Note 18 — HAROLD’s COMPLAINT.[18] A SCANDINAVIAN ODE. FROM DR ALEXANDER’S HISTORY OF WOMEN. [19]

The author put this Ode into verse, December 1790, from the prose inserted below. In 1797, it appeared, translated by Mr Mason, in his third volume of poems, then given to the world. His translation, inverting the order of Harold’s triumphs, produces anti-climax, a defect from which the original is free. After the boast of defeating a mighty army, and of having slain their leader, it is bathos to exult in the feats of riding, rowing, swimming, skating, &c.