Breadalbane. A district in Perthshire, Scotland, Brentford. A town in the county of Middlesex, Brian. King of Dublin in the eleventh century. Briareus. A son of Uranus and Gæa; a monster with a hundred arms. Bridge of Sighs. The covered bridge in Venice leading from the Doge's Palace to the state prison; so called because condemned prisoners formerly passed over it from the judgment hall to the place of execution. Bridge Street Junto. See p. 1033a, n. 2. Brinsley. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), an Britannia. A poetical name for Great Britain. British Museum. A national institution in London. Britonferry. A seaport in Glamorganshire, Wales. Brocken. One of the Hartz Mountains in Saxony, famous for its "specter" caused by the shadow cast upon the clouds. Bronte. A title of Lord Nelson. Brooke, Lord. Fulke Greville (1554-1628), Lord Brooke, an English poet and philosopher. Brougham. Henry Peter, Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868), a celebrated British statesman, jurist, and scientist. He became Chancellor in 1830. He was one of the founders of The Edinburgh Review, in 1802. Broughton. Jack Broughton (1704-89), a prizefighter; he fought with George Stevenson in 1771. Brown, Tom Brown (1663-1704), an English satirical poet and prose writer. Browne. Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82), an English physician, author of Religio Medici, Urn Burial, etc. Bruce. Robert de Bruce (1274-1329), King of Scot land; he defeated Edward II of England at Bannockburn in 1314. Brunetière. Ferdinand Brunetière (1849-1906), a French literary critic. Bruno, St. An eleventh century monk, founder of the order of Carthusian monks, at Chartreuse, France. Brunswick. A duchy in Germany. In 1830 it was the scene of the outbreak of the Bel- Brutus. The legendary king and founder of Britain. Bucephalus. The war-horse of Alexander the Great; physician. Bucks. Buckingham, an inland county of England. Buffamalco. Buonamico Buffalmacco (c. 1262-1340), a Florentine painter, celebrated in Boccaccio's Decameron. Bull. (930) William Bull (1738-1814), Lord Mayor of London in 1773. Bull, John. A name that stands for England or an Englishman, Bulwer-Lytton. Edward Robert, Earl of Lytton Burgoyne. John Burgoyne (1723-92), an English east-central Burke. Edmund Burke (1729-97), an Irish orator, statesman, and writer. See p. 1186. Burleigh. See Exeter, Lord. Burnet. Thomas Burnet (1635-1715), an English writer, noted chiefly as the author of Telluris Theoria Sacra, remarkable for its vivid imagery and purity of style. Burn-mill. A meadow in the Yarrow Valley, Selkirkshire, Scotland. Burton. Robert Burton (1577-1640), a noted English writer, author of The Anatomy of Melancholy. Busyrane. An enchanter in Spenser's The Faerie Queene. Bute. John Stuart (1713-92), Earl of Bute, an English statesman and leader of the party of George III. Butler, Bishop. Joseph Butler (1672-1752), an English theologian. Byzantine. Of ancient Byzantium. Byzantium. An ancient Greek city on the site of modern Constantinople. Cadiz. A seaport of southwestern Spain. Cadmean forest. A forest near Cadmeia, the citadel or acropolis of Thebes, in Boeotia, Greece. Cadmus. The reputed founder of Thebes in Boeotia, Greece. He brought the old Phoenician, or Cadmean, alphabet of sixteen letters to Greece. Cadwallader (d. 703). The last king of Wales; the hero of Welsh poems. Cadwallo. An ancient Welsh poet. Cæcilia. See Cecilia, Saint. Cæsar, Augustus. See Augustus. Cæsar. Julius Cæsar (100-44 B. C.), a famous Roman general, statesman, and writer. He was assassinated by Brutus, Cassius, and others. Cæsarean. Belonging to Julius Cæsar. Caf. In Mohammedan mythology, a mountain, consisting of a single emerald, said to surround the whole earth. Cain. The eldest son of Adam and Eve, and the murderer of his brother Abel. He was condemned to be a fugitive for his sin. Cairo. The capital of Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile. Calais. A fortified seaport on the north coast of France. Calantha. A character in John Ford's tragedy, The Broken Heart (1633). She drops dead of a broken heart after an extraordinary ballroom scene during which, with apparent calm and while continuing her dance, she listens to the announcement of the deaths, one after another, of her