The Hesperides & Noble Numbers Part 151

_Boar-cat_, tom-cat.

NOTES TO APPENDIX.

64. _To him that has, etc._ The quotation is not from the Bible, but from Martial, v. 81:--

"Semper pauper eris, si pauper es, Aemiliane.

Dantur opes nulli nunc nisi divitibus."

Cp. also Davison's Poet. Rhap., i. 95. Ed. Bullen.

126. _Upon s...o...b..e._ Dr. Grosart quotes an Ellis s...o...b..e [_i.e._, Scobell], baptised at Dean Priory in 1632, and Jeffery s...o...b..e buried in 1654.

200. _Upon Gubbs._ Printed in _Witts Recreations_, 1650, without alteration. To save repet.i.tion we may give here a list of the other Epigrams in this Appendix which are printed in _Witt's Recreations_, reserving variations of reading for special notes:--206, _Upon Bounce_; 239, _Upon Guess_; 311, _Upon Sneap_; 357, _Long and Lazy_; 379, _Upon Doll_; 380, _Upon Screw_; 381, _Upon Linnit_; 400, _Upon Rasp_; 410, _Upon Skinns_; 429, _Upon Craw_; 435, _Jack and Jill_; 574, _Upon Umber_; 639, _Upon Lungs_; 650, _Upon Cob_; 652, _Upon Skoles_; 668, _Upon Zelot_; 705, _Upon Trigg_; 797, _Upon Bice_; 798, _Upon Trencherman_; 834, _Upon Punchin_; 888, _Upon Lulls_; 1027, _Upon Boreman_; 1087, _Upon Gut_; 1108, _Upon Rump_.

305. _Fearing to break the king's commandement._ In 1608 there was issued a proclamation containing "Orders conceived by the Lords of his Maiestie's Privie Counsell and by his Highnesse speciall direction, commanded to be put in execution for the restraint of killing and eating of flesh the next Lent". This was re-issued ten years later (there is no intermediate issue at the British Museum), and from 1619 onwards became annual under James and Charles in the form of "A proclamation for restraint of killing, dressing, and eating of Flesh in Lent, or on Fish dayes, appointed by the Law, to be hereafter strictly observed by all sorts of people".

420. _Upon Bridget_. Loss of teeth is the occasion of more than one of Martial's epigrams.

456. _The tun of Heidelberg_: in the cellar under the castle at Heidelberg is a great cask supposed to be able to hold 50,000 gallons.

574. _As Umber states_: "as Umber _swears_".--W. R.

639. _His breath does fly-blow_: "doth" for "does".--W. R.

652. _One blast_: "and" for "one".--W. R.

668. _Yet! see_: "ye see".--W. R.

670. _Tradescant's curious sh.e.l.ls_: John Tradescant was a Dutchman, born towards the close of the sixteenth century. He was appointed gardener to Charles II. in 1629, and he and his son naturalised many rare plants in England. Besides botanical specimens he collected all sorts of curiosities, and opened a museum which he called "Tradescant's Ark". In 1656, four years after his death, his son published a catalogue of the collection under the t.i.tle, "Museum Tradescantianum: or, a collection of rarities preserved at South Lambeth, near London, by John Tradescant". After the son's death the collection pa.s.sed into the hands of Ashmole, and became the nucleus of the present Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.

802. _Any way for Wealth._ A variation on Horace's theme: "Rem facias, rem, si possis, recte, si non quocunque modo, rem". 1 Epist. i. 66.

_The Portrait of a Woman_: I subjoin here the four pa.s.sages found in ma.n.u.script versions of this poem, alluded to in the previous note. As said before, they do not improve the poem. After l. 45, "Bearing aloft this rich round world of wonder," we have these four lines:

In which the veins implanted seem to lie Like loving vines hid under ivory, So full of claret, that whoso p.r.i.c.ks this vine May see it spout forth streams like muscadine.

Twelve lines later, after "Riphean snow," comes a longer pa.s.sage:

Or else that she in that white waxen hill Hath seal'd the primrose of her utmost skill.

But now my muse hath spied a dark descent From this so precious, pearly, permanent, A milky highway that direction yields Unto the port-mouth of the Elysian fields: A place desired of all, but got by these Whom love admits to the Hesperides; Here's golden fruit, that doth exceed all price, Growing in this love-guarded paradise; Above the entrance there is written this: This is the portal to the bower of bliss, Through midst whereof a crystal stream there flows Pa.s.sing the sweet sweet of a musky rose.

With plump, soft flesh, of metal pure and fine, Resembling s.h.i.+elds, both pure and crystalline.

Hence rise those two ambitious hills that look Into th' middle, sweet, sight-stealing crook, Which for the better beautifying shrouds Its humble self 'twixt two aspiring clouds

The third addition is four lines from the end, after "with a pearly sh.e.l.l":

Richer than that fair, precious, virtuous horn That arms the forehead of the unicorn.

The last four lines are joined on at the end of all:

Unto the idol of the work divine I consecrate this loving life of mine, Bowing my lips unto that stately root Where beauty springs; and thus I kiss her foot.