PREFACE
seems likely that he read his poem to the members of the club. He certainly read it to Stubbs, who considered his success more than probable. We cannot but be astonished that the judges were not struck by the extraordinary merits of the poem, by its melody, by its high strain of feeling, by its patriotism and dignity. No successful Newdigate, we may believe, has ever excelled it in solid beauty since the foundation of the prize. But it is possible that the examiners did not even read it. By the will of Sir Roger Newdigate, the only permissible metre was the heroic couplet. Doubtless the metre of Swinburne's poem was considered irregular enough to make the poem ineligible.
Not very much requires to be said about the miscellaneous pieces. The paraphrase of Dies Iræ is very early, not later, certainly, than 1857. Possibly it was produced for the benefit of the Warden of Radley during one of Swinburne's visits to St. Peter's College. There exists a careful prose translation of the Latin poem, evidently of the same date, in Swinburne's handwriting. King Ban is a fragment from an attempt to put the early chapters of the Morte d'Arthur into blank verse. King Ban of Benwick and King Bors of Gaul were, it will be remembered, the two good kings who supported Arthur and fought with him against Claudas and the Eleven
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