1. When civil a dudgeon, &c.] Dudgeon. Who made the alterations in the last Edition of this poem I know not, but they are certainly sometimes for the worse; and I cannot believe the Author would have changed a word so proper in that place as dudgeon for that of fury, as it is in the last Edition. To take in dudgeon, is inwardly to resent some injury or affront; a sort of grumbling in the gizzard, and what is previous to actual fury. Back
24 b That could as well, &c.] Bind over to the Sessions as being a Justice of the Peace in his County, as well as Colonel of a Regiment of Foot in the Parliament's army, and a committee-Man. Back
38 c As MONTAIGNE, &c.] Montaigne, in his Essays, supposes his cat thought him a fool, for losing his time in playing with her. Back
62 d To make some, &c.] Here again is an alteration without any amendment; for the following lines,
And truly, so he was, perhaps,
Not as a Proselyte, but for Claps,
Are thus changed,
And truly so, perhaps, he was;
'Tis many a pious Christian's case.
The Heathens had an odd opinion, and have a strange reason why
Moses imposed the law of circumcision on the Jews, which, how
untrue soever, I will give the learned reader an account of
without translation, as I find it in the annotations upon Horace,
wrote by my worthy and learned friend Mr. William Baxter,
the great restorer of the ancient and promoter of modern
learning.
Hor. Sat. 9. Sermon. Lib. I. -- Curtis; quia pellicula
imminuti sunt; quia Moses Rex Judoeorum, cujus Legibus reguntur,
negligentia PHIMOZEIS medicinaliter exsectus est, & ne soles
esset notabi omnes circumcidi voluit. Vet. Schol. Vocem. --
(PHIMOZEIS qua inscitia Librarii exciderat reposuimus ex
conjectura, uti & medicinaliter exsectus pro medicinalis
effectus quae nihil erant.) Quis miretur ejusmodi convicia
homini Epicureo atque Pagano excidisse? Jure igitur Henrico
Glareano Diaboli Organum videtur. Etiam Satyra Quinta haec habet:
Constat omnia miracula certa ratione fieri, de quibus Epicurei
prudentissime disputant. [Circumcised: Moses the King of the
Jews, by whose laws they are ruled, and whose foreskin overhung
(the tip of his penis), had this blockage carelessly medicinally
removed, and not wishing to be alone wanted them all to be
circumcised.
(We have tentatively restored the word BLOCKAGE, which the
scribe's incompetence has omitted, and substituted medically
removed for carried out by a doctor which was never
there.) Who shall wonder that this kind of cutting caused an
outcry by Epicureans and Pagans? It can be seen therefore, why
Henricus Glareanus judged it an implement of the devil. So the
Fifth Satire has it: It is certain that every miracle can be
fitted into the philosophical systems which the Epicureans most
carefully discuss.] Back
66 e Profoundly skill'd, &c.] Analytick is a part of logic, that teaches to decline and construe reason, as grammar does words. Back
93 f A Babylonish, &c.] A confusion of languages, such as some of our modern Virtuosi used to express themselves in. Back
103 g Or CERBERUS himself, &c.] Cerberus; a name which poets give a dog with three heads, which they feigned door-keeper of Hell, that caressed the unfortunate souls sent thither, and devoured them that would get out again; yet Hercules tied him up, and made him follow. This dog with three heads denotes the past, the present, and the time to come; which receive, and, as it were, devour all things. Hercules got the better of him, which shews that heroic actions are always victorious over time, because they are present in the memory of posterity. Back
115 h That had the, &c.] Demosthenes, who is said to have had a defect in his pronunciation, which he cured by using to speak with little stones in his mouth. Back
120 i Than TYCHO BRAHE, &c.] Tycho Brahe was an eminent Danish mathematician. Quer. in Collier's Dictionary, or elsewhere.Back
131 k Whatever Sceptick, &c.] Sceptick. Pyrrho was the chief of the Sceptick Philosophers, and was at first, as Apollodorus saith, a painter, then became the hearer of Driso, and at last the disciple of Anaxagoras, whom he followed into India, to see the Gymnosophists. He pretended that men did nothing but by custom; there was neither honesty nor dishonesty, justice nor injustice, good nor evil. He was very solitary, lived to be ninety years old, was highly esteemed in his country, and created chief priest. He lived in the time of Epicurus and Theophrastus, about the 120th Olympiad. His followers were called Phyrrhonians; besides which they were named the Ephecticks and Aphoreticks, but more generally Scepticks. This sect made their chiefest good to consist in a sedateness of mind, exempt from all passions; in regulating their opinions, and moderating their passions, which they called Ataxia and Metriopathia; and in suspending their judgment in regard of good and evil, truth or falsehood, which they called Epechi. Sextus Empiricus, who lived in the second century, under the Emperor Antoninus Pius, writ ten books against the mathematicians or astrologers, and three of the Phyrrhonian opinion. The word is derived from the Greek SKEPTESZAI, quod est, considerare, speculare. [To consider or speculate]Back
