125 He. Julius Cæsar. 127-145 This imaginative description of the sensations of one under the spell of music may be compared with 11. 236-255. 133 Train-oil-flasks. Train-oil (spelt trane-oyle by Hakluyt) is oil forced out, by boiling from the fat of whales. 136 Psaltery. Small Jewish harp. 138 Drysaltery. A factory of dry salted meats, drugs, etc. 139 Nuncheon. Midday meal. (M. E. nonechence, i. e. noneschenche 144 Methought. It seemed to me. verb thincan to seem, not thencan Me is dative case: thought is past tense of old impersonal to think. 146 Hamelin. Two syllables. The word is generally written and pronounced Hameln. 152 The day on which the piper reappeared is said to have been June 26, the feast of St John and St. Paul. 153 Perked. Intransitive, usually transitive (hold up briskly, smartly, saucily). 155 Looked blue. Or livid, as the result of astonishment. 160 Cellar's. The possessive case cannot strictly be used of inanimate objects. The word here is personified, by a device frequent in poetry. 162 Gipsy. Usual spelling gypsy. The word is a corruption of M. E. Egypcien. Skton, swearing by St. Mary of Egypt, says, "By Mary Gipcy." The idea that these wandering people were Egyptians is false: their original home was probably India. 164 This line seems to mean two things: (1) It was the river, not the piper, that did the work; (2) the river has done its work so well that the rats are not likely to torment us again. 169 Matter of money. A small trifle of money. Matter is mostly used with some such ad jectives as "trivial." 169 Poke. Bag, pouch, pocket. Cf. proverb, "a pig in a poke." 172 Thrifty. Likely to thrive, prosper. 174 Face fell. A rough-and-ready way of describing the dropping of the jaws and the per ing of the eyes consequent upon disappointment. 177 Prime. Best. 179 Caliph. Title of the successors of Mohammed. 182 Bate. Abate, diminish. 182 Stiver. A Dutch coin, worth about half a penny. 185 Brook. Put up with, endure. 187 Ribald. Low fellow. 188 Piebald. See 1. 79, note. 190 In other versions of the story it is said that the reward was refused on the ground that the piper was a sorcerer. 191, etc. Notice again the quiet beginning and the increasing speed of the metre: cf. 127 201 Scattering. This is a verbal noun, and is usually preceded by a preposition, in or a scattering on scattering - being scattered. 214 On the rack. What figure of speech? Cf. 1. 30, note. 220 Koppelberg. Or Koppenberg. 226 Mountain. Personification. Cf. 1. 160, note, and "needle's eye, " 1. 260. 231 The number of children that perished is given in the inscriptions at Hamelin as 130. "It is not long since two moss-grown crosses on the Koppenberg marked the spot where the little ones vanished." 232 In another version there were two left, one blind, and the other dumb. The latter pointed out the spot where the children had vanished, while the former related his sensations on hearing the piper play. 236-255 Cf. ll. 127-145. 237 Bereft. Deprived. 239 Also. The adverb is misplaced; it qualifies me, "promised me also." 242-243 Alliteration. Cf. ll. 11, etc., note. 246 Fallow-deer. Deer of a pale reddish color. 250 The conjunction "that" is omitted. 250, 251 The contrast between the pictures of the charmed imagination and the dull reality very pathetic. 258 A text. Matthew XIX. 24. 260 Needle's eye. Personification. At the gates of eastern cities are small side portals for foot passengers: these small gates are supposed to have been called "needles." 267 Lost endeavor. English, like most languages, is very rich in proverbial expressions with this meaning: e. g. sowing the sand, beating the air, bay the moon, wash a blackamoor white, etc. 275 It is probable that this date was arbitrarily fixed, and the inscriptions made to tally. The inscriptions in Hamelin recording the fact are (1) a German one in golden letters on the wall of a house; (2) a second in German, sculptured on the Rathhaus (town hall); (3) a third in Latin on the New Gate. 276 The better. The is here an adverb and is equivalent to "by that." 278 There is in Hamelin a 'street called Bungen-strasse, because no music, no drum (Bunge) may be played in it." 300 Willy. The poem is addressed to Willy Macready, the son of the famous actor and manager of Drury Lane Theatre. The poet here makes allusion to some unsatisfactory dealings between himself and the manager with regard to some plays. 301 Pipers. "Paying the piper" is a proverb for bearing the cost of anything. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH MISS MITFORD Mary Russell Mitford was born at Alresford, Hampshire, on the 16th of December, 1787. She was the daughter of George Mitford, a physician of good family, and Mary Russell, whose father had been rector of Ashe and Tadley, and vicar of Overton. The little Mary Russell Mitford was but four or five years old when the family removed from Alresford to Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire; thence they went to London. On her tenth birthday Dr. Mitford took the child to a lottery-office, and bade her select a ticket. She determined -guided, to all appearance, by one of the unaccountable whims of childhood — that she would have none other than the number 2224. Some difficulty attended the purchase of the coveted number, but the little lottery patroness had her way at last, and on the day of drawing there fell to the lot of the happy holder of ticket No. 2224 a prize of twenty thousand pounds. Dr. Mitford, reinforced in fortune by his daughter's childish persistence, purchased Bertram House, a country residence at Grasely, near Reading. This was the home of the Mitford family until 1820, when pecuniary embarrassments, caused by the doctor's extravagance and love of play, drove them to the now famous cottage at Three Mile Cross. Miss Mitford had published several books of verse, which have been long forgotten, but was now forced, at thirty-three, to take up her pen in earnest. She worked steadily both at plays and at the sketches collected in 1824, under the title, Our Village. In 1823, her first tragedy, Julian, was successfully performed at Covent Garden, with Macready as the principal character. The Foscari appeared in 1826, and Dramatic Scenes, Sonnets and Other Poems, in 1827. Towards the end of 1828, Rienzi was produced at Drury Lane, Charles Young enacting the hero. Miss Mitford is said to have received four hundred pounds from the theatre, and to have sold eight thousand copies of the play. Other works in this field were Otto, Inez de Castro, and Charles I. In 1835, was published Belford Regis, a sequel to Our Village, and in 1852, Recollections of a Literary Life. In 1854, a novel, Atherton, appeared, and in the same year her dramatic works were collected. In 1851, Miss Mitford removed from Three Mile Cross to Swallowfield, where, on the 10th of January, 1855, she died. She had been ill for some time, never having recovered from the shock of an accident that had occurred in 1853, while she was driving in a pony-chaise. 5 ΙΟ 15 20 25 330 RIENZI'S ADDRESS TO THE ROMANS I come not here to talk. You know too well By the full tide of Not such as, swept along power, the conqueror leads To crimson glory and undying fame, But base, ignoble slaves - slaves to a horde Strong in some hundred spearmen; only great a name. Each hour dark fraud Or open rapine or protected murder, Cries out against them. But this very day, He tossed not high his ready cap in air Such shames are common. I have known deeper wrongs. I that speak to you, Full of gentleness, of calmest hope, Of sweet and quiet joy; there was the look 35 40 45 That pretty, harmless boy was slain! I saw Rouse ye, Romans! rouse ye, slaves! Have ye brave sons? Look, in the next fierce brawl, To see them live, torn from your arms, distained. Yet this is Rome, That sat on her seven hills, and, from her throne Was greater than a king! And, once again, |