Notes and Queries, Number 38, July 20, 1850 | Page 3

Irregular(Dundas) Never known to the Club 13. ---- by Warton Bishop of Ossory (Hon. William Beresford) 14. ---- Pindaric General Fitzpatrick 15. ---- Irregular Dr. Laurence 16. ---- Prettyman General Burgoyne 17. ---- Graham Mr. Reid 18. Letter, &c. and Mount- morres Richardson 19. Birthday Ode George Ellis 20. Pindaric Ode Unmarked 21. Real Birthday Ode T. Warton 22. Remaining prose 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.
BRAYBROOKE.
Audley End, July, 1850.
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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._
C?lia, 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, Mycen?, 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.
J.F.M.
* * * * *
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 {116} 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 hand, would appear to be those in honour of _Ashtaroth_, or _Astarte_, from whom the British Christians may naturally enough have derived the name of Easter for their corresponding season. We might go even further than this, and say that the young ladies who are reported still to take the chief part in keeping up the Druidical festivities in Cornwall, very happily represent the ancient Estal (or _Vestal_) virgins.
"In times of Paganism," says