435a major fellow there. Ejected in 1643, he repaired to Oxford and there became intimate with the Royalist leaders. For ten years after 1646 he was a member of the royal household in France. He was back in England seeking retirement in 1656, when the most important edition of his poems was published. It included in addition to the poems of the Mistress, which had been for ten years the favorite love poems of the age, his Pindaric odes and his ponderous unfinished epic Davideis. At the Restoration he retired to private life at Barn Elms and Chertsey, and died in 1667. His reputation was highest in his own time when he was regarded as a model of the cultivated poet. He survives to-day in the few examples of his poetry where he condescends to be unaffected, and in his simple, graceful, charming essays, among the first of their kind in the language. ODE VI, etc. 15. the horse, pack horse. 24. Nestor, King of Pylus, the oldest counsellor of the Greeks against Troy. THE RESURRECTION 435b 14. quire, choir. 436a 54. Pindaric, Pindar, ca. 522-478 B.C., the greatest of the Greek lyric poets and father of the ode in western literatures, whom Cowley is imitating. JOHN DRYDEN MRS. ANNE KILLIGREW Anne Killigrew, niece to the dramatists Thomas and William Killigrew, died in 1685 at the age of twenty-five. An edition of her poems was issued the same year. Dryden's ode was published in the volume. In Dryden's day the title "Mrs." was used for both married and unmarried women. 436b 26. Thy father, Henry Killigrew, a di vine, who wrote a tragedy, The Conspiracy, which was published in 1638. 33. Sappho, a Greek lyric poetess who flourished about 600 B.C., known as "the Tenth Muse." Of her nine books of lyrics all are lost except a single ode to Aphrodite and a few fragments. 43. trine, the favorable aspect of two stars 120° apart. 437a 68. Arethusian stream. See note to 1. 85 of Lycidas. Dryden 82. Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher of the first century after Christ. probably confused him with Diogenes. 437b 103. demains, demesnes, domains. 103. the Dumb Sister, the muse of Painting. 128. Our martial king, James II. 438a 134. Our Phoenix queen. Mary of Este, queen of England, was as eminent for beauty as rank." See note to 1. 18 of A Praise of His Lady, p. 203. 162. Orinda, Mrs. Katherine Philips, 16311664, "The Matchless Orinda." Both she and Anne Killigrew died of smallpox. 165. her warlike brother, Henry Killigrew, a naval officer, who rose ultimately to the rank of admiral. 438b 175. Pleiads, the seven stars, part of the constellation Taurus. 180 f. Valley of Jehosophat. Cf. Joel iii, 2, 12. A SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY St. Cecilia was a Christian martyr of the third century and by tradition the patron saint of music. From about 1683 a musical society in London had been celebrating November 22 annually as St. Cecilia's Day. 439a 17. Jubal. See Genesis iv, 21. 44. The sacred Organ. Cecilia is represented by the poet, perhaps without authority, as being the inventress of the organ. 439b ALEXANDER'S FEAST The poem celebrated the Feast of 1. for Persia won, celebrating the conquest of Persia. 2. Philip's warlike son, Alexander the Great. 9. Thais, an Athenian courtesan, mistress of Alexander, reputed to have incited him to fire the Persian palace at Persepolis. 20. Timotheus, musician to Alexander, not to be confused with the celebrated Athenian poet who lived also, though a little earlier, in the fourth century before Christ. 28. A dragon's fiery form, etc. The poet represents Jove as wooing Olympias, Alexander's mother, in the form of a dragon and begetting, or inspiring the conception of, her all-conquering son. 29. spires, coils. 440a 75. Darius, Darius III, the last king of Persia. 440b 97. Lydian, sweet, melting. 441a 132. Furies, etc. See note to 1. 109 of Sackville's Induction. WILLIAM CONGREVE William Congreve was preeminently a dramatist. He was born at Bardsey near Leeds, and on the removal of the family to Ireland was educated, a con 441b temporary and friend of Swift, in the famous Kilkenny School and at the University of Dublin. From the university he entered the Middle Temple but soon gave up law for literature. He began his dramatic career in 1692 and was highly successful until the end of the century, when, finding the public taste changing, under the attacks of Collier, toward a reformed drama, he gave up the profession of playwright and in several public appointments lived a life of ease and literary sovereignty until his death in 1729. He was a writer of poems, as well as plays, but these have not generally added to his fame. ODE At a time when ode writing was popular, this ode was written to correct the mistaken notion that the English ode of the time, following the examples of Cowley, was a true imitation of Pindar, and to some extent to show by example what a genuine Pindaric should be. 2. Calliope, the muse of Heroic Poetry. The Muses were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory). 