Dennis, J.: "The Wartons," Studies in English he tried to express them in the Il Penseroso manLiterature (London, Stanford, 1876). ner."-Myra Reynolds, in The Treatment of Nature Pattison, M.: "Pope and His Editors," Essays, in English Poetry between Pope and Wordsworth 1854-82, 2 vols., ed. by H. Nettleship (Oxford, (1896). Oxford Warehouse, 1889). THE PLEASURES OF MELANCHOLY With regard to title and subject, cf. this poem with Akenside's The Pleasures of the Imagination (p. 44), Rogers's The Pleasures of Memory (p. 207), and Campbell's The Pleasures of Hope (p. 417). With regard to should subject it be compared with n Penseroso. ODE ON THE APPROACH OF SUMMER In form and language, this poem is a close imitation of L'Allegro. THE CRUSADE "King Richard the First, celebrated for his achievements in the Crusades, was no less distinguished for his patronage of the Provencial minstrels, and his own compositions in their species of poetry. Returning from one of his expeditions in the Holy Land, in disguise, he was imprisoned in a castle of Leopold, Duke of Austria. His favorite minstrel, Blondel de Nesle, having traversed all Germany in search of his master, at length came to a castle, in which he found there was only one prisoner, and whose name was unknown. Suspecting that he had made the desired discovery, he seated himself under a window of the prisoner's apartment, and began a song, or ode, which the King and himself had formerly composed together. When the prisoner, who was King Richard, heard the song, he knew that Blondel must be the singer; and when Blondel paused about the middle, the King began the remainder and completed it. The following ode is supposed to be this joint composition of the minstrel and King Richard."-Warton's prefatory Advertisement. WRITTEN IN A BLANK LEAF OF DUGDALE'S MONASTICON The Monasticon Anglicanum of Sir William Dugdale (1605-86) is a treatise on English Monasteries. It was published in three volumes (1655-73). WRITTEN AT STONEHENGE In this sonnet, Warton summarizes several legends concerning the origin and meaning of Stonehenge, the celebrated prehistoric stone monument on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England. OBSERVATIONS ON THE FAIRY QUEEN OF SPENSER The selections here printed are taken from the second edition, 1762. JOHN WILSON ("Christopher North") (1785-1854), p. 1153 EDITIONS Works, 12 vols., ed. by J. F. Ferrier (Edinburgh, Essays, Critice and Imaginative, 4 vols., ed. by J. F. Ferrier (Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1866). Noctes Ambrosianæ, 4 vols., ed. by J. F. Ferrier (Edinburgh, Blackwood. 1864); 5 vols., ed. BIBLIOGRAPHY by R. S. Mackenzie (New York, Widdleton, Reynolds, Myra: In her edition of The Poems of 1872). Anne, Countess of Winchilsea (1903). The Recreations of Christopher North, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1864). CRITICAL NOTES "It is remarkable that, excepting the Nocturnal Reverie of Lady Winchilsea and a passage or two in the Windsor Forest of Pope, the poetry of the period intervening between the publication of the Paradise Lost and The Seasons does not contain a single new image of external nature, and scarcely presents a familiar one from which it can be inferred that the eye of the poet had been steadily CRITICISM Le Fèvre Deumier, J.: Célébrités Anglaises (Paris, fixed upon his object, much less that his feelings had urged him to work upon it in the spirit of genuine imagination."-Wordsworth, in Essay, Supplementary to the Preface (1815). Didot, 1895). McCosh, J.: The Scottish Philosophy (London, Macmillan, 1874; New York, Carter, 1875). Rawnsley, H. D.: Literary Associations of the "In general feeling an Augustan, with an underEnglish Lakes, 2 vols. (Glasgow, MacLehose, current of real love for nature. It is in her 1894, 1906). fondness for country life, her love of outdoor Saintsbury G.: Essays in English Literature, beauty, and her accurate descriptions of nature, 1780-1860, First Series (London, Percival, 1890; that she differs from her contemporaries. In these New York, Scribner). important points, she may certainly be classed as Thomson, James: Biographical and Critical Studies reactionary in tendency. Her octosyllabic ode (London, Reeves, 1896). To the Nightingale has true lyric quality, and her Walker, H.: The English Essay and Essayists, short poems The Tree and A Nocturnal Reverie are ch. 9 (London, Dent, 1915; New York, Dut- notable expressions of nature-worship."