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. 85. The full title runs To the Cambro-Britons and their Harp His Ballad of Agincourt. Cambro-Britons-Welsh, who fought valiantly in the battle. Henry V, invading France to make good his claim to the French throne, in 1415 won the battle of Agincourt from a French army four times as numerous as his own. 41. Poitiers, Cressy. Like Agincourt, battles of the Hundred Years' War, fought in 1356 and 1346 respectively, and like Agincourt, English victories against great odds. 45. Grandsire. John of Gaunt, son of Edward III. 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. EPITAPH ON SALATHIEL PAVY It was the custom of the choir boys of the Chapel Royal, of whom this small boy was one, frequently to entertain the Queen and court by acting before them; such children's companies were serious competitors of the adult companies; cf. Hamlet, II. ii. DONNE: SWEETEST LOVE, I DO NOT GO 89. This, one of the sweetest and most musical of Donne's poems, was probably addressed to his wife on the occasion of his leaving her for a trip to France. BEAUMONT: ON THE TOMBS IN WESTMINSTER 90. 5. The relative is omitted. 9. Acre. I. e., God's acre; grave yard. FLETCHER: SWEETEST MELANCHOLY Milton is supposed to have obtained from this lyric suggestions for Il Penseroso. CARE-CHARMING SLEEP 91. Cf. Daniel's sonnet, p. 72. 5. Sweet. So read the early editions; it should perhaps be light. SONG TO BACCHUS 1. Lyæus. A name for Bacchus. WEBSTER: A DIRGE "I never saw anything like this funeral dirge except the ditty which reminds Ferdinand of his drowned father in The Tempest [cf. p. 83]. 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." (Charles Lamb.) HARK, NOW EVERYTHING IS STILL From The Duchess of Malfi, where it is sung, with great dramatic effect, just before the heroine of the play is strangled. 17. Full tide. There may be a reference here to the popular belief that sick people usually died at the turning of the tide. So Falstaff " parted... even at the turning of the tide," Henry V, II. iii. BROWNE: ON THE COUNTESS DOWAGER OF PEMBROKE 3. Sidney's sister. It was to this lady, Mary Sidney, later Countess of Pembroke, that Sir Philip Sidney dedicated his Arcadia. Pembroke's mother. The third Earl of Pembroke, a minor poet, to whom, with his brother, the first folio of Shakespeare was dedicated, was the Countess's son. This epitaph, delicate and chastely beautiful, has been erroneously ascribed to Ben Jonson. There is a second and inferior stanza, which may not be by the same hand. NORTH THE DEATH OF CESAR 92. 69. The first Brutus. Lucius Junius Brutus, who led the revolt expelling the Tarquins from Rome. 72. Marcus Cato. Cato Uticensis, the staunch republican who committed suicide at Utica on hearing of Pompey's de feat by Cæsar at Pharsalia. 93. 132. Element. Sky. 166. Preventing. Anticipating. 95. 436. Forms. Benches. 96. 499. Journey. Day. LYLY QUEEN ELIZABETH 97. The text is based on Bond's edition, vol. II., pp. 206 f.; spelling and punctuation have been modernized. 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. 99. 202. The curses of the Pope. "Pius V.'s bull of excommunication and deposition, issued Feb. 25, 1570, was found nailed on the Bishop of London's door, May 15." (Bond, II. 535.) 251. Bound the crocodile to the palm tree. "A way of saying made Egypt a field for his victories.'" (Bond, II. 535.) RALEIGH THE LAST FIGHT OF THE REVENGE The text is based on Arber's Reprint; spelling and punctuation are modernized. The battle be103. 3. This late encounter. tween the Revenge and the Spanish fleet began 10 September, 1591. The pamphlet describing it appeared the same year. 29. The year 1588. The year when the great Armada was destroyed. 41. The last of August. Old style; 10 September, new style. 57. Recover. Obtain. 58. All pestered and rummaging. The ships were encumbered with badly stowed gear. 104. 88. Weigh their anchors. Hoist their anchors on board. Slip the cables means to cut loose from the mooring. 94. Recovered the wind. Got to windward of the Spanish fleet; an advantageous position for either fighting or running 105. 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. 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. I. 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 f. 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. 125. 23. Cæsar's. Charles the First's. 29. His private gardens. Until the out Cromwell had 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 was interpreted as indicating a prosperous future for Rome. omen 82. In the republic's hand. 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, 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., III. Lay... in. To send dogs into cover. DORSET: TO ALL YOU LADIES NOW AT LAND 127. "Written in 1665, when the author, at the age of twenty-eight, had volunteered under the Duke of York in the first Dutch war. 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 |