NOTES.
[a] Oft o’er the mead, at pleasing distance, pass
Cosmo of Medicis took most pleasure in his Apennine villa, because all that he commanded from its windows was exclusively his own. How unlike the wise Athenian, who, when he had a farm to sell, directed the cryer to proclaim, as its best recommendation, that it had a good neighbourhood. PLUT. in Vit. Themist.
[] And, thro’ the various year, the various day,
Horace commends the house, ‘longos quæ prospicit agros.’ Distant views contain the greatest variety, both in themselves, and in their accidental variations. GILPIN.
[c] Small change of scene, small space his home requires,
Many a great man, in passing through the apartments of his palace, has made the melancholy reflection of the venerable Cosmo: “Questa è troppo gran casa à si poco famiglia.” MACH. Ist. Fior. lib. vii.
“Parva, sed apta mihi,” was Ariosto’s inscription over his door in
Ferrara; and who can wish to say more?
“I confess,” says Cowley, “I love littleness almost in all things. A little convenient estate, a little cheerful house, a little company, and a very little feast.” Essay vi.
When Socrates was asked why he had built for himself so small a house, “Small as it is,” he replied, “I wish I could fill it with friends.” PHÆDRUS, 1. iii. 9.
These indeed are all that a wise man would desire to assemble; “for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love.” BACON’S Essays, xxvii.
[d] From every point a ray of genius flows!
By this means, when all nature wears a lowering countenance, I withdraw myself into the visionary worlds of art; where I meet with shining landscapes, gilded triumphs, beautiful faces, and all those other objects that fill the mind with gay ideas, &c. ADDISON.
It is remarkable that Antony, in his adversity, passed some time in a small but splendid retreat, which he called his Timonium, and from which might originate the idea of the Parisian Boudoir, that favourite apartment, ou I’on se retire pour étre seul, mais ou l’on ne boude point. STRABO, 1. xvii. PLUT, in Vit. Anton.
[e] At GUIDO’S call, &c.
Alluding to his celebrated fresco in the Rospigliosi Palace at Rome.
[f] And still the Few best lov’d and most rever’d
The dining-room is dedicated to Conviviality; or, as Cicero somewhere expresses it, “Communitati vitæ atque victûs.” There we wish most for the society of our friends; and, perhaps, in their absence, most require their portraits.
The moral advantages of this furniture may be illustrated by the pretty story of an Athenian courtezan, “who, in the midst of a riotous banquet with her lovers, accidentally cast her eye on the portrait of a philosopher, that hung opposite to her seat: the happy character of temperance and virtue struck her with so lively an image of her own unworthiness, that she instantly quitted the room; and, retiring home, became ever after an example of temperance, as she had been before of debauchery.”
[g] Read antient looks, or woo inspiring dreams;
The reader will here remember that passage of Horace, Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno, &c which was inscribed by Lord Chesterfield on the frieze of his library.
[h] And, when a sage’s lust arrests then there,
Siquidem non solum ex auro argentove, aut certe ex ære in bibliothecis dicantur illi, quorum immortales animæ in iisdem locis ibi loquuntur: quinimo etiam quæ non sunt, finguntur, pariuntque desideria non traditi vultus, sicut in Homero evenit. Quo majus (ut equidem arbitror) nullum est felicitatis specimen, quam semper omnes scire cupere, qualis fuerit aliquis. PLIN. Nat. Hist.
Cicero speaks with pleasure of a little seat under Aristotle in the library of Atticus. “Literis sustentor et recreor; maloque in illa tua sedecula, quam habes sub imagine Aristotelis, sedere, quàm in istorum sella curuli!” Ep. ad Att. iv. 10.
Nor should we forget that Dryden drew inspiration from the “majestic face” of Shakespeare; and that a portrait of Newton was the only ornament of the closet of Buffon. Ep. to Kneller. Voyage à Montbart.
In the chamber of a man of genius we
Write all down:
Such and such pictures;—there the window;
…..the arras, figures,
Why, such and such. CYMBELINE.
[] Which gathers round the Wise of every Tongue,
Quis tantis non gaudeat et glorietur hospitibus, exclaims Petrarch. —Spectare, etsi nihil aliud, certè juvat.—Homerus apud me mutus, imò verò ego apud illum surdus sum. Gaudeo tamen vel aspectû solo, et sæpe ilium amplexus ac suspirans dico: O magne vir, &c.
Epist. Var. Lib. 20.
[j] Like those blest Youths,
See the Legend of the Seven Sleepers. GIBBON, c. 33.
[k] Catch the blest accents of the wise and great.
Mr. Pope delights in enumerating his illustrious guests. Nor is this an exclusive privilege of the poet. The Medici Palace at Florence exhibits a long and imposing catalogue. “Semper hi parietes columnæque eruditis vocibus resonuerunt.”
Another is also preserved at Chanteloup, the seat of the Duke of
Choiseul.
[l] Sheds, like an evening-star, its ray serene,
At a Roman supper statues were sometimes employed to hold the lamps.
—Aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per ædeis,
Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris.
LUCR. ii. 24.
A fashion as old as Homer! Odyss. vii. 100.
On the proper degree and distribution of light we may consult a great master of effect. Il lume grande, ed alto, e non troppo potente, sarà quello, che renderà le particole de’ corpi molto grate. Tratt. della Pittura di LIONARDO DA VINCI, c. xli.
Hence every artist requires a broad and high light. Hence also, in a banquet-scene, the most picturesque of all poets has thrown his light from the ceiling. Æn. i. 726.
And hence the “starry lamps” of Milton, that
….from the arched roof
Pendent by subtle magic,….
……yielded light
As from a sky. Paradise Lost, i. 726.
[m] Beyond the triumphs of a Loriot’s art.
At the petits soupés of Choisy were first introduced those admirable pieces of mechanism, afterwards carried to perfection by Loriot, the Confidente and the Servante; a table and a side-board, which descended, and rose again covered with viands and wines. And thus the most luxurious Court in Europe, after all its boasted refinements, was glad to return at last, by this singular contrivance, to the quiet and privacy of humble life. Vie privée de Louis XV. tom. ii. p. 43.
[n] So thro’ the vales of Loire the bee-hives glide,
An allusion to the floating bee-house, or barge laden with bee-hives, which is seen in some parts of France and Piedmont.
[o] And, with the swallow, wings the year away!
It was the boast of Lucullus that he changed his climate with the birds of passage. PLUT. in Vit. Lucull.
How often must he have felt the truth here inculcated, that the master of many houses has no home!