The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles Vol. 2

113

Particularly Joanna Baillie, Mrs Hemans, Miss Landon, and my namesake – no otherwise related than by love of kindred music – Caroline Bowles.

114

Criminals were banished to this island.

115

The period is uncertain.

116

Now Tino.

117

See the first chapter of Revelation.

118

Transfiguration on Mount Tabor.

119

Rev. i. 17, 18.

120

Domitian, who had banished him, and who had so proclaimed himself, was now dead, but without its being known to St John.

121

See the harrowing account of the siege of Jerusalem, when the prophecy in St Matthew was fulfilled to the letter.

122

Josephus.

123

Rev. iv. 3.

124

Rev. iv. 3.

125

Rev. iv. 4.

126

A chasm is shown in the cave, from which it is said the voice in the Revelation proceeded.

127

Rev. iv. 6. I follow the best expositors in making those appearances (translated "beasts") the higher order of angels.

128

Rev. v. 2.

129

The book would be utterly and for ever sealed, but for our Lord Jesus Christ.

130

Quails and rock pigeons are the only land-birds on the island, as there are no bushes.

131

The islands of the Ægean are divided into the Sporades and Clycades; Patmos is among the Sporades.

132

Evodias succeeded St Peter as Bishop of Antioch; Ignatius, disciple of St John, succeeded Evodias (Eusebius).

133

The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

134

"And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel" (1 Kings xviii. 42).

135

The wind which blew when St Paul was shipwrecked, now called Levanter, from its violence.

136

Οροων επ οινοπα ποντον (Homer.)

137

Seven Churches of Asia.

138

Adriatic.

139

Sardis, now Sart. Thyatira, now Ist-kissar, or White Castle.

140

A fine expression of Sharon Turner.

141

Priests of Cybele.

142

There were a hundred altars to the goddess in Cyprus.

143

The names of the illustrious visitors who heard the sound, twelve centuries past, may be seen in Pocock.

144

The pyramids. The first time the author met the celebrated Dr Clarke, before the publication of his Travels, the first question eagerly asked was, "Of what colour are the pyramids?" To his surprise, the answer was, "As white as snow." But I have used the word "pale," as more in harmony with the picture, and less startling.

145

The Hermes of the Greeks, the Mercury of the Romans, the Teut of the Celts, and the great teacher of the one unknown God, before Egypt sank into the grossest superstition.

146

Perhaps the idea may be fanciful, but, to my ear, nothing more clearly reflects the image than the very words of the sentence —

"R[']an ăl[']ong ŭp[']on thĕ gr[']ound"

Handel, in his sublime Oratorio, "Israel in Egypt," seems to have felt this.

147

Thomas, as by tradition we receive, chose Parthia; Andrew, Scythia (Eusebius).

148

"Scythicæ non mitior ara Dianæ" (Lucan).

149

See the exquisite tragedy of "Iphigenia in Tauris," by Euripides. Euripides may be alluded to here, as St Paul quoted Menander.

150

"Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him" (Acts xvii. 18), – a singular and most interesting circumstance.

151

Epicurus.

152

The Hill of Mars. How striking the coincidence! Ovid says —

"Mavortis in Arce."

153

Temple of Minerva, on the Acropolis.

154

The celebrated gardens of Epicurus.

155

Philippi and Thessalonica, in Macedonia.

156

Grecian Apollo.

157

Nero.

158

See that most interesting chapter in Irenæus, descriptive of the progress of the gospel to the Celts, and to the "extremities of the earth."

159

Mediterranean.

160

See, in Josephus, the account of Pedanius.

161

This was not an uncommon circumstance during the famine and this most terrible siege. See Josephus.

162

Jews crucified, by order of Titus, without the walls.

163

Adommin, the supposed scene of the wounded traveller in the Gospel.

164

Flowers of Carmel, growing wildly.

165

The highest point of the island.

166

It should be remembered, that Domitian was murdered on the 18th of October; this could not have been known at Patmos before the beginning of November.

167

Applied, generally, to the conquests of Trajan.

168

Allusive, as generally conceived, to the Emperor Severus.

169

"To kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth" (Rev. vi. 8).

170

Rev. iv.

171

Rev. vii.

172

I must refer to the commentators in general for an illustration of these striking passages.

173

The ensign of military command in the Roman legions.

174

This seems no improbable cause.

175

Rev. xvi.

