"Even now, regardless of his doom, With shadowy trophies crowned; ODE TO EVENING. Page 61. In an article on Dr. Sayer's works, in the London Quarterly Review (vol. xxxv., p. 211), Southey speaks of the unrhymed lyrical measures which had been tried by Milton with unhappy success, and says that his translation of "Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa” -uncouth in syntax, as well as sound-bears no other resemblance to the Latin measure, which it was designed to imitate, than that it consists of two long and two short lines. He adds, however, that it "presents the only example of a rhymeless stanza which can fairly be said to have become naturalized in our language. COLLINS saw what could be made of it, and few poems have been more frequently imitated than the 'Ode to Evening,' to which he has so finely and beautifully applied its slow and solemn movement." Another writer, in the same journal (vol. li., p. 25), cites the translation from Horace, alluded to above, as a proof that it is not true that "rhyme is indispensable to the perfection of some kinds of lyric verse in English." He adds that, in his judgment, this rhymeless ode of Collins' " is not surpassed for musical effect in any language in Europe." We certainly know nothing sweeter or more musical in the whole range of English poetry. THE MANNERS. Page 66, line 9. — Alluding to the Milesian tales, some of the earliest romances. Page 66, line 17. Monsieur Le Sage, author of the incomparable Adventures of Gil Blas de Santillane, who died in Paris, in the year 1745. — Collins. THE PASSIONS. The Ode to the Passions is, by universal consent, the noblest of COLLINS' productions, because it exhibits a much more extended invention, not of one passion only, but of all the passions combined, acting, according to the powers of each, to one end. The execution, also, is the happiest ;· -each particular passion is drawn with inimitable force and compression. Let us take only Fear and Despair;—each dashed out in four lines, of which every word is like inspiration. *** And surely there is not a single figure in Collins' Ode to the Passions which is not perfect, both in conception and language. He has had many imitators, but no one has ever approached him in his own department." — Sir Egerton Brydges ODE ON THE DEATH OF THOMSON. Thomson died on the 27th of August, 1748, and in the following June the ode appeared. No other memorial of the friendship of the poets has been preserved. Page 71, line 6. The harp of Æolus, of which see a description in the "Castle of Indolence."- Collins. Page 71, line 19.- Richmond church, in which Thomson was buried. Page 72, line 4. "When Thomson died, Collins breathed forth his regrets in an elegiac poem, in which he pronounces a poetical curse upon him who should regard with insensibility the place where the poet's remains were deposited. The poems of the mourner himself have now passed through innumerable editions, and are universally known; but if, when Collins died, the same kind of imprecation had been pronounced by a surviving admirer, small is the number whom it would not have comprehended."— Wordsworth. Page 72, line 13. Mr. Thomson resided in the neighborhood of Richmond some time before his death.Collins. ODE ON THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS. Page 73, line 5. The cordial youth was Mr. Barrow, by whom Home was introduced to Collins. Barrow and Home were volunteers in 1746, and, being taken prisoners at the battle of Falkirk, "escaped by cutting their bed-clothes into ropes, and letting themselves down from the window of the room in which they were confined." In this enterprise Barrow broke his leg. Adam Ferguson informed Mackenzie that Home's interest with Lord Bute procured for Barrow the office of paymaster to the army during the American war, from which he returned nearly as poor as he went. Page 74, line 27. Shiel-A summer hut, built in the high part of the mountains, for the shepherds to tend their flocks in the warm season, when the pasture is fine. Page 75, line 22. By young Aurora, Collins is supposed to have meant the first appearance of the northern lights, which happened about the year 1715. Page 75, line 28. Second sight is the term that is used for the divination of the Highlanders. Page 76, line 