"The terrible names of the Pandoor, the Croat, and the Hussar then first became familiar to Western Europe." 251. baffled. In chivalry, baffle was a technical word. See Trench's Study of Wonis. "The unfortunate Charles of Bavaria, vanquished by Austria, betrayed by Prussia, driven from his hereditary states, and neglected by his allies, was hurried by shame and remorse to an untimely end." He died at Munich in 1745. 252. [the fatal doom. What is the force of the article here?] 253. blame. See note on sorrow, Lycid. 166. 265. Comp. As you like it, II. vii. 163-6. 270. Orpheus. See Lycid. 59. [What is meant by witness'd here ?] 273. dictates, the Lat. dictata. We should rather say "dictations," if we used any word of this family. 274. [What is the sense of positively here? What is its common sense now? Connect the two senses.] 275. the still returning tale. This weakness of old age is a theme Thackeray often touches upon, in a style between tears and laughter. 72. 277. [What is the meaning of gath'ring here?] 280. expence. Perhaps this old spelling arose from some lurking suspicion, quite groundless, of a connection between this word and pence. 282. [Explain improve here.] 285. Comp, Horace's Ep. ad Pis. 170. The miser has been a favourite subject with both painters and poets, [Mention instances.] 293. See Goldsmith's Deserted Village, 107–112. 302. [Explain mourns here.] 308. [Explain superfluous.] 313. See Herod. i. 29—33. [What is meant here by descend?] 317. In the last eight years of Marlborough's life (1714-22), "two paralytic strokes shook his strength, but without at all seriously impairing his faculties;" Johnson's line "was at least a poetical exaggeration; for he continued to be consulted on all affairs of war or of policy and to attend his parliamentary and other duties until a few months before his death." (Cabinet Portrait Gallery of British Worthies, Vol. xi.) 318. See Johnson's Lives of the Poets, Swift: "He grew more violent, and his mental powers declined, till (1741) it was found necessary that legal guardians should be appointed of his person and fortune. He now lost distinction. [What does that mean?] His madness was compounded of rage and fatuity... At last he sunk into a perfect silence, which continued till about the end of October, 1744, when in his 78th year he expired without a struggle." 319. teeming. See Hymn Nat. 240. 73. 320. birth what is born. So 2 Henry IV., IV. iv. 122, &c. So often partus in Latin, as in Cic. Tusc. Disp. v. 27: "bestiæ pro suo partu propugnant." 321. Vane. Lady Vane, the daughter of a Mr Hawes; she married first Lord William Hamilton, and then Lord Vane; she was the mistress of Lord Berkeley and others. She is the heroine of the Memoirs of a Lady of Quality, inserted in Smollett's Peregrine Pickle. See Walpole's Letters, passim. 322. Sedley. The daughter of Sir Charles Sedley, was one of the mistresses of James II. made by him Countess of Dorchester. See Macaulay's Hist. Eng. chap. vi. It was certainly not her beauty that raised, or ruined her; for this "form that pleased a king" was singularly plain; but her influence over her lover was supreme. "Personal charms she had none, with the exception of two brilliant eyes. . . . The nature of her influence over James is not easily to be explained. ... Catharine herself was astonished by the violence of his passion." 346. darkling. The term ling here is not participial, but adverbial. So in grovelling &c. See note to sidelong, Des. Vill. 29. 353. [What is the meaning of ambush here?] 355. Secure here in the sense of the Latin securus, as Hor. Od. I. xxvi. 3-6: "Quis sub Arcto Rex gelidæ metuatur oræ Quid Teridaten terreat, unice In this sense verbalized secure occurs in King Lear, IV. i. 22-a passage which has terribly puzzled commentators. 359. Comp. the prayer which Horace offers for himself at the dedication of a temple of Apollo: “Frui paratis et valido mihi, Cum mente nec turpem senectam 361. for love which can hold or contain nearly all mankind, love of vast capacity. 