But when the dismal winter reveals There where ships have sailed, men go its hideous aspect, When all the earth becomes white with a marble-like frost; ΙΟ And when Boreas is loosed, and the snow hurled under Arcturus, Then these nations, in sooth, shudder and shiver with cold. TRISTIA, BOOK III., ELEGY XII. Now the zephyrs diminish the cold, and the year being ended, Winter Mæotian seems longer than ever before; And the Ram that bore unsafely the burden of Helle, Now makes the hours of the day equal with those of the night. Now the boys and the laughing girls the violet gather, Which the fields bring forth, nobody sowing the seed. Now the meadows are blooming with flowers of various colors, And with untaught throats carol the garrulous birds. And the blade that lay hid, covered up in the furrows of Ceres, Now from the tepid ground raises its delicate head. Where there is ever a vine, the bud shoots forth from the tendrils, But from the Getic shore distant afar is the vine! Where there is ever a tree, on the tree the branches are swelling, But from the Getic land distant afar is the tree! Now it is holiday there in Rome, and to games in due order Give place the windy wars of the vociferous bar. NOTES Page 5. He the young and strong. [Refers to the poet's friend and brotherin-law, George W. Pierce.] Page 5. The Being Beauteous. [The reference is to the first Mrs. Longfellow.] Page 15. THE SKELETON IN ARMOR. This ballad was suggested to me while riding on the sea-shore at Newport. A year or two previous a skeleton had been dug up at Fall River, clad in broken and corroded armor; and the idea occurred to me of connecting it with the Round Tower at Newport, generally known hitherto as the Old Windmill, though now claimed by the Danes as a work of their early ancestors. Professor Rafn, in the Mémoires de la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord, for 1838-1839, says: "There is no mistaking in this instance the style in which the more ancient stone edifices of the North were constructed, the style which belongs to the Roman or Ante-Gothic architecture, and which, especially after the time of Charlemagne, diffused itself from Italy over the whole of the West and North of Europe, where it continued to predominate until the close of the twelfth century, that style which some authors have, from one of its most striking characteristics, called the round arch style, the same which in England is denominated Saxon and sometimes Norman architecture. On the ancient structure in Newport there are no ornaments remaining, which might possibly have served to guide us in assigning the probable date of its erection. That no vestige whatever is found of the pointed arch, nor any approximation to it, is indicative of an earlier rather than of a later period. From such characteristics as remain, however, we can scarcely form any other inference than one, in which I am persuaded that all who are familiar with Old - Northern architecture will concur, THAT THIS BUILDING WAS ERECTED AT A PERIOD DECIDEDLY NOT LATER THAN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. This remark applies, of course, to the original building only, and not to the alterations that it subsequently received; for there are several such alterations in the upper part of the building which cannot be mistaken, and which were most likely occasioned by its being adapted in modern times to various uses; for example, as the substructure of a windmill, and latterly as a hay magazine. To the same times may be referred the windows, the fireplace, and the apertures made above the columns. That this building could not have been erected for a windmill, is what an architect will easily discern." I will not enter into a discussion of the point. It is sufficiently well established for the purpose of a ballad; though doubtless many a citizen of Newport, who has passed his days within sight of the Round Tower, will be ready to exclaim, with Sancho: "God bless me ! did I not warn you to have a care of what you were doing, for that it was nothing but a windmill; and nobody could mistake it, but one who had the like in his head." Page 17. Skoal! In Scandinavia, this is the customary salutation when drinking a health. I have slightly changed the orthography of the word, in order to preserve the correct pronunciation. Page 22. Of three friends all true and tried. [The three friends were Charles Sumner, Charles Folsom, and Charles Amory]. Page 30. As Lope says. "La cólera de un Español sentado no se templa, sino le representan en dos horas hasta el final juicio desde el Génesis." Lope de Vega Page 31. Abrenuncio Satanas! 66 Digo, Señora, respondió Sancho, lo que tengo dicho, que de los azotes abrenuncio. Abrenuncio, habeis de decir, Sancho, y no como decis, dijo el Duque." - Don Quixote, Part II. ch. 35. Page 36. Fray Carrillo. The allusion here is to a Spanish epigram. "Siempre Fray Carrillo estás quien en tu celda estuviera Böhl de Faber. Floresta, No. 611. Page 36. Padre Francisco. |