Broke off, and, her contempt of death to show,
Leaped in between the monarch and the foe,
To save the King and state from this impending blow.
But Phoebus met a worse misfortune here:

For Hermes now led forward, void of fear,

His furious horse into the open plain,

That onward chafed, and pranced, and pawed amain.
Nor ceased from his attempts until he stood

On the long-wished-for spot, from whence he could
Slay King or Queen. O'erwhelmed with sudden fears,
Apollo saw, and could not keep from tears.
Now all seemed ready to be overthrown;

His strength was withered, every hope was flown.
Hermes, exulting at this great surprise,

Shouted for joy, and filled the air with cries;
Instant he sent the Queen to shades below,
And of her spoils made a triumphant show.
But in return, and in his mid career,

Fell his brave Knight, beneath the Monarch's spear.
Phoebus, however, did not yet despair,

But still fought on with courage and with care.
He had but two poor common men to show,

And Mars's favorite with his ivory bow.
The thoughts of ruin made them dare their best
To save their King, so fatally distressed.
But the sad hour required not such an aid;

And Hermes breathed revenge where'er he strayed.
Fierce comes the sable Queen with fatal threat,
Surrounds the monarch in his royal seat;
Rushed here and there, nor rested till she slew
The last remainder of the whitened crew.

Sole stood the King, the midst of all the plain,
Weak and defenceless, his companions slain.

As when the ruddy morn ascending high Has chased the twinkling stars from all the sky, Your star, fair Venus, still retains its light, And, loveliest, goes the latest out of sight, No safety's left, no gleams of hope remain; Yet did he not as vanquished quit the plain, But tried to shut himself between the foe,Unhurt through swords and spears he hoped to go, Until no room was left to shun the fatal blow. For if none threatened his immediate fate, And his next move must ruin all his state, All their past toil and labor is in vain, Vain all the bloody carnage of the plain,Neither would triumph then, the laurel neither gain. Therefore through each void space and desert tent By different moves his various course he bent: The Black King watched him with observant eye, Followed him close, but left him room to fly. Then when he saw him take the furthest line, He sent the Queen his motions to confine, And guard the second rank, that he could go No further now than to that distant row. The sable monarch then with cheerful mien Approached, but always with one space between. But as the King stood o'er against him there, Helpless, forlorn, and sunk in his despair, The martial Queen her lucky moment knew, Seized on the furthest seat with fatal view, Nor left the unhappy King a place to flee unto.

At length in vengeance her keen sword she draws,
Slew him, and ended thus the bloody cause:
And all the gods around approved it with applause.
The victor could not from his insults keep,
But laughed and sneered to see Apollo weep.
Jove called him near, and gave him in his hand
The powerful, happy, and mysterious wand
By which the Shades are called to purer day,
When penal fire has purged their sins away;
By which the guilty are condemned to dwell
In the dark mansions of the deepest hell;
By which he gives us sleep, or sleep denies,
And closes at the last the dying eyes.
Soon after this, the heavenly victor brought
The game on earth, and first the Italians taught.
For (as they say) fair Scacchis he espied
Feeding her cygnets in the silver tide,
(Scacchis, the loveliest Seriad of the place)
And as she strayed, took her to his embrace.
Then, to reward her for her virtue lost,

Gave her the men and checkered board, embossed
With gold and silver curiously inlaid;

And taught her how the game was to be played.
Even now 't is honored with her happy name;
And Rome and all the world admire the game.
All which the Seriads told me heretofore,
When my boy-notes amused the Serian shore.

NOTES TO GOLDSMITH.

THE TRAVELLER.

PAGE 23. This poem was first published in December, 1764, by John Newbery, price 1s. 6d. It went through nine editions in his lifetime, and is here reprinted from the 9th 4to, 1774, compared with the 1st, and with the 6th corrected 4to, 1770.

Page 23, line 1.- "Chamier once asked him what he meant by 'slow,' -the last word in the first line of 'The Traveller,'

'Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow.'

Did he mean tardiness of locomotion? Goldsmith, who would say something without consideration, answered, 'Yes.' I was sitting by, and said, 'No, sir; you do not mean tardiness of locomotion; you mean that sluggishness of mind which comes upon a man in solitude.'"-JOHNSON, in Boswell.

Page 23, line 3.- Carinthia was visited by Goldsmith in 1755, and still (1854) retains its character for inhospitality.

Page 36, line 12.

"To stop too fearful, and too faint to go."

This line was written by Dr. Johnson.

Page 36, line 20.-The concluding ten lines, except the last couplet but one, were written by Dr. Johnson.

Page 36, line 28.

