Notes and Queries, Number 74, March 29, 1851 | Page 4

was with white boles grete;"
whereupon Mars complains:
"This twelve dayes of April I endure Through jelous Phebus this misaventure."
(It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader of Chaucer, that in the poet's time the Sun would enter Taurus on the 12th of April.)
"Now flieth Venus in to Ciclinius tour, With void corse, for fear of Phebus light."
These two lines, so obscure at first sight, afford, when properly understood, the strongest confirmation of the astronomical meaning of the whole; while, by indicating the conjunction on the last degree of Taurus, they furnish a most essential element for its identification.
I confess that this "CICLINIUS" gave me a good deal of trouble; but, taking as a guide the astronomical myth so evident throughout, I came to the conviction that "Ciclinius" is a corruption, and that Chaucer wrote, or intended to write, CYLLENIUS--a well-known epithet of Mercury, and used too in an astronomical sense by Virgil, "ignis coeli Cyllenius."
Now the sign Gemini is also "domus Mercurii;" so that when Venus fled into the tour of Cyllenius, she simply slipped into the next door to her own house of Taurus--leaving poor Mars behind to halt after her as he best might.
6th. Mars is almost stationary:
"He passeth but a sterre in daies two."
There still remain one or two baffling points in the description, one of which is the line--
"Fro Venus Valanus might this palais see,"
which I am convinced is corrupt: I have formed a guess as to its true meaning, but it is not as yet fully confirmed.
The other doubtful points are comprised in the following lines, which have every appearance of significance; and which, I have not the least doubt, bear as close application as those already explained: but, as yet, I must acknowledge an inability to understand the allusions. After Venus has entered Gemini--
"Within the gate she fled into a cave: Dark was this cave and smoking as the hell; Nat but two paas within the gate it stood, A natural day in darke I let her dwell."
A. E. B.
Leeds, March 17.
{236}
* * * * *
CHARLES THE FIRST AND BARTOLOMEO DELLA NAVE'S COLLECTION OF PICTURES.
Among some miscellaneous papers in a volume of the Birch MSS. in the British Museum (Add. 4293. fol. 5.) is preserved a curious document illustrative of the love of Charles I. for the fine arts, and his anxiety to increase his collection of paintings, which, as it has escaped the notice of Walpole and his annotators, I transcribe below.
"CHARLES R.
"Whereas wee vnderstand that an excellent Collection of paintings are to be solde in Venice, whiche are knowen by the name of Bartolomeo della Nave his Collection, Wee are desirous that our beloved servant Mr. William Pettye, should goe thither to make the bargayne for them, Wee our selues beinge resolved to goe a fourthe share in the buyinge of them (soe it exceed not the s[=o]me of Eight hundred powndes sterlinge), but that our Name be concealed in it. And if it shall please God that the same Collection be bought and come safelye hither, Then wee doe promise in the word of a Kinge, that they shall be divyded with all equallitye in this maner, vid^t. That, they shall be equallie divyded into fower partes by some men skillfull in paintinge, and then everie one interested in the shares, or some for them, shall throwe the Dice severallye, and whoesoever throwes moste, shall chose his share first, and soe in order everye one shall choose after first, as he castes most, and shal take their shares freelye to their owne vses, as they shall fall vnto them. In wittnes whereof wee haue sett our hande, this Eight daye of July, in the Tenth year of our Reigne, 1634."
The individual employed by Charles in this negotiation is the same who collected antiquities in Greece for the Earl of Arundel. He was Vicar of Thorley, in the Isle of Wight, and is believed to have been the uncle of the celebrated Sir William Petty, ancestor of the Marquis of Lansdowne. It would be curious to learn the particulars of the "bargayne" made by him, and how the pictures were disposed of after their arrival in England. Were the Warrant and Privy Seal books of the period (still remaining among the Exchequer records) easily accessible, no doubt some information on these points might be gained. That this collection of Bartolomeo della Nave was a celebrated one, we have the testimony of Simon Vouet, in a letter to Ferrante Carlo, written from Venice, August 14, 1627, in which he speaks of it as a "studio di bellissime pitture" (Bottari, Lettere Pittoriche, vol. i. p. 335.: Milano, 1822): and that it came over to England, is asserted repeatedly by Ridolfi, in his Vite degli illustri Pittori Veneti, the first edition of which appeared at Venice