62. A BACCHANALIAN DANCE.

_Nicolas Poussin_ (French: 1593-1665). _See_ 39.

This picture, one of Poussin's masterpieces, is probably one of four

Bacchanals painted for Cardinal Richelieu:--

Whence came ye, jolly Satyrs! whence came ye,

So many, and so many, and such glee?

Why have ye left your forest haunts, why left

Your nuts in oak-tree cleft?--

"For wine, for wine we left our kernel tree;

For wine we left our heath, and yellow brooms,

And cold mushrooms;

For wine we follow Bacchus through the earth;

Great god of breathless cups and chirping mirth!

Come hither, lady fair, and joined be

To our mad minstrelsy!"

KEATS: _Endymion_.

A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools Including by Special Permission Notes Collected from the Works of John Ruskin · 第 141 / 1401 题