3. Anna, Anne, daughter of James II, queen of England, 1702-1714. 7. Castalian spring, a fountain on the slope of Parnassus, sacred to Apollo and the Muses. 14. Pierian heights, the legendary birthplace of Orpheus and the Muses in northern Thessaly. 16. Alcides, Hercules. 19. Cyllene's shady Hill, the mountain on which Hermes or Mercury was born, in Arcadia. 23. Latona's son, Apollo. 442a 35. Mantuan. Mantua was the early home and probably the birthplace of Virgil. 35. Mæonian, Homeric. According to one account, Homer was a native of Mæonia in Asia Minor. 41. Boyn, a river in Ireland, beside which William III defeated the army of James II in 1690. 43. Augusta, London. 45. Tithon, Tithonus. See note to p. 224a, 1. 56. 56. Halcyon. See note to Gower's Ceir and Alceone, p. 160b. 61. a world of wars, the war of the Spanish Succession. 442b 75. Zembla, Nova Zembla, in the Arctic Ocean, north of Russia. 82. Astræa, the goddess of Justice. 84. Marlbro', John Churchill, first duke of Marlborough, the greatest military genius produced by the war of the Spanish Succession. 90. Ister, Latin name of the Danube River. 95. When bold Bavaria, etc. The celebrated Battle of Blenheim (a Bavarian village on the Danube) was fought on August 13, 1704. Marlborough was its hero. See Addison's The Campaign, p. 471. 443a 117. Belgia, Belgium. 117. Brabant, the Netherlands. 118. Ramilia's day. The triumph at Ramillies in Belgium, May 23, 1706, was one of Marlborough's great achievements, as it meant the expulsion of the French from the Low Countries. 119. Cannæ . . . Pharsalia. See note to Il. 410, 422 of Sackville's Induction. 66 JOHN OLDHAM The poet John Oldham, born at ShiptonMoyne in Gloucestershire, was the son of a Nonconformist divine who was 'silenced" when the poet was only ten years old, and the lad consequently was brought up in straitened circumstances. He had a career at Oxford, however, but quit on receiving the B.A. degree in 1670, although his attainments were recognized. He became usher in a school at Croydon, where Rochester and other courtiers sought his acquaintance from an interest in his wit. As a tutor in various places in or about London, he came to know the literary celebrities and won favor by his satires. He died of smallpox near Nottingham in his thirtieth year. In his satires he displayed original power and was capable of strong invective, but he is perhaps best in the care-free small way of the libertine, suggestive of Rochester. THE CARELESS GOOD FELLOW 1. this fooling and plotting of late, in reference to the Popish Plot of 1678 and subsequent events deriving from it. 9. Tyburn, a place of execution near Hyde Park in London. 444b 15. damn us to woollen, condemn us to woolen garments instead of silken as becomes gentlemen. 20. right and succession. England was much agitated over the matter of Charles II's successor, whether it should be the Protestant Duke of Monmouth or the Catholic Duke of York. See Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel and notes. 25. leagues with the Hollander. The chief business of Sir William Temple's life from about 1665 till 1680 was arranging treaties in some way involving Holland. He succeeded in a general pacification only about 1680. 26. Sidney and Monsieur D'Avaux. Algernon Sidney, 1622-1683, an English statesman, commissioned to intrigue with the French monarch, was implicated in the Rye House Plot and beheaded. Count D'Avoux, 1640-1709, a French diplomat, helped to negotiate the treaty of Nymwegen in 1678. 27. Cassel, a town in France, taken by the French from the Prince of Orange in 1677. 31. The bully of France, Louis XIV. 39. Smithfield, a place in the older part of London where in Queen Mary's day heretics were burnt. 40. Mr. Fox, John Foxe, author of the Book of Martyrs. See p. 213. 446a JOHN POMFRET John Pomfret was born at Luton in Bedfordshire, the son of the vicar of the place. He was educated at the Bedford Grammar School and at Cambridge, where he received both the B.A. and M.A. degrees. Taking orders, he became rector of Maulden in his native shire in 1595. He had already begun to dabble in verse. In 1700 appeared his The Choice, which for the general reader is almost his only claim to remembrance. It was vaguely fashioned on Sir William Temple, and in neatly turned verse represents the "empty epicureanism of a cultivated man.' Johnson said of it," Perhaps no poem of our language has been so often perused.” Pomfret died at Maulden in 1702. THE CHOICE 32 f. these precedent discourses. Cowley's essays were first published as Serral Discourses, etc., in 1668, the year after his death. 449a 30. Horace might envy, etc. The country villa of the Roman poet Horace, 65-27 B.C., given him by his friend Macenas, was situated in the Sabine Hills. It is celebrated in his poetry. 449b 16. that violent public storm, the Civil War, which ended with the establishment of the Commonwealth. 