59. _Bay-filleted._ The bay or laurel with which victors were crowned
was supposed to be an antidote against thunder because it was the tree
of Apollo. Pliny says that Tiberius and some other Roman emperors wore a
wreath of bay leaves as an amulet, especially in thunder-storms. (See
Brewer, _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_; also Byron, _Childe Harold_,
IV, 41.)
61. _Hipparchus._ In B. C. 514 Harmodius and Aristogeiton conspired
against the tyrants Hippias and Hipparchus, and carrying swords hid in
myrtle, they slew Hipparchus. Cf. Byron, _Childe Harold_, III, 20.
"All that most endears
Glory, is when the myrtle wreathes a sword
Such as Harmodius drew on Athens' tyrant lord."
75. _Parsley._ An aromatic herb used in ancient time in crowns worn at
feasts.
86. _Archetype._ The original pattern or model. Beautiful colors and
shapes in flowers, in flames, trees, and fruit suggested to the poet the
beauty of perfect human forms. The rosy bloom of the peach bending close
over the bough and nestled among the leaves is sufficient to suggest
rosy limbs, and from that suggestion comes the whole imaginative picture
of the dryad, the nymph of the woods.
95. _Facile chalk._ Jules exults in the facility with which the artist,
in any realm of art, manipulates his implements and his materials. His
especial enthusiasm is for marble, which he has come to regard as an
original, primitive substance, containing in itself all other
substances. It may be made to seem as light and clear as air, as
brilliant as diamonds. Sometimes as his chisel strikes, it seems to be
metal. Again it seems to be actual flesh and blood. At moments when the
sculptor works with swift intensity it seems to flush and glow like
flame.
181. _I am a painter_, etc. The poem by Lutwyche is professedly "slow,
involved, and mystical." But Jules gradually perceives the purport of
the words. Lutwyche's hate is to have its most hideous possible aspect
because it is to appear suddenly through Love's rose-braided mask.
272. _The Cornaro._ Catharine Cornaro was the wife of James, King of
Cyprus. After his death she was induced to abdicate in favor of the
Republic of Venice, which took possession of Cyprus in 1487. She was
assigned a palace and court at Asolo. She was generous, kind, just, and
deeply beloved. Her life seemed to hold all possible external conditions
of happiness. The song is further explained in lines 275-279.