118 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 145. 



On second fly-leaf Coleridge has noted, "Vol. v. 

 p. 217., a fine stanza." 



The following is the stanza referred to : 



" Whilst Talbot (whose fresh Ardor having got 

 A marvellous Advantage of his Years), 

 Carries his unfelt Age as if forgot, 



Whirling about where any Need appears. 

 His Hand, his Eye, his Wits all present, wrought 

 The Function of the Glorious Part he bears : 

 Now urging here, now cheering there, he flies : 

 Unlocks the thickest Troops, where most 

 Force lies." 



And to it Coleridge has appended the following 

 note: — 



" What is there in description superior even in 

 Shakspeare ? Only that Shakspeare would have 

 given one of his Glows to the first line, and flat- 

 tered the mountain Top with his surer Eye — in- 

 tead of that poor — 



" A marvellous advantage of his years." 



But this, however, is Daniel — and he must not be 

 read piecemeal. Even by leaving off, and looking 

 at a stanza by itsielf, I find the loss. 



" S. T. Coleridge." 

 " O Charles ! I am very, very ill. Vixi." 



" Second Letter — five houi's after the first. 

 " Dear Charles, 



"You must read over these 'Civil Wars' 

 again. We both know what a mood is. And the 

 genial mood will, it shall, come for my sober- 

 minded Daniel. He was a Tutor and a sort of 

 Steward in a noble Family in which Form was 

 religiously observed, and Religion formally ; and 

 yet there was such warm blood and mighty muscle 

 of substance within, that the moulding Irons did 

 not dispel, thoV they stiffened the vital man within, 

 Daniel caught and recommunicated the Spirit of the 

 great Countess of Pembroke, the glory of the North; 

 he formed her mind, and her mind inspirited him. 

 Gravely sober in all ordinary affairs, and not easily 

 excited by any — yet there is one, on which his 

 Blood boils — whenever he speaks of English valour 

 exerted against a foreign Enemy. Do read over — 

 but some evening when we are quite comfortable 

 at your fire-side — and oh ! where shall I ever be, 

 if I am not so there — that is the last Altar on the 

 horns of which my old Feelings hang, but alas ! 

 listen and tremble. Nonsense ! — well ! I will 

 read it to You and Mary. The 205, 206, and 

 207th page ; and above all, that 93rd stanza ; and 

 in a different style the 98th stanza, p. 208. ; and 

 what an image in 107, p. 211. Thousands even of 

 educated men would become more sensible, fitter 

 to be members of Parliament or ministers, by 

 reading Daniel — and even those few who, quoad 

 intellectuni, only gain refreshment of notions al- 

 ready their own, must become better English- 



men. O, if it be not too late, write a kind note 

 about him. S. T. Coleridge." 



On the fourth fly-leaf he has written, — 



" Is it from any hobby-horsical love of our old 

 writers (and of such a passion respecting Chaucer, 

 Spenser, and Ben Jonson, I have occasionally 

 seen glaring proofs in one the string of whose shoe 

 I am not worthy to unloose), or is it a real 

 Beauty, the interspersion I mean (in stanza poems) 

 of rhymes from polysyllables — such as Eminence, 

 Obedience, Reverence. To my ear they convey 

 not only a relief from variety, but a sweetness as 

 of repose — and the Understanding they gratify by- 

 reconciling Verse with the whole wide extent of 

 good Sense. Without being distinctly conscious 

 of such a notion, having it rather than reflecting 

 it, (for one may think in the same way as one may 

 see and hear), I seem to be made to know that I 

 need have no fear ; that there is nothing excellent 

 in itself which the Poet cannot express accurately 

 and naturally, nay no good word." 



SHROPSHIRE BALLAD. 



In no collection of ballads to which I have 

 access does the following appear. It exists in 

 my memory only in a mutilated state. I forward 

 it with the hope that some one among your nu- 

 merous readers may be able to supply the missing 

 part, which is evidently the commencement of it. 



The hero is supposed to have been a journey : 

 on his return the following scene occurs : 



" I went into the stable, 

 To see what I could see ; 

 I saw three gentlemen's horses, 

 By one, by two, by three ; 

 I called to my loving wife, 

 * Coming, sir,' says she. 

 ' What meaneth these three horses here, 

 "Without the leave of me?' 

 ' You old fool ! you blind fool 1 

 Can't yoii — won't you see ? 

 They are three milking-cows, that 

 My mother sent to me.' 

 ' ' Odds bobs ! here's fun ! 



Milking-cows with saddles on 1 

 The likes 1 never see : 

 I cannot go a mile from home, 

 But a cuckold I must be 1' 



" I went into the parlour, 

 To see what I could see ; 

 I saw there three gentlemen, 

 By. one, by two, by three ; 

 I called to my. loving wife, 

 ' Coming, sir,' said she. 

 ' What hringeth these three gentlemen here. 

 Without the leave of me?' 

 ' You old fool ! you blind fooll 

 Can't you — won't you see? 