--Phelps, ton). in The Beginning of the English Romantic MoveWinchester, C. T.: A Group of English Essayists ment (1893). of the Early Nineteenth Century (New York, Macmillan, 1910). BIOGRAPHY Douglas, G. P. S.: The Blackwood Group (Famous BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM Dowden, E.: "Noble Authoress," Essays, Modern and Elizabethan (New York, Dutton, 1910). Gosse, E.: "Lady Winchilsea's Poems," Gossip in a Library (London, Heinemann, 1891). Reynolds, Myra: The Treatment of Nature in English Poetry between Pope and Wordsworth (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1896, 1909). ANNE FINCH, COUNTESS OF WIN- EDITIONS Poems, ed., with an Introduction, by Myra Reynolds (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1903). 1. CRITICAL NOTES THE PETITION FOR AN ABSOLUTE RETREAT "Poetry, sport, and revelry were three fountains of inexhaustible inspiration; and it was from an intimate blending of the most vivid joys of all three that his most original and lasting work The meter of this poem is that of L'Allegro. proceeded. Tavern meetings with good cheer and 2. 59. "Josephus says that every Monday Sologood society, long tramps among the heathery mon went to the House of Lebanon in an glens 'glorious guffawing,' as the Wilsonian Hogg open chariot, cloath'd in a robe most dazzling put it, all night, and immeasurable murder all white, which makes that allusion not imday,' were the elements which, flung across the proper, and may give us grounds to believe rich refracting medium of his imagination, evolved that the lily mention'd by our Savior (comthose unique compounds of poetry, wit, humor, par'd to Solomon in his glory) might really drama, high spirits, and balderdash-the Noctes be the common white lily, altho' the comAmbrosiana."-Herford, in The Age of Wordsmentators seem in doubt what flowers are worth (1897). truly meant by the lilies, as thinking the plain lily not gay enough for the comparison; whereas this garment is noted by Josephus to be wonderfully beautiful tho' only white; nor can any flower, I believe, have a greater lustre than the common white lily."-Lady Winchilsea's note. THE TREE This poem was first published by T. H. Ward in The English Poets, Vol 3 (1880). 89. "These circumstances are related by Plutarch in his Life of Sylla."-Lady Win chilsea's note. The passage referred to is as follows: "At Fidentia, also, Marcus Lucullus, one of Sylla's commanders, reposed such confidence in the forwardness of the soldiers as to dare to face fifty cohorts of the enemy with only sixteen of his own; but because many of them were unarmed, delayed the onset. As he stood thus waiting and considering with himself, a gentle gale of wind, bearing along with it from the neighboring meadows a quantity of flowers, scattered them down upon the army, on whose shields and helmets they settled and arranged themselves spontaneously so as to give the soldiers, in the eyes of the enemy, the appearance of being crowned with chaplets. Upon this, being yet further animated, they joined battle, and victoriously slaying eight thousand men, took the camp." -Sec. 27, 16-29, Dryden's translation. For other marvels attending the campaign of Lucullus, see Plutarch's Life of Lucullus. pay him their last duty. The officers of his regiment bore him to the grave; the funeral service was read by the chaplain; and the corpse was covered with earth." Sir John Moore (1761-1809) was a British general who was killed in the Battle of Corunna (Spain) against the French. He had the reputation of being the best trainer of men that the British army ever had. Wolfe's poem is said to be based on the following paragraph, which appeared in The Edinburgh Annual Register, 1808. "Sir John Moore had often said that if he was killed in battle he wished to be buried where he fell. The body was removed at midnight to the citadel of Corunna. A grave was dug for him on the rampart there, by a party of the 9th Regiment, the Aides-deCamp attending by turns. No coffin could be procured, and the officers of his staff wrapped his body, dressed as it was, in a military