Title 1622] F2;
1621 Q
1 had] F2; hath Q
1 buttery liquor store.
1 hatch half-door (over which bottles were dispensed).
Webster’s
The White Devil suggests why this should be
a suitable location for outsiders to sneak in: ‘if the buttery-hatch at
court stood continually open there would be nothing so passionate
crowding, nor hot suit after the beverage’ (
Works, eds. Gunby et al, 1.2.22–4).
1 The
presenters This opening statement is a literary description
rather than an SD, and it is clear from the SD at
124 that John Urson and his bears,
although listed here, do not enter until they are required for the
dance. Similarly, Vangoose and the alewife do not join in the
conversation until some way into the antimasque. Gifford took this to
mean that in performance they entered at successive points in the
dialogue, and added SDs at 75 and 93 to mark what he took to be their
arrivals. However, it seems equally possible that the whole group
entered simultaneously, since when Vangoose and the alewife speak it is
clear that they have heard at least some of the conversation.
Alternatively, perhaps Notch, Slug, and the Groom entered first, and
then there was a second entry for Vangoose and the women – though there
is no clear indication in the dialogue of where this might have
been.
1 were] F2; are Q
2 Saint
Katherine’s A riverside district east of the Tower, known for
its madhouse, its brewhouses, including the royal brewery, and its
colony of Flemish immigrants (see
Devil, 1.1.62, and
Chalfant,
1978,
152–4). In
Alch., 5.3.54–6, Face compares the fools
who flock to his master’s door to the ‘better sort of mad-folks’, such
as might have ‘broke loose / Out of Saint Katherine’s’. The implication
of invasion by undesirables is the same in each context.
2–4 NOTCH . . . REVELS] F2; set as a list, Q
2 notch Named after the nick cut into a tally-stick in
accounting.
2 lighterman bargee; named Slug because of his vessel’s slow
movement.
3 rare excellent (ironic).
3 Ale-wife Owner of an alehouse.
4 bearward keeper of performing bears. Urson’s name comes from
the Lat. ursus = ‘bear’.
4 revels Department of the royal household that supervised the
performance of masques and plays at court. The Groom of the Revels was a
minor employee, whose office had come into being in the Elizabethan
period but who ranked well below the Yeoman of the Revels and the Clerk
Comptroller (who were gentlemen, and whose posts carried real financial
responsibilities). The Groom was responsible for such things as
arranging transportation, and in 1598 had an annual wage of forty
shillings (as a point of comparison, in
Devil, 1.3.38,
Fitzdottrel pays his servant £4 a year). See Chambers (
1923), 1.92–3, and
Streitberger (
1994), 169. It is possible, if unlikely, that the role in the
masque might have been played by the court servant himself.
5 now my head’s
in Presumably Notch poked his head around the scenery to see
if the coast was clear before he and Slug made their entry.
5 venture] F2;
venter Q
5 lions Kept
in a small menagerie in the Tower (hence close to Notch’s home). ‘To
have seen the lions’ meant ‘to have had experience of life’ (
OED,
4a, citing
Cynthia (F), 5.4.96).
7–8 have . . .
pate Entry to the masques was strictly policed, and unwanted
spectators might be physically forced out, or struck by the rods of
office carried by officials of the royal household.
Love
Rest.,
Wales, and
Time
Vind. similarly begin with court festivities being besieged by
unwanted spectators or intruders. Cf. also
Cynthia (F), 5.3,
and
H8,
5.4.
8 of] F2, Q; on
G
9 in] Q; not in
F2
10 gamesters
wags; frolicsome persons (
OED, 4). Cf.
EMI (F),
1.1.93.
13 pretty
small (OED, 4).
15 size] Q; Sire
F2
15 into] Q; to
F2
16 hogshead
Large barrel, holding over fifty gallons.
17 or] F3; ro
F2
17 hulk Large
ship. These jokes (and ‘my size’ in
15) suggest that Notch was played by
a fat actor, in which case it was probably the clown William Rowley (
c. 1585–1626), who specialized in outsize roles, most
famously, the Fat Bishop in
Middleton’s A Game at
Chess (1624). See
Christmas,
Introduction; and
Pleasure Rec., 4n.;
Neptune, 4n.;
Fort. Isles, .
19 very] Q; not
in F2
23 that is my place] F2; I may and must ask you Q
24–30 ] F2; not in
Q
24–30 These lines, with their satire on the
appropriation of gifts in kind by court officials, are present only in
the F2 text. Possibly they were added for the Shrovetide revival, though
given their tactlessness one wonders whether they could have been spoken
at any performance. Their incorporation into F2 may indicate that
Jonson’s final polishing of the dialogue took place some time after the
masque was staged (see the Textual Essay).
24 bouge]
G; Bonge F2
24 bouge of
court rations; the allowance of daily victual given to
officials by the crown, in lieu of salary. See Merc.
Vind., 62n.; and cf. the title of John Skelton’s poem ‘The
Bowge of Courte’.
25 mistake
misappropriate, i.e. mis-take.
25 chandry
candle store. The Revels officials were responsible for the lighting at
court shows, and would have supplied the candles (Astington,
1999, 24).
28–9 carried . . .
them Notch accuses the Groom of siphoning off rations for
himself that are recorded in the accounts as having been dispensed to
the players. ‘Carrying coals’ is a generic phrase used to describe the
misdirection of any provisions; however, it insults the Groom, by
drawing attention to his menial status (
cf. Rom., 1.1.1:
‘Gregory, on my word, we’ll not carry coals’). A groom
carrying a basket of coals appears in
EMO, 5.1.
28 coals to] F2;
coals – to Orgel
31 so] F2; too
Q
31 musty
Punning on the Groom’s ‘must’ (
30). The repartee is clearer in Q
where the Groom’s ‘I may and must ask you’ leads directly and more
obviously into the pun.
32 disguise
An archaic term: ‘disguisings’ were the mummings or masquerades of the
early Tudor court.
33 that His] F2 (subst.); his Q
34 drunkards
Who are ‘disguised’ by drink.
H&S compare Dekker and Massinger’s
The
Virgin Martyr (in
Dekker, Dramatic Works, ed.
Bowers), 3.3.133–4: ‘
Harpax. I am a prince
disguised. /
Hircius. Disguised! How, drunk?’
39 prenticeship Service for the term of seven years.
41 comrogues
fellow rogues.
OED’s earliest instance, a Jonsonian comic
coinage.
41 disguised
in altered form. The Groom is threatening to punish Notch for disturbing
the celebration.
44 widgeon
wild duck; supposedly a stupid bird, hence ‘simpleton’.
48 bloat
herrings soft-cured herrings that have been salted and smoked
for three days. ‘Dried’ herrings are smoked for much longer.
53 smoked us
found us out; punning on the ‘smoke’ from the local breweries and
herring works. London’s east end was the industrial quarter and
notoriously subject to noxious fumes.
53 dock
Orgel takes ‘dock’ to
mean the shipyards at Saint Katherine’s and suggests that a fishy smell
is meant, though the fumes implied seem to be those of beer and smoke.
Possibly Notch refers to the dock plant, used as a popular cure for
nettle stings and for other medicinal purposes, indicating that the
Groom is holding his nose, or making some gesture of nasal distaste at
the citizens; however, dock does not smell sweet and would be no
‘comfort’ to the nostrils. Jonson puns on these two meanings of ‘dock’
in ‘The Famous Voyage’ (
Epigr. 133.60).
54 in a mist
H&S compare
Nashe, Works, ed. McKerrow, 3.25: ‘in Coleharbour, where
they live in a continual mist, betwixt two brewhouses’.
56 register
book Presumably, the tally-stick that hangs from Notch’s
belt.
59 account] F2 (accompt)
59 account
Punning on ‘esteem’.
60–1 hops . . .
water
H&S note that
exactly this joke appears in Camden’s
Remains (
1614), 300, where
it is attributed to the dramatist John Heywood (
c.
1497–1578).
64 architect
Inigo Jones.
65 Welsh
ambassador A folk-name for the cuckoo. See Dekker,
The Welsh Ambassador (in
Dramatic Works, ed.
Bowers), 4.2.68–9: ‘we Englishmen, when the cuckoo is upon
entrance, say the Welsh ambassador is coming’. This joke also
acknowledges the presence of the foreign diplomatic community in the
audience.
67 their] F2;
our Q
67 naturals
native wits.
69 lighter
barge.
69 at . . .
charge at collective expense.
70 credit
acquaintance; custom.
74 jack
leather tankard.
75–81 black-letter in Q, F2
75–81 Here and subsequently, Q and F print Vangoose’s
speeches in black-letter, a typographical equivalent to his outlandish
English.
75 vangoose Although presented as a Dutchified Englishman,
Vangoose is clearly a caricature of a real Dutchman, the scientist and
inventor Cornelis Drebbel (
1572–1633), who worked in England
during 1605–10 and 1613–33. His most famous invention was the ‘perpetual
motion’ – actually a kind of air thermometer powered by changes in
atmospheric pressure – which acquired a reputation as a scientific
curiosity; Jonson mentions it in
Epicene, 5.3.47, and
Epigr. 97.2. Drebbel’s other inventions included
ovens and furnaces, pumps, a submarine, a mechanical clavichord, and
innovations in the dyeing of cloth. But he was best known for his work
in optics: he was expert in grinding lenses and manufacturing
microscopes, and devised a magic lantern and a camera obscura. The
lantern
Drebbel
was displaying publicly in 1608; by projecting light onto himself, he
made his clothes seem magically to shift colour, and his body to change
into a tree and various animals. The camera obscura was witnessed by
Jonson’s acquaintance
Constantine Huygens during a visit to London in 1622; in a
letter he describes his wonder at the way it brought into a darkened
room likenesses of real places and moving people. At 188–93 Vangoose
offers an inflated version of such optical marvels. Possibly such tricks
were presented at Whitehall, for Drebbel did devise shows of fireworks
and received payments from Prince Henry; however, there is no evidence
that the court specifically saw the optical machines.
