Book 4 — THE PLEASING HISTORY OF ALBINO AND BELLAMA (continued 3)
Reading edition
Notes: The Pleasing History of Albino and Bellama
15 age of consistency] = 'grow tired of existing together'—a Whitingism almost Brownist in character.
25 'Agathite'] 'Agath' is a form of 'agate': is 'agathite' a coinage suggested by the blending of colours in the agate?
27 Saba] The Queen of Sheba.
50 rein] Orig. 'veine'. But it must, as the little Errata paragraph at the end admits, be 'rein'. All this may be extravagant, but it is poetry.
61 'The curlèd tapers of the firmament' is not exactly contemptible, I fancy.
66 Whiting must certainly have known his Shakespeare. 'Crisp' appears there nowhere as a noun, but its use here must almost certainly have been suggested by the 'crisp heaven' of Timon, iv. iii. 183. 'Spang' is Baconian, and not uncommon.
70 Orig. has 'Lady Curtain' and no 'this'—a state of things which led me quite wrong at first. Return
131-2 I have ventured to suggest 'mendings' for these exceedingly gappy lines.
148 knee] This is the correction in the errata of 'tener'.
149 bean-manors] = Manors held at a bean instead of a peppercorn? Or misprint for 'beau-manors'? This latter, for 'Beaumanor' is a known name, and Beaumanoir a better, would be quite like Whiting. My friend Sir Frederick Pollock, to whom I appealed after a question whether 'bene' in a legal sense was possible, decided that the phrase could have no technical meaning either as 'bean' or 'bene', but suggested 'rents'. This makes excellent sense, but is not, perhaps, on that account more likely here. Return
212 Adel's stamps] I suppose, the coin of the realm.
219 A Master of Arts ought to have known better than to make 'Thule' mono-syllabic, though the general public used to pronounce it so in reference to a once popular book of the late Mr. William Black's.
259 trutinate] = 'balance'. Don Fuco also had apparently enjoyed the advantages of a classical education.
275 'Indod' like 'adad', and many other forms of corrupted evasion of the Third Commandment.
290-1 Tennyson is known to have been no inconsiderable reader, but he can hardly have known this parody—by anticipation—of a famous line in Œnone.
295 trencher-cloaks] cut short? 'Recognizance' is again, if not exactly Shakespearian, not far off. Return
322 Why this fling at Skelton's exceedingly pretty verses to Isabel Pennel I do not in the least know.
327 Tripherus] See Juvenal, Sat. xi. 137.
394 Orig. 'phrentezy'. Return
421-4 There is a reference to Drayton's Nymphidia, where Oberon and Pigwiggen drink from a 'bottell' of 'Lethe spring', and forget their quarrel. For a further reference to this poem, see l. 1420.
465 'breath'. A seventeenth-century form.
489 I have kept 'ante' because I do not know whether it is for 'aunt' or 'ant'. Neither seems to give much sense. Return
537 Whiting, for all his extravagance, triviality, and so forth, has occasionally an odd gift of phrase. 'Pandora was not treasured up in faces' is an instance.
538 possessing elves] = 'The actual possessors'.
541 The maid] Thisbe, I suppose, though there is nothing to separate her from other maids that 'sat in Babylon'.
551 peevish girl] Scylla.
569-70 See Ovid Met. I. 523.
591 coarse] Orig. 'course', as so often. Return
639 Orig. 'phillits'.
648 I have left 'croe' because I do not know whether it stands for 'crew' or (as above) 'crow' = 'knocker'.
651 angel-looks] = 'those of a messenger'.
668 'vermilion looks' suggests Dryden's 'church vermilion', but that would have no sense in the context.
677 Serrat] Our Lady of Montserrat? Why St. Katherine should have a specially flaxen wig is another of the posers occurring so constantly. But after all why should she not? Return
757 Some word like 'talking' is wanted here.
748 The author, from several signs, must have written this odd poem in no small haste. But he must indeed have been in a hurry when, as would here seem, he confounded 'casket' and 'carcanet'. Cf. l. 953.
757 Some word like 'talking' is wanted here. Return
829 Orig. 'archy-'.
834 Orig. 'weekes', as in Spenser, F. Q. ii. x. 30, 2.
844 'boat-boy'? Phaon who is mentioned ll. 3582 foll., and whose later stage of beauty might entitle him to complete his quintet with his 'fare' Venus, Helen, and Narcissus.
862 'the poet'. Horace in Odes, III. xix. 11-15. Return
918 Butler, as Brydges noticed, must surely have seen this.
920 That 'Prior' is usual and sufficient did not matter to Whiting: he wanted three syllables and an easy rhyme, so he made what he wanted.
953 This line settles the question (v. sup., l. 748) as to Whiting's confusion of 'casket' and 'carcanet'. It is even possible to guess at the cause—the original French carcan, 'a prisoner's chain', 'prison' suggesting 'place of confinement'.
975 'Archy-' in original as before. The use of the French corresponding form 'archi-' instead of the English 'arch-' is probably not accidental.
987 The sharp change here from the straightforward 'frosts' &c. to this ellipse of 'as [that] he [should] want' is noticeable.
989-90 Another Dryden suggestion. The improvement in
O daughter of the Rose, whose cheeks unite The differing titles of the red and white,
is of course immense. But Cambridge poets have always had a laudable habit of reading each other, and Albino and Bellama was not such a very old poem when Dryden went up.
998 Original, ridiculously enough, 'a A percee'! I think Whiting's is the worst printed book of the scores, if not hundreds, I have read for this collection. Return
1027 'Venice' for 'glass'—'ice'. As I have said, you may do almost anything you like to Whiting in the way of interpretation.
1058 So, again, I suppose 'vowel-plasters' means 'vocal pleadings', but I should not dare to be certain.
1068 'Teen', as more than once annotated, = 'light'; so eight lines lower.
1081 Of the numerous shades of the word 'baulk', 'parry' or 'foil' comes nearest here
1084 are] 'or' in the original.
1086 'Chester'] = 'he who chests'—and why not? Return
1130 Although 'toll' was never (and then less than now) confined to funerals Whiting had better have used another word.
1155 'Anchorist', is at any rate better than 'Priorist'. Fuller used it later.
