Part 2 (1/2)
[Note 5: _Callot, or Sadeler, or Paul Brill._ Jacques Callot was an eminent French artist of the XVII century, born at Nancy in 1592, died 1635. Matthaeus and Paul Brill were two celebrated Dutch painters.
Paul, the younger brother of Matthaeus, was born about 1555, and died in 1626. His development in landscape-painting was remarkable. Gilles Sadeler, born at Antwerp 1570, died at Prague 1629, a famous artist, and nephew of two well-known engravers. He was called the ”Phoenix of Engraving.”]
[Note 6: _d.i.c.k Turpin_. d.i.c.k Turpin was born in Ess.e.x, England, and was originally a butcher. Afterwards he became a notorious highwayman, and was finally executed for horse-stealing, 10 April 1739. He and his steed Black Bess are well described in W. H. Ainsworth's _Rookwood_, and in his _Ballads_.]
[Note 7: _The Trossachs_. The word means literally, ”bristling country.” A beautifully romantic tract, beginning immediately to the east of Loch Katrine in Perth, Scotland. Stevenson's statement, ”if a man of admirable romantic instinct had not peopled it for them with harmonious figures,” refers to Walter Scott, and more particularly to the _Lady of the Lake_ (1810).]
[Note 8: _I am happier where it is tame and fertile, and not readily pleased without trees_. Notice the kind of country he begins to describe in the next paragraph. Is there really any contradiction in his statements?]
[Note 9: _Like David before Saul_. David charmed Saul out of his sadness, according to the Biblical story, not with nature, but with music. See I _Samuel_ XVI. 14-23. But in Browning's splendid poem, _Saul_ (1845), nature and music are combined in David's inspired playing.
”And I first played the tune all our sheep know,” etc.]
[Note 10: _The sermon in stones_. See the beginning of the second act of _As You Like It_, where the exiled Duke says,
”And this our life exempt from public haunt Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones and good in everything.”
It is not at all certain that Shakspere used the word ”sermons” here in the modern sense; he very likely meant merely discourses, conversations.]
[Note 11: _Wuthering Heights_. The well-known novel (1847) by Emily Bronte (1818-1848) sister of the more famous Charlotte Bronte. The ”little summer scene” Stevenson mentions, is in Chapter XXIV.]
[Note 12: _A solitary, spectacled stone-breaker_. To the pedestrian or cyclist, no difference between Europe and America is more striking than the comparative excellence of the country roads. The roads in Europe, even in lonely and remote districts, where one may travel for hours without seeing a house, are usually in perfect condition, hard, white and absolutely smooth. The slightest defect or abrasion is immediately repaired by one of these stone-breakers Stevenson mentions, a solitary individual, his eyes concealed behind large green goggles, to protect them from the glare and the flying bits of stone.]
[Note 13: _Ashamed and cold_. An excellent example of what Ruskin called ”the pathetic fallacy.”]
[Note 14: _The foliage is coloured like foliage in a gale_. Cf.
Tennyson, _In Memoriam_, LXXII:--
”With blasts that blow the poplar white.”]
[Note 15: _Wordsworth, in a beautiful pa.s.sage_. The pa.s.sage Stevenson quotes is in Book VII of _The Prelude_, called _Residence in London_.]
[Note 16: _Cologne Cathedral, the great unfinished marvel by the Rhine_. This great cathedral, generally regarded as the most perfect Gothic church in the world, was begun in 1248, and was not completed until 1880, seven years after Stevenson wrote this essay.]
[Note 17: _In a golden zone like Apollo's._ The Greek G.o.d Apollo, later identified with Helios, the Sun-G.o.d. The twin towers of Cologne Cathedral are over 500 feet high, so that the experience described here is quite possible.]
[Note 18: _The two hall-fires at night_. In mediaeval castles, the hall was the general living-room, used regularly for meals, for a.s.semblies, and for all social requirements. The modern word ”dining-hall” preserves the old significance of the word. The familiar expression, ”bower and hall,” is simply, in plain prose, bedroom and sitting-room.]
[Note 19: _a.s.sociation is turned against itself_. It is seldom that Stevenson uses an expression that is not instantly transparently clear. Exactly what does he mean by this phrase?]
[Note 20: ”_As from an enemy_.” Alluding to the pa.s.sage Stevenson has quoted above, from Wordsworth's _Prelude_.]
[Note 21: _Our noisy years did indeed seem moments_. A favorite reflection of Stevenson's, occurring in nearly all his serious essays.]
[Note 22: _Sh.e.l.ley speaks of the sea as ”hungering for calm.”_ This pa.s.sage occurs in the poem _Prometheus Unbound_, Act III, end of Scene 2.
”Behold the Nereids under the green sea-- Their wavering limbs borne on the wind like stream, Their white arms lifted o'er their streaming hair, With garlands pied and starry sea-flower crowns,-- Hastening to grace their mighty Sister's joy.
It is the unpastured sea hungering for calm.”]
[Note 23: _Whin-pods._ ”Whin” is from the Welsh _cwyn_, meaning ”weed.” Whin is gorse or furze, and the sound Stevenson alludes to is frequently heard in Scotland.]