Book V.-The Winter Morning Walk.

1. 22. Bents;-(Germ. binse, rush) culms of pasture-grasses; which being neither mown nor eaten, stand up as dry stalks. Cp. ‘A Tale,' 1. 40 (p. 214). 1. 42. Cp. Bk. vi. 842; and Par. Lost, iii. 46.

1. 101. This is a description of Lavendon Mill, which is now displaced by a cotton-mill.

11. 127-68. This famous ice-palace was erected in 1740, by order of the Empress Anna, on the banks of the Neva. It was constructed of blocks of ice hewn out of that river, and had all its furniture and ornaments made also of ice. In this palace, which lasted from January till March 1740, Prince Golitzin had to pass his bridal night on his second marriage, which was displeasing to the Empress.

1. 137. Aristaeus, son of Phoebus by the water-nymph Cyrene, had been deprived of his bees, because it was through him that Eurydice (the wife of Orpheus) came to her death. The 'plaintive tale' to his mother is given by Virgil, Georg. iv. 317.

1. 145. 1 Kings vi. 7. Cp. Heber's Palestine—

'No workman's steel, no ponderous axes rung,

Like some tall palm the noiseless fabrick sprung.'

1. 147. cément :-notice the accent on the first syllable; a mode of pronunciation now nearly obsolete. Cowper has also désserts for the modern 'dessérts' (Pity for Poor Africans, 1. 8, p. 191); and útensil for 'uténsil' (Retired Cat, 1. 26, p. 209). In The Task, ii. 437, p. 37, the line began thus in the editions of 1785 and 1786, 'At cónventicle heard'; and was altered in ed. 1787 to the present reading, viz. ‘Heard at convénticle.' The émpiric of Bk. ii. 352, is now generally pronounced ' empíric.'

1. 178. Dinocrates, a sculptor of Macedonia, offered to cut Mount Athos into the figure of Alexander the Great, holding in his left hand the walls for a great city, and in his right a basin to receive all the waters flowing from the mountain. The king however declined the honour.

1. 181. What a lie,' writes Abp. Trench, lurks at the root of our present use of the word "indolence." This is from "in" and "doleo," not to grieve; and "indolence" is thus a state in which we have no grief or pain : so that the word. . seems to affirm that indulgence in sloth and ease is that which would constitute for us the absence of all pain. Cowper spoke only truth when, perhaps proposing expressly to witness against the falsehood of this word, he spoke of,

"Lives spent in indolence, and therefore sad,"

not "therefore glad," as the word would promise.' On the Study of Words, ed. 1852, p. 202. See note on Bk. i. 755.

1. 183. The Mausoleum, one of the 'seven wonders of the world,' was the monument of Mausolus king of Caria, erected by his widow Artemisia at Halicarnassus, B.C. 353.

1. 193. Genesis xi. 3-9.

1. 217. Not Tubal (Gen. x. 2); but Tubal Cain (Gen. iv. 22): called 'Vulcan,' because the latter was the blacksmith-god, having his workshop in Mount Aetna.

1. 270. Cp. Table Talk, 1. 50.

1. 273. Gears;-traces, harness for draught.

1. 316. Doit;-derived by Latham from Fr. d'huit, and explained as being the eighth part of a penny; but more probably from the Dutch duit or duitken (Germ. deut), a very small coin. Cp. Tempest, ii. 2: They will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar; they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.'

1. 321. Judges ix. 3-15.

1. 341. My sentiments on the subject of Charles' decollation are peculiar, at least I believe they are so. I think it was a good deed, but ill done; that his life was forfeit, but taken away upon wrong motives.'-To Unwin, Oct. 20, 1784.

1. 378. The author hopes that he shall not be accused for unnecessary warmth upon so interesting a subject. He is aware that it is become almost fashionable to stigmatize such sentiments as no better than empty declamation but it is an ill symptom, and peculiar to modern times.'-C. Fox quoted this passage on the destruction of the Bastille, in the House of Commons. (Hayley, ed. 1812, iv. 193.)