1172 If Bellama, who indeed seems to have been an outspoken young lady, had regarded manners in regard to her love as little as Agamemnon in regard to his wife, she might have told him that his verses were rather long. Return
1214 'frank', again Shakespearian, is of course proper to the boar only; but Whiting did not regard invidious distinctions.
1244 There is, of course, not the slightest justification for 'rosy', but our poet was supra not merely grammaticam but vocabularium and everything else.
1271 An odd and rather awkward metaphor.
1294 Orig. 'quoth she'—but, of course, Albino is the speaker. Return
1340 The poet changes number from 'nips' to 'uncrown' with his usual lightness of heart.
1376 Cf. Ps. xlvi. 9, 'Knappeth the spear in sunder'. Return
1432 We want 'Daffa-downa-dillies'.
1442 An Alexandrine: not as yet common in the piece.
1450 'ermelin', with its equivalents, is rather the commoner form in all mediaeval languages.
1461 Carduus benedictus Return
1521 Here 'en-nealed' throws its light backward on the use supra (l. 904) as simply 'enamelled'.
1539 vit] 'vil' in original.
1558 Orig. 'choyce'; but this must be one of the innumerable misprints which the Errata paragraph treats so cavalierly.
1559 For novel] = 'as a novelty'?
1561 Orig. 'seiling'—the s being common (though, of course, wrong) earlier as well as at this time.
1569 Orig. 'guilt'. Return
1615 A sufficiently mysterious line.
1645 Orig. 'Volgo's'. Return
1716 'fligger' has a certain dialectic sense of 'flutter', and as its congener 'flicker' has one of 'snigger', 'jeer', it probably has that here.
1745 dors] = 'bumblebees'—somewhat unworthily yoked.
1750 The extraordinary double plural of 'females fairs' (orig. 'faires') would seem impossible in any other author. Perhaps 'female', but the rhyme requires 'fairs'.
1784 'Sh'as'] A no doubt unintentional compelling of the apostrophe to do double duty. Return
1863 The slang use of 'dust' is found in Wilkins's Miseries of Enforced Marriage. 1607, 'Come, down with your dust'. One would be disposed to think it a parallel to 'dross', &c.—terms contemptuous of money, but generally employed by those who have not got it.
1865 dealth] I suppose this is another of Whiting's many inventions. Cf. Il Insonio, 347.
1873 Orig. 'everts', which must be wrong.
1882 Orig. 'phrentick'. This middle form between 'frenetic' and 'frantic' is M. E. (for instance, in Langland), but is not, I think, common later.
1883 pargèd] This is one of Whiting's redeeming vividnesses. The verb is, of course, the same as 'parget'—'to plaster or distemper'. Cf. Il Insonio, 73. Return
1930 Orig. 'Bagno's'.
1931 for] Not quite impossible, but unlikely. 'Fore'?
1945 'cowlist' may raise a doubt as to the passage supra, The Author to his Book, l. 58.
1959 I suppose 'eighteen hooks' means hooks to catch persons eighteen years old. But for cautions against being too sure Whiting is sovereign.
1965 'drilling' for 'trickling' we had before.
1969 'tamm[e]y's (as in original). Still a word for coarse cloth.
1984 Once more, if 'jen-net' is superfluous and you cannot think of any rhyme but 'Bennet' why not overrun?
1995 blanched?] 'Lilies' equalling 'cheeks'? But I would not dictate to Whiting. Return
2027 'innupted' is better and better. According to that lofty view of the genuine writer which insists that he shall never be at a loss for a word to fit matter and form at once, Whiting should stand very high.
2048 Orig. 'earrhs'.
2071 Neptune's grandchild] Cupid; but the affiliation is irregular.
2083 The only meaning I can think of for this marvellous phrase is, 'He could get the various dresses, but he could not change his own face to suit and give voice to them'. Return
2120 Issa] v. Martial, i. 110, on the pet dog of Publius:
Hanc ne lux rapiat suprema totam, Picta Publius exprimit tabella, In qua tam similem videbis Issam, Ut sit tam similis sibi nec ipsa, &c. &c.
2137 lede] = 'speech', 'tale'. Whether Whiting got this from Chaucer's 'ledene' one cannot say; but he seems to have been a man of some reading.
2150 worlds] Play on 'globes'?
2154 'And' would make the next line and a half refer to Bellama, which does not seem likely.
2174 'Lorretta is, all things considered, a rather unfortunate feminizing of Loretto to denote Our Lady thereof.
2188-93 Is this one of the 'misplaced staves' so very coolly left to the reader's discovery in the Errata-note? (v. inf., p. 551). It looks as if it ought to come after its present successor.
2196 'rosies', another coinage, of which Whiting was fond: see ll. 2523, 3344, 3348, 3436. Return
2226 camp] Orig. 'came'—from the rhyme an obvious misprint, but why 'lanky'? Because of mortifications? Cf. 2199 'lankcloister' and 2553 'lanky crew'. Return
2382 vogliarell[a] 'Little wish', 'fancy'. Return
2410 orc] 'vessel as big as a whale'. Orig. 'Orke'.
2415 'glorrah'. Evidently the same word as 'glotrah' in l. 3714, and apparently some kind of food capable of being made into a 'shape'.
2427 tempo-pates. Query, pates as bald as Father Time's.
2552 sew] 'sue' in orig.
2562 'ptisick' = 'phthisic' would be intelligible in another context, but not here.
2592 Larv'd] = 'masked'. Return
2652 a-darkness] Like 'a-bed', &c.
2656 'Sesamoidesse'. From the Greek σησαμοειδές, a kind of reseda, the medical use of which is noted in Hippocrates; Strabo also refers to it as a charm in vogue to reduce tumours.
2686 'Coven', as before.
2689 'vezzo'] Cf. 'vogliarell'. Return
2754 trig] To 'trot', 'run'. Apparently Lancashire and Yorkshire dialect to this day. Return
2851 fleecèd] = 'mouldy'.
2861 copèd]? = 'encountered', 'met with'. Cf 3855.
