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134, clxxvii. Quite in the prevailing style of the last century, when a poet, to be entirely in the fashion, must needs introduce a "Delia" into his poetry. Still, it has a grace and lightsomeness of its own, which relieves it from commonplace.

137, cxc. From The Earthly Paradise. The sympathetic reader will mark the vein of melancholy, -I had almost said, of hopeless melancholy, -that runs through Mr. Morris's poetry

138, cxci. Several versions of this lyric are in existence. The present is adopted from Dr. Hannah's Courtly Poets, and others may be found in Napier's Memoirs of Montrose and Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time. The most considerable differences occur in the last verse, which is sometimes made to run:

"But if no faithless action stain
Thy love and constant word
I'll serve thee in such noble ways
As ne'er was known before;

I'll crown and deck thee all with bays,
And love thee more and more."

This is Sir Walter Scott's reading in The Legend of

Montrose.

139, cxciii. Howell, in his Letters, says: "But that

140,

140,

which afforded me most entertainment in these miscellanies, was Doctor Henry King's Poems, wherein I find not only heat and strength, but also an exact concinnity and evenness of fancy." They were edited by Dr. Hannah in 1843.

cxciv. From The Idylls of the King: "Merlin and Vivien."

cxcv. Rochester was another of those "courtly poets," who have infused so much light and life into our literature. This lyric is excellent in its spirit of careless gaiety.

141, cxcvi. From The Earthly Paradise.

143, cxcix. From The Idylls of the King: "The Last Tournament.'

144, cci. Ascribed to Raleigh in The London Magazine for August, 1734, and appended to Raleigh's Life by Cayley. It is, of course, intended as a reply to the next poem, by Wither.

147,

cciv. From The Duenna, act i., scene 3. This play is full of light and sparkling songs, of which that beginning,

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"Had I a heart for falsehood framed,"

is the most familiar.

152, ccxi. From The Spanish Gipsy.

152,

153,

ccxii. From the Reliquia Wottoniana; also, in Davison's Poetical Rhapsody, ed. 1602, with Wotton's initials, and as an " Elegy," ed. 1621, as "Of a Woman's Heart." It is wrongly claimed for Rudyard in an edition of that writer's poems published in 1660.

ccxiii. From the preface to Bliss's Brydges' ed. of England's Helicon, p. xxvi. A different copy was printed by Byrd in 1587.

154, ccxiv. From The Forest, song vii.

154,

ccxv. A very similar, almost identical, poem is included in Herrick's Hesperides.

156, ccxix. Walsh published his Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant in 1692. He has more elegance," said Dr. Johnson, "than vigour, and seldom rises higher than to be pretty."

Dryden called him "the best critic of our nation," and Pope has recorded how "knowing Walsh would teach' him 44 how to write :"

"Such late was Walsh, the muse's judge and friend, Who justly knew to blame or to commend."

157, ccxx. From Tottel's Songes and Sonnettes (1557). It is ascribed to Viscount Rochford in Nuga Antiquæ, ed. Park.

158, ccxxi. "If these verses are genuine," says Hallam, "and I know not how to dispute it, they are as polished as any written at the close of the Queen's reign.'

159,

ccxxii. The last verse of this song is generally omitted.

160. ccxxiv. Stanley's poems were privately printed by Sir Egerton Brydges in 1814.

164, ccxxviii. From Phantastes. See Nos. vii. xxiv. and ccli.

166, ccxxxii. Compare with No. lviii. Donne's poems are generally too involved in style for modern taste. A smoother version of the present lyric may be read in Mr. Locker's Lyra Elegantiarum.

167. ccxxxiii. This, and the next poem, were first -printed in 1706 in Watson's Collection of Scottish Poems.

169,

ccxxxv. The first and second verses of this poem, which first appeared in The Paradise of Dainty

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Devises, are almost identical with the first and fourth of one of Sir Thomas Wyatt's lyrics.

170, ccxxxvi. "Waly, waly," is an expression of sorrow, the root and pronunciation of which, says Mr. Palgrave, are preserved in the word "caterwaul." "Cramasie' is "crimson;' "busk" is "adorn;" and "brae and " burn are the Scotch equivalents for hill-side and brook. St. Anton's Well is at the foot of Arthur's Seat, by Edinburgh.

171, ccxxxvii. I cannot resist quoting in this note an exquisite fragment by this poet, which it does not come within my plan to include in the body of the book:

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Love in her sunny eyes does basking play;

Love walks the pleasant mazes of her hair;
Love does on both her lips for ever stray,
And sows and reaps a thousand kisses there.
In all her outward parts Love's always seen;
But oh! he never went within."

172, ccxxxviii. From The Vicar of Wakefield.
174, ccxlii. A tender melancholy is the leading feature
of Miss Rossetti's poetry, as it is that of so much of
the feminine poetry of the present day.

178, ccxlviii. Miss Procter, too, is full of a sad sentiment; but her verse is, as a rule, less musical in rhythm than Miss Rossetti's.