362. Sovereign o'er transmuted ill = sovereign over ill so that it becomes transmuted or changed into good. Transmuted is used proleptically. Misfortunes may be made blessings, if borne well and nobly. Transmute was a technical term in alchemy. 74. 365. [Should we now use goods in this way?] Y COLLINS. William Collins was born at Chichester, the son of a hatter, in 1720. He received education at Winchester school, and at Queen's College, Oxford. About the year 1744, according to Dr Johnson, he came up to London, "with many projects in his head and very little money in his pocket," which indeed was very much Dr Johnson's own equipment on his first appearance in the metropolis. For some years he led a life of hardships and necessities. "He published proposals for a History of the Revival of Learning" he designed several tragedies; he undertook to translate, with a commentary, Aris totle's Poetics; but with all these strings to his bow he shot nothing. Like many another litterateur of his time he lived often in fear of the debtor's prison. Johnson speaks of visiting him one day, "when he was immured by a bailiff that was prowling in the street." At last he was freed from his pecuniary difficulties by a legacy from an uncle of some 2000-“ a sum which Collins could scarcely think exhaustible, and which he did not live to exhaust." Freed from poverty, stil direr evils fell upon him-disease, and insanity. After a vain struggle with a terrible despondency which gradually overwhelmed him, he was confined for a time in a lunatic asylum, and shortly afterwards died in his sister's house in his native city. Like Gray, Collins produced but little; but concerning him, as concerning Gray, there can be no doubt that he had in him a genuine poetical spirit. His Ode How sleep the brave is one of the most exquisite gems of our lyrical literature. Strength does not so much characterize him as a certain fine delicacy and sweetness. His powers of expression were scarcely adequate for his ideas and sympathies; for certainly he lived mostly in the poet's land; his mind was ever there revelling in the fair visions of it. Spenser, "the poet's poet," was his great delight. When the bailiffs were besetting his earthly lodgings, he was often far away in Faerie. He felt and enjoyed more than he could write. In what little he did write, with all its imperfections, it is easy to see how refined and spiritual was his nature. THE PASSIONS. INTRODUCTION. Collins, like Spenser, has but little dramatic power; for his fine imagination abstractions were themselves real and substantial enough; he does not feel any necessity for clothing them with flesh and blood. Hence in his poems, as in Spenser's, abstractions abound unbodied, as Peace, Evening, Mercy, Simplicity, and the Passions in the following poem. He introduces "airy nothings" in all their airiness; for him they are the real existences. Despair is as forcible a figure in his eyes as the desperate man; the concrete has no advantage over the abstract. Poets of this type are never, and are not likely ever to be, so popular as the dramatic poets. The general taste prefers creations more tangible and solid; it cannot be satisfied with spiritual visions; it wearies of pure airinesses; nor can this preference be justly censured. Collins can only hope. like another greater master of the same poetic order, for "fit audience, though few." 75. 2. yet. See note to Il Penser., 30. 3. shell. See note on Dryden's Song for St Cecilia's Day, 17. 8. disturb'd. Comp. in Coleridge's exquisite lyric Love: That tenderest strain of all the ditty, My faltering voice and pausing harp 10. [What is the meaning of rapt here?] 11. myrtles. See Lycid. 2. 14. forceful. Shaks. Winter's Tale, II. i. 161-3: "Why, what need we Commune with you of this, but rather follow Our forceful instigation?" So in Collins' Manners: "Each forceful thought." Comp. in Ode to Simplicity: "forceless numbers." 16. [What is meant by expressive power?] See Collins' Ode to Fear. 25. See Spenser's picture of Despair and his cave, F. Q. I. ix. 33-54. 