NOTES PART II.-CANTO I. ARGUMENT. 1. In the first edition the argument began thus— The change has certainly not been for the better, the second line as it now stands being very obscure. 3. action on the case. A legal technical term for an action brought to recover redress for injuries done without force, and where the law has not specially provided a remedy. 5. receives. In the first edition this read revi's; an old word signifying to cap a small stake with a larger one. CANTO I. 1. The opening of this canto is, as Butler himself informs us, imitated from the opening lines of the Fourth Book of Virgil's Aeneid 'At regina gravi jamdudum saucia cura 2. rusty. First edition reads 'bloody.' 3-6. These four lines are in the first edition given thus'And unto Love we turn our style To let our reader breathe a while, By this time tired with th' horrid sounds 9. strange = wonder. Glanvill, in the Vanity of Dogmatizing, speaking of Aristotle says-Which yet we need not strange at from one of whom a father saith nec Deum coluit nec curavit.' 17. drawing blood. The old superstition was that by drawing blood from a witch her magic power was destroyed. Cf. 'Devil or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee, So also SHAKS. Henry VI., Pt. I. Act I. Sc. v. 'Scots are like witches; do but whet your pen, 20. by pulling, &c. Considerable skill in the healing art was an indispensable accomplishment for the lady of the chivalric age. 24. to change their site. In these and the following lines, modern playwrights are bantered for having abandoned the restraints of the 'unities" of time, of place, and of action, which had been so strictly observed by the classical dramatists. 25. former times, &c. That is commit anachronisms. Many such are found in Shakspeare. But as Butler had just been imitating Virgil's Fourth Book of the Aeneid, it is probable that he was alluding in this line to the bringing together of Dido and Æneas. 29-30. Cf. II. ii. 321-4 and note. 32. lately. First edition reads whilom.' 40. dog-bolt. 'Dog' is a prefix of contempt, as in dogLatin, dog-trick, &c. The use of the word dog-bolt as an adjective is very rare and seems difficult to explain. Perhaps Johnson's suggestion may be near the mark, that the allusion is to the refuse of a sifting, (bolter sieve) only fit for dogs. Cf. = 'I'll not be made a prey unto the marshall 46. ycleped, called. The y is the A.S. prefix ge- which is probably the same as the Greek enclitic -yé, a particle only used to lay stress on the word to which it is attached. The same prefix is found also in ywis certainly. This latter word being generally written in MSS. iwis or Iwis has, by confusion with the 1st personal pronoun, given rise to a purely fictitious verb wis = to know, which has even found its way into most dictionaries. 47. boards on air. Alluding to the old superstition that the chameleon fed only on air. 48. eats her words. Explained by Warburton to mean that if you trace home a rumour it always contradicts itself. 49 sq. The rest of this description of Fame is a burlesque of Virgil's account of her, Aeneid iv. 178, sq. : 'Illam Terra parens, ira irritata deorum, Extremam ut perhibent, Caeo Enceladoque sororem Monstrum horrendum, ingens; cui quot sunt corpore plumae Tot linguae, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit aures. 53. welkin. A.S. wolcen = cloud. The word has come however to be applied to the blue sky. Cf.— 'But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Tempest, Act I. Sc. ii. 1. 4. Cf. also for the meaning blue sky— 56. time. 'Look on me with your welkin eye.' Winter's Tale, Act 1. Sc. ii. 1. 136. Mercuries and Diurnals were the newspapers of the 60. whetstones. Any incitement to a lie seems to have been known as a 'whetstone,' the metaphor being clearly that of sharpening the inventive wit of the narrator. Grey suggests that the word may be indebted for this signification to the tale of Attus Navius, the augur, cutting the whetstone of Tarquinius Priscus with a razor. But the simple metaphor of sharpening is probably the true explanation: in this sense Robert Recorde (died 1558) called his treatise on Algebra The Whetstone of Witte. 