Title the masque of beauty]
not in Q, F1
TITLE THE SECOND
MASQUE The title as printed in Q and repeated in F emphasizes
the connection with The Masque of Blackness, which had
preceded it. There is no separate title-page in Q.
1 Two . . . delights Nearly three years had passed since Blackness. Though other masques had been performed,
they had not been the Queen’s commissions.
1 intermitted suspended.
2 glorify (1) make resplendent; (2) bestow magnificence
upon.
3 presentment presentation.
3 the
former i.e. Blackness.
3 them The masquers who had appeared in Blackness.
4 their
beauties varied They were now changed to white, as promised at
the end of the earlier masque.
5 four . . . number The Queen wished to invite additional
ladies to perform, and Jonson turned the extra number into a significant
part of his fiction; see Introduction.
6 apted conformed.
6 invention A technical rhetorical term for the underlying
device or plan of the work.
7 induced introduced.
7 BOREAS The
north wind. The ensuing description is derived from
Ripa, Iconologia, ‘
Venti: Borea’ which
refers to his beard, hair, and wings being covered in snow, and his feet
like serpents’ tails. See Jonson’s marginal note .
8 bagged hanging full.
8 horrid bristling.
9 with
wires On a wire frame. Zephyrus, the west wind, in Campion’s
Lord Hay’s Masque (
1607), similarly wore a ‘mantle of
white silk, propped with wire, still waving behind him as he moved’
(
Lindley, Masques, 22).
10 feet . . . tails,1] feeta . . . tayles; Q. Jonson’s marginal
notes are alphabetical in Q
10 tails,1 Superscript numbers
refer to Jonson’s Marginalia; see below, following the masque.
JONSON’S
MARGINALIA 1 So Pausanias
in Eliacis
[5.19.1
] reports him to have, as he
was carved
in arca
Cipseli.
1 Pausanias
(fl.
c. ad 150), Greek traveller and geographer. The
reference is to the section on Elis in his Description of Greece, but
Jonson may have derived the citation from Ripa or Cartari (
1571) 261.
in . . . Cipseli on the
chest of Cipselus (Lat.). The carved chest in the temple of Hera was so
named because Cipselus, a ruler of Corinth, was hidden in it at his
birth.
1 Cipseli]
F1;
Cipselli Q
11 before in front; though possibly he was placed in position
earlier and in some way concealed (see ).
12 JANUARY
See Jonson’s marginal note . The month derives its name from
the god Janus (see .)
2 See
Iconologia di Cesare
Ripa.
2 Iconologia . . . Ripa Under
Mese: Gennaro
(‘Months: January’): ‘A young man winged and clothed in white; he holds
with both hands the sign of Aquarius . . . We picture him with white
clothing because in this month the ground is usually covered with snow,
so that the fields seem all of one colour. He holds with both hands the
sign of Aquarius, because this month is indicated by the part of the
Sun’s course called Aquarius, because in that season snow and rain
abound’ (trans. Gilbert,
1948, 145).
13 buskins boots.
14 anadem wreath.
14 fronted having at its front. In Ripa’s description the sign
is held in the hand, but obviously the actor needs his hands free.
14 Aquarius The astrological sign for January.
14 character emblem.
15 discovered himself The instruction suggests that January had
been hidden, perhaps with his cloak covering his face.
16 Albion . . .
son King James. See Blackness, 165–6 and
note.
18 Mars God
of war.
19 Hesperus
The evening star.
20 Sol The
sun.
22 Promethean
fire Prometheus stole fire from the gods, and symbolized human
aspiration to knowledge. A compliment to James’s learning.
23 this all
all this place.
24 duty, yet, commanding, cheer,]
this edn;
duty; yet commanding, cheare: Q
24–5 yet . . .
fear James’s commands move his subjects with a sense of duty,
but, even as they command, they uplift and encourage the spirit, so that
they are obeyed out of love for, rather than fear of, the King.
25 are . . .
fear Jonson makes a similar comment, derived from
Seneca, ‘On Mercy’,
1.13.2–5 in
Discoveries, 852: ‘the merciful
prince is safe in love, not in fear’.
28 rude
unmannerly, discordant.
3 Ovid
Metamorphoses, 6,
near the end
[685–6
]; see
horridus ira, quae solita est illi, nimiumque domestica,
vento etc.
3 Ovid A
general reference to Ovid’s sixth book is given in Ripa. horridus . . . vento
‘rough with anger, which was the north wind’s customary and more natural
mood.’
33 Janus A
Roman god, with a number of different significances. Traditionally
depicted with two faces (one looking backwards, one forwards), or else
with four (as in
King’s Ent., 316–43), he was the god
of doors, boundaries, and roads, known as
claviger,
‘key bearer’. He was the protector of the city of Rome. In his
four-faced version he was associated with the four seasons of the year.
Ovid’s
Fasti, to which Jonson alludes (Jonson’s
marginal note
4 and
n.), however, describes the god’s birth in terms very similar to
that of the myth of Love which underpins the later part of the masque.
Janus rises out of the originary Chaos, and orders the seasons and the
year in parallel fashion to Love’s ordering of the elements in
harmony.
4 See the offices, and power of Janus.
Ovid,
Fasti, 1.
4 See . . .
Fasti Jonson also cites
Ovid’s Fasti for January in King’s
Ent., 325–6 and n. Fasti 1.63–288, is devoted
to the figure of Janus; Jonson draws particularly on 65; ‘two-headed
Janus, opener of the softly sliding year’, and 121–2: ‘when I choose to
send peace out from tranquil halls, she freely walks the ways
unhindered’.
34 Shutting up
wars The doors of the temple of Janus were shut in times of
peace, open in times of war (so that he might come to the aid of the
Romans).
38–43 These lines fulfil the instructions at the end of
Blackness, 286–307.
44 broke their
day did not keep their appointment.
45 it The
King’s gift of whiteness.
46 coarse
unmannerly, low-born.
47 expect
await.
48 fain
obliged.
49 other
rites i.e. Hymenaei and Campion’s Lord Hay’s Masque.
5 Two marriages; the one of the Earl of Essex,
1606, the other of the Lord Hay,
1607.
5 Earl of
Essex Married Frances Howard (see Hym.) Lord Hay James Hay, a notoriously
extravagant Scottish favourite of the king (d. 1636), married the
English Honora Denny. He later became Earl of Carlisle, and remained a
notable leader of court fashion into Charles I’s reign.
52 nor will
neither wilfulness (
OED, Will n.1 9a.).
54 religion
‘Action indicating reverence for, and desire to please, a divine ruling
power’ (
OED, 3a).
55 Proteus A
god of the sea, with the ability to change himself into whatever form he
desired.
