Nella cervigia, e quando io n' ho nel mosto, Pulci, Morgante Maggiore, c. 18, s. 151. CANTO III. STANZA LXXI.-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. CANTO III. STANZA LXXII.-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. CANTO III. STANZA LXXIII.-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. The 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. CANTO III. STANZA CXXIII.— Εσπερε παντα φερείς Fragment of Sappho. CANTO III. STANZA CXXIV.— Era gia l' ora che volge 'l disio, Punge, se ode squilla di lontano, Che paia 'l giorno pianger che si muore. Dante's Purgatory, Canto 8. This last line is the first of Gray's Elegy, taken by him without acknowledgment. CANTO III. STANZA CXXV.-See Suetonius, for this fact. CANTO IV. STANZA XII.-See Herodotus. CANTO IV. STANZA LIX.-This is no very uncommon effect of the violence of conflicting and different passions. The Doge, Francis Foscari, on his deposition, in 1457, hearing the bell of St. Mark announce the election of his successor, "mourut subitement d'une hemorragie causée par une veine qui s'eclate dans sa poitrine," (see Sismondi and Daru, vols. 1 and 2.) at the age of 80 years, when "Who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him?" Before I was 16 years of age, I was witness to a melancholy instance of the same effect of mixed passions upon a young person; who, however, did not die in consequence, at that time, but fell a victim, some years afterwards, to a seizure of the same kind, arising from causes intimately connected with agitation of mind. CANTO IV. STANZA LXXX.-This is a fact. A few years ago a man engaged a company for some foreign theatre ; embarked them at an Italian port, and, carrying them to Algiers, sold them all. One of the women, returned from her captivity, I heard sing, by a strange coincidence, in Rossini's opera of "L'Italiana in Algeri," at Venice, in the beginning of 1817. CANTO IV. STANZA LXXXVI.-It is strange that it should be the Pope and the Sultan who are the chief encouragers of this branch of trade-women being prohibited as singers at St. Peter's, and not deemed trustworthy as guardians of the harem. CANTO IV. STANZA CIII.-The pillar which records the battle of Ravenna is about two miles from the city, on the opposite side of the river to the road towards Forli. Gaston de Foix, who gained the battle, was killed in it: there fell, on both sides, 20,000 men. The present state of the pillar and its site is described in the text. CANTO V. STANZA III.-This expression of Homer has been much criticised. It hardly answers to our Atlantic ideas of the ocean, but is sufficiently applicable to the Hellespont and the Bosphorus, with the Egean intersected with islands. CANTO V. STANZA V.-"The Giant's Grave" is a height on the Adriatic shore of the Bosphorus, much frequented by holiday parties; like Harrow and Highgate. CANTO V. STANZA XXXIII.-The assassination alluded to took place on the 8th of December, 1820, in the streets of R, not a hundred paces from the residence of the writer. The circumstances were as described. CANTO V. STANZA XXXIV.-There was found close by him an old gun barrel, sawn half off': it had just been discharged, and was still warm. CANTO V. STANZA LIII.-In Turkey nothing is more common than for the Mussulmans to take several glasses of strong spirits by way of appetizer. I have seen them take as many as six of raki before dinner, and swear that they dined the better for it: I tried the experiment, but was like the Scotchman, who, having heard that the birds called kittiewiaks were admirable whets, ate six of them, and complained that "he was no hungrier than when he began." CANTO V. STANZA LV.-A common furniture.-I recollect being received by Ali Pacha, in a room containing a marble basin and fountain. CANTO V. STANZA LXXXVII.-Features of a gate-a ministerial metaphor; "the feature upon which this question hinges."-See the "Fudge Family," or hear Castlereagh. CANTO V. STANZA CVI.-There is perhaps nothing more distinctive of birth than the hand: it is almost the only sign of blood which aristocracy can generate. CANTO V. STANZA CXLVII.-It may not be unworthy of remark that Bacon, in his essay "on Empire," hints that Solyman was the last of his line: on what authority, I know not. These are his words: "The destruction of Mustapha was so fatal to Solyman's line, as the succession of the Turks from Solyman, until this day, is suspected to be un true, and of strange blood, for that Solyman II. was thought to be supposititious." But Bacon, in historical authorities, is often inaccurate. I could give half a dozen instances from his apophthegms only. Being in the humour of criticism, I shall proceed, after having ventured upon the slips of Bacon, to touch on one or two as trifling in the edition of the British Poets, by the justly celebrated Campbell. But I do this in good will, and trust it will be so taken. If any thing could add to my opinion of the talents and true feeling of that gentleman, it would be his classical, honest, and triumphant defence of Pope, against the vulgar cant of the day, and its existing Grub-street. The inadvertencies to which I allude are, Firstly, in speaking of Anstey, whom he accuses of having taken "his leading characters from Smollett." Anstey's Bath Guide was published in 1766. Smollett's Humphrey Clinker (the only work of Smollett's from which Tabitha, &c. could have been taken) was written during Smollett's last residence at Leghorn, in 1770.-" Argal," if there has been any borrowing, Anstey must be the creditor, and not the debtor. I refer Mr. Campbell to his own data in his lives of Smollett and Anstey. Secondly, Mr. Campbell says, in the life of Cowper (note to page 358, vol. 7.) that he knows not to whom Cowper alludes in these lines: "Nor he who, for the bane of thousands born, "Built God a church, and laugh'd his word to scorn." The Calvinist meant Voltaire, ardt he church of Ferney, with its inscription: "Deo erexit Voltaire." Thirdly, in the life of Burns, Mr. C. quotes Shakespeare thus, "To gild refined gold, to paint the rose, This version by no means improves the original, which is as follows: "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, King John. A great poet, quoting another, should be correct: he should also be accurate, when he accuses a Parnassian brother of that dangerous charge "borrowing :" a poet had better borrow any thing (excepting money) than the thoughts of another-they are always sure to be reclaimed but it is very hard, having been a lender, to be denounced as the debtor, as is the case of Anstey versus Smollett. As there is "honour amongst thieves," let there be some amongst poets, and give each his due,-none can afford to give it more than Mr. Campbell himself, who, with a high reputation for originality, and a fame which cannot be shaken, is the only poet of the times (except Rogers) who can be reproached (and in him it is indeed a reproach) with having written too little. CANTO VIII. STANZA VIII.- Allah Hu! is properly the war cry of the Mussulmans; and they dwell long on the last syllable, which gives it a very wild and peculiar effect. CANTO VIII. STANZA IX. "But Thy most dreadful instrument, "Is man array'd for mutual slaughter: Wordsworth's Thanksgiving Ode. CANTO VIII. STANZA XVIII.-A fact: see the Waterloo Gazettes. Irecollect remarking, at the time, to a friend "There is fame! a man is killed: his name is Grose, and they print it Grove." I was at College with the deceased, who was a very amiable and clever man, and his society in great request for his wit, gaiety, and "chansons a boire." *To wit, the Deity's: this is perhaps as pretty a pedigree for murder as ever was found out by Garter King at Arms. What would have been said, had any free-spoken people discovered such a lineage ? |