Drebbel also
published a treatise
Een kort tractaet van de natuere der elementen
(1604; reissued in 1621, and subsequently translated into
Latin, German, and French), a scientific account of the physical
properties of the four elements. Vangoose implicitly alludes to this
tract at 77–8. Jonson must have known Drebbel at least indirectly, for
late in 1620 both he and Drebbel wrote inscriptions in the
album amicorum of the physician Joachim Morsius (1593–1642),
who was visiting London; Morsius subsequently edited Drebbel’s
De quinta essentia tractatus (Hamburg,
1621). On Drebbel,
see Tierie (
1932), 9, 26, 32–4, 50–1; for Jonson’s inscription, see the
Textual Archive. See also
Burse, 223,
News NW, 80, and
Staple, 3.1.59. The
suggestion in Blake (1999) that Vangoose is a caricature of the Flemish
portrait painter Anthony Van Dyck, who was in London in the winter of
1620–1, misrepresents the character: Vangoose is a scientist and
technician, not an artist.
75 inventors
i.e. of masques.
76 dat]
H&S;
that Q, F2
76 selven] F2;
selva Q
76 noting, noting] Q, F2 (no ting, no ting)
78 veir
elementen Four elements. An allusion to
Drebbel’s Een kort tractaet: see .
78 place-a]
this edn;
place a, Q, F2
78 burdello
brothel.
79 vould] Q;
would F2
79 vas] Q;
was F2
80 rebus
natura . . . materia . . . forma Things in
nature . . . matter . . . form (Latin).
80 materia]
F2; mater Q
80 forma] F2; vorme Q
80 hoffen] F2;
head Q
80 hoffen
head.
81 voot
foot.
81 is] Q; not in
F2
82–3 What . . . frame] F2; what do’s this Dutchman build, or
talke of? Q
82 Flutterkin
Nickname of a Dutch tapster in Dabridgcourt Belchier’s
Hans
Beer-pot (
1618), B1v.
84 Briton] Q, F2 (Brittaine)
86 projector
(1) inventor; (2) speculator (as in Devil,
1.7.9–13).
87 Three Dancing
Bears This alehouse is also mentioned in Staple, 3.2.107.
87 Bears] F2;
Beares, a famous Alehouse Q
88 sir, . . . in –]
this edn; sir) . . . in, Q, F2
88 where . . .
in A frequently cited landmark on the river, though little
more than this is known of the story associated with it. Sir John
Harington (
1596),
30, puts it between London Bridge and Wapping, ‘where the priest fell in
upon the maid’. See also
East. Ho!, 4.1.52, and Taylor
(
1869),
21.
89 distressed
in troubled straits (i.e. impecunious).
90 here] F2; not
in Q
90 errant
roaming; with a glance at the meaning ‘knight-errant’, caught from the
chivalric overtones of ‘distressed’ (
89).
91 draw drink
serve ale.
94 England’s Joy A famous fraud perpetrated by Richard Vennar in
1602. He put out bills promising a spectacular show at the Swan
playhouse, covering English history from Edward III to the present,
including a great triumph and an apotheosis in which Elizabeth was taken
up to heaven, and the players of which would be ladies and gentlemen.
Having attracted a paying audience, he decamped with the money. This
became a byword for a classic scam: see Chambers (
1923),
3.500–3.
96 iwis
certainly.
96 and delight] F2;
not in Q
96 cattle
beasts, i.e. the bears that are introduced to dance the antimasque.
‘Cattle’ was used indiscriminately to mean almost any kind of
livestock.
97 cheat loaf
Coarse wheaten bread.
97 bombard
Large leather bottle.
97–8 of broken beer] F2; not in Q
97 broken
stale.
98 ye] F2; you
Q
100 king’s
game Fighting animals – bears, bulls, and dogs – were kept at
Paris Garden (see
107)
by the Master of the Royal Game, who throughout James’s reign was the
actor Edward Alleyn (see Chambers,
1923, 2.448–71). Bears were frequently
brought to court to be baited, and the announcement of the king’s game
would have led spectators to expect a violent, bloody, and rather vulgar
entertainment out of keeping with the usual decorum of Twelfth Night
masquing. In the event they offer choreography rather than fighting, and
elaborate promises are made for their good behaviour.
100 The . . . both] F2; Beares Q
100–1 quality and
fashion Echoing Grace Welborn (Bart. Fair,
1.5.103).
102 house
alehouse.
104–5 can . . .
signpost i.e. the animals will look like the three dancing
bears on the alehouse sign, and their master can (humorously) be taken
for the post from which the sign hangs. See
134–6.
106 sufficient
competent.
107 the Parish Garden] F2; not in Q
107 Parish
Garden The bearpit on the Bankside, located at its western
end, towards Lambeth marsh; see Epicene, 3.1.12n.; Epigr. 133.117; Und. 43.146–7.
‘Parish’ is a dialect pronunciation of the locality’s name, more
properly Paris Garden.
108 play
perform to.
109 play them
with exercise them in competition with.
109–10 ground
measure Dance set to a ‘ground bass’ or recurring
melody(?).
111 dancing . . .
ropes tightrope performing.
113 antic-masque] F3 (subst.); Antick Masque Q, F2 (subst.)
113 antic-masque The older spelling of ‘antimasque’, explaining
it etymologically as an ‘antic’ or grotesque dance.
115 porter’s
lodge Where servants were whipped. For an example, see Dudley
Carleton’s letter in the Masque Archive, Blackness,
7.
115 with discredit] F2; not in Q
117 the game
(1) pastime, performance; (2) wild animals.
118 cleanly
well behaved; toilet trained.
119 For As
for.
120 changes
sequence of dance steps. See
Merc. Vind.,
87n.
122 diet-bread
Specially prepared bread, to plug up their bowels.
122 bind (1)
put under a legal obligation; (2) constipate. Both of these meanings
further pun on the sense of being bound by the nose to some fixed
object, such as a stake, as was customarily done to bears when they were
displayed or baited in public.
123 one
Another dancer.
124–85 ] F2; The
Dance. Q
124 bears Were the bears real? Given the number of bears that are
called for in plays of the period, and the popularity of bear-baiting in
London, there has been speculation that at some theatres audiences saw
live animals perform (see Grant,
2001; Ravelhofer,
2002). But in
Augurs, the use of real bears would not match the
fiction that they have come from Paris Garden, since those bears were
all fighting animals, and although people sometimes visited Paris Garden
just to see them, there is no record of the bears being trained in
dancing. It would have been extraordinarily difficult to bring real
bears into the elegant surroundings of the Banqueting House. Probably
dancers dressed as bears were used; performers dressed as animals
appeared in other court shows, such as
The Lords’
Masque (1613) and
Tempe Restored (
1632).
125 Ballad The measure and rhyme-scheme that Jonson uses for
these verses is essentially the same as those in the ballad in Christmas His Masque, although there the stanzas are
laid out in groups of four lines. He uses this verse form nowhere
else.
134 Katherine-a,]
Wh; Katharin-a; F2
137 post . . .
sign-a Because the alehouse’s name is the Three Dancing Bears
(
87), and because,
if the bears correspond to the alehouse sign, John Urson must stand for
the post (see ).
143 Proverbial, ‘Blessing of your heart, you brew
good ale’:
Tilley,
B450, comparing
TGV, 3.1.304.
147 Nor It is
tempting to amend F2’s ‘Nor’ to ‘Not’ on the supposition that it is a
compositorial anticipation of the following line, but the form
‘Nor . . . nor’ can be found elsewhere in Jonson.
147 Vintry
Cranes The Three Cranes on Upper Thames Street, a famous
tavern. See Epicene, 2.5.88.
148 St Clement’s
Danes A church in the Strand; presumably the district rather
than the church is meant.
149 Devil The
Devil Tavern in Fleet Street, home of Jonson’s drinking club in the
Apollo room. See Leg. Conv.
152 mighty Cf.
Bart. Fair, 4.4.3.
153 stale of
long-standing; free from dregs.
155 aqua-vitae strong spirits (such as brandy).
160 wheel . . .
Kate Catherine wheel, which decorated the gate; neither
survives today.
162 Wapping
The next parish down-river from Saint Katherine’s.
166 they] F3; the
F2
172 single
coin small change.
173 budget
leather purse.
176 burden,]
Wh; burden; F2
179 jordan
chamberpot.
183 stiff
hard. ‘Stiff drinkers’ was a common idiom (
OED, Stiff 13b).
186 black-letter in Q, F2
187 Excellaunt]
black-letter in Q; Excellent F2
187 Excellaunt
Printed in black-letter, and with this spelling, in Q; the Groom
imitates Vangoose’s accent.
188–93, 197–9, 207–11, 213–14, 219–22 black-letter in Q, F2
188 groat] Q; not
in F2
188, 191 groat
great.
189 met
with.
189 zin
his.
189 dirty
thirty.
189 yanitsaries janissaries; Turkish soldiers.
190 auder
other.
190 Cham i.e.
khan; the king of the Tartars.
191 king of
Mogul ruler of Delhi.
192 sush] Q; such
F2
193 ars art (Lat.).
