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occupiers of land and castles, arrogated to themselves a nobility 
derived at once from the old British autochthonous inhabitants 
of the land, and from the Boman colonists. The wife of the 
last Hain-ric is with equal significance called Marguerite, daisy , 
the produce and ornament of the field. 
“The names on the other side are also significant, and 
equally conclusive. Richard is Ric-art, riches or power of the 
artisan ; Edward is Eadu-art, happiness or prosperity of the 
artisan ; the two are respectively personifications of the power 
and of the prosperity of the working classes ; and are spoken 
of together as belonging to the house of York, or Yorick, a 
name evidently derived from gear-ric, rich in gear, or machi- 
nery. We have a hint of the pauperized and oppressed condi- 
tion of this class in the neighbouring Scandinavian kingdom 
given us in the compassionate exclamation put by Shakespeare 
into the mouth of the Danish prince, Hamlet: ‘Alas, poor 
Yorick ! ' 
“ We are now' in a position to interpret the whole legend. 
The reign of the so-called Eadu-art, the Third of the name, 
points to a long-continued period of freedom and prosperity of 
the working class. At his death the crown devolves, not upon 
his son, Eadu-art (whose common title of Black Prince seems 
to indicate some supremacy belonging to the workers in metal), 
but on a grandson, Ric-art ; in other words, the artisan class 
obtain supreme power. This power does not bring them eadu, 
prosperity, but, on the contrary, leads to a revolution, which 
places Hain-ric on the throne ; that is to say, transfers the 
supreme power to the land-owners. This supremacy of the 
landed aristocracy lasts through three periods, of rise, bril- 
liancy, and fall, symbolized by the three successive kings 
bearing the name of Hemy. The last of the three becomes 
feeble ; the land-owners^ power diminishes, and they endea- 
vour, but too late, to conciliate, and to ally ihemselves with, 
the artisans ; at least, so much we gather from the statement 
that Hain-ric named his son Eadu-art, and that that sou was 
slain by his rival and namesake of the party of York. The 
adhesion of a Ric-art, surnamed War-ric (powerful in war) to 
the Lancaster party would seem to indicate that those of the 
artisan class who Avere enrolled in a regular army showed the 
usual tendency of the military, from Avliatever rank they are 
drawn, to incline to the aristocratic or monarchical side. 
“ Hain-ric falls before Eadu-art, and once again the old 
diama is enacted. Eadu-art, son of Eadu-art the victorious, 
succeeds for a short time, but prosperity is soon destroyed by 
overweening power being lodged in the hands of the artisan : 
Ric-art assassinates the youthful monarch, and is in his turn, 
