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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.

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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.

237 CCI

CCII

-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 ap-
pears to have lost in Keats one whose gifts in Poetry
have rarely been surpassed. Shakespeare, Milton,
and Wordsworth, had their lives been closed at twen-
ty-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.
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 inten-
sity, and ccrv of the dramatic power, the vital identi-

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fication of the poet with other times and characters, in which Scott is second only to Shakespeare.

248 CCIX Bonnivard, a Genevese, was imprisoned by the Duke of Savoy in Chillon on the lake of Geneva for his courageous defence of his country against the tyranny with which Piedmont threatened it during the first half of the seventeenth century. — This noble Sonnet is worthy to stand near Milton's on the Vaudois mas

249 CCX

sacre.

-

Switzerland was usurped by the French under Napoleon in 1800: Venice in 1797 (CCXI).

252 CCXV This battle was fought Dec. 2, 1800, between the Austrians under Archduke John and the French un

der Moreau, in a forest near Munich, Hohen Linden means High Limetrees.

257 CCXVIII After the capture of Madrid by Napoleon, Sir J. Moore retreated before Soult and Ney to Corunna, and was killed whilst covering the embarcation of his troops. His tomb, built by Ney, bears this inscription: 'John Moore, leader of the English armies, slain in battle, 1809.'

272 CCXXIX The Mermaid was the club-house of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other choice spirits of that age.

273 CCXXX Maisie: Mary. Scott has given us nothing more complete and lovely than this little song, which unites simplicity and dramatic power to a wildwood music of the rarest quality. No moral is drawn, far less any conscious analysis of feeling attempted: the pathetic meaning is left to be suggested by the mere presentment of the situation. Inexperienced critics have often named this, which may be called the Homeric manner, superficial, from its apparent simple facility: but first-rate excellence in it (as shown here, in CXCVI, CLVI, and CXXIX) is in truth one of the least common triumphs of Poetry. This style should be compared with what is not less perfect in its way, the searching out of inner feelings, the expression of hidden meanings, the revelation of the heart of Nature and of the Soul within the Soul, the Analytical method, in short, -most completely represented by Wordsworth and by Shelley.

280 CCXXXIV correi: covert on a hillside.

Cumber: trouble.

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280 CCXXXV Two intermediate stanzas have been here omitted. They are very ingenious, but, of all poetical qualities, ingenuity is least in accordance with pathos.

295 CCXLIII This poem has an exaltation and a glory, joined with an exquisiteness of expression, which place it

in the highest rank amongst the many masterpieces of its illustrious Author.

306 CCLII interlunar swoon: interval of the Moon's invisibility. 313 CCLVI Calpe: Gibraltar. Lofoden: the Maelstrom whirlpool off the N.W. coast of Norway.

315 CCLVII This lovely poem refers here and there to a ballad by Hamilton on the subject better treated in cxXVII and

CXXVIII.

330 CCLXVIII Arcturi: seemingly used for northern stars.· And wild roses &c. Our language has no line modulated with more subtle sweetness. A good poet might have written And roses wild: -yet this slight change would disenchant the verse of its peculiar beauty.

334 CCLXX Ceres' daughter: Proserpine. God of Torment: Pluto.

CCLXXI This impassioned address expresses Shelley's most

rapt imaginations, and is the direct modern representative of the feelings which led the Greeks to the worship of Nature.

345 CCLXXIV The leading idea of this beautiful description of a day's landscape in Italy is expressed with an obscurity not unfrequent with its author. It appears to be, On the voyage of life are many moments of pleasure, given by the sight of Nature, who has power to heal even the worldliness and the uncharity of man.

347

1.

4 Amphitrite was daughter to Ocean.

1. 22 Sun-girt City: It is difficult not to believe that the correct reading is Sea-girt. Many of Shelley's poems appear to have been printed in England during his residence abroad: others were printed from his manuscripts after his death. Hence probably the text of no English Poet after 1660 contains so many errors. See the Note on No. IX.

351 CCLXXV l. 21 Maenad: a frenzied Nymph, attendant on Dionysus in the Greek mythology.

352

1.

17

Plants under water sympathize with the seasons

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of the land, and hence with the winds which affect them.

353 CCLXXVI Written soon after the death, by shipwreck, of Wordsworth's brother John. This Poem should be compared with Shelley's following it. Each is the most complete expression of the innermost spirit of his art given by these great Poets:- of that Idea which, as in the case of the true Painter, (to quote the words of Reynolds,) 'subsists only in the mind: The sight never beheld it, nor has the hand expressed it; it is an idea residing in the breast of the artist, which he is always labouring to impart, and which he dies at last without imparting.'

355

the Kind: the human race.

356 CCLXXVIII Proteus represented the everlasting changes, united with ever-recurrent sameness, of the Sea.

357 CCLXXIX the royal Saint: Henry VI.

INDEX OF WRITERS

WITH DATES OF BIRTH AND DEATH

397

ALEXANDER, William (1580-1640), XXII

BACON, Francis (1561-1626), LVII

BARBAULD, Anna Laetitia (1743-1825), CLXV
BARNEFIELD, Richard (16th Century), XXXIV

BEAUMONT, Francis (1586-1616), LXVII

BURNS, Robert (1759-1796), CXXV, CXXXII, CXXXIX, CXLIV,
CXLVIII, CXLIX, CL, CLI, CLIII, CLV, CLVI

BYRON, George Gordon Noel (1788-1824), CLXIX, CLXXI, CLXXIII,
CXC, CCII, CCIX, CCXXII, CCXXXII

CAMPBELL, Thomas (1777-1844), CLXXXI, CLXXXIII, CLXXXVII,
CXCVII, CCVI, CCVII, CCXV, CCLVI, CCLXII, CCLXVII, CCLXXXIIr
CAREW, Thomas (1589-1639), LXXXVII

CAREY, Henry (1743), CXXXI
CIBBER, Colley (1671-1757), CXIX

COLERIDGE, Hartley (1796-1849), CLXXV

+ COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834), CLXVIII, CCLXXX
COLLINS, William (1720-1756), CXXIV, CXLI, CXLVI

COLLINS, (18th Century), CLXIV

CONSTABLE, Henry (156-?-1604?) XV

COWLEY, Abraham (1618-1667), CII

COWPER, William (1731-1800), CXXIX, CXXXIV, CXLIII, CLX, CLXI,

CLXII

CRASHAW, Richard (1615?-1652), LXXIX

CUNNINGHAM, Allan (1784-1842), CCV

DANIEL, Samuel (1562-1619), XXXV

DEKKER, Thomas (-1638?), LIV

DRAYTON, Michael (1563-1631), XXXVII

DRUMMOND, William (1585-1649), II, XXXVIII, XLIII, LV, LVIII,

LIX, LXI

DRYDEN, John (1631-1700), LXIII, CXVI

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