A princely people's awful princes, At Florence too what golden hours, In bright vignettes,2 and each complete, Or palace, how the city glitter'd, But when we crost the Lombard plain Of rain at Reggio, rain at Parma ; 3 And stern and sad (so rare the smiles O Milan, O the chanting quires, The height, the space, the gloom, the glory! A mount of marble, a hundred spires! 1 Cascinè.] The "Hyde Park" of Florence. The Boboli Gardens, also well known to all dwellers in that beautiful city. 2 Vignettes.] Tennyson has here seized a characteristic of Italian scenery. It always "goes into pictures" in a way English scenery, however beautiful, rarely does. Any tyro at sketching must have noticed this. 3 Rain at Parma.] This word "rain" not in 1st edition. I climb'd the roofs at break of day; I stood among the silent statues,1 How faintly-flush'd, how phantom-fair, A thousand shadowy-pencill'd valleys Remember how we came at last From Como, when the light was gray, 1 Silent statues.] See Wordsworth's lines on the eclipse of the sun, 1820, as imagined on Milan Cathedral, where Fancy ""Mid that aërial host Of Figures human and divine, Sees long-drawn files, concentric rings, Each narrowing above each;-the wings The uplifted palms, the silent marble lips, The starry zone of sovereign height- All suffering dim eclipse!' 2 Lari Maxume.] "Anne lacus tantos, te Lari maxume, teque Fluctibus et fremitu adsurgens, Benace, marino?" Virgil, Georg. ii. 159, referring to the Lakes of Como (Larius) and Garda (Benacus). Like ballad-burthen music, kept, 1 To that fair port 1 below the castle Or hardly slept, but watch'd awake What more? we took our last adieu, It told of England then to me, O love, we two shall go no longer So dear a life your arms enfold Yet here to-night in this dark city, 1 Port.] Probably at Como. 2 Theodolind.] Theodolind, Queen of the Lombards, a powerful and orthodox monarch, who did all in her power to extirpate Arianism, and conferred on the Archbishop of Milan the guardianship of the iron crown of Lombardy. She built a magnificent palace in Monza, and near it a cathedral, A.D. 595, where the crown was kept and coronations were held. Various relics of Theodolind, including her tomb, are to be seen in the cathedral, where the crown is still preserved. It is a thin strip of iron, said to be made of a nail of the true Cross, richly adorned, however, with gold and gems. 3 Agavè.] The American aloe. 4 Across.] 1st edition, "beyond." I found, tho' crush'd to hard and dry, Still in the little book you lent me, And I forgot the clouded Forth, Perchance, to lull the throbs of pain, TO THE REV. F. D. MAURICE COME, when no graver cares employ, For, being of that honest few, Should eighty-thousand college-councils 1 Should all our churchmen foam in spite Yet one lay-hearth would give you welcome (Take it and come) to the Isle of Wight; Where, far from noise and smoke of town, All round a careless-order'd garden 1 College-councils.] Referring to the disputes and misunderstandings at King's College, London, at this time, in consequence of which Maurice withdrew from his office. 2 Anathema.] Anything devoted, especially to evil. Anathema generally used in a bad sense; anathema, a votive offering. |