103. Humorous stage

Stage on which are exhibited the humors of mankind, that is, according to the Elizabethan usage, their whims, follies, caprices, odd manners.

140-144. We may illustrate the preceding passage by some striking lines of Tennyson:

"Moreover something is or seems,
That touches me with mystic gleams,
Like glimpses of forgotten dreams;

Of something felt, like something here;
Of something done, I know not where;
Such as no language may declare."

163. That immortal sea. Sea of immortality. As Wordsworth pictures the human soul drifting across the ocean of eternity to be tossed in its human birth upon the shore of earth, so Longfellow, in his legend of Hiawatha," has pictured the soul drifting out again in death into the ocean sunset.

183. In the soothing thoughts that spring. — Cf. :

WORDSWORTH'S LAODAMIA. Page 369

This poem is one of the few instances in which Wordsworth has chosen a classic theme. Though he profoundly admired Virgil, and translated the first books of the " Æneid," he regarded classical revivals for the most part as idle dilettanteism, and pronounced Keats's “Hyperion” “a pretty piece of paganism." The present poem is one of the very few of Wordsworth's productions which can be fairly called dramatic, although even in this the modern reflective spirit triumphs over dramatic classicism.

Laodamia was the daughter of Acastus, son of Peleus, king of Iolcus, on the seacoast of Thessaly. Her father was one of the Argonauts, who accompanied Jason in his quest of the golden fleece. She was the wife of Protesilaus, and on her husband's voluntary death at Troy, bewailed him with such constant affection that the gods allowed Protesilaus to revisit the upper world. She died heartbroken when her husband was recalled to the shades.

See a fine criticism of the poem in Landor's "Imaginary Conversations,” vol. i., “Southey and Porson." One or two blots there pointed out were removed by Wordsworth in subsequent editions. It is noticeable that Wordsworth himself said, "It cost me more trouble than almost anything of equal length I have ever written."

1. The first edition of this stanza ran thus:
:-

"With sacrifice before the rising morn

Performed, my slaughtered lord have I required;
And in thick darkness amid shades forlorn,

Him of the infernal gods have I required."

Sacrifices to the gods of the lower world were most properly made before daybreak. There is a striking description of such a sacrifice made by Medea to Hecate in the "Jason" of Mr. Morris.

15. Her hero..

Protesilaus was a Thessalian chief who devoted himself to the death prophesied by the Delphic oracle to him who should first touch the Mysian shore. He was accordingly the first Greek slain in the Trojan war, and fell by the hand of Hector.

28. Cf. Virgil's " Æneid," ii. 794; Homer's "Iliad," xxiii. 99. Also Dante's meeting with Casella, as described in the second canto of "Purgatory," Cary's translation.

65. Conscious Parca. The Parcæ were three goddesses who presided over human life in its various phases. They are severally represented as spinning, assigning, and cutting the thread of human life. 66. A Stygian hue. — The Styx was the principal river of the lower world, which it encircled. "Stygian" is thus put generally for "of the lower world." 66 Stygian hue,"—"paleness or livid color," natu

rally assigned to the victims of “pallida mors."

Dante represents himself as rendered deathly white by his passage through hell, and has his natural color restored by Virgil bathing his face in the morning dew. Cf. "Purgatory," canto ii.

The

80. Guardian monster. - Cerberus, the three-headed dog which guarded the entrance to hell on the farther side of the Styx. last of the twelve labors imposed on Hercules by Eurystheus was that of bringing Cerberus from the lower world. Hercules, accompanied by Hermes and Athene, not only performed the required task, but brought back to the upper world Alcestis, the wife of Admetus, whose life had been prolonged at the price of Alcestis' voluntary death.

The subject forms one of Euripides' plays, and has been recently treated by Mr. Browning in "Balaustion," and Mr. Morris in his "Earthly Paradise."

83. Medea's spells. — Laodamia would naturally recur to Medea, since Acastus, the father of Laodamia, had driven Medea and Jason from Iolcus in consequence of the sorceress having faithlessly persuaded the sisters of Acastus to cut up their father, Pelias, and boil him, in order that he might regain his youth. Æson, the father of Jason and the half-brother of Pelias, was actually, it was said, restored to youth by Medea.

120. At Aulis lay enchained. Aulis was a harbor at the mouth of the river Euripus, in Bœotia, where the Greek fleet assembled previous to their voyage against Troy. The fleet was unable to sail on account of a calm sent by Artemis, whom Agamemnon had offended. The goddess was, however, appeased by Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia. The story is told by Euripides, Racine, and

Goethe.

158. The first version ran:

"Ah! judge her gently who so deeply loved!
Her who in reason's spite yet without crime
Was in a trance of passion thus removed,
Delivered from the galling yoke of time

And these frail elements, to gather flowers
Of blissful quiet 'mid unfailing bowers."

173. At the sight. - At the sight of the spot where Protesilaus had

died, and which was the cause of his wife's sorrows.

INDEX

Analysis, Guide, Explanation of, 12, Chase in the English Channel (text

For study of a prose selection, 84. Cooper, James Fenimore, Sketch of,

Elegy, Gray's (text of), 224.

Questions on, 38.

Escape on the Cliffs (text of), 278.

Essays on General Topics, 139.

On special topics, 140.

Footsteps of Angels (text of), 157.
For A' That and A' That (text of), 257.
French Camp, Incident of (text of), 65.
Frost Spirit (text of), 175.

Goblet of Life (text of), 155.
Goldsmith, Oliver, 144, 183, 382.

Selections from, 186-212.
Gray, Thomas, 144, 222.

Selection from, 224.

Hastings, Warren,Trial of (text of), 128.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 145, 229.

Selections from, 231-245.

Hesperus, Wreck of the (text of), 8.
Guide analysis of, 8.

As a model, 7.

Questions, 15.

Highland Mary (text of), 258.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 145, 261.

Selections from, 263–268.

Huskers (text of), 178.

Irving, Washington,

Selections from, 88, 163–172.

Ivry, Battle of (text of), 80.

Jeanie Deans's Plea (text of), 272.

Lady Clare (text of), 49.

Questions on, 52.

Laodamia (text of), 369.
Last Leaf (text of), 264.
Lexington (text of), 266.
Lines on a Portrait (text of), 177.
Literature in general, 1.

English, study of, 2.

Books useful to students of, 385.
Class exercises in, 87.

Miscellaneous subjects in, 376.
Monument of, 383.

Outline course in, 135.

Syllabus of a course in, 142.

Little Annie's Ramble (text of), 231.
Lochinvar (text of), 71.

Longfellow, Henry W., 143, 149.
Outline of life, 15.

Selections from, 8, 31, 151-159.

Lord of Burleigh (text of), 55.

Guide analysis of, 54.

Lord Ullin's Daughter (text of), 43.

Hymn to the North Star (text of), 217. Lotus-eaters (text of), 294.

Inchcape Rock (text of), 16.

Lowell, James Russell, Sketch of, 391.

Selection from, 72.

Intimations of Immortality (text of), Lycidas (text of), 351.

363.

Irving, Washington, 143, 160.

Questions on, 96.

Macaulay, Lord, Sketch of, 392.

Selections from, 80, 128.