(158) DELIA. SAMUEL DANIEL (158) Sonnet xlvii. (159) 12. Calends: the Calends were the first day of the month in the Roman calendar; hence the word came to be used as a general term in reckoning time. (159) Sonnet li. "This is again for the most part a mere adaptation from Desportes (Amours d'Hippolyte, lxxv): 'Sommeil, paisible fils de la nuict solitaire, O frère de la mort, que tu m'es ennemy!"-Sidney Lee. ¶ 7. their scorn: i. e., scorn for them. ¶ 11. approve prove. ¶ 13. embracing clouds: a glancing allusion to the story of Ixion, who embraced a cloud supposing it to be Juno. (159) THE CIVIL WARS. Book III, stanzas 64-77. The poem narrates the wars between the houses of York and Lancaster in their struggles for the throne of England; the selection describes the death of Richard II, who had been deposed in 1399, and was imprisoned by his successor, Henry IV, in Pomfret Castle, Yorkshire, where he was probably murdered in the same year. (160) 33. Diocletian: the Roman emperor, who abdicated in 305 A. D., and retired to country life. (161) 77. Marius' soldier: Marius, the Roman general, when his rival, Sulla, got the ascendency in 88 B. C., fled to the marshes at Minturnae, in Latium; here a Gallic trooper was sent to kill him, but quailed before the old general's eye and fled, crying out, "I cannot kill Caius Marius !" (162) 102. Doubting =fearing. (162) TO THE Lady Margaret, Countess of CUMBERLAND. (163) 22. Pompey: Pompey the Great was appointed, in 67 B. C., to rid the Mediterranean of pirates; in forty days he swept them from the seas. ¶23. he: not Pompey, but "he that of such a height hath built his mind" (1. 1). ¶24. must not be ill: i. e., must not be allowed to seem so. 132. wit-man's mind. ¶ 35. sits: i. e., as a judge on the bench. (164) 60. Full of: i. e., to be full of. ¶ 68. As they can: i. e., that they can; the clause is sequent to "so soundly fashioned" (1. 65). harsh. (165) 101, 102. dispense With-allow; cf. "grant a dispensation." ¶ 116. unkind ➡ (166) DAFFADIL. From The Shepherd's Garland, Eclogue IX. out, appeared. 17. seen looked (167) 21. keep: i. e., keep sheep. 23. Was: supply "who" as subject. ¶35. smirking-smiling. (168) IDEA. (168) Sonnet liii. 1. Ankor: a river in Warwickshire, where Drayton was born. 7. Arden: the forest of Arden, one of the old forests of England; some of it was still standing in Drayton's day. ¶ 13. Tempe: a vale of wonderful beauty in ancient Greece, famous in poetry; cf. "Prothalamion," ll. 79, 80, p. 87. ¶ 14. Helicon: a mountain in Greece, the fabled abode of the Muses; it contained the fountains Aganippe and Hippocrene, whose waters were supposed to give poetic inspiration. (169) THE BARONS' WARS. Book VI, stanzas 50-66. The subject of the poem is the war of the barons against Edward II, who reigned from 1307 to 1327; the selection describes his son's surprise and capture of Mortimer, Earl of March, the lover of the queen, who was entertaining him in the palace at Nottingham. ¶3. Cauples-horses (Latin "caballus," horse). 9. they: the king and his men. cave: a subterranean passage leading up into the palace. 17. cleeves: clefts, chasms. ¶ 19. for slow-hinder; literally, make slow. ¶23. Whose: the path's. (170) 36. As as if. ¶39. creeks turns, windings; akin to "crooks."¶44. estate= canopy. (171) 75. As=as if. ¶ 81. when then; a common use with Drayton. those sundry pictures: mural paintings in the chamber; in the preceding stanzas they have been described at length. devise = describe, talk about. ¶89. Phaëton: he attempted to drive the chariot of the sun, and the horses ran away with him, scorching heaven and earth; Jupiter finally struck him dead with a thunderbolt, and he fell to earth. (172) 97. over-forced-overdrawn. 98. that embrace: this refers to another picture, in which Phoebus was embracing the youth Hyacinth, whom he had just mortally wounded while playing at quoits. ¶ 112. secure free from care, unsuspecting. 113. Whilst meanwhile. ¶ 121. When then. Skiddaw's: Skiddaw is one of the highest mountains in England. cleeves cliffs. 122. haggard = a hawk or falcon. ¶ 123. teal . . . . mallard: kinds of duck. (173) HIS BALLAD OF AGINCOURT. Cambro-Britons = the Welsh; "Cambria" was the Roman name for Wales. The Welsh played a valiant part in the battle of Agincourt, which the poem celebrates. The battle was fought in 1415 by Henry V, who had invaded France in support of his claim to the French throne. (174) 41. Poitiers and Cressy: English victories over the French in 1356 and 1346. ¶50. vaward vanward, advance guard. ¶51. main-main army. (175) 82. bilbows swords; so named from Bilboa in Spain, famous for its swords. 