2862 Orig. 'Of on'.
2889 Orig. 'Mà boun'.'
2897 sience] = 'scion'. Return
2970 Folco] ? Albino-Felice rather.
2971 Sardonic, an adjective formed from 'sardonyx'?
2993 threnes] = 'wailings'—Graece. Return
3043 Here Whiting seems to present one of his characteristic retorts to criticism: 'If you say Mab for Mabel, why may I not say Mabel for Mab?' Return
3116 swogging] Palsgrave, in a passage which I owe to the late Professor Skeat, 'I swag as a fat person's belly swaggeth as he goeth', might almost have been annotating this passage. Cf. also, of course, 'swagger'. As for the o, 'Maggie' and 'Moggie', 'flap' and 'flop', and a hundred other pairs, occur.
3118 We had 'claret' thus used in Benlowes, vol. 1, p. 358 (l. 202).
3143 larvèd] As before, l. 2592.
3152 Is this found elsewhere?
3155 The union of body and soul.
3158 Orig. 'rithmes'.
3160 'Ascending' &c. 'the ladder'.
3170 'Ferny flag' is not so bad for the tossed antlers.
3179 Malèd] Is this for 'mailed'? = 'armoured by fear against the briars'?
3182 Donnes] Donne? 'ladies'? Return
3208 Orig. 'Cypresse', which is quite another thing, unless he meant Libitina.
3210 Orig., which I quote merely to show the extraordinary ill-printing of the book, 'olse'!
3228 Was a 'helm' part of the dress which a monk suddenly flying from his cloister would have 'at temp. of tale'?
3230 Orig. 'wooddards'.
3264 airs] = 'breaths' = 'words'?
3277 Orig. 'led'. Return
3343 Narcissus' hate] = Echo.
3344, 3348 Orig., as before, 'rosyes'.
3354 not] Orig. 'hot'!
3363 'Dreane' is, of course, 'drain'. There is a form drenian (though it is not the only one) in A.S. Cf. p. 539, l. 2.
3367 Rather a fine line, and 'the Child of Sin', though of course not original, is interesting before Milton for Death.
3374 This looks at first like a most remarkable super-painting of the lily. But the violets are the veins.
3396 Orig. ''Tis th' countenance': but Whiting is rarely, if ever, rough to this extent, and his printer might do anything. Return
3442 had] Orig. 'hab'. So in l. 3437 'ugon' and in l. 3444 'wheo'. There was apparently no correction of the press at all.
3460 healthed] = 'seen that they were in health'.
3467 forth'] So orig. Of course Whiting may have written 'forth th''.
3493-7 Some confusion here between Proserpine and Eurydice. Return
3558 feeted] = 'put into metre'.
3581 Orig. 'ftam'd'.
3582 seq. The story of Aphrodite and her gift to Phao is vulgate, but the goddess's alias is not Greek to me. In the atrocious printing of the original it might be either 'Sea's' or (more nearly) 'Sed's'. The latter is a clear vox nihili, and as, I suppose, even Nathaniel Whiting in the height of his pranks would not make 'Se-a' a dissyllable, I suppose also that he wrote 'the Sea's' and the printer dropped the article. Return
3606 Who was or were Holgoy?
3608 'Heliotropion' rather—the Moonstone, much used in magic.
3612 Polupists] = 'pluralists'.
3616 Pompholyx is a 'bubble', thence a 'blister', and thence again a sort of eczema. But whether it became a name for one of the 'Fauna of Fancy' I do not find.
3617 'Your loves catch feathers.' In the original, 'Your loves with catch-feathers'; the 'with' seems to have been taken over from the preceding line.
3622 Mantuan] There is a similar reference in Il Insonio, ll. 365-6.
3627 'Quinque literae' is said to be used of Hebrew roots. But whether anybody preceded Whiting's restless and fantastic ingenuity in making a half English half Latin femina quinque literarum to match the homo trium I do not know. The word itself is obvious enough.
3676 'Tenter' = stretch on tenter-hooks, rack.
3685 pague] Lat. pagus, anglicized and transferred from 'district' to 'village'. Return
3796 This line would be a good text for a discourse on the type of writing. 'Blur the holier entries of Albino's page with the recording Angel' is its equivalent, and there have been times when that would have been approved as 'wery pretty'. But 'roule' in orig. may be a misprint for 'soule'.
3797 'Venice' and 'Venus' have been played upon before by the writer: they are probably, but not quite necessarily, interchanged here by the printer. It may perhaps be noted that in the original the printer, weary of mere misspelling and misprinting, has taken to mispaging. The text goes on straight, but the pages after 129 are numbered 26, 12, 132, 133, 130, 131, 136, 137, 134, 135, 140, 141, and so on. Return
Into his thoughts did throng His house of penance, hunger, cold, and sweat,
is worthy the most undoubted poet.
3844 'dell' is not unlike Whiting, but, of course, 'cell' suggests itself.
3845 'repell' = repeal.
3871 Apella] Credat Iudaeus.
3874 Not 'saw double' but 'had the use of his eyes'.
3892 Orig. 'tuffe'. Was Whiting reminiscent of The Nun's Priest's Tale here? Return
made their eyes] = 'stared as hard as they could'. Whiting himself certainly 'makes his words perduers' in this sense.
3948 Orig. 'tispyde'.
3967 'Copester' (orig. 'coapster') here, and 'coped' ('coap't') in l. 4032, have nothing to do with the amorous sense in which the word has been formerly used. The signification is simply 'wearing a cope'.
The 'Canzone' appears to aim at a sort of 'The Queen was in the parlour' measure:
Drink full ones tinker | methinks the monks are dry;
though the lines, as they always do in such cases, occasionally simulate regular decasyllables. Return
4054 Angel] The old pun on the coin.
4060 raddle-man] A hawker of coarse red paint.
4067 'podging', though it has various more definite senses, appears to be still dialectically used for 'stupid'. Return
4122 If anybody asks where Starley is it will be sufficient to answer that it is where the Danes used cannons. But 'act their juries' (if right) is one of those at first sight mad phrases of our author's which really have, if little method, some meaning.
4152 glide] Plural by the common attraction to 'channels'.
4177 'air' (orig. 'ayre') is, I suppose, as before = 'breath' = 'words'.