193 catropricks Catoptrics is the science of reflection, the
formation of images by mirrors or lenses. The earliest scientific
treatise on the subject is Euclid’s
Catoptrica. For
the camera obscura being demonstrated by Cornelius Drebbel in London in
1622, see .
H&S
note that in 1623 the Master of the Revels licensed ‘a show in glass
called The World’s Wonder’ (see Bawcutt,
1996a, 142). Robert Burton’s
Anatomy of Melancholy (
1621), 1.3.3, briefly describes
illusions produced by light projected through lenses. The almost
unpronounceable ‘catropricks’ may be a printer’s blunder, but it is
spelled thus in both Q and F, so perhaps is another joke at Vangoose’s
expense. The word is spelled ‘Catoptrickes’ in the manuscript of
Burse, 146.
193 refleshie
van reflections in.
197 ean i.e.
one.
198 auder]
this edn; ander Q, F2
199 haben] F2;
heben Q
200–6 Q gives two successive SHs for Notch, at
202 and
206, and previous editors have
assumed that an intervening speech has been lost. But there is a much
simpler explanation: Q has accidentally reversed the SHs for Notch and
the Groom at
200 and
202. On the grounds
of characterization, it clearly must be Notch who invites the Groom to
ask Vangoose to ‘do something . . . impossible’ and the Groom who
replies that the antimasques that Vangoose has already proposed to do
are too ambitious. All earlier editions, including F2, have attributed
the speeches to the wrong characters.
202 SH]
this edn; NOT. Q, F2
204 office Of
the Revels, which issued licenses to playing companies touring the
provinces.
205 I know
whom Possibly the Master of the Revels? Jonson had himself
been recently granted the second reversion of Mastership of the Revels
(October 1621). Shortly after this masque, when Sir George Buc fell ill,
the post passed to the holder of the first reversion, Sir John
Astley.
205–6 whom. | NOT. Or] Q; whom, or F2
206 pilgrims –]
G; Pilgrims. F2
213 yow] F2; you
Q
209 Mecha
Mecca.
210 error
wandering.
213 Yaw] Q, F2 (Yau)
213 dis very] Q;
tis very F2
213 SH] Q (VAN.); NAN. F2
214 Vat . . . boten
devil Vangoose’s English is not easily glossed. ‘Vat an devil’
may be ‘What the devil’, and ‘vera boten devil’ something like ‘but a
devil’ or ‘do you think I’m simply a devil’. Perhaps – rather as
Shakespeare’s Paulina feels the need to insist that her magic is lawful
(
WT,
5.3.85–97) – Vangoose wants to emphasize that his illusions do
not use any superstitious black magic of the Friar Bacon or
Mephistopheles kind but are created by scientific means. His anger is
thus a response to Slug’s incredulity, and a defence of his art. Even
so, his shows are mere trickery in comparison with the elevated
Apollonian vision that is about to displace them. Possibly it relates to
the German, ‘verboten’ = forbidden.
221 Hocus
pocus An incantation (thought to be from the liturgical phrase
hoc est corpus = ‘This is my body’), but also the
stage name of a well-known travelling conjuror, ‘His Majesty’s Hocus
Pocus’, who frequently appears in records of the 1620s and 1630s; see
Staple, Second Intermean, 12, and the full account
of his activities in Bawcutt (
1996a), 79. This passage is the
earliest surviving reference to him by his stage name.
221 Hocus pocus] Hochos-pochos Q, F2
222 pocas] Fabros
Q; Paucos F2
222 pocas
palabros few words (Spanish): a common theatrical tag,
popularized by its use in
Thomas Kyd’s Spanish
Tragedy (ed. Edwards), 3.14.118.
223 was] F2; is Q
223 perplexed intricate; tangled.
225 apollo A design survives by Inigo Jones, signed and fully
worked up, showing Apollo reclining on a cloud and holding an augur’s
staff (Illustration 84;
Orgel and Strong, 1.338–9). An early sketch shows the whole
setting: a scene of classical architecture leading to the college of
augurs, represented as a temple modelled on the Pantheon. Above are
deities seated in the clouds, probably anticipating the stage machinery
needed at 342–3, and on either side are two more figures sitting on
clouds, reminiscent of the Apollo design. Orgel and Strong (1.332, 342)
suggest that these are alternative positions for the descent of Apollo,
though they might indicate that at some point in planning the masque
Jones expected that two deities would descend and sing. (The superscript
numerals refer to Jonson’s marginalia in F2, printed at the end of the
text).
225 were] F2; are Q
225 begun] F2; begins Q
226 APOLLO1]
(a) APOLLO F2 (all F2’s superscript marginalia markers are alphabetical and
placed before the words to which they apply; here and
subsequently, Q lacks all superscript numerals and
marginalia)
JONSON'S
MARGINALIA 1 Artes eximias quatuor
Apollini acceptas tulit antiquitas.
Unless otherwise indicated, Latin translations
are adapted from
Orgel’s edition.
1 ‘Antiquity reported four extraordinary skills
that Apollo received.’ Apollo’s fourfold attributes are listed and
documented in great detail in
Comes’ Mythologiae (1581),
227–43. The ultimate source for this definition of his power
is Plato’s
Cratylus, 404e-405d, cited by Comes.
1–23 ] F2; not in
Q
226 sung] F2; sings Q
227 It is no
dream i.e. What the audience sees is a waking truth, and no
mere fantasy of the sleeping mind. Apollo’s visionary perspective
supersedes the fanciful shows presented by Vangoose, but it also stands
in the same relationship to inferior ways of seeing as the distinctions
between visions, dreams, and phantasms propounded in The
Vision of Delight. For the trope, frequent in Petrarchan
poetry, of the lover who on waking is unsure whether his mistress is a
dream or real flesh and blood, cf. Wyatt’s ‘They flee from me’ and
Donne’s ‘The Dream’.
228–32 Far-shooting . . . augury Glossed in Jonson’s marginal note
as the four attributes of Apollo: archery, medicine, music, and
divination.
228 Phoebus
Literally, ‘bright’; an epithet of Apollo.
2 Sagittandi
peritiam, unde apud Homerum, frequens illud epitheton
ἑκηβόλος,
longe jaculans.
2 ‘Skill at archery, whence in Homer the frequent
epithet “far-shooting”.’ For Homeric examples, see
Iliad, 1.14;
Odyssey, 8.323.
2 peritiam]
F3; peretiam F2
3 Medicinam, unde Medici nomen
adeptus.
3 ‘Medicine, whence he gained the name “the
physician”.’
4 Musicam, unde
μουσηγέτης
appellatus.
4 ‘Music, whence he was called “leader of the
muses”.’
230 Rear towns
According to myth, Apollo’s music was responsible for raising the walls
of Troy. His lyre’s harmonies were so compelling that they drew the
stones into their places; cf. Jonson’s marginal note
11. This was a common Renaissance
trope for the power of harmony, and neatly knits together the masque’s
musical ceremonies, the inauguration of the Banqueting House, and the
celebration of James’s peace. Thebes was similarly said to have been
built by the music of its king, Amphion: see
Ovid, Met., 6.176–9;
Apollonius of
Rhodes, Argonautica, 1.735–41;
Marlowe, Dr
Faustus, A-text (eds. Bevington and Rasmussen),
2.3.28–30; and Jonson’s
Horace, 483–90.
5 Et divinationem (in qua
etiam augurium) unde augur Apollo dictus. Virgil, Aeneid,
lib. 4. et Horatius, Carminum,
lib. 1,
ode 2: nube
candentes humeros amictus, augur Apollo.
Et
Carmen Saeculare,
ult. ubi doctissimus Poeta has artes
totidem versibus complectitur: augur et fulgente decorus arcu
Phoebus, acceptusque novem Camenis, qui salutari levat arte fessos
corporis artus.
5 ‘And divination (in which augury too is
included), whence he was called “Apollo the augur”.
Virgil, Aeneid, 4.[376]
and
Horace, Odes, 1.2.[31–2]: “Prophetic Apollo, veiling your radiant shoulders
in cloud”. And
[Horace,
]
The Centennial Hymn
[61–4
], where the most learned poet
has included these skills in a like number of verses: “Phoebus the
prophet, who goes adorned with the shining bow, who is dear to the nine
muses, and who with his healing art relieves the body’s weary limbs”.’
Jonson was probably led to the first two citations by Robert Estienne’s
thesaurus, where they are listed in the section
Apollo
augur (Talbert,
1947, 610).
5 candentes]
Wh; cadentes F2
234 vulgar
common.
235 called] F2; calls Q
235 came] F2; come Q
236 Linus . . .
Idmon Soothsayers and visionary poets; Jonson’s marginal notes
6–9 explain their
kinship to Apollo. With Phoemonoë, these singers act as the masque’s
chorus.
6 Linus
Apollinis et Terpsichores filius. Pausanias.
6 ‘Linus, the son of Apollo and Terpsichore:
Pausanias.’ But
Pausanias’s Description of Greece, 2.19.8,
says Linus’s mother was Psamathe; the mistake comes from Charles
Estienne’s dictionary, which says ‘
Linus, Apollinis &
Terpsichores filius . . .
Paus. lib. 9’, and
was copied directly into Jonson’s note (Talbert,
1943b, 155–6).
6 Apollinis]
F3; Appollinis F2
7 Orpheus, Apollinis et
Calliopes, de quibus Virgilius, in Ecloga
scripsit: Non me carminibus vincet, nec
Thracius Orpheus, nec Linus, huic mater quamvis, atque huic pater
adsit Orphei Calliopea Lino formosus Apollo.
