Linenotes

Title] Ode for the last day of the Year 1796, C. I.: Ode on the Departing Year 4o, 1797, 1803, S. L., 1817, 1828, 1829.

Motto] 3-5 All editions (4o to 1834) read ἐφημίοις for δυσφροιμίοις, and Ἄγαν γ' for Ἄγαν; and all before 1834 μην for μ' ἐν.

I] Strophe I C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

Spirit] Being 1803.

unchanging] unchanged 4o.

free] freed 4o.

and a bowéd] and submitted 1803, S. L., 1817, 1828, 1829.

When lo! far onwards waving on the wind
I saw the skirts of the Departing Year.

C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

Ere yet he pierc'd the cloud and mock'd my sight C. I. foreclos'd] forebade 4o, 1797, 1803.

II] Strophe II C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

[15-16]

From Poverty's heart-wasting languish
From Distemper's midnight anguish

C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

Ye Sorrows, and ye Joys advance C. I. ye] and 4o, 1797, 1803.

Forbids its fateful strings to sleep C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

O'er the sore travail of the common Earth C. I., 4o.

[33-7]

Seiz'd in sore travail and portentous birth
(Her eyeballs flashing a pernicious glare)
Sick Nature struggles! Hark! her pangs increase!
Her groans are horrible! but O! most fair
The promis'd Twins she bears—Equality and Peace!

C. I., 4o.

thy] the 1797, 1803.

III] Epode C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

Ah! whither C. I., 4o.

on] o'er C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

'twice mortal' mace C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

The insatiate] That tyrant C. I.] drunken] frenzied C. I.

Between and 52

Whose shrieks, whose screams were vain to stir
Loud-laughing, red-eyed Massacre

C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

armies] Army C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

Tyrant-Murderer's] scepter'd Murderer's C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

After

When shall sceptred Slaughter cease?
A while he crouch'd, O Victor France!
Beneath the lightning of thy lance;
With treacherous dalliance courting Peace—
But soon upstarting from his coward trance
The boastful bloody Son of Pride betray'd
His ancient hatred of the dove-eyed Maid.
A cloud, O Freedom! cross'd thy orb of Light,
And sure he deem'd that orb was set in night:
For still does Madness roam on Guilt's bleak dizzy height!

C. I.

When shall sceptred, &c.

With treacherous dalliance wooing Peace.
But soon up-springing from his dastard trance
The boastful bloody Son of Pride betray'd
His hatred of the blest and blessing Maid.
One cloud, O Freedom! cross'd thy orb of Light,
And sure he deem'd that orb was quench'd in night:
For still, &c.

4o.

[163:A] To juggle this easily-juggled people into better humour with the supplies (and themselves, perhaps, affrighted by the successes of the French) our Ministry sent an Ambassador to Paris to sue for Peace. The supplies are granted: and in the meantime the Archduke Charles turns the scale of victory on the Rhine, and Buonaparte is checked before Mantua. Straightways our courtly messenger is commanded to uncurl his lips, and propose to the lofty Republic to restore all its conquests, and to suffer England to retain all hers (at least all her important ones), as the only terms of Peace, and the ultimatum of the negotiation!

Θρασύνει γὰρ αἰσχρόμητις
Τάλαινα ΠΑΡΑΚΟΠΑ πρωτοπήμων—Aeschyl., Ag. 222-4.

The friends of Freedom in this country are idle. Some are timid; some are selfish; and many the torpedo torch of hopelessness has numbed into inactivity. We would fain hope that (if the above account be accurate—it is only the French account) this dreadful instance of infatuation in our Ministry will rouse them to one effort more; and that at one and the same time in our different great towns the people will be called on to think solemnly, and declare their thoughts fearlessly by every method which the remnant of the Constitution allows. 4o.

IV] Antistrophe I. C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

no earthly] an awful C. I.

thy . . . gore] there garmented with gore C. I., 4o, 1797.

