“Fly, Joy, on wings of popinjays
To courts of fools; there, as your plays,
Die,” &c.
“Where as,” as then used, would make it the “plays” that were to die.
“As he Lucasta nam’d, a groan
Strangles the fainting passing tone;
But as she heard, Lucasta smiles,
Posses her round; she’s slipt meanwhiles
Behind the blind of a thick bush.” (p. 68.)
Mr. Hazlitt’s note on “posses” could hardly be matched by any member of
the _posse comitatus_ taken at random:--
“This word does not appear to have any very exact meaning. See
Halliwell’s _Dictionary of Archaic Words_, art. Posse, and
Worcester’s Dict., _ibid._, &c. The context here requires _to turn
sharply or quickly._”
The “_ibid._, &c.” is delightful; in other words, “find out the meaning
of _posse_ for yourself.” Though dark to Mr. Hazlitt, the word has not
the least obscurity in it. It is only another form of _push_, nearer the
French _pousser_, from Latin _pulsare_, and “the context here requires”
nothing more than that an editor should read a poem if he wish to
understand it. The plain meaning is,--
“But, as she heard _Lucasta_, smiles
Possess her round.”
That is, when she heard the name _Lucasta_,--for thus far in the poem
she has passed under the pseudonyme of _Amarantha_. “Possess her round”
is awkward, but mildly so for Lovelace, who also spells “commandress” in
the same way with a single _s_. _Process_ is spelt _prosses_ in the
report of those who absented themselves from Church in Stratford.
“O thou, that swing’st upon the waving eare,
Of some well-filled oaten beard.” (p. 94.)
Mr. Hazlitt, for some inscrutable reason, has changed “haire” to “eare”
in the first line, preferring the ear of a _beard_ to its hair!