7 ‘Orpheus, the son of Apollo and Calliope, of whom
Virgil wrote in Eclogues
[4.55–7], “Neither
Thracian Orpheus nor Linus shall vanquish me in song, though his mother
aid the one and his father the other, Calliope Orpheus, and fair Apollo
Linus.”’ This note, including the quotation, is repeated almost verbatim
from the entry on Orpheus in Charles Estienne’s dictionary (Talbert,
1947,
607).
7 scripsit]
inscript F2;
H&S
conj. Jonson wrote ‘in Ecloga IV. scripsit’
7 Thracius]
F3; Thraetius F2
8 Branchus, Apollinis et
Jances filius, de quo vid. Strabo, lib.
14.
et Statium, Thebaid.
lib.
3.
– patrioque aequalis honori
Branchus.
8 ‘Branchus, the son of Apollo and
[Iaucis
], on whom see Strabo
[Geography], 14.
[1.5
], and Statius,
Thebaid, 3.
[478–9
] –
“Branchus, whose honour is equal to his father’s”.’ There are several
problems in this note. Branchus was the mythical founder of the oracle
at Didyma, near Miletus, but Strabo does not identify him as Apollo’s
son, only as a beautiful boy with whom Apollo fell in love. The
alternative tradition, that Apollo was his father, comes via Robert
Estienne, who derived it from Lactantius’s commentary on Statius, 3.479,
8.198:
Branchus, ut scribit Lactantius, filius fuit
Apollinis ex filia Iaucis & Sucronis conjuge, susceptus.
Estienne also adds the reference to Strabo, 14. The note’s accuracy is
further weakened by errors of transmission: the reference to Strabo is
given wrongly (see collation), and
Iaucis in Estienne
was mistranscribed as ‘
Iances’, either by Jonson or,
most likely, the compositor (who made numerous blunders with the Latin).
See Talbert (
1943b), 157–8, and (
1947), 607; Callimachus, fragment 229;
Parke (
1985),
2–4; and Fontenrose (
1988), 106–8.
8 14]
H&S; 4 F2
9 Idmon, Apollinis et Asteries
filius. De illo vid. Valerius Flaccus, lib. 1. Argonautica –
Contra
Phoebeius Idmon non pallore viris, non ullo
horrore comarum
terribilis plenus fatis, Phoeboque quieto, cui
genitor tribuit
monitu praenoscere divum omina, seu flammas, seu lubrica cominus
exta, seu plenum certis interroget
aëra pennis.
9 ‘Idmon, the son of Apollo and Asteria. On him see
Valerius Flaccus,
Argonautica, 1.[228–33]: “But then in answer, Idmon, Phoebus’s
son, not pale and weak nor terrible to look upon with hair standing on
end, but filled with destiny and the calmness of Phoebus; his father
gave him foreknowledge of divine omens, whether he consulted flames, or
scrutinized smooth entrails, or the air full of truthful birds.”’ This
source does not supply Idmon’s mother’s name; it came from Charles
Estienne’s article on Idmon, or from Robert Estienne under
Phoebius Idmon, which also cites the illustration from the
Argonautica (Talbert,
1943b, 157).
9 Phoebeius]
H&S; Phoebius F2
9 horrore]
G; honore F2
9 terribilis]
Wh; terriblis F2
9 monitu]
G; not in F2
9 aëra] F3; oëra F2
238 sleep . . .
death Cf. Barriers, 376.
10 Phoemonoë filia Phoebi, quae
prima carmen heroïcum cecinit. Hesiodus in Theogony.
10 ‘Phoemonoë, the daughter of Phoebus, who was the
first to sing heroic song.
Hesiod in the Theogony.’ Another erroneous note, for Phoemonoë does
not appear in Hesiod: Jonson reproduced the mistaken attribution given
by Charles Estienne, from whom he copied this note almost verbatim
(Talbert,
1943b,
157). Phoemonoë is mentioned by
Pliny, Natural History,
10.3.7, 10.8.21, and
Pausanias, 10.5.7s (Wheeler,
1938, 164).
10 Phoemonoë] F2
(Phœmœn)
241 phoemonoë The first Delphic priestess; daughter of
Apollo.
242 Ay] F2, Q (I)
243 Phoebus’]
Wh; Phœbus’s F2;
PHAEBVS’s Q
245 whole
wholly.
247 ravish
carry away (to heaven); fill with rapture (
OED, 3a, 3c).
H&S compare Horace,
Odes, 3.25.1–3: ‘Bacchus, where will you carry
[rapis] me full of
you? My spirit renewed, what groves and what grottoes am I driven to?’
(trans. W. G. Shepherd). Ian Donaldson compares Donne’s
Divine Meditation 17: ‘Since she whom I loved hath paid her
last debt / To nature, and to hers, and my good is dead, / And her soul
early into heaven ravished, / Wholly in heavenly things my mind is
set.’
248 Apollo,] Q; APOLLO F2
248 showed] F2; shewes Q
248 sat] F2; sits Q
248 sung] F2; sings Q
249 SH] Q; not in F2
250 King of] Q;
Of F2
250 Happy]
this edn; happie Q, F2
250 Happy
Isles For the identification of Britain with Fortunate Isles,
mythical havens of perfection, see Fort. Isles, 297
and Introduction.
251 at odds
Alluding to the wars of continental Europe.
252 smiles –] Q;
smiles. F2
253 erring
mazes Cf. Pleasure Rec., 219, 255.
254 that that
which.
255 advanced]
F2; aduanceth Q
260 with my
music See .
11 Allusio ad illud Ovidii
Epistol. Epist. Parid. Ilion aspicies, firmataque turribus altis
Moenia Apollineae structa
canore lyrae.
11 canore]
Wh; cavore F2
261 college
The Roman college of augurs was supposedly founded by the early kings of
Rome (see Jonson’s marginal note
12); originally composed of three
patrician members, by the time of Julius Caesar it had been enlarged to
sixteen and expanded to include plebeians. Jonson imaginatively links
the celebration of the Banqueting House with the praise of Prince
Charles and the masquers by representing them as the college of
aristocratic priests who inhabit the new structure and give support and
divine endorsement to James’s state.
12 Augurandi scientia nobilis
erat et antiqua, apud gentes praesertim
Hetruscas: quibus erat collegium et domicilium celeberrimum
augurum, quorum summa fuit authoritas et dignitas per totam Italiam
potissimum Romae. Romulus, urbe condita, collegium et augures ibi
instituit, ipse
nobilis, ut apud Livius lib. 1. et Tullius lib. 1. Optimus
Augur.
Eorum officium fuit auspicia captare et ex iis
colligere signa futurarum rerum, deorumque monita considerare de
eventibus prosperis vel adversis.
Sacra erat Romanis et res regia habita, dignitasque penes patricios
et principes viros mansit, etiam apud imperatores obtinuit, unde ab
Apolline nostro
talis praeses pulchrè designatus.
12 ‘The science of augury was ancient and noble
among the peoples, especially the Etruscans, who had a college and a
very much frequented residence of augurs, whose reputation and dignity
were paramount throughout Italy, particularly at Rome. Romulus, when he
founded Rome, instituted a college of augurs, with himself as the noble
chief augur, as in
Livy
[History of Rome], 1.[18.6], and
Cicero De divinatione
[‘On Divination’], 1.[2.3, 48.107]. Their
function was to take the auspices and to collect from them indications
of future events, and to examine the gods’ prophecies regarding events
favourable or adverse. The Romans held the matter sacred and regal, and
the office remained in the control of the patricians and the leading men
and persisted even under the emperors; whence by my Apollo such a
president is fairly appointed.’ Jonson’s information about the college
founded by Romulus comes from Rosinus’s
Romanarum
antiquitatem libri decem (
1583), 95:
Augurum
disciplina vetustissima fuit, a Chaldaeis et Graecis usurpata:
maxime autem in Hetruria floruit, unde ad Latinos et Romanos
pervenit . . . primi Augures a Romulo instituti sunt, quia et ipse
excellens augur fuisse constanter asseritur, a Dionysio, Livio,
Plutarcho, et aliis. Fuit autem ab eo, trium augurum collegium
institutum, ita, ut singuli ex singulis tribubus legerentur, quorum
sacerdotium deinde confirmavit Numa, ‘The discipline of the
augurs was very old, taken over from the Chaldaeans and Greeks, but it
flourished particularly in Etruria, and thence came to the Latins and
Romans . . . The first augurs were created by Romulus, because even he
himself was a great augur, it is generally agreed by Dionysius, Livy,
Plutarch, and others. For there was a college of three augurs created by
him, and they were individually drawn from each tribe; Numa then
consolidated this college of priests’ (trans. P. Culhane). Livy (4.4.4)
in fact suggests that the order of augurs was not established until the
reign of Numa, though he describes Romulus and Numa as taking auspices
at the outset of their kingships.
H&S compare
Pliny’s Natural History, 8.28.103:
Auguria
quidem artem fecere apud Romanos et sacerdotum collegium vel maxime
sollemne, ‘indeed auguries have constituted a science at Rome,
and have given rise to a priestly college of the greatest dignity’. See
also .
12 Hetruscas]
H&S; Hetruseos F2
12 nobilis]
F3; nobiles F2
12 Sacra]
G; Sacer F2
12 talis]
Wh; tales F2
263 wait
attend.
266 thy son
Prince Charles.
