writing. The Chinese write in vertical columns, beginning at what we should call the end of the book. Nurscia; the Etruscan Fortuna. Her temple was at Volsinii. See line 49. golden shields. See Rich, article Ancile. 81-97. tale. See note on this word in L'Allegro, 67. Sutrium (Sutri); about thirty miles north-west of Rome. Mamilius, son-in-law of Tarquinus Superbus and the most powerful of the Latin princes. His home, Tusculum, was only fifteen miles from Rome. It was situated among the hills and in later days became a favorite resort for wealthy Romans. Here Cicero had a villa and here he composed his Tusculan Disputations. = 93-121. champaign flat, open country. The English words champaign, Champagne, campaign, camp; the French champagne, campagne, campagnard, champ; the Italian campagna, are all from the Latin campus. Trace the extensions of meaning. litters (for travelers) and skins (for carrying wine) are commonly used in the Madeira Islands to-day. roaring gate. Compare Tennyson's Now thy Forum roars no longer, sound for ever of Imperial Rome To Vergil; 15-16. 122-153. Tarpeian. For the legend, see Classical Dictionary, article 'Tarpeia.' or Patres Conscripti. The Fathers of the City; the Senate (Senex) miles north-east of Rome. Five cities forge their arms, the Atinian powers, Antemnæ, Tybur with her lofty towers, Ardea the proud, the Crustumerian town; All these of old were places of renown. Dryden's Translation of the Æneid; vii. 871-874. Verbenna; Astur: invented by Macaulay. Ostia; once the bustling seaport of Rome, sixteen miles to the south-west of the city. Centuries of alluvial deposits have left the ancient site three miles inland. Janiculum; a fortified hill opposite Rome, on the west bank of the Tiber; connected with the city by the Pons Sublicius. See Cl. Myths, p. 359, and Cl. Dictionary, article Janus. I wis= I know. This is a spurious form, arising from a confusion between the Old English verb witan (to know) and the Middle English adverb i-wis (certainly), incorrectly written in the manuscripts i wis or I wis. they girded up their gowns. When the Trojans dragged the wooden horse into their city, Vergil tells us that 'all gird themselves for the work' (accingunt omnes operi, Æneid, ii. 235). The phrase is common in the Old Testament; see I. Kings xviii. 46, where Elijah 'girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.' 154-191. Sir. This abbreviated form has acquired such commonplace, nineteenth-century associations, that it seems inappropriate here. On the other hand, it is used in Julius Cæsar (iv. 3, 246 and 250) and in mediæval ballads, whose style Macaulay is imitating. Umbrian. The Umbrians preceded the Etruscans in the supremacy of Northern Italy. port = bearing, carriage. vest = garment, dress. Lucumo. An Etruscan word, meaning " one inspired,' hence a Priest or Prince, and by extension of meaning, any Etruscan. Cilnius. Mæcenas was of the family of the Cilnii; see note on Arretium, line 58. fourfold shield; made of four thicknesses of ox-hide. Tolumnius. There was a king of the Veientes of this name, who was slain in war with the Romans in 438 B.C. Thrasymene [Trasimenus]; the largest lake in Etruria. The Romans were heavily defeated here by Hannibal in 217 B.C. 192-248. Fast by = near to. Fast in this sense is from the Old English adjective 'Fæst'- fixed, firm. In lines 219-230 Macaulay has given poetical expression, both just and noble, to the spirit that made Rome great. the holy maidens; the Vestal Virgins. See Cl. Myths, § 42. Ramnian; Titian. The three original patrician tribes of Rome were the Ramnes, the Tities and the Luceres. Horatius is represented as belonging to the Luceres. paragraph of Macaulay's Introduction to Horatius. = See the last 249-280. Then lands were fairly portioned. A certain portion of the land of conquered enemies was set aside by the Romans and called ager publicus. The income from this was supposed to go to the State, but by means of what we should call a Credit Mobilier, the patricians managed to turn most of the proceeds into their own purses. Spoils. A reference to the charge of peculation brought against the patrician dictator Camillus. See Cl. Dictionary, under his name. the Tribunes, (originally two, afterwards ten) were first appointed in 494 B.C. It was their duty to protect the rights of the plebeians against the encroachments of the patricians; they gradually became the most influential magistrates of Rome. They instituted the veto power, which has been adopted, in one form or another, by all modern republics. 281-310. Tifernum; in the northern part of Umbria. Aunus is invented for the occasion; Seius and Picus are Roman names, but there is no reference here to the historical or legendary personages who bore these names. Ilva (Elba). See note on Populonia, line 30. Nequinum, in Umbria, fifty-six miles north of Rome. After the Roman conquest (299 B.C.), it was called Narnia. The waters of the Nar are impregnated with sulphur; hence, pale. 311-347. Ocnus; Lausulus. See remarks on Seius and Picus, Aruns is an Etruscan word used as a title for younger sons, the elder being called Lar or Lars. See note on that word, line I. Falerii; Volsinium [Volsinii]; Cosa: all cities of southern Etruria. See line 49. Urgo or Gorgon (Gorgona); a small island between Etruria and Corsica. The river Albinia enters the sea near Cosa. above. 348-373. Astur. See lines 136-137 and note. line 62 and note. Luna. See she-wolf's litter; an allusion to the wellknown legend that Romulus and Remus were suckled by a shewolf. 