father, lover, and brother. Calchas. In Greek legend, the wisest soothsayer who accompanied the expedition against Troy.Ni Calcutta. The capital of Bengal, India. Calder, Sir Robert (1745-1818). A British admiral who fought an indecisive naval battle with the Franco-Spanish fleet in 1805, and was severely blamed for not continuing the action to the finish. Calderon. Pedro Calderon (1600-81), a Spanish dramatist. Caleb Williams. A famous political novel by William Godwin (1756-1836), published in 1794. Caledon; Caledonia; Caledonie. Ancient and poetical names for Scotland. Caliban. A deformed savage slave of Prospero, in Caligula. A Roman emperor (37-41 A. D.). " (1770-1843), a celebrated French marahai, commanded a division at Waterloo Cambusmore. The estate of a family, nam334 chanan, near Callander, Perthshire, Boot Cambynes. An ancient king of Persia. As acter in several dramas, he became ances Burney, 1752-1840), published in 14 Ince in Italy. The part of PLE Tina and the De Canary Islands in th west of Africa, fam Cancer. A constellat a crab, and st Course northwar Candlemas. The tear Virgin Mary. Temple, celebrate many candles. customary dates Canidia. A sorceres Cannæ. A village the Romans Blood," from ta- Canning. George Tory statesTnat Canobie. A friesshire, Sc Canongate. The Town of Eden Canopus. The # Canova. Anto sculptor. Canzoni, Italia Cape St. Vincen Capitol, The. in Rome, c Capitoline E itoline Hil Caracci, Anniba! celebrated from Farnese Pac Caradoc. Carantat of a British Carasman. Carr holder in back to the Cardigan. A Carmanian WHER mania sian Gr Carmel. A **** near pa Carnarvonitime Carr. Sim books 1* ridge of low hills; so that it gives an opportunity to the inhabitants of the place of noticing the stars in both the positions here alluded to, namely, on the tops of the mountains, and as winter-lamps at a distance among the leafless trees."-Wordsworth's note. "THERE!" SAID A STRIPLING, POINTING WITH MEET PRIDE This and the following sonnet belong to a group of 48 poems "composed or suggested during a tour in the summer of 1833." Wordsworth's companions were his son John and his friend H. Crabb Robinson. Wordsworth's note on the first of the sonnets here printed is as follows: "Mosgiel was thus pointed out to me by a young man on the top of the coach on my way from Glasgow to Kilmarnock. It is remarkable that, though Burns lived some time here, and during much the most productive period of his poetical life, he nowhere adverts to the splendid prospects stretching towards the sea and bounded by the peaks of Arran on one part, which in clear weather he must have had daily before his eyes. In one of his poetical effusions he speaks of describing 'fair Nature's face" as a privilege on which he sets a high value; nevertheless, natural appearances rarely take a lead in his poetry. It is as a human being, eminently sensitive and intelligent, and not as a poet, clad in his priestly robes and carrying the ensigns of sacerdotal office, that he interests and affects us. Whether he speaks of rivers, hills, and woods, it is not so much on account of the properties with which they are absolutely endowed, as relatively to local patriotic remembrances and associations, or as they ministered to personal feelings, especially those of love, whether happy or otherwise; yet it is not always so. Soon after we had passed Mosgiel Farm we crossed the Ayr, murmuring and winding through a narrow woody hollow. His line 'Auld hermit Ayr strays through his woods' came at once to my mind with Irwin, Lugar, Ayr, and Doon, Ayrshire streams over which he breathes a sigh as being unnamed in song; and surely his own attempts to make them known were as successful as his heart would desire." The poetry of the age of Catullus, Terence, and Lucretius was less artificial than that · of the age of Statius and Claudian. The poetry of the age of Shakspere and Beaumont and Fletcher was characterized by spontaneity and naturalness; that of Donne and Cowley, by extravagant refinements; that of Dryden and Pope, by precision and conformity to set rules. Johnson, S.: The Lives of the English Poets Kind, J. L.: Edward Young in Germany (New Texte, J.: "Young's Influence in France," Jean Thomas, W.: Le poète Edward Young (Paris, 318b. 3. Creation.