55 grey
Proteus was known as the ‘old man of the sea’.
6 Read his description, with Virgil,
Georgicon, 4.
[387–8
]:
Est in Carpathio Neptuni gurgite vates, Caeruleus
Proteus.
6 Est . . . Proteus ‘In Neptune’s Carpathian sea there is a
prophet, dark Proteus.’ Jonson’s ‘grey Proteus’ (55) is a translation of
the Latin caeruleus which can mean ‘sky blue’,
‘sea-green’, or simply ‘dark, gloomy’.
57 kind
family, race. Cf. .
57 their sire
The river Niger (see Blackness, 34–5).
7 Because they were before of her complexion.
63 Ethiop washèd
white See Blackness, . for this
proverbial impossibility.
65 Her
Night’s.
8 To give authority to this part of our fiction,
Pliny hath
a chapter 95 of
his second book
Naturalis Historiae,
de
insulis
fluctuantibus. And Cardano,
De Rerum
Varietate, 1.7 reports one to be in his time known in the Lake
of Lomond, in Scotland. To let pass that of Delos, etc.
8 Pliny see
Blackness, 10n. chapter 95 Actually 96. Naturalis . . . fluctuantibus ‘Natural History, concerning floating islands.’ Cardano Girolamo Cardano
(1501–76), Italian mathematician and doctor, refers to Loch Lomond in a
chapter on ‘Aque Miracula’ in his De Rerum, claiming
to have seen an island made of pitch and looking like a mushroom, rising
out of the waters, but not fixed to the bottom of the lake so that it
floated like a ship. Delos Island
called from the deep by Neptune, which floated until anchored by Jupiter
in order that it might provide a secure resting place for Leto to give
birth to Apollo and Diana.
8 his second] Q(his 2); the second F1
69 she’d] Q (she’had)
69 gyved] Q (giu’d)
69 gyved
fettered.
72 kind (1)
family relationship; (2) natural disposition.
76 For, ever since,] Q; For euer since F1; Forever since Orgel
76 For, ever
since Orgel modernizes this as ‘Forever since’, which is
equally possible.
76 error
wandering (from Lat. errare).
76 hath] Q; had
Orgel
78 desperate
despairing.
79 vow Their
promise to return to James’s court.
80 to express
Elision is necessary for the metre.
83 Orithyia
See Jonson’s marginal note
9. A tri-syllabic pronunciation is needed for the metre.
9 The daughter of Erectheus, King of Athens, whom
Boreas ravished away into Thrace as she was playing with other virgins
by the flood Ilissus, or (as some will) by the fountain Cephisus.
9 Ilissus . . .
Cephisus The alternative versions of the legend are taken
directly from Conti (1567), 251v.
87 I have
This should probably be elided for the metre.
88–9 unlucky . . .
mankind A version of the proverb ‘It’s an ill wind that blows
no good.’
10 The violence of Boreas Ovid excellently describes
in the place above quoted:
Hac nubila pello, hac freta
concutio, nodosaque robora verto, Induroque nives, et terras
grandine
pulso.
10 Hac . . . pulso ‘By this [violence] I drive the rain-clouds, by this stir up the sea,
overturn gnarled oaks, make hard the snow and batter the earth with
hail’ (Metamorphoses, 6.690–2).
92 VULTURNUS
The east wind. The description is derived from Ripa, under Venti: Euro, which explains that he is black ‘in the likeness
of the Ethiopians, who come from the Levant whence he originates’.
11 According to that of Virgil,
Denuntiat igneus
Euros.
11 Denuntiat . . . Euros ‘A fiery
[sun
] threatens east winds’ (
Virgil, Georgics,
1.453). The quotation is present in Ripa’s description.
95 death!]
G; Death, Q
101 Ethiopia
She had appeared in Blackness as the moon goddess
worshipped by the Ethiopians.
102 Hecatè The
deity presiding over magic and spells (see Queens,
195), but also an aspect of the moon goddess, represented as controlling
the underworld.
12 She is called φωσφόρ´ ῾Εκάτη by Euripides in
Helena
[569
], which is
Lucifera, to which name we here presently allude.
12 φωσφόρ´
῾Εκάτη ‘light-bearing Hecate.’ Lucifera
means ‘light-bearing’ in Latin. Euripides The reference, unlike most in the masque, is not
traceable to the mythographers. Either Jonson knew it directly, or
encountered it in an as yet untraced intermediary.
102 brake
freed.
104 takes
place exceeds, takes precedence.
105 their
Queen Anne.
13 For the more full and clear understanding of that
which follows, have recourse to the succeeding pages, where the scene
presents itself.
106–9 This is dramatized and explained at
201–3.
110 nobler . . .
sky The planets.
111 loves
Cupids, the torchbearers.
112 still
moving ever-moving.
115 Elysium
Place of ideal happiness (originally the Greek paradise of the
dead).
116 spirits . . .
Greeks The musicians, who ‘
represented the shades
of the old poets’ (
194).
117 Linus
Mythical poet and singer round whom several stories collected. Son of
Apollo and one of the Muses (Urania or Terpsichore), in one version of
the myth he competed with Apollo and was killed by him; in another he
was killed by Hercules, his recalcitrant pupil. Also said to have been
the son of Hermes, and the teacher, or else brother, of Orpheus.
117 Orpheus
The most famous mythic embodiment of the power of music and poetry,
though, as with Linus, there are many variations in his story. He was
able to charm not only humans, but beasts and even trees by his art, and
was accorded mystical significance by neoplatonists.
14 So Terence and the ancients called poesy,
artem musicam.
14 Terence
The phrase is found twice: in Phormio, prol., 17, and
Hecyra, prol., 46. artem musicam musical art.
121 mazes As
described at 213–14.
123 two
fountains See .
123 hight] Q;
height F1
123 hight
called (a Spenserian archaism).
125 closes
musical cadences.
125 bottoms
The beds of the springs.
128 thy] Q; the
F1
131 continent
main land (as distinct from the island on which they float).
134 holy fires
The radiant beams of James, the western sun, which had turned their
sisters white.
135 rapt
seized.
139–208 This description of the Throne of Beauty, as
D. J. Gordon has demonstrated (
1975), 141–54, embodies the
allegorical heart of this masque. His commentary has supplied many of
the following details. The picture is not easy to visualize, but the
island and throne together form a kind of chariot, or pageant-wagon, on
five levels. The lowest level is set out as a maze (
191–2) with arbours for the
musicians (
188–9) and
a grove at the back in which (probably painted) Cupids played. On the
steps which form the next level, boys acting as light-bearers sat. The
throne itself has three levels; the first for the masquers, the second
for the images of the elements of Beauty, and the whole is topped by an
image of Harmonia. Above the throne is a painted scene of the moon. A
central pillar, round which the structure turned, runs up the centre.
