Notes and Queries, Number 72, March 15, 1851 | Page 3

that the association may have originated in the invocation of the goddess Flora, by Ovid, on that day (Fasti, v.), in order that she might inspire him with an explanation of the Floralia, or Floral games, which were celebrated in Rome from the 28th of April to the third of May.
These games, if transferred by Chaucer to Athens, would at once explain the "gret feste" and the "lusty seson of that May."
Supposing, then, that Chaucer, in the Knight's Tale, meant, as I think he meant, to place the great combat on the anniversary of the fourth of May--that being the day on which Theseus had intercepted the duel,--then the entry into Athens of the rival companies would take place on {203} (Sunday) the second, and the sacrifices and feasting on the third of May, the last of the Floralia.
A. E. B.
Leeds, March 4, 1851.
[Footnote 1: [Of which there can be no doubt. See further p. 205. of our present Number.--ED.]]
* * * * *
INEDITED POETRY, NO. II.
CHORUS.
(Harleian MSS., No. 367. fo. 154.)
"Is, is there nothing cann withstand The hand Of Time: but that it must Be shaken into dust? Then poore, poore Israelites are wee Who see, But cannot shunn the Graue's captivitie.
"Alas, good Browne! that Nature hath No bath, Or virtuous herbes to strayne, To boyle[2] thee yong againe; Yet could she (kind) but back command Thy brand, Herself would dye thou should'st be unman'd.
"But (ah!) the golden Ewer by [a] stroke, Is broke, And now the Almond Tree With teares, with teares, we see, Doth lowly lye, and with its fall Do all The daughters dye, that once were musicall.
"Thus yf weake builded man cann saye, A day He lives, 'tis all, for why? He's sure at night to dye, For fading man in fleshly lome[3] Doth rome Till he his graue find, His eternall home.
"Then farewell, farewell, man of men, Till when (For us the morners meet Pal'd visag'd in the street, To seale up this our britle birth In earth,) We meet with thee triumphant in our mirth." Trinit?ll Hall's Exequies.
Now, to what does Hall refer in the third stanza, in his mention of the almond-tree? Is it a classical allusion, as in the preceding stanza, or has it some reference to any botanical fact? I send the ballad, trusting that as an inedited morsel you will receive it.
KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.
[We do not take Hall here to be the name of a man, but Trinity Hall at Cambridge.]
[Footnote 2: The reader will recognise the classical allusion.]
[Footnote 3: Loam, earth; roam.]
* * * * *
ON A PASSAGE IN MARMION.
I venture for the first time to trespass upon the attention of your readers in making the following remarks upon a passage in Marmion, which, as far as I know, has escaped the notice of all the critical writers whose comments upon that celebrated poem have hitherto been published.
It will probably be remembered, that long after the main action of the poem and interest of the story have been brought to a close by the death of the hero on the field of Flodden, the following incident is thus pointedly described:--
Short is my tale:--Fitz-Eustace' care A pierced and mangled body bare To moated Lichfield's lofty pile: And there, beneath the southern aisle, A tomb, with Gothic sculpture fair Did long Lord Marmion's image bear, &c. &c. &c.
"There erst was martial Marmion found, His feet upon a couchant hound, His hands to Heaven upraised: And all around on scutcheon rich, And tablet carved, and fretted niche, His arms and feats were blazed. And yet, though all was carved so fair, And priest for Marmion breathed the prayer, The last Lord Marmion lay not there. From Ettrick woods a peasant swain Follow'd his lord to Flodden plain,-- &c. &c. &c.
"Sore wounded Sybil's Cross he spied, And dragg'd him to its foot, and died, Close by the noble Marmion's side. The spoilers stripp'd and gash'd the slain, And thus their corpses were mista'en; And thus in the proud Baron's tomb, The lowly woodsman took the room."
Now, I ask, wherefore has the poet dwelt with such minuteness upon this forced and improbable incident? Had it indeed been with no other purpose than to introduce the picturesque description and the moral reflexions contained in the following section, the improbability might well be forgiven. But such is not the real object. The critic of the Monthly Review takes the following notice of this passage, which is printed as a note in the last edition of Scott's Poems in 1833:--
"A corpse is afterwards conveyed, as that of Marmion, to the cathedral of Lichfield, where a magnificent tomb is erected to his memory, &c. &c.; but, by an admirably imagined act of poetical justice, we are informed that a peasant's body was placed beneath that costly