NOTES. 279 homer, where it is frequently used. L. 99. "sleek Panope"-a Nereid. Mr. Palgrave's note upon this passage is so lucid and scholarly that the Editor ventures to quote it entire. "The names of local deities in the Hellenic mythology express generally some feature in the natural landscape, which the Greeks studied and analysed with their usual unequalled insight and feeling. Panope represents the boundlessness of the ocean-horizon when seen from a height, as compared with the limited horizon of the land in hilly countries such as Greece or Asia Minor."-Notes to The Golden Treasury. L. 103. Camus-the river Cam; Mr. King having been a student in the University of Cambridge. L. 106. that sanguine flower inscribed with woe-the ancient poetical hyacinth, which, according to Professor Martyn on Virgil's Eclogues, is the Turkscap lily, the markings of which resemble the characters of the Greek cry of woe, "AI-AI." The idea is borrowed by Milton from Moschus, who says in his elegy to Bion-Νῦγ, ὑάκινθε, λάλει τὰ σὰ γράμματα, καὶ πλέον αϊ αἱ Βάμβαλε σοϊς πετάλοισι.-“Now, hyacinth, more than ever say Ai, Ai, and proclaim your inscribed sorrows!" L. 109. the pilot of the Galilean lake-St. Peter, the fisherman of Galilee and doorkeeper of Heaven. L. 128. the grim wolf-the Papal church. L. 132. Alpheus-a stream of Arcady which appears and disappears, like our river Mole, at various points of its course, and was supposed by the ancients to flow under the sea and join the fountain of Arethusa in Ortygia. The river-god Alpheus, according to the legend, loved and thus pursued the nymph Arethusa. L. 138. the swart-starthe dog-star, Sirius. L 159. moist vows,-commentators are divided as to the intention of the poet, some interpreting the phrase as tearful vows, vota lacrymosas; and others as watery vows, or vows relating to the sea. L. 160. Bellerus-a giant personification of Bellerium, the antique name for the Land's End. L. 161. The great Vision of the Guarded Mount. The Archangel Michael, the guardian of mariners, is said to have appeared on St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall, as also upon Mont St. Michel, a similar rock lying off the opposite coast of Finisterre. Namancos and Bayona, mentioned in the next line, are two places on the coast of Finisterre. Milton here implores the angel to look towards the Irish Channel, and pity the fate of his friend. L. 173. Him that walked the waves-a beautiful allusion to the miracle upon lake Tiberias, involving a subtle reference to the temporal loss by sea, and the spiritual salvation of his friend. L. 189. Doric lay-Warton observes that "this is a Doric lay because Theocritus and Moschus had respectively written a bucolic elegy on Daphnis and Bion." Page 42. "A SEA DIRGE" followed by "A LAND DIRGE." The Editor has here followed the sequence and repeated the titles given to these poems by Mr. Palgrave, who also quotes the following well-known criticism of Charles Lamb: "I never saw anything like this funeral dirge, except the ditty which reminds Ferdinand of his drowned father in the Tempest. As that is of the water, watery; so this is of the earth, earthy. Both have that intenseness of feeling which seems to resolve itself into the element which it contemplates. "THE QUIET LIFE"-said to have been written by Pope when he was only twelve years of age. Page 44. Page 51. "LIFE"-Lord Bacon. This, together with the five following poems, may be regarded as more or less versions of a well-known Greek epigram attributed by some to Poseidippus and by some to Plato Cornicus. Of the original Greek Mr. J. A. Symonds says, "it may take rank with the most elevated sonnets of modern literature." (Studies of Greek Poets, 1st Series, 1873.) The poem here given, by Lord Bacon, is interesting as the work of one who was a "mighty mouthed" master of prose. The figure of the Bubble is a lieu commun among Elizabethan writers. Page 58. "SWEET AND BITTER "-E. Spenser. Line 