NOTES. Page 13.-POEM OF THE AGES. In this poem, written and first printed in the year 1821, the Author has endeavoured, from a survey of the past ages of the world, and of the successive advances of mankind in knowledge, virtue, and happiness, to justify and confirm the hopes of the philanthropist for the future destinies of the human race. Page 50.-The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye. The prairies of the West with an undulating surface, rolling prairies, as they are called, present to the unaccustomed eye a singular spectacle when the shadows of the clouds are passing rapidly over them. The face of the ground seems to fluctuate and toss like the billows of the sea. Page 51. -the prairie-hawk that, poised on high, Flaps his broad wings, yet moves not. I have seen the prairie-hawk balancing himself in the air for hours together, apparently over the same spot; probably watching his prey. The size and extent of the mounds in the valley of the Mississippi, indicate the existence, at a remote period, of a nation at once populous and laborious, and therefore probably subsisting by agriculture. Instances are not wanting of generosity like this among the North American Indians towards a captive or surviver of a hostile tribe on which the greatest cruelties had been exercised. Page 89.-Her maiden veil, her own black hair, &c. "The unmarried females have a modest falling down of the hair over the eyes."-ELIOT. Page 94.-THE MASSACRE AT SCIO. This poem, written about the time of the horrible butchery of the Sciotes by the Turks, in 1824, has been more fortunate than most poetical predictions. The independence of the Greek nation, which it foretold, has come to pass, and the massacre, by inspiring a deeper detestation of their oppressors, did much to promote that event. Page 102.-MONUMENT MOUNTAIN. ~ The mountain, called by this name, is a remarkable precipice in Great Barrington, overlooking the rich and picturesque valley of the Housatonic, in the western part of Massachusetts. At the southern extremity is, or was a few years since, a conical pile of small stones, erected, according to the tradition of the surrounding country, by the Indians, in memory of a woman of the Stockbridge tribe, who killed herself by leaping from the edge of the precipice. Until within a few years past, small parties of that tribe used to arrive from their settlement in the western part of the State of New-York, on visits to Stockbridge, the place of their nativity and former residence. A young woman belonging to one of these parties related to a friend of the author the story on which the poem of Monument Mountain is founded. An Indian girl had formed an attachment for her cousin, which, according to the customs of the tribe, was unlawful. She was, in consequence, seized with a deep melancholy, and resolved to destroy her self. In company with a female friend she repaired to the mountain, decked out for the occasion in all her ornaments, and, after passing the day on its summit in singing with her companion the traditional songs of her nation, she threw herself headlong from the rock, and was killed. Page 107.-The Murdered TRAVELLER. Some years since, in the month of May, the remains of a human body, partly devoured by wild animals, were found in a woody ravine, near a solitary road passing between the mountains west of the village of Stockbridge. It was supposed that the person came to his death by violence, but no traces could be discovered of his murderers. It was only recollected that one evening in the course of the previous winter a traveller had stopped at an inn in the village of West Stockbridge; that he had inquired the way to Stockbridge; and that, in paying the innkeeper for something he had ordered, it appeared that he had a considerable sum of money in his possession. Two ill-looking men were present, and went out about the same time that the traveller proceeded on his journey. During the winter, also, two men of shabby appearance, but plentifully supplied with money, had lingered for a while about the village of Stockbridge. Several years afterward a criminal, about to be executed for a capital offence in Canada, confessed that he had been concerned in murdering a traveller in Stockbridge for the sake of his money. Nothing was ever discovered respecting the name or residence of the person murdered. Page 111.