Page 127. _The Fortunate Islands_. This piece is a rhymed loose version
of a passage in the _Vera Historia_ of Lucian. The humorist was unable
to resist the temptation to introduce passages of mockery, which are here
omitted. Part of his description of the Isles of the Blest has a close
and singular resemblance to the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse. The
clear River of Life and the prodigality of gold and of precious stones
may especially be noticed.
Page 133. _Whoso doth taste the Dead Men’s bread_, _&c._ This belief
that the living may visit, on occasion, the dwellings of the dead, but
can never return to earth if they taste the food of the departed, is
expressed in myths of worldwide distribution. Because she ate the
pomegranate seed, Persephone became subject to the spell of Hades. In
Apuleius, Psyche, when she visits the place of souls, is advised to
abstain from food. Kohl found the myth among the Ojibbeways, Mr.
Codrington among the Solomon Islanders; it occurs in Samoa, in the
Finnish Kalewala (where Wainamoinen, in Pohjola, refrains from touching
meat or drink), and the belief has left its mark on the mediæval ballad
of Thomas of Ercildoune. When he is in Fairy Land, the Fairy Queen
supplies him with the bread and wine of earth, and will not suffer him to
touch the fruits which grow “in this countrie.” See also “Wandering
Willie” in _Redgauntlet_.
Page 152. _The latest minstrel_. “The sound of all others dearest to
his ear, the gentle ripple of Tweed over its pebbles, was distinctly
audible as we knelt around the bed and his eldest son kissed and closed
his eyes.”—Lockhart’s _Life of Scott_, vii., 394.
Page 161. _Ronsard’s Grave_. This version ventures to condense the
original which, like most of the works of the Pleiad, is unnecessarily
long.
Page 162. _The snow_, _and wind_, _and hail_. Ronsard’s rendering of
the famous passage in Odyssey, vi., about the dwellings of the Olympians.
The vision of a Paradise of learned lovers and poets constantly recurs in
the poetry of Joachim du Bellay, and of Ronsard.
Page 166. _Romance_. Suggested by a passage in _La Faustin_, by M. E.
de Goncourt, a curious moment of poetry in a repulsive piece of
_naturalisme_.
Page 171. _M. Boulmier_, author of _Les Villanelles_, died shortly after
this _villanelle_ was written; he had not published a larger collection
on which he had been at work.
Page 177. _Edmund Gorliot_. The bibliophile will not easily procure
Gorliot’s book, which is not in the catalogues. Throughout _The Last
Maying_ there is reference to the _Pervigilium Veneris_.
Page 207. _Bird-Gods_. Apparently Aristophanes preserved, in a
burlesque form, the remnants of a genuine myth. Almost all savage
religions have their bird-gods, and it is probable that Aristophanes did
not invent, but only used a surviving myth of which there are scarcely
any other traces in Greek literature.
Page 236. _Spinet_. The accent is on the last foot, even when the word
is written _spinnet_. Compare the remarkable Liberty which Pamela took
with the 137th Psalm.
_My Joys and Hopes all overthrown_,
_My Heartstrings almost broke_,
_Unfit my Mind for Melody_,
_Much more to bear a Joke_.
_But yet_, _if from my Innocence_
_I_, _even in Thought_, _should slide_,
_Then_, _let my fingers quite forget_
_The sweet Spinnet to guide_!
_Pamela_, _or Virtue Rewarded_, vol. i.,
p. 184., 1785.
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