NOTES SAMUEL BUTLER (1) HUDIBRAS. "Written in the Time of the Late Wars."-Title-page of the 1674 edition. Canto I. 1-14, 65-90, 119-26, 187-228. The title may have been taken from Spenser's Faerie Queene, II. ii. st. 17, 37, where the knight Huddibras perhaps stands for the Puritans. The Grub Street Journal, in 1731, derived the name from Hugh de Bras, the patron saint of Devonshire, the home of Colonel Rolls, supposed by some to be the original of Hudibras; it is more probable, however, that the original was Sir Samuel Luke. of Bedfordshire, a rigid Presbyterian and a colonel in the Parliamentary army, with whom Butler lived for some time (see "Hudibras," I. 1. 905-8). ¶ 10. long-eared: a reference to the short hair of the "Roundheads," which made their ears more conspicuous, and doubtless also to the genus asinus. 13. Sir Knight: Hudibras. ¶30. mood and figure: in scholastic logic, syllogisms—or arguments by the use of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion— were classified according to their mood and figure, or form. .... (2) 42. Tycho Brahe: a great Danish astronomer (1546-1601). Erra Pater: a nickname (said to be derived from a Jewish astrologer), here applied probably to William Lilly (1602-81), a famous English astrologer. ¶51. true blue: "Genuine, lasting blue, blue being taken as a type of constancy; unwavering, stanch; . . specifically applied to the Scotch Presbyterians or Whig party in the seventeenth century, from the color (blue) adopted by the Covenanters in contradistinction to the royal red."-The Century Dictionary. ¶53. errant wandering (Latin "errare," to go about, to wander); cf. "knight errant.' 54. the true Church Militant: the Church Militant, in contrast to the Church Triumphant in heaven, is the church fighting against sin in this world; the next lines show that Butler is using "militant" in its literal sense and referring to the Presbyterians' part in the civil war. (3) 73, 74. In opposition to the spirit of merry-making encouraged by the English Church, the Presbyterians fasted on Christmas and other festivals. 86. The Presbyterians and Puritans were accused of being secretly given to the creature comforts which they publicly denounced: "Sir John Birkenhead queries whether Mr. Peters did justly preach against Christmas pies the same day that he eat two minced pies for his dinner."-Grey's note. CHARLES SACKVILLE, EARL OF DORSET (4) SONG. Sub-heading, "Written at sea, in the first before an engagement." 29. Opdam: the Dutch admiral. Dutch coast. Dutch war (1665), the night 32. Goree: a district on the (5) 38. vapour = boast. ¶44. main: a hand, or throw, at dice (Latin "manus,' hand). ¶45. ombre: a game at cards; see Pope's "Rape of the Lock," III. 25 ff. (p. 97). (6) ON A LADY WHO FANCIED HERSELF A BEAUTY. ¶ 7. blackguard: the term was used of vagrant city boys, who ran errands, carried torches to light passengers along the dark streets, etc. 18. link torch. JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER (10) A SONG. 6. fantastic-controlled by fantasy, capricious. JOHN OLDHAM (10) TO THE MEMORY OF MR. CHARLES MORWENT. Stanza 21. (11) 8, 9. It was formerly believed that at the winter solstice the halcyon, or kingfisher, laid its eggs in nests floating on the sea and that the sea was then calm for a fortnight. .... JOHN DRYDEN "I considered that pleasure was not the only end of poesie; and that even the instructions of morality were not so wholly the business of a poet as that the precepts and examples of piety were to be omitted. For to leave that employment altogether to the clergy were to forget that religion was first taught in verse. . . . . By the harmony of words we elevate the mind to a sense of devotion, as our solemn music, which is inarticulate poesie, does in churches; and by the lively images of piety, adorned by action, through the senses allure the soul, which, while it is charmed in a silent joy of what it sees and hears, is struck at the same time with a secret veneration of things celestial, and is wound up insensibly into the practice of that which ft admires."-Preface to Tyrannic Love (1669). "These little critics do not well consider what is the work of a poet, and what the graces of a poem. The story is the least part of either: I mean the foundation of it, before it is modelled by the art of him who writes it; who forms it with more care, by exposing only the beautiful parts of it to view, than a skilful lapidary sets a jewel. . . . Judgment, indeed, is necessary in him; but 't is fancy that gives the life-touches and the secret graces to it. . . . . The employment of a poet is like that of a curious gunsmith or watchmaker: the iron or silver is not his own, but they are the least part of that which gives the value; the price lies wholly in the workmanship."-Preface to An Evening's Love (1668). "Imaging is in itself the very height and life of poetry. 'T is, as Longinus describes it, a discourse which, by a kind of enthusiasm, or extraordinary emotion of the soul, makes it seem to us that we behold those things which the poet paints, so as to be pleased with them and to admire them."-Preface to The State of Innocence (1674). "But that benefit which I consider most in it [rhyme], because I have not seldom found it, is that it bounds and circumscribes the fancy. For imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless that, like an high-ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it outrun the judgment. The great easiness of blank verse renders the poet too luxuriant; he is tempted to say many things which might better be omitted, or at least shut up in fewer words. But when the difficulty of artful rhyming is interposed, where the poet commonly confines his sense to his couplet, and must contrive that sense into such words that the rhyme shall naturally follow them, not they the rhyme, the fancy then gives leisure to the judgment to come in, which, seeing so heavy a tax imposed, is ready to cut off all unnecessary expenses."