NOTES SIR THOMAS WYATT (1) THE LOVER COMPARETH HIS STATE. The sonnet is a translation of Petrarch's Sonnet 156: Passa la nave mia colma d'oblio Per aspro mar a mezza notte il verno Siede 'l signor, anzi 'l nimico mio: A ciascun remo un pensier pronto e rio, Che la tempesta e 'l fin par ch' abbi' a scherno: La vela rompe un vento umido eterno Di sospir, di speranze, e di desio: Pioggia di lagrimar, nebbia di sdegni, Bagna e rallenta le già stanche sarte, Che son d'error con ignoranzia attorto: Morta fra l'onde è la ragione e l'arte, Talch' incomincio a disperar del porto. (3) HE RULETH NOT THOUGH HE REIGN over Realms. 5. thy fear: fear of thee. Thule: the name given by an early Greek explorer to a group of islands lying far north of Great Britain, perhaps the Orkney and Shetland Islands; the term came to be used, poetically, for any very distant region. ¶20. let-leave; cf. "let alone." ¶ 21. profet=profit. HENRY HOWARD, EARL OF SURREY (3) DESCRIPTION OF SPRING. 1. Soote sweet. 4. make mate. ¶8. flete=float, swim. (4) 11. mings=mingles, mixes. (4) THE MEANS TO ATTAIN HAPPY LIFE. A translation from Martial, Epigrams, 19. mean medium. x. 47. 3. left: i. e., inherited. (4) TRANSLATION OF THE ÆNEID. Book ii. 201-27. The scene is the Greek camp, toward the end of the Trojan War: the Greeks have craftily withdrawn, pretending to set sail for Greece, leaving the wooden horse (with Greek warriors inside) behind them, ostensibly as an offering to Pallas Athene; the Trojans have been deliberating whether to take the horse inside the walls, and Laocoön has counseled against the plan, hurling a spear into the side of the horse; the incident in the selection follows. 4. Tenedon: an island near by. ¶5. fleting floating, swimming. (5) 13. waltring=weltering, rolling from side to side. ¶ 19. raught reached, caught. 34. boss: the knob in the center. CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM "In the latter end of the same king's reign sprung up a new company of courtly makers, of whom Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder, and Henry, Earl of Surrey, were the two chieftains; who, having travelled into Italy, and there tasted the sweet and stately measures and style of the Italian poesie, as novices newly crept out of the schools of Dante, Arioste, and Petrarch, they greatly polished our rude and homely manner of vulgar poesie from that it had been before, and for that cause may justly be said the first reformers of our English metre and style..... Their conceits were lofty their styles stately, their conveyance cleanly, their terms proper, their metre sweet and well-proportioned, in all imitating very naturally and studiously their master, Francis Petrarcha."-George Puttenham, The Art of English Poesie, 1589. GEORGE GASCOIGNE (5) THE STEEL GLASS. The steel glass is a magic mirror (mirrors were often made of polished steel), which shows everything just as it is. ¶ 1. my priests: a train of priests have just been seen in the mirror and described. ¶ 8. utt'ring-putting out, selling. ¶9. It was usual for the customer to take cloth to the tailor to be made up into a suit; if there was more cloth than was needed, it was easy for the tailor to keep back some. (6) 17. fermenty: frumenty, hulled wheat boiled in milk and seasoned; here, adulterated malt. ¶ 18. Davie Diker: "diker"-digger of dikes, or ditches; "Davie" was a common name for a peasant. ¶20. toll not with a golden thumb: take no more of the meal than they are allowed by law, usually four pounds to a sack. The phrase "thumb of gold” originally meant that a miller had a fine sense of touch, and could tell accurately the fineness of the meal by rubbing it between his thumb and finger; such a miller was in demand and grew rich; it was a later extension of meaning which made "thumb of gold" synonymous with dishonest gains. ¶21. barm: a ferment used as yeast; the implication is that the bakers made their loaves big enough by over-raising the bread instead of using enough flour. ¶ 22. baggage rotten stuff. ¶23. blow not over: taint not, do not allow to get stale; cf. “flyblown." 25. The implication is that when housewives get their linen, flax, etc., woven into cloth, it does not come back full weight. 27. mercers: merchants. 30. old cast robes: i. e., to make new hats of. ¶34. giving day: giving time to pay in; the insinuation is that the price is raised unduly when credit is thus given. Cf. Jonson's A Tale of a Tub, IV. i: Faith, then I'll pray you, 'cause he is my neighbour, 35. ferret silk: a coarse kind of silk. ¶37. toys-trifles. (6) Epilogus. ¶ 1. my lord: Lord Grey of Wilton, to whom the poet Spenser was afterward secretary; the poem is dedicated to him. (7) 27. side-large (O.E. "sid," large, capacious). ¶31. Dutchkin-little Dutch. doublets: outer garments, extending from the neck to the waist or a little below, and worn with a belt; they were often imitated in women's dress. jerkins: jackets. jagged=having notches. 