MacMillan's Reading Books Part 17

Last came Joy's ecstatic trial; He, with viny crown advancing, First to the lively pipe his hand addressed; But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best: They would have thought, who heard the strain, They saw in Tempe's vale her native maids, Amidst the festal-sounding shades, To some unwearied minstrel dancing; While, as his flying fingers kissed the strings, Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round; Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound; And he, amidst his frolic play, As if he would the charming air repay, Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings.

O Music! sphere-descended maid, Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid!

Why, G.o.ddess, why, to us denied, Lay'st thou thy ancient lyre aside?

As in that loved, Athenian bower You learned an all-commanding power.

Thy mimic soul; O nymph endeared!

Can well recall what then it heard.

Where is thy native simple heart Devote to Virtue, Fancy, Art?

Arise, as in that elder time, Warm, energetic, chaste, sublime!

Thy wonders in that G.o.d-like age, Fill thy recording Sister's page;-- 'Tis said, and I believe the tale, Thy humblest reed could more prevail, Had more of strength, diviner rage, Than all which charms this laggard age, E'en all at once together found Cecilia's mingled world of sound;-- O bid our vain endeavours cease: Revive the just designs of Greece: Return in all thy simple state!

Confirm the tales her sons relate!

COLLINS.

[Notes: _William Collins_ (1720-1756). A poet, who throughout life struggled with adversity, and who, though he produced little, refined everything he wrote with a most fastidious taste and with elaborate care.

_Sh.e.l.l_, according to a fas.h.i.+on common with the poets of the first half of the 18th century, stands for lyre. The Latin word _testudo_, a sh.e.l.l is often so used.

_Possessed beyond the Muse's painting_ = enthralled beyond what poetry can describe.

_His own expressive power, i.e.,_ his power to express his own feelings.

_In lightnings owned his secret stings_ = in lightning-like touches confessed the hidden fury which inspired him.

_Veering song_. The ever-changeful song.

_Her wild sequestered seat_. Sequestered properly is used of something which, being in dispute, is deposited in a third person's hands: hence of something set apart or in retirement.

_Round a holy calm diffusing_ = diffusing around a holy calm.

_Buskin_. A boot reaching above the ankle. _Gemmed_ = sparkling as with gems.

Faun and Dryad_. Creatures with whom ancient mythology peopled the woods.

_Their chaste-eyed Queen_ = Diana.

_Brown exercise_. Exercise is here personified and represented as brown and sunburnt.

_Viol_. A stringed musical instrument.

_In Tempe's vale_. In Thessaly, especially connected with the wors.h.i.+p of Apollo, the G.o.d of poetry and music.

_Sphere-descended maid_. A metaphor common with the poets, and taken from a Greek fancy most elaborately described in Plato's 'Republic,'

where the system of the universe is pictured as a series of whorls linked in harmony.

_Thy mimic soul_. Thy soul apt to imitate.

_Devote_ = devoted. A form more close to that of the Latin participle, from which it is derived.

_Thy recording Sister_ = the Muse of History.

_Cecilia's mingled world of sound_ = the organ. So St. Cecilia is called in Dryden's Ode, "Inventress of the vocal frame."

_The just designs_ = the well-conceived, artistic designs.]

"A WHALE HUNT."

A tide of unusual height had carried the whale over a large bar of sand, into the voe or creek in which he was now lying. So soon as he found the water ebbing, he became sensible of his danger, and had made desperate efforts to get over the shallow water, where the waves broke on the bar but hitherto he had rather injured than mended his condition, having got himself partly aground, and lying therefore particularly exposed to the meditated attack. At this moment the enemy came down upon him. The front ranks consisted of the young and hardy, armed in the miscellaneous manner we have described; while, to witness and animate their efforts, the young women, and the elderly persons of both s.e.xes, took their place among the rocks, which overhung the scene of action.

As the boats had to double a little headland, ere they opened the mouth of the voe, those who came by land to the sh.o.r.es of the inlet had time to make the necessary reconnaissances upon the force and situation of the enemy, on whom they were about to commence a simultaneous attack by land and sea.

This duty, the stout-hearted and experienced general--for so the Udaller might be termed--would entrust to no eyes but his own; and, indeed, his external appearance, and his sage conduct, rendered him alike qualified for the command which he enjoyed. His gold-laced hat was exchanged for a bearskin cap, his suit of blue broadcloth, with its scarlet lining, and loops, and frogs of bullion, had given place to a red flannel jacket, with b.u.t.tons of black horn, over which he wore a seal-skin s.h.i.+rt curiously seamed and plaited on the bosom, such as are used by the Esquimaux, and sometimes by the Greenland whale-fishers. Sea-boots of a formidable size completed his dress, and in his hand he held a large whaling-knife, which he brandished, as if impatient to employ it in the operation of _flinching_ the huge animal which lay before them,--that is, the act of separating its flesh from its bones. Upon closer examination, however, he was obliged to confess that the sport to which he had conducted his friends, however much it corresponded with the magnificent scale of his hospitality, was likely to be attended with its own peculiar dangers and difficulties.

The animal, upwards of sixty feet in length, was lying perfectly still, in a deep part of the voe into which it had weltered, and where it seemed to await the return of tide, of which it was probably a.s.sured by instinct. A council of experienced harpooners was instantly called, and it was agreed that an effort should be made to noose the tail of this torpid leviathan, by casting a cable around it, to be made fast by anchors to the sh.o.r.e, and thus to secure against his escape, in case the tide should make before they were able to dispatch him. Three boats were destined to this delicate piece of service, one of which the Udaller himself proposed to command, while Cleveland and Mertoun were to direct the two others. This being decided, they sat down on the strand, waiting with impatience until the naval part of the force should arrive in the voe. It was during this interval, that Triptolemus Yellowley, after measuring with his eyes the extraordinary size of the whale, observed, that in his poor mind, "A wain[1] with six owsen,[2] or with sixty owsen either, if they were the owsen of the country, could not drag siccan[3]

a huge creature from the water, where it was now lying, to the sea-beach."

Trifling as this remark may seem to the reader, it was connected with a subject which always fired the blood of the old Udaller, who, glancing upon Triptolemus a quick and stern look, asked him what it signified, supposing a hundred oxen could not drag the whale upon the beach? Mr.

Yellowley, though not much liking the tone with which the question was put, felt that his dignity and his profit compelled him to answer as follows:--"Nay, sir; you know yourself, Master Magnus Troil, and every one knows that knows anything, that whales of siccan size as may not be masterfully dragged on sh.o.r.e by the instrumentality of one wain with six owsen, are the right and property of the Admiral, who is at this time the same n.o.ble lord who is, moreover, Chamberlain of these isles."