The Shepheard's Calender (Crane)/Notes
NOTES.
Page xviii, note 1.—The name of the writer of this letter is unknown.
Page 5, note 2.—“Hobbinol:” the author’s friend Gabriel Harvey.
Page 10, note 3.—“Good Friday:” Good Friday is said to frown, as being a fast-day.
Page 16, note 4.—Thenot’s emblem means, in substance, that God, who is aged Himself, being without beginning of days, makes those whom He loves, to be aged, like Himself; and that it is a mark of His favour to be old. Cuddie’s emblem is,“No old man fears God’’—a sarcasm against Thenot.
Page 29, note 5.—“Tawdry:” is here used in its primitive sense, denoting something bought at the fair of St. Ethelred, or St. Awdrey.
Page 30, note 6.—“This poesy is taken out of Virgil, and there of him used in the person of Æneas to his mother Venus, appearing to him in likeness of one of Diana’s damsels; being there most divinely set forth. To which similitude of divinity Hobbinol comparing the excellency of Elisa, and being through the worthiness of Colin’s song, as it were, overcome with the hugeness of his imagination, bursteth out in great admiration, (O guam te memorem virgo!) being otherwise unable, than by sudden silence, to express the worthiness of his conceit. Whom Thenot answereth with another part of the like verse, as confirming by his grant and approvance, that Elisa is no whit inferior to the majesty of her, of whom the poet so boldly pronounced, O dea certe!”—E. K.
Page 35, note 7.—“Algrind:” Archbishop Grindall.
Page 37, note 8.—“Fox,” “Kid:” “By the Kid may be understood the simple sort of the faithful and true Christians; by his dam, Christ, that hath already with careful watchwords (as here doth the Goat) warned her little ones to beware of such doubling deceit; by the Fox, the false and faithless Papists, to whom is no credit to be given, nor fellowship to be used.”—E. K.
Page 41, note 9.—“Sir John:” a name applied to a Popish priest.
Page Page 47, note 10.—“Tityrus:” Chaucer is meant.
Page 53, note 11.—“Morrell:” supposed to be Elmer, or Aylmer, Bishop of London.
Page 53, note 12.—“The sun:” the sun enters Leo in July.
Page 59, note 13.—“An eagle:” the same story is told of the death of Eschylus.
Pages 68, 69, note 14.—“The meaning hereof is very ambiguous: for Perigot by his posy claiming the conquest, and Willie not yielding, Cuddie the arbiter of their cause, and patron of his own, seemeth to challenge it, as his due, saying, that he is happy which can; so abruptly ending; but he meaneth either him, that can win the best, or moderate himself being best, and leave off with the best.”—E. K.
Page 77, note 15.—“Saxon king:” King Edgar, in whose reign wolves are said to have disappeared in England.
Page 84, note 16.—“Elisa:” Queen Elizabeth; the “Worthy” is the Earl of Leicester.
Page 87, note 17.—This emblem is portion of a Latin verse, expressing the thought of the pastoral, that poetry is a fervid glow of inspiration which animates and kindles.
Page 91, note 18.—“Fishes:” the sun enters the constellation Pisces in November.
Page 92, note 19.—“Dido” and “great shepheard” both refer to real persons unknown.
Page 94, note 20.—“Wrought with a chief:” wrought into a head, like a nosegay.
Page 101, note 21.—Translated freely from the French of Marot.
Page 107, note 22.—“The pilgrim:” perhaps the author of the “Visions of Pierce Ploughman.”