[49]. [the] skirts of St. Paul has reached. Has done almost as well as St. Paul.
[51]. [Our] Lady. The image of the Virgin Mary. Observe our hero's taste and his religions solemnity.
[52]. [seven] swords, etc. Representing the seven "legendary sorrows" of the Virgin. See Berdoe's Browning Cyclopædia, or Brewer's Reader's Handbook, or Dictionary of Phrase and Fable for the list.
UP AT A VILLA is one of the best humorous poems in the language. The hero's desires and sorrows are so naïve, his tastes so gravely held, that he provokes our sympathy as well as our laughter. One of the charms of the poem is the way in which he is made to testify, in spite of himself, to the beauties of the country (as in lines 7-9, 19-20, 22-25, 32-33, 36) and to the monotony or clanging emptiness of the city (as in lines 12-14, 38-54). Compare lines 8 and 82 with the picture in De Gustibus.
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A TOCCATA OF GALUPPI'S. (PAGE [122].)
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Toccata. See an unabridged dictionary.
[1]. [Galuppi]. Baldassare Galuppi, Venice, 1706-1785, a celebrated musician and prolific composer.
[6]. St. [Mark's]. The famous cathedral of Venice. Doges ... rings. The Doge was chief magistrate of Venice. The annual ceremony of "wedding the Adriatic" by casting into it a gold ring was instituted in 1174, in commemoration of the victory of the Venetian fleet over Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor of Germany.