143 l He cou'd reduce, &c.] The old philosophers thought to extract notions out of natural things, as chymists do spirits and essences; and, when they had refined them into the nicest subtilties, gave them as insignificant names as those operators do their extractions: But (as Seneca says) the subtiler things are they are but the nearer to nothing. So are all their definitions of things by acts the nearer to nonsense.Back
147 m Where Truth, &c.] Some authors have mistaken truth for a real thing, when it is nothing but a right method of putting those notions or images of things (in the understanding of man) into the same and order that their originals hold in nature, and therefore Aristotle says Unumquodque sicut habet secundum esse, ita se habet secundum veritatem. Met. L. ii. [As every thing has a secondary essence, therefore it has a secondary truth]Back
148 n Like words congeal'd, &c.] Some report in Nova Zembla, and Greenland, mens' words are wont to be frozen in the air, and at the thaw may heard.Back
151 In School-Divinity as able,
As o he that Hight, Irrefragable, &c.]
Here again is another alteration of three or lines, as I think,
for the worse.
Some specific epithets were added to the title of some famous
doctors, as Angelicus, Irrefragabilis, Subtilis, [Angelic,
Unopposable, Discriminating] &c. Vide Vossi Etymolog. Baillet
Jugemens de Scavans, & Possevin's ApparatusBack
153 p A Second THOMAS or at once,
To name them all, another DUNCE.
Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar, was born in
1224, and studied at Cologne and Paris. He new modelled the
school-divinity, and was therefore called the Angelic Doctor,
and Eagle of Divines. The most illustrious persons of his
time were ambitious of his friendship, and put a high value on
his merits, so that they offered him bishopricks, which he
refused with as much ardor as others seek after them. He died in
the fiftieth year of his age, and was canonized by Pope John XII.
We have his works in eighteen volumes, several times printed.
Johannes Dunscotus was a very learned man, who lived about the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century. The English and Scotch strive which of them shall have the honour of his birth. The English say, he was born in Northumberland: the Scots alledge he was born at Duns, in the Mers, the neighbouring county to Northumberland, and hence was called Dunscotus. Moreri, Buchanan, and other Scotch historians, are of this opinion, and for proof cite his epitaph:
Scotia me genuit, Anglia suscepit,
Gallia edocuit, Germania tenet.
[Scotland bore me, England reared me,
France instructed me, Germany kept me.]
He died at Cologne, Novem. 8. 1308. In the Supplement to Dr. Cave's Historia Literaria, he is said to be extraordinary learned in physicks, metaphysicks, mathematicks, and astronomy; that his fame was so great when at Oxford, that 30,000 scholars came thither to hear his lectures: that when at Paris, his arguments and authority carried it for the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin; so that they appointed a festival on that account, and would admit us scholars to degrees but such as were of this mind. He was a great opposer of Thomas Aquinas's doctrine; and, for being a very acute logician, was called Doctor Subtilis; [Discriminating (or, literally, Slender) Teacher] which was the reason also, that an old punster always called him the Lathy Doctor.Back
158 q As tough as, &c.] Sorbon was the first and most considerable college of the university of Paris, founded in time reign of St. Lewis, by Robert Sorbon, which name is sometimes given to the whole University of Paris, which was founded, about the year 741, by Charlemagne, at the persuasion of the learned Alcuinus, who was one of the first professors there; since which time it has been very famous. This college has been rebuilt with an extraordinary magnificence, at the charge of Cardinal Richlieu, and contains lodgings for thirty-six doctors, who are called the Society of Sorbon. Those which are received among them before they have received their doctor's degree are only said to be of the Hospitality of Sorbon. Claud. Hemeraus de Acad. Paris. Spondan in Annal.Back
173 r he knew, &c.] There is nothing more ridiculous than the various opinions of authors about the seat of Paradise. Sir. Walter Raleigh has taken a great deal of pains to collect them, in the beginning of his History of the World; where those, who are unsatisfied, may be fully informed.Back
180 s By a High-Dutch, &c.] Goropius Becanus endeavours to prove that High-Dutch was the language that Adam and Eve spoke in Paradise.Back
181 t If either of &c.] Adam and Eve being made, and not conceived and formed in the womb had no navels as some learned men have supposed, because they had no need of them.Back
182 u Who first made, &c.] Musick is said to be invented by Pythagoras, who first found out the proportion of notes from the sounds of hammers upon an anvilBack
232 w Like MAHOMET's &c.) Mahomet had a tame dove, that used to pick seeds out of his ear that it might be thought to whisper and inspire him. His ass was so intimate with him, that the Mahometans believed it carried him to heaven, and stays there with him to bring him back again.Back
257 x It was Monastick, and did grow
In holy Orders by strict Vow.
