Compare Childe Harold, Canto II stanza LVIII line 9, Poetical Works, 1899, II 59, note 1. —Editor ↩
See Plutarch’s Caius Marius, Langhorne’s translation, 1838, pp. 304, 305. —Editor ↩
That Lady who is not at home to all.
—[MS. erased]
For a description and print of this inhabitant of the polar region and native country of the Aurorae Boreales, see Sir E. Parry’s Voyage in Search of a Northwest Passage, [1821, p. 257. The print of the Musk-Bull is drawn and engraved by W. Westall, A.R.A., from a sketch by Lieut. Beechy. He is a “fearful wildfowl!”] ↩
Charles, second Earl Grey, born March 13, 1764, succeeded to the peerage in 1807, died July 17, 1847. —Editor ↩
William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham, born November 15, 1708, died May 11, 1778. —Editor ↩
“His person was undoubtedly cast by Nature in an elegant and pleasing mould, of a just height, well-proportioned, and with due regard to symmetry. … His countenance was handsome and prepossessing. … His manners were captivating, noble, and dignified, yet unaffectedly condescending. … Homer, as well as Virgil, was familiar to the Prince of Wales; and his memory, which was very tenacious, enabled him to cite with graceful readiness the favourite passages of either poet.”
—The Historical … Memoirs of Sir N. W. Wraxall, 1884, V 353, 354
—Editor ↩
“Waving myself, let me talk to you of the Prince Regent. He ordered me to be presented to him at a ball; and after some sayings peculiarly pleasing from royal lips, as to my own attempts, he talked to me of you and your immortalities; he preferred you to every other bard past and present. … He spoke alternately of Homer and yourself, and seemed well acquainted with both. … [All] this was conveyed in language which would only suffer by my attempting to transcribe it, and with a tone and taste which gave me a very high idea of his abilities and accomplishments, which I had hitherto considered as confined to manners certainly superior to those of any living gentleman.”
—Letter to Sir Walter Scott, July 6, 1812, Letters, 1898, II 134
—Editor ↩
B. 10bre 7th 1822.—[MS.]
A sculptor projected to hew Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander, with a city in one hand, and, I believe, a river in his pocket, with various other similar devices. But Alexander’s gone, and Athos remains, I trust ere long to look over a nation of freemen.
[It was an architect named Stasicrates who proposed to execute this imperial monument. But Alexander bade him leave Mount Athos alone. As it was, it might be christened “Xerxes, his Folly,” and, for his part, he preferred to regard Mount Caucasus, and the Himalayas, and the river Don as the symbolic memorials of his acts and deeds. —Plutarch’s Moralia. “De Alexandri Fortuna et Virtute,” Orat. II cap. II] ↩
The “Political Economy” Club was founded in April, 1821. James Mill, Thomas Tooke, and David Ricardo were among the original members, See Political Economy Club, Revised Report, 1876, p. 60. —Editor ↩
Stanzas LXXXVIII and LXXXIX are not in the MS. —Editor ↩
Fy. 12th 1823. ↩
The allusion is to the refrain of Canning’s verses on Pitt, “The Pilot that weathered the storm.” Compare, too, “The daring pilot in extremity” (i.e. the Earl of Shaftesbury), who “sought the storms” (Dryden’s “Absalom and Achitophel,” lines 159–161). —Editor ↩
Johnson loved “dear, dear Bathurst,” because he was “a very good hater.”—See Boswell’s Johnson, 1876, p. 78 (Croker’s footnote). —Editor ↩
So, too, Charles Kingsley, in Westward Ho! II 299, 300, calls Don Quixote “the saddest of books in spite of all its wit.”—Notes and Queries, Second Series, III 124. —Editor ↩
By that great Epic—.
—[MS.]
“Your husband is in his old lunes again.”
Merry Wives of Windsor, act IV sc. 2, lines 16, 17
—Editor ↩
“Davus sum, non Oedipus.”
Terence, Andria, act I sc. 2, line 23
—Editor ↩
“ ’Tis not in mortals to command success,
Addison’s Cato, act I sc. 2, ed. 1777, II 77
But we’ll do more, Sempronius—we’ll deserve it.”
—Editor ↩
Compare—
“The colt that’s backed and burdened being young.”
Venus and Adonis, LXX line 5
—Editor ↩
To “break square,” or “squares,” is to interrupt the regular order, as in the proverbial phrase, “It breaks no squares,” i.e. does no harm—does not matter. Compare Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1802), II v 152, “This fault in Trim broke no squares with them” (N. Engl. Dict., art. “Break,” No. 46). The origin of the phrase is uncertain, but it may, perhaps, refer to military tactics. Shakespeare (Henry V, act IV sc. 2, line 28) speaks of “squares of battle.” —Editor ↩
“With every thing that pretty bin,
Cymbeline, act II sc. 3, lines, 25, 26
My lady sweet, arise.”
[So Warburton and Hanmer. The folio reads “that pretty is.” See Knight’s Shakespeare, Pictorial Edition, Tragedies, I 203.] ↩
The house which Byron occupied, 1815–1816, No. 13, Piccadilly Terrace, was the property of Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire. —Editor ↩
The slightest obstacle which may encumber
—[MS. erased]
The path downhill is something grand.
Not even in fools who howsoever blind.
—[MS. erased]
That anything is new to a Chinese;
—[MS. erased]
And such is Europe’s fashionable ease.
A hidden wine beneath an icy presence.
—[MS. erased]
Though this we hope has been reserved for