1. 383. The Bastille was erected by Charles V as a royal chateau or 'building' (old Fr. bastir, now bâtir, to build). Louis XI was the first to use it as a state prison. It was destroyed by the Parisians in the French Revolution, July 14, 1789.

1. 400. Daniel iv. 10-18.

1. 420. The walls of the Beauchamp Tower in the Tower of London, for instance, are covered with the inscriptions of the illustrious prisoners therein confined.

1. 422. Cp. Byron's Prisoner of Chillon, st. 14—

With spiders I had friendship made,

And watch'd them in their sullen trade.'

1. 444. The Manichæans, a sect of heretics dating from the middle of the third century, were the followers of Manes, a Persian, who had been ordained as a priest, but was expelled from the Church and put to death. as a false teacher, A.D. 277. St. Augustine in early youth embraced this heresy; of which he was afterwards a principal opponent. Manes taught that there were two Gods, contrary and co-eternal, the one good and the other evil; and that the world was created by the Evil Deity.

1. 486. John Hampden was an almost solitary instance of a great man who neither sought nor shunned greatness, who found glory only because glory lay in the plain path of duty.' (Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1854, i. 191.) Born in 1594, he first distinguished himself by his opposition to the exaction of ship-money. Having taken up arms against the Royal cause, he was mortally wounded in an engagement with Prince Rupert at Chalgrove Field, near Oxford, in 1643, and died with the prayer on his lips, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! O Lord, save my country!' Algernon Sidney, son of Robert second Earl of Leicester, was born in 1621; espoused the side of the Parliament, and was nominated as one of the King's Judges, but refused to take part in the execution of Charles, and retired into private life on Cromwell's assuming the title of Protector. Though promised security in 1667, he was tried before Judge Jefferies on a charge of being concerned in the Rye House Plot, and illegally executed in 1683.

1.585. Propense ;-prone, disposed. Milton has hearts propense to waver,' Samson Agonistes, 455.

594. Cp. Bk. ív. 579, and Par. Lost, iv. 76-9.

1. 650. Cp. George Herbert's Country Parson, ch. 3.

Neither will they

believe him in the pulpit, whom they cannot trust in his conversation.' Some one has said well, The parson's life is his best sermon.'

1. 673. Virtue. . how lovely.' Par. Lost, iv. 847.

1. 681. I Cor. xiii. I.

1. 685. Cp. 1 Kings xix. 12.

1. 702. Cp. Isaiah xi. 8.

1. 718. Cp. Par. Lost, ix. 28-33.

11. 729-33. Par. Lost, xi. 699.

'And what most merits praise, in silence hid.'

1. 732. See Hume.'-C. [chap. xxxvii. 'The glory of martyrdom stimulates all the more furious zealots,' &c.]

1. 737. Judges xvi. 7-10.

1. 779. Cp. Job xxii. 21.

1. 793. Cp. Pope's Dunciad, iv. 455—

'See Nature in some partial narrow shape,

And let the Author of the whole escape.'

1. 802. Result; here used in its primary and proper sense, 'to leap or fly So in Pope's Homer's Odyss. xi. 736—

back.'

Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone;

The huge round stone resulting with a bound

Thunders impetuous down.'

1. 821. Job xxxviii. 7.

1. 846. Cp. Psalm cxix. 105.

Book VI.-The Winter Walk at Noon.

1. 1. Cp. Matthew Green, The Spleen, ll. 147-53

Many have held the soul to be

Nearly allied to harmony,' &c.

Il. 30-2. Cp. Par. Lost, x. 1094-6.

1. 66. Embattled tower;-of Emberton Church.

11. 57-82. This is a description of the walk leading up from the Rustic Bridge to the Alcove. Cp. note on Bk. i. 278.

1. 126. Joshua x. 12-14.

1. 152. The other;- The Guelder Rose.'-C.

1. 165. Hypericum perforatum ;-St. John's wort.

1. 167. Mezerion ;-spurge laurel.

