political preferment after the publication of the second three books of the Faerie Queene. 67. 67. Somers-heat. Pun on Somerset. 68. 132. Bricky towres. The group of buildings by the Thames called The Temple, formerly headquarters of the Knights Templar, now given over to lawyers. 137. A stately place. Essex House, formerly residence of the Earl of Leicester, an early patron of Spenser's, who had died in 1588. 147. Dreadfull . . . thunder. Alluding to the sack of Cadiz in 1596 by the Earl of Essex. 148. Hercules two pillors. Rocky eminences on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar. daring mixture of things celestial with things mundane." (Schelling.) 79. 9. Palmer. Originally a pilgrim who had been to Jerusalem and had brought back a palm-branch as a token; later applied to professional pilgrims, who spent their whole time travelling from one shrine to another. 80. 42. Angels. A pun on the use of the word as the name of a coin. THE CONCLUSION Found in Raleigh's Bible after his death; said to have been written the night before his execution. SOUTHWELL: THE BURNING BABE Drummond of Hawthornden in his notes records that Ben Jonson said that "so he had written that piece of his (Southwell's), The Burning Babe, he would have been content to destroy many of his." SHAKESPEARE: HARK, HARK! THE LARK 82. Compare the second of Lyly's songs, p. 77. FEAR NO MORE Dirge sung over the body of the supposedly dead Imogen, disguised as a boy, Fidele. CAMPION: WHEN THOU MUST HOME 83. Bullen (Lyrics from Elizabethan Song Books) remarks that for romantic beauty this can hardly be matched outside the sonnets of Shakespeare. CHERRY-RIPE Cherry-ripe" was the cry of street venders of cherries. 84. " BEN JONSON: TO THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED MASTER, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 87. Prefaced to the First Folio edition of Shakespeare's works, 1623. 20. Chaucer, Spenser, Beaumont. All buried in Westminster Abbey. Beaumont, Sir Francis Beaumont, the dramatist, who died a few weeks before Shakespeare. 29, 30. Lyly, Kyd, Marlowe. Immediate predecessors of Shakespeare in the English drama. 32. Seek for names. Search critically for the names of dramatists with whom to compare Shakespeare; only the greatest names will do. 33, 34. Eschylus, Euripides, Sophocles. Greek writers of tragedy, of the fifth century B. C. 35. Pacuvius, Accius. Latin writers of Him of Cordova. Seneca, the Stoic Likewise representative of comedy, since the thin-soled soccus was worn in comedy. 88. 51. Tart Aristophanes. Most famous of Greek satirical dramatists; he wrote in the fifth century B. C. 52. Terence, Plautus. The best writers of Latin comedy, of the second century B. C. 71. Swan of Avon. Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-Avon. 77, 78. Rage or influence. A reference to the astrological belief that each planet exerted either a good or an evil power over the lives of men. 97. 1. This queen. Mary, elder sister of Elizabeth. 13. Praxiteles. A fondness for citing classical illustrations is one of Lyly's distinguishing characteristics. 67. As she hath lived forty years. 78. Tickle. Uncertain. 79. Twist. Small thread or piece of silk. 88. Like the bird Ibis. Reference to the so-called "unnatural natural history," most of which goes back to Pliny, is characteristic of Lyly and his Euphuistic imitators. 98. 117. Escapes. Mistakes. 133. Twice directed her progress unto 157. Admiration. Wonder. 97. Cut his mainsail and cast about. Spread his mainsail and come about"; i. e., turn in an opposite direction. 100. On his weather bow. Ahead of him, and to windward. 110. Sprang their luff, etc. Allowed the Revenge to get to windward of them. This action on the part of some Spanish vessels put the Revenge in the middle of the hostile fleet. 113. Answered. Justified. Took 122. High carged. Towering. 127. Luffing up. Turning towards the 134. Out of her chase. The guns in the bows of a ship would be the first used in a pursuit; the noun chase here means the bows. 105. 177. Admiral of the Hulks. Flagship of the transports. 185. Ship of Lime. So the original text; possibly a misprint for "Ship of the line," a warship of the first class. 191. A-dressing. Having his wounds dressed. 211. Composition. Terms of agreement. 245. But. Nothing but. 106. 356. Approved. Experienced. 372. Fly-boats. Small, swiftly sailing ships. 