Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/396

 440 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9th s. iv. NOV. 25, -ML 23. MR. FORD has overlooked the fact that Wordsworth, in a note on this passage (' Excursion,' iy. 330-1), expressly states that the poet Daniel, whose lines he here intro- duces, has borrowed the sentiment from Seneca. The reference (which "it cost the late Bishop of St. Andrews several days' hunting through Seneca's works to ascer- tain"; see Eversley 'Wordsworth,' v. 157) is to ' Natur. Qusest.,' lib. i. przef., 4. ME. FORD, however, is the first to quote Mon- taigne in this reference. 20. Much has been said about Words- worth's phrase "jiulse of the machine," but little to any purpose save by Prof. Dowden, who points out(Atkenceum, 24 February, 1894, p. 246) that a like collocation of words occurs in Bartram's 'Travels through the Chero- kee Country ' (ed. 1793, Dublin, p. 177) :— " At the return of the morning, by the powerful influence of light, the pulse of nature becomes more active, and the universal vibration of life insensibly and irresistibly moves the wondrous machine." Wordsworth's obligations to Bartram in the imagery of ' Ruth' are well known. 13. This is, of course, an undeniable instance of deliberate borrowing from Wordsworth on the part of Tennyson. Another less familiar instance occurs in ' The Brook ':— In copse and fern Twinkled the innumerable ear and tail. This is clearly adapted from 11. 63, 64 of the ' Evening Walk ' :— In the brown park, in flocks, the troubled deer Shook the still-twinkling tail and glancing ear. 3. How comes it that MR. FORD has over- looked, in this reference, the beautiful passage in the 'Prelude,' xi. 11. 117-21 ('French Revolution')?— Not favoured spots alone, but the whole earth The beauty wore of promise—thai which sets (As at some moment might not be unfelt Among the bowers of Paradise itself) The budding rose above the rose fttll-bloion. May I, in conclusion, venture to add an item or two to MR. FORD s ' Words worthiana'? It is well known that Wordsworth entertained a high respect for that bad poet, but most guileless, single-minded, and lovable of men, George Dyer. Few people are, however, aware that Wordsworth has done Dyer the honour of quoting him in book ii. of 'The Excursion,' where we read (11. 312-15) :— On this resolved, With this content, that he will live and die Forgotten,—at safe distance from " a world Not moving to his mind." The final phrase here is taken from the conclusion of Dyer's verses,' Or • the Death of Gilbert Wakefield ' (' Poems,'ed. 1802, vol. 1. p. 109) :— Believing much, yet doubting not a little ; Till sickness comes, and with it gloom of thought;— When man, quite wearied with a world, perhaps, Not moving to hi* mind, a foolish world, Seeks inward stillness, and lies quiet down. Lastly, in his ' Descriptive Sketches ' (1793) Wordsworth hasthe following passage (11. 317- 324) :— 'Mid stormy vapours ever driving by, Where ospreys, cormorants and herons cry, E'en here Content has fix'd her smiling reign With Independence, child of high Diadain. Here the source is Smollett's 'Ode to Inde- pendence,' a vigorous composition, in which the poet's zeal for liberty glows through his pompous conventionalities. "A goddess violated brought Thee forth" sings the desperately earnest Scot—videlicet:— Immortal Liberty There [i.e. on the Norwegian coast] in a cave asleep she lay When a bold savage passed that way, Impelled by destiny, his name Disdain He stopt, he gazed, his bosom glowed, And deeply felt the impression of her charms : He seized the advantage Fate allowed The curlew screamed, the tritons blew Their shells to celebrate the ravished rite And Independence saw the light! Wordsworth quotes Smollett's ' Leven Water' elsewhere in this same poem, and also, many years after, in ' The Italian Itinerant'(1820). THOMAS HUTCHINSON. The passages MR. FORD quotes under 2 from Wordsworth and Johnson may usefully be contrasted with Matthew Arnold's sonnet ' In Harmony with Nature,' the ethical thought of which is deeper and truer than theirs. There is in man a self - conscious principle which places him on an entirely different plane from Nature, and though he may learn some lessons from her he must not let her lead him blindly. " Fool, if thou canst not pass her, rest her slave !" C. C. B. Roos AND CROMWELL FAMILIES (9th S. iv. 229, 293, 346).—On the appearance of the first ?uery under the above heading (ante, p. 229), had the pleasure of sending direct to COL. MOORE—in addition to information embodied in his second query (ante, p. 346), and a pedigree showing the connexion between the Tateshale, Kirkton or Kirton, and Cromwell families—some notes taken from the Record Office' Calendar of Inquis. p.m.' By an Inqui- sition taken in 1329-30, it would appear that Joanna de Driby, one of the three sisters and coheirs of Robert de Tateshale, died