entered the army 1789, was seriously wounded in the battle of Jena, but
took the field again at the head of a free corps. Indignant at the
subjection of his country to Buonaparte, he resolved to make a great
effort for the liberation of Germany, collected a small body of troops,
and commenced operations on the Elbe; but after a few successes was
overpowered and slain at Stralsund, May 31, 1809. On June 4, 1809,
Wordsworth writing to Daniel Stewart, editor of _The Courier_ newspaper,
says, "Many thanks for the newspaper. Schill is a fine fellow." The
sonnet was doubtless inspired by what he thus heard of Schill.--ED.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1837.
... in a darksome night: 1815.
"CALL NOT THE ROYAL SWEDE UNFORTUNATE"
Composed 1809.--Published 1815
Call not the royal Swede unfortunate,
Who never did to Fortune bend the knee;
Who slighted fear; rejected steadfastly
Temptation; and whose kingly name and state
Have "perished by his choice, and not his fate!" 5
Hence lives He, to his inner self endeared;
And hence, wherever virtue is revered,
He sits a more exalted Potentate,
Throned in the hearts of men. Should Heaven ordain
That this great Servant of a righteous cause 10
Must still have sad or vexing thoughts to endure,
Yet may a sympathizing spirit pause,
Admonished by these truths, and quench all pain
In thankful joy and gratulation pure.
The royal Swede, "who never did to Fortune bend the knee," was Gustavus
IV. He abdicated in 1809, and came to London at the close of the year
1810. Compare the earlier sonnet on the same King of Sweden (vol. ii. p.
338), beginning--
The Voice of song from distant lands shall call.
In the edition of 1827, Wordsworth added the following note:--"In this
and a former Sonnet, in honour of the same Sovereign, let me be
understood as a Poet availing himself of the situation which the King of
Sweden occupied, and of the principles avowed in his manifestos; as
laying hold of these advantages for the purpose of embodying moral
truths. This remark might, perhaps, as well have been suppressed; for to
those who may be in sympathy with the course of these Poems, it will be
superfluous; and will, I fear, be thrown away upon that other class,
whose besotted admiration of the intoxicated despot here placed in
contrast with him, is the most melancholy evidence of degradation in
British feeling and intellect which the times have furnished."--ED.
"LOOK NOW ON THAT ADVENTURER WHO HATH PAID"
Composed 1809.--Published 1815
Look now on that Adventurer who hath paid
His vows to Fortune; who, in cruel slight
Of virtuous hope, of liberty, and right,
Hath followed wheresoe'er a way was made
By the blind Goddess,--ruthless, undismayed; 5
And so hath gained at length a prosperous height,
Round which the elements of worldly might
Beneath his haughty feet, like clouds, are laid.
O joyless power that stands by lawless force!
Curses are _his_ dire portion, scorn, and hate, 10
Internal darkness and unquiet breath;
And, if old judgments keep their sacred course,
Him from that height shall Heaven precipitate
By violent and ignominious death.
The "Adventurer" who "paid his vows to Fortune," in contrast to the
royal Swede "who never did to Fortune bend the knee," was of course
Napoleon Buonaparte.--ED.
"IS THERE A POWER THAT CAN SUSTAIN AND CHEER"
Composed 1809.--Published 1815
Is there a power that can sustain and cheer
The captive chieftain, by a tyrant's doom,
Forced to descend into his destined tomb--[1]
A dungeon dark! where he must waste the year,
And lie cut off from all his heart holds dear; 5
What time his injured country is a stage
Whereon deliberate Valour and the rage
Of righteous Vengeance side by side appear,
Filling from morn to night the heroic scene
With deeds of hope and everlasting praise:-- 10
Say can he think of this with mind serene
And silent fetters? Yes, if visions bright
Shine on his soul, reflected from the days
When he himself was tried in open light.
This may refer to Palafox, alluded to in the sonnet (p. 222) beginning,
"And is it among rude untutored Dales," and in the one next in order in
the series (p. 223); although, from the latter sonnet, it would seem
that Wordsworth did not know that Palafox was, in 1809, a prisoner at
Vincennes.