268 Salian
rites Ceremonial dances sacred to Mars, performed by the
company of twelve
salii or ‘leaping priests’. See
Jonson’s marginal note
13. In classical Rome, the
flamen
Martialis, belonging to the college of the
pontifices, was one of the senior religious figures in the
state (see
King’s Ent., 443–4n.), and the worship of
Mars was especially associated with observances staged in March, when
the twelve
salii, wearing ancient battle-dress of
tunic, breastplate and cloak, would perform ritual war-dances, beating
their shields with spears or staves. It is striking that Jonson
associates his masquers with the more aggressive devotees of Mars as
well as the pacific and priestly augurs, thus developing the character
of their role in athletic and military directions that make it more
suitable to the performers’ aristocratic identity.
13 Saltationes in rebus sacris
adhibebantur apud omnes
paene gentes: et à saliendo, seu saltatione sacra ad saliare carmen
institutâ, salii dicti et Marti consecrati. Omnes etiam qui ad
cantum et tibiam ludebant salij et salisubsuli dicebantur.
Salius, ὑμνῳδός,
vet. gloss, et Pacuvius: Pro
imperio sic salisubsulus vestro excubet Mars. Et Virgilius
Aeneid
lib. 8: Tum salii ad cantus incensa altaria circum
populeis adsunt evincti tempora ramis.
13 ‘Dances were employed in sacred observances by
almost all peoples, and from their leaping or from the dancing done to
the Salian song, they were called
salii and
consecrated to Mars. All, furthermore, who played to song and the flute
were called
salii and
salisubsuli
[dancing
salii].
Salius
[means
] “singing hymns”
[according to
] an old gloss, and Pacuvius:
“So let Mars the
salisubsulus keep watch on behalf of
your sovereignty”; and
Virgil, Aeneid, 8.[285–6]: “Then the
salii come to
sing round the kindled altars, their brows bound with poplar boughs.”’
Salius is literally ‘a dancer’ or leaper, and the
salii were the ‘leaping priests’ who performed
annual rituals in honour of Mars.
Livy (1.20) tells how Numa created an
order of twelve
salii who would process through Rome
performing ritual dances: they wore military dress and carried shields
and spears or staves. This note to ‘
dicebantur’
summarizes material in Rosinus’s discussion of the
salii (
1583, 112–13); from ‘
Salius’, it is
paraphrased from Charles Estienne’s article on the
salii (Talbert,
1947, 617n., 620–1).
Salisubsulus is a nonce word, which appears (in the form
salisubsali) only in
Catullus, 17.6. It was glossed by
Alexander Guarinus, the sixteenth-century commentator on Catullus, with
an otherwise unrecorded line attributed to the Roman tragic poet
Pacuvius (
c. 220–130
bc):
this is now thought to be a post-classical forgery (Ellis,
1889, 63; Fordyce,
1961, 142).
Jonson also mentions dances in the ‘Salian manner’ in his translation of
Horace,
Odes 4.1 (
Und. 86.27).
13 paene]
H&S; pene F2
270 temple
Properly, the position from which the augur observes the flight of
birds; derived from
templum, the open space he marks
in the sky with his staff (described in Jonson’s note
14).
14 Auguria captaturi coelum
eligebant purum et serenum, aëreque nitido. Lituum (qui erat baculus
incurvus, augurale signum) manu tenebat augur. Eo coeli regiones
designabat, et metas intra quas contineri debebant auguria: et hae
vocabantur templa: unde contemplatio
dicta est consideratio, et meditatio rerum sacrarum, ut dextrum
sinistrumque latus observaret.
In impetrito sibi
ipse regiones definiebat; in
oblativo manum suam respexit laevam aut dextram. Regiones ab
oriente in occasum terminabat limite decumano, et cardine ex
transverso signo metato, quo
oculi ferrent quam longissime.
Antica in ortum vergebat. Postica regio à tergo ad
occasum. Dextra ad meridiem. Sinistra ad septentrionem.
Observationes fiebant augure sedente, capite velato, toga duplici
augurali candida amicto, à mediâ nocte ad mediam diem, crescente non
deficiente die. Neque captabantur auguria post mensem Julium,
propterea quod aves redderentur
imbecilliores et morbidae, pullique eorum essent
imperfecti.
14 ‘When they were about to take the auguries, they
chose a sky calm and clear and with bright air. The augur held in his
hand a staff which was a curved stick, the augur’s emblem. With this he
pointed out the regions of the sky and the bounds within which the
auguries should be contained, and these regions were called “temples”,
whence the consideration of and meditation upon sacred matters in order
to observe the left and the right sides was called “contemplation”. In
the case of an omen deliberately sought, the augur himself defined the
regions; in the case of an omen offering itself gratuitously, the augur
decided according to whether it appeared on his right- or left-hand
side. He marked off the regions from east to west by the
limes decumanus, and by the
cardo he
measured the transverse constellations as far as the eye could see. The
foremost region inclined towards the rising sun, the region behind
towards the setting sun; the right to the south, the left to the north.
Observations were made with the augur seated, his head covered, wearing
the white augural toga of double texture, from midnight to midday, when
the days were growing longer, not decreasing. Nor were auguries taken
after the month of July, because the birds became weaker and ill, and
their young were not yet full grown.’ This note closely paraphrases the
description of augural practices in
Peucer’s Commentarius de
praecipuis generibus divinationum (1572), 378–9; some
is repeated in Rosinus’s
Romanarum antiquitatem libri
decem (
1583), 97–8, though not that corresponding to Jonson’s final
sentence (Talbert,
1947, 616–7).
Limes decumanus and
cardo are technical terms for boundary lines or
principal paths running east–west and south–north respectively.
14 dicta] F3; dicti F2
14 ipse]
Wh; ipso F2
14 oblativo]
H&S; oblato F2
14 transverso]
Wh; tranverso F2
14 oculi] F3; occuli F2
14 Antica]
Wh; Artica F2
14 occasum]
F3; occosum F2
14 imbecilliores]
H&S; imbiciliores F2
271 star i.e.
torchbearer.
275 they The poets and soothsayers. As in other masques, Jonson
positions figures of poetic art as the guides, conductors, and mediators
to the masquers.
275 fetched]
F2; fetch Q
275 masquers A design by Jones shows two masquers carrying staves
and dressed as augurs, except that they wear short tunics suitable for
dancing. They are preceded by two children as torchbearers in antique
costume, and are led by two figures probably representing the sons of
Apollo (Illustration 84,
Orgel and Strong, 1.340–1).
275 came] F2; come Q
277 SH] APOLLO and CHORUS F2, Q (subst.)
277–91 As Jonson’s marginal note
19 explains, the etymology of
auspicium was traditionally thought to derive from
‘watching the birds’ (
avis +
specio), and divination principally involved the analysis of
patterns of bird movement in the sky. Jonson’s note 15 offers detailed
explanation of the interpretations described here. For divination by
thunder and lightning, Talbert (
1947), 615 compares
Peucer’s Commentarius de praecipuis generibus divinationum
(1572):
Ex coelo tonitrua et fulmine, auguria
dabant in hunc modum. Si aut laevum, aut impari numero intonuisset;
aut si, ex ortu emissa fulmina, coeli circumactu, in eandem partem
rediissent . . . emicuissent prosperos eventus, et summa
felicitatem, nuntiare haec a Diis putabantur, ‘Prophesies were
given in this way from lightning and a thundering sky. If it sounded on
the left or an odd number of times, or if the thunderbolts, sent out
from their origin and driven around the sky, returned to the same place,
they proclaimed favourable outcomes and the greatest good luck; these
things were thought to be announced by the gods’ (trans. P. Culhane).
This passage also appears in Rosinus (
1583).
15 Augurandi scientia
ὀρνιθομαντεία dicta. Divinatio per aves. Aves aut oscines, aut
praepetes. Oscines, quae ore, praepetes, quae volatu augurium
significant. Pulli tripudio. Aves auspicatae, et praepetes, aquila,
vultur, sanqualis seu ossifraga,
triorches, sive buteo, immussulus, accipiter, cygnus, columba.
Oscines, cornix,
corvus, anser, ciconia, ardea, noctua; inauspicatae, milvus, parra,
nycticorax, striges, hirundo, picus, etc.
15 ‘The science of augury was called “divination
from birds”: for birds, or divining birds, or prophetic birds. Divining
birds are the ones that give an augury by their song, prophetic birds by
their flight. Young birds give augury by eating greedily. Propitious and
prophetic birds are the eagle, the vulture, the osprey or sea-eagle, the
buzzard or falcon, the vulture
[immusulus], the hawk, the swan, and the
dove. Divining birds are the crow, the raven, the goose, the stork, the
heron, and the owl. The unpropitious ones are the kite, the barn owl,
the night-raven, the screech-owl, the swallow, the woodpecker.’ The
first five sentences are a paraphrase combined from the definitions in
Rosinus and Peucer. The same sources also mention most of the birds in
the following list, except the swan (in
Comes’ account of Apollo in Mythologiae), the goose (
Livy), and the night-raven (Talbert,
1947, 618,
619n.). The
immusulus is a species of vulture
mentioned in
Pliny, Natural History, 10.8.
15 aut praepetes] F3; aut Prepetes F2
15 ore praepetes] F3; ore Proepetes F2
15 triorches]
H&S; Triarches F2
15 corvus] F3; cornus F2
283 hand side.
In augury, the left side of the sky was associated with bad luck, the
right with good. See Jonson’s marginal notes
16 and
20, and
Epicene,
3.5.15.
284 erne
eagle.
288 jay Unlike
the kite and the swallow, the jay is not listed as a bird of ill omen in
the classical sources quoted in Jonson’s marginal note
15, but was proverbial for its
flashiness and noisy chattering.
289 night-crow
A bird of ill omen; possibly the screech-owl or nightjar. Cf.
