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Alluding to the usual manner in which sleep is represented in ancient statues. See also Pindar, Pyth. I. v. 16, 17.“ κνωσσων υγρον νωτον αιωρει.”

Authorities for these celestial warriors may be found, Josh. v. 13. 2 Kings vi. 2. 2 Macc. v. 3. Ibid. xi. Joseph. Ed. Huds. vi. p. 1282. ct alibi passim.

It is scarcely necessary to mention the lofty site of Jerusalem. “The hill of God is a high hill, even a high hill as the hill of Bashan.”

See Sandys, and other travellers into Asia.

Common practice, and the authority of Milton, seem sufficient to justify using this term as a personification of poetry.

Matt. xxiii. 38.

Moses.

Almotana is the Oriental name for the Dead Sea, as Ardeni is for Jordan.

The mountains of Palestine are full of caverns, which are generally occupied in one or other of the methods here mentioned. Vide Sandys, Maundrell, and Calmet, passim.

The untameable spirit, feodal customs, and affection for Europeans, which distinguish this extraordinary race, who boast themselves to be a remnant of the Crusaders, are well described in Pagés. The account of their celebrated Emir, Facciardini, in Sandys, is also very interesting. Puget de S. Pierre compiled a small volume on their history; Paris, 1763. 12mo.

“The Turkish sultans, whose moon seems fast approaching to its wane.” Sir W. Jones's first Disc. to the Asiatic Society.

The gold of the Tyrians chiefly came from Portugal, which was probably their Tarshish.

In the southern parts of Palestine the inhabitants reap their corn green, as they are not sure that it will ever be allowed to come to maturity. The oppression to which the cultivators of vineyards are subject throughout the Ottoman empire is well known.

Hagar.

The watering-places are generally beset with Arabs, who exact toll from all comers. See Harmer and Pagés.

See Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xiv. p. 43. Ed. Vales.

“Thine eye shall not spare them.”

A miserable remnant of Samaritan worship still exists on Mount Gerizim. Maundrell relates his conversation with the high priest.

Psalm cxiv.

See Psalm lxxx. 8—14.

Joshua x.

Alluding to the fate of Nadab and Abihu.

Solomon. Ophir is by most geographers placed in the Aurea Chersonesus. See Tavernier and Raleigh.

The Arabian mythology respecting Solomon is in itself so fascinating, is so illustrative of the present state of the country, and on the whole so agreeable to Scripture, that it was judged improper to omit all mention of it, though its wildness might have operated as an objection to making it a principal object in the poem.

Palmyra (“Tadmor in the Desert”) was really built by Solomon, (1 Kings ix. 2 Chron. viii.) and universal tradition marks him out, with great probability, as the founder of Balbec. Estakhar is also attributed to him by the Arabs. See the romance of Vathek, and the various Travels into the East, more particularly Chardin's, in which, after a minute and interesting description of the majestic ruins of Estakhar, or Persepolis, the ancient capital of Persia, an account follows of the wild local traditions just alluded to. Vol. ii. p. 190. Ed. Amst. 1735, 4to. Vide also Sale's Koran; D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. (article Solimon Ben Daoud;) and the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, passim.

It is well known that the Santons are real or affected madmen, pretending to extraordinary sanctity, who wander about the country, sleeping in caves or ruins.

Numbers xxiv. 5.

Behemoth is sometimes supposed to mean the elephant, in which sense it is here used.

An African port to the south of Bab-el-mandeb, celebrated for gold mines.

Psalm xxiv. 7.

“There was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while it was in building.” 1 Kings vi. 7.

“And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped.” 2 Chron. vii. 3.

Psalm cxxiv. 4.

Luke xxiii. 27, 28.

Joseph vi. p. 1275. Ed. Huds.