194. besprent = besprinkled. (176) 113. Crispin's day: the day of St. Crispin, October 25. (176) POLY-OLBION. The end of the Fifteenth Song. Poly-Olbion="Greatly Happy" (Greek Toλú, much, oλßtov, happy), referring to Great Britain. Sub-title: "A Chorographical Description of Tracts, Rivers, Mountains, Forests, and other Parts of this renowned Isle of Great Britain, with intermixture of the most Remarkable Stories, Antiquities, Wonders, Rarities, Pleasures, and Commodities of the same; Digested into a Poem by Michael Drayton, Esq." The selection describes the course of the Thames from Oxford to Windsor, with mention of rivers that flow into it on the way. For a similar description of English rivers, see The Faerie Queene, IV, xi. ¶ 4. the forest: the royal forest of Windsor. empery emperorship. 15. wext=waxed, grown. ¶ 6. retch=strain apart. ¶7 grandsire Chiltern's: the Thames rises at the foot of the Chiltern hills. ¶9. holts woods; cf. German "holz," wood. (177) 30. quarries heaps of game. 31. solemn = festive; cf. note on Comus, l. 142, p. 489. 32. brave of splendid appearance. assays: a technical term for testing the fatness of the deer killed, and also for the parts of the deer where the test was made. ¶ 34. supremest place: Windsor Castle, the oldest part of which dates from the time of Edward III (d. 1377), and which has been a royal residence ever since. 35. The Garter's: the Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III about 1350. 137. temple of St. George: in Windsor Castle. 39. Eton: Eton College, on the opposite bank of the Thames, was founded in 1440. (177) NYMPHIDIA. Stanzas 11-22. (178) 16. stervèd = starved. 22. emmet's=ant's. 24. state-high station. ¶36. bloweth = blossometh. 38. may: the hawthorn flower; so named from the month in which it blossoms. 41. when then. (179) 49-72. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, I. iv. 53 ff. ¶ 52. letting hindrance. ¶ 60. lively -vivid, bright. limning = painting. ¶ 62. cover: canopy. gallantly gay. 63, pied = variegated. 73. within. ¶ 75. nice dainty, fastidious. (180) 95. bestow = behave. JOSEPH HALL "It is not for everyone to relish a true and natural satire, being of itself, besides the nature and inbred bitterness and tartness of particulars, both hard of conceit and harsh of style. For my satires themselves, I see two obvious cavils to be answered. One concerning the matter; than which, I confess, none can be more open to danger, to envy, since faults loathe nothing more than the light, and men love nothing more than their faults. ... The other concerning the manner; wherein, perhaps, too much stooping to the low reach of the vulgar, I shall be thought not to have any whit kindly raught [=reached] my ancient Roman predecessors, whom, in the want of more late and familiar precedents, I am constrained thus far off to imitate."-Postscript. (180) VIRGIDEMIARUM LIBRI SEX. "By "Virgidemia,' an uncouth and uncommon word, we are to understand a 'Gathering, or Harvest, of Rods,' with reference to the nature of the subject."-Thomas Warton. (180) Book I, Satire vi. The poem satirizes the contemporary attempts, in which Sidney, Spenser, and Gabriel Harvey had a part, to write English verse on a quantitative basis in imitation of Greek and Latin verse; the satirist had especially in mind Richard Stanyhurst's translation of parts of the Eneid into English hexameters in 1582. ¶ 1. Another: in the preceding satires other literary fashions of the day have been ridiculed. ¶5, 16. Hall is quoting, a little incorrectly, from Stanyhurst's robustious translation of the Æneid (i. 1 ff., and viii. 431, 432): Now manhood and garbroyls I chaunt, and martial horror. And coast of Lauyn; soust wyth tempestuous hurlwynd, Of ruffe raffe roaring, men's herts with terror agrysing, With peale meale ramping, with thwick thwack sturdelye thundring. garboils=tumults. 13. besets = suits. (181) Book III, Satire i. Cf. the sixth satire of Juvenal. ¶ 1-3. Saturn was an early Italian god, supposed to have taught men agriculture in the reign of Janus; his era was known as the age of gold; later he was identified wth the Greek god Chronos, whom Zeus overthrew. The reference to the mace of lead is due to the facts (1) that astrology thought of the planet Saturn as a cold and melancholy planet, because it was farthest from the sun, and (2) that alchemy associated the planet with the metal lead. 6. mast acorns. 7. Dodonian oaks: strictly the oak grove at Dodona, Epirus, famous for its ancient oracle of Zeus; but here the phrase is used for oaks of the early world in general 12. stored crab: the crab-tree, stored with apples. ¶13. delicious-loving delicacies. ¶ 17. honey-fall: the same as honey-dew, a sweet substance found in small drops on leaves, either exuded from the leaves or secreted by insects. ¶20. afford=allow. 