The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth Volume Iii Part 61

They who with clumsy desperation brought A river of Blood, and preached that nothing else Could cleanse the Augean stable, by the might 585 Of their own helper have been swept away; Their madness stands declared and visible; Elsewhere will safety now be sought, and earth March firmly towards righteousness and peace."-- Then schemes I framed more calmly, when and how 590 The madding factions might be tranquillised, And how through hardships manifold and long The glorious renovation would proceed.

Thus interrupted by uneasy bursts Of exultation, I pursued my way 595 Along that very sh.o.r.e which I had skimmed In former days, when--spurring from the Vale Of Nightshade, and St. Mary's mouldering fane, [e]

And the stone abbot, after circuit made In wantonness of heart, a joyous band 600 Of school-boys hastening to their distant home Along the margin of the moonlight sea-- We beat with thundering hoofs the level sand. [f]

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: He left Blois for Paris in the late autumn of 1792--Ed.]

[Footnote B: King Louis the Sixteenth, dethroned on August 10th, 1792.--Ed.]

[Footnote C: "The Ormrahs or lords of the Moghul's court." See Francois Besnier's letter 'Concerning Hindusthan'.--Ed.]

[Footnote D: The "Republic" was decreed on the 22nd of September 1792.--Ed.]

[Footnote E: The "September Ma.s.sacres" lasted from the 2nd to the 6th of that month.--Ed.]

[Footnote F: He reached Paris in the beginning of October 1792.--Ed.]

[Footnote G: The Place du Carrousel.--Ed.]

[Footnote H: See notes [E] and [F].--Ed.]

[Footnote I:

"One day, among the last of October, Robespierre, being summoned to the tribune by some new hint of that old calumny of the Dictatorship, was speaking and pleading there, with more and more comfort to himself; till rising high in heart, he cried out valiantly: Is there any man here that dare specifically accuse me? "Moi!" exclaimed one.

Pause of deep silence: a lean angry little Figure, with broad bald brow, strode swiftly towards the tribune, taking papers from its pocket: 'I accuse thee, Robespierre,--I, Jean Baptiste Louvet!' The Seagreen became tallow-green; shrinking to a corner of the tribune, Danton cried, 'Speak, Robespierre; there are many good citizens that listen;' but the tongue refused its office. And so Louvet, with a shrill tone, read and recited crime after crime: dictatorial temper, exclusive popularity, bullying at elections, mob-retinue, September Ma.s.sacres;--till all the Convention shrieked again," etc. etc.

Carlyle's 'French Revolution', vol. iii. book ii. chap. 5.--Ed.]

[Footnote K: Robespierre got a week's delay to prepare a defence.

"That week he is not idle. He is ready at the day with his written Speech: smooth as a Jesuit Doctor's, and convinces some. And now?...poor Louvet, unprepared, can do little or nothing. Barrere proposes that these comparatively despicable _personalities_ be dismissed by order of the day! Order of the day it accordingly is."

Carlyle, _ut supra_.--Ed.]

[Footnote L: Harmodius and Aristogiton of Athens murdered the tyrant Hipparchus, 514 B.C., and delivered the city from the rule of the Pisistratidae, much as Brutus rose against Caesar.--Ed.]

[Footnote M: He crossed the Channel, and returned to England reluctantly, in December 1792. Compare p. 376, l. 349:

'Since I withdrew unwillingly from France.'

Ed.]

[Footnote N: Had he remained longer in Paris, he would probably have fallen a victim, amongst the Brissotins, to the reactionary fury of the Jacobin party.--Ed.]

[Footnote O: He left England in November 1791, and returned in December 1792.--Ed.]

[Footnote P: He stayed in London during the winter of 1792-3 and spring of 1793, probably with his elder brother Richard (who was a solicitor there), writing his remarkable letter on the French Revolution to the Bishop of Landaff, and doubtless making arrangements for the publication of the 'Evening Walk'. The 'Descriptive Sketches' were not written till the summer of 1793 (compare the thirteenth book of 'The Prelude', p.

366); but in a letter dated "Forncett, February 16th, 1793," his sister sends to a friend an interesting criticism of her brother's verses. The 'Evening Walk' must therefore have appeared in January 1793.--Ed.]

[Footnote Q: The movement for the abolition of slavery, led by Clarkson and Wilberforce. Compare the sonnet 'To Thomas Clarkson, on the final pa.s.sing of the Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, March' 1807, in vol. iv.--Ed.]

[Footnote R: The red-cross flag, i. e. the British ensign.

"On the union of the crowns of England and Scotland, James I. issued a proclamation that _all subjects of this isle and the kingdom of Great Britain should bear in the main-top the red cross commonly called St.

George's Cross, and the white cross commonly called St. Andrew's Cross, joined together according to the form made by our own heralds._ This was the first Union Jack."

'Encyclopaedia Britannica' (ninth edition), article "Flag."--Ed.]

[Footnote S: In the Isle of Wight. Wordsworth spent a month of the summer of 1793 there, with William Calvert. (See the Advertis.e.m.e.nt to 'Guilt and Sorrow', vol. i. p. 77.)--Ed.]

[Footnote T: The G.o.ddess of Reason, enthroned in Paris, November 10th, 1793.--Ed.]

[Footnote U: Jeanne-Marie Phlipon--Madame Roland--was guillotined on the 8th of November 1793.

"Arrived at the foot of the scaffold, she asked for pen and paper _to write the strange thoughts that were rising in her_: a remarkable request; which was refused. Looking at the Statue of Liberty which stands there, she says bitterly: _O Liberty, what things are done in thy name!_ ... Like a white Grecian Statue, serenely complete," adds Carlyle, "she shines in that black wreck of things,--long memorable."

'French Revolution', vol. iii. book v. chap. 2.

Madame Roland's apostrophe was

'o Liberte, que de crimes l'on commet en ton nom!'

Ed.]

[Footnote V: In the long vacation of 1790, with his friend Jones.--Ed.]