NOTES TO THE VISION OF JUDGMENT. 1.-Page 151, line 1. In the first year of freedom's second dawn [GEORGE III. died the 29th of January, 1820,-a year in which the revolutionary spirit broke out all over the south of Europe.] 2.-Page 153, line 25. "He was, if I remember, king of France; [Louis XVI., guillotined in January, 1793.] 3.-Page 155, line 32. By Captain Parry's crew, in " Melville's Sound.” ["I believe it is almost impossible for words to give an idea of the beauty and variety which this magnificent phenomenon displayed. The luminous arch had broken into irregular masses, streaming with much rapidity in different directions, varying continually in shape and interest, and extending themselves from north, by the east, to north. The usual pale light of the aurora strongly resembled that produced by the combustion of phosphorus; a very slight tinge of red was noticed when the aurora was most vivid, but no other colours were visible."-Sir E. Parry's Voyage in 1819-20, p. 135.] 4.-Page 156, line 8. Johanna Southcote, or Bob Southey raving. [Johanna Southcote, the aged lunatic, who fancied herself, and was believed by many followers, to be with child of a new Messiah, died in 1815.] 5.-Page 161, line 22. The wrongs he made your satellites endure; [This refers to the opposition of George III. to the Catholic claims.] 6.-Page 162, line 19. Stuck in their loins; or like to an "entré" [A gold or gilt key, peeping from below the skirts of the coat, marks a lord chamberlain.] 7.-Page 162, line 32. If that the summer is not too severe : [An allusion to Horace Walpole's expression in a letter-" the summer nas set in with its usual severity."] 8.-Page 168, line 11. A nabob, a man-midwife; but the wight [Among the various persons to whom the letters of Junius have been attributed we find the Duke of Portland, Lord George Sackville, Sir Philip Francis, Mr. Burke, Mr. Dunning, the Rev. John Horne Tooke, Mr. Hugh Boyd, Dr. Wilmot. "I don't know what to think," says Lord Byron in 1813. "Why should Junius be dead? If suddenly apoplexed, would he rest in his grave without sending his dwho to shout in the ears of posterity, 'Junius was X. Y. Z., Esq., buried in the parish of ***** Repair his monument, ye churchwardens! Print a new edition of his Letters, ye booksellers! Impossible, the man must be alive, and will never die without the disclosure. I like him ;-he was a good hater."-Sir Philip Francis, whose pretensions Lord Byron seems to favour, died in 1818.] 9.-Page 168, line 24. At this epistolary "Iron Mask." [The mystery of "l'homme au masque de fer," the everlasting puzzle of the last century, has in the opinion of some been cleared up, by a French work published in 1825, and which formed the basis of an entertaining one in English by Lord Dover.] 10.-Page 170, line 3. Old" Nominis Umbra;" and while speaking yet, [The well-known motto of Junius is, "Stat nominis umbra."] 11.-Page 170, line 21. Of Skiddaw (where as usual it still rain'd), [Mr. Southey's residence was on the shore of Derwentwater, near the Mountain Skiddaw.] 12.-Page 171, line 32. Non Di, non homines-you know the rest." [Mediocribus esse poetis Non Di, non homines, non concessere columnæ.-Horace.] 13.-Page 172, line 7. The monarch, mute till then, exclaim'd, "What! what! [The king's trick of thus repeating his words was a fertile source of ridicule to Peter Pindar (Dr. Wolcot).] VOL. II. N 14.-Page 172, line 8. Pye come again? No more-no more of that!" [Henry James Pye, the predecessor of Mr. Southey in the poetlaureateship, died in 1813. He was the author of many works besides his official Odes, and among others "Alfred," an epic poem. Pye was a man of good family in Berkshire, sat some time in parliament, and was eminently respectable in everything but his poetry.] 15.-Page 173, line 19. Reviewing "the ungentle craft," and then See "Life of Henry Kirke White." 16.-Page 174, line 15. Like King Alfonso. When I thus see double, Alfonso, speaking of the Ptolomean system, said that "had he been consulted at the creation of the world, he would have spared the Maker some absurdities." 17.-Page 174, line 24. Like lightning, off from his “melodious twang." See Aubrey's account of the apparition which disappeared "with a curious perfume, and a most melodious twang;" or see the "Antiquary," vol. i., p. 225, 18.-Page 175, line 11. For all corrupted things are buoy'd like corks, A drowned body lies at the bottom till rotten; it then floats, as most people know. 19.-Page 175, line 15. In his own den, to scrawl some "Life" or "Vision," [Southey's Vision of Judgment appears to us to be an ill-judged and not a well-executed work. Milton alone has ever founded a fiction on the basis of revelation without degrading his subject; but Milton has been blamed by the most judicious critics, and his warmest admirers, for expressing the counsels of Eternal Wisdom, and the decrees of Almighty Power, by words assigned to the Deity. It is impossible to deceive ourselves into a belief that words proceeded from the Holy Spirit, except on the warrant of inspiration itself. It is here only that Milton fails, and here Milton sometimes shocks. The blasphemies of Milton's devils offend not a pious ear, because they are devils who utter them. Nor are we displeased with the poet's presumption in feigning language for heavenly spirits, because it is a language that lifts the soul to heaven. The words are human; but the truths they express, and the doctrines they teach, are divine.-Blackwood, 1822.] INTRODUCTION TO THE AGE OF BRONZE. IN the long line of English Barons few could be prouder of their peerage than Lord Byron, or more tenacious of its privileges. It is common enough for the most jealous aristocrats to be the advocates of the people, if for no better motive than to join the sweets of popularity to the dignity of rank. Lord Byron never made politics a pursuit, nor did he usually take in them the ordinary interest which is felt by the generality of educated men. Circumstances, however, induced him to throw his weight into the liberal scale. The first important connections which he formed in London were of the Whig persuasion, and social influence, in a disposition like his, helped largely to determine his political bias. He was inclined, too, on every subject to stand forth among the champions of the latitudinarian side, from his love of startling sober people with the extravagance of his doctrines, and shocking them by the virulence with which he railed at the dignitaries in whom they confided. Add to this, that most of his manhood was passed abroad, where there was little to conciliate a generous nature to the governments of the day, and where revolutionary projects attracted a spirit that delighted in storms. He professed, nevertheless, to be quite as averse to the tyranny of mobs as to the tyranny of kings, but not having deliberated on the most difficult of sciences-the means of obtaining and securing a well-regulated freedom-it is easy to perceive that he spoke and acted from the impulse of the hour, and often from his desire to show his wit, or to gratify his spleen. Until he composed the "Age of Bronze," at Genoa, in the early part of 1823, politics had only been treated by him incidentally or in minor pieces, and when at last he devoted this satire to the subject, he appears not to have written from the fulness of his mind, or on any well-defined plan. He returned to a favourite theme,the low and lofty qualities which were antithetically mixed in the character of Napoleon,-jeered at the Congress of Verona and the sovereigns who convened it, rated the landed interest of England for their attempt to keep up rents, and concluded with exclaiming against Maria Louisa for her second marriage, and with laughing at Sir William Curtis for appearing at Holyrood in a tartan dress. None of these topics are handled with his wonted power, except a portion of the first, where a few sparks are called forth by the exile of Napoleon which shine with the brilliancy of the former flame. Brief as are these passages no other pen could have produced them, and they are only wanting in effect because the lofty flight is not long sustained. On the publication of the poem in London, by Mr. John Hunt, considerable doubts of its authenticity were expressed, for the knight having failed in his usual prowess, some clumsy imitator was suspected of having borrowed the device on his shield. |