Chapter I: Introduction

Since there is room in this volume for more verses than Colonel Hay’s {9}, I have added to them a few poems by Sir Walter Scott; the first written in 1811 at the time of the struggle with Napoleon in the Peninsula, the second in 1815, after Waterloo. Thus there is over all this volume a thin haze of battle through which we see only the finer feelings and the nobler hopes of man. The day is to come when war shall be no more, but wars have been and may again be necessary to bring on that day; and it is of such war, not untinged with the light of heaven, that we have passing shadows in this little book.

“The Vision of Don Roderick; a Poem, by Walter Scott, Esq.,” was printed at Edinburgh by James Ballantyne & Co. in 1811. They are the present representatives of that firm by whom it is here reprinted. It was originally inscribed “to John Whitmore, Esq., and to the Committee of Subscribers for relief of the Portuguese Sufferers, in which he presides,” as a “poem composed for the benefit of the Fund under their management.”

The Legend of Don Roderick will be given in the next volume of our “Companion Poets,” for Robert Southey founded upon it a Romantic Tale in Verse, which is one of the best tales of the kind in the English language. Southey’s tale of Roderick himself was written at the same time when Walter Savage Landor was writing a play upon the subject, and Scott was, in the piece here reprinted, making it the starting-point of a vision of the war in the Peninsula. The fatal palace of Don Roderick may have been a fable connected with the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre. The fable, as translated by Scott from a Spanish History of King Roderick, was this:—

“One mile on the east side of the city of Toledo, among some rocks,
was situated an ancient Tower of magnificent structure, though much
dilapidated by time, which consumes all: four estadoes (_i.e._, four
times a man’s height) below it, there was a Cave with a very narrow
entrance, and a gate cut out of the solid rock, lined with a strong
covering of iron, and fastened with many locks; above the gate some
Greek letters are engraved, which, although abbreviated, and of
doubtful meaning, were thus interpreted, according to the exposition
of learned men:—_The King who opens this cave and discovers the
wonders will discover both good and evil things_. Many kings desired
to know the mystery of this Tower, and sought to find out the manner
with much care; but when they opened the gate, such a tremendous
noise arose in the Cave that it appeared as if the earth was
bursting; many of those present sickened with fear, and others lost
their lives. In order to prevent such great perils (as they supposed
a dangerous enchantment was contained within), they secured the gate
with new locks, concluding, that though a king was destined to open
it, the fated time was not yet arrived. At last King Don Rodrigo,
led on by his evil fortune and unlucky destiny, opened the Tower; and
some bold attendants whom he had brought with him entered, although
agitated with fear. Having proceeded a good way, they fled back to
the entrance, terrified with a frightful vision which they had
beheld. The King was greatly moved, and ordered many torches, so
contrived that the tempest in the cave could not extinguish them, to
be lighted. Then the King entered, not without fear, before all the
others. He discovered, by degrees, a splendid hall, apparently built
in a very sumptuous manner; in the middle stood a Bronze Statue of
very ferocious appearance, which held a battle-axe in its hands.
With this he struck the floor violently, giving it such heavy blows
that the noise in the Cave was occasioned by the motion of the air.
The King, greatly affrighted and astonished, began to conjure this
terrible vision, promising that he would return without doing any
injury in the Cave, after he had obtained sight of what was contained
in it. The Statue ceased to strike the floor, and the King, with his
followers, somewhat assured, and recovering their courage, proceeded
into the hall; and on the left of the Statue they found this
inscription on the wall: _Unfortunate King_, _thou hast entered here
in an evil hour_. On the right side of the wall the words were
inscribed: _By strange Nations thou shalt be dispossessed_, _and thy
subjects foully degraded_. On the shoulders of the Statue other
words were written, which said, _I call upon __the Arabs_. And upon
his heart was written, _I do my office_. At the entrance of the hall
there was placed a round bowl, from which a great noise, like the
fall of waters, proceeded. They found no other thing in the
hall,—and when the King, sorrowful and greatly affected, had scarcely
turned about to leave the Cavern, the Statue again commenced its
accustomed blows upon the floor. After they had mutually promised to
conceal what they had seen, they again closed the Tower, and blocked
up the gate of the Cavern with earth, that no memory might remain in
the world of such a portentous and evil-boding prodigy. The ensuing
midnight, they heard great cries and clamour from the Cave,
resounding like the noise of Battle, and the ground shaking with a
tremendous roar; the whole edifice of the old Tower fell to the
ground, by which they were greatly affrighted, the Vision which they
had beheld appearing to them as a dream.”

Scott’s poem on the Field of Waterloo was written to assist the Waterloo subscription.

H. M.

THE VISION OF DON RODERICK.