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Which still in Juan's candlesticks burn'd high,
For he had two, both tolerably bright,
And in the doorway, darkening darkness, stood
The sable Friar in his solemn hood.

CXVIII.

Don Juan shook, as erst he had been shaken
The night before; but being sick of shaking,
He first inclined to think he had been mistaken;
And then to be ashamed of such mistaking;
His own internal ghost began to awaken
Within him, and to quell his corporal quaking-
Hinting that soul and body on the whole
Were odds against a disembodied soul.
CXIX.

And then his dread grew wrath, and his wrath fierce,
And he arose, advanced-the shade retreated;
But Juan, eager now the truth to pierce,

Follow'd, his veins no longer cold, but heated,
Resolved to thrust the mystery carte and tierce,
At whatsoever risk of being defeated:
The ghost stopp'd, menaced, then retired, until
He reach'd the ancient wall, then stood stone still.
CXX.

Juan put forth one arm-Eternal powers!
It touch'd no soul, nor body, but the wall,
On which the moonbeams fell in silvery showers,
Chequer'd with all the tracery of the hall;
He shudder'd, as no doubt the bravest cowers
When he can't tell what 't is that doth appal.
How odd, a single hobgoblin's nonentity [tity!
Should cause more fear than a whole host's iden-

CXXI.

But still the shade remain'd: the blue eyes glared,
And rather variably for stony death;
Yet one thing rather good the grave had spared,
The ghost had a remarkably sweet breath:
A straggling curl show'd he had been fair-hair'd;
A red lip, with two rows of pearls beneath,
Gleam'd forth, as through the casement's ivy shroud
The moon peep'd, just escaped from a grey cloud.

CXXII.

And Juan, puzzled, but still curious, thrust
His other arm forth-Wonder upon wonder!
It press'd upon a hard but glowing bust,
Which beat as if there was a warm heart under.
He found, as people on most trials must,

That he had made at first a silly blunder,
And that in his confusion he had caught
Only the wall, instead of what he sought.
CXXIII.

The ghost, if ghost it were, seem'd a sweet soul
As ever lurk'd beneath a holy hood:
A dimpled chin, a neck of ivory, stole

Forth into something much like flesh and blood;
Back fell the sable frock and dreary cowl,
And they reveal'd-alas! that e'er they should!
In full, voluptuous, but not o'ergrown bulk,
The phantom of her frolic Grace-Fitz-Fulke!

NOTES.

HOURS OF IDLENESS.

Page 2, col. 1.

"ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY."] The author claims the indulgence of the reader more for this piece than, perhaps any other in the collection; but as it was written at an earlier period than the rest (being composed at the age of fourteen), and his first essay, he preferred submitting it to the indulgence of his friends in its present state, to making either addition or alteration.

Page 3, col. 2.

"On Marston."] The battle of Marston Moor, where the adherents of Charles I. were defeated.

Page 3, col. 2.

"With Rupert, 'gainst traitors contending." Son of the Elector Palatine, and nephew to Charles I. He afterwards commanded the fleet in the reign of Charles 11.

Page 8, col. 1.

TO THE DUKE OF DORSET.] In looking over my papers to select a few additional poems for this second edition, I found the above lines, which I had totally forgotten, composed in the summer of 1805, a short time previous to my departure from Harrow. They were addressed to a young schoolfellow of high rank, who had been my frequent companion in some rambles through the neighbouring country: however, he never saw the lines, and most probably never will. As, on a re-perusal, I found them not worse than some other pieces in the collection, I have now published them, for the first time, after a slight revision.

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"The square of the hypothenuse." The discovery of Pythagoras, that the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the squares of the other two sides of a right-angled triangle.

Page 10, col. 2.

"I fancied that Mossop himself was outshone."] Mossop, a contemporary of Garrick, famous for his performance of Zanga.

Page 11, col. 1.

"Would twinkle dimly through their sphere."]
"Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do intreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return."
SHAKSPEARE.

Page 11, col. I.
Woman, thy vows are traced in sand."] The last line
is almost a literal translation from a Spanish proverb.
Page 12, col. 1.

"And hurtling o'er thy lovely head."] This word is
used by Gray in his poem to the Fatal Sisters:-
"Iron-sleet of arrowy shower
Hurtles in the darken'd air."
Page 12, col. 2.

In law an infant, and in years a boy."] In law every person is an infant who has not attained the age of twenty-one.

