4. Her person, if allow'd at large to run. Stanza lxxiii. 4. From all the Pope makes yearly, 'twould perplex, This is no exaggeration; there were four women whom I remember to have seen, who possessed their It is strange that it should be the pope and the hair in this profusion; of these, three were English, sultan who are the chief encouragers of this branch the other was a Levantine. Their hair was of that of trade-women being prohibited as singers at St. length and quantity that, when let down, it almost Peter's, and not deemed trustworthy as guardians entirely shaded the person, so as nearly to render of the haram. dress a superfluity. Of these, only one had dark hair; the Oriental's had, perhaps, the lightest color of the four. 5. Oh Hesperus! thou bringest all good things. Έσπερε, πάντα φέρεις, Θέρεις ματέρι παιδα. Fragment of Sappho. 6. Soft hour! which wakes the wish and melts the heart. 5. While weeds and ordure rankle round the base. The pillar which records the battle of Ravenna, is about two miles from the city, on the opposite side of the river to the road towards Forli. Gaston de Foix, who gained the battle, was killed in it; there fell on both sides twenty thousand men. The present state of the pillar and its site is described in the text. Stanza cviii. CANTO V. 1. The ocean stream. Stanza iii. This expression of Homer has been much criti cised. It hardly answers to our Atlantic ideas of This last line is the first of Gray's Elegy, taken the ocean, but is sufficiently applicable to the Helby him without acknowledgment. A vein had burst. Stanza xii. "The Giant's Grave" is a height on the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, much frequented by holiday parties; like Harrow and Highgate. 3. And running out as fast as I was able. Stanza xxxill. The assassination alluded to took place on the eighth of December, 1820, in the streets of Ravenna, not a hundred paces from the residence of the writer. The circumstances were as described. 4. Kill'd by five bullets from an old gun-barrel. Stanza xxxiv There was found close by him an old gun-barrel, sawn half off: it had just been discharged, and was still warm. 5. Prepared for supper with a glass of rum. Stanza lix. This is no very uncommon effect of the violence of conflicting and different passions. The Doge Francis Foscari, on his deposition, in 1457, hearing the bell of St. Mark announce the election of his successor, "mourut subitement d'une hemorrhagie cause par une veine qui s'eclata dans sa poitrine," In Turkey, nothing is more common, than for (see Sismondi and Daru, vols. i. and ii.) at the age the Mussulmans to take several glasses of strong of eighty years, when "who would have thought spirits by way of appetizer. I have seen them take the old man had so much blood in him?" Before 1 as many as six of raki before dinner, and swear that was sixteen years of age, I was witness to a melan-they dined the better for it; I tried the experiment, choly instance of the same effect of mixed passions but was like the Scotchman, who having heard that upon a young person; who, however, did not die in the birds called kittiewiaks were admirable whets, consequence, at that time, but fell a victim some ate six of them, and complained that "he was no years afterwards to a seizure of the same kind, hungrier than when he began." arising from causes intimately connected with agitation of mind. 3. But sold by the impresario at no high rate. Stanza lxxx. 6. Splendid but silent, save in one, where drooping, A common furniture.-I recollect being received This is a fact. A few years ago, a man engaged by Ali Pacha, in a room containing a marble basin a company for some foreign theatre; embarked and fountain, &c., &c., &c. them at an Italian port, and, carrying them to Algiers, sold them all. One of the women, returned from her captivity, I heard sing, by a strange coincidence, in Rossini's opera of "L'Italiana in Algieri," at Venice, in the beginning of 1817. 