PRO, E351/3243, fols 4v–5 records payment for ‘making a great
Throne . . . born in the midst by a great pillar with diverse wheels and
devices for the moving round thereof’. It also describes the structure
as ‘made with sundry devices with great gates and turning doors below
and a globe and sundry seats above for the Queen and ladies to sit on
and to be turned round about’, which suggests a circular structure with
the eight pillars arranged evenly round the circumference.
140 I
devised Jonson asserts his own invention of the idea of the
throne.
141 seat of
state This applies to the whole structure in which the sixteen
masquers were seated, rather than specifically to a throne for the
queen.
142 distinguished separated, marked out.
142 Ionic One of the three Greek architectural orders, with
fluted columns and scrolled capital.
Vitruvius, Elements of
Architecture, 4.1, suggests that it is ‘of womanly
slenderness, ornament and proportion’ (transl. Rowland,
1999, 54) in
contrast to the masculine Doric order.
143 pilasters Square or rectangular pillar-like piers projecting
a third of their width from the wall behind.
144 tralucent translucent.
148 coronice cornice; this neo-Latin spelling is consistently
preferred by Jonson to the more usual form derived from Italian and
French (
Theobalds, 25;
New Inn,
3.2.145), and was used also by
Carew, Coelum Britannicum
(1633), and Davenant,
The Temple of Love
(1634).
148–9 which
advanced i.e. the figures.
149 advanced upon were placed above.
149 being . . . order The Corinthian is the third order of Greek
architecture, with slender columns and a capital adorned with acanthus
leaves. Vitruvius states that it ‘imitates the slenderness of a young
girl’ (transl. Rowland,
1999, 55).
150 SPLENDOR
The Latin means both ‘brightness’ and ‘magnificence’. The myth of
Jonson’s masque, as D. J. Gordon notes, reflects the neoplatonic
philosophy of love and beauty which was elaborated in
Ficino’s Commentary on Plato’s Symposium on Love (usually
referred to as
De amore). This work was first
published in 1484 and widely circulated, influencing many other writers.
Jonson may have known it at first hand, but equally could have
encountered the ideas through many intermediaries. Splendour is a
central concept in Ficino’s discussion: ‘for love is the desire of
enjoying beauty. But beauty is a certain splendor attracting the human
soul to it. Certainly beauty of the body is nothing other than splendor
itself in the ornament of colours and lines’ (58). The chapter heading
of 5.4 is ‘Beauty is the splendor of the divine countenance’ (89), and
this identification of Beauty with the divine perhaps accounts for
Jonson placing it first (trans. Sears Jayne (
1985)).
151 naked-breasted A figure of
Bellezza
(Beauty), drawn by Vasari, naked-breasted and carrying flowers, appeared
in the
Mascherata della Genealogia degli Dei (1565).
(Reproduced in Gordon,
1975, 146.)
151–2 in . . . clouds Beauty is represented thus in Ripa (
Bellezza) as a woman who ‘has her head hidden in the
clouds, and the rest of her body barely visible’. She is so hidden
‘because there is nothing more difficult to talk about with mortal
tongue, and which can less be known by the human intellect, than beauty,
which alone of all created things is nothing else, metaphysically
speaking, than a splendour deriving from the light of the face of God’
(Gordon,
1975,
146).
152–3 roses . . . red In Ripa the figure carries a lily. Jonson’s
modification of the source is purposeful, since the mixture of red and
white roses, emblem of the union of the houses of York and Lancaster in
the Tudors, had an obvious local political symbolism, and had been
employed the previous year in the opening of Campion’s
Lord Hay’s
Masque as an emblem of marital union.
15 The rose is called, elegantly, by Achilles Tatius
[Leucippe and Clitophon], 2.
[1
].
φυτῶν ἀγλάισμα, the splendour of plants, and is everywhere
taken for the hieroglyphic of Splendour.
15 Achilles
Tatius A Greek writer of the second century
ad, whose only surviving work is the romance,
The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon. The
passage reads: ‘If Zeus had wished to give the flowers a king, that king
would have been the rose; for it is the ornament of the world, the glory
of plants . . .’ (
Loeb).
154 SERENITAS
The serenity or brightness of the air, or weather.
155–7 in . . . figure From >Ripa’s
Serenità del
Giorno: ‘A young girl in the habit of a nymph, yellow in
colour, with long blond hair adorned with pearls and with veils of
several colours; on her head rests a brilliant and beautiful sun, from
beneath which hangs a veil of gold falling gracefully over the shoulders
of the figure . . . the colour of the garment deep blue’ (Gordon,
1975, 147–8).
155 waved It is the undulation of the veil, not the curling of
hair, which is described.
155–6 diverse . . . shows This description identifies the figure of
Serenitas with Iris, the rainbow, as the precursor of fine weather. (See
Jonson’s marginal note
16n.)
16 As this of Serenity, applying to the
optics’ reason of the
rainbow, and the mythologists making her
the daughter of Electra.
16 Jonson justifies the use of the crystal as a
hieroglyphic of Serenity both through the science of optics, and the
mythological identification of Serenity with Iris. As Gordon notes (
1975, 146), both
elements are found in Conti’s discussion of Iris, though the emblem of
the crystal itself is not.
applying
to in conformity with.
optics . . . rainbow The source is Conti’s observation (1602
edn, 902), that ‘Aristotle ascribed the entire appearance and nature of
the rainbow to optics’ (
ad opticam rationem perduxit).
Jonson takes ‘optics’ as a noun, meaning either ‘the science of light’
(
OED, Optic, n. 4), as it does in
Discoveries, 1107, or else (by analogy with
‘mythologists’) ‘those skilled in optics’ (
OED, n.
3 – first example 1636).
daughter . . . Electra Cf.
King’s Ent. 613
and marginal notes 83, 84 and 85: ‘Electra signifies Serenity itself’
and ‘She is also feigned to be the mother of the rainbow’. Derived from
Conti (1602), 901. Electra was a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, who
married Thaumas by whom she bore the Harpies and Iris.
16 optics’]
this edn; Opticks Q
158 shadowed The meaning is unclear; either (1) painted, or (2)
possibly implying that the crystal was set in some kind of surround
which represented the different colours caused by refraction.
159 GERMINATIO
Budding; an emblem of the spring, but also hinting at procreation, which
is the goal of the love of Beauty in the world of the senses. Ficino
writes: ‘When the beauty of a human body first meets our eyes, our
intellect, which is the first Venus in us, worships and esteems it as an
image of the divine beauty, and through this is often aroused to that.
But the power of procreation, the second Venus, desires to procreate a
form like this’ (De amore, 54).
