Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

NOTES.

My Mind to me a Kingdom is. Page 1. WILLIAM BYRD (b. 1540, d. 1623) was organist to Queen Elizabeth, and composed an immense amount of vocal music.

The Lye. Page 2. The authorship of this poem has been disputed, and it is commonly printed as anonymous. But Percy ascribes it to RALEIGH, and a copy of it among the Chetham manuscripts bears his signature.

Man's Mortality. Page 6. SIMON WASTEL (b. about 1566) published in 1629 "Microbiblion, or the Bible's Epitome in Verse," of which these famous stanzas are a fragment.

Verses. Page 9. The story of CHEDIOCK TICHEBORNE is told in Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature," Vol. II.

Good Ale. Page 18. JOHN STILL (d. 1607), Bishop of Bath and Wells, was the author of "Gammer Gurton's Needle," one of the earliest of English comedies.

The Sailor's Wife. Page 76. This poem has been commonly attributed to Mickle, author of "Cumnor Hall," because an imperfect copy of it was found among his papers. He himself never claimed it, nor would he be likely to have written it, as he never lived in a seaport. Miss ADAM was a poor school-mistress, who lived near Greenock, and died in Glasgow in 1765. She published a volume of poems, and claimed this one as hers.

Helen of Kirkconnel. Page 93. There are numerous versions of this poem. The one here given, by JOHN MAYNE (b. 1759, d. 1836), is metrically the most perfect. It was published by Sir Walter Scott, in the Edinburgh "Annual Register" for 1815, who says: "A lady of the name of Helen Irving or Bell (for this is disputed by the two clans), daughter of the laird of Kirkconnell, in Dumfriesshire, and celebrated for her beauty, was beloved by two gentlemen in the neighborhood. The name of the favored suitor was Adam Fleming of Kirkpatrick; that of the other has escaped tradition, although it has been alleged that he was a Bell of

Blacket House. The addresses of the latter were, however, favored by the friends of the lady, and the lovers were therefore obliged to meet in secret, and by night, in the church-yard of Kirkconnell, a romantic spot surrounded by the river Kirtle. During one of these private interviews, the jealous and despised lover suddenly appeared on the opposite bank of the stream, and leveled his carabine at the breast of his rival. Helen threw herself before her lover, received in her bosom the bullet, and died in his arms. A desperate and mortal combat ensued between Fleming and the murderer, in which the latter was cut to pieces. Other accounts say that Fleming pursued his enemy to Spain, and slew him in the streets of Madrid." These events occurred in the reign of Mary

Queen of Scots.

The Tears I Shed. Page 99.

HELEN D'ARCY CRANSTOUN (b. 1765, d. 1838) became in 1790 the second wife of Prof. Dugald Stewart. The first four lines of the last stanza were inserted by Burns.

Lucy's Flittin'. Page 105. WILLIAM LAIDLAW (b. 1780, d. 1845) was the amanuensis and confidential friend of Sir Walter Scott. "Lucy's Flittin'" was contributed to Hogg's "Forest Minstrel," and Hogg himself wrote the closing stanza.

A Riddle. Page 109. This enigma has been frequently attributed tc Lord Byron, and printed in two or three editions of his works. The answer is, the letter H.

Saint Patrick. Page 113. According to Samuel Lover, these verses were written in 1814 by two gentlemen jointly, while on their way to a masquerade where they were to appear as ballad-singers, HENRY BENNETT (b. in Cork about 1785) being one of them.

The Beacon. Page 122. This little poem has been persistently attributed to Moore; but it has been conclusively shown that it is the production of P. M. JAMES, an Englishman.

I would not Live Alway. Page 128. DR. MUHLENBERG made several revisions of his famous poem. The versions in the hymn-books contain some striking lines that do not appear in his final revision, which is here presented.

The Bivouac of the Dead. Page 197. In accordance with an act of the legislature of Kentucky, the remains of the soldiers from that state who fell at Buena Vista were brought home to Frankfort, and there interred under a handsome monument. This was the occasion of O'HARA's poem.

Lines on a Skeleton. Page 201. The manuscript of this poem was found near a skeleton in the London Royal College of Surgeons, about 1820. The author has never been found, though a reward of fifty guineas was offered for his discovery.

The Exile to his Wife. Page 223. JOSEPH BRENAN (b. 1829, d. 1857) was a native of the north of Ireland. He joined the Young Ireland party in 1848, and was one of the conductors of the "Irish Felon." He was im

prisoned for nine months in Dublin, afterward edited the "Irishman," and in October, 1849, being implicated in an insurrectionary movement in Tipperary, fled to America. He was for three years connected with the New Orleans "Delta," and died in that city in May, 1857.

Ode on the Centenary of Burns. Page 229. Miss CRAIG'S ode, which bore off the prize, offered by the directors of the Crystal Palace Company, from more than six hundred competitors, is one of the few prize poems which have possessed any poetical merit.

The Old Canoe. Page 247. All efforts to discover the authorship of this popular poem have been unavailing. It has been attributed to Albert Pike, but he disclaims it.

Revelry in India. Page 256. These lines are said to have been sung by a company of British officers stationed at a frontier post in India during a pestilence. It is also said that the author of them was the next victim.

The Countersign. Page 264. Concerning the authorship of "The Countersign," we only know that it was written by a private in Company G of Stuart's Engineers, at Camp Lesley, near Washington, during the first year of the Rebellion. It seems too good to have been a first poem ; but it is to be feared that the chances of war made it the last, as it has never been claimed.

Sherman's March to the Sea. Page 265. Adjutant BYERS, Fifth Iowa Infantry, wrote this song while a prisoner at Columbia, S. C. General Sherman, to whom a copy of the lines was handed when he arrived at that place, so admired them that he sent for the author and attached him to his staff.

INDEX OF FIRST LINES.

Accept, thou shrine of my dead saint

A cloud lay cradled near the setting sun
Afar in the desert I love to ride

PAGE.

19

114

119

[blocks in formation]

"All quiet along the Potomac," they say

263

[blocks in formation]

Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight.

224

Behold this ruin! 'T is a skull

201

Busk ye, busk ye, my bonnie, bonnie bride

52

By Nebo's lonely mountain

249

Come a little nearer, Doctor,—thank you!—let me take

the cup

234

Come see the Dolphin's anchor forged; 't is at a white

heat now

146

Come to me, darling, I 'm lonely without thee

223

Dark lowers the night o'er the wide stormy main
Did you hear of the Widow Malone

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
« ПредишнаНапред »