4188 Albino's remarkably catholic conglomeration of classical and Christian wedding-rites might, in a more modern writer, be a satire on Renaissance habits. In him it is only a survival of them. Return
Hack on the quiet shore their brackèd sheaths,
and I should not presume to be too certain as to the exact meaning of 'half-wrack'd with eye-men', though I think I know. The insouciance with which he shuffles off the not impertinent question 'How did a somewhat "arbitrary gent" like Don Rivelezzo take this sort of thing?' is also rather charming.
TO THOSE WORTHY HEROES OF OUR Age, whose noble Breasts are wet and wat'red with the dew of Helicon, N.W. wisheth ever- flourishing Laurels.
You noble laureates, whose able quills In framing odes, do drean the sacred rills Of Aganippe dry, within whose breasts The sire of Æsculapius safely rests; And all the Muses' temple, deign your rays To cheer the measures of an infant bayes, Spread forth the banners of your worths to shield His younger Muse, unable yet to wield Arms 'gainst the monsters of this critic age, 10Envy, detraction, and Saturnine rage. I to myself assume not double worth, Or that my teeming fancy can bring forth Words to make wonder stand amazed, do try To vindicate the breath of poesy. In such a thought I'm silent, but because I've heard invectives belched from the jaws Of nil-scientes, whose audacious brags Have raised a thunder like a shoal of dags T' affright endeavours. 20In writing, which if my weak studies hit Of any fancy speaking worth or wit, If I have snatchèd any fainting Muse From the black jaws of envy and abuse, Shooting a soul into her, and new breath, Maugre those tongues that doomèd her to death— Echo forth thanks unto coy Daphne's lover (About whose fane the sacred Nine do hover) Whose kindness smiled on my uncrushed designs; And locked a muse in my unworthy lines, 30Able to blunt the darts of envy, pare The sharpest-hoofèd satyr, and with air Shrill as the voice of thunder, chide those galls That belch forth scandals and invective bawls. Nay, he, befriending me above my merit, Unseen of any heaved my wingèd spirit T' a higher court than the Star chamber is, Where souls may surfeit with immortal bliss; And taught my fancy, in those quiet slumbers, What, waking, I have folded up in numbers; 40To tell the brood of critics that there are Some few, or if not some, yet one, that dare (Backèd by your thrice-sacred worths) expose These lines and letters to the ken of prose. The humble admirer of your muses N. W.
To those Worthy 2 drean] v. sup., l. 3363.
6 'an infant bayes' is rather curious. But cf. 'youthful bays', l. 122 infra.
Il Insonio Insonnadado.
When (in the silent age of sable night) The silver way with Phoebe's glimm'ring light And her attendants was adorned, and when Fast slumbers scaled the eyes of drowsy men, I ent'red Morpheus' Court, that iv'ry port Whereat benighted fancies pass that sort With real good, Sleep was the janitor Who let me in, without one crumb of ore, Into the spacious hall, whose darksome floor 10With downy beds and quilts was pavèd o'er, Instead of marble stones. Here nuzzled both The hated spawn of idleness and sloth, Icilone and Phantaso, the one Wrapt in a mantle, set with stars and stones, Chequered with flow'rs, and trimmed with antic shapes, Playing with children, feathers, flies, and apes, Blowing up spittle bladders, and the other Stretched on the bosom of his quiet mother, Folded in furs and feathers, would not stir 20To earn a penny, or to 'please you, sir,' With cap and curtsey. Wond'ring much, to me The wingèd post came with an embassy. I, frighted with his strange apparel, shrunk Away, and closely into feathers sunk. He, smiling, said, 'Let not my strange arraying, Kind youth, beget amazement or dismaying. I'll show thee where in marshalled order stray Whole troops of laureates ensphered with bay'; Then spread his wingèd sails, and caught my hair, 30Without a sense of motion through the air Conducting me, through where the salamander (If faith b' historical) does breath and wander. Then through those glorious orbs, enriched with gems, The palaces of seven diadems. Then through the firmament where glitt'ring spangs Like blazing topazes in crystal hangs. Three storeys higher was the Galupin Where Jove was frolic with his goddy kin; Hither was I uplifted, then mine eye 40Besprinkled was by nimble Mercury With liquor which with strength did me endue T' abide the presence of th' immortal crew. The whisp'ring vaults I openèd of my brain, The counsels of the gods to entertain, And, fearing memory, with short-lived chalk (Wanting the tongue of paper) writ their talk. The patron of Parnassus and the Nine, To Jove presented and the rest divine Their suits, with comely grace and majesty. 50But Phoebus was the orator: 'Lo! I Thy daughters undertook to patronize, Great Emperor of the crystal-spangled skies! And shield their measures from the sullen rage Of envious ignorance, this critic age. (For none inveigh against poetic measures But those that never had Pandora's treasures) Yet such a shoal of ignorants I find, 'Tis thought the greater part o' th' world is blind; That, maugre all my scourges, in the dark 60Against the Muses they will snarl and bark. Let wingèd-sandalled Hermes post to call And summon them unto thy judgement hall, That you may know their rage is want of brains.' Hermes took post, and brought the silly trains. Jove waved his sceptre and commanded hush. Then calls a gaudy piece of empty plush, And asked what he could say 'gainst Poetry: 'Ha! ha!' quoth he, and fleered with blinking eye, 'I have a mistress' (then begins a tale 70Which made Jove call for some nectarean ale To arm his ears 'gainst nonsense, and his side 'Gainst laughter's fury) 'has too much of pride. She's fair as is a wall new-parged with lime, She's wise enough; for age, she's in her prime. I vow her service, but she slights me, why? Marry, I have no vein in Poesy, But what I take on trust o' th' second hand. She jeers and says, "This cannot well be scanned; This has a foot too little, that too much; 80This is a borrowed line"—"she knows 't by th' touch; Tells me the double Indies shall not gain Her love without the smirk poetic vein. Despairing, I against the Muses rail, And wished my hands had crusted been with flail. Then should not I have needed proxy-verse, T' have won a milkmaid, neither coy nor terse. "Tush," say I, "Madam, this same ragged crew Of rhyming dizzards are not worthy you. Plato exiled them from his commonweal. 