6. pill-peel, or husk. L. 8. sweet is moly-a fabled herb with fair white blossom, but a black root, said by Homer to have been given to Odysseus by Hermes as a countercharm against the arts of Circe. See Milton:-"That moly Page 72. That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave." Page 65. "SONG OF THE EMIGRANTS"-A. Marvel. This fine fragment is semi-political, semi-polemical, but abounding in rich imaginative colour. The emigrants are fictitious exiles from the intolerant court of Charles I. "THE FAITHLESS SHEPHERD"-Sir G. Elliot was father of the first Lord Minto, and held various offices under the crown. He was also distinguished as a Parliamentary orator. He died in 1777. Sir W. Scott warmly admired "The Faithless Shepherd," and speaks of it as "that beautiful pastoral song." Page 73. L. 9. keel-skim. "WINTER"-W. Shakespeare. Line 2. nail-a cow-horn. Page 76. "A SPRING IDYLL"-Sir H. Wotton. This Idyll is introduced by Walton in his 'Complete Angler' with these words—“I do easily believe that peace and patience, and a calm content, did cohabit in the cheerful heart of Sir H. Wotton, because I know that when he was beyond seventy years of age he made this description of a part of the present pleasure that possessed him as he sat quietly, in a summer's evening, on a bank a-fishing." Page 77. "L'ALLEGRO"-J. Milton. Of this ode and its companion, Mr. Palgrave observes:-"It is a striking proof of Milton's astonishing power, that these, the earliest pure Descriptive Lyrics in our language, should still remain the best in a style which so many great poets have since attempted. The Bright and the Thoughtful aspects of Nature are their subjects; but each is preceded by a mythological introduction in a mixed Classical and Italian manner. The meaning of the first is that Gaiety is the child of Nature; of the second, that Pensiveness is the daughter of Sorrow and Genius."-Notes to Golden Treasury. Line 2. of Cerberus and blackest midnight born. Some commentators read for Cerberus, Erebus, who according to Hesiod, married with his sister, Night; but the offspring of this union was not Melancholy, but Day and Æther. That Milton wrote and meant Cerberus is sufficiently proved by the allusion to his den, the "Stygian cave," usually placed on the further side of the Styx, at the spot where Charon landed the shades of the dead. L. 10. Cimmerian-the mythical Cimmerii of Homer dwelt in the farthest West, on the ocean, enveloped in perpetual mist and darkness. L. 67. tells his tale-tale, a technical word for numbering sheep. L. 80. cynosure, the polestar, or load-star. L. 132. Fonson's learned sock-the sock was a light shoe worn by the Roman comedians, as the buskin by the tragedians. L. 136. soft Lydian airs-Mr. Palgrave describes the Lydian as “a light and festive style of ancient music." Other commentators assign to it a soft and pathetic character. Milton seems to have conceived of it as sweet and soothing, neither gay nor melancholy. Page 82. "IL PENSEROSO." Line 18. Prince Memnon's sister. Memnon was an apocryphal King of Ethiopia, whom Homer makes an ally of the Trojans. He was the son of Tithonus and Aurora, and was killed by Achilles in revenge for the slaying of Antilochus. By a curious confusion of names, the later Greek travellers gave the name of Memnon to the broken colossus of Amenhotep III. at Thebes (see an able article on The Statue of Memnon in No. 276 of the Quarterly Review, April, 1875.) No mention of Memnon's sister occurs in any of the Classic writers; so that, as Dunster observes, "this lady is a creation of the poet." Line 19. starr'd Ethiop queen-Cassiope, queen of Ethiopia, who, having incurred the displeasure of the Nereids for claiming to surpass them in beauty, was by Perseus transported to heaven, where she became a constellation. Line 54. the Cherub contemplation—the Cherubs were the angels of Knowledge, the Seraphs, of Love. L. 59. Cynthia-the moon. Her chariot is sometimes represented