NOTES TO CANTO VI.

Note I.

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, &c.-P. 173. The influence of local attachment has been so exquisitely painted by my friend Mr Polwhele, in the poem which bears that title, as might well have dispensed with the more feeble attempt of any contemporary poet. To the reader who has not been so fortunate as to meet with this philosophical and poetical detail of the nature and operations of the love of our country, the following brief extract cannot fail to be acceptable :

Yes-Home still charms; and he, who, clad in fur,
His rapid rein-deer drives o'er plains of snow,

Would rather to the same wild tracts recur

That various life had mark'd with joy or woe,
Than wander where the spicy breezes blow

To kiss the hyacinths of Azza's hair

Rather, than where luxuriant summers glow,
To the white mosses of his hills repair,

And bid his antler-train the simple banquet share.

Note II.

She wrought not by forbidden spell.—P. 177. Popular belief, though contrary to the doctrines of the church, made a favourable distinction betwixt magicians, and necromancers, or wizards; the former was supposed to command the evil spirits, and the latter to serve, or at least to be in league and compact with those enemies of mankind. The arts of subjecting the demons were manifold; sometimes the fiends were actually swindled by the magicians, as in the case of the bargain betwixt one of their number and the poet Virgil. The classical reader will doubtless be curious to peruse this anecdote:

"Virgilius was at scole at Tolenton, where he stodyed dylygently, for he was of great understandynge. Upon a tyme, the scolers had lycence to go to play and sporte them in the fyldes, after the usance of the hold tyme. And there was also Virgilius therebye, also walkynge among the hylles alle about. It fortuned he spyed a great hole in the syde of a great hyll, wherein he went so depe, that he culd not see no more lyght; and then he went a lytell farther therin, and than he saw some lyght agayne, and then he went forthe streyghte, and within a lytyll wyle after he harde a voyce that called, Virgilius! Virgilius!' and looked aboute, and he colde nat see nobody. Than sayd he, (i. e. the voice) 'Virgilius, see ye not the

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lytyll bourde lying bysyde you there markd with that word?' Than answered Virgilius, I see that borde well anough.' The voyce said, Doo awaye that borde, and lette me out there atte.' Than answered Virgilius to the voice that was under the lytell borde, and sayd, Who art thou that callest me so ?' Than answered the devyll, ‘I am a devyll conjured out of the body of a certeyne man, and banyshed here tyll the day of judgmend, without that I be delyvered by the handes of men. Thus, Virgilius, I pray thee, delyvere me out of this payn, and I shall shewe unto the many bokes of negromancye, and how thou shalt come by it lyghtly, and know the practyse therein, that no man in the scyence of negromancye shall passe the. And moreover, I shall shewe and enforme the so, that thou shalt have alle thy desyre, whereby mythinke it is a great gyfte for so lytyll a doyng. For ye may also thus all your power frendys helpe, and make ryche your enemyes.'-Through that great promyse was Virgilius tempted; he badde the fynd show the bokes to him, that he might have and occupy them at his wyll; and so the fynd shewed hym. And than Virgilius pulled open a bourde, and there was a lytell hole, and thereat wrang the devyll out lyke a yeel, and cam and stode be fore Virgilius lyke a bygge man; wherof Virgilius was astonied and marveyled greatly thereof, that so great a man myght come out at so lytyll a hole. Than sayd Virgilius, Shulde ye well passe into the hole that ye cam out of?'-' Yea, I shall well,' said the devyl. I holde the best plegge that I have, that ye shall not do it.''Well,' said the devyll, thereto I consent.' And than

the devyll wrang himselfe into the lytyll hole ageyne; and as he was therein, Virgilius kyverd the hole ageyne with the bourde close, and so was the devyll begyled, and myght nat there come out agen, but abydeth shytte styll therein. Than called the devyll dredefully to Virgilius, and said, What have ye done, Virgilius?' Virgilius answered, Abyde there styll to your day appointed :' and fro thens forth abydeth he there.-And so Virgilius became very connynge in the practyse of the black scyence."

This story may remind the reader of the Arabian tale of the Fisherman and the imprisoned Genie: and it is more than probable, that many of the marvels narrated in the life of Virgil are of oriental extraction. Among such I am disposed to reckon the following whimsical account of the foundation of Naples, containing a curious theory concerning the origin of the earthquakes, with which it is afflicted. Virgil, who was a person of gallantry, had, it seems, carried off the daughter of a certain Soldan, and was anxious to secure his prize.

"Than he thought in his mynde howe he myght mareye hyr, and thought in his mynde to founde in the middes of the see a fayer towne, with great landes belongynge to it; and so he dyd by his cunnynge, and called it Napells. And the fandacyon of it was of egges, and in that town of Napells he made a tower with iiii corners, and in the toppe he set an apell upon an yron yarde, and no man culde pull away that apell without he brake it ; and thoroughe that yren set he a bolte, and in that bolte set he an egge. And he henge the apell by the stauke

upon a cheyne, and so hangeth it still. And when the egge styrreth, so shulde the town of Naples quake; and whan the egge brake, than shulde the towne sinke. Whan he had made an ende, he lette call it Napells." This appears to have been an article of current belief during the middle ages, as appears from the statutes of the order Du Saint Esprit, au droit desir, instituted in 1352. A chapter of the knights is appointed to be held annually at the Castle of the Enchanted Egg, near the grotto of Virgil.-MONTFAUCON, vol. II. p. 329.

Note III.

A merlin sat upon her wrist.-P. 177.

A merlin, or sparrow-hawk, was usually carried by ladies of rank, as a falcon was, in time of peace, the constant attendant of a knight, or baron. See LATHAM on Falconry. Godscroft relates, that, when Mary of Lorraine was regent, she pressed the Earl of Angus to admit a royal garrison into his castle of Tantallon. To this he returned no direct answer; but, as if apostrophising a goss-hawk, which sat on his wrist, and which he was feeding during the Queen's speech, he exclaimed, "The devil's in this greedy glade, she will never be full."HUME's History of the House of Douglas, 1743, vol. II. p. 131. Barclay complains of the common and indecent practice of bringing hawks and hounds into churches.

Note IV.

And princely peacock's gilded train.-P. 178. The peacock, it is well known, was considered, during