23. vulgar the common man (Latin "vulgus," the mass of the people). ¶26. plaining complaining. scape-trick. ¶ 29. treen=trees. (182) 34. huswif'ry=housewifery. ¶ 43. nice = fastidious, over particular. ¶45. Wox grew. ween= think. 47. dight=arrayed (O. E. "dihtan," to arrange). 49. Thelis': Thetis was a sea-goddess. ¶ 50. fearful-timorous. 155. rife to gone easy to go to. 59. furnace: throat. 60. descry reveal. ¶ 65-68. Cf. Shakspere's satire on motley aping of foreign fashions of dress: "Nerissa. What say you, then, to Falconbridge, the young baron of England? . . . . Portia. How oddly he is suited! I think he bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his behaviour everywhere."-The Merchant of Venice, I. ii. 71-82. (183) 75. Husbanding it: playing the part of a husbandman, or tiller of the soil; the word goes with "Saturn's self" (1. 72), not with "undergroom." ¶ 76, 77. The sense is, Behold now (the days between having expired) the fulfilment of Merlin's old prophecy. ¶77. inspirèd Merlin's word: certain prophecies of uncertain date, written in Latin, were attributed to Merlin, the wizard of the legendary King Arthur's court. JOHN MARSTON (183) THE SCOURGE OF VILLAINY. Satire VII. 1-16, 100-22, 160-79. "Know, I hate to affect too much obscurity and harshness, because they profit no sense. To note vices so that no man can understand them is as fond as the French execution in picture. Yet there are some (too many) that think nothing good that is so courteous as to come within their reach, terming all satires bastard which are not palpable dark, and so rough writ that the hearing of them read would set a man's teeth on edge. . . . . Persius is crabby because ancient, and his jerks (being particularly given to private customs of his time) dusky. Juvenal (upon the like occasion) seems to our judgment gloomy. Yet both of them go a good seemly pace, not stumbling, shuffling. Chaucer is hard even to our understandings: who knows not the reason? how much more those old satires which express themselves in terms that breathed not long even in their days. But had we then lived, the understanding of them had been nothing hard. I will not deny there is a seemly decorum to be observed, and a peculiar kind of speech for a satire's lips, which I can willinglier conceive than dare to prescribe; yet let me have the substance rough, not the shadow. I cannot, nay, I will not delude your sight with mists; yet I dare defend my plainness against the verjuiceface of the crabbed'st satirist that ever stuttered."-Preface. (183) 1. Cf. Richard III, V. iv. 7: "A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!" ¶2. currish, mad Athenian: an allusion to Diogenes, the Cynic philosopher, who lived many years in Athens; it is reported that he went about the streets with a lantern by daylight, searching for a true man. currish: the Cynics were so called because of their snarling ill-nature (Greek kúwv, dog). ¶4. Circe's charm: see extract from the Odyssey in prefatory note to Comus, p. 487. ¶6. Samian saws: Samos was the birthplace of Pythagoras, of the sixth cen. tury B. C., who taught that the souls of men at death went into the bodies of the lower animals. saws wise sayings. 14. Ignes fatui="false lights," will-o'-the-wisps. ¶ 15. rats of Nilus: in Egypt the rat was deified; the thought seems to be that these so-called men are as unreal as such false, imaginary gods. ¶ 16. Colosses: here used as a term for giants of incredible size. 18. Mavortian: soldier (Latin “Mavors," an appellation of Mars). ¶ 20. slops: loose breeches. (184) 25. great man's head: apparently the name of a tavern. ¶ 26. Brill: Brielle, a seaport in Holland; it was "one of the cautionary towns pledged to the English crown by the states of Holland" (Bullen), and English troops were stationed there. ¶27. 'Que va la ? sounds, que?': "Who goes there? zounds, who?" ¶ 28. transformed poniard to: i. e., poniard transformed to. ¶ 29. drawer: tavern servant, who draws and serves the liquor. ringo-root: "Sink of lechery."-Bullen. ¶30. bumbast=bombast, padded. ¶32. Westphalian: Westphalia, a German duchy, was already famous for its hams. gammon - ham. clove-stuck face: covered with pimples, like a ham stuck over with cloves? ¶34. Switzers': Swiss soldiers let themselves out so much to various states as mercenaries that "Switzer" came to be used for "mercenary." ¶ 41. badgèd=having a badge, or coat-of-arms. ¶47. surphuled = surfeled; to surfel is to wash the face with a cosmetic made of sulphur.