7. The gate so splendia was in all its features. Stanza lxxxvii. Features of a gate-a ministerial metaphor; "the It may not be unworthy of remark, that Bacon, in his essay on "Empire," hints that Solyman was the last of his line; on what authority, I know not. These are his words: "The destruction of Mustapha was so fatal to Solyman's line, as the succession of the Turks from Solyman, until this day, is suspected to be untrue, and of strange blood; for that Jolymus the Second was thought to be suppositions." But Bacon, in his historical authorities, is often inaccurate. I could give half a dozen instances from his apophthegms only. CANTO VI. A "wooabscure,' like that where Dante found. "Nel mezzo del canmin' di nostra vita CANTO VII. Was teaching his recruits to use the bayonet. Stanza li Fact: Souvaroff did this in person. CANTO VIII. 1. All sounds it pierceth, "Allah! Allah! Hu!" Being in the humor of criticism, I shall proceed, Stanza viii. after having ventured upon the slips of Bacon, to touch on one or two as trifling in the edition of the Mussulmans, and they dwell long on the last sylla "Allah! Hu!" is properly the war-cry of the British Poets, by the justly celebrated Campbell:tle, which gives it a very wild and peculiar effect. But I do this in good will, and trust it will be so taken. If any thing could add to my opinion of the talents and true feeling of that gentleman, it would be his classical, honest, and triumphant defence of Pope, against the vulgar cant of the day, and its existing Grub street. 2. "Carnage (so Wordsworth tells you) is God's daughter." Stanza ix. "But thy most dreaded Instrument In working out a pure intent, Is man array'd for mutual slaughter; WORDSWORTH'S Thanksgiving Ode. The inadvertencies to which I allude, are,Firstly, in speaking of Anstey, whom he accuses of having taken his leading characters from Smollett." Anstey's Bath Guide was published in 1766. Smollett's Humphry Clinker (the only work To wit, the Deity's. This is perhaps as pretty a of Smollett's from which Tabitha, &c., &c., could pedigree for murder as ever was found out by Garter have been taken) was written during Smollett's last King-at-arms.-What would have been said, had residence at Leghorn, in 1770.-"Argal," if there any free-spoken people discovered such a lineage? has been any borrowing, Anstey must be the creditor, and not the debtor. I refer Mr. Campbell 3. Stanza xviii. to his own data in his lives of Smollett and Anstey. Was printed Grove, although his name was Grose. Secondly, Mr. Campbell says, in the life of Cowper, (note to page 358, vol. 7,) that he knows not to whom Cowper alludes in these lines:" "Nor he who, for the bane of thousands born, Built God a church, and laugh'd his name to scorn." The Calvanist meant Voltaire, and the church of "To gild refined gold, to paint the rose, This version by no means improves the original, which is as follows: "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet," &c. King John, A fact: see the Waterloo Gazettes. I recollect remarking at the time to a friend :-"There is fame! a man is killed-his name is Grose, and they print it Grove." I was at college with the deceased, who was a very amiable and clever man, and his society in great request for his wit, gayety, and " chansons à boire." 4. As any other notion, and not national. Stanza xxiii. See Major Vallancy and Sir Lawrence Parsons. 5. 'Tis pity "that such meanings should pave hell." Stanza XXV. The Portugese proverb says that "Hell is paved 6. By thy humane discovery, Friar Bacon! Stanza xxxiii. Gunpowder is said to have been discovered by A great poet, quoting another, should be correct; with good intentions." he should also be accurate when he accuses a Parnassian brother of that dangerous charge "borrowing: "a poet had better borrow any thing (excepting money) than the thoughts of another-they are always sure to be reclaimed; but it is very hard, this friar. having been the lender, to be denounced as the debtor, as is the case of Anstey versus Smollett. As there is "honor among thieves," let there be some among poets, and give each his due,-none can afford to give it more than Mr. Campbell himself, who, with a high reputation for originality, and a fame which cannot be shaken, is the only poet of the times (except Rogers) who can be reproached (and in him it is indeed a reproach) with having | mitten too little. 7. Which scarcely rose much higher than grass blades. They were but two feet high above the level. 8. That you and I will win Saint Chorge's collar. 3. Balgouines Brig's black wall. Stanza xviii. of Aber. The brig of Don, near the "auld toun deen, with its one arch and its black deep salmon stream below, is in my memory as yesterday. I still remember, though perhaps I may misquote, the awful proverb which made me pause to cross it, and yet lean over it with a childish delight, being an only son, at least by the mother's side. The saying, as recollected by me, was this-but I have never heard or seen it since I was nine years of age: "Brig of Balgounie, black's your wa'; Wi' a wife's de son and a mear's de foal, A metaphor taken from the "forty-horse power' of a steam-engine. That mad wag, the Reverend Sidney Smith, sitting by a brother-clergyman at dinner, observed afterwards that his dull neighbor had a "twelve-parson power" of conversation. 