He made a vow never to cut his beard until the Parliament
had subdued the King; of which order of phanatick votaries there
were many in those times.Back
281 y So learned TALIACOTIUS &c.] Taliacotius was an Italian surgeon, that found out a way to repair lost and decayed noses. This Taliacotius was chief surgeon to the Great Duke of Tuscany, and wrote a treatise, De Curtis Membris, [Of Cut-off Parts] which he dedicates to his great master wherein he not only declares the models of his wonderful operations in restoring of lost members, but gives you cuts of the very instruments and ligatures he made use of therein; from hence our Author (cum poetica licentia [with poetic licence]) has taken his simile.Back
289 z For as AENEAS, &c.] AEneas was the son of Anchises and Venus; a Trojan, who, after long travels, came to Italy, and after the death of his father-in-law, Latinus, was made king of Latium, and reigned three years. His story is too long to insert here, and therefore I refer you to Virgil's AEneids. Troy being laid in ashes, he took his aged father Anchises upon his back, and rescued him from his enemies. But being too solicitous for his son and household gods, he lost his wife Creusa; which Mr. Dryden, in his excellent translation, thus expresseth.
Haste my dear father (tis no time to wait,)
And load my shoulders with a willing freight.
Whate'er befals, your life shall be my care;
One death, or one deliv'rance, we will share.
My hand shall lead our little son; and you,
My faithful consort, shall our steps pursue.Back
337 a -- For ARTHUR, &c.] Who this Arthur was and whether any ever reigned in Britain, has been doubted heretofore, and is by some to this very day. However, the history of him, which makes him one of the nine worthies of the world, is a subject, sufficient for the Poet to be pleasant upon.Back
359 b -- Toledo trusty, &c.] The capital city of New Castile, Spain, with an archbishopric and primacy. It was very famous, amongst other things, for tempering the best metal for swords, as Damascus was and perhaps may be still.Back
389 c But left the trade, as many more
Have lately done, &c.
Oliver Cromwell and Colonel Pride had been both
brewers.Back
433 d That CAESAR's Horse, who, as Fame goes,
Had corns upon his Feet and Toes.
Julius Caesar had a horse with feet like a man's. Utebatur
equo insigni; pedibus prope humanis, modum digitorum ungulis
fissis. [He rode a horse with this distinction; it had feet
like a man's, having the hooves split like toes] Suet. in
Jul. Cap. 61.Back
467 c The mighty Tyrian Queen, that gain'd
With subtle Shreds a Tract of Land.Dido, Queen of
Carthage, who bought as much land as she could compass with an
ox's hide, which she cut into small thongs, and cheated the owner
of so much ground as served her to build Carthage upon.Back
476 f As the bold, &c.] AEneas, whom Virgil reports to use a golden bough for a pass to hell; and taylors call that place Hell where they put all they steal.Back
526 g As three, &c.] Read the great Geographical Dictionary, under that word.Back
520 h In Magick, &c.] Talisman is a device to destroy any sort of vermin, by casting their images in metal, in a precise minute, when the stars are perfectly inclined to do them all the mischief they can. This has been experienced by some modern Virtuosi upon rats, mice, and fleas, and found (as they affirm) to produce the effect with admirable success.
Raymund Lully interprets cabal, out of the Arabic, to signify Scientia superabundans; which his commentator, Cornelius Agrippa, by over-magnifying, has rendered a very superfluous foppery.Back
532 i As far as, &c.] The author of Magia Adamica endeavours to prove the learning of the ancient Magi to be derived from that knowledge which God himself taught Adam in Paradise before the fall.Back
535 And much of Terra Incognita,
The intelligible World cou'd say.
