origin of the art of roasting, suggested by Manning. 24. proper, peculiar to himself. Latin, proprius, one's own. 26. Absents, those absent. The odd form adds force to the pun. 27. 'tame villatic fowl,' quoted from Milton, Samson Agonistes. villatic, of the village. 28. brawn, boar's flesh pickled or potted. 33. give everything.' Lear II, iv, 253: you all.' 'I gave 36. extra-domiciliate, a word of Lamb's own invention, from the Latin, extra, outside, and domicilium, a dwelling-house. 37. slightingly, without due appreciation. 43. aunt, Sarah Lamb, Charles's Aunt Hetty, described by him more fully in the Elia essay, My Relations. In a letter to Coleridge in 1797 Lamb describes her as the kindest, goodest creature to me when I was at school; who used to toddle there to bring me good things, when I, school-boy like, only despised her for it, and used to be ashamed to see her come and sit herself down on the old coalhole steps as you went into the old grammar-school, and open her apron, and bring out her bason, with some nice thing she had caused to be saved for me.' 52. a counterfeit, an impostor. 55. the very coxcombry of charity, the height of conceit disguising itself as charity. 578. a. 23. impertinent, irrelevant, inappropriate. 29. nice, discriminating. 33. obsolete, gone out of use. The age of discipline, of the use of the rod. The clause echoes a famous phrase of Burke's, the age of chivalry is gone.' b. 2. intenerating and dulcifying, making tender and sweet. 5. refining a violet. See King John IV, ii, 11. 9. gusto, relish, flavor. over 12. St. Omer's, a Jesuit college in France. Lamb was never there. Canon Ainger remarks upon this as an instance of Lamb's 'audacious indifference to fact.' The phrase on the preceding page London Bridge' has also been regarded as a wilful mystification; but this is at least doubtful. Lamb had certainly no hesitation in adding fictitious details according to his fancy. 16. per flagellationem extremam, by whipping to death. 21. I forget the decision. This is the final touch of affected seriousness, the whole incident being, of course, a playful invention. 28. barbecue, to roast whole after splitting and stuffing. The derivation barbe à queue' sometimes given is fanciful and erroneous. It comes from an Indian word, meaning a wooden frame for smoking or roasting meat. to your palate, with stuffing to 1474 82. Save Gawain. Gawain Douglas (c. 1522), poet, scholar, and translator of Virgil's Eneid. 107. Old Bell-the-Cat. A phrase applied to persons of acknowledged intrepidity. From the fable of the mice and the cat. 581. 194. The Till by Twisel Bridge. On the evening previous to the memorable battle of Flod den, Surrey's headquarters were at Barmorewood and King James held an inaccessible position on the ridge of Flodden-hill, one of the last and lowest eminences detached from the ridge of Cheviot. The Till, a deep and slow river, winded between the armies. On the morning of the 9th September. 1513, Surrey marched in a northwesterly direction, and crossed the Till, with his van and artillery, at Twisel-bridge, nigh where that river joins the Tweed. his rearguard column passing about a mile higher, by a ford. This movement had the double effect of placing his army between King James and his supplies from Scotland and of striking the Scottish monarch with surprise, as he seems to have relied on the depth of the river in his front. But as the passage, both over the bridge and through the ford, was difficult and slow, it seems possible that the English might have been attacked to great advan tage, while struggling with these natural obstacles. (Scott.) 583. 363. Gilded spurs. The rewards of victory. BYRON: SONNET ON CHILLON 587. 13. Bonnivard. Francois de Bonnivard (14961570) was held for six years as a political prisoner in the dungeon of the Castle of Chillon, near Geneva. Byron's well-known tale, The Prisoner of Chillon, presents an imaginary history of his confinement. CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO III 40. Morat. The Swiss gained a decisive victory at the village of Morat in 1476. 43. Burgundy. Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. 45. the Stygian coast, etc. An allusion to the Greek superstition that the shades of unburied men could not pass the river Styx which bounded Hades. 