The Roman notions of humanity cannot have been very exalted when they ascribed so large a share to Titus. For the horrible details of his conduct during the siege of Jerusalem and after its capture, the reader is referred to Josephus. When we learn that so many captives were crucified, that δια το πληθος χωρα τε ενελειπετο τοις σταυροις και σταυροι τοις σωμασιν; and that after all was over, in cold blood and merriment, he celebrated his brother's birth-day with similar sacrifices; we can hardly doubt as to the nature of that untold crime, which disturbed the dying moments of “the darling of the human race.” After all, the cruelties of this man are probably softened in the high priest's narrative. The fall of Jerusalem nearly resembles that of Zaragoza, but it is a Morla who tells the tale.

The Temple of the sepulchre.

See Cotovicus, p. 179; and from him Sandys.

St. Helena, who was, according to Camden, born at Colchester, See also Howel's Hist. of the World.

The invasions of the civilised parts of Asia by the Arabian and Turkish Mahometans.

Peter the Hermit. The world has been so long accustomed to hear the Crusades considered as the height of frenzy and injustice, that to undertake their defence might be perhaps a hazardous task. We must, however, recollect, that had it not been for these extraordinary exertions of generous courage, the whole of Europe would perhaps have fallen, and Christianity been buried in the ruins. It was not, as Voltaire has falsely or weakly asscrted, a conspiracy of robbers; it was not an unprovoked attack on a distant and inoffensive nation; it was a blow aimed at the heart of a most powerful and active enemy. Had not the Christian kingdoms of Asia been established as a check to the Mabometans, Italy, and the scanty remnant of Christianity in Spain, must again have fallen into their power, and France herself have needed all the heroism and good fortune of a Charles Martel to deliver her from subjugation.

See Vertot, Hist. Chev. de Malthe, liv. i.

Tabaria (a corruption of Tiberias) is the name used for the Sea of Galilee in the old romances.

Brennus, and Tamerlane.

The insolence of the French nobles twice caused the ruin of the army; once by refusing to serve under Richard Cœur-de-Lion, and again by reproaching the English with cowardice in St. Louis's expedition to Egypt. See Knolles's History of the Turks.

The line (combat à-la-haie), according to Sir Walter Raleigh, was characteristic of French tactics; as the column (herse) was of the English. The English at Créci were drawn up thirty deep.

All the British nations served under the same banner.

Tasso, Gerusal. lib. i. 44.

The axe of Richard was very famous. See Warton's Hist. of Ancient Poetry.

Psalm ii. 3. cvii. 16.

“I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more the reproach of famine among the heathen.”—“And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden,” &c. Ezek. xxxvi.

“That great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.” Rev. xxi. 10.

Ezekiel xl.

Revelation x.

Revelation, xx.

“And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” Rev. xxi. 22.

“Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.—Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.” Ezek. xxxvii.

The opening lines of this poem were really composed in the situation (the Park of Dresden), and under the influence of the feelings which they attempt to describe. The disastrous issue of King Frederick's campaign took away from the author all inclination to continue them, and they remained neglected till the hopes of Europe were again revived by the illustrious efforts of the Spanish people.

The hill of Pratzen was the point most obstinately contested in the great battle which has taken its name from the neighbouring town of Austerlitz; and here the most dreadful slaughter took place, both of French and Russians. The author had, a few weeks before he wrote the above, visited every part of this celebrated field.

It is necessary perhaps to mention, that, by freedom, in this and in other passages of the present poem, political liberty is understood, in opposition to the usurpation of any single European state. In the particular instance of Spain, however, it is a hope which the author has not yet seen reason to abandon, that a struggle so nobly maintained by popular energy, must terminate in the establishment not only of national independence, but of civil and religious liberty.

The confidence and shameful luxury of the French nobles, during the Seven Years' War, are very sarcastically noticed by Templeman.

Prince Lewis Ferdinand of Prussia, who fell gloriously with almost the whole of his regiment.

The Queen of Prussia; beautiful, unfortunate, and unsubdued by the severest reverses.

