MADAME DE STAËL

Epïtre sur Naples.

P. 64, 1. I. Connais-tu...? Compare Mignon's song in Goethe's IVilhelm Meister:

"Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen bliihn...?" and Lord Byron's imitation of it in The Bride of Abydos, l. i.

ii6 NOTES.

1. 14. à la clarté ; à hère is not merely = ^«, but rather implies a cause producing a certain resuit.

P. 65, 1. 5. Ztf z'c/iraw, Mount Vesuvius. encor \n?Xç.2.à oi e7tcore ot\ account of the mètre. Encore would be pronounced as three syllables in poetry.

1. 1 1 . Mais ce n'est, Ss^c. : the passage implies that the love of man for nature is due neither to his hopes nor his recollections, but to an intimate and apparently physical connection between them. 1. 14. ce confident, this trusted friend, se. le ciel. 1.21. la cendre et le sang; an allusion to the éruptions of Vesuvius which covered the ground with ashes, and the various wars, in which the French and other invading nations drenched the land of Naples with blood.

1. 23. Ah! bienheureux r oubli... Compare M. de Lamartine's exquisite stanza :

"Colline de Baïa, poétique séjour, Voluptueux vallon, qu'habita tour à tour Tout ce qui fut grand dans le monde, Tu ne retentis plus de gloire ni d'amour, Pas une voix qui me réponde.

Que le bruit plaintif de cette onde, Ou l'écho réveillé des débris d'alentour." 1. 25. fut: the stress is on the past tense.

\. 26. Quels héritiers, grand Dieu ! In his Dernier chant du pèlerinage d'Harold, M. de Lamartine having concluded a severe apostrophe to modem Italy by the following couplet :

"Je vais chercher ailleurs (pardonne, ombre Romaine!) Des hommes, et non pas de la poussière humaine," Colonel Pepe sent him a challenge and wounded him severely.

le peuple vainqueur, the race of conqucrors, se. the Roman people. 1. 31. Cicéron (b. c. 107 — 43), killed at Formiae (Mola di Gaeta) by order of Mark Antony.

P. ()6, 1. 3. Scipion: this was Publius Cornélius Scipio Africanus Major (b.c. 234 — 183), the conqueror of Hannibal in the battle of Zama. He was accused by the tribune M. Nsevius of peculation and other charges, and, though acquitted on the first occasion, went into voluntary exile when the charge was renewed. He retired to Liternum in Campania, where he died.

1. 4. une ijnmortclk plainte : the epitaph in question is said to hâve

been as follows, " Ingrata patria, ne ossa quidem meahabes," "Ungrateful fatherland, thou dost hold not even mybones": i. e. since Rome banished him when alive, she should not hâve the honour of his tomb. The epitaph is given by Valerius Maximus, but it was not extant in the time of Seneca, and the place of Scipio's burial appears to be uncertain.

1. 6. Plus loin, &=€.: the incident alluded to took place in B. c. 88, when Marius, flying from Sulla who had occupied Rome, was put ashore at the mouth of the Liris near Minturnse, and took refuge in the marshes there. Mad. de Staël is not quite right in saying that the marshes "preserved" Marius, for he was discovered in them and taken to Mintumœ. His captors however released him, after which he made good his escape.

1. 9. elle 71 était plus : liberty really existed no longer in the time of Marius, and the question was only between anarchy and despotism, though the glory of Roman conquests over Jugurtha, the Cimbri, &c. might bear the appearance, or seem to imply the existence, of liberty at Rome.

1. II. La liberté mourante., ô^c: an allusion to the effort of Brutus and Cassius, crushed at Philippi, B. c. 42.

1. 14. Octave. CaiusJuUus Cœsar Octavianus Augustus (b.c. 63 — A.D. 14).

1. 18. jusqu' au juge, &^c. , not excepting the suprême judge, viz. time.