SOME ELUCIDATIONS OF THE INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITORS

Lines

1. So also, “. . . amidst the fairest flowers Of the blest isles, Elysium’s blooming bowers.” Greek inscription on a marble at Rome. Neaves, Greek Anthology, Edin., 1874, p. 62 (“blooming,” vulgarism, meaning weedy.)

2. Cf. Ezekiel, xxxvii. 1, 2.

3. Academic “crowns and halos” (cf. Seneca, Naturales Questiones, 1, 2, 1 and 3) must needs, for obvious reasons, be made of paper. Notice also the subtle suggestion that Dr. Ellis is laurea donandus Apollinari, worthy of the laurel (crown) of Apollo. (Horace, Carminum, iv. 2, 9.)

4. Why should “the gown and hood” be required “for angels’ wings”? To clothe them withal, of course. The draping of angels with wings and the attachment of wings to the structure of the back of the human figure have presented problems to artists in all ages. The best solution is undoubtedly to cover up the wings, and the gown with its hood is the only appropriate garment. (Cf. Carpenter, Edward, “Angels’ Wings,” . . . London, 1898, pp. 25-40, in which the anatomical and sartorial difficulties are fully discussed.)

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8. Principal Hutton and Dr. Ellis present the phenomenon of ὁµοβλαστής sprouting (or swearing) together. Cf. Theophrastus, “On the Causes of Plants,” v, 5, 4.

10. In other words, Dr. Ellis is at once πολῠπαίπᾰλος, exceeding crafty (i.e. master of many crafts, including angling). Cf. Homer, Odyssey, 15, 419, 11. and πολῠπᾰθής, subject to many passions. Cf. Plutarch, Moralia, 171.

11-12. A subtle hint of ἐλᾰσί-βροντα, thunder hurling (cf. Pindar, Fragments, 108), or ἑλλίσσω βωµόν, to dance round about it (whatever it may be). Cf. Callimachus, Del. 321.

13. Clearly referring to “praedam calamo tremente ducit,” he draws in his prey with a rod. Martial, 4, 30, 9. Cf. infra, “Weed” p. 31.

16. “The pious Jordan” is evidently a bull, referring to the cult of the river-god. It reflects tauriformis Aufidus, the bull-formed Aufidus, the river upon which Horace was born (Horace, Carminum, iv. 14, 25). We also have our Afidus or Jordan, upon whose banks our own Horace lives.

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17-20. An ingenious reference to the University final examinations in May, when candidates write all day and the examiner reads and smokes till dawn. Having subjected his victims to freshly devised tortures (novo quaestiones genere distorsit Suetonius, Dom. 10), he broods over their miseries and their papers—ἐλεᾶς ἀνέλεος—an owl without pity.

23-24. Or, in the language of the angler, his ἐπανθρᾰκίδες have been our ἐπανθισμός; his weeds have given us the motive for the design on the back of this book.

J. M. J. J. M.

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