“Wilt thou, upon the high and giddy mast,
Seal up the ship-boy’s eyes, and rock his brains,
In cradle of the rude imperious surge.”
SHAKSPEARE.
[Page 30], l. 1.
O’er bar and shelf.
A bar is known, in hydrography, to be a mass of earth, or sand, that has been collected by the surge of the sea, at the entrance of a river, or haven, so as to render navigation difficult, and often dangerous. A shelf, or shelve, so called from the Saxon Schylf, is a name given to any dangerous shallows, sand-banks, or rocks, lying immediately under the surface of the water.
[Page 37], l. 19.
And lo! the shore, with mournful prospects crown’d.
Alluding to the ever memorable siege of Candia, in 1669.