[65-7]

Aye Memory sits: thy vest profan'd with gore.
Thou with an unimaginable groan
Gav'st reck'ning of thy Hours!

1803.

ethereal] choired C. I.

Whose purple locks with snow-white glories shone C. I., 4o: Whose wreathed locks with snow-white glories shone 1797, 1803.

wild] strange C. I.

V] Antistrophe II. C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

[74-9]

On every Harp on every Tongue
While the mute Enchantment hung:
Like Midnight from a thunder-cloud
Spake the sudden Spirit loud.

C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

The sudden Spirit cried aloud.

C. I.

Like Thunder from a Midnight Cloud
Spake the sudden Spirit loud

1803.

Arm] God C. I.

Between and 84

By Belgium's corse-impeded flood,
By Vendee steaming [streaming C. I.] Brother's blood.

C. I., 4o, 1797, 1803.

[165:A] The Rhine. C. I., 1797, 1803.

And mask'd Hate C. I.

By Hunger's bosom to the bleak winds bar'd C. I.

Strange] Most C. I.

By] And C. I.

Synod] Senate 1797, 1803.

[94-102]

For ever shall the bloody island scowl?
For ever shall her vast and iron bow
Shoot Famine's evil arrows o'er the world,
Hark! how wide Nature joins her groans below;
Rise, God of Mercy, rise! why sleep thy bolts unhurl'd?

C. I.

For ever shall the bloody Island scowl?
For aye, unbroken shall her cruel Bow
Shoot Famine's arrows o'er thy ravaged World?
Hark! how wide Nature joins her groans below—
Rise, God of Nature, rise, why sleep thy Bolts unhurl'd?

4o, 1797, 1803.

Rise God of Nature, rise! ah! why those bolts unhurl'd?

1797, 1803.

[165:B] 'In Europe the smoking villages of Flanders and the putrified fields of La Vendée—from Africa the unnumbered victims of a detestable Slave-Trade. In Asia the desolated plains of Indostan, and the millions whom a rice-contracting Governor caused to perish. In America the recent enormities of the Scalp-merchants. The four quarters of the globe groan beneath the intolerable iniquity of the nation.' See 'Addresses to the People', p. 46. C. I.

Here the Ode ends C. I.

VI] Epode II. 4o, 1797, 1803.

Vision] Phantoms 4o, 1797, 1803.

phantom] vision 4o, 1797, 1803.

sweat-drops] sweat-damps 4o, 1797, 1803.

stranger] uglier 4o.

starting] startful 4o, 1797, 1803.

O doom'd to fall, enslav'd and vile 4o, 1797, 1803.

proud Invader's] sworded Foeman's 4o, 1797: sworded Warrior's 1803.

[135-9]

Disclaim'd of Heaven! mad Avarice at thy side

4o, 1797.

At coward distance, yet with kindling pride—
Safe 'mid thy herds and cornfields thou hast stood,
And join'd the yell of Famine and of Blood.
All nations curse thee: and with eager wond'ring

4o, 1797.

O abandon'd 1803.

[137-8]

Mid thy Corn-fields and Herds thou in plenty hast stood
And join'd the loud yellings of Famine and Blood.

1803.

They] and 1797, 1803, S. L. 1817.

fires] flames 4o.

Stretch'd on the marge of some fire-flashing fount
In the black Chamber of a sulphur'd mount.

4o.

By livid fount, or roar of blazing stream 1797.

Visions of thy predestin'd ruins rise 1803.

famish'd] famin'd 4o.

Soliciting my scant and blameless soil 4o.

[159-60]

In the long sabbath of high self-content.
Cleans'd from the fleshly passions that bedim

4o.

In the deep sabbath of blest self-content
Cleans'd from the fears and anguish that bedim

1797.

In the blest sabbath of high self-content
Cleans'd from bedimming Fear, and Anguish weak and blind.

1803.

om. 1803.