-Chained in the market-place he stood, &c. The story of the African Chief, related in this ballad, may be found in the African Repository for April, 1825. The subject of it was a warrior of majestic stature, the brother of Yarradee, king of the Solima nation. He had been taken in battle, and was brought in chains for sale to the Rio Pongas, where he was exhibited in the market-place, his ankles still adorned with the massy rings of gold which he wore when captured. The refusal of his captor to listen to his offers of ransom drove him mad, and he died a maniac. Page 118.-And stoops the slim papaya, &c. Papaya-papaw, custard-apple. Flint, in his excellent work on the Geography and History of the Western States, thus describes this tree and its fruit: "A papaw shrub hanging full of fruits, of a size and weight so disproportioned to the stem, and from under long and rich-looking leaves, of the same yellow with the ripened fruit, and of an African luxuriance of growth, is to us one of the richest spectacles that we have ever contemplated in the array of the woods. The fruit contains from two to six seeds, like those of the tamarind, except that they are double the size. The pulp of the fruit resembles egg custard in consistence and appearance. It has the same creamy feeling in the mouth, and unites the taste of eggs, cream, sugar, and spice. It is a natural custard, too luscious for the relish of most people." Chateaubriand, in his Travels, speaks disparagingly of the fruit of the papaw; but on the authority of Mr. Flint, who must know more of the matter, I have ventured to make my western lover enumerate it among the delicacies of the wilderness. Page 122.-SONG OF MARION'S MEN. The exploits of General Francis Marion, the famous partisan warrior of South Carolina, form an interesting chapter in the annals of the American revolution. The British troops were so harassed by the irregular and successful warfare which he kept up at the head of a few daring followers, that they sent an officer to remonstrate with him for not coming into the open field and fighting "like a gentleman and a Christian." Page 127.-LOVE AND FOLLY.-(From La Fontaine.) This is rather an imitation than a translation of the poem of the graceful French fabulist. Page 129.-FATIMA AND RADUAN. This, and the following poems, belong to that class of ancient Spanish ballads by unknown authors, called Romances Moriscos-Moriscan romances or ballads. They were composed in the 14th century, some of them, probably, by the Moors, who then lived intermingled with the Christians; and they relate the loves and achievements of the knights of Grenada. Page 133.-Say, Love-for thou didst see her tears, &c. The stanza beginning with this line stands thus in the original :- ¡Mas ay! que de lastimado Diste otro nudo á la venda, Para no ver lo que ha pasado. I am sorry to find so poor a conceit deforming so spirited a composition as this old ballad, but I have preserved it in the version. It is one of those extravagances which afterward became so common in Spanish poetry when Gongora introduced the estilo culto, as it was called. Page 135.-These eyes shall not recall thee, &c. This is the very expression of the original. No te llamarán mis ojos, &c. The Spanish poets early adopted the practice of calling a lady by the name of the most expressive feature of her countenance, her eyes. The lover styled his mistress "ojos bellos," beautiful eyes, "ojos serenos," serene eyes. Green eyes seem to have been anciently thought a great beauty in Spain, and there is a very pretty ballad by an absent lover, in which he ad dressed his lady by the title of "green eyes," supplicating that he may re main in her remembrance. ¡Ay ojuelos verdes! Ay los mis ojuelos! Que de mi te acuerdes! Page 143.-FROM THE SPANISH OF PEDRO DE CASTRO Y ANAYA. Las Auroras de Diana, in which the original of these lines is contained, is, notwithstanding it was praised by Lope de Vega, one of the worst of the old Spanish romances, being a tissue of riddles and affectations, with now and then a little poem of considerable beauty. Page 151.-LOVE IN THE AGE OF CHIVALRY. This personification of the passion of Love, by Peyre Vidal, has been referred to as a proof of how little the Provensal poets were indebted to the authors of Greece and Rome for the imagery of their poems. Page 153.-THE LOVE OF GOD.-(From the Provensal of Bernard Rascas.) The original of these lines is thus given by John of Nostradamus, in his lives of the Troubadours, in a barbarous Frenchified orthography : Touta kausa mortala una fes perirá, Fors que l'amour de Dieu, que tousiours durará. Fors que l'Amour de Dieu, que touiour durará. Page 154.-THE HURRICANE. This poem is nearly a translation from one by José Maria de Heredia, a native of the Island of Cuba, who published at New-York, six or seven years since, a volume of poems in the Spanish language. M 3 |