5. And send the sentinel before your gate. A slice or two from your luxurious meals. Stanza vi. "I at this time got a post, being for fatigue, with four others. We were sent to break biscuit, and make a mess for Lord Wellington's hounds. I was To strip the Saxons of their hydes like tanners. very hungry, and thought it a good job at the time, Stanza xxxvi. as we got our own fill while we broke the biscuit,-a "Hyde."-I believe a hyde of land to be a legitithing I had not got for some days. When thus engaged, the Prodigal Son was never once out of mate word, and as such subject to the tax of a quib my mind; and I sighed, as I fed the dogs, over my humble situation and my ruined hopes."-Journal of a Soldierof the 71st Regt. during the war in Spain. 3. Because he could no more digest his dinner. ble. 6. Was given to her favorite, and now bore his. Stanza xlix. The Empress went to the Crimea, accompanied by the Emperor Joseph, in the year-I forget which. 7. He was killed in a conspiracy, after his temper had been exasperated, by his extreme costivity, to Which gave her dukes the graceless name of "Biron." a degree of insanity. 4. Stanza lviii. In the Empress Anne's time, Biren her favorite assumed the name and arms of the "Birons" of France, which families are yet extant with that of England. There are still the daughters of Courof land of that name; one of them I remember seeing in England in the blessed year of the Allies-the Duchess of S.-to whom the English Duchess of Somerset presented me as a namesake. Bid Ireland's Londonderry's Marquess show His parts of speech. Stanza xlix. This was written long before the suicide of that person. 6. 8. Eleven thousand maidenheads of bone St. Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins were On the high toby-spice flash the muzzle, If you at the spellken can't hustle, You'll be hobbled in making a Clout. "Then your blowing will wax gallows haughty, When she hears of your scaly mistake, She'll surely turn snitch for the forty, That her Jack may be regular weight." If there be any gem'man so ignorant as to require a traduction, I refer him to my old friend and cor This line may puzzle the commentators more than poreal pastor and master, John Jackson, Esq., Pro- the present generation. 2. St. James's Palace and St. James's "Hells." Stanza xxix. "Hells," gaming-houses. What their number may now be in this life, I know not. Before I was of age, I knew them pretty accurately, both "gold' and "silver." I was once nearly called out by an acquaintance, because when he asked me where 1 thought his soul would be found hereafter, I answered, "In Silver Hell." 3. 3. Like Russians rushing from hot baths to snows. The Russians, as is well known, run out from their hot baths to plunge into the Neva: a pleasant practical antithesis, which it seems does them no As Philip's son proposed to do with Athos. Stanza lxxxvi. -and therefore even I won't anent This subject quote. Stanza xliii. A sculptor projected to hew Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander, with a city in one hand, and, "Anent," was a Scotch phrase, meaning "con-I believe, a river in his pocket, with various other cerning," "with regard to." It has been made similar devices. But Alexander's gone, and Athos English by the Scotch Novels; and, as the French-remains, I trust, ere long, to look over a nation of man said "If it be not, ought to be English." freemen. "Drapery misses "-This term is probably any thing now but a mystery. It was, however, almost so to me when first returned from the East in 1811-1812. It means a pretty, a high-born, a fashionable young female, well instructed by her friends, and furnished by her milliner with a wardrobe upon credit, to be repaid, when married, by the husband. The riddle was first read to me by a young and pretty heiress, on my praising the "drapery" of an "untochered" but "pretty virginities" (like Mrs. Anne Page) of the then day, which has now been some years yesterday:-she assured me that the thing was common in London; and as her own thousands, and blooming looks, and rich simplicity of array, put any suspicion in her own case out of the question, I confess I gave some credit to the allegation. If necessary, authorities might be cited, in which case I could quote both drapery" and the wearers. Let us hope, however, that it is now obsolete. 5. 