90Their tongues will flatter, and their fingers steal. Mere sycophants that, for a trencher-bit, Will swear y' have beauty mixed with purest wit. And if you anger them, will in a rage Unsay 't and rail 'gainst you, your sex, and age." Hundred invectives more I often use Against the Poet and his strumpet muse. But I protest 'tis to dissuade my lady: For had I wit, Phoebus should be my daddy. Then, sacred sisters! I implore your bays 100Make me a bard, and I'll descant your praise.' 'No,' quoth the Muses, 'Helicon ne'er brooks T' have servants which do wear such simple looks.' So sent him packing with a flea in 's ear. Apollo called another to appear, A feeble brain, that at a gen'ral dye Had got the sable hue of infamy. He buzzles like a bustard in a wind, And with his aio's strikes the vulgar blind, In whom, if we believe Pythagoras, 110I think the soul of Battus housèd was. He is demanded why he thus does bawl 'Gainst soaring wits, not worms that earthly crawl? Clothing his face with impudence, his looks With pride, and with high self-conceit (his books, So are his words, he speaks in print) 'Why? why? Have I not cause t' exclaim on Poesy? I'm a divine, not a fond prattling poet. I am a preacher, I would have you know it.' 'Peace! arrogant,' says Hermes, 'else I'll drive 120Thee quick into the black infernal hive. There was a time when thou admir'dst with praise Each sprig of laurel, slip of youthful bays. But Envy's master now: or th' cause of it Is, thou ne'er hop'st t' attain that height of wit. But say the truth (yet truth will scarce abide thee) Are there not some that jeer and do deride thee In lofty measures, and thou wanting skill To vindicate thy credit by thy quill? Dost scold?' Quoth he, 'I do acknowledge it. 130I blamed the Muses, 'cause I wanted wit; And darted scandals at Apollo's lyre. Yet pardon, mighty Æsculapius' sire, And ye blest goddesses, my grand offence, And on your altars I'll burn frankincense, Nay, build rich trophies unto Poetry.' ''Tis good to see a convert mind: stand by.' Apollo said. Says Vulcan, 'By the mass, I have espied a plump-cheek'd bonny lass. She is a wrig, I warrant. Where's my wife? 140Oh! 'tis a hell to live a coupled life.' Thus did the Blacksmith mutter, till Apollo Cited the damsel with a gentle holloa. Up comes the Marget with a mincing pace, A city-stride, court-garb, and smirking face, So curtsied to the gods, yet 'twas but short. Then says Apollo (meaning to make sport) 'What occupation use you, art, or trade? Are you a virgin?' 'Yes, a chambermaid Forsooth I am, I have my virgin seal. 150To honest Vulcan I dare make m'appeal: He'll pawn his head, had I kept Venus' room, Mars had not dubbed him with Actaeon's doom.' 'A merry wench, in faith!' says Jove, 'yet stay. To serious parle let's fall from wanton play. You are accused as one that does condemn And boldly scoff the laurel diadem.' 'I once', quoth she, 'admired them all, until I found my praise returned but traffic ill. for when I praised, they praisèd me again: 160So I had only praises for my pain. Then wittily I oftentimes would flout, And say, the poets' was a needy rout; Of all professions sure it was the worst, Just like the cockatrice i' th' shell accurst, With many more; yet though our tongues did jar, Our quarrel ended in a lippy war. We kissed to friendship, like the nurse and child,' And there she stopped, whereat the heavens smiled. Then came a servingman, a blunt old knave, 170That dared Parnassus with a saucy brave. 'In youth,' says he, 'I rhymed and framèd notes To Pan's choice music and the shepherds' throats: And many a lusty bowl of cream have got For Kate's three brace of rhymes, which was, God wot, But once removed from prose, and, for a song, The iron-hoofèd Hobs 'bout me did throng. But now old age my wit and fancy nips, I gall the Muses with satyric quips; Yet might I with the eagle cast my bill, 180And gain my youth, I would regain my skill.' This done, the pursuivant Apollo posts T' Elysium, to call the poets' ghosts, That paid th' infernal ferryman his fee. There saw I Homer, but he saw not me; Lascivious Ovid, and Virgilius grave, Satyric Juvenal, and Martial brave, Splay-footed Plautus, limping Ennius, Propertius, Horace, and Boethius. Amongst the moderns came the Fairy Queen, 190Old Geoffrey, Sidney, Drayton, Randolph, Greene, The double Beaumont, [ ] Drummond, Browne— Each had his chaplet, and his ivy crown. 'How rested ye amidst those gloomy shades?' Says Jupiter, 'See ye not other trades, Learnings, and sciences, have constant springs, Summers and autumns without winterings? They'll have no hailstorms, fleezy rain, nor frost, A pregnant-witted bard did silence break. 200Homer 'twas not, he could not see to speak. Virgil it was not, he had got a wrench: Nor B. nor M., for they had got a wench. Ennius was lame, and much did fear his shins; Horace was busy with the kilderkins, Ovid employed with his belovèd flea, Old Geoffrey's language was not fit for plea. Drayton on 's brains a new Moon-calf was getting, And testy Drummond could not speak for fretting. I knew the Roscian's feature, not his name; 210Yet 'tis engraven on the shawm of Fame. With settled grace he boldly did advance: 'Father of gods! King of the large expanse! We oft have heard proud Envy belching forth Fogs, mists, and fumes, t' eclipse the metric worth, And know the teeming world did never nurse So great a mischief as the critic curse. Our souls one minute have not rested quiet Since carps, we know, was Ignoramus' diet. If Wisdom's fetial call to the sand 220We have revenge; our standish is at hand, That rights our wrongs: but 'gainst Don Silly's rails The fist is heaved, for paper naught avails. We sate in counsel, did intend to sue With a petition to this noble crew; The substance this, that ye would either give Wit and discretion unto all that live, Or make them idiots, deprived of reason. Else, but to speak, let it be counted treason. But we appeal, great gods, 'tis now my theme— 230To clear from mud pure Aganippa's stream, Assist, Pierides, maintain your fires With greater care than can the Vestals theirs; 'Tis merely loss of time, and paper both By refutation to chastise their sloth. Then I the juice of Helicon will sup Not in nutshell, but Colocassian cup, Shall make my fancy catch at naught but gems, And wreathe the Muses' brows with diadems. Methinks this draught such virtue does infuse 240As if in every sense there dwelt a muse, A spirit of valour to ungod great war, Should he but send a ram, but to the