160 zone belt, girdle. The word is often used of the belt worn by
a bride on her wedding day (see Hym., 42n).
160 myrtle The ‘frost-fearing myrtle’ (
Poet.,
1.1.73) is associated with the spring, in the Horace passage Jonson
cites (see Jonson’s marginal note
17 and
n.), and also specifically with
Venus. Cf.
Virgil Eclogues, 7.61: ‘the myrtle
[is dear
] to lovely Venus, and his own
laurel to Phoebus’.
17 So Horace,
[Carmina,
] 1.4.
[9–10
], makes it the ensign of the Spring.
Nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto, aut flore,
terrae quem ferunt
solutae etc.
17 Horace
Ripa describes Primavera (‘Spring’) in the same terms,
and cites the same passage from Horace. Nunc . . . solutae ‘It is now appropriate to
garland our shining locks with green myrtle or with the flowers that are
brought forth from the unfettered earth.’
161 socks light shoes or slippers.
163 LAETITIA
Joy. The figure is based on Ripa’s
Allegrezza, ‘a
young girl dressed in varied colours . . . with a garland on her head of
various flowers’, though Jonson does not include her other attributes,
as he had done in depicting Euphrosyne, or Gladness, in
King’s Ent., 98–110. In
Ficino Joy is ‘that pure, powerful and
perpetual pleasure which we experience in musical melody’ (
De amore, 87).
164 so
fitted similarly adorned.
18 They are everywhere the tokens of gladness, at
all feasts, sports.
167 TEMPERIES
Temperance; the right mixture of the elements, a precondition of true
beauty, based on Ripa’s Temperanza, ‘a young woman
clothed in cloth of silver, with a cloak of gold’.
168–9 In . . . water Both these attributes derive from Ripa’s fifth
image of Temperanza. Water tempers the burning
metal.
168 steel sword.
19 The sign of temperature, as also her garland
mixed of the four seasons.
19 sign of
temperature The phrase applies to both elements of the emblem,
in which the hardness of steel is the product of the tempering of heat
by water.
171 VENUSTAS
Loveliness, gracefulness.
172 subtle fine, delicate.
20 Pearls with the ancients were the special
hieroglyphics of loveliness,
in quibus nitor tantum et
laevor
expetebantur.
20 in . . . expetebantur ‘in which only lustre and smoothness
were coveted’ (
Orgel);
from Valeriano (1567) 441.
172 Pearl Ripa adorns his emblem of
Gratia
(Grace) with pearls, since they ‘shine and delight by a singular and
mysterious (
occulto) gift of nature, like grace, which
is in men a certain special beauty (
venustà) which
moves and ravishes the soul towards love, and strangely (
occultamente) breeds devotion and good will’ (Gordon,
1975, 151). See
Jonson’s marginal note
20n.
173 lilies See Jonson’s marginal note
21n.
21 So was the lily, of which the most delicate city
of the Persians was called
Susae, signifying that kind
of flower in their tongue.
21 most . . .
tongue Compressed from Valeriano, 586.
174 DIGNITAS
Majesty. The figure seems to be Jonson’s own conception. Gordon points
out that the figure very closely resembles Spenser’s personification of
Sapience (‘Wisdom’) in An Hymne of Heavenly Beautie,
183–93: ‘There in his bosom Sapience doth sit, / The
sovereign darling of the Deity, / Clad like a queen in royal robes, most
fit / For so great power and peerless majesty. / And all with gems and
jewels gorgeously / Adorned, that brighter than the stars appear, / And
make her native brightness seem more clear. / And on her head a crown of
purest gold / Is set, in sign of highest sovereignty, / And in her hand
a sceptre she doth hold, / With which she rules the house of God on
high.’
175 state costly, imposing display (
OED, State n. 17a), but also implying royal status.
175 fillets ribbons binding the hair.
22 The sign of honour and dignity.
176 eighth]
G; eight Q
177 PERFECTIO
Perfection.
178 gold The most perfect of metals.
178–9 About . . . circle The figure is drawn from Ripa’s Perfettione, who stands in a circle on which are the
figures of the Zodiac, and holds a compass – though the breasts of his
figure are uncovered.
178 zodiac ‘[T]he circle of
the Zodiac is a symbol of reason, and the right and proper measure of
perfect actions’ (Ripa).
23 Both that and the compass are known ensigns of
perfection.
179 circle Ripa calls it ‘the perfect mathematical figure’.
181 HARMONIA
Harmony. This figure sums up all the rest, symbolizing the way in which
true beauty is the synthesis of diverse elements. That it is the ninth
figure, placed above the eight which might represent the eight revolving
spheres of the heavens, suggests that harmony is the divine principle
governing the movement of the rest. (This implication would be even
stronger if she, unlike the other figures, did not turn with the
throne.)
182–3 full of
figures Harmony, in nature, architecture, and music, was
conceived of as profoundly mathematical.
183 seven
jewels The seven notes sounded by the spheres. See marginal
note
24n.
24 She is so described in
Iconologia
di Cesare
Ripa; his reason of seven jewels in the crown alludes
to Pythagoras his comment, with Macrobius,
Somnium
Scipionis, 2.
[4.9
], of the
seven planets and their spheres.
24 so. . .
Ripa Under
Armonia; he does not, however give any reason for the symbol.
Macrobius Little is known of
his life; he flourished at the end of the fourth and beginning of the
fifth century. His commentary on Cicero’s
Scipio’s
Dream (the only part of the
De re publica to
be preserved in the Middle Ages) was the most important conduit through
which neoplatonism was transmitted, and was ‘one of the basic source
books of the scholastic movement and of medieval science’ (trans. Stahl,
1952, 10).
Somnium. . . spheres ‘Thus there are
eight moving spheres but only seven tones producing harmony from the
motion of the spheres . . . seven is the key to the universe’ (trans.
Stahl,
198–9).
184 lyra lyre.
186–93 multitude . . . Hedone’s As Jonson’s marginal note 25
indicates, this description derives many of its details from
Philostratus,
Icones Amoris. R. S. Peterson (
1986) argues that
Jonson is also drawing on the way Philostratus’s description includes an
invocation of the mysterious, hidden figure of Venus in order to
characterize Queen Anne as ‘Venus herself, source of the fertility of
the surrounding “Nymphs” that form her court’ (175). He points to the
way Galli, in his poem on the event, also characterizes Anne as Venus
(Masque Archive,
Beauty, 26).
25 The inducing of many Cupids wants not defence
with the best and most received of the ancients, besides Propertius,
Statius, Claudian, Sidonius Apollonaris, especially Philostratus in
Icones Amoris,
[1.6
] whom I have particularly followed in this description.
