Oh would't thou fing what heroes Windfor bore, What kings first breath'd upon her winding fhore, Or VARIATIONS. VER. 30. What kings firft breath'd, c.] "Not to recount those several kings, to whom It gave a cradle, and to whom a tomb." NOTES. DENHAM. ject of Lord Surrey's paffionate fonnets, is commonly faid to have lived at Florence, and to have been of the family of the Geraldi of that city. This is a misapprehenfion of an expreffion in one of our poet's odes, and a paffage in Drayton's Heroic Epiftles. She was, undoubtedly, one of the daughters of Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare. "It is not precifely known at what period the Earl of Surrey began his travels. They have the air of a romance. He made the tour of Europe in the true fpirit of chivalry, and with the ideas of an Amadis; proclaiming the unparalleled charms of his mistress, and prepared to defend the caufe of her beauty with the weapons of knight errantry; nor was this adventurous journey performed without the intervention of an enchanter. The first city in Italy which he propofed to vifit was Florence, the capital of Tuscany, and the original feat of the ancestors of his Geraldine. In his way thither, he paffed a few days at the Emperor's court; where he became acquainted with Cornelius Agrippa, a celebrated adept in natural magic. This vifionary philofopher fhewed our hero, in a mirror of glass, a living image of Geraldine, reclining on a couch, fick, and reading one of his moft tender fonnets by a waxen taper. His imagination, which wanted not the flattering reprefentations and artificial incentives of illufion, was heated anew by this interefting and affecting fpectacle. Inflamed with every enthusiasm of the most romantic paffion, he haftened to Florence; and, on his arrival, immediately published a defiance against any perfon who could handle a lance and was in love, whether Chriftian, Jew, Turk, Saracen, or Canibal, who should presume to dispute the fuperiority of Geraldine's beauty. As the lady was pretended to be of Tufcan extrac 301 Or raise old warriors, whofe ador'd remains NOTES. tion, the pride of the Florentines was flattered on this occafion: and the Grand Duke of Tufcany permitted a general and unmolested ingress into his dominions of the combatants of all coun tries, till this important trial should be decided. The challenge was accepted, and the Earl victorious. The fhield which he prefented to the Duke before the tournament began, is exhibited in Vertue's valuable plate of the Arundel family, and was actually in the poffeffion of the late Duke of Norfolk. “These heroic vanities did not, however, fo totally engross the time which Surrey fpent in Italy, as to alienate his mind from letters: he ftudied, with the greatest success, a critical knowledge of the Italian tongue; and, that he might give new luftre to the name of Geraldine, attained a just talte for the peculiar graces of the Italian poetry. "He was recalled to England for fome idle reafon by the King, much fooner than he expected: and he returned home, the most elegant traveller, the most polite lover, the most learned nobleman, and the most accomplished gentleman, of his age. Dexterity in tilting, and gracefulness in managing a horfe under arms, were excellencies now viewed with a critical eye, and practifed with a high degree of emulation. In 1540, at a tournament held in presence of the court at Weftminster, and in which the principal of the nobility were engaged, Surrey was distinguished above the reft for his addrefs in the ufe and exercife of arms." In the Hiftory of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 12. is a poem of the elegiac kind, in which he laments his imprisonment in Wind. for Caftle. WARTON. VER. 303. Edward's acts] Edward III. born here. РОРЕ. In what an exquisite strain does Gray speak of this monarch, and his fon! Mighty victor, mighty lord, Low on his funeral couch he lies! Draw monarchs chain'd, and Creffi's glorious field, The lilies blazing on the regal fhield: 306 Then, from her roofs when Verrio's colours fall, Still in thy song should vanquish'd France appear, And bleed for ever under Britain's spear. 310 Let VARIATIONS. VER. 307. Originally thus in the MS. When Brafs decays, when Trophies lie o'er-thrown, NOTES. No pitying heart, no eye, afford Which is followed by that ftriking question, Is the fable warrior fled? gone. He refls among the dead. Thy fon is Gone to falute the rifing morn. THE BARD, ftrophe 2. I have fometimes wondered that Pope did not mention the building of Windsor Castle by Edward III. His architect was William of Wykeham, whose name, it must not be wondered at, if I feize every opportunity of mentioning with veneration and gratitude. Yet, perhaps, he was rather the supervisor and comptroller of the work, than the actual architect, as he had fingular talents for business, activity, and management of affairs. WARTON. VER. 307.] Without much invention, (fays Mr. Walpole, vol. iii. p. 59.) and with lefs tafte, Verrio's exuberant pencil was ready at pouring out gods, goddeffes, kings, emperors, and triumphs, over thofe public furfaces, on which the eye never rests long enough to criticise, and where one should be forry to place the works of a better master; I mean, ceilings and staircases. He received, in all, for his various works, the fum of L. 6,845." Let fofter ftrains ill-fated Henry mourn, And palms eternal flourish round his urn. Here o'er the Martyr-King the marble weeps, And, fast beside him, once-fear'd Edward fleeps : Whom not th' extended Albion could contain, From old Belerium to the northern main, The grave unites; where e'en the Great find reft, And blended lie th' oppreffor and th' oppreft! 315 Make facred Charles's tomb for ever known, (Obfcure the place, and uninfcrib'd the stone) 320 Oh fact accurft! what tears has Albion fhed, Heav'ns, what new wounds! and how her old have bled! VARIATIONS. She VER. 321. Originally thus in the MS. Sworn to Rebellion, principled in blood! Since that dire morn what tears has Albion fhed, NOTES. VER. 311. Henry mourn] Henry VI. POPE. How could he here omit the mention of Eton College, founded by this unfortunate King, and the Chapel of King's College in Cambridge. But Gray has made ample amends for this omiffion, by his most beautiful ode on the profpect of this neighbouring college, from which fo many ornaments and fupports of state and church have proceeded. WARTON. POPE. VER. 314. once-fear'd Edward fleeps :] Edward IV. VER. 316.] See an account of Belerium, fo called from Bellerus a Cornish giant, that part of Cornwall called the Lands End, in Warton's edition of Milton's Poems, p. 28 WARTON. VER. 319. Make facred Charles's] Vigneul-Marwel, v. 1. p. 152. relates a fact concerning this unhappy Monarch that I do She faw her fons with purple death expire, .. 325 329 At length great ANNA faid-" Let Discord cease!" ; Grav'd VARIATIONS. VER. 327. Thus in the MS. Till Anna rofe and bade the Furies cease ; Between Verfe 330 and 331, originally ftood thefe lines; From shore to shore exulting shouts he heard, With IMITATIONS. VER. 328. The world obey'd, and all was peace!] "Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, Peace." MILTON. NOTES. do not find mentioned in any history; which, he says, Lord Clarendon used to mention when he retired to Rouen in Normandy; that one of the first circumstances that gave disgust to the people of England, and to fome of the nobility, was a hint thrown out by Charles I. at the beginning of his reign, that he thought all the ecclefiaftical revenues that had been feized and distributed by Henry VIII. ought to be reftored to the church. WARTON. VER. 329.] It my gratify a curious reader to fee an extract of a letter of Prior to Lord Bolingbroke, written from Paris, May 18, 1713, concerning a medal that was to be ftruck on the |