In his edition of the poems published in 1837, Professor Henry Reed of
Philadelphia said, "He must be dull of heart who, in perusing this
series of Poems 'dedicated to Liberty,' does not feel his affection for
his own country--wherever it may be--and his love of freedom, under
whatever form of government his lot may have been cast--at once
invigorated and chastened into a purer and more thoughtful
emotion."--ED.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1837.
Forced to descend alive into his tomb, 1815.
The text of 1815 was re-adopted in 1838; the text of 1840 returned to
that of 1837.
EPITAPHS TRANSLATED FROM CHIABRERA
[Those from Chiabrera were chiefly translated when Mr. Coleridge was
writing his _Friend_, in which periodical my "Essay on Epitaphs,"
written about that time, was first published. For further notice of
Chiabrera, in connection with his Epitaphs, see _Musings near
Aquapendente_.--I. F.]
It is better to print all the Epitaphs from Chiabrera together, than to
spread them out over the years when they were written or published. Some
of them were certainly written in 1809, or at least before 1810; others
at a later date. But it is impossible to say in what year those
published after 1810 were composed. They are all to be found in the
class of "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."--ED.
I
"WEEP NOT, BELOVED FRIENDS! NOR LET THE AIR"
Published 1837
Weep not, beloved Friends! nor let the air
For me with sighs be troubled. Not from life
Have I been taken; this is genuine life
And this alone--the life which now I live
In peace eternal; where desire and joy 5
Together move in fellowship without end.--
Francesco Ceni willed that, after death,
His tombstone thus should speak for him.[1] And surely
Small cause there is for that fond wish of ours
Long to continue in this world; a world 10
That keeps not faith, nor yet can point a hope
To good, whereof itself is destitute.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1849.
Francesco Ceni after death enjoined
That thus his tomb should speak for him ... 1837.
II
"PERHAPS SOME NEEDFUL SERVICE OF THE STATE"
Published 1810[A]
Perhaps some needful service of the State
Drew TITUS from the depth of studious bowers,
And doomed him to contend in faithless courts,
Where gold determines between right and wrong.
Yet did at length his loyalty of heart, 5
And his pure native genius, lead him back
To wait upon the bright and gracious Muses,
Whom he had early loved. And not in vain
Such course he held! Bologna's learned schools
Were gladdened by the Sage's voice, and hung 10
With fondness on those sweet Nestorian strains.[1]
There pleasure crowned his days; and all his thoughts
A roseate fragrance breathed.[2][B]--O human life,
That never art secure from dolorous change!
Behold a high injunction suddenly 15
To Arno's side hath brought him,[3] and he charmed
A Tuscan audience: but full soon was called
To the perpetual silence of the grave.
Mourn, Italy, the loss of him who stood
A Champion stedfast and invincible, 20
To quell the rage of literary War!
VARIANTS:
[1] 1815.
... Nestrian 1810.
[2] 1815.
There did he live content; and all his thoughts
Were blithe as vernal flowers.-- 1810.
[3] 1837.
To Arno's side conducts him, 1810.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In _The Friend_, February 22.--ED.
[B] Ivi vivea giocondo ei suoi pensieri
Erano tutti rose.
The Translator had not skill to come nearer to his original.--W. W.
1815.
III
"O THOU WHO MOVEST ONWARD WITH A MIND"
Published 1810[A]
O Thou who movest onward with a mind
Intent upon thy way, pause, though in haste!
'Twill be no fruitless moment. I was born
Within Savona's walls, of gentle blood.
On Tiber's banks my youth was dedicate 5
To sacred studies; and the Roman Shepherd
Gave to my charge Urbino's numerous flock.
Well[1] did I watch, much laboured, nor had power
To escape from many and strange indignities;
Was smitten by the great ones of the world, 10
But did not fall; for Virtue braves all shocks,
Upon herself resting immoveably.