drawn by dragons. L. 88. thrice-great Hermes-Hermes Trismegistus, the reputed author of a whole system of religious and philosophical literature written by the school of New Platonists, about the 4th century of our era. The New Platonists, identifying the Greek Hermes with the Egyptian Thoth, the patron Deity of Letters, regarded the latter as the original source of all knowledge-in fact as the embodied λóyosgave to him the name of Trismegistus; and affirmed that he was the teacher of Pythagoras and Plato. Inasmuch as the earliest ethical and religious treatises in the world are those of ancient Egypt, there is a certain basis of truth in this theory. L. 99. Thebes or Pelops' line-an allusion to the subject-matter of the tragedies of Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. L. 102. buskin'd stagesee note to line 132 of L'Allégro. L. 104. Musaus-a poet spoken of by Plato as an actual personage, but supposed by modern commentators to be mythical. L. 109. him that left half told-Chaucer, who left his "Squire's Tale" unfinished. Leigh Hunt says: "But why did Milton turn Cambus the Khan in to Cambuscan? The accent in Chaucer is never thrown on the second syllable."-Imagination and Fancy. L. 116. great bards-Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser are here alluded to. L. 123. frounced-Warton derives this word from the French froncer, to curb, wrinkle, or contract. L. 124. The Attic boy-Cephalus. L. 134. Sylvan, i. e. Silvanus, a Latin deity of woods and groves. Page 87. "ON MELANCHOLY-R. Burton. From that rare old treasurehouse of wit, humour, and learning, "The Anatomy of Melancholy." The fifth line of the fifth verse stands in the original "Rare beauties, gallant ladies, shine," which the Editor has, with much diffidence, ventured to print thus"Rare beauties, gallants, ladies, shine." Page 89. "MELANCOLIA"-F. Beaumont. Leigh Hunt who, with the single exception of Charles Lamb, had perhaps the nicest ear for Elizabethan poetry of any critic who ever lived, attributes these lines to Fletcher. Tradition gives them to Beaumont. 282 Page 91. NOTES. "LOVE AND DEATH"-7. Ford. From "The Broken Heart.” His plays were all published Of his life scarcely any particulars are known. between 1629 and 1639. Page 92. "SORROW-SONG"-S. Rowley. Of this writer we know no more than that he was one of the players in the service of Henry Prince of Wales. He appears in Henslow's list of authors. His best known production is a play called "The Spanish Writer," from which this song is taken. Page 93. "SLUMBER SONG"-J. Fletcher. From Valentinian, a joint production of Beaumont and Fletcher. L. Hunt ascribes these verses with great show of probability to Fletcher, certain of the lines being reproduced in his play "An Honest Man's Fortune." Page 101. "To APOLLO"-J. Lylye. Line 8. To Physic and to Poesy's king. Allusion is here made to Apollo as the father of Esculapius. He was also identified in later times with Paëon, the god of the healing art in Homer. Page 102. "TO BACCHUS"-F. Beaumont. Line 1. Lyaus-a Roman surname of Bacchus. Page 103. "HOLIDAY IN ARCADIA"-7. Shirley. Lines 13. and 14. Philomel, leave of Tereus' rape to tell. See preceding note to "The Nightingale' by R. Barnefield. L. 16. Thracian lyre-the lyre of Orpheus, which was given to him by Apollo, and from which he drew sounds so enchanting that the trees on Mount Olympus came down to listen to him. Page 104. "SONG OF A SATYR"-7. Fletcher. From Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess. Mr. Seward traces an imitation (which was possibly unconscious) in this song to Shakespeare's Song of a Fairy, (see p. 168;) whereupon Mr. R. Bell remarks, in the notes to his Songs of the Dramatists, that “a still closer imitation of Fletcher himself may be found in the Comus of Milton, which owes large obligations not only to the imagery and general treatment, but to the plan of the Faithful Shepherdess." Page 112. "TO ELIZABETH OF BOHEMIA"-Sir