Poems by Samuel Rogers Part 7

Horace commends the house, 'longos quae prospicit agros.' Distant views contain the greatest variety, both in themselves, and in their accidental variations. GILPIN.

NOTE c.

_Small change of scene, small s.p.a.ce his home requires,_

Many a great man, in pa.s.sing through the apartments of his palace, has made the melancholy reflection of the venerable Cosmo: "Questa e troppo gran casa a si poco famiglia." MACH. Ist. Fior. lib. vii.

"Parva, sed apta mihi," was Ariosto's inscription over his door in Ferrara; and who can wish to say more?

"I confess," says Cowley, "I love littleness almost in all things. A little convenient estate, a little cheerful house, a little company, and a very little feast." Essay vi.

When Socrates was asked why he had built for himself so small a house, "Small as it is," he replied, "I wish I could fill it with friends." PHaeDRUS, 1. iii. 9.

These indeed are all that a wise man would desire to a.s.semble; "for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."

BACON'S Essays, xxvii.

NOTE d.

_From every point a ray of genius flows!_

By this means, when all nature wears a lowering countenance, I withdraw myself into the visionary worlds of art; where I meet with shining landscapes, gilded triumphs, beautiful faces, and all those other objects that fill the mind with gay ideas, &c. ADDISON.

It is remarkable that Antony, in his adversity, pa.s.sed some time in a small but splendid retreat, which he called his Timonium, and from which might originate the idea of the Parisian Boudoir, that favourite apartment, _ou I'on se retire pour etre seul, mais ou l'on ne boude point_. STRABO, 1. xvii. PLUT, in Vit. Anton.

NOTE e.

_At GUIDO'S call, &c_.

Alluding to his celebrated fresco in the Rospigliosi Palace at Rome.

NOTE f.

_And still the Few best lov'd and most rever'd_

The dining-room is dedicated to Conviviality; or, as Cicero somewhere expresses it, "Communitati vitae atque victus." There we wish most for the society of our friends; and, perhaps, in their absence, most require their portraits.

The moral advantages of this furniture may be ill.u.s.trated by the pretty story of an Athenian courtezan, "who, in the midst of a riotous banquet with her lovers, accidentally cast her eye on the portrait of a philosopher, that hung opposite to her seat: the happy character of temperance and virtue struck her with so lively an image of her own unworthiness, that she instantly quitted the room; and, retiring home, became ever after an example of temperance, as she had been before of debauchery."

NOTE g.

_Read antient looks, or woo inspiring dreams_;

The reader will here remember that pa.s.sage of Horace, _Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno, &c_ which was inscribed by Lord Chesterfield on the frieze of his library.

NOTE h.

_And, when a sage's l.u.s.t arrests then there_,

Siquidem non solum ex auro argentove, aut certe ex aere in bibliothecis dicantur illi, quorum immortales animae in iisdem locis ibi loquuntur: quinimo etiam quae non sunt, finguntur, pariuntque desideria non traditi vultus, sicut in Homero evenit. Quo majus (ut equidem arbitror) nullum est felicitatis specimen, quam semper omnes scire cupere, qualis fuerit aliquis. PLIN. Nat. Hist.

Cicero speaks with pleasure of a little seat under Aristotle in the library of Atticus. "Literis sustentor et recreor; maloque in illa tua sedecula, quam habes sub imagine Aristotelis, sedere, quam in istorum sella curuli!" Ep. ad Att. iv. 10.

Nor should we forget that Dryden drew inspiration from the "majestic face" of Shakespeare; and that a portrait of Newton was the only ornament of the closet of Buffon. Ep. to Kneller. Voyage a Montbart.

In the chamber of a man of genius we

Write all down: Such and such pictures;--there the window; .....the arras, figures, Why, such and such. CYMBELINE.

NOTE i.

_Which gathers round the Wise of every Tongue_,

Quis tantis non gaudeat et glorietur hospitibus, exclaims Petrarch.

--Spectare, etsi nihil aliud, certe juvat.--Homerus apud me mutus, im ver ego apud illum surdus sum. Gaudeo tamen vel aspectu solo, et saepe ilium amplexus ac suspirans dico: O magne vir, &c.

Epist. Var. Lib. 20.

NOTE k.

_Like those blest Youths_,

See the Legend of the Seven Sleepers. GIBBON, c. 33.

NOTE l.

_Catch the blest accents of the wise and great_.

Mr. Pope delights in enumerating his ill.u.s.trious guests. Nor is this an exclusive privilege of the poet. The Medici Palace at Florence exhibits a long and imposing catalogue. "Semper hi parietes columnaeque eruditis vocibus resonuerunt."

Another is also preserved at Chanteloup, the seat of the Duke of Choiseul.

NOTE m.

_Sheds, like an evening-star, its ray serene_,

At a Roman supper statues were sometimes employed to hold the lamps.

--Aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per aedeis, Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris.

LUCR. ii. 24.

A fashion as old as Homer! Odyss. vii. 100.

On the proper degree and distribution of light we may consult a great master of effect. Il lume grande, ed alto, e non troppo potente, sara quello, che rendera le particole de' corpi molto grate.

Tratt. della Pittura di LIONARDO DA VINCI, c. xli.

Hence every artist requires a broad and high light. Hence also, in a banquet-scene, the most picturesque of all poets has thrown his light from the ceiling. aen. i. 726.

And hence the "starry lamps" of Milton, that ....from the arched roof Pendent by subtle magic,....

......yielded light As from a sky. Paradise Lost, i. 726.