47. Waterloo. The Battle of Waterloo which ended the military career of Napoleon was fought June 18, 1815. It is described in an earlier section of this canto. Canna. A battle in which Hannibal defeated the Roman army, 216 B. C. 48. Marathon. The Greeks defeated the Persians on the plains of Marathon, 490 B. C. 55. Draconic. Because of its free use of the death penalty, the code of Draco, an Athenian lawgiver of the seventh century, is proverbially said to have been written in blood. 64. Adventicum. The Roman name for Avenche, the ancient capital of Helvetia, or Switzerland. modern forgery. 588. 81. like yonder Alpine snow. Byron records that Mont Blanc was visible in the distance. 83. Lake Leman. Lake Geneva, the largest lake in Switzerland. 589. 164. Rousseau. Jean Jacques Rousseau (17121778), a Swiss-French philosopher of brilliant though morbid originality whose writings are held to have been a strong influence in precipitating the French Revolution. 182. Julie. The heroine of Rousseau's New Héloïse (1761). 194. the kind. Civilized man. 201. Pythian's mystic cave. The prophetess of the Delphic oracle was called The Pythia'; while the god she served was known as the Pythian Apollo. 590. 248. Jura. A mountain chain in France and Switzerland, visible from Geneva. 287. Cytherea's zone. The zone or girdle of the Cytherean Aphrodite, or Venus. 592. 362. Clarens. A village on Lake Leman celebrated in Rousseau's New Héloïse and in his Confessions. 410. Love his Psyche's zone, etc. An allusion to the legend of Cupid and Psyche. 421. Titan-like. The Titans piled the hills on each other, attempting to ascend the sky, in their war with Zeus. 425. The one. Voltaire. 593. 430. Proteus. The son of Oceanus who could assume any shape at will. 434. The other. Gibbon. See p. 453. CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO IV 10. Niobe. According to the Greek myth Niobe brought upon her children the wrath of Artemis and Apollo, by boasting over their mother Leto who had only those two. The modern currency of the legend is largely due to a remarkable group of antique statues preserved in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence. 14. The Scipio's tomb. A group of tombs on the Appian Way is called 'The tombs of the Scipios.' The most famous Roman generals of this name flourished at the beginning of the second century B. C. 594. 39. when Brutus, etc. An allusion to the assassination of Julius Cæsar. 41. Tully's voice. The oratory of Cicero. 42. Livy's pictured page. Titus Livius (B. C. 5917 A. D.). The greatest Roman historian. 47. Sylla. Lucius Cornelius Sulla (c. 138-78 B. C.). Famous for his wholesale proscription of Roman citizens. 88. Nemesis. The Greek personification of fortune and hence retribution. 89. Pompey. Cneus Pompeius Magnus (106-48 B. C.). The passage is evidently influenced by Shakspere's description in Julius Cæsar. See also, 267. 32, note. 92. She-wolf. Allusion to a bronze group which is supposed to represent Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, suckled by a wolf. 595. 107. Save one vain man. Napoleon, at the time this was written, a prisoner on the island of St. Helena. 116. Alcides with the distaff. Hercules, in expiation of the murder of Iphitus, sold himself for three years to Omphale, queen of Lydia. During this time according to some poets he sat among women and spun wool. 135. Renew thy rainbow, God! Compare Gen. ix, 13-17. 166. Sprung forth a Pallas. According to the Greek myth, the goddess of wisdom sprang, fullarmed, from the brain of Jove. 596. 173. Saturnalia. A Roman feast in honor of Saturn in which great license was customary. 211. Cornelia's, etc. Celebrated Roman matron, daughter of Scipio Africanus the Elder. 212. Egypt's graceful queen. Cleopatra. 597. 252. There Woos no home. Allusion to his separation from his wife and exile from England. 258. the Palatine. One of the seven hills' of Rome. It is adjacent to the site of the Forum. and was a favorite place of residence with the Roman emperors. 268. All that learning, etc. There have been great additions to the knowledge of Roman antiquities since Byron's day. 294. Titus or Trajan's. It is now believed to have been erected by Trajan, 113 A. D. 304. A mere Alexander. A mere military con queror. 598. 337. Ruins of years, though few. Byron was thirty. 347. