And on his shoulder flings and bears away,
As sometimes wolf a little lamb will bear,
Or eagle in her crooked claws convey
Pigeon, or such-like bird, through liquid air.
Stanza xx. lines 1, 2, 3, 4.
So Virgil,
Qualis ubi aut leporem aut candenti corpora cygnum
Sustulit, alta petens, pedibus Jovis armiger uncis
Quæsitum aut matri multis balatibus agnum
Martius a stabulis rapuit lupus.
Æneid ix.
To Italy and France, &c.
Stanza xxiv. line 1.
There is a propriety observed in this order of words; as in fact the use of artillery did (I believe) spread from the Germans immediately to the Italians, the Venetians first making use of it near Chioza, or Chioggia, in their war with the Genoese.
And bombard, gun, &c.
* * * * * * *
This saker, culverine, or falcon hight.
Stanza xxiv. line 7, xxv. line 1.
Bombard was, properly speaking, a mortar: culverine, a long piece, which borrowed its denomination from the snake; and saker and falcon light artillery, so called from two species of the hawk.
