but for the day, untroubled by doubt, uninspired by hope. 629. 24. The awkward inversions are characteristic of Browning: does care irk, etc.? does doubt fret, etc.? 630. 48. Its lone way. In Ben Ezra's commentary on the Psalms we find this sentence: The soul of man is called lonely because it is separated, during its union with the body, from the Universal Soul into which it is again received when it departs from its earthly companion." 49-72. Browning here argues against the ascetic ideal, so popular during the Middle Ages, which proclaimed that spiritual advancement was to be gained through mortification of the flesh. 74. Youth's heritage. The heritage of experience given to age by youth. 87. Leave the fire. If the fire leave. 631. 124, 125. Supply whom after I and they. 151. Potter's wheel. Cf. Isaiah, lxiv: 8: "We are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we are all the work of Thy hand." The metaphor is effectively used by Fitzgerald in his translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam. See page 643, 1. 325 ff. EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO 632. This is Browning's final cheery word on the problem of life and death; it is the epilogue to his last volume of poems, entitled Asolando, published in London on the day Browning died in Venice. 5. Pity me? Will you pity me, dead? 17. The unseen. The dead; the author himself. ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE This title serves to veil the fact that the sonnets are addressed to Robert Browning, and express with perfect sincerity Mrs. Browning's feeling about the love and marriage of the two poets. For an account of their origin see the Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Smith, Elder & Co., 1898), vol. I., pp. 316-17. THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN 633. Occasioned by an official report on the employment of children in mines and factories. Mrs. Browning said of the rhythm: "The first stanza came into my head in a hurricane, and I was obliged to make the other stanzas like it." Letters, I. 156. FITZGERALD RUBÁIYÁT OF OMAR KHAYYÁM 636. Omar Khayyám (Omar the Tent-Maker), a Persian astronomer and poet, wrote his Rubáiyát (a plural form; the singular rubáiy means quatrain) in the twelfth century. Fitzgerald describes them, and his own verses, as follows: 66 The original Rubáiyát are independent Stanzas, consisting each of four Lines of equal, though varied, Prosody; sometimes all rhyming, but oftener (as here imitated) the third line a blank, sometimes as in the Greek Alcaic, where the penultimate line seems to lift and suspend the Wave that falls over in the last. As usual with such kind of Oriental Verse, the Rubáiyát follow one another according to Alphabetic Rhyme-a strange succession of Grave and Gay. Those here selected are strung into something of an Eclogue, with perhaps a less than equal proportion of the "Drink and makemerry, ," which (genuine or not) occurs over frequently in the Original. Either way, the Result is sad enough: saddest perhaps when most ostentatiously merry: more apt to move Sorrow than Anger toward the old Tent-maker, who, after vainiy endeavoring to unshackle his Steps from Destiny, and to catch some authentic Glimpse of Tomorrow, fell back upon Today (which has outlasted so many Tomorrows!) as the only Ground he got to stand upon, however momentarily slipping from under his Feet." Fitzgerald's method was not so much one of literal translation as of combination and paraphrase; the first edition of 1859 contained 75 quatrains, the second 110, the third and fourth (here reprinted) 101. Most of the changes were in the nature of improvement; it is generally felt, however, that the first stanza was finest in its original form, where it ran as follows: "Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to And Lo! the Hunter of the East has The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light." 637. 5. The phantom of False morning. A transient light on the horizon about an hour before the true dawn. 637. 17. Iram. An ancient Persian garden, now sunk in the sands of Arabia. 18. Jamshyd's Seven-ring'd Cup. Jamshyd was a legendary King of Persia; his cup was symbolical of the seven heavens, seven planets, seven seas, etc. 22. Pehleví. The old literary language of Persia. 