in these men the highest strength and prodigality of its nature. They interpreted the age to itself-hence the many phases of thought and style they present:-to sympathize with each, fervently and impartially, without fear and without fancifulness, is no doubtful step in the higher education of the Soul. For, as with the Affections and the Conscience, Purity in Taste is absolutely proportionate to Strength :—and when once the mind has raised itself to grasp and to delight in Excellence, those who love most will be found to love most wisely. Page No. 200 CLXVI stout Cortez: History requires here Balbóa: (A.T.) It may be noticed, that to find in Chapman's Homer the 'pure serene' of the original, the reader must bring with him the imagination of the youthful poet; - he must be 'a Greek himself,' as Shelley finely said of Keats. 206 CLXIX The most tender and true of Byron's smaller poems. CLXX This poem, with ccxXXVI, exemplifies the peculiar skill with which Scott employs proper names :- nor is there a surer sign of high poetical genius. The Editor in this and in other instances has risked the addition (or the change) of a Title, that the aim of the verses following may be grasped more clearly and immediately. 227 CXCI 235 CXCVIII Nature's Eremite: like a solitary thing in Nature. -This beautiful Sonnet was the last word of a poet deserving the title 'marvellous boy' in a much higher sense than Chatterton. If the fulfilment may ever safely be prophesied from the promise, England appears to have lost in Keats one whose gifts in Poetry have rarely been surpassed. Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, had their lives been closed at twenty-five, would (so far as we know) have left poems of less excellence and hope than the youth who, from the petty school and the London surgery, passed at once to a place with them of 'high collateral glory.' It is impossible not to regret that Moore has written so little in this sweet and genuinely national style. 237 CCI A masterly example of Byron's command of strong thought and close reasoning in verse:-as the next is equally characteristic of Shelley's wayward intensity, and CCIV of the dramatic power, the vital identi the pastoral poetry of Theocritus and Virgil. L. 16 oat: pipe, used here like Collins' oaten stop l. 1, No. CXLVI, for Song. L. 24 Hippotades: Aeolus, god of the Winds. Panope (1. 27) a Nereid. The names of local deities in the Hellenic mythology express generally some feature in the natural landscape, which the Greeks studied and analyzed with their usual unequalled insight and feeling. Panope represents the boundlessness of the ocean-horizon when seen from a height, as compared with the limited horizon of the land in hilly countries such as Greece or Asia Minor. Camus (1. 31) the Cam; put for King's University. 1. 2 The sanguine flower: the Hyacinth of the an- 1. 1 Swart star: the Dogstar, called swarthy because 1. 19 Doric lay: Sicilian, pastoral. The assault was an attack on London expected in Page No. 74 1642, when the troops of Charles I reached Brent- LXX 1. 10 The Emathian conqueror: When Thebes was 1. 12 the repeated air Of sad Electra's poet: Amongst 76 LXXIII This high-toned and lovely Madrigal is quite in the 77 LXXV Vaughan's beautiful though quaint verses should CCLXXXVII. 73 LXXVI Favonius: the spring wind. 79 LXXVII Themis: the goddess of justice. Skinner was grand- 81 LXXIX 1. 13 Sydneian showers: either in allusion to the Page No. his death to that of the Orator Isocrates of Athens, after Philip's victory in 328 B.C. 92 XCII, XCIII These are quite a Painter's poems. 96 XCIX From Prison: to which his active support of Charles I. twice brought the high-spirited writer. Inserted in Book II as written in the character of a CVII burd, maiden. 106 CVIII corbies, crows: fail, turf: hause, neck: theek, thatch. If not in their origin, in their present form this and the two preceding poems appear due to the Seventeenth Century, and have therefore been placed in Book II. 109 CXI The remark quoted in the note to No. XLVII applies Alma Quies, teneo te ! et te, germana Quietis, L'Allegro and Il Penseroso. It is a striking proof of Page No. III 112 113 114 115 Classical and Italian manner. The meaning of the first is that Gaiety is the child of Nature; of the second, that Pensiveness is the daughter of Sorrow and Genius. CXII 1. 2: Perverse ingenuity has conjectured that for Cerberus we should read Erebus, who in the Mythology is brother at once and husband of Night. But the issue of that union is not Sadness, but Day and Aether:-completing the circle of primary Creation, as the parents are both children of Chaos, the first-begotten of all things. (Hesiod.) 1. 22 the mountain nymph; compare Wordsworth's Sonnet, No. ccx. 1. 14 is in apposition to the preceding, by a grammatical license not uncommon with Milton. L. 19 tells his tale: counts his flock. Cynosure (1. 32) the Pole Star. 1. I Corydon, Thyrsis &c. : Shepherd names from the old Idylls. 1. 16 Jonson's learned sock:· the gaiety of our age would find little pleasure in his elaborate comedies. L. 20 Lydian airs: a light and festive style of ancient music. 116 CXIII 1.3 bestead: avail. L. 19 starr'd Ethiop queen: Cassiopeia, the legendary Queen of Ethiopia, and thence translated amongst the constellations. 117 118 119 1. 33 Cynthia: the Moon: her chariot is drawn by dragons in ancient representations. 1. 28 Hermes, called Trismegistus, a mystical writer 1. 5 Thebes &c. : subjects of Athenian Tragedy. 121 CXIV Emigrants supposed to be driven towards America by the government of Charles I. 1. 9, 10 But apples, &c. A fine example of Marvell's imaginative hyperbole. 1. 2 concent: harmony. |