No More Learning

[82] _Urania-Venus. _--An Italian poet has given the following
description of the celestial Venus--

_Questa e vaga di Dio Venere bella
Vicina al Sole, e sopra ogni altra estella
Questa e quella beata, a cui s'inchina,
A cui si volge desiando amore,
Chiamata cui del Ciel rara e divina
Belta che vien tra noi per nostro honore,
Per far le menti desiando al Cielo
Obliare l'altrui col proprio velo. _--MARTEL.


[83] See the note in the Second Book on the following passage--

_As when in Ida's bower she stood of yore, etc. _


[84] _The manly music of their tongue the same. _--Camoens says:

_E na lingoa, na qual quando imagina,
Com pouca corrupcao cre que he Latina. _

Qualifications are never elegant in poetry. Fanshaw's translation and
the original both prove this:

----_their tongue
Which she thinks Latin, with small dross among. _


[85] _i. e. _ helmet.

[86]---- _and the light turn'd pale. _--The thought in the original has
something in it wildly great, though it is not expressed in the happiest
manner of Camoens--

_O ceo tremeo, e Apollo detorvado
Hum pauco a luz perdeo, como infiado. _


[87] Mercury, the messenger of the gods. --_Ed.
_

[88] _And pastoral Madagascar. _--Called by the ancient geographers,
Menuthia and Cerna Ethiopica; by the natives, the Island of the Moon;
and by the Portuguese, the Isle of St. Laurence, on whose festival they
discovered it.

[89] _Praso. _--Name of a promontory near the Red Sea. --_Ed. _

[90] _Lav'd by the gentle waves. _--The original says, the sea showed
them new islands, which it encircled and laved. Thus rendered by
Fanshaw--

_Neptune disclos'd new isles which he did play
About, and with his billows danc't the hay. _


[91] The historical foundation of the fable of Phaeton is this. Phaeton
was a young enterprising prince of Libya. Crossing the Mediterranean in
quest of adventures, he landed at Epirus, from whence he went to Italy
to see his intimate friend Cygnus. Phaeton was skilled in astrology,
from whence he arrogated to himself the title of the son of Apollo. One
day in the heat of summer, as he was riding along the banks of the Po,
his horses took fright at a clap of thunder, and plunged into the river,
where, together with their master, they perished. Cygnus, who was a
poet, celebrated the death of his friend in verse, from whence the
fable. --Vid.