酷兔英语

章节正文

<34.1> i.e. the white glove of the lady with its five fingers.
<34.2> Doom.

<34.3> A description of musical pin attached to a lute. It was
only brought into play by accomplished musicians. In the address

of "The Country Suiter to his Love," printed in Cotgrave's WITS
INTERPRETER, 1662, p. 119, the man says:--

"Fair Wench! I cannot court thy sprightly eyes
With a base-viol plac'd betwixt my thighs,

I cannot lisp, nor to a fiddle sing,
Nor run upon a high-strecht minikin."

In Middleton's FAMILIE OF LOVE, 1608 (Works by Dyce, ii. 127)
there is the following passage:--

"GUDGEON. Ay, and to all that forswear marriage, and can be
content with other men's wives.

GERARDINE. Of which consort you two are grounds; one touches
the bass, and the other tickles the minikin."

BEING TREATED.
TO ELLINDA.

For cherries plenty, and for corans
Enough for fifty, were there more on's;

For elles of beere,<35.1> flutes<35.2> of canary,
That well did wash downe pasties-Mary;<35.3>

For peason, chickens, sawces high,
Pig, and the widdow-venson-pye;<35.4>

With certaine promise (to your brother)
Of the virginity of another,

Where it is thought I too may peepe in
With knuckles far as any deepe in;<35.5>

For glasses, heads, hands, bellies full
Of wine, and loyne right-worshipfull;<35.6>

Whether all of, or more behind--a
Thankes freest, freshest, faire Ellinda.

Thankes for my visit not disdaining,
Or at the least thankes for your feigning;

For if your mercy doore were lockt-well,
I should be justly soundly knockt-well;

Cause that in dogrell I did mutter
Not one rhime to you from dam-Rotter.<35.7>

Next beg I to present my duty
To pregnant sister in prime beauty,

Whom well I deeme (e're few months elder)
Will take out Hans from pretty Kelder,

And to the sweetly fayre Mabella,
A match that vies with Arabella;

In each respect but the misfortune,
Fortune, Fate, I thee importune.

Nor must I passe the lovely Alice,
Whose health I'd quaffe in golden chalice;

But since that Fate hath made me neuter,
I only can in beaker pewter:

But who'd forget, or yet left un-sung
The doughty acts of George the yong-son?

Who yesterday to save his sister
Had slaine the snake, had he not mist her:

But I shall leave him, 'till a nag on
He gets to prosecute the dragon;

And then with helpe of sun and taper,
Fill with his deeds twelve reames of paper,

That Amadis,<35.8> Sir Guy, and Topaz
With his fleet neigher shall keep no-pace.

But now to close all I must switch-hard,
[Your] servant ever;

LOVELACE RICHARD.
<35.1> This expression has reference to the old practice

of drinking beer and wine out of very high glasses, with
divisions marked on them. A yard of ale is even now a well

understood term: nor is the custom itself out of date, since
in some parts of the country one is asked to take, not a glass,

but A YARD. The ell was of course, strictlyspeaking, a larger
measure than a yard; but it was often employed as a mere synonyme

or equivalent. Thus, in MAROCCUS EXTATICUS, 1595, Bankes says:--
"Measure, Marocco, nay, nay, they that take up commodities make no

difference for measure between a Flemish elle and an English yard."
<35.2> In the new edition of Nares (1859), this very passage is

quoted to illustrate the meaning of the word, which is defined
rather vaguely to be A CASK. Obviously the word signifies

something of the kind, but the explanation does not at all satisfy
me. I suspect that a flute OF CANARY was so called from the cask

having several vent-holes, in the same way that the French call a
lamprey FLEUTE D'ALEMAN from the fish having little holes in the

upper part of its body.
<35.3> Forsyth, in his ANTIQUARY'S PORTFOLIO, 1825, mentions

certain "glutton-feasts," which used formerly to be celebrated
periodically in honour of the Virgin; perhaps the pasties used on

these occasions were thence christened PASTIES-MARY.
<35.4> Venison pies or pasties were the most favourite dish in

this country in former times; innumerable illustrations might be
furnished of the high esteem in which this description of viand

was held by our ancestors, who regarded it as a thoroughly English
luxury. The anonymous author of HORAE SUBSECIVAE, 1620, p. 38

