A grisly meteor on his face, Till they were both no more." He was not of the mind of Selim I. Emperor of the Turks, who was the first Ottoman emperor that shaved his beard after he ass cended the throne, contrary to the Koran and the received custom; and being reprimanded by the Mufti, he answered, “That he did it to prevent his vizier's having any thing to lead him by." V. 243. In cut and die so like a tile.] The Puritans of those times were extremely curious in the management of their beards, so that some of them had pasteboard cases to put over them in the night, lest they should turn upon them and rumple them in their sleep. V. 247, This hairy meteor.] A comet is sometimes called a hairy meteor, from the circumstance of its leaving behind in the sky a luminous appearance; to which astrologers have given the name of a tail, and which they persuade the vulgar portend wars, massacres, famines, and all the worst judgments of heaven. Howell, in his Familiar Letters, speaking of the death of the queen of James I. says, “ Queen Anne is lately dead of a dropsy in Denmark-house, which is held to be one of the fatal events that foldowed the last fearful comet that rose in the tail of the constellation of Virgo, which some ignorant astronomers that write of it would fix in the heavens, and that as far above the orb of the moon, as the moon is from the earth: but this is nothing in comparison of those hideous fires that are kindled in Germany. 575, V. 253-4. Like Samson's heart-breakers, it grew pla In time to make a nation rue.] Samson's strength consisted in the hair of his head: when Dalilah had treacherously cut -it off, the Philistines put out his eyes; but as it grew again his -strength returned, and then he pulled down the house over the heads of his enemies, and was himself buried with them under the ruins. 1. V. 260. As that of rigid Cordeliere.] A grey friar of the Franciscan order, so called from a cord full of knots which he wears about his middle, and occasionally disciplines himself with.›› 09.12 V. 272. 'Twas, to submit to fatal steel.] Arcite, in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, devotes his beard to Mars, in the following manner; "And eke to this a vow I will me bind, My beard, my hair, that hangeth low adown, That never yet felt offency oun Of rasour, he of sheer, I woll thee yeue" (give.) V. 275. Whose thread of life the fatal sisters.] Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, the three destinies, whom the ancient poets feigned to spin and determine how long the thread of life should last. Spenser describes them thus in his Fairy Queen: "There he found them all sitting round about, *** The direful distaff standing in the mid, And with unweary'd fingers drawing out The lines of life from living knowledge hid. That cruel Atropos undid, With cursed knife cutting the twist in twain; Most wretched men, whose days depend on threads so vain.”, And Shakespeare, in his Midsummer Night's Dream, makes Pyramus say, O, fates! come, come; Cut thread and thrum." V. 281. So learned Taliacotius, &c.] Gasper Taliacotius was born at Bononia, A. D. 1553, and was professor of physic and surgery there. His statue stands in the anatomical theatre, holding a nose in his hand. He wrote a treatise in Latin, called Chirurgia Nota, in which he teaches the art of ingrafting noses, ears, lips, &c. with the proper instruments and bandages. Many are of opinion that Taliacotius never put his ingenious contrivances in practice; they imagine that such operations are too painful and difficult to beattempted, and doubt of the success; however, Taliacotius was not singular in his doctrine, for he shows that Alexander Benedictius, a famous writer in surgery, described the operation for lost noses before him; as does that great anatomist Vesalius; and Ambrose Pareus mentions a surgeon who practised this art with success in several instances. Our own countryman, Mr. Charles Barnard, sergeantsurgeon to Queen Anne, asserts, that it has been practised with wonderful dexterity and success, as may be proved from authoritics not to be contested, whatever scruples some, who have not examined the history, may entertain concerning either the truth or probability of the fact; so that it is a most surprising thing, that few or none should since have attempted to imitate so worthy and excellent a pattern. There was a modern instance of the success of this operation exhibited, a few years ago, in the windows of most of the print-shops in London. It was the portrait of a Mahratta chief, who, having his nose cut off in one of the wars of Tippoo Saib, had the deficient member supplied by the dexterity of an Indian surgeon. Dr. Fludd, a Rosicrusian philosopher and physician, mentioned hereafter by Butler, informs us, as he pretends, from unquestionable authority, that a certain nobleman in Italy, who had lost great part of his nose in a duel, was advised by one of his physicians to take one of his slaves, and to make a wound in his arm, and to join the little remainder of his nose to the wounded arm of his slave, and to continue it there for some time, till the flesh of the arm was united to his nose. The nobleman