A Note on Wordsworth and VaughanAuthor(s): Muriel MorrisSource: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 39, No. 3 (Mar., 1924), pp. 187-188Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2915161 .

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CORRESPONDENCE 187

Arrache-moi mes voeux, remplis-moi de toi-m_me'; Mais, Fatime, a l'instant les traits de ce que j'aime, Ces traits chers et charmants, que toujours je revoi, Se montrent dans mon ame entre le ciel et moi.5

Mr. Moore's article is open to attack on at least two counts. His zest for source hunting inclines him to be satisfied with super- ficial resemblances and he forgets that the same theme may be handled romantically or realistically. It is the treatment and not the subject that may admit of labelling. If Mr. Moore were alone in his error I should not write this note.

BENJAMIN MATHER WOODBRIDGE. Reed College.

Zaire, Acte IV, sc. 1. iOther examples will occur to every rea-der. Friends have suggested the following: (IH. C. Lancaster) Racine, Phedre, 11. 283 ff.; (G. Chinard) Goethe, Fautst, Part I ll. 3794 ff. and 11. 4461; (H. E. Woodbridge) Pope, Eloisa to Abelard; (V. Chittick) H. A. Jones, Alicliael and htis Lost Angcl; G. Hauptmann, Thie fleretic of Soana; Hall Caine, The Christian; (S. G. Morley) Valora, Pepita Jimenez.-Cf. also, A. France, Th&ais, notably Part III, and the saints legends on which it is based; J. Delecluse, Mlile Justine de Liron, pp. 173-174 (Chefs-d'auvres m6conntus. 1923).

A NOTE ON WORDSWORTH AND VAUGHAN

In connection with Mr. Merrill's article, Vaughan's Influence upon Wordsworth's Poetry, in Mod. Lang. Notes for February, 1922, the following suggestions of relationship between the two poets may be of interest:-

Vaughan, Misery:' Lord, bind me up, and let me lie A pris'ner to my liberty, If such a state at all can be As an impris'nment serving Thee; The wind, though gather'd in Thy fist, Yet doth it blow still where it list, And yet shouldst Thou let go Thy hold Those gusts might quarrel and grow bold.

Wordsworth, Ode to Duty: 2 I, loving freedom, and untried; No spor't of every random gust, Yet being to myself a guide, Too blindly have reposed my trust: And oft, when in my heart was heard Thy timely mandate, I deferred The task, in smoother walks to stray; But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may. And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live!

I Henry Vaughan: Complete Poetical 1WJorks (edited by E. K. Chain- bers) .

2 William Wordsworth: Complete Poetical Works (edited by A. J. George).

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188 MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES

Vaughan, The Constellation: Fair order'd lights-whose motion without noise

Resembles those true joys Whose spring is on that hill, where you do grow,

And we here taste sometimes below,- With what exact obedience do you move

Now beneath, and now above.

Settle, and fix our hearts, that we may move In order, peace, and love;

And taught obedience by Thy whole creation Become an humble, holy nation!

Wordsworth, Ode to Duty: Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong. To humbler functions, awful Power! I call thee: I myself commend Unto thy guidance from this hour; Oh, let my weakness have an end!

In a short poem called Anguish, Vaughan writes: O! 'tis an easy thing

To write and sing; But to write triie, unfeignMd verse Is very hard! 0 God, disperse These weights, and give my spirit leave To act as well as to conceive!

O my God, hear my cry; Or let me die !-

This last line is used by Wordsworth in his poem The Rainbow: My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!

It is of course possible that the use of this line is a coincidence; but may it not be that the music of this poem of Vaughan's lin- gered in Wordsworth's thoughts? There is a similarity of metre, the prevailing line in each poem being iambic tetrameter, and there being an occasional trimeter or dimeter line.

MURIEL MORRIS. Wellesley College.

A SOURCE OF ANATOLE FRANCE: BENVENUTO CELLINI

Considerable work has been done on the sources of Anatole France's Rotisserie de la Reine Pe'dauque. The list of borrowings given by Michaut is imposing, but the resemblances are not always

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