Lays of Ancient Rome

Lays of Ancient Rome

The "Lays of Ancient Rome" is collection of ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history.

The poems were composed by Lord Macaulay during his spare time whilst he was the "legal member" of the of the Supreme Council governing India under the Viceroy (1834-1838). He wrote about them:

:"The plan occurred to me in the jungle at the foot of the Neilgherry hills; and most of the verses were made during a dreary sojorn at Ootacamund and a disagreeable voyage in the Bay of Bengal." [Peter Clarke, "A Macaulay Letter." Notes and Queries, October 1967, 369]

The Lays were originally published by Longmans in 1842; they became immensely popular in Victorian times, and were a popular subject for recitation, a common pastime of the era. They were set reading in British public schools for more than a hundred years. Winston Churchill memorised them when at Harrow School, to show that, his academic performance not withstanding, he was capable of certain mental prodigies. [Josiah Bunting III, introduction to Gateway editions of the Lays of Ancient Rome, 1997 (ISBN 089526403X )]

The lead poem, "", concerns Horatius Cocles's heroic defence of the bridge to Rome against the Tuscan Army. It contains the often-quoted lines:

:Then out spake brave Horatius,
:the Captain of the Gate:
:"To every man upon this earth
:Death cometh soon or late.
:And how can man die better
:than facing fearful odds,
:For the ashes of his fathers,
:And the temples of his Gods

The other poems in the collection are "The Battle of Lake Regillus, Virginia, The Prophecy of Capys, Ivry: a Song of the Huguenots," and "The Armada: a Fragment".

References

External links

* [http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/regillus.html The battle of Lake Regillus]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Lays of Ancient Rome — [Lays of Ancient Rome] a series of four long poems by Thomas Macaulay published in 1842. Each tells a story from early Roman history. The best known of these is about how Horatius defended a bridge over the River Tiber against the Tuscan army. A… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Lays of Ancient Rome — a series of four long poems by Thomas Macaulay published in 1842. Each tells a story from early Roman history. The best known of these is about how Horatius defended a bridge over the River Tiber against the Tuscan army. A later edition in 1848… …   Universalium

  • Timeline of ancient Rome — This is a Timeline of events concerning ancient Rome, from the city foundation until the last attempt of the Eastern Roman Empire to re conquer Rome.8th century BC* 753 BCndash Traditional date for the founding of Rome by Romulus; Rome as a… …   Wikipedia

  • Ancient Greece — The Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena, located on the Acropolis in Athens, is one of the most representative symbols of the …   Wikipedia

  • Castor and Pollux — For other uses, see Castor and Pollux (disambiguation). Pair of Roman statuettes (3rd century AD) depicting the Dioscuri as horsemen, with their characteristic skullcaps (Metropolitan Museum of Art) In Greek and Roman mythology, Castor ( …   Wikipedia

  • Battle of Lake Regillus — Infobox Military Conflict caption= conflict=Battle of Lake Regillus partof=the Roman Italic Wars date=c. 496 BC place=near Frascati (Rome) result=Roman victory combatant1=Roman Republic combatant2=Latins or Etruscans commander1=Aulus Postumius,… …   Wikipedia

  • Frascati — Infobox CityIT img coa = Frascati Stemma.png img coa small=yes official name = Comune di Frascati name = Frascati region = Lazio province = Rome elevation m = 320 area total km2 = 22 population as of = December 31, 2005 population total = 20149… …   Wikipedia

  • Pons Sublicius — The earliest known bridge of ancient Rome, Italy, the Pons Sublicius, spanned the Tiber River near the Forum Boarium ( cattle forum ) downstream from the Tiber island, near the foot of the Aventine Hill. According to tradition, its construction… …   Wikipedia

  • Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay — Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, PC (25 October 1800 ndash; 28 December 1859) was a nineteenth century British poet, historian and Whig politician and one of the two Members of Parliament for Edinburgh. He wrote extensively as an… …   Wikipedia

  • Verginia — was the subject of an almost certainly apocryphalFact|date=February 2007 story of Ancient Rome, related in Livy s Ab Urbe Condita [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0026:book=3:chapter=44] , designed to show… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”