At Hursley In Marden

1712

We count him wise, Timoleon, who in Syracuse laid down That gleaming bait of all men's eyes, And for his cottage changed the invidious crown; Moving serenely through his grayhair'd day 'Mid vines and olives gray.

He also, whom The load of double empire, half the world His own, within a living tomb Press'd down at Yuste,--Spain's great banner furl'd His winding-sheet around him,--while he strove The impalpable Above

Though mortal yet, To breathe, is blazon'd on the sages' roll:-- High soaring hearts, who could forget The sceptre, to the hermitage of the soul Retired, sweet solitudes of the musing eye, And let the world go by!

There, if the cup Of Time, that brims ere we can reach repose, Fill'd slow, the soul might summon up The strenuous heat of youth, the silenced foes; The deeds of fame, star-bright above the throne; The better deeds unknown.

There, when the cloud Eased its dark breast in thunder, and the light Ran forth, their hearts recall the loud Hoarse onset roar, the flashing of the fight; Those other clouds piled-up in white array Whence deadlier lightnings play.

There, when the seas Murmur at midnight, and the dome is clear, And from their seats in heaven the breeze Loosens the stars, to blaze and disappear, And such as Glory! . . . with a sigh suppress'd They smile, and turn to rest.

--But he, who here Unglorious hides, untrain'd, unwilling Lord, The phantom king of half a year, From England's throne push'd by the bloodless sword, Unheirlike heir to that colossal fame;-- How should men name his name,

How rate his worth With those heroic ones who, life's labour done, Mark'd out their six-foot couch of earth, The laurell'd rest of manhood's battle won? --Not so with him! . . . Yet, ere we turn away, A still small voice will say,

By other rule Than man's coarse glory-test does God bestow His crowns: exalting oft the fool, So deem'd, and the world-hero levelling low. --And he, who from the palace pass'd obscure, And honourably poor,

Spurning a throne Held by blood-tenure, 'gainst a nation's will; Lived on his narrow fields alone, Content life's common service to fulfil; Not careful of a carnage-bought renown, Or that precarious crown:--

Him count we wise, Him also! though the chorus of the throng Be silent: though no pillar rise In slavish adulation of the strong:-- But here, from blame of tongues and fame aloof, 'Neath a low chancel roof,

--The peace of God,-- He sleeps: unconscious hero! Lowly grave By village-footsteps daily trod Unconscious: or while silence holds the nave, And the bold robin comes, when day is dim, And pipes his heedless hymn.

Timoleon; was invited from Corinth by the Syracusans (B.C. 344) to be their leader in throwing off the tyranny of the second Dionysius. Having effected this, defeated the Carthaginian invaders, and reduced all the minor despotisms within Sicily, he voluntarily resigned his paramount power and died in honoured retirement.

He also; In 1556 the Emperor Charles V gave up all his dominions, withdrawing in 1557 to Yuste;--a monastery situated in a region of singular natural beauty, between Xarandilla and Plasencia in Estremadura. He died there, Sep. 21, 1558.

Loosens the stars; So Vergil, Georg. I., 365:

Saepe etiam stellas vento inpendente videbis Praecipites caelo labi . . .

The phantom king; Richard Cromwell was Protector from Sep. 3, 1658 to May 25, 1659. After 1660 his life was that of a simple country gentleman, till his death in 1712, when he was buried at Hursley near Winchester.

Unheirlike heir; See Appendix E.