NOTE 3, PAGE 42. Porto Bello at last was ta'en. Porto Bello was taken in November, 1739. But Vice-Admiral Vernon's despatches did not reach England until the following March. (See Gentleman's Magazine for 1740, pp. 124, et seq.) NOTE 4, PAGE 45. And a spavined mare that was worth a "I told you first, and all along, "cole." I'll lay this cole you 're in the wrong." These lines are from A Poetical Description of Mr. Hogarth's Election Prints, in four Cantoes, 1759. The speaker, the Cobbler of the Canvassing for Votes (Plate ii.) is discussing the taking of Porto Bello with the Barber. NOTE 5, PAGE 47. In the fresh contours of his "Milkmaid's" face. See the Enraged Musician, an engraving of which was published in November of the following year (1741). To annotate this Ballad more fully would be easy; but the reader will perhaps take the details for granted. It may however be stated that there is no foundation in fact for the story. NOTE 6, PAGE 50. The Child Musician. These verses, which appeared in the Cornhill Magazine for August, 1876, originated in an " American story" told verbally by a friend who had found it copied into some English paper. The author "romanced it more suo. Since the issue of the 1st Edition of this Book, he has been furnished, by the courtesy of one of the most graceful of Trans-Atlantic poets, with a more accurate version of the facts. Those who wish to read the "true story" of poor little James Speaight must do so in the pathetic setting of THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH. NOTE 7, PAGE 65. These are leaves of my rose. Six of these Triolets appeared in the Graphic for May 23, 1874. The Rondel at p. vi. was printed in Evening Hours for April, 1876; the Ballade at p. 70, and the Rondeau at p. 81, in Evening Hours for May, 1876. The Villanelle at p. 144 has not hitherto been published. NOTE 8, PAGE 79. Rondels and Rondeaus. The old French forms which M. THÉODORE DE BANVILLE has turned to such good use in his Odes Funambulesques and Occidentales are rather better known at this moment than when, in the course of 1876, most of these attempts were published. The Rondeau (not the first in English by a century or so) is here written upon the model of VOITURE; the Rondel upon that of CHARLES OF ORLEANS, but with a (symmetric) deviation in the arrangement of the rhymes. The last line of the Rondel has been retained as optional, not only because the practice of the 'Roi des Rimes' in the Occidentales is at variance with his pre cept elsewhere expressed, but because, in some of the Orleans MSS., the couplet is given. Finally, it seems required by the present arrangement. No doubt, when MR. EDMUND GOSSE produces his promised book on Poetic Forms, we shall be precisely enlightened on this and other particulars. Meanwhile, the Rondeau, which, as M. de Banville says happily, succeeds to the Rondel 'comme le roi Louis succède à Pharamond,' looks the more promising of the pair. Something is to be made of this form, 'If only to use the words of the Authors of Lays from Latin Lyres 'If only some superior poet Would lend his mighty genius to it.' One of these writers, by the way, has gracefully rhymed a lyric of Catullus-'en Rondeau.' NOTE 9, PAGE 81. On London Stones. Here is a Rondeau of Voiture's, on Rondeau-making: 'Ma foy; c'est fait de moy. Car Isabeau M'a conjuré de luy faire un Rondeau. Cela me met en une peine extréme. Quoy treize vers huit en eau, cinq en eme! En voilà cinq pourtant en un monceau : Si ie pouvois encore de mon cerveau Of which the following may serve as an adaptation : You bid me try, Blue-Eyes, to write A Rondeau. What!-forthwith ?-To-night? You bid me try! That makes them nine. The port's in sight ; 'Tis all because your eyes are bright! Now just a pair to end with "oo," When maids command, what can't we do! Behold!-the Rondeau, tasteful, light, You bid me Try! NOTE 10, PAGE 95. Some moneyed mourner's love or pride." 'Thus much alone we know-Metella died, The wealthiest Roman's wife: Behold his love or pride!' Childe Harold, iv. 103. NOTE 11, PAGE 183. In Town. The Pantoum,-a native song of the Malays,-was first called attention to by M. Victor Hugo in the 'Notes' to the Orientales, p. 189 in Hachette's edn., 1865. Here are three stanzas of his translation:: 'Les papillons jouent à l'entour sur leurs ailes; Ils volent vers la mer, près de la chaîne des rochers . . Depuis mes premiers jours jusqu'à l'heure présente, Le vautour dirige son essor vers Bandam.. Et laisse tomber de ses plumes à Patani. J'ai admiré bien de jeunes gens; Mais nul n'est à comparer à l'objet de mon choix.' But perhaps it may not be necessary to go so far afield as the Malay Archipelago. In Mélusine, for November, 1877, there is something very like a primitive Pantoum-an old French Chanson of Sainte Catherine : 'C'était sainte Catherine La fille d'un grand roi; (bis) Son père etait paien, Sa mère ne l'était pas. Ave Maria, Santa Catharina. |