cloak and blankets. The interment was hastened for, about eight in the morning, some firing was heard, and the officers feared that if a serious attack was made, they should be ordered away, and not suffered to Lyrical Ballads, a Reprint, ed. by E. Dowden (London, Nutt, 1891, 1898); ed. by T. Hutchinson (London, Duckworth, 1898, 1907); ed. by H. Littledale (Oxford Univ. Press, 1911). Poems of 1807, a Reprint, ed. by T. Hutchinson (London, Nutt, 1897). Prose Works, 3 vols., ed. by A. B. Grosart (London, Moxon, 1876). Prose Works, 2 vols., ed. by W. Knight (Eversley ed. London and New York, Macmillan, 1896). Prefaces and Essays on Poetry, ed., with an Introduction, by A. J. George (Boston, Heath, 1892). Prefaces, with Coleridge's Chapters on Wordsworth in Biographia Literaria, ed. by A. J. George (Belles Lettres ed.: Boston, Heath, 1906). Literary Criticism, ed., with an Introduction, by Letters of the Wordsworth Family from 1787 to 1855, 3 vols., ed. by W. A. Knight (Boston and London, Ginn, 1907). The Prelude, ed., with a Preface, by A. J. George (Boston, Heath, 1888, 1900). JOHN WILSON ("Christopher North") (1785-1854), p. 1153 EDITIONS Works, 12 vols., ed. by J. F. Ferrier (Edinburgh, Essays, Critical and Imaginative, 4 vols., ed. by BIBLIOGRAPHY by R. S. Mackenzie (New York, Widdleton, Reynolds, Myra: In her edition of The Poems of 1872). Anne, Countess of Winchilsea (1903). The Recreations of Christopher North, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1864). CRITICAL NOTES "It is remarkable that, excepting the Nocturnal in the Windsor Forest of Pope, the poetry of the Reverie of Lady Winchilsea and a passage or two Paradise Lost and The Seasons does not contain a period intervening between the publication of the single new image of external nature, and scarcely presents a familiar one from which it can be inferred that the eye of the poet had been steadily CRITICISM Le Fèvre Deumier, J.: Célébrités Anglaises (Paris, fixed upon his object, much less that his feelings had urged him to work upon it in the spirit of in genuine imagination."-Wordsworth, Essay, Supplementary to the Preface (1815). Didot, 1895). McCosh, J.: The Scottish Philosophy (London, Macmillan, 1874; New York, Carter, 1875). Rawnsley, H. D.: Literary Associations of the "In general feeling an Augustan, with an underEnglish Lakes, 2 vols. (Glasgow, MacLehose, current of real love for nature. It is in her 1894, 1906). fondness for country life, her love of outdoor Saintsbury, G.: Essays in English Literature, beauty, and her accurate descriptions of nature, 1780-1860, First Series (London, Percival, 1890; that she differs from her contemporaries. In these New York, Scribner). important points, she may certainly be classed as Thomson, James: Biographical and Critical Studies reactionary in tendency. Her octosyllabic ode (London, Reeves, 1896). To the Nightingale has true lyric quality, and her Walker, H.: The English Essay and Essayists, short poems The Tree and A Nocturnal Reverie are ch. 9 (London, Dent, 1915; New York, Dut- notable expressions of nature-worship."-Phelps. ton). in The Beginning of the English Romantic MoveWinchester, C. T.: A Group of English Essayists ment (1893). of the Early Nineteenth Century (New York, Macmillan, 1910). BIOGRAPHY Douglas, G. P. S.: The Blackwood Group (Famous BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM Dowden, E.: "Noble Authoress," Essays, Modern and Elizabethan (New York, Dutton, 1910). Gosse, E.: "Lady Winchilsea's Poems," Gossip in a Library (London, Heinemann, 1891). Reynolds, Myra: The Treatment of Nature in English Poetry between Pope and Wordsworth (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1896, 1909). ANNE FINCH, COUNTESS OF WIN- EDITIONS CRITICAL NOTES THE PETITION FOR AN ABSOLUTE RETREAT "Poetry, sport, and revelry were three fountains of inexhaustible inspiration; and it was from an intimate blending of the most vivid joys of all three that his most original and lasting work The meter of this poem is that of L'Allegro. proceeded. Tavern meetings with good cheer and 2. 