Me did a kindlier fortune then invite
To serve the glorious Henry, King of France,
And in his hands I saw a high reward 15
Stretched out for my acceptance,--but Death came.
Now, Reader, learn from this my fate, how false,
How treacherous to her promise, is the world;
And trust in God--to whose eternal doom
Must bend the sceptred Potentates of earth. 20
VARIANTS:
[1] 1837.
Much ... 1810.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In _The Friend_, February 22.--ED.
IV
"THERE NEVER BREATHED A MAN WHO, WHEN HIS LIFE"
Published 1809[A]
There never breathed a man who, when his life
Was closing, might not of that life relate
Toils long and hard.--The warrior will report
Of wounds, and bright swords flashing in the field,
And blast of trumpets. He who hath been doomed 5
To bow his forehead in the courts of kings,
Will tell of fraud and never-ceasing hate,
Envy and heart-inquietude, derived
From intricate cabals of treacherous friends.
I, who on shipboard lived from earliest youth, 10
Could represent the countenance horrible
Of the vexed waters, and the indignant rage
Of Auster and Booetes. Fifty[1] years
Over the well-steered galleys did I rule:--
From huge Pelorus to the Atlantic pillars, 15
Rises no mountain to mine eyes unknown;
And the broad gulfs I traversed oft and oft:
Of every cloud which in the heavens might stir
I knew the force; and hence the rough sea's pride
Availed not to my Vessel's overthrow. 20
What noble pomp and frequent have not I
On regal decks beheld! yet in the end
I learned[2] that one poor moment can suffice
To equalise the lofty and the low.
We sail the sea of life--a _Calm_ One finds, 25
And One a _Tempest_--and, the voyage o'er,
Death is the quiet haven of us all.
If more of my condition ye would know,
Savona was my birth-place, and I sprang
Of noble parents: seventy[3] years and three 30
Lived I--then yielded to a slow disease.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1837.
... Forty ... 1809.
[2] 1832.
I learn ... 1809.
[3] 1837.
... sixty ... 1809.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In _The Friend_, December 28.--ED.
V
"TRUE IS IT THAT AMBROSIO SALINERO"
Published 1837
True is it that Ambrosio Salinero
With an untoward fate was long involved
In odious litigation; and full long,
Fate harder still! had he to endure assaults
Of racking malady. And true it is 5
That not the less a frank courageous heart
And buoyant spirit triumphed over pain;
And he was strong to follow in the steps
Of the fair Muses. Not a covert path
Leads to the dear Parnassian forest's shade, 10
That might from him be hidden; not a track
Mounts to pellucid Hippocrene, but he
Had traced its windings.--This Savona knows,
Yet no sepulchral honours to her Son
She paid, for in our age the heart is ruled 15
Only by gold. And now a simple stone
Inscribed with this memorial here is raised
By his bereft, his lonely, Chiabrera.
Think not, O Passenger! who read'st the lines
That an exceeding love hath dazzled me; 20
No--he was One whose memory ought to spread
Where'er Permessus bears an honoured name,
And live as long as its pure stream shall flow.[A]
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Compare S. T. Coleridge's poem, _A Tombless Epitaph_.--ED.
VI
"DESTINED TO WAR FROM VERY INFANCY"
Published 1809[A]
Destined to war from very infancy
Was I, Roberto Dati, and I took
In Malta the white symbol of the Cross:
Nor in life's vigorous season did I shun
Hazard or toil; among the sands was seen 5
Of Libya; and not seldom, on the banks
Of wide Hungarian Danube, 'twas my lot
To hear the sanguinary trumpet sounded.
So lived I, and repined not at such fate:
This only grieves me, for it seems a wrong, 10
That stripped of arms I to my end am brought
On the soft down of my paternal home.
Yet haply Arno shall be spared all cause
To blush for me. Thou, loiter not nor halt
In thy appointed way, and bear in mind 15
How fleeting and how frail is human life!
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In _The Friend_, December 28.--ED.
