et publius regni traditor, capite truncatus est. Et qui quondam vocaverat Guidonem Warwici Comitem, Nigrum Canem de Arderina, jam juxta Comitis vaticinium, morsus amarissimos sensit ejusdem.' The spot where Gaveston was beheaded is now called Blakelow-hill, and is about two miles from Warwick Castle. On a rude stone at the top of the hill his name and the date of his execution are cut in ancient characters. As regards the offensive appellation applied by him to the Earl of Warwick, the Black Dog of Arden,' historians differ in the orthography of the place, which is generally printed as Ardenne. Dugdale says, 'it seems Piers had much enraged the Earl of Warwick by calling him the Black Dog of Arderne, because of his black and swarthy complexion.' This corresponds with Walsingham's Canem de Arderina.' According to Lingard, Gaveston called the Earl the Black Dog of the Woods.' It is said that the word Arden' signifies a high wood, and it is still the name of a district in Warwickshire in which Warwick Castle is situated; and we have Dugdale's authority for the fact that the part of Warwickshire which lies North of the Avon was formerly so called. Here was Shakespeare's Forest of Arden, where in his youth he had wandered Under the shade of melancholy boughs.' COME FORTH! FOR THE MORNING IS BREAKING. 1 COME forth for the morning is breaking, And how on the couch can you linger When the grove is almost in full F song ? |