181, ccli. From Phantastes. See Nos. vii., xxiv., and

Ccxxviii.

182, From Macmillan's Magazine, vol. xxiv. 183, ccliv. Lady Anne Barnard has herself given an account of the origin of this touching ballad. She says there was an ancient Scotch melody, of which she was passionately fond, and which a friend of hers used to sing to her at her father's house, Balcarras. This friend, it seems, did not object to its having improper words; but Lady Barnard (then Lady Lindsay) did; she longed, she says, to sing the air to different words, and give to its plaintive tones some little history of virtuous distress in humble life, such as might suit it. The song as it now stands was accordingly completed and became a favourite in the domestic circle; but the authorship, so far from becoming generally known, was not divulged till 1823. The verses had been written in 1771, and the title, Robin Gray," was taken from the name of an old herdsman in Lord Balcarras' service. The

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story has since been elaborated into a prose fiction by Mr. Charles Gibbon. See Dyce's Specimens of the English Poetesses.

184, cclv."

By its style," says Mr. Palgrave. "this beautiful example of old simplicity and feeling may be referred to the early years of Elizabeth." 185, cclvi. This song occurs in act v., scene 2, of Fletcher's Bloody Brother, and is printed in the spurious edition of Shakespeare's Poems (1640). The first verse is also found in act iv., scene 1, of Measure for Measure. Did Shakespeare write both stanzas? did he write only the first stanza, while Fletcher wrote the second? or did some unknown poet write the whole? "These," says Dyce, "are questions which must ever remain matters of dispute."

188, cclx. From Saint Paul's Magazine, vol. vi. 197, cclxviii. From The Earthly Paradise.

201, cclxxii. From The Wanderer.

208, cclxxix. From Much Ado About Nothing, act ii., scene 3.

208, cclxxx. From The Queen of Corinth. Several of the lines were afterwards incorporated into the ballad of The Friar of Orders Gray.

209,

cclxxxi. From Death's Jest Book, act ii., scene 1. 209, cclxxxii. From Twelfth Night, act ii., scene 4. 210, cclxxxiii. From The Captain.

215,

216,

ccxc. From The Idylls of the King; and Elaine."

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"Lancelot

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ccxcii. Mr. Palgrave considers this ballad " rior to any other of its class in melody and pathos. Part is probably not later than the seventeenth century in other stanzas a more modern hand, much resembling Scott's, is traceable." Logan, who has a poem on the same subject, exhibits a knowledge rather of the old legend than of the old verses.' Hecht" means "promised;" "mavis," "thrush;" "ilka," every;" "lav'rock,' "lark;" "haughs," "valley-meadows;" "twined," "parted from;" marrow,' mate; "syne," then,"

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217, ccxciii.

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"Burd

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means "fair."

219, ccxcv. From Hamlet, act iv., scene 5.

2:20,

ccxcvi. The second, and by far the finest, as it is the best known, verse, was contributed by Mrs. Wordsworth.

223, ccxcix. From The Cornhill Magazine.

INDEX OF AUTHORS.

ALLINGHAM, WILLIAM (b. about 1828), ccxli.
Allison, Richard (circa 1599), ci.

Anonymous, iv. xxxvii. xlii. li. cxxiv. cxxvii. cxxix. clxxv.
cciii. ccxxxvi. cclv. ccxcii. ccxciii. ccxciv.

Arnold, Matthew (b. 1822), clxxx. ccxlv. cclxii. cclxiii.
cclxiv. cclxxiii.

Aytoun, Sir Robert (1570-1638), ccxxxiii. ccxxxiv.

Barnard, Lady Anne (1750-1825), ccliv.

Beaumont and Fletcher (1585?-1615; 1576-1625), ix
xvi. cclxxii. cclxxxiii. cclxxxiv.

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell (1760-1808), cclviii. cclxxxi.
Behn, Aphra (1642—1689), lxi.

Brome, Alexander (1620-1666), cxxv. ccxxv.
Browne, William (1590-1645), xxxviii.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett (1809-1861), lxv. cxxvi.
clvii. clxxi. ccxxvi. cclxxviii.

Browning, Robert (b. 1812), xlviii. 1. lxviii. lxxvvi.
clx. clxi. ccxlix. ccxcviii.

Buckingham, John, Duke of (1649—1721), lxxxvii.
Bullock, Elizabeth D., vi. cclxxvii.

Burns, Robert (1759-1796), cxii. cxlvi. cxlvii. cxlviii.
cxlix. cl. ccxxxix. cclvii.

Byron, George, Lord (1788-1824), cxvi. cxvii. clxxxvi.
cclxx.

Campbell, Thomas (1777-1844), viii. xxiii. cxx. clxxii.
clxxviii. cclix. cclxxxvii.

Carew, Thomas (1589-1639), lix. civ. cv. cvi. cxxxviii.
cxxxix. ccxv. ccxxii. ccxxiii. ccxxx.

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