25 inducing . . .
defence See
Hym., Jonson’s marginal note 46
and n., which also defends the multiplicity of Cupids, and cites
Statius, Claudian, and Propertius.
Giraldi (558–9) cites the same
authorities as Jonson.
I . . .
description From Philostratus, directly or through an
intermediary, come the grove of trees with golden fruit being picked by
the Cupids, their quivers, and the hares.
186 ingenuous] Q;
ingenious F1
186 ingenuous of honourable birth. F1’s ‘ingenious’ is an
alternative spelling.
188 ensigns symbols.
188 curious elaborate and skilfully made.
191 leverets hares. (See Jonson’s marginal note
26 and n.)
26 They were the notes of loveliness and
sacred to Venus. See Philostratus in that place mentioned.
26 They . . .
Venus Philostratus has a long description of the Cupids
hunting the hare, and the detail that the animal left apples half eaten.
The hare is associated by him with Venus because of its lechery. Jonson
may also be drawing on Valeriano (127–8) Valeriano (127–8), where the
hare is a symbol of ‘venustas’. notes signs, emblems.
191 ground-plot ground-plan.
192 indented with a zigzag edge.
192–3 two . . .
continually Nicoll (
1937), 71,
following Sabbatini (
1638), 125–6, describes how the illusion of a flowing
fountain was produced by pushing a fine folded cloth up through a tube
set in an urn-like structure. As it emerged the cloth could be made to
spread out to suggest the falling water. The description here of water
flowing ‘
continually’ seems to contradict the
suggestion in
123–6
that the fountains rose in time to the cadences of the music.
193 Hebe’s Hebe represents Youth. Mythologically, she was the
daughter of Zeus and Hera, and fulfilled the role of serving maid, but
the reference here is simply to the Greek meaning of her name.
27 Of youth.
193 Hedone’s Hedone represents Pleasure.
28 Of pleasure.
194 shades ghosts.
194 poets . . . habit Jonson characteristically envisages poets
as priests; cf., e.g.,
Und. 70.82, though it was also conventional
for musicians to be attired as priests, as is evidenced in many
masques.
197 of] Q; on F1
198 habit
and dressing costume and decoration.
198 curious beautifully wrought.
199 mine Source of copious supply.
199 jewels The opulence of the jewellery worn by the masquers
occasioned much comment from both English and continental observers (see
Headnote and Masque Archive).
201–2 This . . . east See, . Turning machines had
appeared in Hym., 89–90 and Haddington, 217–18; the novelty here was the contrary motion
of the lower and upper parts of the set.
201 it] Q, F1; its F2
201 it its. A permissible use in the seventeenth century, though
possibly a compositorial misprint for ‘its’.
202 motum
mundi movement of the world, i.e. of the sphere containing the
fixed stars, the primum mobile.
201–2 This . . . east See, . Turning machines had
appeared in Hym., 89–90 and Haddington, 217–18; the novelty here was the contrary motion
of the lower and upper parts of the set.
203 Homer,
Iliad, 12 Jonson’s reference is less to lines
237–40 of the Iliad (a passage about augury), than to
Spondanus’s commentary on them, which provided the justification for
interpreting Homer’s ‘right’ and ‘left’ as east and west. See also Augurs, marginal note 16.
203 12]
this edn; M Q, F1
203 δεξὶὰ. . . mundi right, the eastern
world.
203–4 ἀριστὲρα,
occidentalia left, the western
world.
205 motum
planetarum motion of the planets.
205 several separate.
207 moon The moon (characterized as Ethiopia) had been the
defender of the masquers in
Blackness. Gordon (
1975, 154),
suggests that the inspiration for her description may have been the
illustration of the moon in many contemporary editions of Hyginus,
Poeticon Astronomicon. The figure of Diana is drawn in
a chariot by two virgins, and on the side is a shield depicting the sign
of the constellation Cancer.
208 Scorpio Cancer, not Scorpio, is the astrological house of the
moon. Gordon (
1975, 306) suggests that Jonson simply mistook the figure of
a crab which appears on the moon’s shield in the illustration of Hyginus
for that of a scorpion.
208 character The crescent moon, her symbol.
209 happily successfully.
210 for the
motions i.e. the machinery that produced the movement of the
island and the turning of the Throne of Beauty.
210 King’s
Master Carpenter Probably William Portington, Master Carpenter
from 1579, who died aged 84 in 1629. Colvin (1975) suggests that either
he or Richard Binding, who joined Portington in 1604 but disappeared
from the accounts in 1610/11, was responsible for this masque.
210–11 painters . . . pencils In exactly what way the painters of
the scene failed to fulfil their commission is unclear.
211 pencils] Q
(pen’cills)
211 pencils paint brushes (
OED, 1a, notes that
it could specifically mean a ‘large brush, e.g. for spreading varnish
etc. over a surface’). The Q spelling ‘pen’cills’ shows Jonson
pedantically aware of its derivation from the Latin
penicillum.
213 loud
music An ensemble of wind and brass instruments, probably
including shawms and sackbuts (early trombones). Often used for the
entry of the masquers, it would have conveniently covered any noise from
the machinery.
214 full
song A song performed by more than one voice, with
instruments.
214 closes musical cadences.
215 The implication is not clear. Perhaps the two
singers who performed the echo were placed underneath the stage, below
the fountains, or else were concealed behind them. The direction,
however, might also imply that the two figures themselves appeared from
the fountains, fully visible to the audience.
217–18 Love . . .
chaos A myth, deriving ultimately from
Hesiod, Theogony, 116, to which Jonson repeatedly returns.
See
Love Freed, 25–6,
Love’s Tr.,
127–37. Spenser treats the myth in
An Hymne in Honour of
Love, 50–119, a passage which may have influenced Jonson in a
number of ways, both generally, in its account of the importance of
‘Beauty, born of heavenly race’ (112), and specifically in the detail of
Jonson’s marginal note 29.
29 So is he feigned by Orpheus, to have appeared
first of all the Gods, awakened by Clotho; and is therefore
called
Phanes, both by him and Lactantius.
29 The note derives from
Giraldi (562): ‘Phanes is said to be
Love, which first appeared from Chaos, as Orpheus and Lactantius say.’
The Lactantius reference is to
Divine Institutes, 1.5,
though it is unlikely Jonson consulted it.
awakened by Clotho Cf. Spenser,
An Hymne
in Honour of Love, 61–3: ‘Love, that had now long time securely
slept / In
Venus’ lap, unarmed then and naked, / Gan
reare his head, by
Clotho being waked.’ There is no
classical source for the involvement of Clotho (a daughter of Chaos, and
one of the Fates) in the birth of love, and Spenser may have provided
the hint.
Phanes ‘he who
shines forth.’ ‘A mystic divinity in the Orphic system, representing the
first principle in the world’ (
H&S).
by him In
Argonautica, 15.