59. "Josephus says that every Monday Sologood society, long tramps among the heathery mon went to the House of Lebanon in an glens 'glorious guffawing,' as the Wilsonian Hogg open chariot, cloath'd in a robe most dazzling put it, all night, and immeasurable murder all white, which makes that allusion not imday,' were the elements which, flung across the proper, and may give us grounds to believe rich refracting medium of his imagination, evolved that the lily mention'd by our Savior (comthose unique compounds of poetry, wit, humor, par'd to Solomon in his glory) might really drama, high spirits, and balderdash-the Noctes be the common white lily, altho' the comAmbrosiana."-Herford, in The Age of Wordsmentators seem in doubt what flowers are worth (1897). truly meant by the lilies, as thinking the plain lily not gay enough for the comparison; whereas this garment is noted by Josephus to be wonderfully beautiful tho' only white; nor can any flower, I believe, have a greater lustre than the common white lily."-Lady Winchilsea's note. Poems, ed., with an Introduction, by Myra Reynolds (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1903). 1. THE TREE This poem was first published by T. H. Ward in The English Poets, Vol 3 (1880). 89. "These circumstances are related by Plutarch in his Life of Sylla."-Lady Win F 432. chilsea's note. The passage referred to is as "At Fidentia, also, Marcus Lucullus, one of J. Morley (Globe ed.: London and New York, Poetical Works, 7 vols., ed., with a Memoir, by E. Poetical Works, 5 vols., ed., with an Introduction, For other marvels attending the campaign of Lucullus, see Plutarch's Life of Lucullus. TO THE NIGHTINGALE 12-13. Cf. Shelley's To a Skylark, 90 (p. 705): "Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought." See also Lamb's Letter to Wordsworth, quoted in notes, p. 1299b, line 6. CHARLES WOLFE (1791-1823), p. 432 EDITIONS Remains of the Rev. Charles Wolfe, 2 vols., ed. CRITICAL NOTES THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE pay him their last duty. The officers of his regiment bore him to the grave; the funeral service was read by the chaplain; and the corpse was covered with earth." Sir John Moore (1761-1809) was a British general who was killed in the Battle of Corunna (Spain) against the French. He had the reputation of being the best trainer of men that the British army ever had. Wolfe's poem is said to be based on the following paragraph, which appeared in The Edinburgh Annual Register, 1808. "Sir John Moore had often said that if he was killed in battle he wished to be buried where he fell. The body was removed at midnight to the citadel of Corunna. A grave was dug for him on the rampart there, by a party of the 9th Regiment, the Aides-deCamp attending by turns. No coffin could be procured, and the officers of his staff wrapped his body, dressed as it was, in a military cloak and blankets. The interment was hastened for, about eight in the morning, some firing was heard, and the officers feared that if a serious attack was made, they should be ordered away, and not suffered to WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850), Poetical Works, 6 vols. (Centenary ed.: London, Poetical Works, 11 vols., ed., with a Life by W. Knight (London, Simpkin, 1882-89); 8 vols. (London, Paterson, 1896; New York, Macmillan). Poetical Works, ed. by T. Hutchinson (Oxford Complete Poetical Works, ed., with a Biographical Poems, 3 vols., ed., with an Introduction, by N. C. Poems, selections, ed. by E. Dowden (Athenæum S. A. Brooke; illustrated by E. H. New (Lon- Lyrical Ballads, a Reprint, ed. by E. Dowden (London, Nutt, 1891, 1898); ed. by T. Hutchinson (London, Duckworth, 1898, 1907); ed. by H. Littledale (Oxford Univ. Press, 1911). Poems of 1807, a Reprint, ed. by T. Hutchinson (London, Nutt, 1897). Prose Works, 3 vols., ed. by A. B. Grosart (London. Moxon, 1876). Prose Works, 2 vols., ed. by W. Knight (Eversley ed. London and New York, Macmillan, 1896). Prefaces and Essays on Poetry, ed., with an Introduction, by A. J. George (Boston, Heath, 1892). Prefaces, with Coleridge's Chapters on Wordsworth in Biographia Literaria, ed. by A. J. George (Belles Lettres ed.: Boston, Heath, 1906). Literary Criticism, ed., with an Introduction, by E. de Sélincourt (Oxford Univ. Press, 1906, Letters of the Wordsworth Family from 1787 to 1855, 3 vols., ed. by W. A. Knight (Boston and London, Ginn, 1907). The Prelude, ed., with a Preface, by A. J. George (Boston, Heath, 1888, 1900). |