H. Wotton. Elizabeth, daughter of James I. and Anne of Denmark, married the Elector Palatine, afterwards the unlucky King of Bohemia. From the marriage of her youngest daughter with the Duke of Brunswick we derive the Georges and the Hanoverian line. Page 113. "THE ROSES IN CASTARA'S BOSOM"-W. Habington. This poet, described by Southey as "amiable and irreproachable," addressed all his verses to Castara, the lady whom he apparently courted long, and afterwards happily married. Castara's real name was Lucy, and she was a daughter of W. Herbert, first Lord Powis. Page 117. "TO ALTHEA"-Colonel Lovelace. Written literally in the prison to which he was twice consigned by the Puritan government. Having spent his whole fortune in the Royal cause, he died in great poverty A.D. 1658. Page 118. "BEAUTY CONCEALED❞—Sir F. Kinaston. A poem conceived in the costliest strain of hyperbole, at a time when the imagination of poets and speculators alike ran upon spice-islands, corals, pearls, and all the new found riches of the Spanish Main. Page 121. "SONETTO"-T. Lodge. Line 9. the Muses' quill-quill is here used in the sense of pipe, as for instance in Lycidas, "he touch'd the tender stops of various quills." L. 11. weed-garment. Page 126. "TO HIS LOVE: ON GOING A JOURNEY"-Dr. Donne. Professor Craik remarks of this poem that "somewhat fantastic as it may be thought, it is notwithstanding full of feeling, and nothing can be more delicate than the execution." Page 128. "TO LUCASTA"-Col. Lovelace. Lucasta is said to have been a Miss Lucy Sacheverel, who, hearing a false report of his death when gone "to the Wars," married another suitor. Page 129. "THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT"-M. Drayton. Verse 8. Line 6. besprent-besprinkled. The battle of Agincourt, in which a comparatively small English force under Henry V. defeated the Dauphin of France on French ground at the head of a large army, was fought on the 25th Oct. 1415. This martial lyric by the author of the Polyolbion (an elaborate descriptive and topographical poem in something like 100,000 lines,) is less known than it deserves to be. It breathes an ardent military and patriotic spirit which more than compensates for some defects of style, and which is too inadequately represented in our poetic literature. Thomas Heywood's almost forgotten play of King Edward IV. has the following short lyric on the same subject: "Agincourt, Agincourt! know ye not Agincourt? Where the English slew and hurt All the French foemen? With our guns and bills brown Oh, the French were beat down, Page 132. "SIR PATRICK SPENCE"-Anonymous. It seems to be an open question whether this poem be old or modern, The best authorities hold quite opposite opinions on the matter. Mr. Motherwell considers that it records "the fate of certain Scottish nobles who accompanied Margaret, daughter of Alexander III. of Scotland, to her nuptials with Eric king of Norway, and were drowned on their homeward voyage." This event happened A.D. 1285. Line 1. The King sits in Dunfermline town. There was a palace of the Scottish kings at Dunfermline, on the N. side of the Frith of Forth. Line 3. skeely-skilly, or skilful. L.9. Braid-open, or patent. L. 13. To NorowayNorway. L. 25. hadna-had not. L. 26. twae-two. L. 29. goud-gold. L. 30. fee-dowry. L. 44. gurly-rough. L. 45. gude-good. L. 54. aneL. 59. wap-wrap; i. e. to stop a gap. L. 60. letna-let not. L. 66. shoon-shoes. L. 68. aboon-above. L. 71. or ere-or ever, i. e. before. L. 77. Aberdour-Aberdour is a little port about five miles distant from Dunfermline, now a favorite watering-place. So dangerous to mariners is all this part of the entrance to the river Forth that, according to Percy, it was called De mortuo Mari. one. Page 135. "BURD HELEN"-Anonymous. "Adam Fleming, says tradition, loved Helen Irving, or Helen Bell (for this surname is uncertain, as well as the date of the occurrence) daughter of the Lai1 of Kirconnel in Dur shire. |