48 f. business of great and honorable trust. During part of the exile of the King and Queen Cowley was intrusted with their correspondence in cipher. 450b 38. Take thy ease. Cf. Luke xii, 16 ff 44. Non ego perfidum, etc. I took no oath upon it. SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE The events of Sir William Temple's life belong to statecraft rather than to letters. He was born in London, spent his early years at Penshurst in Kent in the absence of his father as master of the rolls in Ireland, attended Cambridge without taking a degree, and spent many years at home and abroad as a diplomat. He retired to private life in 1680. After 1686 he lived at Moor Park in Surrey, where he had as secretary the rising young genius Jonathan Swift, and interested himself in gardening and literature until his death. In all his writing he gives the impression of "the gentleman at his ease." In his essays, or Miscellanea, he touches on a variety of subjects, and, without treating anything deeply, treats all with an ease and grace that mark him as a writer of unusual taste. He shares with Dryden. the honor of writing the first English 451a prose that can properly be called modern. His style was greatly admired and often imitated during the eighteenth century. OF HEROIC VIRTUE 9. Canaries and Maderas, islands off the northwest coast of Africa. 20. Tercera islands, the Azores. 22. Columbo, Christopher Columbus. 30 f. a certain Prince of Wales, Madoc, who is said to have founded a colony in a land across the sea to the southwest of Ireland. 32. The Ancient Carthaginians. Most of the older nations have had claims advanced at some time or other of discovering America prior to Columbus. 451b 20. Montezuma, Montezuma II, 1477?1520, Aztec war chieftain or "emperor of Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest. 49. Atahualpa, 1495?-1533, a sovereign of Peru, captured, mistreated, and at length executed by the Spaniards during their conquest of the country. 452a 21. Mango Copac, Manco Capac, the traditional founder of the Inca monarchy in Peru. 24. a mighty lake, Lake Titicaca, between Peru and Bolivia. 452b 50. Cozco, the present Cuzco, in southern Peru. 454a 7. Acosta. José de Acosta, 1540-1600, a Jesuit historian and archæologist, was in Peru and Mexico for several years between 1570 and 1590. 10. Lycurgus, a Spartan lawgiver, probably of the ninth century before Christ. 10. Numa, Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, 715-672 B.C., according to legend the author of many Roman institutions. 455b 42. Pachacamac, the supreme deity of the ancient Peruvians. A coastal town by this name, a few miles south of Lima, contains extensive ruins of a very old temple. JOHN DRYDEN OF HEROIC PLAYS The "heroic plays" dealt with highly idealized persons placed in impossible situations and in remote settings. They treated of love and honor and employed exaggerated language, according to the approved method of heroic romance, as established in particular by Ariosto. Dryden's play, The Conquest of Granada, to which was prefixed his " Essay" in 1672, was the play par excellence of the type. 456a 5. heroic verse, a form of verse adapted to the treatment of lofty themes, in English iambic pentameter (five-accent) measure rhyming in couplets. 456b 23 f. Sir William D'Avenant, 1606–1668, an important figure in English drama bridging the gap from 1642 to 1660, and chief among the early Restoration dramatists. 457a 6 f. Siege of Rhodes, first brought out in 1656 as a kind of opera. 36. Ariosto, a great Italian poet, 1474-1533, author of the heroic poem, Orlando Furioso. 39 f. Le donne, i cavalier, etc. I sing of ladies, knights, arms, loves, courtesy, and bold enterprises. 457b 44. Petronius Arbiter, a Roman satirical novelist" of the first century after Christ. 50 ff. Non enim res gestæ, etc. For a poem should not deal with actual events, which historians do far better: but the poet should by suggestions and interventions of the gods give vent to a free inspiration that there may rather appear the prophecy of the inspired intelligence than the testimony of a scrupulously exact statement. 458a 5. Lucan, a Roman poet and prose writer, author of Pharsalia, an epic poem in ten books on the civil war between Cæsar and Pompey. 22. Erictho, a Thessalian witch consulted by Pompey in Lucan's Pharsalia. 27. Statius, a Roman poet, A.D. ca. 45-ca. 96, author of the epic Thebais. 27. Tasso, Torquato Tasso, 1544-1595, a celebrated Italian poet, author of the Gerusalemme Liberata ("Jerusalem Delivered "). 458b 6. Mr. Hobbs, Thomas Hobbes, 15881679, a celebrated English philosopher. 27 f. Mr. Cowley's verses before Gondibert. See To Sir William Davenant, upon His Two First Books of Gondibert, etc. 33. Davideis, an epic poem, 1656, by Cowley on David, king of the Hebrews. 34. Godfrey. Tasso's poem was first issued under this title, from Godfrey of Bouillon, a leader in the First Crusade and hero of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (see p. 458a, l. 27). 