XCVIII. We learn from Horace, Homer sometimes sleeps ; With his dear Waggoners, around his lakes; XCIX. If he must fain sweep o'er the etherial plain, He fear'd his neck to venture such a nag on, 66 C. 'Pedlars," and "boats," and "waggons!" Oh! ye shades Of Pope and Dryden, are we come to this? That trash of such sort not alone evades The "little boatman" and his "Peter Bell" CI. T' our tale.-The feast was over, the slaves gone, The dwarfs and dancing girls had all retired; The Arab lore and poet's song were done, And every sound of revelry expired; The lady and her lover, left alone, The rosy flood of twilight sky admired ; Ave Maria! o'er the earth and sea, That heavenliest hour of heaven is worthiest thee! CII. Ave Maria! blessed be the hour! The time, the clime, the spot, where I so oft CIII. Ave Maria! 't is the hour of prayer! Ave Maria! 't is the hour of love! Ave Maria! may our spirits dare Look up to thine and to thy Son's above! Ave Maria! oh that face so fair! Those downcast eyes beneath the almighty doveWhat though 't is but a pictured image strike— That painting is no idol, 't is too like. CIV. Some kinder casuists are pleased to say, In nameless print, that I have no devotion; My altars are the mountains and the ocean, Earth, air, stars,-all that springs from the great Whole Who hath produced, and will receive the soul. CV. Sweet hour of twilight! in the solitude Of the pine forest and the silent shore CVI. The shrill cicalas, people of the pine, Making their summer lives one ceaseless song, Were the sole echoes, save my steed's and mine, And vesper-bell's that rose the boughs along: The spectre huntsman of Onesti's line, His hell-dogs, and their chase, and the fair throng, Which learn'd from this example not to fly From a true lover, shadow'd my mind's eye. CVII. Oh Hesperus! 5 thou bringest all good things- CVIII. 6 Soft hour! which wakes the wish and melts the heart Of those who sail the seas, on the first day When they from their sweet friends are torn apart; Or fills with love the pilgrim on his way, As the far bell of vesper makes him start, Seeming to weep the dying day's decay; CIX. When Nero perish'd by the justest doom Of nations freed, and the world overjoy'd, CX. But I'm digressing; what on earth has Nero, Or any such like sovereign buffoons, To do with the transactions of my hero, More than such madmen's fellow-man-the moon's? Sure invention must be down at zero, And I grown one of many "wooden spoons' Of verse (the name with which we Cantabs please To dub the last of honours in degrees). CXI. I feel this tediousness will never do 'T is being too epic, and I must cut down (In copying) this long canto into two: They 'll never find it out, unless I own The fact, excepting some experienced few; And then as an improvement 't will be shown: I'll prove that such the opinion of the critic is From Aristotle passim.-See Пointinns. NOTES TO CANTO III. Note 1. Stanza xlv. For none likes more to hear himself converse. Rispose allor Margutte: a dirtel tosto, Io non credo più al nero, ch'a l'azzurro ; Ne la cervogia, e quand' io n' ho nel mosto;' Ma sopra tutto nel buon vino ho fede; E credo che sia salvo chi gli crede. PULCI, Morgante Maggiore, Canto 18, Stanza 115. Note 2. Stanza Ixxi. That e'er by precious metal was held in. This dress is Moorish, and the bracelets and bar are worn in the manner described. The reader will perceive hereafter, that, as the mother of Haidee was of Fez, her daughter wore the garb of the country. Note 3. Stanza lxxii. A like gold bar, above her instep roll'd. The bar of gold above the instep is a mark of sovereign rank in the women of the families of the Deys, and is worn as such by their female relatives. Note 4. Stanza lxxiii. Her person if allow'd at large to run. This is no exaggeration; there were four women whom I remember to have seen, who possessed their hair in this profusion; of these, three were English, the other was a Levantine. Their hair was of that length and quantity that, when let down, it almost entirely shaded the person, so as nearly to render dress a superfluity. Of these, only one had dark hair; the Oriental's had, perhaps, the lightest colour of the four. Note 5. Stanza cvii. Oh Hesperus! thou bringest all good things. Εσπερε, πάντα φέρεις. Φέρεις οἶνον, φέρεις αἶγα, Φέρεις ματέρι παῖδα. Fragment of Sappho. Note 6. Stanza cviii. Soft hour! which wakes the wish and melts the heart. Era già l' ora che volge 'l disio, A' naviganti, e 'ntenerisce il cuore ; Punge, se ode Squilla di lontano, Che paja 'l giorno pianger che si muore. DANTE'S Purgatory, Canto viii. This last line is the first of Gray's Elegy, taken by him without acknowledgment. Note 7. Stanza cix. Some hands unseen strew'd flowers upon his tomb. See Suetonius for this fact. |