(this volume is supposed to have been written by Giles Brydges,
Lord Chandos), describes an affected Englishman who has been

travelling on the Continent, as "sweating at the sight of a pasty
of venison," and as "swearing that the only delicacies be

mushrooms, or CAVIARE, or snayles."
"The full-cram'd dishes made the table crack,

Gammons of bacon, brawn, and what was chief,
King in all feasts, a tall Sir Loyne of BEEF,

Fat venison pasties smoaking, 'tis no fable,
Swans in their broath came swimming to the table."--

Poems of Ben Johnson Junior, by W. S. 1672, p. 3.
<35.5> An allusion to the scantiness of forks. "And when your

justice of peace is knuckle-deep in goose, you may without
disparagement to your blood, though you have a lady to your mother,

fall very manfully to your woodcocks."-- Decker's GULS HORN BOOK,
1609, ed. Nott, p. 121.

"Hodge. Forks! what be they?
Mar. The laudable use of forks,

Brought into custom here, as they are in Italy,
To the sparing of napkins--"

Jonson's THE DEVIL IS AN ASS, act. v. scene 4.
"Lovell. Your hand, good sir.

Greedy. This is a lord, and some think this a favour;
But I had rather have my hand in my dumpling."

Massinger's NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS, 1633.
<35.6> The sirloin of beef.

<35.7> Rotterdam.
<35.8> AMADIS DE GAULE. The translation of this romance by Anthony

Munday and two or three others, whose assistance he obtained, made
it popular in England, although, perhaps with the exception of the

portion executed by Munday himself, the performance is beneath
criticism.

TO ELLINDA.
VPON HIS LATE RECOVERY.

A PARADOX.
I.

How I grieve that I am well!
All my health was in my sicknes,

Go then, Destiny, and tell,
Very death is in this quicknes.

II.
Such a fate rules over me,

That I glory when I languish,
And do blesse the remedy,

That doth feed, not quench my anguish.
III.

'Twas a gentle warmth that ceas'd
In the vizard of a feavor;

But I feare now I am eas'd
All the flames, since I must leave her.

IV.
Joyes, though witherd, circled me,

When unto her voice inured
Like those who, by harmony,

Only can be throughly cured.
V.

Sweet, sure, was that malady,
Whilst the pleasant angel hover'd,

Which ceasing they are all, as I,
Angry that they are recover'd.

VI.
And as men in hospitals,

That are maim'd, are lodg'd and dined;
But when once their danger fals,

Ah th' are healed to be pined!
VII.

Fainting so, I might before
Sometime have the leave to hand her,

But lusty, am beat out of dore,
And for Love compell'd to wander.

TO CHLOE, COURTING HER FOR HIS FRIEND.
I.

Chloe, behold! againe I bowe:
Againe possest, againe I woe;

From my heat hath taken fire
Damas, noble youth, and fries,<36.1>

Gazing with one of mine eyes,
Damas, halfe of me expires:

Chloe, behold! Our fate's the same.
Or make me cinders too, or quench his flame

II.
I'd not be King, unlesse there sate

Lesse lords that shar'd with me in state
Who, by their cheaper coronets, know,

What glories from my diadem flow:
Its use and rate<36.2> values the gem:

Pearles in their shells have no esteem;
And, I being sun within thy sphere,

'Tis my chiefe beauty thinner lights shine there.
III.

The Us'rer heaps unto his store
By seeing others praise it more;

Who not for gaine or want doth covet,
But, 'cause another loves, doth love it:

Thus gluttons cloy'd afresh invite
Their gusts from some new appetite;

And after cloth remov'd, and meate,
Fall too againe by seeing others eate.

<36.1> This is not unfrequently used in old writers in the sense
of BURN:--

"But Lucilla, who now began to frie in the flames of love,
all the company being departed," &c.--Lyly's EUPHUES, 1579,

sig. c v. verso.
"My lady-mistresse cast an amourous eye

Upon my forme, which her affections drew,
Shee was Love's martyr, and in flames did frye."

EGYPT'S FAVORITE. THE HISTORIE OF JOSEPH.
By Sir F. Hubert, 1631, sig. C.

<36.2> The estimation in which it is held, its marketable worth.
GRATIANA DAUNCING AND SINGING.

I.


文章标签:名著  

章节正文