p. 89, l. 3 _Odour_. 1686, 1697 ‘Ardour’.
p. 91, l. 8 _Fundamentals_. 1735 ‘Foundations’.
p. 94, l. 4 _Sent from Damon to Iris_. 1697, 1735 both omit this. 1697
on separate title reads: ‘The Whole Art of Charming.’
p. 95, l. 18 _Iris’s_. 1697, 1735 ‘The Lady’s’.
p. 95, l. 32 _its_. 1735 ‘their’.
p. 98, l. 29 _of it weaves a Chain, not easily_ ... 1697 ‘if it weaves
a Chain, not easily ...’ 1735 ‘if it weaves a Chain, ‘tis not
easily ...’
p. 100, l. 2 _Monarchs_. 1735 ‘Monarch’, 1697 ‘Monarchs guest’.
p. 105, l. 11 _softest_. 1697, 1735 ‘softer’.
p. 106, l. 25 _Wit and Youth!_ 1735 ‘Wit and Truth!’
p. 106, l. 26 _Love and Truth_. 1735 ‘Love and Youth’.
POEMS UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS (1684).
p. 115, l. 3 _Viscount Cramborn and Baron of Islington_. So 1684; but
’.ramborn’ should be ‘Cranborn’, and for ‘Islington’ we should read
’.ssingdon.’ Possibly Mrs. Behn sent the Dedicatory Epistle to press as
an afterthought at the last moment and did not see a proof. Though she
was frequently careless, such mistakes as ‘Cramborn’ and ‘Islington’
would seem to be chargeable to her printers.
p. 125, l. 32. _Forsake their Kinds_. Query ‘their Kids’.
p. 130, l. 33. _E’er they’re_. 1684 ‘E’er their’.
p. 139, l. 5. _The Gray-Plum’d Natives of the Shades_. So 1684, but we
should doubtless read ‘Gay-Plum’d’. cf. l. 2 of sixth stanza: ‘little
Gay-wing’d Loves.’
p. 144, l. 11 _The Sun and Spring receive but our short Light_. This,
the reading of 1684, is clearly corrupt but can be easily mended by
changing ‘receive’ to ‘revive’.
p. 147, l. 8 _the rushing of the wind-blown leaves_. On p. 171, l. 23,
we have ‘Whispering Gales Sigh through the Rushing Leaves.’ Mrs. Behn
uses ‘rushing’ in the sense of ‘rustling’.
p. 150, l. 17 _From Active Joyes with some they hast_. The words ‘with
some’ are meaningless and corrupt. Query ‘eftsoon’.
p. 154, l. 25 _Like Pan, a Majesty_. 1684 ‘Like Panna, Majesty’.
p. 177, l. 15 _Gold and Grain_. Probably a misprint for ‘Golden Grain’.
p. 181, l. 21 _Priapus_. 1684 ‘Priapas’.
p. 182, l. 11 _All that the Gods e’er made, if Fair_. Query ‘e’er made
of Fair’.
p. 183, l. 28 _Astrae_. Misprint: the old copy rightly gives ‘Astrea.’
p. 183, l. 30 _I slept. Muses Mercury_ (May, 1707), ‘I saw last night a
pretty sight’.
p. 183, l. 32 _Stars_. M.M. ‘Eyes so bright’.
p. 186, l. 5 _are_. Misprint: read, with the old copy, ‘art.’
p. 194, l. 31 _Not add_. Query ‘Not au’ (i.e. Not all).
p. 200, l. 17 _were throng_. Query ‘were throng’d’.
p. 206, l. 20 _decry_. Misprint: read, with 1684, ‘descry’.
p. 207, l. 12 _and Kill_. 1684 ‘a Kill’.
p. 218, l. 1 _we part_. 1684 ‘me part’.
p. 219, l. 14 _thee and I_. The bad grammar has not been changed, as it
may be due to Mrs. Behn’s carelessness.
p. 222, l. 2 _Hadst_. 1684 ‘Hads’.
p. 224, l. 25 _That, best instructs_. 1684 ‘instruct’. (The comma
after ‘that’ is unnecessary, but Mrs. Behn used it to emphasise the
word--here and in the following line.)
p. 225, l. 12 _ne’er to visit more_. 1684 ‘near to visit more’.
p. 227, l. 4 _whether_. i.e. (as frequently) ‘whither’.
p. 230, l. 28 _barely wishing_. Query ‘dearly wishing’.
p. 230, l. 33 _Love gives_. 1684 ‘give’.