bar; Who knows not Vaticinium does imply In equal measures verse and prophecy, An inspiration, a celestial touch? Such is the poet's raptures, prophet's such. Vates, a bard, and him that does presage; Vaticinor, possessed with either rage. Poema is a book, in numbers framed, 250Fast cémented with sense, by working named, To which the choicest orator stands bare. Poesis does, in a sublimer air, Things human and divine expose to view. The first philosophy that Fame e'er knew Was honoured with the name of Poetry, Enriched with rules of pure morality, Reading instructions unto heathen men. With more contentment than the Stoic's pen. The ancients unto poets only gave 260The epithets of wise, divine, and grave; Because their metres taught the world to know To whom they did their holy worship owe. The Greek is free, and kinder in her praise Which she bestows upon poetic lays. She calls all that which takes not essence by A matter pre-existent, poesy. So makes the world a poem: and by this The great creator a great poet is. Nay more, that language on the Nine bestows 270(As ev'ry callent of that idiom knows In her etymologues, an higher grace, Calls them παιδευτάς, and whose measures trace The steps of Nature, human and divine, The abstruse mysteries of both untwine, Unlock the exta of each science, art, By cunning search; again, not as a part, Nor a grand column only, but entreasures The soul of learning in the poet's measures. All other arts (which use and learning gave) 280Precepts and rules as sure foundations have, Whenas the poet's pen alone 's inspired, With high enthusiasms by heaven fired, Ennius them holy calls; and Plato says Furies divine are in the poet's lays. Nor wanted he himself the poet's wit; He Dithyrambos and love passions writ. The Regal Prophet was a true-born poet, As to the life his well-tuned metres show it; Composed to music by that holy man, 290Ere Hopkins and Sternhold knew how to scan. Hence, chicken-augurs, with your crooked staves, Whose rash conjectures crown and dig us graves. A lofty fancy, steepèd in the fount Of Pegasus, an higher pitch can mount. Sibylline oracles did speak in verse; Their scattered leaves in measures did rehearse The mysteries of man's redemption by The incarnation of a deity. Grave Maro, I remember, in an ode 300(An eclogue) treads the same prophetic road. Those famous Druides, renowned of late, Treated at large o' th' soul's immortal state. Man's spirit does not to the gloomy shade Of Erebus, o'er black Cocytus, wade. Death sets no period, is the lesser part Of human life; for the same breath does dart Vigour to every sinew in the bulk. Man lives as freely in another hulk. Who readeth Ovid's Metamorphosin, 310And thinks not Moses' soul was sheathèd in His body by a transmigration? He from the chaos tells the world's plantation. Maro accords, and gives the world a soul Which does this well-compacted lump control; And by illumination he discovered How then the spirit o'er the water hovered. Th' inspirèd pen of old Pythagoras By Naso's guide relates how in this mass All things do alter shape, yet soon Dame Nature 320Of one form lost informs another feature. No substance 's nothingèd in this large globe, But 'gainst some feast puts on a newer robe. The earth, resolved to water, rarefies Into pure air; the thinner water flies; The purer air assumes a scorching heat. They, back returning, orderly retreat: Those subtle sparks converted are to breath, The spissy air, being doomed unto death, Turns into sea, earth's made a thick'ned water. 330Thus wily Nature is a strange translator. (My lady readers I refer to Sandys, But the grave learnèd unto Ovid's hands.) Nor Seneca divine wants prophesies. Near to the death of time, an age shall rise In which says he, the ocean shall untie The wat'ry bands of things and to the eye Of Tiphys, a new world appear Unheard before by the most itching ear, In glory matching this. Then Thule no more 340Shall be th' earth's ne plus ultra bound or door, Our eights i' th' hundred would large heaps of treasures Set in their wills to buy Zorastus' measures. Mass-priests for dirges then would lose their fee; These would the surest de profundis be. Shopsters and gallants to his house would hop More than t' exchanges or canary-shop. And poets brisk would have a larger dealth, Than holy confessors of dead men's wealth. I might be infinite, should I but show 350For what grave arts the world to poets owe. Apelles had not been without Parnasse, The pencil's worth had only dwelt on glass, Or dusty tablets, guided by those apes, In imitation of some antic shapes. Venus a portrait had, Pygmalion missed That speechless female which he hugged and kissed. Had not th' enlivening breath of poetry T' a higher pitch reared up dull fantasy. How quickly worthy acts of famous men 360Died in the wane of our poetic pen! How rudely by the monks (which only had The key of learning) were their actions clad! King Ethelbert's closed in his Polyander, To Christ for church buildings he's gone without meander. Such stuff the tombs of Bede and Petrarch have, The razor from all monky pates did shave Wit with their hair, except in Mantuan. Re-teined by Vida and Politian, And many others was this glorious sun, 370Which glitter shall till earth's last thread be spun. We raise shall obelisks by Apollo's breath, Which owe no homage to the rage of death. By pen Honterus creatures limned to life, Better than could the cynic with his knife. Pliny comparèd unto him did err; He was a chemic and cosmographer. How bravely does the Scottish bard depinge The planets' order and the spheric hinge! Brave Petrarch, latined by our learned clerk, 380Lights us a lamp to guide us in this dark. And critic age says that stout Alexander, (Whose warlike steps o'er all this globe did wander) Fixing on brave Pelides' tomb his eye, Rapt with a noble envy loud did cry, 'Happy, O happy thou! whole actions still Live, being enbreathed by the immortal quill Of worthy Homer!' nay, when his sword had gained Those wealthy realms o'er which Darius reigned, He 'mongst his treasures found a casket fair, 390So set with gold and gems it rayed the air, And called in day despite of clouds or nights— Yet the best use (as grave Patricius writes) This cabinet could serve to, was t' entomb Homer's choice Iliads in his glorious womb. Of Zoarastus now some wonders hear, And barrel his disciples in thine ear, Whose rhymes could charm foul Cerber's bawling tongue, And pick hell's lock with his enchanting song; From Stygian shade conducting whom they listed, 400And whom they pleased with hellish fogs bemisted. Oh golden metres, rhymes outworthing gold, At what high prices would they now be sold If they were extant! friend for friend would sell Lordships, books, banners, to redeem from hell. How many ages has those Greeks survived (Than all their predecessors longer lived), Which showed their noble worths at Ilium's grave? Yet thrice Nestorean age them Homer gave. How bravely Lucan tells succeeding ages 410The seven-hillèd city's bloody rages! Moist clouds long since have washed the purpled grass, Yet red as ever 'tis in Lucan's glass. To Carthage' Queen the wand'ring Trojan prince Pretended love, but dead it is long since, And dust are they; yet Virgil's lofty verse Makes him speak wars, she love, from under th' hearse. Long since did Hellespont gulp in Leander, When he presumed on naked breast to wander. Hero's watch-candle's out; they vanished quite. 