"Luke's iron crown, and Damiens' bed of steel."

When Tom Davies, at the request of Grainger, asked Goldsmith about this line, he was referred for an explanation of Luke's iron crown to a book called Geographie Curieuse ; the poet added, that by Damiens' bed of steel he meant the rack.

Mr. Bolton Corney states that the names of the brothers were Zeck, Luke and George; following, probably, the passage to that effect in Boswell's Johnson, referring to the "Respublica Hungarica." We presume that the volume to which Boswell alludes is one cited as Respublica et Status Hungariæ (Elzevir, 1634), in a number of the European Magazine for February, 1790. The passage there cited we translate as follows, placing explanatory words in brackets:

"In the year 1514 a great insurrection broke out in Hungary; for while the Cardinal of Strigonium [Gran] was preaching a crusade [against the Turks] to the people, and many thousands had enrolled their names under him, an embassy of Ulasdislaus meanwhile concludes a treaty with Selim the Sultan. Those who had enlisted, however, by no means laid aside their arms on this account: but make Captain George Zeck, who had several times routed the Turks, their king: and first throughout Hungary, as if inflamed by madness, break into numerous castles and monasteries. As many nobles as they can, with their wives and children, they butcher; lay waste their property; violate their virgins; transfix the

Bishop of Chonad with a wooden stake driven through his body; and threaten the same fate to the Archbishop of Strigonium and others. But after the new king George, with his generals, was taken by Count John [Zapolya], the woiwode [governor of Transylvania], he was subjected to a hitherto unheard of and horrible punishment. First the king himself is crowned with an iron crown, white-hot; then his blood is drawn from two veins cut, and is given to his brother Luke to drink. Then thirty peasants, starved for three days, were thereby driven to such a pitch of savageness that they tore with their teeth and swallowed the entrails of their king while he was yet alive. The king himself, however, maintaining meanwhile a wonderful firmness, neither groaned nor shrank from any kind of torture beseeching only that his brother Luke might be spared, as he had been compelled by him to take part in the war. At length, when almost all his limbs had been severed, they eviscerated him; and his body, cut into small pieces, partly roasted on spits, and partly boiled in a kettle, they set before his soldiers to eat whom, thus fed, together with Luke Zeck, and variously tormented by the executioner, they put to death. Ulasdislaus, the king, died at Buda, in 1516, and is buried at Alba Regalis [Stuhlweissenburg]."

From this it would appear that the name of the brothers was Zeck, and that Mr. Corney might be correct in the substitution (a little trenching on editorial privilege) of Zeck for Luke. But the real name of the rebels was Dosa, George and Luke, who were of the Zeckler race, one of the native races of Transylvania. See the title "Dosa, George,” in the 7th volume of the Universal Lexicon (Halle and Leipzig, 1734), in which it is stated that George was seated on a glowing hot iron throne, and invested with a crown and sceptre of the same fashion. This horrible account corresponds in substance to that given, under the same title, in the Biographie Universelle : "Dosa fut livré aux plus horribles supplices par ses impitoyables vainqueurs: on le fit asseoir sur un trône de fer rouge, une couronne sur la tête, un sceptre à la main, l'un et l'autre également rougis au feu, puis on lui ouvrit les veines et l'on fit avaler un verre de son sang à son frère Lucas, qui l'avait secondé dans sa révolte." S. Robert Francois Damiens was put to death with revolting barbarity, in the year 1757, for an attempt to assassinate Louis XV.

THE DESERTED VILLAGE.

Page 39. This poem was published by W. Griffin, at Garrick's Head, in Catharinestreet, Strand, in May, 1770, in a two-shilling 4to, and ran through six editions in the same year. The sum that Goldsmith received for it is unknown.

Page 40, line 11.- The tyrant alluded to is said to have been Lieutenant-General Robert Napier, an English gentleman, who purchased an estate near Ballymahon, and ejected many of his tenants for the non-payment of rent.

Page 42, line 22. —Sir Joshua Reynolds painted a fine picture of "Resignation," which was engraved by Watson. The print bears the following inscription: "This attempt to express a character in The Deserted Village is dedicated to Dr. Goldsmith, by his sincere friend and admirer, JOSHUA REYNOLDS."

Page 52, line 17.-"Dr. Johnson favored me * * by marking the lines which he furnished to Goldsmith's Deserted Village, which are only the last four."- BOSWELL.

RETALIATION.
Page 55-60.

First published on the 18th of April, 1774, a fortnight after the death of the author. We have seven nominal editions of it in the same year.

Scarron - Paul Scarron, a popular French writer of burlesque. Died in 1660. Goldsmith translated his Roman Comique.