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and brother of Electra. After the return of Agamemnon from the Trojan Wars he was murdered by Clytemnestra and her paramour, Aegisthus. They were in turn slain by Orestes and he tormented by the Furies for the killing of his mother. The Agamemnon and The Furies of Aeschylus, the Electra and the Orestes of Euripides, and the Electra of Sophocles, are based upon this legend. 353. For my ancestral faults. The parallel with Orestes is here continued. 384. Janus. The Roman guardian of doors and gateways was represented with two faces. Compare our epithet, 'two-faced.' 599. 415. the Gladiator. The statue in the Museum of the Capitol upon which this passage is based is now usually called 'The Dying Gaul,' not as formerly, The Dying Gladiator,' and is believed to represent a warrior wounded in battle. 429. their Dacian mother. The region north of the Lower Danube was conquered by Trajan and made into the Roman province of Dacia, 101 B. C. Ten thousand captives were carried to Rome and exhibited in combats for the amusement of the Roman populace. 432. Arise! ye Goths, etc. Alludes to the taking of Rome by the Barbarians, in 410 A. D. 456. the bald first Cæsar's head. 'Suetonius informs us that Julius Cæsar was particularly gratified by that decree of the senate which enabled him to wear a wreath of laurel on all occasions. He was anxious, not to show that he was the conqueror of the world, but to hide that he was bald.' (Byron.) This stroke of bold bathos is very characteristic of Byron and anticipates his manner in Don Juan. 600. 463. Thus spake the pilgrims. Byron refers in his note on this passage to Gibbon's Decline and Fall. His familiarity with Gibbon is conspicuous throughout this canto. THE VISION OF JUDGMENT This poem is an indignant parody upon a poem of the same title in which Robert Southey, poet laureate, had celebrated the passing of George III. Byron's anger was augmented by the fact that Southey had arraigned him in his preface as the chief of a Satanic School' of English poetry. Southey had been a strong radical in his earlier years, but had now become a complacent servant of the government. The situation is tersely stated in a sentence of Byron's Preface: These apostate Jacobins furnish rich rejoinders.' 36. A German will. Probably this means only ob scure, difficult. Byron's jibes at Germans were frequent. 37. his son, George IV. 602. 160. Captain Parry's crew. A narrative of Parry's arctic expedition had appeared in 1821. 168. Johanna Southcote. A fanatical Englishwoman of low birth who created a popular religious sensation at the beginning of the century. Died 1814. 200. champ clos, closed field, lists. 604. 281. He came to his scepter young; he leaves it old. George III reigned from 1760 to 1820. 308. Apicius' board. Marcus Gabius Apicius, the most celebrated Roman epicure, flourished in the time of Augustus and Tiberius. 327. The foe to Catholic participation. The po litical disability of Catholics was not removed until 1829. 355. Guelph. The House of Hanover was descended from Guelph stock. The allusion seems inappropriate here, inasmuch as the Guelphs were friends of the Papacy. 357. Cerberus. The watchdog at the entrance of the infernal regions. See 237. 2, note. 359. Bedlam. Bethlehem hospital for the insane, in London; hence, proverbially, the madhouse. DON JUAN, CANTO III 605. 2. Sappho. Greek poetess (c. 600 B. C.). 4. Delos. An island of the Cyclades, Apollo's birthplace, hence Apollo. 4. Phoebus. One of the epithets of Apollo, god of poetry. 7. Scian. The island of Scio was a home of epic poetry and laid claim to Homer. the Teian muse. Anacreon. See below, 63-64. 13. Marathon. See 587. 48, note. 20. Salamis. An island off Attica, near which the Greeks won their decisive naval victory over the fleet of Xerxes, 480 B. C. 55. Pyrrhic dance. An ancient martial dance in quick time. in the island of Samos. His poetry celebrates the pleasures of love and wine. 67-69. Chersonese Miltiades. Miltiades whom Peisistratus had appointed master of the Chersonesus in Crete was the leader to whom the Greeks owed much of their success in Marathon. 74. Suli's rock. Suli, a mountain district in A bania, European Turkey, was the home of a war like race, Suliotes. They played an important part in the Greek rebellion with which Byron was later associated. Parga's shore. Parga was an Albanian sea-port 76. Doric. One of the divisions of the Greek race. Here, Spartan. 78. Heracleidan blood. Race of Hercules, Spar tans. 79. Franks. Western Europeans generally. 