36-40. Kaikobád ... Hátim. The proper names are those of Persian heroes; for Zal and Rustum see Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum. 44. Mahmud. The Sultan. 638. 99. Muezzin. faithful to countries. The crier who calls the prayer in Mohammedan 639. 122. Saturn. Lord of the seventh heaven. 127. Me and Thee. Some dividual existence or personality distinct from the whole. 131. Signs. Signs of the zodiac. 641. 225. My computations. Omar was a profound mathematician, and helped to reform the calendar. 237. Allah-breathing. Allah-worshipping. 642. 271. Lantern. Fitzgerald's note describes a Magic-Lanthorn still used in India; the cylindrical Interior being painted with various Figures, and so lightly poised and ventilated, as to revolve round the lighted Candle within." 277. The ball, etc. The reference is to the game of polo, of ancient Persian, origin. 302. Dervish. A Mohammedan devotee." 643. 326. Ramazán. The Mohammedan month of fasting, when no food is eaten between sunrise and sunset. 327 ff. With this use of the metaphor of the potter and the clay compare Browning's in Rabbi Ben Ezra, page 631, 1. 150. 346. Sufi. An adherent of a Persian sect whose belief was pantheistic. 358. The little Moon . . . that all were 360. Shoulder-knot a-creaking. CARLYLE SARTOR RESARTUS With 644. This, the most influential of Carlyle's works, appeared as a serial in Fraser's Magazine during the years 1833-4. It is an attack upon the materialistic selfsatisfaction of England; an attempt to show that the only ultimate reality is spirit, is God, and that everything material is merely clothing for the Divine Idea, visible manifestation of God. In form the book is somewhat grotesque. It purports to be a long review of a work on clothing, the magnum opus of Diogenes Teufelsdröckh, a German philosopher. Carlyle speaks through the mouth of Teufelsdröckh; the views ex pressed in the chapter here printed are Carlyle's own. At the same time he comments, in his own person, on the ideas propounded by the German, forestalling criticism, and occasionally explaining oracular utterances. The chapter on Natural Supernaturalism is really the culmination of the whole work. 644. 6. The Clothes-Philosophy. The idea that all appearances are merely the clothing of the Divine Idea which alone has ultimate reality. 645. 34. Miracles. Carlyle objected to science because it tended, so he thought, to remove wonder and worship from human life. It tried to explain" the phenomena of life which Carlyle considered divinely miraculous. 47. Schlagbaum. Carlyle sprinkles German words and phrases through Sartor Resartus as proof of the fact that he is merely reviewing Teufelsdröckh's book. 646. 153. Fortunatus. The hero of Thomas Dekker's play Old Fortunatus, well known in popular legend, possessed such a hat. 160. Wahngasse of Weissnichtwo. The city in which Teufelsdröckh is supposed to live Carlyle calls "Weissnichtwo "; " I know not where." Wahngasse; dreamlane. 168. Groschen. Small German coin. 647. 264. Thaumaturgy. The art of performing miracles. 275. Stein-bruch. Stone-quarry. 278. Ashlar houses. Houses of hewn or squared stone. 321. Johnson went to Cock Lane. See Boswell's Life of Johnson, p. 308. 648. 397. Cimmerian Night. See note on L'Allegro, l. 10. 429. "We are such stuff," etc. From The Tempest, IV. i. 156 ff. 159. Owen's Labor-bank. Robert Owen (1771-1858), a British social reformer, undertook to improve the condition of English laborers, through the establishment of small "ideal communities," including co-operative banks and stores. 168. Downing Street. Many of the offices of the British government are in Downing street. 653. 261. Manes. The souls of the dead, considered as gods of the lower world. 268. Acheron. One of the four rivers of the classical Hades. 270. Dante. The greatest of all Italian poets (1265-1321). The quotations are from his Divine Comedy. 278. Se tu segui, etc. thy star." "If thou followest 288. As poet Dryden says. See Absalom and Achitophel, 11. 79-80. 295. Eurydice from Tartarus. See note on L'Allegro, l. 150. 654. 