VII
"O FLOWER OF ALL THAT SPRINGS FROM GENTLE BLOOD"
Published 1837
O flower of all that springs from gentle blood,
And all that generous nurture breeds to make
Youth amiable; O friend so true of soul
To fair Aglaia; by what envy moved,
Lelius! has death cut short thy brilliant day 5
In its sweet opening? and what dire mishap
Has from Savona torn her best delight?
For thee she mourns, nor e'er will cease to mourn;
And, should the out-pourings of her eyes suffice not
For her heart's grief, she will entreat Sebeto 10
Not to withhold his bounteous aid, Sebeto
Who saw thee, on his margin, yield to death,
In the chaste arms of thy beloved Love!
What profit riches? what does youth avail?
Dust are our hopes;--I, weeping bitterly, 15
Penned these sad lines, nor can forbear to pray
That every gentle Spirit hither led
May read them not without some bitter tears.
VIII
"NOT WITHOUT HEAVY GRIEF OF HEART DID HE"
Published 1810[A]
Not without heavy grief of heart did He
On whom the duty fell (for at that time
The father sojourned in a distant land)
Deposit in the hollow of this tomb
A brother's Child, most tenderly beloved! 5
FRANCESCO was the name the Youth had borne,
POZZOBONNELLI his illustrious house;
And, when beneath this stone the Corse was laid,
The eyes of all Savona streamed with tears.
Alas! the twentieth April of his life 10
Had scarcely flowered: and at this early time,
By genuine virtue he inspired a hope
That greatly cheered his country: to his kin
He promised comfort; and the flattering thoughts
His friends had in their fondness entertained,[B] 15
He suffered not to languish or decay.
Now is there not good reason to break forth
Into a passionate lament?--O Soul!
Short while a Pilgrim in our nether world,
Do thou enjoy the calm empyreal air; 20
And round this earthly tomb let roses rise,
An everlasting spring! in memory
Of that delightful fragrance which was once
From thy mild manners quietly exhaled.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In _The Friend_, January 4.--ED.
[B] In justice to the Author I subjoin the original--
... e degli amici
Non lasciava languire i bei pensieri.--W. W. 1815.
IX
"PAUSE, COURTEOUS SPIRIT!--BALBI SUPPLICATES"[A]
Published 1810[B]
Pause, courteous Spirit!--Balbi supplicates
That Thou, with no reluctant voice, for him
Here laid in mortal darkness, wouldst prefer
A prayer to the Redeemer of the world.
This to the dead by sacred right belongs; 5
All else is nothing.--Did occasion suit
To tell his worth, the marble of this tomb
Would ill suffice: for Plato's lore sublime,
And all the wisdom of the Stagyrite,
Enriched and beautified his studious mind: 10
With Archimedes also he conversed
As with a chosen friend; nor did he leave
Those laureat wreaths ungathered which the Nymphs
Twine near their loved Permessus.[1]--Finally,
Himself above each lower thought uplifting, 15
His ears he closed to listen to the songs[2]
Which Sion's Kings did consecrate of old;
And his Permessus found on Lebanon.[3]
A blessed Man! who of protracted days
Made not, as thousands do, a vulgar sleep; 20
But truly did _He_ live his life. Urbino,
Take pride in him!--O Passenger, farewell!
I have been unable to obtain any definite information in reference to
the persons commemorated in these epitaphs by Chiabrera: Francesco Ceni,
Titus, Ambrosio Salinero, Roberto Dati, Lelius, Francesco Pozzobonnelli,
and Balbi. Mr. W. M. Rossetti writes to me that he "supposes all the men
named by Chiabrera to be such as enjoyed a certain local and temporary
reputation, which has hardly passed down to any sort of posterity, and
certainly not to the ordinary English reader."
Chiabrera was born at Savona on the 8th of June 1552, and educated at
Rome. He entered the service of Cardinal Cornaro, married in his 50th
year, lived to the age of 85, and died October 14, 1637. His poetical
faculty showed itself late. "Having commenced to read the Greek writers
at home, he conceived a great admiration for Pindar, and strove
successfully to imitate him. He was not less happy in catching the naive
and pleasant spirit of Anacreon; his canzonetti being distinguished for
their ease and elegance, while his _Lettere Famigliari_ was the first
attempt to introduce the poetical epistle into Italian Literature. He
wrote also several epics, bucolics, and dramatic poems. His _Opere_
appeared at Venice, in 6 vols., in 1768."
