30. You taught the sadly-pleasing air That Athens sav'd from ruins bare.] See Plutarch in the life of Lysander. ib. You gave the Cean's tears to flow, And unlock'd the springs of woe;] Simonides. 31. With Petrarch o'er Valcluse you stray'd, When Death snatch'd his long lov'd maid ;] Laura, twenty years, and ten after her death. ib. You strew'd with flowers her virgin urn, And late in Hagley you were seen,] Monody on the death of Lady Lyttelton, by her husband, the first Lord. ib. To hear the sweet Complaint, 0 Young. ] Night Thoughts. 34. Such, such, as on th Ausonian shore, Sweet, Dorian Moschus trillid of yore :] See his Idyllia. ib. No time should cancel thy desert, More, more, than Bion was, thou wert.] Alluding to the death of a friend. 37. Say, does the learned Lord of Hagley's shade, Charm man so much by mossy fountains laid, And shakes the senate with a Tully's force ?] ib. Good Allen lives, - -] Ralph Allen, Esq. of Prior Park. 38. Sydney, what good man envies not thy blow?] Algernon Sydney, beheaded at Tower-hill, 7th of December, 1683. 38. Who would not wish Anytus for a foe'] One of the accusers of Socrates. ODE XLVIII. Th' immense Alcides' monstrous mould: Each tender gentler thought inspires. ] The Hercules of the Farnese and the Venus de Medicis. ib. Behold with thee they die away, To Roman ignorance a prey,] In the year of Rome 585, the Romans, under the conduct of Paulus Aemilius, in the second Macedonian war, entirely subdued Greece, and led Perseus king of Macedon in triumph. It was not till after this victory that the Romans had any taste for the fine arts Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes HORACE, Epist. I. Lib. ii. 44. Again they feel the fatal blou, And sink beneath the Vandal for. In the eighteenth year of Honorius, in the consulship of Veranes and Tertullus, Rome was besieged and taken by the Barbarians, under the conduct of Godigisele, king of the Vandals. ib. Alas! in vain she strove i assuage The enthusiast zealot's bigotrage.] Pope Gregory, who ordered all the ancient statues and paintings to be destroy , that there might be no remains of Heathenism. 45. Whate'er the poet's fancy taught, Or imag’d to his wanton thought:] See Homer's description of the gardens of Alcinous, Odyss, vii. V. 112. ib. Wouldst thou with Innocence reside, Behold the temple's modest pride ; ] The Temple of Innocence, and Hermit's Cell, in the gardens at Goodwood. 46. Here may’st thou weep thy favourite Rome, Sad-sighing o'er each martyr's tomb:] The Catacombs at Goodwood. Those in the Via Appia near Rome are generally supposed to be caves, where the primitive christians concealed themselves from their persecutors, and interred those who were martyrs for their religion. Mr. Wright, in his Travels through Italy, Vol. I. p. 357, acquaints us, that at the mouth of some of the niches were to be seen small vials like lachrymatories tinged with red, which they esteemed an indication that the bodies of martyrs were deposited there. ib. Or wouldst thou newer worlds survey,] · Alluding to the American wood at Goodwood. Ame. rica is, from the late discovery of it, called the New World. 47. Fancy such raptures shall suggest, Lov'd inmate of thy ravish'd breast ; And o'er th’unruffled ocean play ;] America is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and on the East by the Atlantic. NOTES ON ODES OF THE SECOND CLASS. ODE XI. Page 102. This Ode is founded upon a part of GRESSET's sur la MEDIOCRITE. SEDUITS par d'aveugles idoles Du Bonheur; fantomes frivoles, Tu n'eus pour sujets que ses sages Qui doivent l'estime des âges Tu vis naîtres dans tes Retraites Ces nobles et tendres poëtes, Si le fracas de la fortune Ou si indigence importune Mais en vain tu fuyois la gloire : La renommé, et la victoire Mieux formesé par tes loix stoïques Aux vertus, aux faits héroïques Pour Mars tu formois, loin des villes Les FABRICES, et les CAMILLES, Qui, du char de la Dictature Descendant a l'agriculture, Sur tes secrets autels rapportoient leurs lauriers. Trop heureux, Déite paisible, Le mortel sagement sensible, Par sa douse mélancholie Sauvé de l'humaine folie, Ignoré de la multitude, Libre de tout servitude, Il n'envia jamais, les grands biens, les grand noms, Il n'ignore point que la foudre A plus souvent réduit en poudre Le pin de monts altiers, que l'ormeau des valons. Sourd aux censures populaires Il ne craint point les yeux vulgaires, Quelques bruits que la foule en séme, Il est satisfait de lui-même, Il rit du sort, quand les conquêtes Promenent de têtes en têtes Rien n'altère sa paix profonde, Et les derniers instans du monde N'epouvanteroient point son cæạr encor hardi. |