Keats has, no doubt, in his mind Titian's
picture of Bacchus and Ariadne in the
National
Gallery.
Keats
_wreathed tomb_, l. 38.
l. 47. _gordian_, knotted, from the famous knot in the harness of
Gordius, King of Phrygia, which only the conqueror of the world was to
be able to untie. Alexander cut it with his sword. Cf. _Henry V_, I. i.
46.
l. 58. _Ariadne's tiar._ Ariadne was a nymph beloved of Bacchus, the god
of wine. He gave her a crown of seven stars, which, after her death, was
made into a constellation.
Keats has, no doubt, in his mind Titian's
picture of Bacchus and Ariadne in the
National
Gallery.
Cf. _Ode to
Sorrow_, _Endymion_.
PAGE 7. l. 63. _As Proserpine . . . air._ Proserpine, gathering flowers
in the Vale of Enna, in Sicily, was carried off by Pluto, the king of
the underworld, to be his queen. Cf. _Winter's Tale_, IV. iii, and
_Paradise Lost_, iv. 268, known to be a favourite passage with Keats.