48 ff. Segnius irritant, etc. Things sent through the ears stir the mind more tardily than those subjected to the faithful eyes. 459a 34. Almanzor, the hero of The Conquest of Granada. 43. Rinaldo, a famous warrior in Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. 45. Calprenède, La Calprenède, 1610-1663, a French "novelist" and dramatist. Artaban is a character in his Cléopâtre. 459b 7 f. Oivoßopès, etc. Sot, having the eye of a dog and the head of a deer. 9. Anuoßópos, etc. Tyrant King. 14. "EXKETO, etc. And drew his great sword from the sheath. 23 ff. 'AXX' öð ávǹp, etc. But this man wishes to be above all others, wishes to get possession of all, and to rule over all. 29 ff. Honoratum si fortè, etc. If perchance you restore Achilles, let him be active, wrathful, obstinate, sharp, let him deny native rights, and let him appropriate to himself everything by arms. 41 ff. Venga egli, etc. Let him (Godfrey) come or send, I will stand firm; arms and destiny will be arbiters between us. Whoever presents himself, there will ensue a tragedy to delight the foe. - Ger. Lib., V, xliii, 5 ff. (Strunk). 460a 4. Cyrus, a figure in Madame Scudéry's Artamène ou Le Grand Cyrus. 5. Oroondates, a prominent character in Calprenède's romance, Cassandra. 10 f. Álmahide, of Ozmyn, and Benzayda, characters in The Conquest of Granada. 24. Cethegus, Caius Cethegus, a character in Ben Jonson's Catiline. 460b 3. juego de toros, bullfight. 6. Abdalla, a brother of the King in The Conquest of Granada. 24. Duke of Guise, Henry Lorraine, fifth Duke of Guise, 1614-1664. 37. Ast opere in tanto, etc. But in so great a work it is lawful to be surprised by sleep. 461a JOHN EVELYN The diarist Evelyn was a man of great probity of character as well as of singular polish of manner. He was born at Wotton in Surrey, which became celebrated as his home in his last years. He spent some time at Oxford, at twenty was left a considerable fortune by his father, and had a brief experience as a soldier in the Royalist cause. Hopeless of a return of the former régime, in 1552 he settled down at Sayes Court, Deptford, to the life for which he has since been remembered, gardening and literature. A decade or more before his death he returned to Wotton and died there in 1706. He is known almost exclusively by his Diary, which gives an admirable account of the life of a cultured English gentleman of the seventeenth century. It is remarkable for its unaffected simplicity and for its well-nigh perfect perspicuity of style and expression. DIARY 5. Deptford, a suburb of London. 462a 2. the return of the Jews, i.e., from the Babylonian captivity. 17 f. the Three Cranes, the name of a tavern on Upper Thames Street. 462b 32. non enim, etc. Cf. Hebrews xiii, 14. 33 f. London was, etc. The great fire destroyed the London of the older times almost completely. 42. When King James, etc. James II filed England December 22, 1688. 463a 21 f. Lord teach me, etc. See Psalms xc, 12. SAMUEL PEPYS Pepys' name is a synonym for the best in private literature. The reason for his preeminence over all others in the field must be sought in the fact that, with his engaging personality and gift of expression, he least of all diarists expected his work to come to light. In this way he committed to record the most intimate suggestions of his active brain and fertile imagination. His Diary is therefore the acme of confessional writing. He was the son of a London tailor. He went to Cambridge for a while, was married early, obtained a clerkship in the navy office at the Restoration, and gradually rose to the Secretaryship of the Admiralty. He died at his favorite residence, Clapham, in 1703. DIARY 51 f. The King and the two dukes, Charles II and the Dukes of York and Gloucester. 463b 22. General Monk. After the death of Richard Cromwell, General Monk as head of the army reorganized Parliament and became head of the new Council, which voted the restoration of the monarchy on May 1, 1660. 464a 3. C. R., Carolus Rex, "Charles the King." 10. 'Beggar's Bush,' a comedy by Fletcher and others. 18 f. the Spanish Curate, a comedy by Fletcher and Massinger. 465b 44. a pair of Virginall's, a popular musical instrument of the time, ancestor of the modern piano. 467a 28 f. French, etc. England was continually harassed in the reign of Charles II by the aggressions of Louis XIV of France in Alliance with other powers. 37. 'The Mayd's Tragedy,' a tragie ro mantic drama by Beaumont and Fletcher. 38 f. Sir Charles Sedley, 16392-1701, one of the most celebrated of the court poets and wits of the time. JONATHAN SWIFT Jonathan Swift, the greatest prose satirist in English, was born a posthumous child of English parents in Dublin in 1667. By the aid of his uncles he went through the Kilkenny School and the University of Dublin, finishing B.A. by special grace in 1686. After the revolution of 1688 he entered the household of Sir William Temple at Moor Park, where he became ac |