p. 231, l. 18 _treads_. 1684 ‘tread’.
p. 232, l. 32 _Kisses_. 1684 ‘Kiss’.
p. 233, l. 13 _Mad_. 1684 ‘Made’.
p. 235, l. 17 _In modest Speech, as might well subdue_. Corrupt. Query
’.odest in Speech, such as might well subdue.’
p. 247, l. 2 _Says_. 1684 ‘Say’.
p. 250, l. 5 _replies_. 1684 ‘reply’.
p. 251, ll. 1-2 _the dumb and silent languishes, Are predic’d, which so
well explain the Heart_. The word ‘predic’d’ is very suspicious. Taking
’.anguishes’ as a substantive (and deleting the comma), we might change
’.redic’d’ to ‘produc’d’ (with the accent on the first syllable).
p. 253, l. 3 _Winter_. 1684 ‘Winters’.
p. 253, l. 7 _All bleek and cale_. In a _Pastoral to Mr. Stafford_, (p.
383), we have: ‘In summer let the Boughs be _cale_ and dry.’
p. 258, ll. 1-2 _who’s lovely Face Disdain’d the Beauties of the common
race_. So 1684; but ‘Disdain’d’ may be a misprint for ‘Distain’d’
(outshone).
p. 272, l. 28 _And let her Feet weep my neglect away_. Corrupt. We
should doubtless read ‘And at her Feet weep my neglect away’.
p. 273, l. 10 _hear_. 1684 ‘here’.
p. 278, l. 5 _hallow’d_. 1684 ‘hollow’d’.
p. 280, l. 10 _wear_. 1684 ‘were’.
p. 284, l. 7 _Inspiring Love, inciting_. 1684 ‘Inspiring my Love
inciting.’
p. 285, l. 28 _soft breath’d_. 1684 ‘oft breath’d’.
LYCIDUS (1688).
p. 302, l. 35 _no one place could continue her_. So 1688; but
’.ontinue’ may be a misprint for ‘contain’.
p. 327, l. 4 _Now_. 1688 ‘How’.
p. 344, l. 18 _This there_. 1688, but query ‘’.is there’.
p. 345, l. 19 _wert_. 1688 ‘wers’t’.
p. 352, l. 23 _’.was youth, ‘twas wit, ‘twas Beauty_. 1688 ‘was Beauty’.
p. 360, l. 12 _Amintas_. M.M. (April, 1707), ‘Amyntas,’ and throughout.
p. 360, l. 15 _conquer’d_. M.M. ‘conquer’.
p. 361, l. 5 _stoln_. M.M. ‘stole’.
p. 361, l. 27 _with which_. M.M. ‘wherewith’.
p. 361, l. 29 _That may declare_. M.M. ‘which may disclose’.
p. 362, l. 2 _Lovers_. M.M. ‘shepherds’.
p. 362, l. 4 _softer_. M.M. ‘ruder’.
p. 362, l. 5 _By the sad purling_ ... M.M. ‘There, there, my Soul, by
some still Rivulet’.
p. 362, l. 7 _That_. M.M. ‘Which’.
p. 362, l. 8 _melancholy_. M.M. ‘solitary’.
p. 362, l. 10 _stream the shade forsakes_. M.M. ‘Streams the Shades
forsake’.
p. 362, l. 12 _Trees_. M.M. ‘Boughs’.
p. 362, l. 13 _Thô_. M.M. ‘But’.
p. 362, l. 20 _ungrateful know, why tis_. M.M. ‘Ingrate know how and
why’.
p. 362, l. 22 _Thy_. M.M. ‘The’.
p. 362, l. 27 _what weak resistance_. M.M. ‘no opposition’.
p. 362, l. 28 _every charming word_. M.M. ‘For ev’ry dangerous Smile
begot ...’
p. 362, l. 30 _willing ... will_. M.M. ‘weeping ... wouldst’.
p. 362, l. 32 _But stay thy hasty fight_. M.M. ‘But stay, my hasty
Soul, Alas! Alas!’
p. 363, l. 5 _Think how the faithless_. M.M. ‘Then think how ill he’.
p. 363, l. 6 _And then my tortur’d soul_. M.M. ‘And in that Sigh, my
Soul’.
p. 364, l. 17 (_Westminster Drollery_, 1671.) _if I see they mend_.