61. pacquet-mail, a parcel bag. French malle, a bag. 66. twice two legs. Butler possesses both wit and humour, of which the latter is by far the more difficult of appreciation. Nearly all commentators complain that there is nothing wonderful in puppies with twice two legs,' and propose to read 'twice four.' Of course the whole humour of the line depends on just that very fact that there is nothing wonderful in twice two legs. 81. Democritus. Born about B. C. 430. With his name is intimately connected the origin of the Atomic Theory in philosophy, though the credit of its real origination rests rather with his teacher Leucippus. In the ethical side of his teaching he advised a life of tranquil contemplation of the brighter side of human affairs; hence by misapprehension of later writers he was supposed to have always laughed at everything, and thus obtained the title of the laughing philosopher.' For similar reasons and with similar injustice the title of the 'crying philosopher' was bestowed on Heraclitus of Ephesus, who by dwelling on the transitory nature and paltry value of individual existences, may in a sense be said to have been the source whence the Stoic philosophy took its rise. 84. dump. Plight, condition. More commonly in the plural. Cf. Hudibras I. iii. 95, note. The nearest allied word is the Swedish dumpin melancholy, cf. German dumpf damp, as in 'to damp one's spirits.' For the use of the sing. cf He's in a deep dump now'; Beaumont and Fletcher, Humorous Lieutenant, IV. 6. 91-2. These two lines originally ran― 'That is, to see him delivered safe Of's wooden burthen and Squire Ralph.' 6 96. usher. There seems some doubt amongst commentators whether this signifies an attendant, or a part of the widow's dress. In Part III. Canto iii. 1. 399, Ralpho, alluding to this occasion, speaks of two of her retinue' as having been present. The waiting damsel' would have been one, and the usher' must have been the other. From the words as they stand it seems almost impossible that usher can here mean attendant, for attendants are not implements which ladies wear.' And yet it appears that there is absolutely no authority for the use of 'usher' as an article of dress. 6 100. limbo, the abl. of limbus, a border. In limbo patrum is the full phrase, applied to the border of hell, where the saints of the Old Testament were said to have awaited the descent of Christ. Cf. 'All these, upwhirled aloft, Fly o'er the back side of the world, far off MILTON, Paradise Lost, iii. 495. 110. cheek by jowl. Exactly side by side. The two words are intimately connected through the Saxon ceole cheek. The word jowl is now chiefly used for the hanging cheek of some dogs such as the bloodhound, &c. Hence the peculiar applicability of the phrase in the verse of the old song So also 'When I gwoes dead as it may hap My grave shall be under the good yeal-tap; Follow! nay I'll go with thee, cheek by jowl.' SHAKS. Midsummer Night's Dream, III. ii. 338. 132. beat a drum. A drummer boy is a very common form of family ghost, and superstition has been busy in concocting stories in which a supernatural drummer gives warning of a death impending in the family to which he is attached. See Glanvil on Witchcraft. 171. landered. French lavendier, a washer, our laundress. 172. the Russian standard. Peter the Great put a fine on the wearing of the luxuriant beards in which his nobility had taken so much pride. Hence in his reign the beards had to be either entirely shaved off or cut down to a small size. 174. bravest, best adorned. Bravery in the English of the time means finery. Cf. 'With all her bravery on and tackle trim.' MILTON, Sams. Ag. v. 717. 178. This line is difficult to explain exactly. In advancing upon the enemy the part furthest from the foe is the rear, whilst in any movement the van is the part of the army which leads that movement. To say that the rear leads the van is thus a whimsical way of saying that the army is retreating. Here the knight's beard is in the rear, i.e. furthest from the enemy; and yet it leads the van. The knight was therefore running away. 184. Stoics. The founder of this sect was Zeno of Citium. Teaching that Reason was the great principle of Nature, and that life according to Nature was the ideal to be aimed at, it was almost a necessary conclusion that all mere passions and affections were as far as possible to be kept under control and suppressed by force of will in order that the purely intellectual side of man's nature might hold undisputed sway over him. Pain therefore was taught not to be an evil in itself, and the disciple was encouraged to rise above it by smothering all expression of it. In these liues Butler as usual shows sound scholarship, however quaint the garb in which he clothes it. 201. conceit, in its proper sense of opinion or imagination. Cf. 'Proteus, the good conceit I hold of thee.' SHAKS. Two Gentlemen of Verona, III. ii. 18. It is more common in the sense of the product of imagination, in particular an unexpected or quaint turn of fancy-Composed with great ambition of such conceits as, notwithstanding the reformation begun by Waller and Denham, the example of Cowley still kept in reputation.'-JOHNSON, Life of Dryden, Clar. Press Ed. p. 4. So also 'Some to conceit alone their works confine And glittering thoughts struck out at every line.' POPE, Essay on Criticism, 1. 289. |