ABSTRACT
In the general cast and character of this poem, there is something very analogous to those chivalrous legends so popular in ancient times, and for which the taste of the present age has been successfully excited by the fertile and romantic genius of Walter Scott. The Rising of the North, under the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, in the reign of Elizabeth; the tragic fate of the Nortons, of Rylstone, who distinguished themselves in that rash insurrection; and the mysterious tradition of a white doe, which, for years after, performed a weekly pilgrimage to the grave of the last of their race, are themes which would spontaneously call forth the enthusiasm of the later minstrels, and particularly of him who sung the restoration of the good Lord Clifford. The severest of Mr. Wordsworth’s critics were startled into admiration by the lofty and animated strain of that fine ballad; and must, we think, be equally constrained to applaud this nobly pathetic tale. It certainly merits that epithet, by the picture which it presents of a meek and lovely lady, whose solitary grief for the extinction of her parent, and her brothers, is refined and exalted into triumphant resignation, and by the interesting light in which the poet has exhibited this transition.