Page 13, col. 2.

"To form the place of assignation."] In the above little piece the author has been accused by some candid readers of introducing the name of a lady from whom he was some hundred miles distant at the time this was written; and poor Juliet, who has slept so long in "the tomb of all the Capulets," has been converted, with a trifling alteration of her name, into an English damsel walking in a garden of their own creation, during the month of December, in a village where the author never passed a winter. Such has been the candour of some ingenious critics. He would advise these liberal commentators on taste and arbiters of decorum to read Shakspeare.

Page 13, col. 2.

"But curse my fate for ever after."] Having heard that a very severe and indelicate censure has been passed on the above poem, I beg leave to reply in a quotation from an admired work, Carr's Stranger in France:""As we were contemplating a painting on a large scale, in which, among other figures, is the uncovered whole Jength of a warrior, a prudish-looking lady, who seemed to have touched the age of desperation, after having attentively surveyed it through her glass, observed to her party, that there was a great deal of indecorum in that picture. Madame S. shrewdly whispered in my ear that the indecorum was in the remark."

Page 13, col. 2.

"OSCAR OF ALVA."] The catastrophe of this tale was suggested by the story of "Jeronyme and Lorenzo," in the first volume of Schiller's" Armenian, or the GhostScer." It also bears some resemblance to a scene in the third act of " Macbeth."

Page 18, col. 1.

"Creusa's style but wanting to the dame."] The mother of lulus, lost on the night when Troy was taken.

Page 20, col. 1.

"Ah! hapless dame! no sire bewails."] Meden, who accompanied Jason to Corinth, was deserted by him for the daughter of Creon, king of that city. The chorus, from which this is taken, here addresses Medea; though a considerable liberty is taken with the original, by ex"A numerous crowd, array'd in white."] On a saint's panding the idea, as also in some other parts of the transday the students wear surplices in chapel.

Page 10, col. 1.

lation.

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Page 20, col. 2.

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"Th' ATHENIAN'S glowing style, or Tully's fire."] De- poetical, and has been recommended by many emineat

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Page 22, col. 2.

"Soon as the gloaming spreads her waning shade." As "gloaming," the Scottish word for twilight, is far more literary men, particularly by Dr. Moore in his Letters to Burns, I have ventured to use it on account of its harmony. Page 25, col. 1.

"Or matin orisons to Mary paid."] The priory was dedicated to the Virgin.

Page 25, col. 1.

"Another HENRY the kind gift recalls."] At the dis solution of the monasteries, Henry VIII. bestowed New. stead Abbey on Sir John Byron.

Page 25, col. 2.

"An abbey once, a regal fortress now."] Newstead sustained a considerable siege in the war between Charles

"Sweet scene of my youth! seat of Friendship and 1. and his parliament. Truth."] Harrow.

Page 23, col. 2.

"LACHIN Y GAIR." Lachin y Gair, or, as it is pronounced in the Erse, Loch na Garr, towers proudly preeminent in the Northern Highlands, near Invercauld. One of our modern tourists mentions it as the highest mountain, perhaps, in Great Britain. Be this as it may, it is certainly one of the most sublime and picturesque amongst our Caledonian Alps." Its appearance is of a dusky hue, but the summit is the seat of cternal snows. Near Lachin y Gair I spent some of the early part of my life, the recollection of which has given birth to these

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Page 23, col. 2.

"Ill-starr'd, though brave, did no visions foreboding."] I allude here to my maternal ancestors, "the Gordons, many of whom fought for the unfortunate Prince Charles, better known by the name of the Pretender. This branchi was nearly allied by blood, as well as attachment, to the Stuarts. George, the second Earl of Huntley, married the Princess Annabella Stuart, daughter of James I. of Scotland. By her he left four sons: the third, Sir William Gordon, I have the honour to claim as one of my progenitors.

Page 23, col. 2.

"Ah! were you destined to die at Culloden."] Whether any perished in the battle of Culloden, I am not certain; but, as many fell in the insurrection, I have used the name of the principal action, "pars pro toto."

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Page 25, col. 2.

"Trembling she snatch'd him from th' unequal strife."] Lord Byron and his brother Sir William Eld The former was high commands in the royal army. general-in-chief in Ireland, lieutenant of the Tower, and governor to James, Duke of York, afterwards the uphappy James II.; the latter had a principal share in many actions.

Page 25, col. 2.

