Verses and Notes (Inscriptions by Turner)

Written with the sketchbook inverted, Turner’s inscriptions read:

These texts are based on Alexander Pope. The first is from a passage in Windsor Forest (1713) in which Pope associates history, heraldry and art. In the original poem, ‘Monarchs chain’d, and Cressi’s glorious field’ refer to David II, King of Scotland, taken prisoner at the Battle of Neville’s Cross and King John of France, captured by Edward, the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers, both in 1356, and the Battle of Crécy, 1346; ‘lillies blazing’ are the lilies of England which Edward III quartered with the leopards of France when he assumed the title of King of France; and ‘Verrio’s colours’ are the paintings by Antonio Verrio (1639–1707) of the Black Prince leading the French king into captivity, in St George’s Hall, Windsor, which were falling into decay. The second main passage is based on An Essay on Criticism (1711), and includes both a garbled version of Pope’s couplet alluding to the poet Homer, ‘He steered securely, and discovered far / Led by the light of Maeonian Star’, and of his addition to be inserted between lines 648–9, ‘He, whom all Nature has subdued before / Like his great pupil, sighed, and longed for more’.