—Editor ↩
Brougham, in the famous critique of Hours of Idleness (Edinburgh Review, January, 1808, vol. XI pp. 285–289), was pleased “to counsel him that he do forthwith abandon poetry and turn his talents, which are considerable, and his opportunities, which are great, to better account.” Others, however, gave him encouragement. See, for instance, a review by J. H. Markland, who afterwards made his name as editor of the Roxburgh Club issue of the Chester Mysteries (whence, perhaps, Byron derived his knowledge of “Mysteries and Moralities”), which concludes thus:
“Heartily hoping that the ‘illness and depression of spirits,’ which evidently pervade the greater part of these effusions, are entirely dispelled; confident that ‘George Gordon, Lord Byron’ will have a conspicuous niche in the future editions of ‘Royal and Noble Authors,’ etc.”
—Gent. Mag., 1807, vol. LXXVII p. 1217
—Editor ↩
To marshal onwards to the Delphian Height.
—[MS.]
“Three small vessels were apparently all that Columbus had requested. Two of them were light barques, called caravels, not superior to river and coasting craft of more modern days. … That such long and perilous expeditions into unknown seas, should be undertaken in vessels without decks, and that they should live through the violent tempests by which they were frequently assailed, remain among the singular circumstances of those daring voyages.”
—History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, by Washington Irving, 1831, I 78
—Editor ↩
As Women seldom think by halves—.
—[MS. erased]
This extraordinary and flourishing German colony in America does not entirely exclude matrimony, as the “Shakers” do; but lays such restrictions upon it as prevents more than a certain quantum of births within a certain number of years; which births (as Mr. Hulme [perhaps Thomas Hulme, whose Journal is quoted in Hints to Emigrants, 1817, pp. 5–18] observes) generally arrive “in a little flock like those of a farmer’s lambs, all within the same month perhaps.” These Harmonists (so called from the name of their settlement) are represented as a remarkably flourishing, pious, and quiet people. See the various recent writers on America.
[The Harmonists were emigrants from Würtemburg, who settled (1803–1805) under the auspices of George Rapp, in a township 120 miles north of Philadelphia. This they sold, and “trekked” westwards to Indiana. One of their customs was to keep watch by nights and to cry the hours to this tune:
“Again a day is past and a step made nearer to our end. Our time runs away, and the joys of Heaven are our reward.”
(See The Philanthropist, No. XX, 1815, vol. V, pp. 277–288)]
Which test I leave unto the Lords spiritual.
—[MS. erased]
Jacob Tonson, according to Mr. Pope, was accustomed to call his writers “able pens,” “persons of honour,” and, especially, “eminent hands.” Vide Correspondence, etc., etc.
[“Perhaps I should myself be much better pleased, if I were told you called me your little friend, than if you complimented me with the title of a ‘great genius,’ or an eminent hand, as Jacob does all his authors.”
—Pope to Steele, November 29, 1712, Works of Alexander Pope, 1871, VI 396]
See D’Israeli’s Curiosities of Literature, 1841, pp. 450–452, and the Dissertation prefixed to Francis Douce’s edition of Holbein’s Dance of Death, 1858, pp. 1–218. —Editor ↩
—Miss Allman and Miss Noman.
—[MS. erased]
—that smooth placid sea
—[MS. erased]
Which did not show and yet concealed a storm.
Compare Childe Harold, Canto IV stanza LIX line 3, Poetical Works, 1899, II 374, note 2. —Editor ↩
“… And, under him,
Macbeth, act III, sc. 1, lines 54–56
My Genius is rebuked; as it is said
Mark Antony’s was by Caesar.”
—Editor ↩
Warison—cri-de-guerre—note of assault:—
“Either receive within these towers
Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto IV stanza XXIV, lines 17–20
Two hundred of my master’s powers,
Or straight they sound their warrison,
And storm and spoil this garrison.”
—Editor ↩
And adds a third to what was late a pair.
—[MS. erased]
Compare:
“Life’s a jest, and all things show it;
Gay’s Epitaph
I thought so once, and now I know it.”
—Editor ↩
For “Potage à la bonne femme,” “Dindon à la Périgueux,” “Soupe à la Beauveau,” “Le dorey garni d’éperlans frits,” “Le cuisseau de pore à demi sel, garni de choux,” “Le salmi de perdreaux à l’Espagnole,” “Les bécasses,” see “Bill of Fare for November,” The French Cook, by Louis Eustache Ude, 1813, p. VIII. For “Les poulardes à la Condé,” “Le jambon de Westphalie à l’Espagnole,” “Les petites timballes d’un salpicon à la Monglas” (?Montglat), “Les filets de perdreaux sautés à la Lucullus,” vide ibid., p. IX, and for “Petits puits d’amour garnis de confitures,” vide Plate of Second Course (to face) p. VI. —Editor ↩
Alexander the Great. —Editor ↩
A dish “à la Lucullus.” This hero, who conquered the East, has left his more extended celebrity to the transplantation of cherries (which he first brought into Europe), and the nomenclature of some very good dishes;—and I am not sure that (barring indigestion) he has not done more service to mankind by his cookery than by his conquests. A cherry tree may weigh against a bloody laurel; besides, he has contrived to earn celebrity from both.
[According to Pliny (Nat. Hist., lib. XV cap. XXV ed. 1593, II 131), there were no cherry trees in Italy until L. Lucullus brought them home with him