3H6,
5.6.44–5: ‘The owl shrieked at thy birth, an evil sign; / The
night-crow cried, aboding luckless time’. It could be the night-raven,
which is listed as a bird of ill omen in Jonson’s marginal note
15, and is similarly
invoked in
Spenser’s
Faerie Queene, 2.7.23 and 2.12.36. See
also
Epicene, 3.5.13n, and
Mag.
Lady, 2.1.16.
289 right] F2;
rite Q
290 SH] F2; not in Q
292 danced.]
F2; Dance. Q
292 laid] F2; lay Q
293 danced their]
F2; dance their Q
293 entry formal dance.
293 interpreted]
F2; interpret Q
16 Habebant dextra et laeva
omnia; antica et postica; orientalia et occidentalia. Graeci cum se
ad septentrionem obverterent, ortum ad dextram habuere. Romani cum
meridiem in auspicando
contuerentur, ortum ad laevam habuere. Itaque sinistrae partes
eaedem sunt Romanis quae Graecis dextrae ad ortum. Sinistra igitur
illis meliora, dextra pejora: Graecis contrà. Sinistra, pertinentia
ad ortum: salutaria,
quia ortus lucis index et auctor. Dextra, quia spectant occasum,
tristia.
16 ‘Everything has a left and a right, a front and a
back, an east and a west. When the Greeks turned towards the north, they
had the east on their right. When the Romans gazed towards the south in
taking auspices, they had the east on their left. So the left for the
Romans is the same as the right for the Greeks, i.e. looking towards the
east. The left, therefore, was more propitious for the former, the right
less; for the Greeks, vice versa. The left extended towards the east. It
was salutary, because the sunrise was a sign and a support. The right,
because it looked towards the sunset, was unhappy.’ Peucer has the
remark
Homerus Orientem dextrum, Occidentem fecit
sinistrum (Talbert,
1947, 617n.), but no extended source
has been found for this note. One likely authority would be Spondanus’s
commentary on
Iliad, 12. 239–40 (a passage cited to
similar purpose in
Beauty, 203), though there are no
direct verbal parallels; see
Homeri quae exstant omnia
(Basle,
1606),
233. Probably Jonson wanted to explain the directional symbolism of the
masque, so as to square his phrase ‘lucky all and right’ (
292) with classical
precedent, and to avoid the common association between left-handedness
and unluckiness (for which see
Epicene, 3.5.15). The
axis of the Banqueting House was south–north, with the stage against the
north wall and the royal dais to the south. According to Roman
precedent, the augurs would have been looking southwards when taking
their auspices; this would have suited protocol and the masque’s
underlying symbolism, for they were facing the king. The signs are
propitious because they come from the east: this is the left hand for
the masquers (and so lucky in Roman custom); for the king and
spectators, who are facing north according to Greek custom, lucky east
is on the right hand.
16 contuerentur]
H&S; cum tuerentur F2
16 eaedem] F3; eadem F2
16 quia ortus]
G; qui ortus F2
294 right i.e.
on the spectators’ right hand, the easterly (and thus more auspicious)
side of the Banqueting House. This is the augurs’ left but the apparent
contradiction is explained away in Jonson’s marginal note
16.
17 Columbae auguria non nisi
regibus dant; quia nunquam singulae volant: sicut Rex nunquam solus
incedit. Nuntiae pacis.
17 ‘Doves give auguries to none save kings, because
they never fly separately, just as the king never goes alone. They are
messengers of peace.’ Save for the addition of
auguria, this is an exact quotation from
Servius’s commentary on Virgil’s Aeneid, 1.393. Jonson perhaps reached this
through Robert Estienne’s citation of it under
Augurium (Talbert,
1947, 621).
299 Adds] Q; not in
F2
300 hernshaw
heron; sacred to Minerva.
18 Ardea, et ardeola, rerum
arduarum auspicium. Minervae sacra. Apud
Homerum. Iliad.
K.
δεξιὸς ἐρωδιός.
18 ‘The heron and the little heron are omens of
hardship. They are sacred to Minerva. In Homer,
Iliad,
10
[.274
], “the heron that bodes
well”.’ A mythological commonplace; for example, Robert Estienne’s
Thesaurus glosses
ardea and
ardeola together, citing
Servius’s commentary on Virgil’s Georgics, 1.364 (Starnes and Talbert,
1955, 433–4).
18 Homerum]
this edn; Homer F2
18 δεξιὸς ἐρωδιὸς]
H&S; δεξιω ἑρωδιὸς
305 olive
olive branch, symbolic of peace; James’s olive will remain unharmed.
306 behind to
come.
19 Auspicium, ab ave specienda.
Paulus. Nam quod nos cum praepositione dicimus
ASPICIO, apud veteres sine praepositione SPICIO
dicebatur.
19 ‘Auspice, from
ave spicienda,
looking at a bird. Paulus. For the word we use with a preposition,
aspicio, was spoken without a preposition by the
ancients,
spicio.’ This definition is given in Sextus
Pompeius Festus’s
De significatu verborum; Paulus is
Paulus Diaconus, the eighth-century compiler of the epitome of Festus.
Jonson copied the note from Robert Estienne’s article on
Augur, save that he substituted ‘
Paul.’ for
‘
inquit Festus’ (Talbert,
1947, 621).
20 Signa quae sese
offerrent,
erant multifaria: nam si
obijceretur avis aliqua, considerabatur quo volatu ferretur,
an
obliquo vel prono, vel supino motu corporis,
quo flecteret, contorqueret, aut contraheret membra; qua in
parte se occultaret; an ad dextram vel sinistram canerent oscines,
etc.
20 ‘The signs that presented themselves were of many
sorts. For if some bird was presented to view, they considered how it
was borne along in flight, whether obliquely or downward or with a
backward motion of the body; where it turned, twisted, or contracted its
limbs; in what part it disappeared; whether prophetic birds sang on the
left or right.’ From ‘
si obijceretur’ this is
virtually a word-for-word quotation from Peucer (or Rosinus, who has the
identical passage) (Talbert,
1947, 615).
20 offerrent]
H&S; offerent F2
20 erant] F3; erat F2
20 obijceretur]
H&S; obieceretur F2
20 obliquo]
F3; abliquo F2
314–15 Q; F2 leaves a stanza break between
these lines
316 deity Q
spells this ‘Deitie’, but F2 (state 2) has ‘Dietie’, to make a rhyme
with ‘piety’.
OED lists this as a common
seventeenth-century spelling: for the rhyme,
H&S compare Thomas Heywood’s
dialogue
Jupiter and Juno: ‘But now again thou
mightiest of the dieties, / Lest that there should be end of thy
impieties’ (Heywood,
1637, 102).
318 their
piety Jonson gives James’s pacifism an ecumenical emphasis: by
refusing to exacerbate the divisions within Christendom he works to
preserve religious unity.
323 sides
accompanies.
325 went] F2; goes Q
325 sung] F2; sings Q
326–37 A setting for Apollo’s song (though not including
the chorus), by Nicholas Lanier, appears in BL Egerton MS 2013. See
Music Archive.
328 would that
would.
331 shall] F2;
should Q
335 by
th’increase i.e. by the increase of those glories.
21 Romulus augur fuit, et Numa,
et reliqui reges Romani, sicut ante eos Turnus, Rhamnetes et alii.
Lacedemonii suis regibus augurem assessorem dabant, Cilices, Lycii,
Cares, Arabes, in summâ veneratione habuerunt auguria.
21 ‘Romulus was augur, and Numa was, and the rest of
the Roman kings, just as before them Turnus, the Ramnetes, and others
were. The Lacedaemonians gave their kings an augur as an aid. The
Cilicians, the Lycians, the Carians, and the Arabs held augurs in the
highest veneration.’ For Romulus and Numa as augurs, see Cicero,
De divinatione, 1.18.107, and Rosinus (see .); ‘
Lacedemonii . . .
dabant’ is quoted
from Cicero, 1.43.95. Turnus, in the
Aeneid, 9, is
king of the Rutuli and fights against Aeneas; his augur, Rhamnes, is
killed by the Trojans. The Ramnetes were one of the three primitive
tribes of Rome;
Livy
(10.6) mentions their augur. The augurs of the Carians (in
Asia Minor) are mentioned by
Pliny, Natural History,
7.56.203 (
H&S).
337 by his] F2;
by the Q
340 Nephews
Grandsons; from the Latin
nepotem (= grandson), but
also a common seventeenth-century use (
OED, Nephew 3).
342 opened] F2; opens Q
342 jove A design by Jones, probably for this masque, shows Jove
seated on a cloud, flanked by Juno and Minerva. On smaller clouds on
either side sit Mercury and Cupid (Illustration 85;
Orgel and Strong,
1.423–4).
342 were] F2; is Q
343 returned]
F2; returnes Q
343 sung] F2; sings Q
346 me to] Q; to
me F2
349 father] Q;
Frather F2
350–1 ] Q; one line
F2
22 Vide Orpheum in hymn. de
omnip. Jovis.
22 ‘See Orpheus in the hymn on Jupiter’s omnipotence
[Homeric Hymns, 23].’
A mythological commonplace, but discussed (e.g.) in Comes’ article on
Jove.
354 Earth, sea, and
air This is implicitly a riposte to Vangoose, who made a
similar claim (
77–8).
360 THE EARTH (riseth)]
centred, in place of SH, F2, Q
360 Orgel gives this line to Apollo, treating the words ‘The
Earth riseth’ in F2 as a SD in the middle of his speech. However, the
words are centred above
360 as if they were a SH, and in Q ‘Earth’ is set in the
small capitals typically used for the names of speakers. Since Earth
joins in with the Chorus at 362–4, it seems likely that 360 is also sung
by him.