'Tis strange the mind, that very fiery particle, Should let itself be snuff'd out by an article. Stanza Ix. "Divinæ particulam auræ." CANTO XII. 1. Gives, with Greek truth, the good old Greek the lie. "That Scriptures out of church are blasphemies," Stanza xcvi. See MITFORD's Greece. "Græcia Veraz." His "Mrs. Adams answered Mr. Adams, that it was great pleasure consists in praising tyrants, abusing blasphemous to talk of Scripture out of church." Plutarch, spelling oddly, and writing quaintly; and, This dogma was broached to her husband-the best what is strange after all, his is the best modern his- Christian in any book. See Joseph Andrews, in the tory of Greece in any language, and he is perhaps latter chapters. 8. CANTO XV. 1. The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet And Thou, diviner still, Whose lot it is by man to be mistaken. Stanza xviii. It would have taught him humanity at least. This sentimental savage, whom it is a mode to quote (among the novelists) to show their sympathy for innocent sports and old songs, teaches how to As it is necessary in these times to avoid am sew up frogs, and break their legs by way of experi-biguity, I say, that I mean, by "Diviner still," ment, in addition to the art of angling, the cruelest, CHRIST. If ever God was Man-or Man God--he the coldest, and the stupidest of pretended sports. was both. I never arraigned his creed, but the use They may talk about the beauties of nature, but-or abuse-made of it. Mr. Canning one day the angler merely thinks of his dish of fish; he has quoted Christianity to sanction Negro Slavery, and Lo leisure to take his eyes from off the streams, and Mr. Wilberforce had little to say in reply. And a single bite is worth to him more than all the was Christ crucified, that black men might be scenery around. Besides, some fish bite best on a scourged? If so, he had better been born a Murainy day. The whale, the shark, and the tunny latto, to give both colors an equal chance of free fishery have somewhat of noble and perilous in dom, or at least salvation. them; even net-fishing, trawling, &c., are more humane and useful-but angling!-No angler can be a good man. "One of the best men I ever knew-as humane, delicate-minded, generous, and excellent creature as any in the world-was an angler: true, he angled with painted flies, and would have been incapable of the extravagances of I. Walton." The above addition was made by a friend in reading over the MS.-"Audi alteram partem "-I leave it to counterbalance my own observation. Craning.-"To crane" is, or was, an expression used to denote a gentleman's stretching out his neck over a hedge, "to look before he leaped: a pause in his "vaulting ambition," which in the field doth occasion some delay and execration in those who may be immediately behind the equestrian skeptic. "Sir, if you don't choose to take the leap, let me" was a phrase which generally rent the aspirant on again; and to good purpose: for though "the horse and rider" might fall, they riade a gap, through which, and over him and his Eteed, the field might follow. In SWIFT's or HORACE WALPOLE's Letters, I think it is mentioned that somebody regretting the loss of a friend, was answered by a universal Pylades: "When I lose one, I go to the Saint James's Coffee-house, and take another." I recollect having heard an anecdote of the same kind. Sir W. D. was a great gamester. Coming in one day to the club of which he was a member, he was observed to look melancholy. "What is the matter, Sir William?" cried Hare, of facetious memory. "Ah!" replied Sir W. "I have just lost poor Lady D." "Lost! What! at-Quinze or Hazard" was the consolatory rejoinder of the querist. 3. And I refer you to wise Oxenstiern. Stanza lix. The famous Chancellor Oxenstiern said to his son, on the latter expressing his surprise upon the great effects arising from petty causes in the preBimed mystery of politics: "You see by this, my son, with how little wisdom the kingdoms of the world are governed." 2. When Rapp the Harmonist embargoed marriage in America does not entirely exclude matrimony, as 3. While great Lucullus' robe triumphale muffles- A dish à la Lucullus." This hero, who conquered the East, has left his more extended celebrity to the transplantation of cherries (which he first brought into Europe) and the nomenclature of some very good dishes;-and I am not sure that (barring indigestion) he has not done more service to mankind by his cookery than by his conquests. A cherry-tree may weigh against a bloody laurel; besides, he has contrived to earn celebrity froni both. 5. |