Notes

"'Tis delicate felicity that shrinks"When rocking winds are loud."Walpole.

Murmuring I hearThe hollow wind around the ancient towers.

The base controulOf petty despots in their pedant reignAlready hast thou felt;—

"Thin clouds of Gossamer in air display,"And hide the vale's chaste lily from the ray."

"Her waggon spokes are made of spiders' legs,"The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,"The traces of the smallest spider's web."

———Oh! so light of footWill ne'er wear out the everlasting flint;A lover may bestride the GossamerThat idles in the wanton summer air,And yet not fall—

"Oh! I am bound upon a wheel of fire,"Which my own tears do scald like melted lead."

"The sun to me is dark,"And silent as the Moon"When she deserts the night,"Hid in her secret interlunar cave."Milton, Samps. Agon.

Haply may'st thou one sorrowing vigil keep,Where Pity and Remembrance bend and weep.

But the passage here alluded to runs thus:"Meanwhile with genial joy to warm the soulBright Helen mix'd a mirth-inspiring bowl,

Temper'd with drugs, of sovereign use t'assuageThe boiling bosom of tumultuous rage;To clear the cloudy front of wrinkled care,And dry the tearful sluices of despair;Charm'd with that virtuous draught, th' exalted mindAll sense of woe delivers to the wind.Tho' on the blazing pile his father lay,Or a loved brother groan'd his life away,Or darling son, oppress'd by ruffian force,Fell breathless at his feet a mangled corse,From morn to eve, impassive and serene,The man entranced would view the deathful scene:These drugs so friendly to the joys of life,Bright Helen learn'd from Thone's imperial wife."

"Behold this cordial julep here,That flames and dances in his crystal bounds!Not that Nepenthe, which the wife of ThoneIn Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena,Is of such power as this to stir up joy,To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst.

The Becca-fica seeks Italian groves,No more a Wheat-ear—

For tho' he plough the sea when others sleep,He draws like Glendower spirits from the deep.

Glen. " I can call spirits from the vasty deep."Hotsp. "But will they come when you do call for them?"Shakspeare.

———"It is twice blessed,"It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."Shakspeare.

As in the woods where leathery lichen weavesIts wintry web among the sallow leaves.

"Un jour me demandoit HortenseOu se trouve le tendre amour?"

———If the stroke of warFell certain on the guilty head, none else—If they that make the cause might taste th' effect,And drink themselves the bitter cup they mix;Then might the Bard (the child of peace) delightTo twine fresh wreaths around the conqueror's brow;Or haply strike his high-toned harp, to swellThe trumpet's martial sound, and bid them onWhen Justice arms for vengeance; but, alas!That undistinguishing and deathful stormBeats heaviest on the exposed and innocent;And they that stir its fury, while it raves,Safe and at distance send their mandates forthUnto the mortal ministers that waitTo do their bidding!——Crowe.

"Zefiro torno, e'l bel tempo rimena,"E i fiori, e l'erbe, sua dolce famiglia; &c. &c.———"Ma per me lasso!"—Petrarch on the Death of Laura.

"O primavera gioventù dell' anno,"Bella madre di fiori"D'erbe novelle e di novelli amori;"Tu torni ben, ma teco"Non tornano i sereni"E fortunati di, delle mie gioje;

"Tu torni ben, tu torni,"Ma teco altro non torna"Che del perduto mio caro tesoro,"La rimembranza misera e dolente."