361 these] Q;
their F2
361 our wrong
wronging us.
23 Mos Jovis, annuendo votis et
firmandis
ominibus. Apud
Homerum, etc.
23 ‘It was the custom of Jupiter to nod to prayers
and omens that he wished to confirm. In Homer, etc.’ A mythological
commonplace.
23 ominibus]
G; omnibus F2
23 Homerum]
this edn; Homer F2
367 firms
confirms.
370 leave
cease.
372 shut] F2; shuts Q
372 danced] F2; dance Q
374–9 ] Q (state 2); not
in F2, Q (state 1)
374–8 This note appears only in Q (state 2).
374 invention choice of subject. It is notable that Jonson freely
acknowledges Jones’s help here in inventing the masque, as this was the
crucial issue over which the two men were eventually to fall out.
‘Invention’ is a term from rhetoric which refers to the masque’s
intellectual genesis, and hence indicates both artists had ultimate
responsibility for creating it. See
Und. 25,
Discoveries, 1532–53, and Gordon (
1975), 82.
375–6 king’s
surveyor Jones became Surveyor of the King’s Works in 1615, in
succession to Simon Basil.
377 Ferrabosco Composer of songs for Volpone,
Hymenaei, Queens, Oberon, and Love Freed: see Hym., 585n.
378 Lanier Composer of music for Vision and Lovers Made Men: see Lovers MM, .
378 An . . .
esto Let it be up to you whether these things are worthy of
Apollo and the muses (quotation Lat.; untraced).
a
note on the masquers The following performers are mentioned in
the records for this masque:Prince Charles; George Villiers, Marquis of
Buckingham; and three minor courtiers whose costume expenses were
partially underwritten by the crown, James Bowey, Humphrey Palmer, and
Edward Wray.
Unless otherwise indicated, Latin translations
are adapted from
Orgel’s edition.
1 ‘Antiquity reported four extraordinary skills
that Apollo received.’ Apollo’s fourfold attributes are listed and
documented in great detail in
Comes’ Mythologiae (1581),
227–43. The ultimate source for this definition of his power
is Plato’s
Cratylus, 404e-405d, cited by Comes.
1–23 ] F2; not in
Q
2 ‘Skill at archery, whence in Homer the frequent
epithet “far-shooting”.’ For Homeric examples, see
Iliad, 1.14;
Odyssey, 8.323.
2 peritiam]
F3; peretiam F2
3 ‘Medicine, whence he gained the name “the
physician”.’
4 ‘Music, whence he was called “leader of the
muses”.’
5 ‘And divination (in which augury too is
included), whence he was called “Apollo the augur”.
Virgil, Aeneid, 4.[376]
and
Horace, Odes, 1.2.[31–2]: “Prophetic Apollo, veiling your radiant shoulders
in cloud”. And
[Horace,
]
The Centennial Hymn
[61–4
], where the most learned poet
has included these skills in a like number of verses: “Phoebus the
prophet, who goes adorned with the shining bow, who is dear to the nine
muses, and who with his healing art relieves the body’s weary limbs”.’
Jonson was probably led to the first two citations by Robert Estienne’s
thesaurus, where they are listed in the section
Apollo
augur (Talbert,
1947, 610).
5 candentes]
Wh; cadentes F2
6 ‘Linus, the son of Apollo and Terpsichore:
Pausanias.’ But
Pausanias’s Description of Greece, 2.19.8,
says Linus’s mother was Psamathe; the mistake comes from Charles
Estienne’s dictionary, which says ‘
Linus, Apollinis &
Terpsichores filius . . .
Paus. lib. 9’, and
was copied directly into Jonson’s note (Talbert,
1943b, 155–6).
6 Apollinis]
F3; Appollinis F2
7 ‘Orpheus, the son of Apollo and Calliope, of whom
Virgil wrote in Eclogues
[4.55–7], “Neither
Thracian Orpheus nor Linus shall vanquish me in song, though his mother
aid the one and his father the other, Calliope Orpheus, and fair Apollo
Linus.”’ This note, including the quotation, is repeated almost verbatim
from the entry on Orpheus in Charles Estienne’s dictionary (Talbert,
1947,
607).
7 scripsit]
inscript F2;
H&S
conj. Jonson wrote ‘in Ecloga IV. scripsit’
7 Thracius]
F3; Thraetius F2
8 ‘Branchus, the son of Apollo and
[Iaucis
], on whom see Strabo
[Geography], 14.
[1.5
], and Statius,
Thebaid, 3.
[478–9
] –
“Branchus, whose honour is equal to his father’s”.’ There are several
problems in this note. Branchus was the mythical founder of the oracle
at Didyma, near Miletus, but Strabo does not identify him as Apollo’s
son, only as a beautiful boy with whom Apollo fell in love. The
alternative tradition, that Apollo was his father, comes via Robert
Estienne, who derived it from Lactantius’s commentary on Statius, 3.479,
8.198:
Branchus, ut scribit Lactantius, filius fuit
Apollinis ex filia Iaucis & Sucronis conjuge, susceptus.
Estienne also adds the reference to Strabo, 14. The note’s accuracy is
further weakened by errors of transmission: the reference to Strabo is
given wrongly (see collation), and
Iaucis in Estienne
was mistranscribed as ‘
Iances’, either by Jonson or,
most likely, the compositor (who made numerous blunders with the Latin).
See Talbert (
1943b), 157–8, and (
1947), 607; Callimachus, fragment 229;
Parke (
1985),
2–4; and Fontenrose (
1988), 106–8.
8 14]
H&S; 4 F2
9 ‘Idmon, the son of Apollo and Asteria. On him see
Valerius Flaccus,
Argonautica, 1.[228–33]: “But then in answer, Idmon, Phoebus’s
son, not pale and weak nor terrible to look upon with hair standing on
end, but filled with destiny and the calmness of Phoebus; his father
gave him foreknowledge of divine omens, whether he consulted flames, or
scrutinized smooth entrails, or the air full of truthful birds.”’ This
source does not supply Idmon’s mother’s name; it came from Charles
Estienne’s article on Idmon, or from Robert Estienne under
Phoebius Idmon, which also cites the illustration from the
Argonautica (Talbert,
1943b, 157).
9 Phoebeius]
H&S; Phoebius F2
9 horrore]
G; honore F2
9 terribilis]
Wh; terriblis F2
9 monitu]
G; not in F2
9 aëra] F3; oëra F2
10 ‘Phoemonoë, the daughter of Phoebus, who was the
first to sing heroic song.
Hesiod in the Theogony.’ Another erroneous note, for Phoemonoë does
not appear in Hesiod: Jonson reproduced the mistaken attribution given
by Charles Estienne, from whom he copied this note almost verbatim
(Talbert,
1943b,
157). Phoemonoë is mentioned by
Pliny, Natural History,
10.3.7, 10.8.21, and
Pausanias, 10.5.7s (Wheeler,
1938, 164).
10 Phoemonoë] F2
(Phœmœn)
11 canore]
Wh; cavore F2
12 ‘The science of augury was ancient and noble
among the peoples, especially the Etruscans, who had a college and a
very much frequented residence of augurs, whose reputation and dignity
were paramount throughout Italy, particularly at Rome. Romulus, when he
founded Rome, instituted a college of augurs, with himself as the noble
chief augur, as in
Livy
[History of Rome], 1.[18.6], and
Cicero De divinatione
[‘On Divination’], 1.[2.3, 48.107]. Their
function was to take the auspices and to collect from them indications
of future events, and to examine the gods’ prophecies regarding events
favourable or adverse. The Romans held the matter sacred and regal, and
the office remained in the control of the patricians and the leading men
and persisted even under the emperors; whence by my Apollo such a
president is fairly appointed.’ Jonson’s information about the college
founded by Romulus comes from Rosinus’s
Romanarum
antiquitatem libri decem (
1583), 95:
Augurum
disciplina vetustissima fuit, a Chaldaeis et Graecis usurpata:
maxime autem in Hetruria floruit, unde ad Latinos et Romanos
pervenit . . . primi Augures a Romulo instituti sunt, quia et ipse
excellens augur fuisse constanter asseritur, a Dionysio, Livio,
Plutarcho, et aliis. Fuit autem ab eo, trium augurum collegium
institutum, ita, ut singuli ex singulis tribubus legerentur, quorum
sacerdotium deinde confirmavit Numa, ‘The discipline of the
augurs was very old, taken over from the Chaldaeans and Greeks, but it
flourished particularly in Etruria, and thence came to the Latins and
Romans . . . The first augurs were created by Romulus, because even he
himself was a great augur, it is generally agreed by Dionysius, Livy,
Plutarch, and others. For there was a college of three augurs created by
him, and they were individually drawn from each tribe; Numa then
consolidated this college of priests’ (trans. P. Culhane). Livy (4.4.4)
in fact suggests that the order of augurs was not established until the
reign of Numa, though he describes Romulus and Numa as taking auspices
at the outset of their kingships.
H&S compare
Pliny’s Natural History, 8.28.103:
Auguria
quidem artem fecere apud Romanos et sacerdotum collegium vel maxime
sollemne, ‘indeed auguries have constituted a science at Rome,
and have given rise to a priestly college of the greatest dignity’. See
also .
12 Hetruscas]
H&S; Hetruseos F2
12 nobilis]
F3; nobiles F2
12 Sacra]
G; Sacer F2
12 talis]
Wh; tales F2
13 ‘Dances were employed in sacred observances by
almost all peoples, and from their leaping or from the dancing done to
the Salian song, they were called
salii and
consecrated to Mars. All, furthermore, who played to song and the flute
were called
salii and
salisubsuli
[dancing
salii].
