The Basque glories, which I have recorded in the ballad of “The Tartar Town,” are all strictly historical. The Basque dialect was once spoken all over Spain, and is nearly identical with the Tartar language. I use this supposed Tartar origin for poetical purposes. Ever since the death of Ferdinand VII., the Basque fueros have been a constant bone of contention. Espartero abolished, but Narvaez partially restored them. The only fueros now retained are an exemption from duty upon stamps, salt, and tobacco.
III. “A glory streamed around her, giant-strong.”
This stanza has been inspired by Murillo’s Immaculate Conceptions, on whose wonderful beauties I have gazed for days at Seville and Madrid.
IV. “Seemed as a rosebud gathering ere it blew
All forms of Beauty.”
Als eine blume zeigt sie sich der welt;
Zum muster wuchs das schöne bild empor.
Göthe, “Miedings Tod.”
“She blossoms to the world like a flower; her beautiful form grows up to be a pattern.”
VI. “Oh Love, oh wedded Love, of life the balm!”
“You have reason to commend that excellent institution * * the faithful nuptial union of man and wife that was first instituted.” (Bacon, New Atlantis.) The same sentiments are still more nobly expressed in Milton’s Tetrachordon and Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, where the poet, unshackled by his prose fetters, is still a poet, glowing with fancy and with rare sublimity, and has given expression to nobler sentiments on chaste love than any other writer, ancient or modern.