Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/410

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. NOV. 22, 1902.

one is not altogether surprised to find him applying to Cromwell, for example, such epithets as " Ruffian Cromwell," " Sultan Cromwell." But what shall be said to his scandalous and unworthy attack on our illustrious Milton ?

" What a venomous Spirit is in that Serpent Milton, that black-mouth'd Zoilus, that blows his Vipers Breath upon those immortal Devotions, from the beginning to the end ! This is he that wrote with all Irreverence against the Fathers of our Church, and shew'd as little Duty to his Father that begat him : The same that wrote for the Pharisees, That it was lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause ; and against Christ, for not allowing Divorces : The same, O horrid ! that defended the lawfulness of the greatest Crime that ever was committed, to put our thrice-excellent King to death : A petty School-boy Scribler, that durst graple in such a Cause with the Prince of the

learned men of his Age, Salmasius Get thee

behind me Milton, thou savourest not the things that be of Truth and Loyalty, but of Pride, Bitter- ness and Falshood."

There are many honoured names mentioned in this biography. Hacket appears to have had great regard for Ben Jonson. He calls him, for example, "Our Laureat Ben Jon- sou " ; " Well did the Best of our Poets of this Century, decipher a Corrupt Court, in his Under-woods' '; "The Best of our Poets"; " Laureat Johnson "; " As Ben Johnson hath

Eat it finely into his Underwoods"; "Our nglish Horace"; "Our Master Ben John- son." Nor is his admiration for Edmund Spenser less cordial : " Mr. Spenser's Divine Wit' ; " in Mr. Spencer's Moral Poem"; "Says our Arch-Poet Spencer." Let me give rather a lengthy extract in this connexion :

" Virtue is beholding to Good Times to act ita part in, as well as Good Times are beholding to Virtue. Our most Laureat Poet Spenser, Lib. i. Cant. 3. tells of a sturdy Thief Kirkrapine,

Who all he got he did bestow,

To the Daughter of Corcea blind and slow ;

And fed her fat with Feasts of OfFrings,

And Plenty whish in all the Land did grow. To meet with him, and give him his hire, Una had a fierce Servant for her Guard that attended her, a Lyon who tore the Church-robber to pieces. And what is meant by Una's Lyon ? That 's not hard to guess at. But rather what 's become of Una's Lyon ? The Poet says afterward that Sans- Loy, a Paynim-Knight had slain him. Belike none is left now to dene Kirkrapine."

John Selden is referred to as " honour'd Mr. Selden " ; "a Gentleman of Mr. Selden's merit." Dr. Donne is mentioned as "Dr. Dunn who had been his [Lord Chancellor Egerton's] Secretary, a Laureat Wit." It would be wonderful, in the wide range of this biography, if no reference were made to that fine old writer Thomas Fuller : " Of whom Mr. Fuller says well in his Eccles.

History"; "I may use the Words of my industrious Friend, Mr. T. F. in his Churcn History." George Herbert is just mentioned in company with a number of others. The distinguished anatomist Harvey is quaintly designated as "that great Secretary of Nature." The famous musician Orlando Gibbons has this fine compliment paid him : "At their Entrance the Organ was touch'd by the best Finger of that Age, Mr. Orlando Gibbons. 1 ' There are several allusions to Chaucer : " That shall be done in a Moral strode, as Chaucer calls it " ; " says noble Chaucer " ; " our time honoured Chaucer." I looked for any reference to or quotation from Shakespeare, but without success. There is a reference to " Piramus and Thisbe," but it would be too much to say that our author owed his illustration to the 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' I give the quotation : "in no wise to make as thick as a Wall of Par- tition between the Champions, as between Piramus and Thisbe." A. S.

(To be continued.)

THE BAULKED CORONATION OF

ARTHUR IN 'MORTE ARTHURE.'

(Continued from p. 383.)

APPLYING to the expedition of Arthur the motive suggested relative to the selection of Metz as a dramatic locus, we see that Rome is the natural sequel. The emperor is in- complete, notwithstanding his other corona- tions, till he is crowned at Rome. Till then he did not assume the title (Bryce's ' Holy Roman Empire,' ch. xii.). So the poetic theory works out readily thus, that Arthur, who is, in this game of romance contraries, turning the tables on the emperor, should himself be en- throned at Rome. Fortune's promise in the vision was that this should be accomplished in all detail, and her acts towards him are skil- fully significant. She places him in the seat ; she reaches him the sceptre ; she combs his hair, and there is alongside of the mention of the comb a more ambiguous expression about "the krispane kroke"; she crowns him with a jewelled diadem ; she bestows a jewelled "pome," with earth and sea painted upon it ; and she makes him brandish her sword. There are six symbols, and all six were the symbols at the crowning of an emperor. Of the throne and the sceptre and the crown it is needless to speak ; the comb was used in the anointing ; the " pome " was the orb, symbol of imperial dominion ; the brandished sword, ensis vibratus, was likewise a part of the im- perial ceremony. Concerning the " krispane kroke" it is hard to come to a conclusion.