Salius
[means
] “singing hymns”
[according to
] an old gloss, and Pacuvius:
“So let Mars the
salisubsulus keep watch on behalf of
your sovereignty”; and
Virgil, Aeneid, 8.[285–6]: “Then the
salii come to
sing round the kindled altars, their brows bound with poplar boughs.”’
Salius is literally ‘a dancer’ or leaper, and the
salii were the ‘leaping priests’ who performed
annual rituals in honour of Mars.
Livy (1.20) tells how Numa created an
order of twelve
salii who would process through Rome
performing ritual dances: they wore military dress and carried shields
and spears or staves. This note to ‘
dicebantur’
summarizes material in Rosinus’s discussion of the
salii (
1583, 112–13); from ‘
Salius’, it is
paraphrased from Charles Estienne’s article on the
salii (Talbert,
1947, 617n., 620–1).
Salisubsulus is a nonce word, which appears (in the form
salisubsali) only in
Catullus, 17.6. It was glossed by
Alexander Guarinus, the sixteenth-century commentator on Catullus, with
an otherwise unrecorded line attributed to the Roman tragic poet
Pacuvius (
c. 220–130
bc):
this is now thought to be a post-classical forgery (Ellis,
1889, 63; Fordyce,
1961, 142).
Jonson also mentions dances in the ‘Salian manner’ in his translation of
Horace,
Odes 4.1 (
Und. 86.27).
13 paene]
H&S; pene F2
14 ‘When they were about to take the auguries, they
chose a sky calm and clear and with bright air. The augur held in his
hand a staff which was a curved stick, the augur’s emblem. With this he
pointed out the regions of the sky and the bounds within which the
auguries should be contained, and these regions were called “temples”,
whence the consideration of and meditation upon sacred matters in order
to observe the left and the right sides was called “contemplation”. In
the case of an omen deliberately sought, the augur himself defined the
regions; in the case of an omen offering itself gratuitously, the augur
decided according to whether it appeared on his right- or left-hand
side. He marked off the regions from east to west by the
limes decumanus, and by the
cardo he
measured the transverse constellations as far as the eye could see. The
foremost region inclined towards the rising sun, the region behind
towards the setting sun; the right to the south, the left to the north.
Observations were made with the augur seated, his head covered, wearing
the white augural toga of double texture, from midnight to midday, when
the days were growing longer, not decreasing. Nor were auguries taken
after the month of July, because the birds became weaker and ill, and
their young were not yet full grown.’ This note closely paraphrases the
description of augural practices in
Peucer’s Commentarius de
praecipuis generibus divinationum (1572), 378–9; some
is repeated in Rosinus’s
Romanarum antiquitatem libri
decem (
1583), 97–8, though not that corresponding to Jonson’s final
sentence (Talbert,
1947, 616–7).
Limes decumanus and
cardo are technical terms for boundary lines or
principal paths running east–west and south–north respectively.
14 dicta] F3; dicti F2
14 ipse]
Wh; ipso F2
14 oblativo]
H&S; oblato F2
14 transverso]
Wh; tranverso F2
14 oculi] F3; occuli F2
14 Antica]
Wh; Artica F2
14 occasum]
F3; occosum F2
14 imbecilliores]
H&S; imbiciliores F2
15 ‘The science of augury was called “divination
from birds”: for birds, or divining birds, or prophetic birds. Divining
birds are the ones that give an augury by their song, prophetic birds by
their flight. Young birds give augury by eating greedily. Propitious and
prophetic birds are the eagle, the vulture, the osprey or sea-eagle, the
buzzard or falcon, the vulture
[immusulus], the hawk, the swan, and the
dove. Divining birds are the crow, the raven, the goose, the stork, the
heron, and the owl. The unpropitious ones are the kite, the barn owl,
the night-raven, the screech-owl, the swallow, the woodpecker.’ The
first five sentences are a paraphrase combined from the definitions in
Rosinus and Peucer. The same sources also mention most of the birds in
the following list, except the swan (in
Comes’ account of Apollo in Mythologiae), the goose (
Livy), and the night-raven (Talbert,
1947, 618,
619n.). The
immusulus is a species of vulture
mentioned in
Pliny, Natural History, 10.8.
15 aut praepetes] F3; aut Prepetes F2
15 ore praepetes] F3; ore Proepetes F2
15 triorches]
H&S; Triarches F2
15 corvus] F3; cornus F2
16 ‘Everything has a left and a right, a front and a
back, an east and a west. When the Greeks turned towards the north, they
had the east on their right. When the Romans gazed towards the south in
taking auspices, they had the east on their left. So the left for the
Romans is the same as the right for the Greeks, i.e. looking towards the
east. The left, therefore, was more propitious for the former, the right
less; for the Greeks, vice versa. The left extended towards the east. It
was salutary, because the sunrise was a sign and a support. The right,
because it looked towards the sunset, was unhappy.’ Peucer has the
remark
Homerus Orientem dextrum, Occidentem fecit
sinistrum (Talbert,
1947, 617n.), but no extended source
has been found for this note. One likely authority would be Spondanus’s
commentary on
Iliad, 12. 239–40 (a passage cited to
similar purpose in
Beauty, 203), though there are no
direct verbal parallels; see
Homeri quae exstant omnia
(Basle,
1606),
233. Probably Jonson wanted to explain the directional symbolism of the
masque, so as to square his phrase ‘lucky all and right’ (
292) with classical
precedent, and to avoid the common association between left-handedness
and unluckiness (for which see
Epicene, 3.5.15). The
axis of the Banqueting House was south–north, with the stage against the
north wall and the royal dais to the south. According to Roman
precedent, the augurs would have been looking southwards when taking
their auspices; this would have suited protocol and the masque’s
underlying symbolism, for they were facing the king. The signs are
propitious because they come from the east: this is the left hand for
the masquers (and so lucky in Roman custom); for the king and
spectators, who are facing north according to Greek custom, lucky east
is on the right hand.
16 contuerentur]
H&S; cum tuerentur F2
16 eaedem] F3; eadem F2
16 quia ortus]
G; qui ortus F2
17 ‘Doves give auguries to none save kings, because
they never fly separately, just as the king never goes alone. They are
messengers of peace.’ Save for the addition of
auguria, this is an exact quotation from
Servius’s commentary on Virgil’s Aeneid, 1.393. Jonson perhaps reached this
through Robert Estienne’s citation of it under
Augurium (Talbert,
1947, 621).
18 ‘The heron and the little heron are omens of
hardship. They are sacred to Minerva. In Homer,
Iliad,
10
[.274
], “the heron that bodes
well”.’ A mythological commonplace; for example, Robert Estienne’s
Thesaurus glosses
ardea and
ardeola together, citing
Servius’s commentary on Virgil’s Georgics, 1.364 (Starnes and Talbert,
1955, 433–4).
18 Homerum]
this edn; Homer F2
18 δεξιὸς ἐρωδιὸς]
H&S; δεξιω ἑρωδιὸς
19 ‘Auspice, from
ave spicienda,
looking at a bird. Paulus. For the word we use with a preposition,
aspicio, was spoken without a preposition by the
ancients,
spicio.’ This definition is given in Sextus
Pompeius Festus’s
De significatu verborum; Paulus is
Paulus Diaconus, the eighth-century compiler of the epitome of Festus.
Jonson copied the note from Robert Estienne’s article on
Augur, save that he substituted ‘
Paul.’ for
‘
inquit Festus’ (Talbert,
1947, 621).
20 ‘The signs that presented themselves were of many
sorts. For if some bird was presented to view, they considered how it
was borne along in flight, whether obliquely or downward or with a
backward motion of the body; where it turned, twisted, or contracted its
limbs; in what part it disappeared; whether prophetic birds sang on the
left or right.’ From ‘
si obijceretur’ this is
virtually a word-for-word quotation from Peucer (or Rosinus, who has the
identical passage) (Talbert,
1947, 615).
20 offerrent]
H&S; offerent F2
20 erant] F3; erat F2
20 obijceretur]
H&S; obieceretur F2
20 obliquo]
F3; abliquo F2
21 ‘Romulus was augur, and Numa was, and the rest of
the Roman kings, just as before them Turnus, the Ramnetes, and others
were. The Lacedaemonians gave their kings an augur as an aid. The
Cilicians, the Lycians, the Carians, and the Arabs held augurs in the
highest veneration.’ For Romulus and Numa as augurs, see Cicero,
De divinatione, 1.18.107, and Rosinus (see .); ‘
Lacedemonii . . .
dabant’ is quoted
from Cicero, 1.43.95. Turnus, in the
Aeneid, 9, is
king of the Rutuli and fights against Aeneas; his augur, Rhamnes, is
killed by the Trojans. The Ramnetes were one of the three primitive
tribes of Rome;
Livy
(10.6) mentions their augur. The augurs of the Carians (in
Asia Minor) are mentioned by
Pliny, Natural History,
7.56.203 (
H&S).
22 ‘See Orpheus in the hymn on Jupiter’s omnipotence
[Homeric Hymns, 23].’
A mythological commonplace, but discussed (e.g.) in Comes’ article on
Jove.
23 ‘It was the custom of Jupiter to nod to prayers
and omens that he wished to confirm. In Homer, etc.’ A mythological
commonplace.
23 ominibus]
G; omnibus F2
23 Homerum]
this edn; Homer F2
Prince
of thy peace, see what it is to love
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