Prev | Current Page 188 | Next

Wynne, Ellis, 1671-1734

"The Visions of the Sleeping Bard"


- Dante: Inf. c. V. (Cary's trans.).
{73a} Amidst eternal ice.--Cp.:
Thither . . . all the damned are brought
. . . and feel by turns the bitter change
Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce!
From beds of raging fire to starve in ice
Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine
Immoveable, infix'd and frozen round
Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire.
- Par. Lost, II. 597-603.
{85a} Better to reign.--This speech of Lucifer is very Miltonic; compare
especially -
--in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell;
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.
- Par. Lost, I. 261-3.
{85b} Revenge is sweet.--Cp.:
Revenge, at first though sweet
Bitter ere long, back on itself recoils.
- Par. Lost, IX. 171-2.
{87a} This enterprize.--Cp.:
--this enterprize
None shall partake with me.
- Par. Lost, II. 465.
{95a} Barristers.--The word cyfarthwyr, here rendered "barristers,"
really means "those who bark," which is probably only a pun of the Bard's
on cyfarchwyr--"those who address (the court)."
{95b} Sir Edmundbury Godfrey.--A London magistrate who took prominent
part against the Catholics in the reign of Charles II.


Pages:
176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200