_Which are the Shadows?_ (Vol. v., p. 281.).--An extract from the
_Memoirs of Wordsworth_, vol. ii. p. 273., will throw some little light
on J. C. R.'s perplexities:
"The anecdote of the saying of the monk, in sight of Titian's
picture, was told me in this house (Rydal Mount) by Mr. Wilkie,
and was, I believe, first communicated to the world in this poem,
the former portion of which I was composing at the time ('Lines
suggested by a Portrait by F. Stone, 1834'). Southey heard the
story from Miss Hutchinson, and transferred it to the _Doctor_; my
friend Mr. Rogers, in a note _subsequently_ added to his _Italy_,
speaks of the same remarkable words having many years before been
spoken in his hearing by a monk or priest in front of a picture of
the Last Supper, placed over a refectory table in a convent at
Padua."
It is much to be feared that this goes far towards reducing "the mild
Jeronymite's" remark to the established order of _stereotype_. On which
supposition, one need not wonder that--
"his griefs
Melted away within him like a dream,
Ere he had ceased to gaze, perhaps to speak."