221, 228 SH
FIRST]
G; not in Q
222, 229 SH
SECOND]
G; not in Q
30 An agreeing opinion, both with divines
and philosophers, that the great Artificer, in love with his own
Idea, did therefore frame the world.
30 Gordon (
1975), 145 cites Ficino’s
Commentary: ‘The desire to propagate its own perfection is a
form of love. Now absolute perfection is in the highest power of God;
the divine Intelligence contemplates it, and the divine will desires to
diffuse it beyond itself; and it is from this love that wishes to
propagate itself that everything is created.’
31 Alluding to his name of Himerus, and his
signification in the name, which is
desiderium post
aspectum: and more than Eros, which is only
cupido,
ex aspectu amare.
31 The note, and the Latin phrases, are taken from
Giraldi
(558): ‘Hesiod makes Eros and Himerus, both of whose names signify
love, the followers of Venus . . . Eros is lust which derives from
sight, Himerus, in truth, that longing which makes one continue to
desire even after seeing the beloved.’
230 THAMESIS
Thames.
231 urn . . . flowers Conventional elements in the representation
of rivers. Cf. the much more elaborate iconography in King’s Ent., 77–96.
232 Thomas
Giles A dancing master; see Hym., 591n.
236 squares and
rounds A rather odd expression for the windings of a river,
but wittily picking up on the fact that the Thames was represented by
Giles, who designed the varied formations of the dances which followed,
to which these terms more obviously apply.
240 silver
feet Homer uses the epithet ‘silver-sandalled’ of Thetis, the
most famous of the Nereids, or nymphs of the sea.
245–52 Four masquers are added to the twelve who danced
in Blackness. Full details of the masquers’ identities
are listed as an appendix to the general Masque Introduction in vol.
1.
246 Arbella]
this edn;
Arabella Q
246 Windsor]
this edn;
Winsore Q
250 Gerrard]
this edn;
Garrard Q
251 Guildford]
this edn;
Gilford Q
252 Petre]
this edn;
Peter Q
257 The dancers in their stationary figure imitate
Love standing above Chaos.
32 As in the creation he is said by the ancients to
have done.
261–4 In this compacted verse, Jonson draws on Lucian,
De Saltatione (Of Dancing), 7: ‘dance came into
being contemporaneously with the primal origin of the universe, making
her appearance together with Love – the love that is age-old’ (Loeb).
John Davies, Orchestra: or A Poem of Dancing (1596,
stanzas 15–19), has Antinous answer Penelope’s objection that dancing is
a ‘new rage’ with a versification of the same passage.
33 That is, born since the world, and out of
those duller apprehensions that did not think he was before.
33 See .
264 motion
i.e. dance.
264 Love . . .
birth There were a number of conflicting myths of Cupid’s
birth, which Jonson could have traced in Conti (125v–126v). Spenser, in
An Hymne in Honour of Love, observed: ‘Or who
alive can perfectly declare, / The wondrous cradle of thine infancy? /
When thy great mother Venus first thee bare, / Begot of Plenty and of
Penury, / Though elder than thine own nativity; / And yet a child,
renewing still thy years; / And yet the eldest of the heavenly peers.’
Spenser’s source for this paradox was Ficino,
De
amore: ‘That love by which the celestial beings are created we call
“older” than they; but that with which the creatures love their creator
we call “younger” . . . Love is the beginning and end, the first and
last of the gods’ (99). The notion had ‘become commonplace’ (Gordon,
1975, 146),
but Jonson certainly consulted Spenser’s
Hymne, which
influenced his marginal note.
265 subtle intricate.
266–8 King’s . . . song Precisely what the relationship there is
between the printed text and the actual sequence of events in the
performance is not clear. The song that follows must have been intended
to precede the taking out of members of the audience in the revels, and
seems, from the evidence of the version published in Ferrabosco’s
Ayres (
1609), to have been conceived as a continuous song performed
by three successive singers. In Q each stanza is separately headed
‘SONG’; in F1 the heading appears only above first and third; here it is
printed as a single song. The SD suggests that the King’s disruptive
request was issued after the social dances had begun. At this point the
song would, therefore, already have been heard. It may, therefore, like
the dances, have been performed again to allow the masquers to regroup,
and the lords to return to their places. Other scenarios are possible;
it is clear, however, that Jonson in the published text tidies up what
must have been a decidedly awkward moment in the performance itself.
271–92 The song negotiates the turn to the social dances
by emphasizing that they must be informed by a chaste and pure love, not
by sensual desire, thus counteracting the widely held association of
dancing and lechery. Cf. the similar injunction in Gold.
Age, 160–74.
271–2 Neoplatonic thinking distinguished between the
blind Cupid who symbolized earthly, sensual love, and a sighted Cupid
associated with the higher love of the Idea of Beauty (cf. Love Freed, which develops this idea).
34 I make these different from him, which they feign
caecum cupidine, or
petulantem, as I
express beneath in the third song, these being chaste Loves, that attend
a more divine beauty than that of Love’s common parent.
34 caecum . . . petulantem blind with desire or wanton. divine . . . parent Distinguishing
between Venus Coelestis (the divine Venus) and Venus Vulgaris (earthly, or ‘common’ Venus). See also
and
n.
273 mind] Q;
mindes Ferrabosco, Ayres
278 thus:] F1 (thus,); thus. / SONG Q
279 polity] Q;
pollicie Ferrabosco, Ayres
279 polity
policy.
280 Albe] Q(Albee’); although Ferrabosco, Ayres
280 were] Q; be
Ferrabosco, Ayres
280 charmèd
The extra syllable preserves the metrical conformity of the stanza with
the previous one, and the word is set as a disyllable by Ferrabosco.
283–4 That women’s eyes inflicted the wound of love
upon men is a standard conceit of love poetry. Cf. Sidney,
Astrophil, 12, 1–2: ‘Cupid, because thou shin’st in Stella’s
eyes, / That from her looks, thy day-nets, none scapes free’; and
Und.
2.2.23ff., etc.
286 answered:]
this edn; answerd. / SONG Q, F1
287 Loves
Cupids.
287 or false
either false.
288 beauties] Q;
beautie Ferrabosco, Ayres
293 galliards Quick dances in triple time.
293 corantos Triple-time dances with a running or sliding
step.
294 music band of musicians.
294 appointed . . . them i.e. those originally in the arbours of
the masque set. The dances themselves would have been accompanied by a
different group of string-players.
297–8 those . . .
soul See Jonson’s marginal note
35n.
35 There hath been such a profane paradox
published.
