EXPLANATORY NOTES. NOTE 1, PAGE 3. Sohrab and Rustum contains about nine hundred lines. The following is the author's note appended to the poem :'The story of Sohrab and Rustum is told in Sir John Malcolm's "History of Persia," as follows: The young Sohrab was the fruit of one of Rustum's early amours. He had left his mother, and sought fame under the banners of Afrasiab, whose armies he commanded, and soon obtained a renown beyond that of all contemporary heroes but his father. He had carried death and dismay into the ranks of the Persians, and had terrified the boldest warriors of that country, before Rustum encountered him, which at last that hero resolved to do, under a feigned name. They met three times. The first time they parted by mutual consent, though Sohrab had the advantage; the second, the youth obtained a victory, but granted life to his unknown father; the third was fatal to Sohrab, who, when writhing in the pangs of death, warned his conqueror to shun the vengeance that is inspired by parental woes, and bade him dread the rage of the mighty Rustum, who must soon learn that he had slain his son Sohrab. These words, we are told, were as death to the aged hero; and when he recovered from a trance, he called in despair for proofs of what Sohrab had said. The afflicted and dying youth tore open his mail, and showed his father a seal which his mother had placed on his arm when she discovered to him the secret of his birth, and bade him seek his father. The sight of his own signet rendered Rustum quite frantic; he cursed himself, attempting to put an end to his existence, and was only prevented by the efforts of his expiring son. After Sohrab's death, he burned his tents and all his goods, and carried the corpse to Seistan, where it was interred: the army of Turan was, agreeably to the last request of Sohrab, permitted to cross the Oxus unmolested. To reconcile us to the improbability of this tale, we are informed that Rustum could have no idea his son was in existence. The mother of Sohrab had written to him that her child was a daughter, fearing to lose her darling infant if she revealed the truth; and Rustum, as before stated, fought under a feigned name, a usage not uncommon in the chivalrous combats of those days.' NOTE 2, PAGE 9.1 The Scholar-Gypsy: -— The author has the following note appended to "There was very lately a lad in the University of Oxford, who was by his poverty forced to leave his studies there, and at last to join himself to a company of vagabond gypsies. Among these extravagant people, by the insinuating subtilty of his carriage, he quickly got so much of their love and esteem as that they discovered to him their mystery. After he had been a pretty while exercised in the trade, there chanced to ride by a couple of scholars who had formerly been of his acquaintance. They quickly spied out their old friend among the gypsies; and he gave them an account of the necessity which drove him to that kind of life, and told them that the people he went with were not such impostors as they were taken for, but that they had a traditional kind of learning among them, and could do wonders by the power of imagination, their fancy binding that of others; that himself had learned much of their art, and when he had compassed the whole secret, he intended, he said, to leave their company, and give the world an account of what he had learned." — Glanvil's Vanity of Dogmatizing, 1661.' NOTE 3, PAGE 21.- The full title is The Book of Orm, a Prelude to the Epic. It consists of nine books, and contains some four thousand lines. The purpose of the book is to depict in a mystical form the conflict of mind and matter, the doctrine of Metaphysical Evil, and the final triumph of good over evil, through the agency of love. The Inscription, page 21, is taken from the first edition; in later editions only the first verse is printed. NOTE 4, PAGE 38. The Coruisken Sonnets originally formed Book VII. of the Book of Orm, but in the last edition of Mr. Buchanan's poetical works they are printed by themselves. They contain thirty-three different sonnets. NOTE 5, PAGE 47.- The Epic of Hades consists of three books, — Book I., Tartarus; Book II., Hades; Book III., Olympus, —and contains some five thousand lines. The purpose of the book is to explain the various symbolisms of the ancient myths. NOTE 6, PAGE 62. The Ode of Life consists of eleven separate odes, and contains about two thousand lines. NOTE 7, PAGE 65.- The full title is The Light of Asia; or The Great Renunciation (Mahâbhinishkramana). Being The Life and Teaching of Gautama, Prince of India and Founder of Buddhism (as told in verse by an Indian Buddhist). It consists of eight books, and contains about four thousand lines. The poem is supposed to relate the various incidents in Gautama's life, from the time of his birth to his return home after he had completed his renunciation and founded Buddhism. NOTE 8, PAGE 82.- The City of Dreadful Night consists of a brief proem and twenty-one short cantos, and contains about one thousand lines. The purpose of the poem is to portray a condition of absolute and hopeless despair under the allegory of a City. NOTE 9, PAGE 97.-The full title is Sunday Up the River: an Idyll of Cockaigne. It consists of twenty brief cantos and contains about five hundred lines, and is a description of a Londoner's summer Sunday excursion out of town. NOTE 10, PAGE 104. The Human Tragedy consists of what the author calls four acts, as follows: Act I. Protagonist: Love. Place: England. Time: June - November, 1857. Act II. Protagonists: Love Religion. Place: Spiaggiascura - Milan - Florence. Time: March, 1858 May, 1859. Act III. Protagonists: Love - Religion - Country. Place Capri Mentana. Time: October-November, 1867. Act IV. Protagonists: Love - Religion - Country - Mankind. Place: Rome - Paris. Time: August, 1870- Close of May, 1871. The poem contains twelve hundred and twenty-seven eight-line stanzas, of which Act I. contains 241; Act II., 291; Act III., 354; Act IV., 341. The following is a synopsis of the story told in the poem: Godfrid, the son of an English Roman Catholic family, and educated in that faith, has, on account of conscientious scruples, refrained from all outward observances of the forms of that religion. While in a state of doubt and unrest he meets Olive, the daughter of an English squire, and for a time he imagines that in loving her he can regain the peace which he lost with the faith of his childhood. He becomes convinced, however, that his passion for Olive is simply transitory; and Olive herself marries Gilbert, a healthy, sport-loving English squire, and utterly indifferent to all questions of State or Church, except such as are brought under his immediate notice by the circumstances of his life. Godfrid seeks Spiaggiascura, where he meets Olympia, a young and beautiful Italian girl, who is a devout daughter of the Church and known as Madonna's Child, from her habit of keeping the altar in the Chapel of Maria Stella Maris |