O would'st thou fing what heroes Windfor bore, What kings first breath'd upon her winding shore, Or raise old warriours, whofe ador'd remains In weeping vaults her hallow'd earth contains! NOTES. 301 With in natural magic. This vifionary philofopher fhewed our hero, in a mirror of glass, a living image of Geraldine, reclining on a couch, fick, and reading one of his moft tender fonnets by a waxen taper. His imagination, which wanted not the flattering representations and artificial incentives of illufion, was heated anew by this interefting and affecting fpectacle. Inflamed with every enthusiasm of the moft romantic paffion, he hastened to Florence; and, on his arrival, immediately published a defiance against any person who could handle a lance and was in love, whether Christian, Jew, Turk, Saracen, or Canibal, who should prefume to dispute the fuperiority of Geraldine's beauty. As the lady was pretended to be of Tufcan extraction, the pride of the Florentines was flattered on this occafion: and the Grand Duke of Tuscany permitted a general and unmolefted ingrefs into his dominions of the combatants of all countries, till this important trial should be decided. The challenge was accepted, and the Earl victorious. The fhield which he prefented to the Duke before the tournament began, is exhibited in Vertue's valuable plate of the Arundel family, and was actually in the poffeffion of the late Duke of Norfolk. "These heroic vanities did not, however, so totally engross the time which Surrey spent in Italy, as to alienate his mind from letters: he ftudied, with the greatest fuccefs, a critical knowledge of the Italian tongue; and, that he might give new luftre to the name of Geraldine, attained a just taste for the peculiar graces of the Italian poetry. "He was recalled to England for some idle reafon by the King, much fooner than he expected: and he returned home, the most elegant traveller, the moft polite lover, the most learned nobleman, and the most accomplished gentleman, of his age. Dexterity in tilting, and gracefulnefs in managing a horse under arms, were excellencies now viewed with a critical eye, and practifed with a high degree of emulation. In 1540, at a tournament held in prefence of the court at Westminster, and in which the principal of the nobility were engaged, Surrey was distinguished VOL. I. K With Edward's acts adorn the fhining page, Then, from her roofs when Verrio's colours fall, And leave inanimate the naked wall, VARIATIONS. VER. 307. Originally thus in the MS. When Brafs decays, when Trophies lie o'er-thrown, NOTES. 306 Still distinguished above the reft for his address in the use and exercise of arms." In the History of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 12. is a poem of the elegiac kind, in which he laments his imprisonment in Windfor Caftle. VER. 303. Edward's acts] Edward III. born here. P. In what an exquisite ftrain does Gray speak of this monarch! and his fon! Mighty victor, mighty lord, Low on his funeral couch he lies! Afford a tear to grace his obfequies. Which is followed by that ftriking queftion,- Thy fon is gone. He refts among the dead. THE BARD, ftrophe 2. I have sometimes wondered that Pope did not mention the building of Windfor Caftle by Edward III. His architect was William of Wykeham, whose name, it must not be wondered at, if I feize every opportunity of mentioning with veneration and gratitude. Yet, perhaps, he was rather the fupervisor and comptroller of the work, than the actual architect, as he had fingular talents for business, activity, and management of affairs. VER. 307.] "Without much invention, (fays Mr. Walpole, vol. iii. p. 59.) and with less taste, Verrio's exuberant pencil was ready Still in thy song should vanquish'd France appear, And bleed for ever under Britain's fpear. 310 Let fofter strains ill-fated Henry mourn, And palms eternal flourish round his urn. Here o'er the Martyr-King the marble weeps, And, fast beside him, once-fear'd Edward fleeps: Whom not th' extended Albion could contain, From old Belerium to the northern main, The grave unites; where e'en the Great find rest, And blended lie th' oppreffor and th' opprest! 316 Make facred Charles's tomb for ever known, (Obscure the place, and uninscrib'd the stone) 320 Oh NOTES. ready at pouring out gods, goddeffes, kings, emperors, and triumphs, over those public furfaces, on which the eye never refts long enough to criticife, and where one should be forry to place the works of a better mafter, I mean, ceilings and staircases. He received, in all, for his various works, the fum of £. 6,845." VER. 311. Henry mourn] Henry VI. P. How could he here omit the mention of Eton College, founded by this unfortunate King, and the Chapel of King's College in Cambridge. But Gray has made ample amends for this omiffion, by his moft beautiful ode on the prospect of this neighbouring college, from which fo many ornaments and fupports of state and church have proceeded. P. VER. 314. once-fear'd Edward fleeps :] Edward IV. VER. 316.] See an account of Belerium, fo called from Bellerus a Cornish giant, that part of Cornwall called the Lands End, in Warton's edition of Milton's Poems, p. 28. VER. 319. Make facred Charles's] Vigneal-Marville, v. 1. p. 152. relates a fact concerning this unhappy Monarch that I do not find mentioned in any hiftory; which, he says, Lord Clarendon ufed to mention when he retired to Rouen in Normandy; that one of the firft circumftances that gave disgust to the people of England, and to fome of the nobility, was a hint X 2 Oh fact accurst! what tears has Albion fhed, Heav'ns, what new wounds! and how her old have bled! She faw her fons with purple death expire, Her facred domes involv'd in rolling fire, 325 At length great ANNA faid-" Let difcord cease!" Inglorious triumphs and dishonest scars. She faid, the world obey'd, and all was Peace! In that bleft moment from his oozy bed 329 His VARIATIONS. VER. 321. Originally thus in the MS. Oh fact accurft! oh facrilegious brood, Sworn to Rebellion, principled in blood! Since that dire morn what tears has Albion fhed, VER. 327. Thus in the MS. Till Anna rofe and bade the Furies ceafe; Let there be peace-she said, and all was Peace. NOTES. hint thrown out by Charles I. at the beginning of his reign, that he thought all the ecclefiaftical revenues that had been seized and diftributed by Henry VIII. ought to be reftored to the church. VER. 322.] To say that the plague in London, and its confumption by fire, were judgments inflicted by Heaven for the murder of Charles I. is a very extraordinary ftretch of Tory principles indeed. VER 329.] It may gratify a curious reader to fee an extract of a letter of Prior to Lord Bolingbroke, written from Paris, May 18, 1713, concerning a medal that was to be ftruck on the Peace of Utrecht, fo highly celebrated in this paffage; communicated to me by the favor of the late Dutchefs Dowager of Portland, "I diflike His treffes drop'd with dews, and o'er the stream The figur'd streams in waves of filver roll'd, 335 340 VARIATIONS. Between Verse 330 and 331, originally stood these lines, From fhore to fhore exulting fhouts he heard, He faw, and gently rofe above the stream; With pearl and gold his tow'ry front was dreft, NOTES.' "I diflike your medal, with the motto, COMPOSITIS VENERANTUR ARMIS P. I will have one of my own defign; the Queen's buft furrounded with laurel, and with this motto, ANNE AUG. FELICI, PACIFICE: Peace in a triumphal car, and the words, PAX MISSA PER ORBEM. This is ancient, this is fimple, this is sense. Rofier shall execute it, in a manner not feen in England fince Simonds's time." VER. 337.] He has copied, and equalled, the Rivers of Spenfer, Drayton, and Milton. |