HAROLD HAREFOOT.

"Nought hath he done for us and nought deserved." VOLTAIRE.

"En vain, du sang des Rois, dont je suis l'oppresseur, "Les peuples abusés m'ont cru le défenseur, "De quinze ans de travaux j'ai perdu tout le fruit. "Croi moi, ces préjugés de sang et de naissance "Revivront dans les cœurs, y prendront sa defense." IBIDEM.

"In vain have I oppressed the blood of Kings, whilst the " deluded people adored me as their friend, if yet there lives a hateful offspring, all the prejudice of birth and blood "revives."

SMOLLET'S VOLTAIRE.

By mutual accord, it was decreed,

HARDICANUTE his father should succeed;
But absence seldom helps the claim of right,
And HAROLD, in fraternal honour's spite,

Usurp'd the Crown.-His reign was short, and these,

Some of his acts, are little fram'd to please;

Mixture of insignificance and pride,

(Proud to love walking better than to ride.*)

* Hence his surname of Harefoot.

To

To narrowness of soul he added guilt,
And caus'd the blood of ALFRED to be spilt.
ALFRED, (of EDMUND IRONSIDE the Son,)

Who cross'd the seas, by HAROLD's treachery

won.

Well may my reader tire of tasteless rhymes,
Which but repeat a catalogue of crimes;
But faithful narrative must be content
With fact, nor seek for bland embellishment.
Else had some episode or harmless joke
Your present comfortable slumbers broke.
EDWARD, the brother of the Prince who fell,
Escap'd the snare, and 'twill be ours to tell
Hereafter of his fate; it now remains,
That HARDIC'NUTE a pow'rful army gains,
Against King HAROLD to assert his right;
But, while the doubtful issue of the fight
Depends, the reigning Monarch yields his breath,
And civil strife is ended by his death.

Earl GODWIN, lord of the once fertile land Where many a bark now moulders in the sand; First flourish'd in this reign, and by his aid, The selfish King his brother's right betray'd.

SUMMARY OF THE REIGN OF

HARDICANUTE.

Began to reign, 1039. Reigned two years and a half. Died, without issue, 1042. Buried at Winchester.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS.

Worcester burnt for opposing the King's levies. Harold Harefoot taken from his grave and thrown into the Thames. Earl Godwin tried and acquitted of the murder of Prince Alfred. The custom of pledging each other while drinking first introduced.*

EMINENT PErsons.

Elnothus, Archbishop of Canterbury. Godwin, Earl of Kent.

COTEMPORARY Sovereigns.

Pope.

Benedict IX. 1033.

Emperors.

Of the East.-Michael V. 1041. Constantine XI. 1042.
Of the West.-Henry III. 1039.

Of France.-Henry I. 1031.

Kings.

Of Scotland.-Malcolm II. 1041. Duncan I. 1034.

* Assassinations of (and perhaps by) the English were so common, that no man would drink until another pledged his safety in the mean time,

HARDICANUTE.

To each unprincely appetite inclined,
HARDY in form, but imbecile in mind;
Two years (too long) he reign'd, when at a feast
The tyrant died, as he had lived, a beast.

A surfeit stopp'd the sensual Caitiff's breath,
And merry England celebrates his death.
Hogstide the anniversary they call

Of that good day which saw the glutton fall.
During his life, his brother from the grave
He dragg'd, and gave his body to the wave;
The wave rejects it, and fraternal crime,
Disturbs the hapless corse a second time.
Earl GODWIN joins with sacrilegious hand,
To hurl dead HAROLD from the shelt'ring land."

None of the names of these tools of a tyrant's caprice have escaped posterity. The diggers up of Harold are known to have been-Alfric, Archbishop of York; Earl Godwin; Styr, the steward; Edric, the sewer; and Troudle, the executioner.

J. P. ANDREWS.

GODWIN,

GODWIN, who, when Prince EDWARD dares to call,

To answer for young ALFRED's timeless fall;
With venal off'ring of a splendid barge

Buys from the shameless King his crime's discharge.

The Danegelt next provokes the subjects' ire, Whose 'plaints are answer'd but with sword and

fire;

In fine, tho' brief, from crime this reign appears In two-and-twenty lines as many years.

SUMMARY