O DE VI. THE SUICIDE. BENEATH the beech, whose branches bare, Smit with the lightning's livid glare, And whiftle hollow as they wave; The Suicide.] I am well informed that an opinion, which has prevailed of this Ode having been occafioned by the death of Chatterton, is not founded on fact. Chatterton destroyed himself by swallowing arfenic in water. Not indeed that this circumstance would be decifive against his being the fubject of it but I know from indisputable authority that he was not. V. 6. A Slayer of himself—] I retain this expreffion, which appeared in the last edition, in preference to a wretched fuicide." The "feer of bimfelf" is used by Chaucer, C. T. 2007. and retained in Dryden's verfion of the Knight's Tale. Ibid. A Slayer of himself holds his accurs'd abode.] This line ftood at firft A wretched Suicide holds his accurs'd abode. With fome parts of this ftanza compare the following from Britannia's Paftorals: -In an ebon chaire The foule's black bomicide meager Despaire Others on trees (O! most accursed elves!) &c. I. v. Lower'd the grim morn, in murky dies As by the brook, that ling'ring laves Yon rush-grown moor with fable waves, 10 Full of the dark refolve he took his fullen way. I mark'd his defultory pace, His geftures ftrange, and varying face, But fee Faerie Queene, B. I. C. ix. which Browne, as well as Warton, certainly had in his eye. V. 10. -the brook, that ling'ring laves Yon rufh-grown moer with fable waves,] V. 13. I mark'd his defultory pace, His geftures ftrange, and varying face,] Mr. Headley refers to Par. Loft: -his gestures fierce He mark'd and mad demeanour, then alone, See alfo, a few lines above : Thus while he spake, each paffion dimm'd his face Thrice chang'd with pale ire, envy, and despair. 114. Ibid. his defultory pace,] Salluft thus finely defcribes the unfettled spirits of Catiline by his varied and defultory gait : Inceffus modo citus, modo tardus, &c. This fignification of the word "defultory," although its ftrict and literal fignification, has been nearly fuperfeded by one not fo closely connected with its etymology.. Warton ufes the word again in its primitive fenfe, Ode for With many a mutter'd found; And ah! too late aghaft I view'd The reeking blade, the hand embru'd; 15 He fell, and groaning grafp'd in agony the ground. Full many a melancholy night He watch'd the flow return of light ; And fought the powers of fleep, To spread a momentary calm O'er his fad couch, and in the balm 20 Of bland oblivion's dews his burning eyes to steep. Full oft, unknowing and unknown, He wore his endless noons alone, Oft was he wont, in hafty fit, And 25 gaze with eager glance upon the tumbling flood. 30 June 4, 1788. ver. 39: Of the Dane, "his defultory march;" and nearly fo, in Ode for June 4, 1790. ver. 12. "Indignant Darwent's defultory tide." V. 25. Full oft, unknowing and unknown,] So Horace, V. 26. Oblitufque meorum, oblivifcendus et illis. -alone, Amid th' autumnal wood :] Probably from Akenfide, as Mr. Headley has observed : Alone he treads th' autumnal fhade. Ode to Chearfulness. Beckoning the wretch to torments new, A spectre pale, appear'd; While, as the fhades of eve arofe, And brought the day's unwelcome clofe, 35 More horrible and huge her giant-shape fhe rear'd. V. 33. A spectre pale,] Verfes on Birth of Prince of Wales, -Horror's form, a spectre wan. Compare Dryden's Palamon and Arcite, Ver. 61. He withers at the heart, and looks as wan As the pale spectre of a murder'd man. Gray in his Progrefs of Poefy has "her fpectres wan." I might have noticed before, that Milton perfonifies Horror in his Quint. Novemb. much in the fame manner with Warton, -exanguifque locum circumvolat Horror. Ver. 148. Spenfer never drew a finer groupe of allegorical perfonages, than that in the paffage from which this figure is taken. V. 36. More horrible and huge her giant-fhape the rear'd.] Mr. Headley obferves that this combination occurs in Spenfer; Whom after did a mightie man purfew, Ryding upon a dromedare on hie, Of ftature huge and horrible of hew. F. Q. IV. viii. 38. Thefe ideas are frequently connected in the Faerie Queene; fee particularly I. vii. 8: An hideous geaunt, horrible and hye. And II. xii. 22, 23: Eftfoones they faw an hideous hoaft array'd Of huge fea-monfters fuch as living fence difinay'd: Moft ugly fhapes and borrible aspects. Ibid. -giant-shape] So in Ph. Fletcher's Purple Island, C. vii. St. 30. Of giant-Shape and ftrength thereto agreeing. "Is this, mistaken Scorn will cry, "Is this the youth whofe genius high "Could build the genuine rime? "Whose bosom mild the favouring Muse 40 "Had ftor'd with all her ample views, "Parent of faireft deeds, and purposes fublime." Ah! from the Mufe that bofom mild By treacherous magic was beguil'd, To ftrike the deathful blow: With many a feeling too refin'd, 45 And rous'd to livelier pangs his wakeful sense of woe. Though doom'd hard penury to prove, V. 38.whofe genius high Could build the genuine rime?] From Lycidas: he knew Himself to fing and build the lofty rhime. Ver. 10. Ode for Mufic, ver. 135: Erewhile fhe ftrove in accents weak In vain to build the lofty rbime, 50 In the text the epithet "lofty" is altered for the worse, probably because of its refemblance in fignification to "high" in the foregoing verfe. V. 49. Though doom'd hard penury to prove,] Gray fays in his Elegy, Chill penury reprefs'd their noble rage. |