176

Rev. xix.

177

Ελικη γε μεν ανδρες Αχαιοι

Ειν αλι τεκμαιρονται, ινα χρη νηας αγινειν (Aratus).

178

Samuel.

179

The dawn of knowledge and the Reformation; ignorance only being the parent of superstition.

180

The classical reader will remember the beautiful tragedy of "Ion" in Euripides, from whom were named the Ionian islands.

181

A beautiful image from Ovid.

182

The Island of Roses.

183

See that beautiful chapter in the Wisdom of Solomon.

184

A broken column on the shore is spoken of by early writers, supposed to have been a relic of the earliest ages.

185

See the 45th chapter of Isaiah.

186

The classical reader will remember the farewell of Philoctates to his solitary cave in Lemnos.

187

He published, it is true, one edict against the increase of the Jews and Christians in the empire.

188

Inscribed (1801) to Mrs William Douglas, a native of Switzerland.

189

Mount Pilate, on the Lake of Lucerne.

190

Contrast between genuine liberty and the spirit of Jacobinism.

191

Gibbon completed his "Decline and Fall" in a summer-house on the banks of this lake.

192

The terrible soot cancer to which climbing boys are subject.

193

The late Mrs Montague, whose bounty, distributed on May-day, to climbing boys, is so well known.

194

This ballad was written to be introduced in "The Missionary," but was omitted, as calculated to distract attention from the leading incidents of the story. It has, indeed, no connexion whatever with the poem.

195

Banner consecrated by the Pope.

196

The Cardinal, sent by the Duke of Glo'ster and the High Commissioners, to persuade the Queen to resign her son to them. The dialogue is almost entirely from Speed.

197

Thebes.

198

The vale of Avalon was surrounded by waters at the time. King Arthur is described as buried in the island of Avalon. Part of a sculptured lion remains; and it may be observed that Leland, in his "Itinerary," speaks of "Duo leones sub pedibus Arthuri." The masonry over the sacred well, discovered by Mr Warner, is eminently beautiful. It is a singular fact, that the last meeting of the Bible Society was held amidst the august desolation of Glastonbury Abbey.

199

A celebrated station and city, on the great Roman road from Bath to London; the walls of which, covered with trees, yet remain nearly entire.

200

The Amphitheatre.

201

This majestic but dilapidated pile has been repaired at great expense, and with taste and judgment, in every respect consonant to and worthy of its ancient character. These verses were written under the contemplation of this singularly beautiful and unique pile being open again for public worship by a sacred musical performance.

202

The service by the prayer-book was forbidden.

203

Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, built and endowed at Salisbury, Collegium Matronarum, the college of matrons, widows of clergymen. They are entertained by each canon during his residence. These lines were written when they were the guests of the author.

204

He returned to Walton's cottage from the scene of execution of his brave friend, Lord Capel.

205

Anne, born 1677, and mother of William Hawkins.

206

Walton died 1683, aged ninety; Morley, the year after, 1684, aged eighty-seven. They are buried in the same Cathedral.

207

In allusion to Bishop Ken's well-known morning and evening hymns.

208

Supposed to have been addressed to Bishop Ken, by Princess Mary of Orange, before her marriage with William III., who, but for the interposition of the Bishop, would have broken his engagement to marry her.

209

See Moore's Life of Sheridan.

210

The legend on which this ballad is founded, is related in Latin, in the Book of Lacock.

211

Mount St Michael, in periculo maris, and answering to St Michael's Mount in Cornwall.

212

This magnificent ruin of the favourite castle of Richard I. is on the banks of the Seine, near Les Andelys, the birth-place of Poussin, and the retreat of Thomas Corneille. A single year sufficed to form its immense fosses, and to raise those walls which might seem to be the structure of a lifetime. When Cœur de Lion saw it finished, he is said to have exclaimed with exultation, "How beautiful she is, this daughter of a year!" It was the last hold of the English in Normandy; and, under the command of Roger de Lacy, long mocked the efforts of Philip Augustus, who came in person to invest it in August 1203. The siege was memorable for its length, the incredible exertions of De Lacy, and the sufferings endured by the besieged until its capture in the following March. —Wiffen's "Memoirs of the House of Russell," vol. i. p. 548.

213

It is a remarkable coincidence, that the present possessor of Lacock Abbey should be a Talbot.

214

The Bishop of Gloucester.