313. Lath-and-plaster hats. A method of 334. In a Great Taskmaster's eye. An 344. Midas-eared. King Midas, whose 352. Plugson of Undershot. The typical British manufacturer, to whom Carlyle had devoted a previous chapter in Past and Present. Taillefer of Normandy. CROMWELL'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES: THE 655. The battle was fought September 3 (13), 1650. Cromwell's army was suffering from want of food; had Leslie and the Scots remained on Doon Hill, it is probable that Cromwell would have withdrawn by sea. 9. Lambert. John Lambert (1619-1683), Cromwell's second-in-command; one of the most successful of the Parliamentary major-generals. II. Lesley. David Leslie, afterwards Lord Newark (d. 1682), commander of the Scottish forces. He had previously. fought with Cromwell against Charles I. 27. Committee of Estates. The governing committee, in charge of the whole campaign. Burnet. 31. Bishop Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), Bishop of Salisbury; best known for his History of His Own Time. 656. 79 Mcnk. George Monk, first Duke of Albermarle (1608-1670), Parliamentary commander during the Civil War, commander of a brigade at Dunbar; later influential in securing the restoration of Charles II. 123. Major Hodgson. John Hodgson (d. 1684), serving in Lambert's regiment. His Memoirs give the best contemporary account of the battle of Dunbar. 124. A Cornet. The lowest grade of the commissioned officer in cavalry; the grade is now extinct. RUSKIN British MODERN PAINTERS: SUNRISE AND SUNSET From chapter 4, "Of Truth of Clouds," (Part II, section 3, of entire work). Ruskin is arguing that Turner has been more true in his representations of nature than others with whom he is compared; the omitted portions, indicated in the text, are repetitions of the question "Has Claude given this?" 657. 14. Atlantis. A mythical city lost beneath the waves of the Atlantic. 658. 126. Who has best delivered this His message? Ruskin's answer is, of course, Turner. THE TWO BOYHOODS Part IX, chapter 9; the entire chapter is reprinted. 5. Giorgione. Italian painter (14771510), born at Castel-franco. 121. Great ships go to pieces. sentence refers to two of Turner's paintings: "The Garden of the Hesperides," and "The Meuse." 661. 255. Once ... twice... thrice. Turner painted three pictures commemorative of Trafalgar: "The Death of Nelson"; "The Battle of Trafalgar"; "The Fighting Témeraire." 361. Our Lady of Safety. "Santa Maria della Salute "; a church on the Grand Canal. 662. 394. Chiaroscuro. "I Technically the disposition of lights and shadows in a picture; here used for picturesqueness. 456. Among the Yorkshire hills. do not mean that this is his first acquaintance with the country, but the first impressive and touching one, after his mind was formed. The earliest sketches I found in the National Collection are at Clifton and Bristol; the next, at Oxford." (Ruskin.) 663. 517. Whitby Hill... Bolton Brook. The ruins of Whitby and Bolton Abbeys are the "traces of other handiwork." 562. Her breathless first-born... her last sons slain. "The Tenth Plague of Egypt"; 'Rizpah, the Daughter of Aiah": two of Turner's paintings. 576. Salvator . . . Dürer. Salvator Rosa (1615-1673), an Italian painter; Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), a German painter and engraver. 664. 600. Between Arcola and Waterloo. At Arcola Napoleon gained his reputation as a general by defeating the Austrians, September, 1796; his final defeat at Waterloo, June, 1815, ended his military 668. 408. Their bluest veins to kiss. Antony and Cleopatra, II. v. 29. 669. 462. Of them that sell doves. Matthew, xxi: 12. TIME AND TIDE Under this title appeared twenty-five letters written ostensibly to Thomas Dixon, of Sunderland, but in fact addressed to the workingmen of England who in 1867, the year the letters appeared, were agitating reform. In them Ruskin appears not as the critic of art, but as the sociologist. THE RELATION OF ART TO MORALS 671. A selection from the third of Ruskin's Lectures on Art, delivered while he was Slade Professor at Oxford. The portion reprinted comprises paragraphs 71-81 of the Lectures. 672. 122. My three years. As Slade Professor of Art at Oxford. 673. 164. The contest of Apelles and Protogenes. The two men were rivals, and attempted to outdo one another in drawing lines of remarkable fineness. 167. The circle of Giotto. Giotto (1267?— 1337) sent as a sample of his work, and proof of his powers, a perfect circle. 675. 