"To lead the band where godlike FALKLAND fell"] Lucius Cary, Lord Viscount Falkland, the most secomplished man of his age, was killed at the Battle of Newbury, charging in the ranks of Lord Byron's regiment of Cavalry.

Page 26, col. 1.

"Loathing the offering of so dark a death." This is an historical fact. A violent tempest occurred immedi ately subsequent to the death or interment of Cromirel', which occasioned many disputes between his part-ans and the cavaliers: both interpreted the circumstance into divine interposition; but whether as approbation or cutdemnation, we leave to the casuists of that age to dece I have made such use of the occurrence as suited the subject of my poem.

Page 26, col. 1.

"The legal ruler now resumes the helm."] Charles II. Page 27, col. I.

"PROBUS, the pride of science, and the boast." Dr. Drury. This most able and excellent man retired from his situation in March, 1805, after having resided thirtyfive years at Harrow; the last twenty as head-master: an office he held with equal honour to himself and ad vantage to the very extensive school over which he r sided. Panegyric would here be superfluous: it wou be useless to enumerate qualifications which were never doubted. A considerable contest took place bets-a three rival candidates for his vacant chair: of this I can only say,

Si mea cum vestris valuissent vota, Pelasgi?
Non foret ambiguus tanti certaminis hæres.

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"Seat of my youth! thy distant spire."] Harrow. Page 35, col. 1.

"The cumbrous pomp of Saxon pride."] Sassenach, or Saxon, a Gaelic word, signifying either Lowland or English. Page 35, col. 2,

"To flee away and be at rest."] "And I said, Oh! that I had wings like a dove; for then would I fly away and be at rest."-Psalm Iv. 6. This verse also constitutes a part of the most beautiful anthem in our language.

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words, as a memorial. Afterwards, on receiving some real or imagined injury, the author destroyed the frail record before he left Harrow. On revisiting the place in 1807, he wrote under it these stanzas.

Page 48, col. 1.

"WRITTEN AFTER SWIMMING FROM SESTOS TO ARYDOS."] On the 3rd of May, 1810, while the Salsette (Captain Bathurst) was lying in the Dardanelles, Lieutenant Ekenhead, of that frigate, and the writer of these rhymes, swam from the European shore to the Asiaticby the by, from Abydos to Sestos would have been more correct. The whole distance, from the place whence we length we were carried by the current, was computed started to our landing on the other side, including the by those on board the frigate at upwards of four English miles, though the actual breadth is barely one. The rapidity of the current is such that no boat can row directly across, and it may, in some measure, be eștimated from the circumstance of the whole distance being accomplished by one of the parties in an hour and five, and by the other in an hour and ten minutes. The water was extremely cold, from the melting of the moun. tain snows. About three weeks before, in April, we had made an attempt; but, having ridden all the way from the Troad the same morning, and the water being of an icy chiliness, we found it necessary to postpone the completion till the frigate anchored below the castles, when we swam the straits, as just stated, entering a considerable way above the European, and landing below the Asiatic, fort. Chevalier says that a young Jew swam the same distance for his mistress; and Oliver mentions its having been done by a Neapolitan; but our consul, Tarragona, remembered neither of these circumstances, and tried to dissuade us from the attempt. A number of the Salsette's crew were known to have accomplished a greater distance; and the only thing that surprised me was that, as doubts had been entertained of the truth of Leander's story, no traveller had ever endeavoured to ascertain its practicability.

Page 48, col. 1.

“ Ζώη μου, σὰς ἀγαπῶ."] Romaic expression of tenderness: If I translate it, I shall affront the gentlemen, as it may seem that I supposed they could not; and if I do not, I may affront the ladies. For fear of any misconstruction on the part of the latter, I shall do I love you!" which sounds very prettily in all lanso, begging pardon of the learned. It means, "My life, guages, and is as much in fashion in Greece at this day as, Juvenal tells us, the two first words were amongst the Roman ladies, whose erotic expressions were all Hellenised.

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· Δεύτε παῖδες τῶν ̔Ελλήνων.”] The song Δεύτε Trades, &c. was written by Riga, who perished in the attempt to revolutionise Greece. This translation is as literal as the author could make it in verse. It is of the same measure as that of the original.

Page 49, col. 1.

"And the seven-hill'd city seeking."] Constantinople, “Επτάλοφος.”

Page 49, col. 1.