prevailed upon one, of his slaves, on the promise of freedom and a reward, to consent to the experiment; by which the double flesh was united, and a piece of flesh was cut out of the slave's arm, which was so managed by a skilful surgeon as to serve for a natural nose. The slave being rewarded and set free, went to Naples, where he fell sick and died at which instant a gangrene appeared upon the nobleman's nose; upon which that part of the nose which belonged to the dead man's arm was, by the advice of his physicians, cut off; and, being encouraged by the above-mentioned experiment, he was prevailed upon to have his own arm wounded in like manner, and to apply it to the remainder of his nose, which he did; and a new nose, at a proper period, was cut out of it, which continued with him till the time of his death. V. 285-6. But when the date of Nock was out, Off dropt the sympathetic snout.] Nock signifies notch or nick: by Nock is meant Oliver Cromwell, alluding, probably, as he was a brewer, to Notch, the brewer's clerk, in Ben Jonson's Masque or Augurs. -V289-90. For as Enéas bore his sire, i Upon his shoulders through the fire.] Æneas was the son of Anchises and Venus, one of the Trojan heroes who, after various adventures, came into Italy; and, on the death of his father-in-law, Latinas, was made king of Latium, and reigned three years. When Troy was laid in ashes, he took his aged father An . chises upon his back, and rescued him from his enemies; but being too solicitous for his son and household gods, he lost his wife Creusa. This part of his history is thus related by Dryden, in his excellent translation of the Æneid: "Haste, my dear father ('tis no time to wait), And load my shoulders with a willing freight, · V. 291-2. Our Knight did bear no less a pack Of his own buttocks on his back.] Thersites, in Homer, seems to have been in some respects of the same make as Sir Hudibras. "His figure such as might his soul proclaim, One eye was blinking, and one leg was lame; And much he hated all, but most the best." Pope's Iliad. V. 299. As white-pot, &c.] This dish is more peculiar to the county of Devon than to any other, and on that account is commonly called Devonshire white-pot. It is made of clotted cream, boiled to the consistence of a custard, by which means it will keep good for several days. V. 305. His doublet was of sturdy buff.] Previous to the dispersion of the Leverian Museum, in 1806, there was to be seen in that curious collection a complete suit which once belonged to Oliver Cromwell, of which the doublet was formed of coarse buff leather, made something in the fashion that our draymen's jackets are of at the present day. V. 310. And had been at the siege of Bullen.] Boulogne was besieged by king Henry VIII. in person, July 14, 1544, and surrendered in the month of September following.. V. 314. Of ammunition bread, &c.] Coarse bread which soldiers are furnished with on marchies, and in camp and garrison, and which, from the black colour, resembling gunpowder, is called am munition bread. V. 315. And fat black puddings, &c.] Puddings, the principal ingredient in which is the blood of hogs, which Butler ludicrously styles proper food for warriors who delight in blood. V. 327-8. And tho' knights-errants, as some think, Of old, did neither eat nor drink.] Butler, probably, al ludes here to a saying of Don Quixote. 66 Though, I think," says the hero of La Mancha, "I have read as many histories of chivalry in my time as any other man, I never could find that the knight-errants ever eat, unless it were by mere accident, when they were invited to great feasts and royal banquets; at other times they indulged themselves with little other food besides their thoughts." V. 337-8. 'Tis false, for Arthur wore in hall Round table, like a farthingale.] By some of our historians mention is made of a famous British king of that name, in the sixth century, who instituted an order of knights, called Knights of the Round Table: for, to avoid any dispute about priority of place when they met together at meat, he caused a table to be made, whereat none could sit higher or lower than another. In the Tatler, it is observed of the renowned King Arthur, “ that he is generally looked upon as the first that ever sat down to a whole roasted ox (which was certainly the best way to preserve the gravy); and it is further added, that he and his knights sat about it at his round table, and usually consumed it to the bones, before they would enter upon any debate of moment. V. 346. -their nuncheons.] An afternoon's repast. V. 353. With basket-hilt that would hold broth.] Pope, in his Miscellaneous Poems, has a thought in all probability borrowed from this: "In days of old our fathers went to war, Expecting sturdy blows and hardy fare; Their beef they often in their murrion stew'd, And in their basket-hilt their bev'rage brew'd." V. 359. The trenchant blade.] A sharp cutting blade. "As by his belt he wore a long pavade, [dagger] And of his sword, full trenchant was the blade." Chaucer's Reeve's Tale. Ib. Toledo trusty.] Toledo, the capital of New Castile, was famous for its manufacture of sword blades, and other armour. |