382. Miranda . Caliban. Characters in Shakespeare's Tempest; Caliban is a creature more brute than man; Miranda is the most spotlessly pure of all Shakespeare's heroines. MACAULAY OLIVER GOLDSMITH The life of Goldsmith illustrates the vigor and picturesqueness of Macaulay's style; it is not, however, a thoroughly accurate biography. In particular it should be noted that Macaulay inherited from Boswell the condescending attitude which appears in this essay; more recent critics feel less of this, and are inclined to treat Goldsmith more seriously, both as a man and a thinker. 676. 75. Glorious and Immortal Memory. The memory of William III. 79. The banished dynasty. The Stuarts. 679. 386. The Dunciad. Pope's greatest sat ire. 479. Bayes in the Rehearsal. The Rehearsal was a burlesque attack on heroic tragedy, written by the Duke of Buckingham and his friends. John Bayes was a satirical portrait of Dryden. 680. 553. Kelly and Cumberland. Hugh Kelly (1739-1777), whose sentimental comedy False Delicacy was brought out with great success at Drury Lane six days before the first performance of The Good-Natured Man at Covent Garden; Richard Cumberland 687. Philomela, daughter of Pandion, King of Attica, was dishonored by her brother-inlaw, Tereus, King of Daulis, in Phocis, a country in northern Greece. Tereus cut out Philomela's tongue that she might not bear witness against him, but she made her secret known to her sister Procne, wife of Tereus, by words woven into a robe. Procne killed her son Itys, served him up as food to his father, and fled with Philomela. On being pursued by Tereus, the sisters prayed for deliverance, and were changed into birds by the gods, Philomela becoming a nightingale. Arnold has reversed the positions of Philomela and Procne. 688. 21. The too clear web. The woven robe which only too clearly revealed the story of the crime. 27. Cephissian vale. The valley of the Cephissus, the chief river of Phocis. THE SCHOLAR-GIPSY The poem is based on the following passage from Glanvil's Vanity of Dogmatizing, 1661; cf. ll. 11, 31, 133, 159. "There was very lately a lad in the University of Oxford, who was by his poverty forced to leave his studies there; and at last to join himself to a company of vagabond gipsies. Among these extravagant people, by the insinuating subtilty of his carriage, he quickly got so much of their love and esteem as that they discovered to him their mystery. After he had been a pretty while exercised in the trade, there chanced to ride by a couple of scholars, who had formerly been of his acquaintance. They quickly spied out their old friend among the gipsies; and he gave them an account of the necessity which drove him to that kind of life, and told them that the people he went with were not such impostors as they were taken for, but that they had a traditional kind of learning among them, and could do wonders by the power of imagination, their fancy binding that of others; that himself had learned much of their art, and when he had compassed the whole secret, he intended, he said, to leave their company, and give the world an account of what he had learned." 690. 95. Lasher. Originally the turbulent water running through an opening in a weir; then applied to the weir itself, or, as here, to the pool below the weir into which the lasher empties. 129. Christ-Church hall. The dininghall in Christ-Church College, Oxford. 692. 208. Averse, as Dido. Æneas, on his journey through Hades, met the shade of Dido, queen of Carthage, who had slain herself when deserted by him; the shade turned away from Æneas with a gesture of aversion. 245. The Syrtes. The ancient name for the modern Gulfs of Sidra and Cabes, on the northern coast of Africa. 249. Iberians. Iberia was the ancient name for the Spanish peninsula. LITERATURE AND SCIENCE 709. One of Arnold's Discourses in America, written for his lecture trip of 1883-4. 711. 185. To know the best, etc. Quoted from Arnold's essay The Function of Criticism at the Present Time. 714. 511. The powers. The component parts. 540. The desire to relate these pieces of knowledge to our sense for conduct. We acquire knowledge, and then try to answer the questions, "What difference does it make? What bearing has it upon my life? How does this new fact fit into my own schedule of facts and values? 715. 630. Professor Sylvester. James Sylvester (1814-1897), an English mathema |