420Yet Ovid says all was but yesternight. A great while since the cheating miller stole The scholars' meal by a quadruple toll: They gave him th' hornbook, taught his daughter Greek, Yet look in Chaucer—done the other week. Ir'n-sinewed Talus with his steely flail Long since i' th' right of justice did prevail Under the sceptre of the Fairy Queen: Yet Spenser's lofty measures makes it green. Donne was a poet and a grave divine, 430Highly esteemèd for the sacred Nine That aftertimes shall say whilst there's a sun 'This verse, this sermon, was composed by Dun'. What by heroic acts to man accrues, When grisly Charon for his waftage sues, If his great grandchild, and his grandchild's son, May not the honours, which his sword hath won, Read, graved on paper by a poet's pen, When marble monuments are dust, and when Time has eat off his paint and lettered gold; 440For verse alone keeps honour out o' th' mould? The press successively gives birth to verse, Shall steely tombs outlive the buckram hearse? To other things the same proportion hold Pure rhymes which lofty volumes do enfold. Autumnal frosts would nip the double rose, If cherish'd only by the breath of prose. Beauty of beauty's not the smallest part Which is bestowèd by our liberal art. Orpheus, Arion, and the scraping crew, 450To wire and parchèd guts may bid adieu, Or audience beg; were 't not for sprightful bays, Which to the strings composeth merry lays. But with the Muses I'm so fall'n in love That I forget thy presence, mighty Jove! And through the spacious universe do walk: But this shall set a period to my talk.' Jove stretch'd his sceptre then, with frolic grace, And joy triumphèd on the heaven's face. The orbs made music, and the planets danced: 460The Muses' glory was by all enhanced. Jove then intended for to ratify Decrees in the behoof of poesy, Giving the bards his hand to kiss; and made Chaplets of laurel which should never fade. But Vulcan, to Gradive placed in oppose, Was nodding fast and bellowing through the nose. His armèd brow fell down; and lighting right His antlers did the marching god unsight. Mars fumed, the gods laughed out, the spheres did shake, 470At which shrill noise I starting did awake, And looking up (East having oped his doors) Amazèd I beheld a troop of scores, And wond'ring, thought they'd been ale-debts, but found I them had chalkèd in my dreaming swound. I trow not the decree: 'twas Vulcan's fault— Yet dreams are seldom sound, like him they halt. Take this: and, if I can so happy be, I'll write, in my next slumbers, the decree.
Il Insonio Insonnadado] 13 The names taken from the well-known passage of Ovid, Met. xi. 640 seq.
37 Galupin?
38 goddy kin. Read perhaps 'goddykin', on the analogy of 'mannikin', and interpret of Ganymede. On the other hand Whiting affects there adjectives in -y: see the examples quoted, Albino, l. 808, where 'goddy' actually occurs.
76 Orig. 'dave'. 'Have' seems more likely, but therefore perhaps less Whitingish, than 'dare'.
86 terse] 'polished'. Cf. Albino, 3329.
88 Orig. 'rithming'. This generally = 'rhyming' but may = 'rhythming'.
108 aio's] = Latin 'I say it'. For similar plurals, cf. conclusum's in Albino, 1334, and fortasse's, 2488.
191 double Beaumont] Francis and Sir John. The mention of Drummond is interesting, for I do not remember many.
198 I do not remember many 'plays' on that consonance of 'rime' and 'rhyme' which is a main argument for not confusing the spelling. In previous line orig. 'fleezie'.
202 I suppose 'M.' is Martial: which of the B.'s (it is surely not Boethius?) the other letter libels I know not.
205 Ovid] The allusion is to the spurious De Pulice printed in the early editions of Ovid.
209 If people read Whiting I suppose somebody would say that this 'Roscian' must be Shakespeare.
218 Ruggles's almost famous play had been written a quarter of a century and performed before the King more than twenty years earlier, but it had only been printed in 1630.
219 'fetial' (orig. 'fæcial') = the priest-herald-ambassador who delivered the ultimatum of war or proclaimed peace. 'Sand' = arena.
236 Colocassian] = made of the great leaves of the Egyptian water-lily.
249 Here we get into the old critical commonplaces of the Italians as to Poema, Poesis, &c.
270 callent] = 'knower'. Whether Whitings invention I know not: he might in the context have been directly thinking of Pliny's 'vaticinandi callentes'.
275 exta = 'entrails', not merely as 'inwards' 'secrets', but as possessing indications for haruspices.
290 Hopkins and Sternhold: cf. sup., King, p. 228.
331 Orig. has simply 'sands' (the proper pronunciation) with a small s. Sandys's Ovid was extremely popular.
337 Orig. 'Typhis'. Tethys? as in the passage of Seneca's Medea, to which Whiting refers ('Tethys novos deteget orbes'). But Tiphys, the helmsman of the Argonauts, and watcher of the seas, may be meant: cf. the prominence given to him in Virgil's 4th Eclogue, 'Alter erit tum Tiphys'.
342 Zorastus] Spelt 'Zoarastus' in l. 395. The reference is to the reputed oracles of Zoroaster, printed in Magia Philosophica, hoc est Francisci Patricii Summi Philosophi Zoroaster & eius 320 Oracula Chaldaica, Hamburg, 1593. Patrizzi, whose Della Poetica (Ferrara, 1586) ranks high in Renaissance criticism, is named at l. 392.
363 Polyander]?
364 Whether this overflowing line is a flirt of Whiting's heels or a slip of pen or press may be doubtful.
368 Re-teined. Cf. the dedication to Albino, l. 6.
373 Honterus] Author of Cosmographiae Rudimenta, 1534, several revisions or re-issues of which appeared in the sixteenth century.
