. . . if wilful Man must read
FOOTNOTES:
[IE] In the favourite representations of the carrying off of Ganymede, the eagle of Zeus bore him in its talons to the skies. There was a famous statue representing this by Leochares (B.C. 372), which is described in Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxiv. 19, and of which there is a copy at the Vatican. See Perry's Greek and Roman Sculpture, p. 463.—Ed.
[IF] The gods in the golden age were wishing to abide on earth, but as degeneracy ensued, one by one they left. Astræa or Justice was the last to depart—
. . . Virgo caede madentes,
Ultima coelestum, terras Astraea reliquit.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, i. 149.
See also Virgil, Georgics, ii. 473.—Ed.
[IG] "Thursday, Sept. 7. Cadenabbia.—A glorious morning. Mists belting the mountains, and casting silvery garments of all shapes over and around them, now veiling and now unveiling the rocks, the Lake dancing below. All that this Paradise had lost yesterday, restored and more than restored. At about 7 o'clock, D. and I set forward to walk toward Menaggio. Wm. soon overtook us, and we were joined by an interesting man, an inhabitant of the neighbourhood, who walked by our side, and spoke in commendation of our countrymen in opposition to his own, whom he did not scruple to say had no honesty about them in their dealings with Foreigners; nor, indeed, in bargaining with each other.... He spoke English very well; had passed twenty years at different times in England, in the course of twenty-five years; his journeys there cost him about three guineas each time; had there realized £2000, by selling telescopes and weather glasses, etc.... Our travelling merchant joined us again, he pointed out his farm with much glee." This extract does not seem very relevant, but it is the only passage in Mrs. Wordsworth's Journal recording an incident which might have given rise to The Italian Itinerant.