He concludes his poem, by intimating that the promise
conveyed in the vision and by the flower is fulfilled, by his being
restored to liberty, and made happy in the possession of the sovereign
of his heart.
Such is the poetical account given by James of his love adventures
in Windsor Castle. How much of it is absolute fact, and how much the
embellishment of fancy, it is fruitless to conjecture: let us not,
however, reject every romantic incident as incompatible with real
life; but let us sometimes take a poet at his word. I have noticed
merely those parts of the poem immediately connected with the tower,
and have passed over a large part, written in the allegorical vein, so
much cultivated at that day. The language, of course, is quaint and
antiquated, so that the beauty of many of its golden phrases will
scarcely be perceived at the present day; but it is impossible not
to be charmed with the genuine sentiment, the delightful artlessness
and urbanity, which prevail throughout it. The descriptions of
nature too, with which it is embellished, are given with a truth, a
discrimination, and a freshness, worthy of the most cultivated periods
of the art.
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