“Thou art the anointed cherub that coverest.”—Addressed to Tyre, by Ezekiel, xxviii. 14.

Inez de Castro, the beloved mistress of the Infant Don Pedro, son of Alphonso IV. King of Portugal, and stabbed by the orders, and, according to Camoëns, in the presence of that monarch. A fountain near Coimbra, the scene of their loves and misfortunes, is still pointed out by tradition, and called Amores.—De la Clede, Hist. de Portugalle, 4to. tom. i. page 282—7; and Camoëns' Lusiad, canto 3, stanza cxxxv.

The Asturians, who under Pelagius first opposed the career of Mahometan success.

“La couronne de fer de Dom Pélage,—cette couronne si simple mais si glorieuse, dont chaque fleuron est formé du fer d'une lance arrachée aux Chevaliers Maures que ce héros avoit fait tomber sous ses coups.” Roman de Dom Ursino le Navarin, Tressan, tom. ix. 52.

See the two elegant specimens given by Bishop Percy in his Reliques; and the more accurate translations of Mr. Rodd, in his Civil Wars of Granada.

The Gothic monarchy in Spain was overthrown by the Mussulmans at the battle of Xeres, the Christian army being defeated with dreadful slaughter, and the death of their king, the unhappy and licentious Roderigo. Pelagius assembled the small band of those fugitives who despised submission, amid the mountains of the Asturias, under the name of King of Oviedo.

Alonso, surnamed the Chaste, with ample reason, if we believe his historians: who defeated, according to the Spanish romances, and the graver authority of Mariana, the whole force of Charlemagne and the twelve peers of France, at Roncesvalles. Bertrand del Carpio, the son of Alonso's sister, Ximena, was his general; and according to Don Quixote (no incompetent authority on such a subject), put the celebrated Orlando to the same death as Hercules inflicted on Antæus. His reason was, that the nephew of Charlemagne was enchanted, and, like Achilles, only vulnerable in the heel, to guard which he wore always iron shoes.—See Mariana, l. vii. c. xi.; Don Quixote, book i. c. i.; and the notes on Mr. Southey's Chronicle of the Cid; a work replete with powerful description, and knowledge of ancient history and manners, and which adds a new wreath to one, who “nullum fere scribendi genus intactum reliquit, nullum quod tetigit non ornavit.”

Rodrigo Diaz, of Biva, surnamed the Cid by the Moors.—See Mr. Southey's Chronicle.

Buraba and Lugo were renowned scenes of Spanish victories over the Moors, in the reigns of Bermudo, or, as his name is Latinized, Veremundus, and Alonso the Chaste. Of Lugo the British have since obtained a melancholy knowledge.

An extensive district of Mexico: its inhabitants were the first Indians who submitted to the Spaniards under Cortez.

Francis I. taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia.

Andalusia forms a part of the ancient Hispania Bœtica.

See the former note on Alonso the Chaste.

This line is imitated from one in Mr. Roscoe's spirited verses on the commencement of the French revolution.

“He look'd and saw what numbers numberless.” Milton, Paradise Regained.

The ancient siege of Saguntum has been now rivalled by Zaragoza. The author is happy to refer his readers to the interesting narrative of his friend, Mr. Vaughan.

Judith.

“I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me, for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury.”—Isaiah lxiii. 3.

Oasis.—Sennaar. Meroe.

The black tribes, whom Bruce considers as the aboriginal Nubians, are so called. For their gigantic stature, and their custom of ornamenting themselves and their houses with the spoils of the elephant, see the account he gives of the person and residence of one of their chiefs, whom he visited on his departure from Ras el Feel.

The emerald, or whatever the ancients dignified by the name of smaragdus, is said to have been found in great quantities in the mountain now called Gebel Zumrud (the mount of emeralds).

It is interesting to observe with what pleasure and minuteness Moses, amid the Arabian wilderness, enumerates the “twelve wells of water,” and the “threescore and ten palm-trees,” of Elim.