As fresh-poured red wine of a mighty pulse. What then? So much was saved if aught were missed! The white-grape vineyard where the oil-press stood, And if ye find ... Ah God, I know not, I!... ... For Gandolf shall not choose but see and burst! 50 Swift as a weaver's shuttle fleet our years: Man goeth to the grave, and where is he? Did I say, basalt for my slab, sons? Black Those Pans and Nymphs ye wot of, and perchance Some tripod, thyrsus, with a vase or so, The Saviour at his sermon on the mount, 46. Frascati: a town of central Italy, near the site of the ancient Tusculum, ten or twelve miles S. E. of Rome; it has many fine old villas. 53. Did I say, basalt for my slab, sons? Note how all things else, even such reflections as are expressed in the two preceding verses, are incidental with the Bishop; his poor, art-besotted mind turns abruptly to the black basalt which he craves for the slab of his tomb; and see vv. 101, 102. 30 40 Saint Praxed in a glory, and one Pan Ready to twitch the Nymph's last garment off, Bricked o'er with beggar's mouldy travertine 'Tis jasper ye stand pledged to, lest I grieve I fold my arms as if they clasped a crook, And stretch my feet forth straight as stone can point, 66. travertine: see note to v. 67 of Pictor Ignotus. 71. pistachio-nut, or green almond. 60 70 80 79. Ulpian: Domitius Ulpianus, one of the greatest of Roman jurists, and chief adviser of the emperor, Alexander Severus; born about 170, died 228; belongs to the Brazen age of Roman literature. Into great laps and folds of sculptor's work: And this life too, popes, cardinals, and priests, heart? Whereon I am to lie till I must ask "Do I live, am I dead?" There, leave me, there! To death: ye wish it — God, ye wish it! Stone · Well go ! I bless ye. Fewer tapers there, 95. Saint Praxed at his sermon on the mount: the poor dying Bishop, in the disorder of his mind, makes a lapsus linguæ here; see v. 59. 99. elucescebat: "he was beginning to shine forth;" a late Latin word not found in the Ciceronian vocabulary, and therefore condemned by the Bishop; this word is, perhaps, what is meant by the "gaudy ware in the second line of Gandolf's epitaph, referred to in v. 78. But in a row and, going, turn your backs And leave me in my church, the church for peace, 120 A TOCCATA OF GALUPPI'S. I. OH Galuppi, Baldassaro, this is very sad to find! I can hardly misconceive you; it would prove me deaf and blind; But, although I take your meaning, 'tis with such a heavy mind! 2. Here you come with your old music, and here's all the good t brings. What, they lived once thus at Venice where the merchants were the kings, Where Saint Mark's is, where the Doges used to wed the sea with rings? 3. Ay, because the sea's the street there; and 'tis arched by ... what you call ...Shylock's bridge with houses on it, where they kept the carnival : I was never out of England — it's as if I saw it all. St. 1. Galuppi, Baldassaro (rather Baldassare): b. 1703, in Burano, an island near Venice, and thence called Buranello; d. 1785; a distinguished composer, whose operas, about fifty in number, and mostly comic, were at one time the most popular in Italy; Galuppi is regarded as the father of the Italian comic opera. St. 2. Saint Mark's: see Ruskin's description of this glorious basilica, in The Stones of Venice. 4. Did young people take their pleasure when the sea was warm in May? Balls and masks begun at midnight, burning ever to mid-day, When they made up fresh adventures for the morrow, do you say? 5. Was a lady such a lady, cheeks so round and lips so red, On her neck the small face buoyant, like a bell-flower on its bed, O'er the breast's superb abundance where a man might base his head? 6. Well, and it was graceful of them: they'd break talk off and afford -She, to bite her mask's black velvet, he, to finger on his sword, While you sat and played Toccatas, stately at the clavichord? 7. What? Those lesser thirds so plaintive, sixths diminished, sigh on sigh, Told them something? Those suspensions, those solutions— "Must we die?" Those commiserating sevenths- "Life might last! we can but St. 6. Toccatas: the Toccata was a form of musical composition for the organ or harpsichord, somewhat in the free and brilliant style of the modern fantasia or capriccio; clavichord: “a keyed stringed instrument, now superseded by the pianoforte." Webster. St. 7. The musical technicalities used in this stanza, any musician can explain and illustrate. St. 8. The questions in this stanza must be supposed to be caused by the effect upon the revellers of the "plaintive lesser thirds," the " diminished sixths," the commiserating sevenths," etc., of the preceding stanza. |