35, 36, 37 These notes are incorrectly numbered
‘b’, ‘c’, ‘e’ in Q’s marginalia (but correctly ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ in the
text). In F1 they become ‘∗’, ‘a’, ‘∗’, correctly
keyed to the text
35 profane . . .
published An anonymous satirical pamphlet directed against the
anabaptists,
Disputatio nova . . . (
A new
disputation against women, in which it is proved that they are not
human beings), Leipzig,
1595, ‘achieved considerable
notoriety, provoking refutations not only from theologians but also from
doctors and jurists’ but ‘is more informative about the function of
intellectual jokes in the Renaissance than about women’ (MacLean,
1595, 13). The
‘argument’ surfaces in Donne’s
Juvenilia (Problem 2
‘Why hath the common opinion afforded women souls’), and his ‘To the
Countess of Huntingdon’ begins: ‘Man to God’s image, Eve to man’s was
made / Nor find we that God breathed a soul in her’ (an assertion the
poem overturns).
H&S note that the statement derived from the spurious
Ambrose commentaries on St Paul, and give the earliest English reference
as
Mary Magdalene (1567), E3.
299 these] Q;
those Ferrabosco, Ayres
300–2 The conceit here develops the visual emblem of
Harmony presiding over the Throne of Beauty. As the soul animates the
body, so the women animate the men with whom they dance, thus infusing
them with an ideal platonic harmony.
302 true] Q;
their Ferrabosco, Ayres
36 The Platonics’ opinion. See also Macrobius,
Somnium Scipionis 1 and 2.
36 Platonics’
Neoplatonic philosophers.
Somnium Scipionis
Dream of Scipio, 1.6.43, ‘all wise men admit that the
soul was also derived from musical concords’; 2.2.19, ‘Thus the
World-Soul, which stirred the body of the universe to the motion that we
now witness, must have been interwoven with those numbers which produce
musical harmony in order to make harmonious the sounds which it
instilled by its quickening impulse’ (trans.
Stahl, 108, 193).
304 figure A static formation, like the diamond at
253–4.
307 proved
manifested, demonstrated.
307 thankful
i.e. grateful for their transformation and release from the powers of
Night.
309 straying] Q (stray’ing)
309 straying
Jonson’s punctuation, ‘stray’ing’ indicates that ‘two unelided but
lightly sounded syllables are technically equivalent to one syllable in
the scansion’ (
H&S). Cf. collation
314 and
320.
310 37]
incorrectly labelled ‘a’
in Q; should be ‘e’
37 For what country is it thinks not her own beauty
fairest yet?
313 peculiar
particular.
314 by impulsion] Q (by’impulsion)
314 by . . .
destinies pushed forward by your fates.
315 his i.e.
James’s.
315 attractive
having the power to attract. The ladies have been both pushed by destiny
and pulled by James.
316–17 James is imagined as the sun, his ‘beams’ as
‘hair’, but though the island of Britain is surrounded by the sea, he,
unlike the sun, never sets and therefore never sinks into the waters.
Cf. Blackness, 150-4n.
320 envy, as] Q (enuy,’as)
330 state
throne.
333 th’Elysian] Q (the’Elysian)
333 Elysian
Fields The place of the spirits of the blessed in classical
mythology.
334 SH
FIRST]
this edn;
not in Q
335 SH
SECOND]
this edn;
not in Q
336 the end] Q; not in F1
1 Pausanias
(fl.
c. ad 150), Greek traveller and geographer. The
reference is to the section on Elis in his Description of Greece, but
Jonson may have derived the citation from Ripa or Cartari (
1571) 261.
in . . . Cipseli on the
chest of Cipselus (Lat.). The carved chest in the temple of Hera was so
named because Cipselus, a ruler of Corinth, was hidden in it at his
birth.
1 Cipseli]
F1;
Cipselli Q
2 Iconologia . . . Ripa Under
Mese: Gennaro
(‘Months: January’): ‘A young man winged and clothed in white; he holds
with both hands the sign of Aquarius . . . We picture him with white
clothing because in this month the ground is usually covered with snow,
so that the fields seem all of one colour. He holds with both hands the
sign of Aquarius, because this month is indicated by the part of the
Sun’s course called Aquarius, because in that season snow and rain
abound’ (trans. Gilbert,
1948, 145).
3 Ovid A
general reference to Ovid’s sixth book is given in Ripa. horridus . . . vento
‘rough with anger, which was the north wind’s customary and more natural
mood.’
4 See . . .
Fasti Jonson also cites
Ovid’s Fasti for January in King’s
Ent., 325–6 and n. Fasti 1.63–288, is devoted
to the figure of Janus; Jonson draws particularly on 65; ‘two-headed
Janus, opener of the softly sliding year’, and 121–2: ‘when I choose to
send peace out from tranquil halls, she freely walks the ways
unhindered’.
5 Earl of
Essex Married Frances Howard (see Hym.) Lord Hay James Hay, a notoriously
extravagant Scottish favourite of the king (d. 1636), married the
English Honora Denny. He later became Earl of Carlisle, and remained a
notable leader of court fashion into Charles I’s reign.
6 Est . . . Proteus ‘In Neptune’s Carpathian sea there is a
prophet, dark Proteus.’ Jonson’s ‘grey Proteus’ (55) is a translation of
the Latin caeruleus which can mean ‘sky blue’,
‘sea-green’, or simply ‘dark, gloomy’.
8 Pliny see
Blackness, 10n. chapter 95 Actually 96. Naturalis . . . fluctuantibus ‘Natural History, concerning floating islands.’ Cardano Girolamo Cardano
(1501–76), Italian mathematician and doctor, refers to Loch Lomond in a
chapter on ‘Aque Miracula’ in his De Rerum, claiming
to have seen an island made of pitch and looking like a mushroom, rising
out of the waters, but not fixed to the bottom of the lake so that it
floated like a ship. Delos Island
called from the deep by Neptune, which floated until anchored by Jupiter
in order that it might provide a secure resting place for Leto to give
birth to Apollo and Diana.
8 his second] Q(his 2); the second F1
9 Ilissus . . .
Cephisus The alternative versions of the legend are taken
directly from Conti (1567), 251v.
10 Hac . . . pulso ‘By this [violence] I drive the rain-clouds, by this stir up the sea,
overturn gnarled oaks, make hard the snow and batter the earth with
hail’ (Metamorphoses, 6.690–2).
11 Denuntiat . . . Euros ‘A fiery
[sun
] threatens east winds’ (
Virgil, Georgics,
1.453). The quotation is present in Ripa’s description.
12 φωσφόρ´
῾Εκάτη ‘light-bearing Hecate.’ Lucifera
means ‘light-bearing’ in Latin. Euripides The reference, unlike most in the masque, is not
traceable to the mythographers. Either Jonson knew it directly, or
encountered it in an as yet untraced intermediary.
