Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold Part 76

Probably all who know the Vevey end of the Lake of Geneva, will recollect Glion, the mountain-village above the castle of Chillon. Glion now has hotels, _pensions_, and villas; but twenty years ago it was hardly more than the huts of Avant opposite to it,--huts through which goes that beautiful path over the Col de Jaman, followed by so many foot-travellers on their way from Vevey to the Simmenthal and Thun.]

[Footnote 28: NOTE 28, PAGE 333.

_The gentian-flower'd pa.s.s, its crown With yellow spires aflame._

The blossoms of the _Gentiana lutea_.]

[Footnote 29: NOTE 29, PAGE 333.

_And walls where Byron came._

Montbovon. See Byron's Journal, in his _Works_, vol. iii. p. 258. The river Saane becomes the Sarine below Montbovon.]

[Footnote 30: NOTE 30, PAGE 429.

_And the kind, chance-arrived Wanderer._

Poias, the father of Philoctetes. Pa.s.sing near, he was attracted by the concourse round the pyre, and at the entreaty of Hercules set fire to it, receiving the bow and arrows of the hero as his reward.]

[Footnote 31: NOTE 31, PAGE 462.

_And that curst treachery on the Mount of Gore._

Mount Haemus, so called, said the legend, from Typho's blood spilt on it in his last battle with Zeus, when the giant's strength failed, owing to the Destinies having a short time before given treacherously to him, for his refreshment, perishable fruits. See APOLLODORUS, _Bibliotheca_, book i. chap. vi.]

[Footnote 32: NOTE 32, PAGE 468

_Ye Sun-born Virgins! on the road of truth._

See the Fragments of Parmenides:

... [Greek: kourai d' hodon hegemoneuon, heliades kourai, prolipousai domata nyktos, eis phaos]....

[Footnote 33: NOTE 33, PAGE 479.

_Couldst thou no better keep, O Abbey old, The boon thy dedication-sign foretold._

"Ailred of Rievaulx, and several other writers, a.s.sert that Sebert, king of the East Saxons and nephew of Ethelbert, founded the Abbey of Westminster very early in the seventh century.

"Sulcardus, who lived in the time of William the Conqueror, gives a minute account of the miracle supposed to have been worked at the consecration of the Abbey.

"The church had been prepared against the next day for dedication.

On the night preceding, St. Peter appeared on the opposite side of the water to a fisherman, desiring to be conveyed to the farther sh.o.r.e. Having left the boat, St. Peter ordered the fisherman to wait, promising him a reward on his return. An innumerable host from heaven accompanied the apostle, singing choral hymns, while everything was illuminated with a supernatural light. The dedication having been completed, St. Peter returned to the fisherman, quieted his alarm at what had pa.s.sed, and announced himself as the apostle. He directed the fisherman to go as soon as it was day to the authorities, to state what he had seen and heard, and to inform them that, in corroboration of his testimony, they would find the marks of consecration on the walls of the church. In obedience to the apostle's direction, the fisherman waited on Mellitus, Bishop of London, who, going to the church, found not only marks of the chrism, but of the tapers with which the church had been illuminated. Mellitus, therefore, desisted from proceeding to a new consecration, and contented himself with the celebration of the ma.s.s."--DUGDALE, _Monasticon Anglicanum_ (edition of 1817), vol. i. pp. 265, 266. See also MONTALEMBERT, _Les 'Moines d'Occident_, vol. iii. pp. 428-432.]

[Footnote 34: NOTE 34, PAGE 482.

_The charm'd babe of the Eleusinian king._

Demophoon, son of Celeus, king of Eleusis. See, in the _Homeric Hymns_, the _Hymn to Demeter_, 184-298.]

[Footnote 35: NOTE 35, PAGE 483.

_That Pair, whose head did plan, whom hands did forge The Temple in the pure Parna.s.sian gorge._

Agamedes and Trophonius, the builders of the temple of Apollo at Delphi.

See Plutarch, _Consolatio ad Apollonium_, c. 14.]

[Footnote 36: NOTE 36, PAGE 493.

_Stol'n from Aristophanes._

See _The Birds_ of Aristophanes, 465-485.]

[Footnote 37: NOTE 37, PAGE 495.

_Of Robin's reed._

"Come, join the melancholious croon O' Robin's reed."--BURNS, _Poor Mailie's Elegy_.]

THE END.