” from the Welsh “_clipan_.” {20} _Backgammon and dice_.—These games, together with chess, were greatly in vogue in mediæval Wales, and are frequently alluded to in the Mabinogion and other early works. The four minor games or feats (_gogampau_) among the Welsh were playing the harp, chess, backgammon, and dice. The word “_ffristial a disiau_” are here rendered by the one word “dice”—_ffristial_ meaning either the dice-box, or the game itself, and _disiau_, the dice. {21} _This wailing is for pay_.—Cp. Ut qui conducti plorant in funere dicunt et faciunt prope plora dolentibus ex animo. —_Horace_: _Ars Poetica_, _430–1_.