Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin’s back,
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song,
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid’s music.”
And again, in the Merchant of Venice, act v. sc. 1, lines 2 and 54, vol. ii. p. 360, how exquisite the description!—
“When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees,
And they did make no noise.”
Lorenzo’s discourse to Jessica is such as only a passion-warmed genius could conceive and utter:—