Mr. Pope delights in enumerating his illustrious guests.  Nor is this an exclusive privilege of the poet.  The Medici Palace at Florence exhibits a long and imposing catalogue.  “Semper hi parietes columnaeque eruditis vocibus resonuerunt.”

Another is also preserved at Chanteloup, the seat of the Duke of
Choiseul.

NOTE m.

Sheds, like an evening-star, its ray serene,

At a Roman supper statues were sometimes employed to hold the lamps.

—­Aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per aedeis,
Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris. 
LUCR. ii. 24.

A fashion as old as Homer!  Odyss. vii. 100.

On the proper degree and distribution of light we may consult a great master of effect.  Il lume grande, ed alto, e non troppo potente, sara quello, che rendera le particole de’ corpi molto grate.  Tratt. della Pittura di LIONARDO DA VINCI, c. xli.

Hence every artist requires a broad and high light.  Hence also, in a banquet-scene, the most picturesque of all poets has thrown his light from the ceiling.  AEn. i. 726.

And hence the “starry lamps” of Milton, that
         ....from the arched roof
         Pendent by subtle magic,....
         ......yielded light
As from a sky.  Paradise Lost, i. 726.

NOTE n.

Beyond the triumphs of a Loriot’s art.

At the petits soupes of Choisy were first introduced those admirable pieces of mechanism, afterwards carried to perfection by Loriot, the Confidente and the Servante; a table and a side-board, which descended, and rose again covered with viands and wines.  And thus the most luxurious Court in Europe, after all its boasted refinements, was glad to return at last, by this singular contrivance, to the quiet and privacy of humble life.  Vie privee de Louis XV. tom. ii. p. 43.

NOTE o.

So thro’ the vales of Loire the bee-hives glide,

An allusion to the floating bee-house, or barge laden with bee-hives, which is seen in some parts of France and Piedmont.

NOTE p.

And, with the swallow, wings the year away!

It was the boast of Lucullus that he changed his climate with the birds of passage.  PLUT. in Vit.  Lucull.

How often must he have felt the truth here inculcated, that the master of many houses has no home!

ODE TO SUPERSTITION. [Footnote 1]

I. 1.

Hence, to the realms of Night, dire Demon, hence! 
  Thy chain of adamant can bind
  That little world, the human mind,
And sink its noblest powers to impotence. 
  Wake the lion’s loudest roar,
  Clot his shaggy mane with gore,
  With flashing fury bid his eye-balls shine;
  Meek is his savage, sullen soul, to thine! 
  Thy touch, thy deadening touch has steel’d the breast, [Footnote 2]
  Whence, thro’ her April-shower, soft Pity smil’d;
  Has clos’d the heart each godlike virtue bless’d,
  To all the silent pleadings of his child. 
  At thy command he plants the dagger deep,
At thy command exults, tho’ Nature bids him weep!