1801, Lord Nelson commanding the British fleet. Captain Riou was justly styled "the gallant and good," by Nelson in his depatches.

Page 187. THE COMING OF CHARLEMAGNE-Lord Macaulay. This spirited poem, less popularly known and quoted than "The Battle of Ivry or "The Armada,” is founded on a passage in the old Latin Chronicle of the Monk of St. Gall; which passage is cited by Mr. Panizzi as an instance of the probable conversion of ancient ballad-poetry into prose narrative; see Essay on the Romantic Narrative Poetry of the Italians, prefixed to Mr. Panizzi's Edition of Bojardo. If Mr. Panizzi's theory be correct, then The Coming of Charlemagne is a modern re-conversion of the passage into what may possibly be something like its original form. See also Lord Macaulay's Note to this poem-Miscellaneous Writings of Lord Macaulay Vol. II. page 436. Longmans 1860. This fine poem is

Page 189. "BARBARA FRITCHIE"-J. G. Whittier. founded on a noble incident of the American Civil War. "THE PRIDE OF WORTH"-R. Burns.

Page 195.

Line 1. Verse 3.

"birkie" a shallow conceited fellow. L. 4. Verse 3. "coof" blockhead. L. 2. Verse 2. "Hoddin-grey" home-made cloth of coarse quality. L. 4. Verse 5, "bear the gree❞—be victor.

Page 196. "GOLD"-T. Hood. From the poem of Miss Kilmansegg. Page 219. "THE LONG White Seam"-7. Ingelow. This poem, not yet included in any edition of her works, is here given by kind permission of the author.

"

Page 221. "TO A LADY WITH A GUITAR"-P. B. Shelley. Line 24. "her interlunar swoon; the time when the moon is invisible from our Earth's surface. A very fanciful and beautiful poem. See note to a sonnet by W. Drummond entitled "to his Lute." Part 1. Notes to THE ELDER ENGLISH POETS (First Series) p. 278.

Page 226. "THE BELFRY OF BRUGES"-H. W. Longfellow. Line 19. Verse 10. "all the Foresters of Flanders" the title of Foresters was given to the early Governors of Flanders, appointed by the kings of France. L. 22. Verse 11. "Statelv dames, like queens attended."-When Philippe-le-Bel, king of France, visited Flanders with his queen, she was so astonished at the magnificence of the dames of Bruges, that she exclaimed,-"Je croyais être seule reine ici, mais il paraît que ceux de Flandre qui se trouvent dans nos prisons sont tous des princes, car leurs femmes sont habillées comme des princesses et des reines. L. 22. the Fleece of Gold" Phillippe of Burgundy called Le Bon, married Isabella of Portugal, January 10th, 1430, and on the same day instituted the famous order of the Golden Fleece. L. 26. Verse 13. the gentle Mary" Marie de Valois, Duchess of Burgundy, married by proxy, with all the curious ceremonies of the period, to the Archduke Maximilian: the same who, being imprisoned by the revolted burghers of Bruges, was by them compelled to kneel down in the public square and solemnly swear that he would not take vengeance upon them for their rebellion. L. 30. Verse 15. "The bloody battle of the Spurs of Gold."—"This battle, the most memorable in Flemish history, was fought under the walls of Courtray, on the 11th of July, 1302, between the French and the Flemings, the former commanded by Robert, Comte d'Artois,

and the latter by Guillaume de Juliers, and Jean, Comte de Namur. The French army was completely routed, with a loss of twenty thousand infantry and seven thousand cavalry; among whom were sixty-three princes, dukes, and counts, seven hundred lords-banneret, and eleven hundred noblemen. The flower of the French nobility perished on that day, to which history has given the name of the Journée des Eperons d'Or, from the great number of golden spurs found on the field of battle. Seven hundred of them were hung up as a trophy in the church of Notre Dame de Courtray; and, as the cavaliers of that day wore but a single spur each, these vouched to God for the violent and bloody death of seven hundred of his creatures."- Notes to Longfellow's poems. L. 31. Verse 16. "Saw the fight at Minnewater."-"When the inhabitants of Bruges were digging a canal at Minnewater, to bring the waters of the Lys from Deynze to their city, they were attacked and routed by the citizens of Ghent, whose commerce would have been much injured by the canal. They were led by Jean Lyons, captain of a military company at Ghent, called the Chaperons Blancs."—Ibid. L. 32. Verse 18. "The Golden Dragon's nest."-The Golden Dragon, taken from the church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, in one of the Crusades, and placed on the belfry of Bruges, was afterwards transported to Ghent by Philip van Artevelde, and still adorns the belfry of that city. The inscription on the alarm bell at Ghent is, "Mynen naem is Roland; als ik klep is er brand, and als ik luy is er victorie in het land." My name is Roland; when I toll there is fire, and when I ring there is victory in the land."-Ibid.

Page 240.

"THE STORM"-R. Buchanan.

This grand poem has been

abridged by the author, expressly for the present collection.

