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.] * * * * * BARBABA S----. On the noon of the 14th of November, 1743, just as the clock had struck one, Barbara S----, with her accustomed punctuality, ascended the long, rabbling staircase, with awkward interposed landing-places, which led to the office, or rather a sort of box with a desk in it, whereat sat the then Treasurer of the Old Bath Theatre. All over the island it was the custom, and remains so I believe to this day, for the players to receive their weekly stipend on the Saturday. It was not much that Barbara had to claim.