NOTES.

Sonnet xx. p. 178.

In this and a former Sonnet, in honour of the same Sovereign, let me be understood as a Poet availing himself of the situation which the King of Sweden occupied, and of the principles avowed in his manifestos; as laying hold of these advantages for the purpose of embodying moral truths. This remark might, perhaps, as well have been suppressed; for to those who may be in sympathy with the course of these Poems, it will be superfluous; and will, I fear, be thrown away upon that other class, whose besotted admiration of the intoxicated despot here placed in contrast with him, is the most melancholy evidence of degradation in British feeling and intellect which the times have furnished.

Sonnet xxvii. p. 196.

The event is thus recorded in the journals of the day: "When the Austrians took Hockheim, in one part of the engagement they got to the brow of the hill, whence they had their first view of the Rhine. They instantly halted -not a gun was fired -not a voice heard: they stood gazing on the river with those feelings which the events of the last fifteen years at once called up. Prince Schwartzenberg rode up to know the cause of this sudden stop; they then gave three cheers, rushed after the enemy, and drove them into the water."

Sonnet xli. p. 200.

"He conquering through God," &c.
Ond'è ch' Io grido e griderò: giugnesti,
Guerregiasti, e vincesti;

Si, si, vincesti, o Campion forte e pio,
Per Dio vincesti, e per te vinse Idd io.

See Filicaia's Canzone, addressed to John Sobieski, king of Poland, upon his raising the siege of Vienna.

This, and his other poems on the same occasion, are superior perhaps to any lyrical pieces that contemporary events have ever given birth to, those of the Hebrew Scriptures only excepted.

Thanksgiving Ode, page 222. last line.

"And discipline was passion's dire excess.”

"A discipline the rule whereof is passion."-LORD BROOK.

MEMORIALS

OF

A TOUR ON THE CONTINENT.

1820.

DEDICATION.

DEAR Fellow-Travellers! think not that the Muse

Presents to notice these memorial Lays,
Hoping the general eye thereon will gaze,
As on a mirror that gives back the hues
Of living Nature; no- though free to choose
The greenest bowers, the most inviting ways,
The fairest landscapes and the brightest days,
Her skill she tried with less ambitious views.
For You she wrought; -ye only can supply
The life, the truth, the beauty: she confides
In that enjoyment which with you abides,
Trusts to your love and vivid memory;
Thus far contented, that for You her verse

Shall lack not power the "meeting soul to pierce !"

W. WORDSWORTH.

Rydal Mount,
January, 1822.