Wakefield translates the Greek motto, "Man is an abundant subject of
calamity."
2. _That crown the watery glade_. Cf. Pope, _Windsor Forest_, 128:
"And lonely woodcocks haunt the watery glade."
4. _Her Henry's holy shade_. Henry the Sixth, founder of the college.
Cf. _The Bard_, ii. 3: "the meek usurper's holy head;" Shakes. _Rich.
III._ v. 1: "Holy King Henry;" _Id._ iv. 4: "When holy Harry died."
The king, though never canonized, was regarded as a saint.
5. _And ye_. Ye "towers;" that is, of Windsor Castle. Cf. Thomson,
_Summer_, 1412:
"And now to where
Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow."
8. _Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among_. "That is, the
_turf_ of whose _lawn_, the _shade_ of whose _groves_, the _flowers_
of whose mead" (Wakefield). Cf. _Hamlet_, iii. 1: "The courtier's,
soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword."
In Anglo-Saxon and Early English prepositions were often placed after
their objects. In the Elizabethan period the transposition of the
weaker prepositions was not allowed, except in the compounds
_whereto_, _herewith_, etc. (cf. the Latin _quocum_, _secum_), but
the longer forms were still, though rarely, transposed (see _Shakes.
Gr._ 203); and in more recent writers this latter license is
extremely rare. Even the use of the preposition after the relative,
which was very common in Shakespeare's day, is now avoided, except in
colloquial style.
9. _The hoary Thames_. The river-god is pictured in the old classic
fashion. Cf. Milton, _Lycidas_, 103: "Next Camus, reverend sire, went
footing slow." See also quotation from Dryden in note on 21 below.
[Illustration: THE RIVER-GOD TIBER.]
10. _His silver-winding way_. Cf. Thomson, _Summer_, 1425: "The
matchless vale of Thames, Fair-winding up," etc.
12. _Ah, fields belov'd in vain!_ Mitford remarks that this
expression has been considered obscure, and adds the following
explanation: "The poem is written in the character of one who
contemplates this life as a scene of misfortune and sorrow, from
whose fatal power the brief sunshine of youth is supposed to be
exempt. The fields are _beloved_ as the scene of youthful pleasures,
and as affording the promise of happiness to come; but this promise
never was fulfilled. Fate, which dooms man to misery, soon
overclouded these opening prospects of delight. That is in vain
beloved which does not realize the expectations it held out. No fruit
but that of disappointment has followed the blossoms of a thoughtless
hope."
13. _Where once my careless childhood stray'd_. Wakefield cites
Thomson, _Winter_, 6:
"with frequent foot
Pleas'd have I, in my cheerful morn of life,
When nurs'd by careless Solitude I liv'd,
And sung of Nature with unceasing joy,
Pleas'd have I wander'd," etc.
15. _That from ye blow_. In Early English _ye_ is nominative, _you_
accusative (objective). This distinction, though observed in our
version of the Bible, was disregarded by Elizabethan writers (Shakes.
_Gr._ 236), as it has occasionally been by the poets even to our own
day. Cf. Shakes. _Hen. VIII._ iii. 1: "The more shame for ye; holy
men I thought ye;" Milton, _Comus_, 216: "I see ye visibly," etc.
Dryden, in a couplet quoted by Guest, uses both forms in the same
line:
"What gain you by forbidding it to tease ye?
It now can neither trouble _you_ nor please ye."
19. Gray quotes Dryden, _Fable on Pythag. Syst._: "And bees their
honey redolent of spring."
21. _Say, father Thames_, etc. This invocation is taken from Green's
_Grotto_:
"Say, father Thames, whose gentle pace
Gives leave to view, what beauties grace
Your flowery banks, if you have seen."
Cf. Dryden, _Annus Mirabilis_, st. 232: "Old father Thames raised up
his reverend head."
Dr. Johnson, in his hypercritical comments on this Ode, says: "His
supplication to Father Thames, to tell him who drives the hoop or
tosses the ball, is useless and puerile. Father Thames has no better
means of knowing than himself." To which Mitford replies by asking,
"Are we by this rule to judge the following passage in the twentieth
chapter of _Rasselas_? 'As they were sitting together, the princess
cast her eyes on the river that flowed before her: "Answer," said
she, "great Father of Waters, thou that rollest thy floods through
eighty nations, to the invocation of the daughter of thy native king.
Tell me, if thou waterest, through all thy course, a single
habitation from which thou dost not hear the murmurs of complaint."'"
23. _Margent green_. Cf. _Comus_, 232: "By slow Mæander's margent
green."
24. Cf. Pope, _Essay on Man_, iii. 233: "To Virtue, in the paths of
Pleasure, trod."
26. _Thy glassy wave_. Cf. _Comus_, 861: "Under the glassy, cool,
translucent wave."
27. _The captive linnet_. The adjective is redundant and "proleptic,"
as the bird must be "enthralled" before it can be called "captive."
28. In the MS. this line reads, "To chase the hoop's illusive speed,"
which seems to us better than the revised form in the text.
30. Cf. Pope, _Dunciad_, iv. 592: "The senator at cricket urge the
ball."
37. Cf. Cowley, _Ode to Hobbes_, iv. 7: "Till unknown regions it
descries."
40. _A fearful joy_. Wakefield quotes _Matt._ xxviii. 8 and _Psalms_
ii. 11. Cf. Virgil, _Æn._ i. 513:
"Obstupuit simul ipse simul perculsus Achates
Laetitiaque metuque."
See also _Lear_, v. 3: "'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and
grief."
44. Cf. Pope, _Eloisa_, 209: "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind;"
and _Essay on Man_, iv. 168: "The soul's calm sunshine, and the
heartfelt joy."
45. _Buxom_. Used here in its modern sense. It originally meant
pliant, flexible, yielding (from A. S. _búgan_, to bow); then, gay,
frolicsome, lively; and at last it became associated with the
"cheerful comeliness" of vigorous health. Chaucer has "buxom to ther
lawe," and Spenser (_State of Ireland_), "more tractable and buxome
to his government." Cf. also _F. Q._ i. 11, 37: "the buxome aire;" an
expression which Milton uses twice (_P. L._ ii. 842, v. 270). In
_L'Allegro_, 24: "So buxom, blithe, and debonaire;" the only other
instance in which he uses the word, it means sprightly or "free" (as
in "Come thou goddess, fair and free," a few lines before). Cf.
Shakes. _Pericles_, i. prologue:
"So buxom, blithe, and full of face,
As heaven had lent her all his grace."
The word occurs nowhere else in Shakes. except _Hen. V._ iii. 6: "Of
buxom valour;" that is, lively valour.
Dr. Johnson appears to have had in mind the original meaning of
_buxom_ in his comment on this passage: "His epithet _buxom health_
is not elegant; he seems not to understand the word."
47. _Lively cheer_. Cf. Spenser, _Shep. Kal._ Apr.: "In either cheeke
depeincten lively chere;" Milton, _Ps._ lxxxiv. 27: "With joy and
gladsome cheer."