Wordsworth says of him, in his _Essay on Epitaphs_, where translations
of two of those Epitaphs of Chiabrera first appeared (see _The Friend_,
February 22, 1810, and notes to _The Excursion_)--"His life was long,
and every part of it bore appropriate fruits. Urbino, his birth-place,
might be proud of him, and the passenger who was entreated to pray for
his soul has a wish breathed for his welfare.... The Epitaphs of
Chiabrera are twenty-nine in number, and all of them, save two, upon men
probably little known at this day in their own country, and scarcely at
all beyond the limits of it; and the reader is generally made acquainted
with the moral and intellectual excellence which distinguished them by a
brief history of the course of their lives, or a selection of events and
circumstances, and thus they are individualized; but in the two other
instances, namely, in those of Tasso and Raphael, he enters into no
particulars, but contents himself with four lines expressing one
sentiment, upon the principle laid down in the former part of this
discourse, when the subject of the epitaph is a man of prime note...."
Compare the poem _Musings near Aquapendente_. In reference to the places
referred to in these Epitaphs of Chiabrera, it may be mentioned that
Savona (Epitaphs III., IV., V., VII., VIII.) is a town in the Genovese
territory; Permessus (Epitaphs V. and IX.) a river of Boeotia, rising
in Mount Helicon and flowing round it, hence sacred to the Muses; and
that the fountain of Hippocrene--also referred to in Epitaph V.--was not
far distant. Sebeto (Epitaph VII.), now cape Faro, is a Sicilian
promontory.--ED.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1837.
Twine on the top of Pindus.-- ... 1810.
[2] 1837.
... Song 1810.
[3] 1837.
And fixed his Pindus upon Lebanon. 1810.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Wordsworth's extended commentary on this sonnet in his _Essay on
Epitaphs_ (see his "Prose Works" in this edition), should here be
referred to.--ED.
[B] In _The Friend_, January 4.--ED.
1810
As indicated in the editorial note to the poems belonging to the year
1809, those of 1810 were mainly sonnets, suggested by the events
occurring on the Continent of Europe, and the patriotic efforts of the
Spaniards to resist Napoleon. I have assigned the two referring to
Flamininus, entitled _On a Celebrated Event in Ancient History_, to the
same year. They were first published in 1815, and seem to have been due
to the same impulse which led Wordsworth to write the "Sonnets dedicated
to Liberty."--ED.
"AH! WHERE IS PALAFOX? NOR TONGUE NOR PEN"
Composed 1810.--Published 1815
All the sonnets of 1810 were "dedicated to Liberty." In every edition
this poem had for its title the date _1810_.--ED.
Ah! where is Palafox? Nor tongue nor pen
Reports of him, his dwelling or his grave!
Does yet the unheard-of vessel ride the wave?
Or is she swallowed up, remote from ken
Of pitying human-nature? Once again 5
Methinks that we shall hail thee, Champion brave,
Redeemed to baffle that imperial Slave,
And through all Europe cheer desponding men
With new-born hope. Unbounded is the might
Of martyrdom, and fortitude, and right. 10
Hark, how thy Country triumphs!--Smilingly
The Eternal looks upon her sword that gleams,
Like his own lightning, over mountains high,
On rampart, and the banks of all her streams.
See notes to sonnets (pp. 223 and 229).--ED.
"IN DUE OBSERVANCE OF AN ANCIENT RITE"
Composed 1810.--Published 1815
In due observance of an ancient rite,
The rude Biscayans, when their children lie
Dead in the sinless time of infancy,
Attire the peaceful corse in vestments white;
And, in like sign of cloudless triumph bright, 5
They bind the unoffending creature's brows
With happy garlands of the pure white rose:
Then do[1] a festal company unite
In choral song; and, while the uplifted cross
Of Jesus goes before, the child is borne 10
Uncovered to his grave: 'tis closed,--her loss
The Mother _then_ mourns, as she needs must mourn;
But soon, through Christian faith, is grief subdued;[2]
And joy returns, to brighten fortitude.[3]
VARIANTS:
[1] 1837.
