ble [painting]
Or dare to _draw his curtain_.
_Britannia's Pastorals_, ii. 2.
This curtain was not drawn by Apelles, but by Parrhasius, who lived
a full century before Apelles. The contest was between Zeuxis and
Parrhasius. The former exhibited a bunch of grapes which deceived the
birds, and the latter a curtain which deceived the competitor.
BRUYSSEL (_E. von_) says: "According to Homer, Achilles had a
vulnerable heel." It is a vulgar error to attribute this myth to
Homer. The blind old bard nowhere says a word about it. The story of
dipping Achilles in the river Styx is altogether post-Homeric.
BYRON. _Xerxes' Ships_. Byron says that Xerxes looked on his "ships by
thousands" off the coast of Sal'amis. The entire number of sails were
1200; of these 400 were wrecked before the battle off the coast of
Sepias, so that even supposing the whole of the rest were engaged, the
number could not exceed 800.--_Isles of Greece_.
_The Isle Teos_. In the same poem he refers to "Teos" as one of the
isles of Greece, but Teos is a maritime town on the coast of Ionia, in
Asia Minor.
CERVANTES. _Dorothea's Father_. Dorothea represents herself as Queen
of Micomicon, because both her father and mother were _dead_, but Don
Quixote speaks of him to her as _alive_.--Pt. I. iv. 8.
_Mambrino's Helmet_. In pt. I. iii. 8 we are told that the
galley-slaves set free by Don Quixote assaulted him with stones, and
"snatching the basin from his head, _broke it to pieces_." In bk. iv.
15 we find this basin quite whole and sound, the subject of a judicial
inquiry, the question being whether it was a helmet or a barber's
basin. Sancho (ch. 11) says, he "picked it up, bruised and battered,
intending to get it mended;" but he says, "I broke it to pieces," or,
according to one translator, "broke it into a thousand pieces." In
bk. iv. 8 we are told that Don Quixote "came from his chamber armed
_cap-a-pie_, with the barber's basin on his head."
_Sancho's Ass_. We are told (pt. I. iii. 9) that Gines de Passamonte
"stole Sancho's ass." Sancho laments the loss with true pathos, and
the knight condoles with him. But soon afterwards Cervantes says: "He
_[Sancho]_ jogged on leisurely upon his ass after his master."
_Sancho's Great-coat_. Sancho Panza, we are told, left his wallet
behind in the Crescent Moon tavern, where he was tossed in a blanket,
and put the provisions left by the priests in his great-coat (ch. 5).
The galley-slaves robbed hi
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