55. 318. Morpheus. God of sleep. 328. Blacke Plutoes griesly dame. Proserpine, wife of Pluto, king of the lower regions. 332. Gorgon. Demogorgon, one of the greatest of the infernal powers, whose name it was dangerous to utter. 333. Cocytus, Styx. Rivers of Hades. 348. Tethys. The ocean. 349. Cynthia. The moon. 352. Double gates. According to classical legend, true dreams, sent to men from the house of Sleep, issued forth through a door of horn; false dreams, through a door of ivory. Cf. 1. 393. Spenser substitutes silver for horn. 361ff. Note in this stanza the skilful suggestion of sense by sound. 56. 376. Dryer braine. Brain too dry or feverish. It was supposed that lack of moisture in the brain was the cause of fitful, dream-broken sleep. Stanza XLV. Archimago fashions one of his sprites into the likeness of Una, and by the aid of the false dream deceives the Red Cross Knight into believing Una false to him. In Canto II the Knight deserts Una and flees from Archimago's cabin. Meeting on his way a Saracen knight Sansfoy, with a beautiful lady, he kills the knight and takes the lady Duessa (Falsehood, though she is at present going under the name of Fidessa-Faith), as his companion. Una meanwhile has set forth in search of her knight, and has lost her way in a wood. 60. 167. Hagard hauke. A wild hawk. 168. Above his hable might. Beyond the limit of his strength. 172. He so disseized, etc. He, the dragon, being thus relieved of his great burden. 61. 186. His neighbour element. The earth. 187. The blustring brethren. Sometimes explained as the winds; possibly refers to both winds and sea, combining against the land. Take ven 189. Each other to avenge. 230. Him. The Knight. 62. 235. That great champion. Hercules, the occasion of whose death was the shirt poisoned by blood of the centaur Nessus. 267. Silo. The pool of Siloam. 269. Cephise (Cephissus) . . . Hebrus. Greek rivers. 278. Above his wonted pitch. Higher than usual. 66 63. 300. As eagle, fresh out of the ocean wave. Every ten years the eagle mounts to the circle of fire and thence plunges into the ocean, from which it emerges with fresh plumage." (Dodge.) 303. Eyas hauke. Newly fledged hawk. 337. Ne living wight, etc. Nor would any living person have promised him life. 64. 356. Engorged. This is the reading in edi tions of Spenser, but it makes no good sense; engorged means glutted with. May Spenser have intended engored-wounded. hence, aroused, infuriated (?) as in Faerie Queene, II. viii. 42: "As salvage bull, whom two fierce mastives bayt, When rancour doth with rage him once engore." 381. The warlike pledge. The shield. 65. 414. The crime of our first father's fell. The occasion of the crime, etc. 459. Her. Object of salutes. 465. He. The dragon. Himself. The knight. PROTHALAMION 66. The poem was written in honor of the approaching double marriage of the Ladies Elizabeth and Katherine Somerset, daughters of the Earl of Worcester, in 1596. It commemorates a visit made by the ladies, in barges on the river, to Essex House, residence of the Earl of Essex. 6-9. Discontent . . . empty shaddowes. A reference to Spenser's vain effort for 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. 152-3. Thine owne name .. same. Pun on the family name of the Earl of Essex-Devereux (Fr. heureux). 69. 173. Twins of Jove. Castor and Pollux, the constellation Gemini. 174. Bauldricke. The Zodiac. 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. 86. 82. Bilbows. Swords; the name comes from Bilboa, a Spanish town famous for the swords it made. 113. St. Crispin's day. October 25. 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. 35. Pacuvius, Accius. Latin writers of or soled boot, worn by actors in classical 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 born at Stratford-on-Avon. 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. 97. 1. This queen. Mary, elder sister of Elizabeth. 13. Praxitiles. A fondness for citing classical illustrations is one of Lyly's distinguishing characteristics. 67. As she hath lived forty years. "Actually, 47. The following words allude to the projected Anjou match, which in the autumn of 1579 she was known to favor; and reflect the general anxiety for an heir to the crown." (Bond, II. 534.) 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. 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.) SIDNEY THE DEFENCE OF POESY 100. 9. Mirror of Magistrates. A collection of tales published first in 1559, and with Sackville's famous Induction, in 1563. 34. Gorboduc. A play by Sackville and Norton, acted 1561, the first English blank verse tragedy. It was modelled on the Latin tragedies of Seneca. 101. 109. Pacolet's horse. An enchanted steed in the romance of Valentine and Orson. 115. Ab ovo. From the egg; i. e., from the beginning. 119. Polydorus. In Euripides' tragedy Hecuba. 208. Pounded. Impounded, put in a pound, like a stray animal. 103. 337. Libertino patre natus. Son of an ex-slave. 338. Herculea proles. Descendant of Hercules. 339. Si quid, etc. If my verse can do aught. 343. Dull-making, etc. People living near the cataracts of the Nile were said by Cicero to be deafened by the sound. 344. Planet-like music. The "music of the spheres." 349. Mome. Blockhead. RALEIGH THE LAST FIGHT OF THE REVENGE The text is based on Arber's Reprint; spelling and punctuation are modernized. 103. 3. This late encounter. The battle between 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 |