1. 170. Althæa;-the marsh mallow.

1. 181. Cp. Pope's Moral Essays, iii. 167—

'Builds life on death, on change duration founds.' and Rom. and Juliet, ii. 3—

"The Earth, that's Nature's mother, is her tomb;
What is her burying-place, that is her womb.'

Lucret. De Rer. Nat. v. 260

'Omniparens, eadem rerum commune sepulchrum,
Ergo terra tibi limatur, et aucta recrescit.'

11. 233-4. Pomona, the goddess of fruits and fruit-trees; Pales, the god of shepherds and their flocks and cattle; Pan, the personification of deity as displayed in creation, and pervading all Nature; Flora, the goddess of flowers; Vertumnus, the god of the seasons and of the productions in the vegetable world, (married to Pomona).

1. 255.

'All seasons, and their change, All please alike.' Par. Lost, iv. 640.

1. 287. Langford was a noted auctioneer of pictures, books, and articles of vertu; a predecessor of George Robins in the auction-room in Covent Garden.

1. 369. Cp. Par. Lost, i. 1-3.

444. Exodus xxiii. 5; Deut. xxii. 4.

1. 446. Deut. xxii. 6, 7.

1. 454. Genesis ix. 2, 3.

1. 461. Job xxxviii. 39-41.

1. 470. Numbers xxii. 27-9.

1. 486. Atheist in ostent,' (i.e. in appearance, outward show or profession): for the Poet has elsewhere expressed his doubts whether earth

1. 634. The Handel Commemoration was held in Westminster Abbey in June 1784, being the centenary of that composer's birth. There were 525 performers, and nearly £13,000 were received for the five days' performances. These lines were added to the poem during revisal. Mr. Newton had preached at St. Mary's Woolchurch, in 1784-5, a course of Fifty Expository Discourses, on the series of Scriptural Passages which form the subjects of the celebrated Oratoria of Handel,' which he published in 1786, under the title of Messiah. Being asked for a motto for this work, Cowper wrote 'There is something so new and peculiar in the occasion, that I question whether in the classics can be found a sentiment suited to it. Our sins and follies assume a shape that heathen writers had never any opportunity to notice. They deified the dead indeed, but not in the temple of Jupiter. The new-made god had an altar of his own, and they conducted the ceremony without sacrilege or confusion.'-To Newton, July 9, 1785. 'So then because Handel set anthems to music, you sing them in honour of Handel; and because he composed the music of Italian songs you sing them in a church. Truly Handel is much obliged to you, but God is greatly dishonoured.'-To Unwin, Nov. 20, 1784.

1. 652. Buckram (from Fr. bougram) is a kind of strong linen cloth, stiffened with gum or glue, and used by tailors and stay-makers. The word is sometimes found used as an adj., as in the case of Falstaff's 'two rogues in buckram suits' (2 Henry IV, ii. 4), and this sometimes in a metaphorical sense, as in the phrase 'buckram bishops' (Fulke's Answer to Allen, p. 301), i.e. stiff, precise, formal: cp. 'starched.' As buckram was often used as a stiff lining, placed beneath a frailer texture to make it stand out firmly, the expression to buckram out' a thing came to be applied metaphorically as in our text.

1. 658. Ely Place, Holborn; so called as having been originally the London residence of the Bishops of Ely. Here John of Gaunt died in 1399. And here two of the Poet's ancestors were kept in confinement as Loyalists, during the Commonwealth: Sir William Cowper the first Baronet of Rattling Court, and his son John, who died a prisoner there.

1. 660. William, Duke of Cumberland (and Marquess of Berkhampsted, Cowper's native place), was third son of George II., was born in 1721, and died in 1765. He defeated at Culloden, April 16, 1746, Charles Edward the Young Pretender,' grandson of James II. The news of this victory reached London during morning service on Sunday.

1. 682. Garrick's Shakspeare Jubilee was held at Stratford-on-Avon in September 1769.

1. 686. The Mulberry Tree planted by Shakspeare in his garden at New