Poems by Samuel Rogers Part 4

NOTE m.

_Say why the pensive widow loves to weep_.

The influence of the a.s.sociating principle is finely exemplified in the faithful Penelope, when she sheds tears over the bow of Ulysses.

Od. xxi. 55.

NOTE n.

_If chance he hears the song so sweetly wild_

The celebrated Ranz des Vaches; cet air si cheri des Suisses qu'il fut defendu sous peine de mort de la jouer dans leurs troupes, parce qu'il faisoit fondre en larmes, deserter Ou mourir ceux qui l'entendoient, tant il excitoit en eux l'ardent desir de revoir leur pays. ROUSSEAU.

The maladie de pays is as old as the human heart. JUVENAL'S little cup-bearer,

Suspirat longo non visam tempore matrem, Et casulam, et notes tristis desiderat hoedos.

And the Argive, in the heat of battle,

Dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos.

NOTE o.

_Say why VESPASIAN lov'd his Saline farm_.

This emperor, according to Suetonius, constantly pa.s.sed the summer in a small villa near Reate, where he was born, and to which he would never add any embellishment; _ne quid scilicet oculorum consuetudini deperiret_. SUET. in Vit. Vesp. cap. ii.

A similar instance occurs in the life of the venerable Pertinax, as related by J. Capitolinus. Posteaquam in Liguriam venit, multis agris coemptis, tabernam pater-nam, _manente forma priore_, infinitis aedificiis circun-dedit. Hist. August. 54. And it is said of Cardinal Richelieu, that, when he built his magnificent palace on the site of the old family chateau at Richelieu, he sacrificed its symmetry to preserve the room in which he was born.

Mem. de Mlle, de Montpensier, i. 27. An attachment of this nature is generally the characteristic of a benevolent mind; and a long acquaintance with the world cannot always extinguish it.

"To a friend," says John Duke of Buckingham, "I will expose my weakness: I am oftener missing a pretty gallery in the old house I pulled down, than pleased with a saloon which I built in its stead, though a thousand times better in all respects."

See his Letter to the D. of Sh.

Such were Diderot's _Regrets sur sa vieille Robe de Chambre_.

"Pourquoi ne avoir pas gardee? Elle etoit faite a moi; j'etois fait a elle.--Mes amis, gardez vos vieux amis."

This is the language of the heart; and will remind the reader of that good-humoured remark in one of Pope's letters--"I should hardly care to have an old post pulled up, that I remembered ever since I was a child."

POPE'S Works, viii. 151.

Nor did the Poet feel the charm more forcibly than his Editor.

See HURD'S Life of Warburton, 51, 99.

The elegant author of Telemachus has ill.u.s.trated this subject, with equal fancy and feeling, in the story of Alibee, Persan.

NOTE p.

_Why great NAVARRE, &c_.

That amiable and accomplished monarch, Henry the Fourth of France, made an excursion from his camp, during the long siege of Laon, to dine at a house in the forest of Folambray; where he had often been regaled, when a boy, with fruit, milk, and new cheese; and in revisiting which he promised himself great pleasure.

Mem. de SULLY, ii. 381.

NOTE q.

_When DIOCLETIAN'S self-corrected mind_

Diocletian retired into his native province, and there amused himself with building, planting, and gardening. His answer to Maximian is deservedly celebrated. He was solicited by that restless old man to re-a.s.sume the reins of government, and the Imperial purple. He rejected the temptation with a smile of pity, calmly observing, "that if he could shew Maximian the cabbages which he had planted with his own hands at Salona, he should no longer be urged to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power."

GIBBON, ii. 175.

NOTE r.

_Say, when contentious CHARLES renounc'd a throne_,

When the emperor Charles V. had executed his memorable resolution, and had set out for the monastery of St. Justus, he stopped a few days at Ghent, says his historian, to indulge that tender and pleasant melancholy, which arises in the mind of every man in the decline of life, on visiting the place of his nativity, and viewing the scenes and objects familiar to him in his early youth.

ROBERTSON, iv. 256.

NOTE s.

_Then did his horse the homeward track descry_.

The memory of the horse forms the ground-work of a pleasing little romance of the twelfth century, ent.i.tled, "Lai du Palefroi vair."

See Fabliaux du XII Siecle.

Ariosto likewise introduces it in a pa.s.sage full of truth and nature.

When Bayardo meets Angelica in the forest, ........Va mansueto a la Donzella, ..................................

Ch'in Albracca il serva gia di sua mano.

ORLANDO FURIOSO, canto i. 75.

NOTE t.

_Sweet bird! thy truth shall HARLEM'S walls attest_.

During the siege of Harlem, when that city was reduced to the last extremity, and on the point of opening its gates to a base and barbarous enemy, a design was formed to relieve it; and the intelligence was conveyed to the citizens by a letter which was tied under the wing of a pigeon.

THUa.n.u.s, lib. lv, c. 5.

The same messenger was employed at the siege of Mutina, as we are informed by the elder Pliny.

Hist. Nat. x. 37.

NOTE u.

_Hark! the lee, &c_.

This little animal, from the extreme convexity of her eye, cannot see many inches before her.

NOTES ON THE SECOND PART.

NOTE x.