And with Earl Douglas there was slain
Sir Hugh Montgomery,
Sir Charles Carrel, that from the field
One foot would never fly.
Sir Charles Murrel of Ratcliff too,
His sister's son was he;
Sir David Lamb so well esteem'd,
Yet saved could not be.
The familiar sound in these names destroys the majesty of the
description; for this reason I do not mention this part of the poem
but to show the natural cast of thought which appears in it, as the
two last verses look almost like a translation of Virgil.
- Cadit et Ripheus justissimus unus
Qui fuit in Teucris et servantissimus aequi.
Diis aliter visum.
AEn. ii. 426.
Then Ripheus fell in the unequal fight,
Just of his word, observant of the right:
Heav'n thought not so.
DRYDEN.
In the catalogue of the English who fell, Witherington's behaviour
is in the same manner particularised very artfully, as the reader is
prepared for it by that account which is given of him in the
beginning of the battle; though I am satisfied your little buffoon
readers, who have seen that passage ridiculed in "Hudibras," will
not be able to take the beauty of it: for which reason I dare not
so much as quote it.
Then stept a gallant 'squire forth,
Witherington was his name,
Who said, "I would not have it told
To Henry our king for shame,
"That e'er my captain fought on foot,
And I stood looking on.
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