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NOTES TO CHILDE HAROLD.

185

CANTO IV.

Note 1, page 120, line 1.

I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs;
A palace and a prison on each hand.

The communication between the Ducal palace and the prisons of Venice is by a gloomy bridge, or covered gallery, high above the water, and divided by a stone wall into a passage and a cell. The state dungeons, called « pozzi,» or wells, were sunk in the thick walls of the palace; and the prisoner when taken out to die was conducted across the gallery to the other side, and being then led back into the other compartment, or cell, upon the bridge, was there strangled. The low portal through which the criminal was taken into this celi is now walled up; but the passage is still open, and is stillknown by the name of the Bridge of Sighs.

Note 2, p. 133, line 19.

The lightning rent from Ariosto's bust,
The iron crown of laurel's mimic'd leaves.

Before the remains of Ariosto were removed from the Benedictine church to the library of Ferrara, his bust, which surmounted the tomb, was struck by lightning, and a crown of iron laurels melted away.

Note 3, p. 141, line 5.

An earthquake reeled unheededly away.

« And such was their mutual animosity, so intent were they upon the battle, that the earthquake, which overthrew in a great part many of the cities of Italy, which turned the course of rapid streams, poured back the sea upon the rivers, and tore down the very mountains, was not felt by one of the combatants. »* Such is the description of Livy.

* « Tantusque fuit ardor animorum, adeò intentus pugnæ animus, ut eum terræ motum qui multarum urbium Italiæ magnas partes prostravit, avertitque cursu rapido amnes, mare fluminibus invexit, montes lapsu ingenti proruit, nemo pugnantium senserit. » Tit.-Liv. lib. xxij. cap. xij.

It

may be doubted whether modern tactics would admit of such an abstraction.

Note 4, page 170, line 20.

Turn to the Mole which Hadrian rear'd on high.

The castle of Saint Angelo. See-Historical Illustrations.

BEPPO,

A VENETIAN STORY.

ROSALIND. Farewell, Monsieur Traveller: Look, you lisp, and wear strange suits; disable all the benefits of your own country; be out of love with your Nativity, and almost chide God for making you that countenance you are; or I will scarce think that you have swam in a GONDOLA.

As You LIKE IT, Act. IV, Sc. I,

Annotation of the Commentators.

That is, been at Venice, which was much visited by the young English gentlemen of those times, and was then what Paris is now the seat of all dissoluteness. S. A.

BEPPO.

I.

"Tis known, at least it should be, that throughout
All countries of the Catholic persuasion,
Some weeks before Shrove Tuesday comes about,
The people take their fill of recreation,
And buy repentance, here they grow devout,
However high their rank, or low their station,
With fiddling, feasting, dancing, drinking, masquing,
And other things which may be had for asking.

II.

The moment night with dusky mantle covers
The skies (and the more duskily the better),
The time less liked by husbands than by lovers
Begins, and prudery flings aside her fetter;
And gaiety on restless tiptoe hovers,

Giggling with all the gallants who beset her;
And there are songs and quavers, roaring, humming,
Guitars, and every other sort of strumming.

II.

And there are dresses splendid, but fantastical, Masks of all times and nations, Turks and Jews, And harlequins and clowns, with feats gymnastical, Greeks, Romans, Yankee-doodles, and Hindoos;

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