Query ‘thee mend’.
p. 366, l. 18 (_Miscellany_, 1685.) _Ignorance_. 1685 ‘Igrance’.
p. 375, l. 6 _So fair_. 1685 ‘so far’.
p. 375, l. 27 _be given_. 1685 ‘be gived’.
p. 379, l. 5 _Indian Priests_. 1685 ‘Indian Priest’.
p. 382, l. 28 _intrigues_. Unless we are to pronounce this as a
trisyllable a word must have dropped out of this line.
p. 383, l. 18 _Damon false?_ 1685 ‘Damon safe?’ (The use of the long
’.’ led to much misprinting.)
p. 384, l. 31 _soild_. 1685 ‘solid’.
p. 386, l. 5 _tall_. 1685 ‘tale’.
p. 391, l. 3 _wand’ring Fires run_. In _Poems on Affairs of State, II_
(1703), this is: ‘wandring Fire runs.’
p. 402, l. 12 _Deme_. i.e. ‘Demme’ (damn me).
NOTES: CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.
LA MONSTRE.
p. 4 _Peter Weston, Esq._ Peter Weston, the second son of a Cheshire
clergyman, was born in 1665. He matriculated at Brasenose College,
Oxford, and afterwards proceeding to the Inner Temple (1683) was
called to the Bar in 1697. He attained considerable eminence in his
profession. Foster, _Alumni Oxon_. has: ‘Weston, Peter s. Tho. of
Chester (city) cler. Brasenose Coll. matric. 10 June 1681 aged 16;
bar. at law Inner Temple, 1697.’ The Inner Temple _Admission Register_
gives: ‘Petrus Weston. Generosus filius secundus Thome Weston nuper de
Christalton in Comitatu Cestrie Sacre Theologie Professoris generaliter
Admissus est in Societatem istius Comitive in consideracione Trium
librarum Sex solidorum etc. etc. Septimo die Februarii Anno Domini 1683
(i.e. 1683/4).’ In the Inner Temple _Records_, amongst the Bench Table
Orders, is noted, 27-9 January, 1696-7: ‘that Peter Weston be called to
the bar’, and again 31 January following, we have: ‘Peter Weston’s call
to the bar respited.’ Doubtless Weston was a friend of Hoyle, and by
him introduced to the circle which surrounded Mrs. Behn.
p. 7 _Charles Cotton_. Charles Cotton was born at Ovingdean (Sussex),
28 April, 1630. Upon coming into his estate he found it heavily
encumbered, and probably as much from necessity as from natural
inclination turned to literary work. He produced a large number of
poems, translations, panegyrics, prominent amongst which is his
_Scarronides, or Virgil Travestie_ (1664). He will be remembered by his
best lyrics, his Second Part of the _Compleat Angler_, and his version
of Montaigne. Cotton, who seems to have been continually harassed with
pecuniary difficulties, was a gay liver, albeit an intimate of Isaak
Walton. He died 1687.
p. 7 _two Orinda’s_. ‘The matchless Orinda’ was Mrs. Katherine Philips
(_née_ Fowler), précieuse and poetess (1631-64). After marriage the
lady divided her time between London and her husband’s house at
Cardigan, where she was the centre of a circle of admirers and friends
who adopted various fanciful names, e.g. Silvander (Sir Edward Dering),
Antenor (her husband). Her verses and a translation of Corneille’s
_Pompée_ (Dublin, 1663) became famous. At the height of her popularity
she died of smallpox at a house in Fleet Street, 22 June, 1664. For an
excellent account of her see Gosse, _Seventeenth Century Studies_.
p. 8 _N. Tate_. Nahum Tate, born in Dublin, 1652, was educated at
Trinity College. He does not appear to have followed any definite
profession. Coming to London he produced much miscellaneous literary
work, and was even entrusted by Dryden with a portion of the second
part of _Absalom and Achitophel_ (1682), the master himself enriching
it with some two hundred lines. Tate succeeded (24 December, 1692)
Shadwell in the laureateship which he did not hold till his death (12
August, 1715) as Rowe was appointed to that post, 1 August, 1715. His
plays are perhaps not so mediocre as they are often judged to be,
but they have been damned by his outrageous mangling of King Lear
(1681), which, none the less, persevered on the stage for many a long
decade.[6] Perhaps he is chiefly known for this, and a version of the
Psalms (the first twenty appeared in 1695) written in conjunction with
Nicholas Brady (1696).
[6] The Fool was not restored until the time of Macready, when (25
January, 1838), under his Covent Garden management, the rôle was
entrusted to Miss Priscilla Horton (Mrs. German Reed), who, it is
recorded, achieved great success.
p. 9 _G. J._ George Jenkins, who, it will be remembered, edited Mrs.