Page 260. "THE RECOLLECTION"-P. B. Shelley. Line 9. "the pineforest that skirts the ocean's foam"-the famous pine-forest of Ravenna, which he had visited with Lord Byron the year before this poem was written. There are not many "giants" left now, nor indeed many pines that we can feel sure are old enough to have witnessed his presence.

L. 5.

Page 264. "A PARTING IN DREAMLAND"-J. A. Symonds. Line 2. "Lethe" a river in the lower world at which the shades of the departed were wont to drink, thenceforth forgetting all that they had said and done in the life past away. Those who love to systematize these pathetic and beautiful myths, see in Lethe's gift of oblivion the forgetfulness of Death. "Nepenthe" a drug supposed to drive away pain; probably opium or hemp. Page 274. "AUTUMN"-H. W. Longfellow. Line 3. "silks of Samarcand" Samarcand was the ancient capital of Turkestan, and has still some fine bazaars, but its trade has gone over for the most part to Bokhara, the modern city.

Page 278. "IN SAN LORENZO "-C. A. Swinburne. Line 1. "O slumbering Night." The famous statue of sleeping Night, on the tomb of Giuliano de' Medici, by Michael Angelo, in the Medici Chapel of San Lorenzo, Florence. The poet supposes the dawn of Italian liberty to be at hand—as indeed it was, when this fine sonnet was written.

Page 280. "FOR TITIAN"-W. Morris. only (as in the passages selected from the

With two or three exceptions "Deserted Village," see Elder

English Poets (First Series) A RURAL PICTURE p. 203; and certain strophes of "In Memoriam") these stanzas from "The Lady of the Land" will be seen to be a departure from the rule by which the Editor has been guided in the compilation of this book. Short poems complete in themselves have almost invariably been given, and extracts from long poems, scrupulously avoided. In the present instance, however, such departure was found to be unavoidable; for Mr. Morris's poems are all too long for insertion here, and yet some fit sample of his musical and richly-coloured style was felt to be necessary. The responsibility of giving a title to the extract devolves upon the Editor, who begs indulgence for it.

Page 281. "SONG"-T. L. Beddoes. This drinking song is grandly conceived. One can fancy some mighty Homeric hero calling thus upon Etna to become a wine-cloud, and rain into his cup.

Page 285. "Youth and Age"-S. T. Coleridge. "This is one of the most perfect poems for style, feeling and everything, that ever was written." L. Hunt. This "and every thing" is charming.

Page 289. "THE GARDEN OF PROSERPINE"-C. A. Swinburne. This beautiful weird poem, in a metre new to English verse, is apparently sung by some shade in Hades. For the legend of Proserpine, or Persephone, see Note to Miss Ingelow's "Persephone," page 322.

Page 295. "CATULLIAN Hendecasyllables"-S. T. Coleridge. Line 5. "the god of flocks"-Apollo, vóμios 980s. Apollo is rarely treated of in this character by Homer, but chiefly by the later poets, and in the Thessalian myth wherein he tends the flocks of Admetus. L. 13. the son of Cytherea" Cytherea was the Aphrodite especially worshipped in the island of Cythera; and it was off the coast of this island that she was fabled to have risen from the sea-foam. Eros, the God of Love, was the son of Cytherea and Ares. Page 296. "IN ARCADY"-A. H. Clough. Line 6. "that fabled garden of Alcinous." Alcinoüs was king of the Phæacians in the isle of Scheria. For the description of his palace and gardens see the Odyssey of Homer. Book VII. Page 297. "ODE ON A GRECIAN Urn"-7. Keats. We do not know in the whole field of English poetry a more exquisite piece of fancy than this, which supposes a moment of early Greek life, with its buoyant gaiety and all its simple incidents, transferred to the surface of the Urn and there arrested for ever.

Page 299. "AN ANTIQUE INTAGLIO"-F. A. Symonds. Of this poem, it is unnecessary to observe that the legend and the intaglio alike exist only in the poet's imagination.

Page 302. "CLEON"-R. Browning. Line 53. Page 303. "the Pacile" a rock on the coast of Cilicia, on which have of late years been discovered the ruins of a Roman town built during the reigns of Valentinian, Valens and Gratian. L. 132. Page 305. "Savage-tasted drupe" an over-ripe, wrinkled olive. L. 140. Page 306. Terpander" a native of Antissa in Lesbos, who flourished somewhere between BC. 700 and 650. He is reported to have first reduced Greek music to a system; to have added three strings to the lyre, and to have been the first victor in the musical contests at the Festival of the Carnea. "Phidias" the greatest sculptor of ancient Greece, under whose

L. 141.

superintendence the Parthenon and Propylæa were built, and whose masterpieces were supposed to be the cryselephantine statues of Athena at Athens, and of Jupiter at Olympia.

Page 313. "THE BLESSED Damosel"-D. G. Rossetti. For pathos, and purity, and mediævalism of the most exquisite kind, this poem may fitly be compared with the missal-paintings of Fra Angelico. Line 6. Verse 21. "citherns and citoles"-a cithern was an ancient stringed instrument, something like a guitar; a citole seems to have been the same as a dulcimer. Especially beautiful is the lover's vague consciousness of the hovering presence of his lost love which he is supposed to be writing this poem.