2416 ARBORETUM AND FRUTJCETUM. PART 111. 



Lucan speaks of it as the breeding-place of the eagle; and Horace hopes 

 that his verses will be as lasting as its wood. 



Among the British poets, Spenser thus describes a cedar : — 



" High on a liill a goodly cedar grew, 



Of wond'rous length and straight proportion. 

 That far abroad her dainty odours threw, 

 'Mongst all the daughters of proud Lebanon." 



Chiu'chill says, — 



" The cedar, whose top motes the highest doud. 

 Whilst his old father I,ebanon grows proud 

 Of such a child, and his vast body, laid 

 Out many a mile, enjoys the filial shade." 



Mason describes the cedar as spreading : — 



" Cedars here 



Coeval with the sky.crown'd mountain's self. 

 Spread wide their giant arms." 



Thomson gives a beautiful picture : — 



" On some fair brow 



Let us behold, by breezy summers cool'd. 

 Broad o'er our heads the verdant cedar wave." 



Shakspeare's lines on the fall of Warwick are well known : — 



" Thus yields the cedar to the axe's edge. 



Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle. 

 Under whose shade the ramping lion slept. 

 Whose top branch overpeer'd Jove's spreading tree. 

 And kept low shrubs from winter's powerful wind." 



Third Part of Henry VI., act v. sc. S. 



In the last scene of Henry VHI., Cranmer says, speaking of James I., — 



" He shall flourish. 



And, like a mountain cedar, reach his branches 

 To all the plains about him." 



Shakspeare makes several other allusions to the cedar. Drayton calls it 

 " the tufted cedar;" and Fairfax, " the proud cedar." Spenser also calls it 

 " the cedar proud and tall ;" and Sir Philip Sydney terms it " queene of the 

 woods." 



Many allusions to this tree are also found among the modern poets : — 



" On high the cedar 



.Stoops, like a monarch to his people bending. 



And casts his sweets around." Barrv Cornwall. 



" Down in a vale, where lucid waters play'd. 

 And mountain cedars stretch'd their downward shade." Montgomebv. 



The following lines from Southey allude to the power supposed to be possessed 

 by the cedar of freeing itself from the snow. (Seep. SilO.) 



• " It was a ccdnr tree 



That woke him from the deadly drowsiness ; 



Its broad round-spreading branches, when they felt 



The snow, rose upward in a point to heaven. 



And, standing in their strength erect. 



Defied the baffled storm." Thalaba. 



Moore says, — 



" Now upon Syria's land of roses 

 Softly the light of eve reposes. 

 And, like a glory, the broad sun 

 Hangs over sainted Lebanon." Paradise and the Peri. 



" As Lebanon's small mountain flood 

 Is render'd holy by the ranks 

 Of sainted cedars on its banks ! " Lalta Rookh. 



The following verses of Racine are so well known, and so much admired, in 

 France, that we quote them : — 



" .J'ai vu I'impie adore sur la tcrre : 

 I'areil au cfedre, il cachait dans les cieux 



S<}n front audacieux ; 

 II scmblait k son gru gouvcrner lo toiincrre, 



Foulait aux piods ses eniicinis vaincus : 

 Je n'ai fait que passer, il n'ctait dujJi plus." 



