A Metrical History of England Or, Recollections, in Rhyme, Of some of the most prominent Features in our National Chronology, from the Landing of Julius Caesar to the Commencement of the Regency, in 1812. In Two Volumes ... By Thomas Dibdin |
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 | A Metrical History of England |  |
THE SAXONS.
A. D. 447.
Proclaims assistance? 'tis the Saxon band,
By Hengist led, and Horsa;—see, they smile,
And greet their hosts, with false, insidious hand.
And beauty, too, must aid the plan they lay;
Rowena, form'd to bear a nobler heart,
Can stoop a falling monarch to betray.
What! yield a throne to Woman's asking eye!
But then, the prince was wrong,—and so am I.
Presents a prospect, like the boundless main,
The ruins of a once tremendous pile,
Where white-rob'd Druids held their orgies vile,
Yet rise upon the sight;—and here, 'tis said,
Where still repose in heaps, the slaughter'd dead,
Three hundred nobles of our drooping state,
Betray'd by Hengist, met a savage fate.
Stone-Henge yet called,—perhaps, the words impart
The traitor's name, and texture of his heart.
Succeeding fought to stem the Saxon tide;
In Ailsford's desp'rate battle, Horsa slain,
Adds to their names who for ambition died.
Weak Vortigern, restored to pow'rless name,
Yields Hengist all the profit and the fame.
That tells, in fine, how Saxon wiles prevail'd;
I turn the retrospect from that dark age,
When every manly, patriot, effort fail'd:
When British worth was driven to give place
To fancied friendship, and a foreign race.
For brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and cousins:
Call'd this the sweetest island under heaven,
And split one little kingdom into seven.
The Saxons, it is supposed, gained great advantages over Britain by means of a foolish passion which the old Vortigern conceived for the young and beautiful Rowena, niece to Hengist “She presented him,” (say our old Historians) “on her knee, with a cup of wine, saying ‘Waes heal, hlaford cyning,’ or, ‘Be of health, Lord King’! to which Vortigern, being instructed in the custom, answered ‘Drinc heal,’ or, ‘I drink your health’—This introduction led to the subsequent marriage of Rowena to Vort gern, who felt no more anxiety respecting the Saxon encroachments on his dominions. Verstegan, &c. &c.
The British Kings from Vortigern, till the settlement of the Saxons at the time of the Heptarchy, after which Wales became the seat of Government of the genuine Britons, were Aurelius, Ambrosius, Uther Pendragon, Arthur, Constantine II. Conan, Vortipor, Malyo, Coranus, Caractacus II. Cadwan, Cadwallan, Cadwallader; —for the succession of Welch Princes see the reign of Edward I.
The Saxons seem to have anticipated the descriptive mode of naming the months adopted by the modern French Kalendar, the floreal, Germinal, &c. of which, though more elegant, are not more expressive of the Seasons than the following:
December—their first month was styled “Midwinter Monath.” January—“Aefter Yula,” or, after Christmas. February—“Sol Monath,” from the returning Sun. March—“Rede” or, “Rethe Monath,” Rugged Month. April—“Easter Monath,” from a Saxon Goddess, whose name we still preserve. May—“Trimilchi,” from Cows being then milked thrice a day. June—“Sere Monath,” dry month. July—“Mœd Monath,” the meads being then in their bloom. August—“Weod Monath,” from the luxuriance of weeds. September—“Hœfest, (or, Harvest) Monath.” October—“Winter Fyllith,” from Winter approaching, with the full moon of that month. November—“Blot Monath,” from the blood of Cattle slain that month, and stored for winter provisions.
| A Metrical History of England | |