This done, ... 1815.
[2] 1837.
Uncovered to his grave.--Her piteous loss
The lonesome Mother cannot chuse but mourn;
Yet soon by Christian faith is grief subdued, 1815.
[3] C. and 1838.
And joy attends upon her fortitude. 1815.
Or joy returns to brighten fortitude. 1837.
FEELINGS OF A NOBLE BISCAYAN AT ONE OF THOSE FUNERALS, 1810
Composed 1810.--Published 1815
Yet, yet, Biscayans! we must meet our Foes
With firmer soul, yet labour to regain
Our ancient freedom; else 'twere worse than vain
To gather round the bier these festal shows.
A garland fashioned of the pure white rose 5
Becomes not one whose father is a slave:
Oh, bear the infant covered to his grave!
These venerable mountains now enclose
A people sunk in apathy and fear.
If this endure, farewell, for us, all good! 10
The awful light of heavenly innocence
Will fail to illuminate the infant's bier;
And guilt and shame, from which is no defence,
Descend on all that issues from our blood.
ON A CELEBRATED EVENT IN ANCIENT HISTORY
Composed 1810.--Published 1815
A Roman Master stands on Grecian ground,
And to the people at the Isthmian Games
Assembled, He, by a herald's voice, proclaims[1]
THE LIBERTY OF GREECE:--the words rebound
Until all voices in one voice are drowned; 5
Glad acclamation by which air was[2] rent!
And birds, high flying in the element,
Dropped[3] to the earth, astonished at the sound!
Yet were the thoughtful grieved; and still that voice
Haunts, with sad echoes, musing Fancy's ear:[4] 10
Ah! that a _Conqueror's_ words[5] should be so dear:
Ah! that a _boon_ could shed such rapturous joys!
A gift of that which is not to be given
By all the blended powers of Earth and Heaven.
This "Roman Master" "on Grecian ground" was T. Quintius Flamininus, one
of the ablest and noblest of the Roman generals (230-174 B.C.). He was
successful against Philip of Macedon, overran Thessaly in 198, and
conquered the Macedonian army in 197, defeating Philip at Cynoscephalae.
He concluded a peace with the vanquished. "In the spring of 196, the
Roman commission arrived in Greece to arrange, conjointly with
Flamininus, the affairs of the country: they also brought with them the
terms on which a definite peace was to be concluded with Philip.... The
Aetolians exerted themselves to excite suspicions among the Greeks as
to the sincerity of the Romans in their dealings with them. Flamininus,
however, insisted upon immediate compliance with the terms of the
peace.... In this summer, the Isthmian games were celebrated at Corinth,
and thousands from all parts of Greece flocked thither. Flamininus,
accompanied by the ten commissioners, entered the assembly, and, at his
command, a herald, in name of the Roman Senate, proclaimed the freedom
and independence of Greece. The joy and enthusiasm at this unexpected
declaration was beyond all description: the throngs of people that
crowded around Flamininus to catch a sight of their liberator or touch
his garment were so enormous, that even his life was endangered."
(Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography_: Art. Flamininus, No.
4.)--ED.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1837.
And to the Concourse of the Isthmian Games
He, by his Herald's voice, aloud proclaims 1815.
[2] 1815.
... is ... 1838.
The text of 1840 returns to that of 1815.
[3] 1815.
Drop ... 1838.
The text of 1840 returns to that of 1815.
[4] 1837.
... at the sound!
--A melancholy Echo of that noise
Doth sometimes hang on musing Fancy's ear: 1815.
[5] 1815.
... word ... 1827.
The text of 1837 returns to that of 1815.
UPON THE SAME EVENT
Composed (probably) 1810.--Published 1815