Behn’s posthumous play, _The Widow Ranter, vide_ Vol. IV, p. 215, and
note p. 415 on G. J. (p. 222).
p. 18 _cock, and comb_. Cock = set his hat jauntily. For comb (his
wig), cf. Dryden’s prologue to _The Conquest of Granada, II_ (1670):--
when Vizard Masque appears in Pit,
Straight every Man who thinks himself a Wit
Perks up; and, managing his Comb with grace,
With his white Wigg sets off his Nut-brown Face.
And Shadwell’s _The Humorists_ (1671), Act v, where Briske says: ‘No
man appears better upon a Bench in the Play-House; when I stand up
to expose my Person between the Acts, I take out my Comb and with a
_bonne mien_ comb my Perriwig to the Tune the Fiddles Play: Thus, look
you; fa, la, la, la.’ Also Congreve, _The Way of the World_, iii, xii
(1700): ‘The gentlemen stay but to comb, madam, and will wait on you.’
The phrase is frequent.
p. 20 _Scrutore_. cf. Vol. V, p. 73, _The Fair Jilt_: ‘Scrutore
perpetually employ’d,’ and note on that passage (p. 519).
p. 75 _Varrio_. Antonio Verrio, the celebrated Neapolitan painter,
was born at Lecce, in the Terra di Otranto, about 1639. His earliest
pictures were done for ecclesiastics--the Jesuits College, Naples, the
high altar in the Carmelite Church, Toulouse. His facility of execution
and rich colouring gained him fame, and Charles II appointed him to
direct the royal tapestry works at Mortlake. Soon, however, Verrio was
transferred to Windsor to paint the walls and ceilings. Under Charles
II and his successor Verrio was in high favour. At the Revolution he
threw up his office of surveyor of the royal gardens (a sinecure) and
refused to employ his pencil for William of Orange. He had, however,
many commissions from nobles and private persons. His sight failing,
Queen Anne bestowed on him a pension of £200 a year. He died 1707. A
list of Verrio’s ceilings will be found in Jesse’s _Eton and Windsor_.
Pope, _Windsor Forest_, has a couplet (307-8):--
from her roofs when Verrio’s colours fall,
And leave inaminate the naked wall.
p. 75 _Gibbon_. Grinling Gibbons, the celebrated sculptor in wood, was
born at Rotterdam, 4 April, 1648. He came to London in 1667. He was
first brought into notice by Evelyn, who introduced him to the King.
Charles II gave Gibbons a place in the board of works. Besides being
employed at Windsor, Gibbons decorated other of the royal palaces in
marble sculpture as well as wood. His exquisite carvings are to be
found in many noble houses. They are unrivalled for their presentment
of foliage, fruit, flowers; of a marvellous delicacy and beauty. In
1714 he was appointed master carver to George I. He died at his house
in Bow Street, 3 August, 1721.
p. 76 _noble Clifdon_. Evelyn, 23 July, 1679, writes: ‘To Court:
after dinner I visited that excellent painter, Verrio, whose works in
_fresco_ in the King’s palace, at Windsor, will celebrate his name as
long as those walls last.... I went to Clifden, that stupendous natural
rock, wood, and prospect, of the Duke of Buckingham’s, buildings of
extraordinary expense. The grots in the chalky rock are pretty: it is
a romantic object, and the place altogether answers the most poetical
description that can be made of solitude, precipice, prospect, or
whatever can contribute to a thing so very like their imaginations. The
stand somewhat like Frascati as to its front, and, on the platform,
is a circular view to the utmost verge of the horizon which, with
the serpenting of the Thames, is admirable. The staircase is for its
materials singular; the cloisters, descents, gardens, and avenue
through the wood, august and stately; but the land all about wretchedly
barren, and producing nothing but fern. Indeed, as I told his Majesty
that evening (asking me how I liked Clifden) without flattery, that it
did not please me so well as Windsor for the prospect and park, wch is
without compare; there being but one only opening and that narrow, wch
led one to any variety, whereas, that of Windsor is everywhere great
and unconfined.’
Pope’s reference is quoted to triteness:--
Cliveden’s proud alcove
The bow’r of wanton Shrewsbury and love.