32. spangs spangles. fet-fetched. 33. copped-topped. shut eyes. 44. like please. ¶36. wink= THOMAS SACKVILLE, EARL OF DORSET (8) THE INDUCTION. Stanzas 1-4, 7-11, 14-16, 26, 27, 30-34, 43-57. 73-76. The poem is part of a larger work, by several hands, The Mirror for Magistrates, in which are told various stories of the tragical downfall of the great, as warning and instruction to men in high place. ¶7. tapets-tapestries; here used for the foliage of the trees. 10. Soote = sweet. ¶ 21. whereas where. ¶ 27. Virgo: the name of a constellation, and of the sign of the zodiac in which the sun rides in autumn. ¶28. Thetis: a sea-goddess; the whole line means that the constellation of the Virgin had now sunk below the horizon into the sea. The meaning of the stanza is that the winter was coming on. the noon, i. e., the south meridian. (9) 34. chare chariot. 37. leas=meadows. -led back, recalled. 31. noonslead= place of 43. leams gleams. ¶ 48. reducèd (10) 68. apart-part, stop. ¶ 69. dewle=dole, lament. ¶ 72. stint cease. spillkill. 74. dure endure. attaint=attainted. 75. forfaint-very faint; "for" is inten sive, as in "forlorn." ¶84. reave-bereave, take away. The Faerie Queene, II. viii. 99-266. Cf. the Eneid, vi, and (11) 103. yeding=going (O.E. "eode," preterite of "gan," to go). ¶ 105. cleped= called. Averne: Avernus, the Latin name for a lake near Naples, supposed to be the entrance to hell. ¶ 107. swelth=mud and filth, refuse (O.E. "swilian," to swill). ¶ 109. This is the ancient tradition about Lake Avernus, probably from the resemblance of the word to Greek ǎopvos, "without birds"; cf. the Eneid, vi. 239 ff. ¶ 114. besprent=sprinkled over. 116. stent stint, cease. ¶ 125. cheer face (Low Latin "cara," face; Greek κápa, head). ¶ 128. proferred-put forward. ¶ 131. staring standing up stiff, bristling. ¶ 132. stoynde = stunned. (12) 138. Sisters: the Fates, who spun, measured out, and cut the thread of man's life. 145. forwast utterly laid waste. ¶ 147. beseek beseech. ¶ 148. and: a form of "an"=if. ¶ 156. corps body. ¶ 157. retchless reckless, heedless (13) 172. pilled=bald (Latin "pilare," to deprive of hair). forlore-forlorn. ¶ 181. recure cure, recovery. 206. shryght=shrieked. (14) 210. Enthrilling=piercing, making a hole in. reave-bereave, rob. ¶211. by and by immediately. ¶ 213. daunts conquers. ¶220. eftsoons at once; literally "soon after." ¶222. perdie=pardie, truly (French "par," by, "Dieu," God). ¶237. forhewed cut deeply; "for" is intensive. 238. targe-shield (O.E. "targe," frame); "target" is a diminutive of the same word. (15) 251. yfere=together; a contraction of "in fere" (M. E. "fere," O.E. "gefera," companion). ¶255. downstilled=distilled. 257. Took on with plaint=took up her complaint. ANONYMOUS (15) ALE SONG. From Gammer Gurton's Needle, II. i. The authorship of the play is uncertain, although it has been attributed to John Still; but the song is certainly not his, being substantially the same as a popular song of earlier date. ¶8. him that wears a hood: i. e., a monk. (16) 15. do me stead serve me. 25. trowl send around the circle. ¶ 26. malt= tippler. worm= SIR PHILIP SIDNEY "Now, therein, of all sciences (I speak still of human, and according to the human conceit) is our poet the monarch. For he doth not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect into the way as will entice any man to enter into it; nay, he doth, as if your journey should lie through a fair vineyard, at the very first give you a cluster of grapes, that, full of the taste, you may long to pass farther. He beginneth not with obscure definitions, which must blur the margin with interpretations and load the memory with doubtfulness, but cometh to you with words set in delightful proportion, either accompanied with or prepared for the wellenchanting skill of music; and with a tale, forsooth, he cometh unto you with a tale which holdeth children from play and old men from the chimney-corner; and, pretending no more, doth intend the winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue, even as the child is often brought to take most wholesome things by hiding them in such others as have a pleasant taste."-Sidney's Apology for Poetry, 1595 (written, 1583). (16) EPITHALAMIUM. From the Arcadia, Book III. The poem celebrates the marriage of the shepherd Thyrsis and the shepherdess Kala. (17) 6. turtles: turtle-doves 37. silly harmless. (18) 64. shrewd ill-natured; cf. "shrew." ¶65. privateness unsociableness. ¶67. toys-trifles. (19) ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. Astrophel-star-lover. Stella-star. Stella was Penelope Devereux, sister of the Earl of Essex; Sidney had known her from childhood, but it is |