-Epistle Dedicatory to The Rival Ladies (1663). "Let the chastisements of Juvenal be never so necessary for his new kind of satire, let him declaim as wittily and sharply as he pleases, yet still the nicest and most delicate touches of satire consist in fine raillery. . How easy it is to call rogue and villain, and that wittily! but how hard to make a man appear a fool, a blockhead, or a knave, without using any of those opprobrious terms! To spare the grossness of the names, and to do the thing yet more severely, is to draw a full face and to make the nose and cheeks stand out, and yet not to employ any depth of shadowing. This is the mystery of that noble trade, which yet no master can teach to his apprentice; he may give the rules, but the scholar is never the nearer in his practice. Neither is it true that this fineness of raillery is offensive: a witty man is tickled, while he is hurt in this manner; and a fool feels it not. The occasion of an offence may possibly be given, but he cannot take it. If it be granted that in effect this way does more mischief; that a man is secretly wounded, and though he be not sensible himself yet the malicious world will find it for him; yet there is still a vast difference betwixt the slovenly butchering of a man, and the fineness of a stroke that separates the head from the body and leaves it standing in its place. A man may be capable, as Jack Ketch's wife said of his servant, of a plain piece of work, a bare hanging; but to make a malefactor die sweetly was only belonging to her husband.”—A Discourse on Satire (1692). .... (12) HEROIC STANZAS. Stanzas 6-14. ¶11, 12. Cromwell won his first great victory, at Marston Moor, when he was forty-five; Pompey at the same age celebrated his triumph for his conquest of Mithridates, after which his fortunes declined till his defeat by Caesar thirteen years later. 18. that blessing: Cromwell's dominion, or rule. ¶ 21. sticklers= arbitrators, peace-makers; often used of seconds or umpires in a duel, who interposed when they saw fit. The generals referred to were the Presbyterians Essex, Waller, and others, who were suspected of being unwilling to follow up advantages gained against the king. 28. breathing-opening. (13) 30. that bold Greek: Alexander the Great. 35. 36. Of conquests i. e., as thick with conquests. thick: (13) ASTRAEA REDUX. Subheading, "A poem on the happy restoration and return of his sacred majesty, Charles the Second." Lines 21-60. ¶9. their hold attempt: i. e., the bold attempt of them. ¶ 15. the sacred purple: the bishops. scarlet gown: the nobles. ¶ 17. Typhoeus: a hundred-headed giant of Greek mythology; the same as Typhon. (14) 25. Cyclops: the savage giant of Greek fable, whose one eye was put out by Ulysses and his companions. ¶27. our painted ancestors: the ancient Britons, who painted their bodies with a blue pigment 29. Charles his Charles's. (14) INCANTATION. From The Indian Queen, III. i. Ismeron, an Indian conjuror, summons the god of sleep to interpret a disturbing dream of Zempoalla, an Indian queen who has usurped the throne of Mexico. ¶ 14. clifts cliffs. Stanzas 119-32, (15) ANNUS MIRABILIS. Subtitle, "The Year of Wonders, 1666 " 216-30. "I have chosen to write my poem in quatrains, or stanzas of four in alternate rhyme, because I have ever judged them more noble and of greater dignity, both for the sound and number, than any other verse in use amongst us. . . . . But to proceed from wit in the general notion of it to the proper wit of an heroic or historical poem, I judge it chiefly to consist in the delightful imaging of persons, actions, passions, or things. T is not the jerk or sting of an epigram, nor the seeming contradiction of a poor antithesis, . neither is it so much the morality of a grave sentence, . . . . but it is some lively and apt description, dressed in such colors of speech that it sets before your eyes the absent object as perfectly and more delightfully than nature."-An Account of the Ensuing Poem. (15) The War with Holland. The passage describes a part of the last day of a prolonged battle, June 1-4, 1666 (16) The Great London Fire. The fire burned for six days, and destroyed about 13,000 houses besides many public buildings (17) 25. letted = hindered. 29. The heads of executed traitors were displayed on London Bridge; the heads of some of the leaders in the civil war had recently been placed there. 32. Sabbath notes: "The infernal hymns chanted at the witches' sabbath, a meeting concerning which antiquity told and believed strange things."-Scott. (18) 54. the hallowed quire: St. Paul's Cathedral. 57. Belgian wind: Holland was still at war with England, and even a wind from that quarter might be conceived of as hostile. (18) PROLOGUE TO "AURENG-ZEBE." Aureng-Zebe, the last of Dryden's tragedies in rhyme, was acted at the Theatre Royal, in Drury Lane, in 1675. 18. Cf. p. 430 for Dryden's former defense of rhyme in plays. (19) 37. 38. The reference is to the rivalry of the two principal theaters, the Theatre Royal and the Duke's Theatre; both had recently built expensive playhouses. 40. Wit -mind; so usually in literature of this period (O. E. "witan," to know; Latin "videre." to see) (19) FAREWELL, UNGRATEFUL TRAITOR. From The Spanish Friar, V. i. (20) ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. Part I. 45-251, 459-568; Part II. 412-36, 457-509. (20) Part I. Cf. II Sam.. chaps. 15-18 The device of using the parallel Scripture story. for safety and emphasis, did not originate with Dryden. In 1680 there had been printed in London a prose broadside, "Absalom's Conspiracy, or the Tragedy of Treason." It begins with a warning against the dangers of ambition for sovereignty, as shown by "instances both modern and ancient"; tells the Bible story of Absalom; and ends significantly with the |