"DUNSTAN, that sainted hypocrite, conspir'd 66 My royal name in disrepute to bring; "'Twas thirst of pow'r the daring Churchman fir'd, "I wish'd to rule a State, he ruled a King. "Four years my years my death-devoted step-son reign'd, "Beloved by most, but least beloved by me, "His virtue my too vicious aims restrain'd, "Who from restraint determined to be free. "Foremost of Cavaliers so gay "Who drove with "hound and horn" the game, "His train outstript, he came to pay "His duty to a parent's name. "Oh, then! what tortures equal mine "A heart to shew depraved as this! "Judas! my guilt is next to thine, Betraying heaven with a kiss. Youth, health, and exercise combined "With manly beauty deck'd his brow, "And locks in glossy ringlets twined 66 Might charm a vestal from her vow. * Dunstan sided with (not from loyalty, but because he governed) the King, and opposed the unnatural and ambitious views of Elfrida, whose party was strong and headed by the Earl of Mercia. "Yet could not these my heart disarm, "His monarch and my son to slay. "Should Infidels to direst foe "Once 'ope the hospitable door "The cup a pledge of faith they know, "But I who stain'd a Christian name, "Yet on that day the sun shone bright, (That day of most atrocious guilt!) "Which shou'd have been eclips'd in night, "Or redden'd like the blood I spilt. "The sparkling bev'rage from this hand “He took, and rais'd to drink, when lo! "A minion of my savage band "Struck deep the unexpected blow. Struggling with death, he turn'd his steed, "And from me as he urged his way, "His parting glance the dreadful deed "Began already to repay. "Not long his hand the curb retains, 66 Vainly on absent friends he calls, "In faint contention with his pains, 66 Helpless, the martyr'd EDWARD falls. "Dragg'd by his courser's speed at length "O'er rudest roads and ways uneven, He finds, while losing life and strength, "A sharp and thorny path to heaven. "And dare I name that place, forbid "To wretches, pure, compared with me? "Though plung'd in hell, my crime unhid "And unatoned must ever be. "To ev'ry pile my selfish care 66 "Founded, to compromise the deed, My form must nightly now repair, * The monasteries of Amesbury, Worwell, &c. "And "And where, with mock religious zeal, "The blood I shed, the heaven I lost!* “And hark! a summons deep and drear, "But hence, and count my crimes again.” And deep and drear the summons came, And (haply you may be the same), Edward was canonized soon after, and ranked among the martyrs; because he had defended the cause of the monks, ejected the secular clergy from their benefices, and made Dunstan archbishop of Canterbury. LOCKMAN. SUMMARY SUMMARY OF THE REIGN OF ETHELRED the IId, surnamed THE UNREADY. Born, A. D. 966. Began to reign 978, was crowned at Kingston-on-Thames. Married twice, first to Elgiva, an English Lady, by whom he had Edmund, his successor; Ethelstan, died an infant; Edwy, murdered by Canute; Edgiva, married an English Earl; Edgith, married Edric, the infamous Duke of Mercia;* and Edgina, married Uthred, Earl of Northumberland: by his second wife, Emma, of Normandy, he had Alfred and Edward, and a daughter named Goda, married to Gautier, Earl of Mantas, and to Eustace, Earl of Boulogne. Ethelred reigned 37 years. Died, April 23d, 1016, was buried in St. Paul's, London. PRINCIPAL EVENTS. A great massacre of the Danes throughout England, which occasioned an invasion of this country by Sweyn, King of Denmark, who after receiving an immense sum to re-embark, returned, put King Ethelred to flight and pillaged the whole kingdom. EMINENT PERSONS. Dunstan, Siricus and Alphage, Archbishops of Canterbury. COTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. Of the West.-Otho II. 973. Otho III. 983. Henry II. 1002. Kings. Of France.-Lothaire, 954. Louis V. 986. Hugh Capet, 987. Robert II. 997. Of Scotland.-Kenneth III. 977. Constantine IV. 1002. Grimus, 1005. Malcolm II. 1014. * Vide the next Reign. ETHELRED |