The Bard
This print was made as a frontispiece for Edward Jones's "Musical and Poetical Relations of the Welsh Bards." The imagery comes from Thomas Gray's "The Bard: A Pindaric Ode" which tells how the invading army of Edward I of England pushed the Welsh bard onto a cliff. Here we see the windblown figure continuing to play his harp as soldiers stand far below by the river Conway:
On a rock, whose haughty brow
Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,
Rob'd in the sable garb of woe,
With haggard eyes the poet stood;
(Loose his beard, and hoary hair
Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air)
And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire,
Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre;
"Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert cave,
Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath!
O'er thee, O King! their hundred arms they wave,
Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe;
Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day,
To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.
On a rock, whose haughty brow
Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,
Rob'd in the sable garb of woe,
With haggard eyes the poet stood;
(Loose his beard, and hoary hair
Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air)
And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire,
Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre;
"Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert cave,
Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath!
O'er thee, O King! their hundred arms they wave,
Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe;
Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day,
To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Bard
- Engraver: Figures engraved by John Hall (British, Wivenhoe, Essex 1739–1797 London)
- Engraver: Landscape engraved by Samuel Middiman (British, 1751–1831 London)
- Artist: After Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg (French, Strasbourg 1740–1812 London)
- Subject: Thomas Gray (British, London 1716–1771 Cambridge)
- Subject: Edward Jones (British, Llandderfel, Wales 1752–1824 London)
- Date: 1784
- Medium: Etching and engraving
- Dimensions: Plate: 12 11/16 × 9 3/16 in. (32.2 × 23.3 cm)
Sheet: 13 5/16 × 9 5/16 in. (33.8 × 23.7 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Georgiana W. Sargent, in memory of John Osborne Sargent, 1924
- Object Number: 24.63.1272
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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John Hall
John King
ca. 1771–72
Multiple artists/makers
January 1, 1817
Multiple artists/makers
February 1, 1789
Multiple artists/makers
1780
John Hall
1840
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