I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee, 270 Thy image steals between my God and me, 280 While prostrate here in humble grief I lie, Rise Alps between us! and whole oceans roll! 290 Thy oaths I quit, thy memory resign; NOTES. Ver. 274. Priests, tapers, temples,] Equal to any part of Sappho's Ode, so celebrated by Longinus for an assemblage of striking circumstances. Fair eyes, and tempting looks, (which yet I view !) Oh Grace serene! oh Virtue heav'nly fair! Enter each mild, each amicable guest; 296 300 305 See in her cell sad Eloïsa spread, Here grief forgets to groan, and love to weep, NOTES. 315 Ver. 298. Low-thoughted Care!] An epithet from Milton's Comus. Ver. 303. See in her cell] It certainly should be near, not in her cell. The doors of all cells open into the common cloister, where are often many tombs. : Ver. 308. a hollow sound.] Though Virgil evidently gave the hint Hinc exaudiri voces et verba vocantis visa viri, 1. 4. p. 460; yet this call of some sister, that had been involved in a similar distress, appears more solemn and interesting. Thither, where sinners may have rest, I go, And smooth my passage to the realms of day: Suck my last breath, and catch my flying soul! Ah no-in sacred vestments mayst thou stand, 325 The hallow'd taper trembling in thy hand, 330 335 Present the Cross before my lifted eye, NOTES. Ver. 339.] These circumstances are conformable to the notions of mystic devotions. The death of St. Jerome is finely and forcibly painted by Dominichino, with such attendant particulars. Ver. 343. May one kind grave] This wish was fulfilled. The body of Abelard, who died twenty years before Eloïsa, was sent Then ages hence, when all my woes are o'er. NOTES. 345 to Eloïsa, who interred it in the monastery of the Paraclete; and it was accompanied with a very extraordinary form of absolution, from the famous Peter de Clugny: "Ego Petrus Cluniacensis abbas, qui Petrum Abelardum in monachum Cluniacensem recepi, et corpus ejus furtim delatum Heloissæ Abbatissæ et monialibus Paracleti concessi, auctoritate omnipotentis Dei, et omnium sanctorum, absolvo eum, pro officio, ab omnibus peccatis suis." (Epist. Abæl. et Heloiss. p. 238.) "Eloïsa herself (says Vigneul Marville, Melanges, t. ii. p. 55) solicited for this absolution; and Peter de Clugny willingly granted it. On what it could be founded, I leave to our learned theologists to determine. In certain ages opinions have prevailed for which no solid reason can be given." When Eloïsa died in 1163, she was interred by the side of her beloved husband. I must not forget to mention, for the sake of those who are fond of modern miracles, that when she was put into the grave, Abelard stretched out his arms to receive her, and closely embraced her. Madam de Rochefaucault, the late abbess of Paraclete, requested an inscription from the Parisian Academy of Belles Lettres in the year 1766 for the tomb of these celebrated lovers, which has been since put up by Madame de Roucy, her suc cessor: Hic Sub eodem marmore jacent Conditor Petrus Abelardus Nunc æterna, ut speramus, felicitate conjuncti. Heloissa 17 Maiæ 1163. Curis Carolæ de Rouci Paracleti Abbatissæ O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads, "Oh may we never love as these have lov'd!" Glance on the stone where our cold relics lie, 355 NOTES. Ver. 358. and be forgiv'n.] With this line it appears, at first sight, that the poem should have ended; for the eight additional verses, concerning some poet that might arise to sing their misfortunes, are rather languid and flat, and might stand, it should seem, for the conclusion of almost any story, were we not informed, as I have credibly been, that they were added by the poet in allusion to his own case, and the state of his own mind. For what determined him in the choice of the subject of this epistle, was the retreat of that lady into a nunnery, whose death he had so pathetically lamented in the foregoing elegy. Dr. Johnson's assertion does not seem to be true, that Eloïsa and Abelard found quiet and consolation in retirement and piety. I will just add, that many lines in this epistle are taken from various parts of Dryden, particularly the following ones: "A day for ever sad, for ever dear Now warm in love, now withering in the grave And own no laws but those which love ordains And Paradise was open'd in his face His diffus'd a venerable grace— eyes She hugg'd th' offender, and forgave th' offence- I come without delay; I come" And the two fine verses, 323 and 324, are certainly taken from Oldham on the death of Adonis : Kiss, while I watch thy swimming eye-balls roll, Watch thy last gasp, and catch thy springing soul! |