Page 48, line 26. As her fair self reflected seems to rise! After line 26, in a former edition. But hence away! yon rocky cave beware! There, tho' the dog-star flame, condemned to dwell Wild Winter ministers his dread controul To cool and crystallize the nectared bowl. Page 49, line 1. These eyelids open to the rising ray, Your bed-chamber, and also your library, says Vitruvius, should have an eastern aspect; usus enim matutinum postulat lumen. Not so the picture-gallery: which requires a north light, uti colores in ope, propter constantiam luminis, immutata permaneant qualitate. This disposition accords with his pian of a Grecian house. Page 49, line 15. Like those blest Youths, See the Legend of the Seven Sleepers.-GIBBON, c. 33. Page 49, line 24. with knowledge health; Milton "was up and stirring, ere the sound of any bell awaked men to labour or to devotion;" and it is related of two Students in a suburb of Paris, who were opposite neighbours, and were called the morning-star and the evening-star -the former appearing just as the latter withdrew-that the morning-star continued to shine on, when the evening-star was gone out for ever. Page 50, line 4. Catch the blest accents of the wise and great. Mr. Pope delights in enumerating his illustrious guests. Nor is this an exclusive privilege of the Poet. The Medici Palace at Florence exhibits a long and imposing catalogue. "Semper hi parietes columnaque eruditis vocibus resonuerunt.' Sheds, like an evening-star, its ray serene, At a Roman supper statues were sometimes employed to hold the lamps. -aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per ædes, A fashion as old as Homer!-Odyss. vii. 100. Hence every artist requires a broad and high light. Michael Angelo used to work with a candle fixed in his hat.-Condivi. Vita di Michelagnolo.-Hence also, in a banquet-scene, the most picturesque of all poets has thrown his light from the ceiling.-En. i. 726. And hence the "starry lamps" of Milton, that Beyond the triumphs of a Loriot's art. At the petits soupés of Choisy were first introduced those admirable pieces of mechanism, afterwards carried to perfection by Loriot, the Confidente and the Servante; a table and a side-board, which descended, and rose again covered with viands and wines. And thus the most luxurious Court in Europe, after all its boasted refinements, was glad to return at last, by this singular contrivance, to the quiet and privacy of humble life.-Vie privée de Louis XV. ii. 43. Between line 18 and line 19 were these lines, since omitted: Hail, sweet Society! in crowds unknown, Though the vain world would claim thee for its own. When in retreat Fox lays his thunder by, And Wit and Taste their mingled charms supply: * When He, who best interprets to mankind They were written in 1796. Page 51, line 23. So thro' the vales of Loire the bee-hives glide, An allusion to the floating bee-house, which is seen in some parts of France and Piedmont. Page 51, line 30. Caught thro' St. James's groves at blush of day; Groves that Belinda's star illumines still, Page 52, line 24. And, with the swallow, wings the year away! It was the boast of Lucullus that he changed his climate with the birds of passage. How often must he have felt the truth here inculcated, that the master of many houses has no home! *[When He; meaning Horne Tooke, the author of the Diversions of Purley, or Erta Tegra, whom the Poet visited at Wimbledon. -ED.] THE VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 1812. Chi se' tu, che vieni-? DANTE. PREFACE. THE following Poem (or, to speak more properly, what remains of it *) has here and there a lyrical turn of thought and expression. It is sudden in its transitions, and full of historical allusions; leaving much to be imagined by the reader. The subject is a voyage the most memorable in the annals of mankind. Columbus was a person of extraordinary virtue and piety, acting, as he conceived, under the sense of a divine impulse; and his achievement the discovery of a New World, the inhabitants *The Original in the Castilian language, according to the Inscription that follows, was found among other MSS. in an old religious house near Palos, situated on an island formed by the river Tinto, and dedicated to our Lady of La Rábida. The Writer describes himself as having sailed with Columbus; but his style and manner are evidently of an after-time. of which were shut out from the light of Revelation, and given up, as they believed, to the dominion of malignant spirits. Many of the incidents will now be thought extravagant; yet they were once perhaps received with something more than indulgence. It was an age of miracles; and who can say that among the venerable legends in the library of the Escurial, or the more authentic records which fill the great chamber in the Archivo of Seville, and which relate entirely to the deep tragedy of America, there are no volumes that mention the marvellous things here described? Indeed the story, as already told throughout Europe, admits of no heightening. Such was the religious enthusiasm of the early writers, that the Author had only to transfuse it into his verse; and he appears to have done little more; though some of the circumstances, which he alludes to as well-known, have long ceased to be so. By using the language of that day, he has called up Columbus "in his habit as he lived;" and the authorities, such as exist, are carefully given by the Translator. |