606. 91. Sunium's marbled steep. Cape Colonna with its ruins of a temple of Athene. 99. Orpheus. The earliest poet in Greek legend See 238. 145, note. 127. the great Marlborough's skill. He won the battle of Blenheim, 1704. 128. Life by Archdeacon Coxe. Like many e: Byron's allusions, this one is strictly up-to-date. The Memoirs of Marlborough appeared in 1718-19 133. his life Johnson's way, etc. Dr. Johnson's life of Milton in his Lives of the English Poets (1779-80). 138. Bacon's bribes. See p. 187. 139. Titus' Youth. The reign of Titus Vespa sianus (A. D. 79-81) was popular; but his youth, though brilliant, had been marked by luxury and indiscretion. Cæsar's earliest acts. The youth of Julius Cæsar is said to have been voluptuous. 140. Doctor Currie. James Currie (1756-1805). a Scottish physician, edited the first collective edi tion of Burns's works (1800). 146. Pantisocracy. See the sketch of Coleridge. p. 542. 148. peddler poems. A hit at the humbleness of Wordsworth's characters. 152. Milliners of Bath. The implication is false. The Misses Fricker were respectable young women of Bristol, although they had lived for a time at Bath. 154. Botany Bay. An inlet near Sydney, Aus tralia, the seat of a colony of transported criminals. 607. 198. Boccaccio's lore. The reference is to the eighth tale of the fifth day of the Decameron. 199. Dryden's lay. Dryden's Theodore and Honoria, is an adaptation of the above-mentioned tale by Boccaccio. 205. Onesti's line. Boccaccio's Nastagio degli Onesti is Dryden's Theodore. 608. 238. Cantabs. Those associated with the Uni versity of Cambridge. The conception of Prometheus Unbound was sug gested to Shelley by the Prometheus Bound of Eschylus. The Titan, Prometheus, having offended Zeus by his gift to man of fire and the arts, is bound to a rocky mountain-side and subjected to appalling tortures. Nothing can subdue his will and he disappears at the end in a tremendous storm. Shelley represents Prometheus, after the lapse of ages, adding love to power and endurance; whereupon he is released by Hercules and united with Asia, who typifies the generative principle in nature. Act IV is purely lyrical and portrays the elements rejoicing in the overthrow of Jupiter, the evil potency which has hitherto ruled the universe and the bulk of humanity. 619. 197. Æolian, wind-born. From Eolus, god of winds. 620. 291. valueless, priceless, beyond valuation. 621. 348. Sceptered curse. Jupiter. 622. 427. Dadal, cunningly contriving or creative. 623. 484. Manad, Bacchante. 485. Agave, the daughter of Cadmus. 486. Cadmeian, Theban; from Cadmus, the mythical founder of Thebes. A world of oriental mystery envelops the Cadmeian legend. 522. A mighty Power. Demogorgon, who seems to represent, in Shelley's mythology, the ultimate force which presides over the destinies of the uni verse. ODE TO THE WEST WIND 625. 21. Manad. See 623. 484, note. 32. pumice, a light, porous, volcanic substance. 32. Baia's bay. Modern Baja, in Campania, Italy. Baie was a favorite resort of the luxurious in the days of the Early Empire. THE INDIAN SERENADE 626. 11. Champak. An Indian tree, planted about temples. The perfume of its flowers is often celebrated in Hindu poetry. THE CLOUD 627. 81. cenotaph. An honorary tomb to a person whose remains are lost, or who is buried elsewhere. ADONAIS 629. This elegy was written in memory of John Keats, for whom, see p. 639. 12. Urania. The celestial Muse. She is the Heavenly Muse of Milton's Paradise Lost. Shelley's conception has been influenced by that of Mil ton. 630. 55. that high Capital. Rome. 631. 127-35. Lost Echo, etc. Narcissus. insensible to love, was caused to fall in love with his own image and pined away until he was turned into a flower. The nymph Echo, disappointed of his love, died from grief. 140. to Phabus was not Hyacinth. Apollo fell in love with a beautiful youth, Hyacinthus, who died and was turned into a flower. See 241. 106, note. 141. Narcissus. See above, 127-35, note. 160. brere, brier. 632. 238. the unpastured dragon. The selfish and greedy world. 244. The herded wolves. The banded critics who execute the will of successful politicians. 250. The Pythian of the age. Lord Byron in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, by allusion to the Pythian Apollo, slayer of the Python. 633. 264. The Pilgrim of Eternity. The author of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Byron. 