14 Terence
The phrase is found twice: in Phormio, prol., 17, and
Hecyra, prol., 46. artem musicam musical art.
15 Achilles
Tatius A Greek writer of the second century
ad, whose only surviving work is the romance,
The Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon. The
passage reads: ‘If Zeus had wished to give the flowers a king, that king
would have been the rose; for it is the ornament of the world, the glory
of plants . . .’ (
Loeb).
16 Jonson justifies the use of the crystal as a
hieroglyphic of Serenity both through the science of optics, and the
mythological identification of Serenity with Iris. As Gordon notes (
1975, 146), both
elements are found in Conti’s discussion of Iris, though the emblem of
the crystal itself is not.
applying
to in conformity with.
optics . . . rainbow The source is Conti’s observation (1602
edn, 902), that ‘Aristotle ascribed the entire appearance and nature of
the rainbow to optics’ (
ad opticam rationem perduxit).
Jonson takes ‘optics’ as a noun, meaning either ‘the science of light’
(
OED, Optic, n. 4), as it does in
Discoveries, 1107, or else (by analogy with
‘mythologists’) ‘those skilled in optics’ (
OED, n.
3 – first example 1636).
daughter . . . Electra Cf.
King’s Ent. 613
and marginal notes 83, 84 and 85: ‘Electra signifies Serenity itself’
and ‘She is also feigned to be the mother of the rainbow’. Derived from
Conti (1602), 901. Electra was a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, who
married Thaumas by whom she bore the Harpies and Iris.
16 optics’]
this edn; Opticks Q
17 Horace
Ripa describes Primavera (‘Spring’) in the same terms,
and cites the same passage from Horace. Nunc . . . solutae ‘It is now appropriate to
garland our shining locks with green myrtle or with the flowers that are
brought forth from the unfettered earth.’
19 sign of
temperature The phrase applies to both elements of the emblem,
in which the hardness of steel is the product of the tempering of heat
by water.
20 in . . . expetebantur ‘in which only lustre and smoothness
were coveted’ (
Orgel);
from Valeriano (1567) 441.
21 most . . .
tongue Compressed from Valeriano, 586.
24 so. . .
Ripa Under
Armonia; he does not, however give any reason for the symbol.
Macrobius Little is known of
his life; he flourished at the end of the fourth and beginning of the
fifth century. His commentary on Cicero’s
Scipio’s
Dream (the only part of the
De re publica to
be preserved in the Middle Ages) was the most important conduit through
which neoplatonism was transmitted, and was ‘one of the basic source
books of the scholastic movement and of medieval science’ (trans. Stahl,
1952, 10).
Somnium. . . spheres ‘Thus there are
eight moving spheres but only seven tones producing harmony from the
motion of the spheres . . . seven is the key to the universe’ (trans.
Stahl,
198–9).
25 inducing . . .
defence See
Hym., Jonson’s marginal note 46
and n., which also defends the multiplicity of Cupids, and cites
Statius, Claudian, and Propertius.
Giraldi (558–9) cites the same
authorities as Jonson.
I . . .
description From Philostratus, directly or through an
intermediary, come the grove of trees with golden fruit being picked by
the Cupids, their quivers, and the hares.
26 They . . .
Venus Philostratus has a long description of the Cupids
hunting the hare, and the detail that the animal left apples half eaten.
The hare is associated by him with Venus because of its lechery. Jonson
may also be drawing on Valeriano (127–8) Valeriano (127–8), where the
hare is a symbol of ‘venustas’. notes signs, emblems.
29 The note derives from
Giraldi (562): ‘Phanes is said to be
Love, which first appeared from Chaos, as Orpheus and Lactantius say.’
The Lactantius reference is to
Divine Institutes, 1.5,
though it is unlikely Jonson consulted it.
awakened by Clotho Cf. Spenser,
An Hymne
in Honour of Love, 61–3: ‘Love, that had now long time securely
slept / In
Venus’ lap, unarmed then and naked, / Gan
reare his head, by
Clotho being waked.’ There is no
classical source for the involvement of Clotho (a daughter of Chaos, and
one of the Fates) in the birth of love, and Spenser may have provided
the hint.
Phanes ‘he who
shines forth.’ ‘A mystic divinity in the Orphic system, representing the
first principle in the world’ (
H&S).
by him In
Argonautica, 15.
30 Gordon (
1975), 145 cites Ficino’s
Commentary: ‘The desire to propagate its own perfection is a
form of love. Now absolute perfection is in the highest power of God;
the divine Intelligence contemplates it, and the divine will desires to
diffuse it beyond itself; and it is from this love that wishes to
propagate itself that everything is created.’
31 The note, and the Latin phrases, are taken from
Giraldi
(558): ‘Hesiod makes Eros and Himerus, both of whose names signify
love, the followers of Venus . . . Eros is lust which derives from
sight, Himerus, in truth, that longing which makes one continue to
desire even after seeing the beloved.’
33 See .
34 caecum . . . petulantem blind with desire or wanton. divine . . . parent Distinguishing
between Venus Coelestis (the divine Venus) and Venus Vulgaris (earthly, or ‘common’ Venus). See also
and
n.
35, 36, 37 These notes are incorrectly numbered
‘b’, ‘c’, ‘e’ in Q’s marginalia (but correctly ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ in the
text). In F1 they become ‘∗’, ‘a’, ‘∗’, correctly
keyed to the text
35 profane . . .
published An anonymous satirical pamphlet directed against the
anabaptists,
Disputatio nova . . . (
A new
disputation against women, in which it is proved that they are not
human beings), Leipzig,
1595, ‘achieved considerable
notoriety, provoking refutations not only from theologians but also from
doctors and jurists’ but ‘is more informative about the function of
intellectual jokes in the Renaissance than about women’ (MacLean,
1595, 13). The
‘argument’ surfaces in Donne’s
Juvenilia (Problem 2
‘Why hath the common opinion afforded women souls’), and his ‘To the
Countess of Huntingdon’ begins: ‘Man to God’s image, Eve to man’s was
made / Nor find we that God breathed a soul in her’ (an assertion the
poem overturns).
H&S note that the statement derived from the spurious
Ambrose commentaries on St Paul, and give the earliest English reference
as
Mary Magdalene (1567), E3.
36 Platonics’
Neoplatonic philosophers.
Somnium Scipionis
Dream of Scipio, 1.6.43, ‘all wise men admit that the
soul was also derived from musical concords’; 2.2.19, ‘Thus the
World-Soul, which stirred the body of the universe to the motion that we
now witness, must have been interwoven with those numbers which produce
musical harmony in order to make harmonious the sounds which it
instilled by its quickening impulse’ (trans.
Stahl, 108, 193).