--_Moral Essays_, iii, 307-8.
p. 76 _Sir Samuel Morland, or Sir Robert Gorden_. Sir Samuel Morland,
the celebrated inventor and projector, was born in 1625. Having served
the Commonwealth, he turned royalist, and on Cromwell’s death joined
the King at Breda. He was rewarded at the Restoration with a baronetcy,
a pension, and the appointment of Master of Mechanics to the King. He
devoted himself to practical science, and his house was long the resort
of the curious to view his models, inventions, &c. In a MS. (Harleian)
treatise he shows an accurate knowledge of steam power and explains
how it can be employed to work cylinders in raising water, a subject
to which he had paid particular attention, having brought water from a
considerable distance to the top of Windsor Castle. He died blind and
in penury, 30 December, 1695.
_Sir Robert Gordon_, Bart. was born 7 March, 1647. He became famous
for his scientific pursuits, and in the neighbourhood of Gordonstown
(Elginshire), his birthplace, he was long known as ‘Sir Robert the
Warlock’. A MS. account of the family says: he was ‘particularly
skilled in mechanics and chemistry.... He contrived a curious machine
or pump for raising water, wch was tried in the Fleet and highly
approved of, and found far to exceed anything of that kind then
known, both for the facility of working and the quantity of water it
discharged.’ Gordon sat in the Scotch parliament, and seems to have
been a favourite with James II, who was interested in his experiments.
He died 1704.
p. 79 _l’heure du Bergere_. cf. ‘the hour of the Berjere’. _The Feign’d
Curtezans_, iii, 1 (Vol. II, p. 346), and note on that passage (p. 441).
POEMS UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS (1684).
p. 115 _To the Right Honourable, James_. James Cecil, 4th Earl of
Salisbury, Viscount Cranbourn, was the eldest son of James, 3rd Earl of
Salisbury, and Margaret, daughter of John Manners, Earl of Rutland. He
married Frances, one of the three daughters and coheiresses of Simon
Bennet of Beechampton, Bucks, when she was only thirteen years old. A
firm Tory, he was in 1688-9 committed to the Tower as a recusant, but
the prosecution was waived. His name was forged by Robert Young to a
document purporting to be that of an Association to seize the Prince
of Orange, and declare for King James. On this account he was a second
time committed to the Tower, 7 May, 1692, but as nothing could be
proved his bail was soon formally discharged in the Court of King’s
Bench. He died 25 October, 1693, leaving an only son, three years old,
who succeeded him. He was buried at Hatfield, 29 October.
p. 117 _Ogs and Doegs reign’d_. Shadwell is scarified as Og by Dryden,
_Absalom and Achitophel, II_ (1682), Elkanah Settle as Doeg.
p. 117 _Baxter’s zeal_. This ardent Presbyterian divine was
considerably harassed during the reign of Charles II. He had bidden
farewell to the Church of England in the great Blackfriars church, 16
May, 1662, three days before the Act of Uniformity was passed, but
he still held forth with unabated zest and vigor in meeting-houses
and conventicles whenever opportunity offered. He was imprisoned 28
February, 1684-5 on a charge of libelling the Church in his _Paraphrase
of the New Testament_ (1685). His sermons, devotional and other
writings amount to nearly two hundred.
p. 119 _J. Cooper, Buckden_. John Cooper (who doubtless wrote the
following lines initialled J. C.), was a contributor to Dryden’s
_Miscellany_, at the end of which (Vol. I) is advertised: ‘Poems upon
Several Occasions; written by Mrs. _Behn_; are now in the Press, and
will be published this Term.’ Cooper was also the translator of the
_OEnone to Paris_ epistle in the _Heroides_ ‘By Several Hands’ (1680).
Buckden is a village and parish some sixty-one miles from London, and
four miles south-west from Huntingdon.
p. 120 _Orinda. vide_ note _supra_ (on p. 7), ‘two _Orinda’s_’.
p. 120 _No dying Swan_. cf. Ovid, _Heroides_, vii, 1-2:--
Sic, ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbis,
Ad vada Mæandri concinit albus olor.
and _Metamorphoseon_ v. 386-7:--
non illo plura Caystros
Carmina cycnorum labentibus audit in undis.
p. 121 _J. Adams_. John Adams was a member, and afterwards a Fellow
of King’s College, Cambridge. He proceeded B.A. 1682, M.A. 1686,
and is mentioned as a Professor of Theology, whence we infer that
he took Orders. In 1712 he was ‘Collegii Regalis Praepositus’. He
prefixed a copy of complimentary verses (1 January, 1682), to Creech’s
_Lucretius_, and was also a contributor to Dryden’s _Miscellany_.