268. Ierne, Ireland. Thomas Moore is meant. 271. Midst others of less note, etc. Shelley himself. 276. Acteon-like. According to a Greek myth the hunter Actæon, having seen Diana bathing, was changed into a stag and destroyed by his Own hounds. 280. pardlike, leopardlike. 307-15. What softer voice, etc. Keats's nearest friend among literary men, Leigh Hunt. 634. 325. Live thou, whose infamy, etc. The unknown critic who had assailed Keats in the Quar. terly Review. 635. 399. Chatterton. See p. 377. 401. Sidney. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86). See p. 81. 404. Lucan. Marcus Annæus Lucanus (39-65 A. D.), Roman poet. He committed suicide to prevent his execution for joining a conspiracy against Nero. 439. A slope of green access. The protestant burial ground at Rome, where Keats was buried, and where Shelley's ashes were placed a few months after these lines were written. FINAL CHORUS FROM HELLAS 636. The conception of this poem and many of the details are adapted from Virgil's fourth Eclogue. 9. Peneus. The principal river in Thessaly. 11. Tempes. The vale of Tempe, in Thessaly, between Olympus and Ossa and traversed by the river Peneus, is celebrated for its beauty. 12. Cyclads. The islands known as the Cyclades are in the Ægean Sea, about Delos. Among those frequently mentioned in Greek history are Ceos, Naxos, and Paros. 13. Argo. The ship in which Jason and the Argonauts sought the golden fleece. 15. Orpheus. See 238. 145, note. 18. Calypso. At the opening of the Odyssey, Ulysses is being detained by the nymph Calypso THE EVE OF ST. AGNES 1. St. Agnes' Eve, January 20, in popular opinien, apt to be the coldest night of the year. St. Agnes suffered martyrdom under Diocletian. The chief superstitions connected with the Eve of St. Agnes are given in the course of the poem, especially 11. 47-55. 643. 172. Since Merlin paid his Demon. According to the legend with which Keats was familiar, Merlin had been begotten by demons. He was beguiled by an enchantress who employed one of his own spells to imprison him forever in a tree in the forest of Broceliande. Immediately afterward, a terrific tempest swept the forest. The legend forms the basis of Tennyson's Merlin and Vivien in The Idylls of the King. 643. 242. missal where swart Paynims pray. A prayer-book bearing upon its margin pictures ci converted heathen in the act of prayer. 644. 270. Fez. See 611. 431, note. 271. Samarcand. A city in Turkestan, more portant in the middle ages than now. capital of the conqueror Tamerlane. It was the 271. cedared Lebanon. A mountain range in Syria, famed from remote antiquity for its cedars. 293. In Provence called, 'La belle dame san mercy. This is the title of a poem by Alan Chartier, a translation of which Keats had seen in a volume of Chaucer. The ascription of it to Provence is fanciful. The same words suggested to Keats the poem of this title, p. 654. 645. 350. Rhenish, wine from the vineyards of the Rhine. 350. mead, a liquor made by fermenting honey, much prized by the ancient Teutons. ROBIN HOOD For the ballads of Robin Hood, see above. pp 38-42. LINES ON THE MERMAID TAVERN 646. 4. the Mermaid Tavern. A favorite resort of Elizabethan dramatists, Shakspere, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, etc. 6. Canary wine. Wine made in the Canary islands. It was the sack' of Shakspere and hs contemporaries. ODE ON A GRECIAN URN 647. 7. Tempe. See 636. 11, note. 7. Arcady. Arcadia, celebrated in pastoral poetry as the house of a carefree shepherd life. 41. brede, embroidery. Strictly, braid. ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE 4. Lethe-wards. Towards the river of oblivion. 7. Dryad, a tree nymph. 13. Flora, goddess of the flowers and the spring. 14. Provencal song. Medieval lyric began Provence. See 644. 293, and note. 16. Hippocrene, the Muses' fountain on Mount Helicon. 648. 32. Bacchus and his pards. The leopard of, more strictly, the panther, was associated with the god of wine. He was sometimes represented in a chariot drawn by leopards. 37. Fays, fairies. 66. Ruth. See Ruth ii. ODE ON MELANCHOLY 1. Lethe. The river of oblivion, in Hades. 4. Proserpine. Queen of the infernal regions. 7. Psyche, the soul. Her symbol was the butter fly. HYPERION Of the design of this poem Keats's friend, Woodhouse, wrote in his annotated copy: The poem. if completed, would have treated of the dethrone |