The intelligible world is a kind of Terra Del Fuego, or Psittacorum
Regio[Land of Parrots], &c. discovered only by the
philosophers; of which they talk, like parrots, what they do not
understand.Back
538 k learned &c.] No nation in the world is more addicted to this occult philosophy than the Wild-Irish are, as appears by the whole practice of their lives; of which see Camden in his description of Ireland.Back
539 l Or Sir AGRIPPA, &c.] They who would know more of Sir Cornelius Agrippa, here meant, may consult the Great Dictionary. Back
541 m He ANTHROPOSOPHUS and FLOUD,
And JACOB BEHMEN understood.
Anthroposophus is only a compound Greek word, which
signifies a man that is wise in the knowledge of men, as is used
by some anonymous author to conceal his true name.
Dr. Floud was a sort of an English Rosy-crucian, whose
works are extant, and as intelligible as those of Jacob Behmen.Back
545 n In ROSY-CRUCIAN Lore as learned
As he that Vere Adeptus earned.
The fraternity of the Rosy-crucians is very like the sect of the
ancient Gnostici, who called them selves so from the excellent
learning they pretended to, although they were really the most
ridiculous sots of mankind.
Vere Adeptus is one that has commenced in their phanatick
extravagance.Back
646 o Thou that with Ale or viler Liquors,
Didst inspire WITHERS, PRYN, and VICARS.
This Vicars was a man of as great interest and authority
in the late Reformation as Pryn or Withers, and as
able a poet. He translated Virgil's AEneids into as
horrible Travesty, in earnest, as the French Scaroon did
in burlesque, and was only outdone in his way by the politic
author of Oceana.Back
714 p We that are, &c.] This speech is set down as it was delivered by the Knight, in his own words: But since it is below the gravity of heroical poetry to admit of humour, but all men are obliged to speak wisely alike, and too much of so extravagant a folly would become tedious and impertinent, the rest of his harangues have only his sense expressed in other words, unless in some few places, where his own words could not be so well avoided.Back
753 q In bloody, &c.] Cynarctomachy signifies no thing in the world but a fight between dogs and bears; though both the learned and ignorant agree that in such words very great knowledge is contained: And our Knight, as one, or both, of these, was of the same opinion.Back
758 r Or Force, &c.] Averruncate: Another of the same kind, which, though it appear ever so learned and profound, means nothing else but the weeding of corn.Back
777 s The Indians fought for the Truth
Of th' Elephant and Monkey's Tooth.
The History of the White Elephant and the Monkey's-Tooth, which
the Indians adored, is written by Mons. le Blanc. This
monkey's tooth was taken by the Portuguese from those that
worshipped it; and though they offered a vast ransom for it, yet
the Christians were persuaded by their priests rather to burn it.
But as soon as the fire was kindled, all the people present were
not able to endure the horrible stink that came from it, as if
the fire had been made of the same ingredients with which seamen
use to compose that kind of granados which they call stinkards.Back
786 t The Rage, &c.] Boute-feus is a French word, and therefore it were uncivil to suppose any English person (especially of quality) ignorant of it, or so ill-bred as to need an exposition.Back
903 u 'Tis sung, &c.] Mamaluke is
the name of the militia of the Sultans of Egypt. It signified a
servant or soldier. They were commonly captives taken from
amongst the Christians, and instructed in military discipline,
and did not marry. Their power was great; for besides that the
Sultans were chosen out of their body, they disposed of the most
important offices of the kingdom. They were formidable about 200
years; 'till at last Selim, Sultan of the Turks, routed them, and
killed their Sultan, near Aleppo, 1516, and so put an end to the
empire of Mamalukes, which had lasted 267 years.
No question but the rhime to Mamaluke was meant Sir Samuel
Luke, of whom in the Preface.Back
913 w Honour is like, &c.] Our English proverbs are not impertinent to this purpose:
He that woos a Maid, must seldom come in her sight:
But he that woos a Widow, must woo her Day and Night.
He that woos a Maid, must feign, lye, and flatter:
But he that woos a Widow, must down with his Breeches, and at
her.
This proverb being somewhat immodest, Mr Ray says he would not have inserted it in his collection, but that he met with it in a little book, intitled, the Quakers' Spiritual Court Proclaimed; written by Nathaniel Smith, Student in Physic; wherein the author mentions it as counsel given him by Hilkiah Bedford, an eminent Quaker in London, who would have had him to have married a rich widow, in whose house he lodged. In case he could get her, this Nathaniel Smith had promised Hilkiah a chamber gratis. The whole narrative is worth the reading. Back
