“Nor flattery’s self can pierce his pendent ears”.
In poetical diction, a person is said to “breathe the BLUE air,” and to “drink the HOARSE wave!”—not that the colour of the sky or the noise of the water has any reference to drinking or breathing, but because the poet obtains the advantage of thus describing his subject under a double relation, in the same manner in which material objects present themselves to our different senses at the same time.
[217]. Ver. 73. Cock-tailed mice—Coctilibus Muris. Ovid.—There is reason to believe that the murine, or mouse species, were anciently much more numerous than at the present day. It appears from the sequel of the line, that Semiramis surrounded the city of Babylon with a number of these animals.
Dicitur altam
Coctilibus Muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem.
It is not easy at present to form any conjecture with respect to the end, whether of ornament or defence, which they could be supposed to answer. I should be inclined to believe, that in this instance the mice were dead, and that so vast a collection of them must have been furnished by way of tribute, to free the country from these destructive animals. This superabundance of the murine race must have been owing to their immense fecundity, and to the comparatively tardy reproduction of the feline species. The traces of this disproportion are to be found in the early history of every country.—The ancient laws of Wales estimate a cat at the price of as much corn as would be sufficient to cover her, if she were suspended by the tail with her fore-feet touching the ground.—See Howel Dha.—In Germany, it is recorded that an army of rats, a larger animal of the mus tribe, was employed as the ministers of divine vengeance against a feudal tyrant; and the commercial legend of our own Whittington might probably be traced to an equally authentic origin.
[218]. Ver. 76. Rectangle—“A figure which has one angle, or more, of ninety degrees”. Johnson’s Dictionary.—It here means a right-angled triangle, which is therefore incapable of having more than one angle of ninety degrees, but which may, according to our author’s Prosopopœia, be supposed to be in love with three, or any greater number of nymphs.
[219]. Ver. 80. Plato’s and Menecmus’ lore—Proclus attributes the discovery of the conic sections to Plato, but obscurely. Eratosthenes seems to adjudge it to Menecmus. “Neque Menecmeos necesse erit in cono secare ternarios.” (Vide Montucla.) From Greece they were carried to Alexandria, where (according to our author’s beautiful fiction) Rectangle either did or might learn magic.
[220]. Ver. 86. Zatanai—Supposed to be the same with Satan.—Vide the New Arabian Nights, translated by Cazotte, author of “Le Diable amoureux”.
[221]. Ver. 87. Gins—the Eastern name for Genii.—Vide Tales of ditto.