“Ωραιότατη Χαηδή, &c.] The song from which this is taken is a great favourite with the young girls of Athens of all classes. Their manner of singing it is by verses in rotation, the whole number present joining in the chorus. I have heard it frequently at our "xpor," in the winter of 1810-11. The air is plaintive and pretty.

Page 55, col. 2.

"VERSES FOUND IN A SUMMER-HOUSE AT HALESOWEN." In Warwickshire.

Page 55, col. 2.

"His hours in whistling spent,' for want of thought.""] See Cymon and Iphigenia.

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Page 60, col. 2.

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"Our task complete, like Hamet's shall be free."] Cid Hamet Benengeli promises repose to his pen, in the last

"Or, like the thief of fire from heaven."] Prometheus. chapter of Don Quixote. Oh! that our voluminous gen.

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"Turning rivers into blood."] See Rev. chap. viii. ver. 7, &c. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood," &c. Ver. 8, And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood," &c. Ver. 10," And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp: and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters." Ver. 11, "And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter."

Page 68, col. 2.

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Page 79, col. 2.

try would follow the example of Cid Hamet Benengeli!

Page 92, col. 1.

"Fail'd to preserve the spurious farce from shame."] This ingenious youth is mentioned more particularly, with his production, in another place.

Page 92, col. 1.

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Page 92, col. 2.

Juv. Sat. I.

"Then should you ask me, why I venture o'er."] IMIT. "Cur tamen hoc libeat potius decurrere campo Per quem magnus equos Aurunca flexit alumnus: Si vacat, et placidi rationem admittitis edam " Jur. Sat. I.

Page 93, col. 1.

"From soaring Southey down to grovelling Stott."] Stott, better known in the Morning Post" by the name of Hafiz. This personage is at present the most profound explorer of the bathos. I remember, when the reigning family left Portugal, a special Ode of Master Stott's, be ginning thus:-(Stolt loquitur quoad Hibernia)—

"Princely offspring of Braganza,

Erin greets thee with a stanza," &c. Also a Sonnet to Rats, well worthy of the subject, and a most thundering Ode, commencing as follows:-

"Oh! for a Lay! loud as the surge That lashes Lapland's sounding shore." Lord have mercy on us! the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" was nothing to this.

Page 93, col. 1.

"Thus Lays of Minstrels-may they be the last!"See the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," passim. Never was any plan so incongruous and absurd as the groundwork of this production. The entrance of Thunder and Light

"Leman! these names are worthy of thy shore."] ning, prologuising to Bayes' tragedy, unfortunately takes Geneva, Ferney, Copet, Lausanne.

Page 79, col. 2.

"ROMANCE MUY DOLOROSO DEL SITIO Y TOMA DE ALHAMA." The effect of the original ballad-which existed both in Spanish and Arabic-was such, that it was forbidden to be sung by the Moors, on pain of death, within Granada.

Page 83, col. 1.

"For the man, 'poor and shrewd.'"] Vide your letter.

ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS.

Page 92, col. 1.

"His creaking couplets in a tavern hall."]
IMIT. "Semper ego auditor tantum? nunquamne,
reponam,

Vexatus toties rauci Theseide Codri?"-
Juv. Sat. I.

away the merit of originality from the dialogue between Messieurs the Spirits of Flood and Fell in the first canto. Then we have the amiable William of Deloraine, "a stark moss-trooper," videlicet, a happy compound of poacher, sheep-stealer, and highwayman. The propriety of his magical lady's injunction not to read can only be equalled by his candid acknowledgment of his independ ence of the trammels of spelling, although, to use his own elegant phrase, "'t was his neck-verse at Harribee," i. e. the gallows. The biography of Gilpin Horner, and the marvellous pedestrian page, who travelled twice as fast as his master's horse, without the aid of seVEDleagued boots, are chefs-d'œuvre in the improvement of taste. For incident we have the invisible, but by no means sparing, box on the ear bestowed on the page, and the entrance of a knight and charger into the castle, under the very natural disguise of a wain of hay. Marmion, the hero of the latter romance, is exactly what William of Deloraine would have been, had he been able to read and write. The poem was manufactured for Messrs Constable, Murray, and Miller, worshipful booksellers in consideration of the receipt of a sum of money; and truly, considering the inspiration, it is a very creditable production. If Mr. Scott will write for hire, let him do his best for his paymasters, but not disgrace his genius which is undoubtedly great, by a repetition of blackletter ballad imitations.

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