26. [What part of the sentence is low sullen sounds?] 76. 32. [What part of the sentence is at distance?] 35. So the Lady in Comus; see her invocation of Echo. 36. [Explain where here.] 37. close. See note in Hymn on the Nativity, 100. 41. See Dickens' Great Expectations. This passage is perhaps somewhat theatrical, and not altogether to be rescued from that novelist's ridicule. 46. See Revelations viii-x., of the Seven Angels, to whom "were given seven trumpets," how they "sound." 47. [What is meant by the doubling drum?] 49. See Collins' Ode to Pity. 55. veering. "To veer. Fr. virer, to veer, turn round, wheel or whirl about. Cot. It. virare, to turn. Rouchi, virler, to roll. In all probability from the same root with E. whirl, whether it directly descends from Lat. gyrare or not.” (Wedgwood.) [Is the force of diff'ring precisely the same as that of different?] 57. with eyes uprais'd. Comp. Il Penseroso, 39. 59. sequester'd. See Gray's Elegy, 75. 63. runnel. This diminutival form is used by Fairfax, &c. We now prefer runlet. 65. haunted stream. See L'Alleg., 130. 77. 69. [What noun is represented by its? Paraphrase this line.] alter'd is here used loosely for other, or different, = Lat. alius, as in Sall. Cat. 52; "Longe alia mihi mens est," and Plaut. Pan. prol. 125; "alius nunc fieri volo." 71. See Virgil's picture of Venus disguised as a huntress to meet her forlorn sea-beaten son. Æn. i. 318: "humeris de more habilem suspenderat arcum Venatrix." 72. buskins. See latter part of the note to Il Pens. 102. Add Virg. Æn. i. 336, 7, where Venus explains her costume thus: And Ecl. vii. 32. "Virginibus Tyriis mos est gestare pharetram, 324 73. [What is the force of that here?] 75. the oak-crowned sisters = the virginal sisterhood, garlanded with forest leaves, that formed Diana's train. their chaste-eyed queen. See Ben Jonson's noble Hymn to her: 77. alleys. The Spirit in Comus sings of “cedar'n alleys" (1. 991). See also "Yonder alleys green" in Par. Lost, iv. 626. peeping from forth. One might say "peeping from out," and so "from forth:" but more commonly perhaps one would say "peeping forth from.' xiii. 80. [Explain the phrase Joy's ecstatic trial.] 81. viny. Phineas Fletcher speaks of the "viny Rhene" in his Piscatory Eclogues, II. 83. viol. See note on Ode for St. Cec. Day, 37. 88. to. See note on Lycidas, 13. 90. a gay fantastic round. See L'Alleg. 34. 91. He makes Mirth feminine. Comp. Spenser's Phædria, F. Q. II. vi. Horace's corresponding deity is Focus (Od. I. ii. 34). 92. [Who is meant by he?] 94. Comp. Par. Lost, v. 285-7. See note on Il Penser. 146. 95. sphere-descended. See note in Hymn Nat. 125. 99. that lov'd Athenian bower = what he calls above Music's Magic Cell. 100. Observe the use of both thy and you in this passage. It would be in vain to look for any such distinctive force as certainly marks the use of these forms in Shakspere and the older writers. (See Abbot's Shakesp. Gr. §§ 231—5.) 104. devote. See London, 38. 108. [Who is this Sister? What stones does he refer to ?] 110. reed. See note to Lycid. 33. 111. rage is often used in the post-Elizabethan writers of the 17th century, and in the 18th century writers, for inspiration, enthusiasm. Thus Cowley : "Who brought green poesy to her perfect age And made that art which was a rage." 78. 112. Handel's Messiah, which came out in 1741, was not received at first with any great favour. He died in 1759. 113 and 114. He means the organ. Marvell speaks of 'the organ's city': see his lines Music's Empire. See notes on Dryden's Alexander's Feast, &c. The humblest musical instrument in the ancient days, he says, was more effective than that great combination of all musical instruments-the organ-is in these days. 116. Collins, as also Gray, had genuine admiration for Greek art and literature-was a sincere if not a very profound Hellenist. The age in which he lived, as that which preceded it, adored rather what was Latin. Classical, or Classicistic, is too broad a title for what it worshipped. |