John Adams, the celebrated topographer, who in 1680 laboriously drew
up the _Index Villaris_, a gazetteer dedicated to Charles II, was a
barrister of the Inner Temple, and must be carefully distinguished from
the Cambridge litterateur.
p. 123 _T. C._ i.e. Thomas Creech, who was born at Blandford, Dorset,
1659. In Lent Term, 1675, he was admitted as a commoner at Wadham
College, Oxford. Having studied hard he graduated M.A. 13 June, 1683
(B.D. 18 March, 1696), and was elected a Fellow of All Souls, 1
November, 1683. For two years (1694-6) he was headmaster of Sherborne,
and then returned to Oxford. Melancholia, however, grew upon him, and
after accepting the college living of Welwyn (where he never resided)
he committed suicide, his body being discovered (June, 1700), in
a garret in his lodging at the house of an apothecary named Ives.
Creech’s translation of _Lucretius_ was printed at Oxford, 1682.
It is of value, and Munro in his edition of the poet speaks of his
predecessor as ‘a man of sound sense and good taste’, no mean praise
from so great a scholar.
p. 125 _her Pen Can be instructed_. An obvious allusion to the rumour
that Mrs. Behn was assisted in her work by Hoyle.
p. 127 _the learned Daphnis_. Thomas Creech.
p. 128 _barbarous Getans_. Ovid in exile cries:--
Nec te mirari, si sint vitiosa, decebit
Carmina, quae faciam paene poeta Getes.
--_Ep. ex Ponto_, IV, xiii, 17-8.
p. 129 _Achitophels_. Achitophel==the Earl of Shaftesbury.
p. 129 _murmuring Shimei’s_. Shimei, Slingsby Bethel, by poll chosen
one of the sheriffs for the City of London on Midsummer day, 1680,
was a factious fanatic, who had formerly been one of the committee
of safety. Burnet says that his miserable way of living and extreme
miserliness rendered him disagreeable to everybody, even his own party.
Dryden very justly lashes him, _Absalom and Achitophel_, I, 585-629.
p. 133 _In an Azure Mantle_. This phrase is very nearly equivalent to
Ovid’s ‘purpureus Amor’ (Amorum, ii, I, 38); and Hieronymus Angerianus
in his _Erotopaignion_, repeats the same expressive adjective:
’.urpureus lumina pandit Amor.’
p. 137 _H. Watson_. Henry Watson was a member of Christ’s College,
Cambridge.
p. 138 _Groves appear’d_. Martinus Scriblerus (Pope) #PERI BATHOUS;#
_or, The Art of Sinking in Poetry: written in the Year_ MDCCXXVII,
chap. xii, has: ‘1. The Florid Style than which none is more proper to
the Bathos, as flowers, which are the lowest of vegetables, are most
gaudy, and do many times grow in great plenty at the bottom of ponds
and ditches.
A fine writer in this kind presents you with the following posie:
The groves appear all drest with wreaths of flowers,
And from their leaves drop aromatic showers,
Whose fragrant heads in mystic twines above
Exchange their sweets, and mix’d with thousand kisses
As if the willing branches strove
To beautify and shade the grove,--
(which, indeed, most branches do).’ Pope, as often, is not a little
unfair in his critique.
p. 144 _Eternal Night_.
Soles occidere, et redire possunt:
Nobis, cum semel occidit brevis lux,
Nox est perpetua una dormienda.
--Catullus, _Ad Lesbiam_.
p. 148 _On a Juniper-Tree_. This poem is also to be found in the
following editions of Rochester’s Works: _Poems on Several Occasions by
the Rt. Hon. the Earl of R----. Printed at Antwerpen_. [London.] 1680?
In _The Works of the Earls of Rochester, Roscommon, Dorset_, 1712;
1718; 1731; 1739 (in which year there were two several and slightly
divergent editions); 1752; 1800? It must not, however, be for a moment
supposed that the Earl of Rochester has any claim to the authorship of
this piece. Unscrupulous booksellers collected songs, poems, satires of
every kind under his name and included them amongst his oft-reprinted
works without explanation or discrimination. With the opening lines of
this poem cf. Horace, _Sermonum_, i, viii:--
Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,
cum faber, incertus scammum faceretne Priapum,
maluit esse deum.
p. 148 _Busks_. A Busk is ‘A strip of wood, whalebone, steel, or
other rigid material passed down the front of a corset and used to
stiffen and support it’. _N.E.D._ which quotes, inter alia, 1688, R.
Holme, _Armoury_, in, 94/2: ‘A Busk ... is a strong peece of Wood, or
Whalebone thrust down the middle of the Stomacker.’