107. 384. Road. Roadstead; harbor. BACON OF TRUTH 107. 1. See John, xviii: 38. 3. There be that. There are those who. 17. One of the later school, etc. Probably a reference to the "New Academy." HERBERT: VIRTUE 120. 15. Coal. I. e., on the Day of Judgment. THE COLLAR 6. In suit. Suing for the favor of a superior. 8. Me. For me; an example of the socalled ethical dative. 22. The attempt to weave a rope of sand was a typical example of folly. CRASHAW: IN THE HOLY NATIVITY OF OUR LORD GOD She 122. 91 ff. She sings Thy tears asleep, etc. The stanza offers a typical example of a "conceit." It is thus explained by Schelling (Seventeenth Century Lyrics): "The Virgin sings to her babe until, falling asleep, his tears cease to flow. And dips her kisses in Thy weeping eye,' she kisses lightly his eyes, suffused with tears. Here the lightness of the kiss and the over-brimming fullness of the eyes suggest the hyperbole and the implied metaphor, which likens the kiss to something lightly dipped into a stream. spreads the red leaves of thy lips,' i. e., kisses the child's lips, which lie lightly apart in infantile sleep, and which are like rosebuds in their color and in their childish undevelopment. 'Mother-diamonds' are the eyes of the Virgin, bright as diamonds and resembling those of the child. Points' are the rays or beams of the eye, which, according to the old physics, passed, in vision, from one eye to another. Lastly, the eyes of the child are likened to those of a young eagle, and the Virgin tests them against her own as the mother eagle is supposed to test her nestling's eyes against the sun." VAUGHAN: THE RETREAT 123. The idea of this poem suggests Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality, and it is probable that Wordsworth was influenced by Vaughan. MARVELL: HORATIAN ODE 124. Written in 1650 after Cromwell had returned from putting down a rising in Ireland. 125. 15. His own side. In 1647 the Puritan party was split between Independents and Presbyterians, the latter advocating the immediate disbanding of the army which was largely made up of Independents; Cromwell led the army to London, and forced the Presbyterians to yield. 17-20. An ambitious man makes no distinction between enemies (of an opposing party) and rivals (in his own party), and in the case of such a man ("with such") it is more difficult to restrain him than to oppose him. 41. Nature, that hateth emptiness. A variant of the well known phrase "Nature abhors a vacuum." 42. Allows of penetration less. Two bodies cannot occupy the same space. 47. Hampton. It was long believed that Cromwell connived at the flight of Charles from Hampton Court to Carisbrooke Castle in 1647. 57. He. The King. This fine passage has done much to keep the poem alive. 66. Assured the forced power. Made the Commonwealth secure. 69. A bleeding head. Pliny tells, in his Natural History (xxviii. 4), an anecdote of the finding of a head while workmen were digging on the Tarpeian hill for the foundation of a temple to Jupiter; the omen was interpreted as indicating a prosperous future for Rome. 82. In the republic's hand. to the Commonwealth's wishes. 86. A Kingdom. Ireland. Submissive 92. Heavy. I. e., with her prey. 126. 101, 2. Cromwell shall be to France what Cæsar was, to Italy what Hannibal was. 104. Climacteric. The force that brings about the result at a critical time. 106. Parti-colored. Variegated, i. fickle. There is a play on the word Pict, derived from " pictus," painted, applied to the ancient Celts who were accustomed to paint their bodies. e., 111. Lay . . . in. To send dogs into cover. DORSET: TO ALL YOU LADIES NOW AT LAND war. 127. "Written in 1665, when the author, at the age of twenty-eight, had volunteered under the Duke of York in the first Dutch It was composed at sea the night before the critical engagement in which the Dutch admiral Opdam was blown up, and thirty ships destroyed or taken. It may be considered as inaugurating the epoch of vers-de-societé." (E. Gosse, in Ward's English Poets.) 128. 27. Whitehall stairs. The royal palace of Whitehall was situated on the bank of the Thames. 44. A merry main. To throw a main was to cast dice in a game of chance. BROWNE HYDRIOTAPHIA The Urn-Burial sets out to be an historical account of the methods of dealing with the dead, but turns into a meditation upon the brevity and vanity of the life |