Six Centuries of English Poetry Part 40

"Oh, could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme!

Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull; Strong without rage; without overflowing full."

--_Cooper's Hill_, 189.

And Pope praises the stream in still more extravagant terms:

"No seas so rich, so gay no banks appear, No lake so gentle, and no spring so clear."

--_Windsor Forest_, 227.

See, also, Spenser's "Faerie Queene," IV, xi.

4. =rutty.= Rooty.

5. =Against.= For, or in preparation for; to provide for. Compare Genesis xliii. 25: "And they made ready the present against Joseph came at noon." And Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream," Act iii, sc. ii:

"I'll charm his eyes against she do appear."

6. =Flood.= This word was often used, as here, to denote simply a river.

Pope addresses the river Thames:

"Thou, too, great father of the British floods!"

7. =all loose untyde.= Steevens says: "Brides formerly walked to church with their hair hanging loose behind."

8. =entrayled.= Twisted, interlaced.

9. =flasket.= A long, shallow basket. Not used here as the diminutive of _flask_. Hales says it is the name given by the fishermen of Cornwall to the vessel in which the fish are transferred from the seine to the "tuck-net."

10. =cropt.= Gathered, Dutch _krappen_, to cut off.

=feateously.= Neatly, skilfully. Compare Chaucer:

"And French she spake ful fayre and fetisly."

--_Canterbury Tales_, 124.

"A chambre had he in that hostelrie Ful fetisly ydight with herbes sote."

--_Ibid._, 3205.

11. =on hye.= In haste. Probably the same as _hie_, haste.

12. =pallid.= Pale.

13. =primrose trew.= Compare Milton's "Lycidas," 142:

"The rathe primrose that forsaken dies."

And Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale," Act iv, sc. iii;

"Pale primroses that die unmarried."

14. =store.= Abundance.

=vermeil.= Vermilion. Commonly used as a noun.

15. =posies.= "Posy originally meant verses presented with a nosegay or a bunch of flowers, and hence the term came to be applied to the flowers themselves."

16. =With that.= At the same time.

=Swannes.= "Paulus Jovius, who died in 1552, describing the Thames, says: 'This river abounds in swans, swimming in flocks; the sight of whom and their noise are vastly agreeable to the fleets that meet them in their course.'"--_Knight's Cyclopedia of London._

17. =lee.= Water, or river. See "Faerie Queene," V, ii, 19:

"His corps was carried downe along the lee, Whose waters with his filthy bloud it stayned."

Also, _Ibid._, IV, ii, 16:

"As when two warlike brigandines at sea, With murdrous weapons arm'd to cruell fight, Do meete together on the watry lea."

The word is of Celtic origin, and is very common as a river-name in England, Ireland, France, and other parts of Western Europe.

18. =nor nothing near.= In early English two negatives did not destroy each other, as now, but made the negation more emphatic.

19. =Eftsoones.= Soon after. From A.-S. _eft_, after, and _sona_, soon.

20. =Somers-heat.= The two ladies celebrated in this poem, it will be remembered, were Lady Elizabeth and Lady Katherine Somerset.

21. The Peneus river, the most important stream in Thessaly, forces its way through the Vale of Tempe, between Mounts Ossa and Olympus, into the sea.

22. =loves couplement.= Marriage.

23. =heart-quelling Sonne.= Cupid.

24. =a.s.soile.= Free from, put off.

"Through long watch, and late daies weary toile, She soundly slept, and carefull thoughts did quite a.s.soile."

--_Faerie Queene_, III, i, 58.

25. =bord.= "Bed" and "board" are two a.s.sociated terms, very frequently so used, which imply the performance of the two acts necessary for the maintenance of life--sleeping and eating. See Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors," Act v, sc. i:

"In bed he slept not for my urging it, At board he fed not for my urging it."

Also, "As You Like It," Act v, sc. iv:

"Wedding is great Juno's crown-- O blessed bond of board and bed!"

26. =redoubled.= Repeated.

=undersong.= Refrain, burden.

27. =neighbour.= See note 10, on Burns's "Cotter's Sat.u.r.day Night."