374-397. In this fine and spirited description of Action, it would be difficult to better a word. It will not suffer by comparison with that other splendid description of Combat, the fight between Fitz James and Roderick Dhu, in the Fifth Canto of The Lady of the Lake. Alvernus; near the source of the Tiber. 398-499. Palatinus; the first-settled of the seven hills of Rome. See notes on Byron's Manfred. Macaulay was in Rome in the winter of 1838. He writes in his Journal: 'I then went to the river, to the spot where the old Pons Sublicius stood, and looked about to see how my Horatius agrees with the topography. Pretty well; but his house must have been on Mount Palatine, for he could never see Mount Cœlius from the spot where he fought.' father Tiber See Cl. Myths, p. 357, and Cl. Dictionary, article, Tiberis. 500-541. I ween (518) I think, suppose; very common in Chaucer, as = 542-589. Corn-land. See note on line 261. a molten image. A. Gellius tells us (Noctes Atticæ, iv. 5) that this statue was once struck by lightning. Etruscan soothsayers being consulted as to the meaning of this prodigy, treacherously advised that the statue be placed in a sheltered spot where the sun's rays could not shine on it. Their treachery being discovered, the soothsayers were put to death and the statue was placed in an elevated spot on the Vulcanal: this brought the state good luck again. Comitium. An enclosed space at the foot of the Palatine hill where elections were held and justice administered. It is sometimes spoken of as included in the Forum Romanum. See Rich, articles Comitium and Forum. Volscian. The territory of the Volsci touched that of the Romans on the south and east. The two peoples were engaged in almost constant border warfare, the Volsci being finally subdued in 338 B.C. See the legend of Coriolanus, as treated by Shakespeare. Juno. Cl. Myths, § 34. Algidus (Cold); a mountain in Latium. From Horace it appears that this mountain was sacred to Diana (Carmen Sæculare, 69), and that oak-timber grew there (Odes, iv. 4. 57-58). Some critics, who find nothing so good but they must have better, claim that Horatius is not poetry. We must allow that the versification, if correct, is somewhat mechanical and that the epithets show a poor eye for color, but having admitted this much, we have admitted about all that can fairly be said in dispraise of Horatius. The theme chosen 1 is one admirably adapted to poetic treatment, the action is well sustained, the characters are thoroughly human and real, the imagery and diction are appropriate to the subject; above all, the sentiment that pervades this poem is national and noble. In this respect Macaulay reaches a higher ethical level than Scott, 'the great restorer of our ballad-poetry,' who can seldom rise to anything loftier than the idea of feudal allegiance. 1 No such easy matter, this finding of a subject! Look at Shelley's numerous failures. CLOUGH. ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH was born at Liverpool in 1819. When four years old his parents took him to Charleston, South Carolina, where they lived some four years. Returning to England, he had the good fortune to spend seven years at Rugby under Dr. Arnold. At Oxford he paid more attention to independent reading than to required studies; in spite of this he was elected Fellow and appointed Tutor of Oriel College. These positions he resigned in 1848 on account of conscientious scruples, glad to be free from what he called his 'bondage in Egypt.' Instead of defending his action, as was expected, by a polemic against the Thirty-nine Articles, Clough delighted his friends and puzzled his enemies by publishing his charming Highland pastoral, The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich [The Hut of the Bearded Well]. The form of this was suggested by reading Longfellow's Evangeline. A visit to Rome during the stormy days of '49 produced the Amours de Voyage; a visit to Venice gave the background for Dipsychus, — The Man of Two Souls, whose conscience struggles with the Spirit of the World. In 1852 Clough went to seek his literary fortunes in Boston, making the voyage in the same vessel with Thackeray and Lowell. To this voyage we owe the Songs in Absence and the best parts of the Mari Magno. In a few months he returned to England to accept a position in the Education Department of the Government. His remaining years brought him the happiness that comes from the love of a good woman and from the consciousness of even lowly work faithfully performed. He died at Florence in November, 1861, and was buried in the little Protestant cemetery there. That same resting-place, a few months before, had received the remains of Mrs. Browning; three years later, the aged Landor came to lay his bones beside theirs. Mr. Lowell has said: 'We have a foreboding that Clough, imperfect as he was in many respects, and dying before he had subdued his sensitive temperament to the requirements of his art, will be thought a hundred years hence to have been the truest expression in verse of the moral and intellectual tendencies, the doubt and struggle towards settled convictions, of the period in which he lived.' BIBLIOGRAPHY. LIFE AND TIMES. — Clough taught in verse the old but oft-forgotten philosophy that Carlyle taught in prose: While the doing of your nearest duty may not solve the problem of Life, other solution is there none. Unlike Carlyle, Clough practised what he preached: this comes out clearly and beautifully in his Prose Remains, with a Selection from his Letters and a Memoir: Edited by his Wife. |