1. The late Duke of Cumberland, who defeated the Pretender, at the battle of Culloden. -Collins. Page 76, line 10. A fiery meteor, called by various names, such as Will with the Wisp, Jack with the Lantern, &c. It hovers in the air over marshy and fenny places. - Collins. Page 77, line 28. Kelpie - the water-fiend. Page 78, line 5. One of the Hebrides is called the Isle of Pigmies, where it is reported that several miniature bones of the human species have been dug up in the ruins of a chapel. Page 78, line 7. "The haze and darkness of the atmosphere seem to render it dubious if we can proceed, as we intended, to Staffa to-day; for mist among these islands is rather unpleasant. The haze is fast degenerating into downright rain, and that right heavy; verifying the words of Collins."- Walter Scott. Page 78, line 15. "In one of the Hebrides, called Ikolmkill, there are near sixty, it is said, of the ancient Scottish, Irish and Norwegian kings, interred; and the people believe that frequently during the night-time, these venerable monarchs appear, and, in conformity to their for mer terrestrial employments, meet in council together. This striking superstition Collins has recorded." - Drake, "Literary Hours," No. 31. Sir Walter Scott, who visited this spot in the summer of 1814, remarks that the graves of the kings can scarcely be said to exist, although their site is pointed out. He adds: "Macbeth is said to have been the last King of Scotland here buried. Sixty preceded him, all, doubtless, as powerful, in their day, but now unknown. A few weeks' labor of Shakspeare, an obscure player, has done more for the memory of Macbeth than all the gifts, wealth and monuments, of this cemetery of princes, have been able to secure to the rest of its inhabitants." Page 78, line 27. An aquatic bird, like a goose, on the eggs of which the inhabitants of St. Kilda, another of the Hebrides, chiefly subsist. Page 80, lines 10, 11.- Annan - Tay -Don-three rivers in Scotland. Page 80, line 17. Ben Jonson paid a visit, on foot, in 1619, to the Scotch poet Drummond, at his seat of Hawthornden, within four miles of Edinburgh. Page 80, line 21. Barrow was at the Edinburgh University, which is in the county of Lothian. AN EPISTLE. Sir Thomas Hanmer (born 1676, died 1746) was speaker of the House of Commons durmg the last parliament of Queen Anne. "Hanmer, whose eloquence the unbiassed sways," was the panegyric of Gay, in his pleasing congratulation of Pope upon completing his translation of the Iliad. Page 84, line 5.- The Edipus of Sophocles. Page 84, line 19. — Julius II., immediate predecessor of Leo X. Page 85, line 13. - Their characters are thus distinguished by Mr. Dryden. - Collins. Page 85, line 17. About the time of Shakspeare, the poet Hardy was in great repute in France. He wrote, according to Fontenelle, six hundred plays. The French poets after him applied themselves, in general, to the correct improvement of the stage, which was almost totally disregarded by those of our own country, Jonson excepted. - Collins. Page 85, line 21.- Lucan - The favorite author of the elder Corneille. "Turno tempus erit, magno cum optaverit emptum Page 87, line 5.- See the tragedy of Julius Cæsar. Page 87, line 11. Coriolanus. See Mr. Spence's "Dialogue on the Odyssey."- Collins. "This is the earliest composition of Collins that has reached us. It was printed in the Gentleman's Magazine, January, 1739, with the signature of 'Amasius.' It is, however, not improbable that he was the author of a poem on the 'Royal Nuptials,' which was published by the same bookseller who afterwards sent forth the Eclogues. Mr. Dyce sought a copy in vain. Collins was then in his fourteenth year."- Willmott. SONNET. Collins wrote this Sonnet at Winchester College, and it appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, October, 1739, accompanied by the "Sappho's Advice " of J. Warton, and the "Beauty and Innocence" of Tomkyns. SONG. "When this Song was written, or in what publication it originally appeared, I am unable to inform the reader. Mr. Park (who inserts it on an additional leaf) observes to me that he has now forgotten on what authority he gave it as the production of Collins, but that he must have been satisfied of its genuineness at the time he reprinted it." —. - Dyce. |