373-393 These lines are full of allusions which I cannot exactly interpret. In fact the whole poem, evidently suggested in style by Marston, Tourneur, and others, is a sort of mystification.
432 Orig. 'Dun'. One of the commonest spellings, and apparently the usual pronunciation.
FINIS.
Gentle Reader, beare with some faults, which through the obscuritie of the copie, and the absence of the Authour have escaped; as page 3. line 24. for veyne read reyne. p. 3. l. 6. for enjoyed read enjayld. p. 6. l. 10. for tener read knee. p. 12. l. 24 for Satamit read Catamite. Two staves there are misplaced, to the reforming whereof the sence will direct thee: what other errours thou findest, let thy pen amend, excusing the presse, and un-staining the Author.
[These corrections have been made in the text.]
Errata notes] The sublime coolness of this has been noted. The poet or his reader, less conscientious than the present editor, decided at p. 12 that it was not tanti. As a matter of fact 'Satamit' was already corrected in the copy used.]
ERRATA. VOL. II
Page 237. Psalm 141. l. 22 for severed read severe l. 23 for not read no l. 31 for arresse read accesse Page 238. Chorus. l. 42 for When read Whom Constancy. l. 21 for rain read ruin Page 239. (first) Song. l. 14 for blow read blew l. 27 for you read your (second) Song. l. 26 for soon read seen l. 30 for those read these Page 240. Lines. l. 7 for needs read weeds l. 22 for instant read distant l. 6 for field read fields Page 241. Psalm 137. l. 8 for captive read captived Page 242. Ballet. l. 29 for eye read eyes l. 41 for Those moods read These woods l. 63 for wood read woods Page 243. Song. l. 14 for then read there Epistle. l. 39 for life read less Page 245. Quatrains2. l. 4 for side read Tide l. 9 for flee; MS. fly Page 246. Epistle. l. 30 for captur'd read captiv'd Page 247. Hymn. l. 10 for Life read less Farewell. l. 27 for Disraye read Disease Page 248. Sir F. Carew. l. 8 for fought read sought Page 260. l. 34 for soon read seen Page 261. Sonnet. l. 5 for sure read free l. 11 for pride read prize l. 25 for grate read grace l. 27 for fate read face
Madam, 'tis true is printed in Jonson's Underwoods (1640, p. 247), where it opens Fair Friend, 'tis true, and follows A New-Year's Gift sung to King Charles, 1635. Godolphin's Commendatory Poem to Sandys's Paraphrase of the Divine Poems, 1648, was accidentally omitted from this collection: but as it is easily accessible, it has not been thought necessary to reprint it among these Errata.
VOL. III
Page 431, note, l. 6 from bottom, for 'hateful' read 'grateful'.
Printed in England at the Oxford University Press
Transcriber's Note:
Tables of Contents have been added to two of the books, where they were only present in the initial List of Contents.
In the original, the Commendatory Poems were printed in two columns, and the line numbers were placed convenient to the length of line, occasionally 29, 41, etc. Since all the poems are now in single column format, the line numbers in the Commendatory Poems have been restored to the usual 30, 40, etc.
At the time of the Caroline Period, England still followed the Julian calendar (after Julius Caesar, 44 B.C.), and celebrated New Year's Day on March 25th (Annunciation Day). Most Catholic countries accepted the Gregorian calendar (after Pope Gregory XIII) from some time after 1582 (the Catholic countries of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy in 1582, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland within a year or two, Hungary in 1587, and Scotland in 1600), and celebrated New Year's Day on January 1st. England finally changed to the Gregorian calendar in 1752.
This is the reason for the double dates in the early months of the years in some of the Notes. There is a reference on page 415 to 28th December, 1682, followed by a reference to January 28th, 1682/3. (1682 in England; 1683 in Scotland). Only after March 25th (Julian New Years Day) was the year the same in the two countries. The Julian calendar was known as 'Old Style', and the Gregorian calendar as 'New Style' (N.S.).
"Albino and Bellama"
Because of the length of this poem, the line notes have been linked, for each hundred lines, for easier access. Click the blue line number, and then the blue Return.
Errata (only obvious Printers' Errors have been corrected):
Page 68: [Footnote: 'fellnw' corrected to (2nd) 'fellow'.
"... this on Strafford's fellow worker and fellow victim...."
Page 76: [Line 20: 'publisbed' corrected to 'published'.
"whose minutes have been published in modern times".
Page 109: 'topô' should be 'typô'. May be a printer's error, or Saintsbury's or Stanley's original: retained.
"Pantachothen en heni topô poll' eidê pherôn,"
Page 226: Footnote: Line 64: 'Witb]' corrected to 'With]'
Page 256: 'flunnt' corrected to 'fluunt'.
Sidenote: "—Sparguntur in omnes, In te mista fluunt—Claudian."
Page 259, Sidenote: _Ganguin_. l. 6.
The historian's name is usually given as Gaguin nowadays, but formerly Guaguin was usual.
Page 301: 'freind' (sic) has been retained. There were no enforced spelling 'rules' at this time.
"Entered in the Stationers' Register on December 17, 1673, as 'A poem or copy intituled the Review, To the Reverend my honored freind Dr. Wm. Sancroft, Deane of St. Paules, A Pindarique Ode'."
Page 361: Stanza number I. missing. Added for consistency.
Page 384: Missing Stanza number 'II'. Present in the Latin version.
Page 431: 'hateful' corrected to 'grateful' as per the errata on page 562.
"That 'bitter' would be grateful to others besides unicorns after a surfeit of liquorice may be easily admitted."
Page 433: 'tbee' corrected to 'thee'.
"Smile at thee, on thee, like thee new,"
Page 497: Possible Printer's error, mentioned, but not corrected, by Saintsbury:
"The shrivers to their lords return with smiles, And on their looks a joy ovall chhriots had,"
could be:
"The shrivers to their lords return with smiles, And on their looks a joviall charact' had,"
(See Note, Line 2453).
Page 528: 'contiued' corrected to 'continued'.
"The spiders here had one continued loom:"
Page 539 (Note): 'tbe' corrected to 'the'; 'balf; corrected to 'half'.
"and I should not presume to be too certain as to the exact meaning of 'half-wrack'd with eye-men',"
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