-"It is worth while here to 322a. 28f. Cf. Shelley's A Defense of Poetry EDWARD YOUNG (1681-1765), p. 33 EDITIONS Poetical Works, 2 vols., ed., with a Life, by J. BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM Eliot, G.: "Worldliness and Otherworldliness: the Poet Young," Essays (London, Blackwood, 1888). Hazlitt, W.: "On Swift, Young, Gray, Collins, etc.," Lectures on the English Poets (London, 1818); Collected Works, ed. Waller and Glover (London, Dent, 1902-06; New York, McClure), 5, 104. CRITICAL NOTES As a rule, Young's verse is hollow and formal, and his thought commonplace; yet his themean escape from manners and dress, etc.-and his use of blank verse make his work important among the forerunners of Romanticism. NIGHT THOUGHTS As originally published this poem was entitled The Complaint; or, Night Thoughts. Young prefixed to it the following Preface: "As the occasion of this poem was real, not fictitious, so the method pursued in it was rather imposed by what spontaneously arose in the author's mind on that occasion, than meditated or designed, which will appear very probable from the nature of it. For it differs from the common mode of poetry, which is, from long narrations to draw short morals. Here, on the contrary, the narrative is short, and the morality arising from it makes the bulk of the poem. The reason of it is that the facts mentioned did naturally pour these moral reflections on the thought of the writer." 36b. 51. Speaking of Dryden, Young says: "The strongest demonstration of his no-taste for the buskin are his tragedies fringed with rhyme, which in epic poetry is a sure disease, in the tragic, absolute death. To Dryden's enormity, Pope's was a slight offence. As lacemen are foes to mourning, these two authors, rich in rhyme, were no great friends to those solemn ornaments which the noble nature of their works required."-From Conjectures on Original Composition. 287. 288. The last six lines are addressed to Wordsworth's sister Dorothy. See note on To My Sister, p. 1361a. TO TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE Toussaint (surnamed L'Ouverture, the Opener, because he broke through the enemy's lines) was the noted negro liberator of San Domingo. In 1801 he attempted to free the Island from the control of Napoleon, but was captured and imprisoned for life. The sonnet was written while he was lying in the dungeon at Fort de Joux, France. He died in 1803. WRITTEN IN LONDON, SEPTEMBER, 1802 "This was written immediately after my return from France to London, when I could not but be struck, as here described, with the vanity and parade of our own country, especially in great towns and cities, as contrasted with the quiet, and I may say the desolation, that the revolution had produced in France. This must be borne in mind, or else the reader may think that in this and the succeeding sonnets I have exaggerated the mischief engendered and fostered among us by undisturbed wealth. It would not be easy to conceive with what a depth of feeling I entered into the struggle carried on by the Spaniards for their deliverance from the usurped power of the French. Many times have I gone from Allan Bank in Grasmere Vale, where we were then residing, to the top of the Raise-gap as it is called, so late as two o'clock in the morning, to meet the carrier bringing the newspaper from Keswick. Imperfect traces of the state of mind in which I then was may be found in my Tract on the Convention of Cintra, as well as in these sonnets."-Wordsworth's note. The Convention of Cintra, concluded between the French and the English in 1808, provided that the French should evacuate Portugal. They were taken to France in English vessels. TO THE DAISY resem "This poem and two others to the same "Though it happe me to rehersin TO THE DAISY (Bright Flower) "This and the other poems addressed to the same flower were composed at Town-end. Grasmere, during the earlier part of my residence there. I have been censured for the last line but one-thy function apostolical' as being little less than profane. How could it be thought so? The word is adopted with reference to its derivation, implying something sent on a mission; and assuredly this little flower, especially when the subject of verse, may be regarded, in its humble degree, as administering both to moral and to spiritual purposes."-Wordsworth's note. |
