English Narrative Poems Part 34

[247] 11. =Lannes=; a general of Napoleon's, and the Duke of Montebello.

[248] 29. =Flag-bird.= What bird was on Napoleon's flag?

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN (Page 158)

There are many versions of this story which Browning might have used. He is said to have used directly the account in _The Wonders of the Little World; or a General History of Man_, written by Nathaniel Wanley and published in 1678. This poem, however, from whatever source the story was taken, was deservedly popular long before Browning himself was. It was written to amuse, during a sickness, the son of William Macready, the most prominent English actor of his time and a close friend of Browning's.

[249] 1. =Hamelin=; a town near Hanover, the capital of the province of Brunswick, Prussia.

[250] 37. =Guilder=; a Dutch coin worth about forty cents.

[251] 68. =Trump of Doom.= The Archangel Gabriel was to blow his trumpet to summon the dead on the Day of Judgment.

[252] 79. =Pied Piper.= _Pied_ means variegated like a magpie. Cf.

_piebald_.

[253] 89. =Cham.= The Great Cham, or Khan, was the ruler of Tartary.

Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, gives an account of him. Dr. Johnson was called the Great Cham of literature.

[254] 91. =Nizam=; a native ruler of Hyderabad, India.

[255] 123, 126. =Julius Caesar and his Commentary.= Julius Caesar, the great Roman general and dictator, who wrote his _Commentaries_ on his wars in Gaul and Britain.

[256] 169. =Poke=; pocket.

[257] 182. =Stiver=; a small Dutch coin.

[258] 188. =Piebald.= Cf. _pied_, line 79.

[259] 260. =Needle's eye.= Cf. _Matthew_ xix. 24; _Mark_ x. 25; _Luke_ xviii. 25.

HERVe RIEL (Page 168)

[260] 1. =Hogue.= Cape La Hogue, on the east side of the same peninsula as Cape La Hague, was the scene, in 1692, of the defeat of the French by the united English and Dutch fleets.

[261] 5. =Saint Malo on the Rance=; a town on a small island near the sh.o.r.e of France. The entrance to its fine harbor is very narrow and filled with rocks. At high tide there is forty-five to fifty feet of water, but at low tide this channel is dry.

[262] 30. =Plymouth Sound.= Plymouth is on the southwestern coast of England.

[263] 43. =Pressed=; forced into military or naval service.

[264] 43. =Tourville=; the famous French admiral, who commanded at La Hogue.

[265] 44. =Croisickese=; La Croisic, a small fishing village near the mouth of the Loire, which Browning often visited.

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born in London, of Italian parentage, in 1828. He was educated at King's College School, but became very early a student of painting, in which art he attained considerable prominence.

He was a member of the famous pre-Raphaelite group of artists and authors, and was largely responsible for the movement started by them.

In 1861 he published _The Early Italian Poets_, a volume of translations; in 1870, _Poems_; and in 1881, _Ballads and Sonnets_. His last days were unhappy, his death in 1882 being hastened by overindulgence in narcotics.

Rossetti's painting had a marked effect upon his poetry, chiefly in giving him the faculty of vivid and ornate description. Though essentially a lyric poet, he revived old English ballad forms with much success, and his narrative poems are vigorous and spirited. A good short life of Rossetti is that by Joseph Knight in the Great Writers Series.

THE WHITE SHIP (Page 175)

First published in 1881 in the volume called _Ballads and Sonnets_.

Henry the First, the third son of William the Conqueror had, on the death of his brother William the Second (William Rufus) in 1100, seized the crown of England by force from his other elder brother, Robert, Duke of Normandy. In 1106, after overthrowing Robert at Tenchebray, he became also Duke of Normandy, thus uniting under himself the two nations. This bond of union he further strengthened by marrying Mathilda, an English princess. His reign, which lasted until 1135, marked a revival in English national feeling, and a long step was taken toward the a.s.similation of the victorious Normans by the people whom they had conquered.

Henry and Mathilda had only one son, William, who was born in 1103. The following account of his death is given by William of Malmesbury (edited by J. C. Giles): "Giving orders for returning to England, the king set sail from Barfleur just before twilight on the seventh before the kalends of December; and the breeze which filled his sails conducted him safely to his kingdom and extensive fortunes. But the young prince, who was now somewhat more than seventeen years of age, and, by his father's indulgence, possessed everything but the name of king, commanded another vessel to be prepared for himself; almost all the young n.o.bility flocking around him, from similarity of youthful pursuits. The sailors, too, immoderately filled with wine, with that seaman's hilarity which their cups excited, exclaimed, that those who were now ahead must soon be left astern; for the ship was of the best construction and recently fitted with new materials. When, therefore, it was now dark night, these imprudent youths, overwhelmed with liquor, launched the vessel from the sh.o.r.e.... The carelessness of the intoxicated crew drove her on a rock which rose above the waves not far from sh.o.r.e.... The oars, dashing, horribly crashed against the rock, and her battered prow hung immovably fixed. Now, too, the water washed some of the crew overboard, and, entering the c.h.i.n.ks, drowned others; when the boat having been launched, the young prince was received into it, and might certainly have been saved by reaching the sh.o.r.e, had not his illegitimate sister, the Countess of Perche, now struggling with death in the larger vessel, implored her brother's a.s.sistance. Touched with pity, he ordered the boat to return to the ship, that he might rescue his sister; and thus the unhappy youth met his death through excess of affection; for the skiff, overcharged by the mult.i.tudes who leaped into her, sank, and buried all indiscriminately in the deep. One rustic alone escaped; who, floating all night upon the mast, related in the morning the dismal catastrophe of the tragedy."

[266] Henry never recovered from the shock of this disaster; and although he married again, he left at his death no direct male heir to the throne.

[267] 2. =Rouen=; a city in northwest France on the river Seine.

[268] 14. =Clerkly Henry.= In his youth Henry had been a student and scholar--hence his early nickname "Henry Beauclerc."

[269] 15. =Ruthless=; pitiless.

[270] 17. =Eyes were gone.= According to a legend, which, however, has no historical foundation, Henry had put out the eyes of his brother Robert.

[271] 26. =Fealty.= Under the feudal system each va.s.sal or dependant was required to take an oath of allegiance to his overlord.

[272] 35. =Liege=; having the right to allegiance.

[273] 36. =Father's foot.= William the Conqueror, Henry's father, defeated Harold, the English king, at Hastings in 1066 and thus became master of England.

[274] 39. =Rood=; the fourth part of an acre.

[275] 45. =Harfleur's harbor.= Harfleur is a seaport town on the north bank of the outlet of the river Seine in northwest France.

[276] 59. =Hind=; servant.

[277] 98. =Moil=; wet.

[278] 138. =Maugre=; notwithstanding.

[279] 163. =Honfleur=; a town on the south bank of the outlet of the river Seine, opposite Harfleur.

[280] 166. =Body of Christ=; the procession of the Holy Communion.

[281] 178. =Hight=; called.

[282] 198. =Foredone=; gone.