¶48, 49. under one hood, Two faces: an old saying, satirizing the hypocrisy of monks. ¶51. Janus' brow: the old Roman god Janus, the god of beginnings (cf. "January"), was represented as having two faces, one looking into the past, the other into the future. ¶ 54. busk: a strip of whale-bone or other elastic material, worn in the front of a corset. verdingal=farthingale, hoop-skirt. ¶57. rebato: a ruff for the neck. ¶58. intellectual: intellectual part. niceness=fastidiousness. THOMAS DEKKER (185) O SWEET CONTENT. From The Patient Grissell, I. i. (Latin "crispare," to curl). (185) LULLABY. From the same, IV. ii. ¶ 11. crispèd=rippled (186) O Sorrow, SORROW. From The Noble Spanish Soldier; it is not certain that the play is by Dekker. ¶4. furier: more like a fury's. BEN JONSON "I could never think the study of wisdom confined only to the philosopher, or of piety to the divine, or of state to the politic; but that he which can feign a commonwealth (which is the poet), can gown it with counsels, strengthen it with laws, correct it with judgments, inform it with religion and morals, is all these. We do not require in him mere elocution, or an excellent faculty in verse, but the exact knowledge of all virtues and their contraries, with ability to render the one loved, the other hated, by his proper embattling them. .... Poetry and picture are arts of a like nature, and both are busy about imitation. It was excellently said of Plutarch, poetry was a speaking picture, and picture a mute poesy; for they both invent, feign, and devise many things, and accommodate all they invent to the use and service of nature. Yet of the two the pen is more noble than the pencil, for that can speak to the understanding, the other but to the sense. They both behold pleasure and profit as their common object; but should abstain from all base pleasures, lest they should err from their end, and, while they seek to better men's minds, destroy their manners [= morals]. They are both born artificers, not made; nature is more powerful in them than study. . . . . Some words are to be culled out for ornament and color, as we gather flowers to strew houses or make garlands; but they are better when they grow to our style as in a meadow, where, though the mere grass and greenness delights, yet the variety of flowers doth heighten and beautify. . . . . We must express readily and fully, not profusely. There is difference between a liberal and prodigal hand. As it is a great point of art, when our matter requires it, to enlarge and veer out all sail, so to take it in and contract it is of no less praise when the argument doth ask it. Either of them hath their fitness in the place. The congruent and harmonious fitting of parts in a sentence hath almost the fastening and force of knitting and connection, as in stones well squared, which will rise strong a great way without mortar. . . . . As we must take the care that our words and sense be clear, so, if the obscurity happen through the hearer's or reader's want of understanding, I am not to answer for them, no more than for their not listening or marking; I must neither find them ears nor mind."-Jonson's Timber, or Discoveries Made upon Men and Matter, 1641. sions. (186) QUEEN AND HUNTRESS, CHASTE AND FAIR. From Cynthia's Revels, V. iii. (188) 39. whence 't is born: an allusion to the fable that Aphrodite arose from the foam of the sea. ¶44. prove experience. ¶52. different = differing, having a difference, either with love or with each other. ¶ 63-65. The figure is evidently based upon the description of the temptation of Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple; see Matt. 4:5, 6. steep desire: “A precipitous desire, a desire into which a man casts himself headlong."-Professor Kittredge. 69. Luxury = lust. (189) 74. Turtles: turtle doves. die: a term for feeling the ecstacy of love. ¶ 79. doubt fear. fame: rumor, scandal. 92. phoenix' love: there was supposed to be only one phoenix in existence at a time; hence it came to stand for anything unique, especially for the uniquely excellent. 194. Would make: supply "which" as subject. 101. feature=form, shape (M. E. "feture," old French "faiture," Latin "factura," formation); cf. "body.” 1. 99. 104. only: to be taken with "on him," l. 105. (190) 115. sense: senses. ¶ 116. securely without care, without apprehension (Latin "se," without, "cura," care). (190) SONG TO CELIA. From Volpone, or the Fox, III. vi. ¶ 1-8. A translation of Catullus, v. 1-6; cf. "My Sweetest Lesbia, Let Us Live and Love," ll. 1-6, p. 139. ¶ 10. toys-trifles. (190) WITCHES' Charm. From The Masque of Queens. “The part of the scene which first presented itself was an ugly hell, which, flaming beneath, smoked unto the top of the roof. These witches, with a kind of hollow and infernal music, came forth from thence, first one, then two and three, and more, till their number increased to eleven, all differently ... |