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قراءة كتاب Notes and Queries, Number 38, July 20, 1850
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
align="left">Richardson
I am not certain whether Mr. Adair, to whom "Margaret Nicholson," one of the happiest of the Political Eclogues, is attributed, is the present Sir Robert Adair. If so, as the only survivor amongst his literary colleagues, he might furnish some interesting particulars respecting the remarkable work to which I have called your attention.
Audley End, July, 1850.
NOTES ON MILTON.
(Continued from Vol. ii., p. 53.)
Il Penseroso.
On l. 8 (G.):—
"Fantastic swarms of dreams there hover'd,
Green, red, and yellow, tawney, black, and blue;
They make no noise, but right resemble may
Th' unnumber'd moats that in the sun-beams play."
Sylvester's Du Bartas.
Cælia, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Humorous Lieutenant, says,—
"My maidenhead to a mote in the sun, he's jealous."
Act iv. Sc. 8.
On l. 35. (G.) Mr. Warton might have found a happier illustration of his argument in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, Act i. Sc. 3.:—
"Too conceal such real ornaments as these, and shadow
their glory, as a milliner's wife does her wrought
stomacher, with a smoaky lawn, or a black cyprus."
—Whalley's edit. vol. i. p. 33.
On l. 39. (G.) The origin of this uncommon use of the word "commerce" is from Donne:—
"If this commerce 'twixt heaven and earth were not
embarred."
—Poems, p. 249. Ed. 4to. 1633.
On l. 43. (G.):—
"That sallow-faced, sad, stooping nymph, whose eye
Still on the ground is fixed steadfastly."
Sylvester's Du Bartas
On l. 52. (G.):—
"Mounted aloft on Contemplation's wings."
G. Wither, P. 1. vol. i. Ed. 1633.
Drummond has given "golden wings" to Fame.
On l. 88. (G.):—
Hermes Trismegistus.
On l. 100. (G.):—
"Tyrants' bloody gests
Of Thebes, Mycenæ, or proud Ilion."
Sylvester's Du Bartas.
Arcades.
On l. 23. (G.):—
"And without respect of odds,
Vye renown with Demy-gods."
Wither's Mistresse of Philarete, Sig. E. 5. Ed. 1633.
On l. 27. (G.):—
"But yet, whate'er he do or can devise,
Disguised glory shineth in his eyes."
Sylvester's Du Bartas.
On l. 46. (G.):—
"An eastern wind commix'd with noisome airs,
Shall blast the plants and the young sapplings."
Span. Trag. Old Plays, vol. iii. p. 222.
On l. 65. (G.) Compare Drunmond—speech of Endymion before Charles:—
"To tell by me, their herald, coming things,
And what each Fate to her stern distaff sings," &c.
On l. 84. (M.):—
"And with his beams enamel'd every greene."
Fairfax's Tasso, b. i. st. 35.
On l. 97. (G.):—
"Those brooks with lilies bravely deck't."
Drayton, 1447.
On l. 106. (G.):—
"Pan entertains, this coming night,
His paramour, the Syrinx bright."
Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, Act i.
DERIVATION OF EASTER.
Southey, in his Book of the Church, derives our word Easter from a Saxon source:—
"The worship," he says, "of the goddess Eostre or Eastre, which may probably be traced to the Astarte of the Phoenicians, is retained among us in the word Easter; her annual festival having been superseded by that sacred day."
Should he not rather have given a British origin to the name of our Christian holy day? Southey acknowledges that the "heathenism which the Saxons introduced, bears no [very little?] affinity either to that of the Britons or the Romans;" yet it is certain that the Britons worshipped Baal and Ashtaroth, a relic of whose worship appears to be still retained in Cornwall to this day. The Druids, as Southey tells us, "made the people pass through the fire in honour of Baal." But the festival in honour of Baal appears to have been in the autumn: for
"They made the people," he informs us, "at the beginning of winter, extinguish all their fires on one day and kindle them again from the sacred fire of the Druids, which would make the house fortunate for the ensuing year; and, if any man came who had not paid his yearly dues, [Easter offerings, &c., date back as far as this!] they refused to give him a spark, neither durst any of his neighbours relieve him, nor might he himself procure fire by any other means, so that he and his family were deprived of it till he had discharged the uttermost of his debt."
The Druidical fires kindled in the spring of the year, on the other