6. rosary = (i) a rose-bed. See Virgil's "biferique rosaria Pasti" (Georg. iv. 119). (ii) a rose-chaplet, a garland. Jeremy Taylor speaks of "rosaries and coronets." ." (iii) a selection of prayers. Comp. such book-titles as the Crown Garland of Golden Roses, Foliorum Centuria, The Evergreen, &c. (iv) a string of beads; see note on bedesman, 1. 4. Comp. Tennyson's St Agnes' Eve: "My breath to heaven like vapour goes; May my soul follow soon." 7. censer is shortened from the Fr. encensoir, Lat. incensorium. [Give other instances of such abbreviation.] 8. [Explain without a death.] 12. meagre is from the Lat. macer, as eager from acer (vin-ager = vinum-acre). 13. degrees is here used in its radical sense. -gree is from the Lat. gradus. 15. [What does he mean by purgatorial rails?] 16. [What is meant by dumb here?] [orat'ries. What letter does the apostrophe represent here? What other letters does it occasionally represent?] 17. fails. Comp. In Mem. ii.: 18. hoods. mails. "I seem to fail from out my blood." Hood is cognate with head. This mail (quite distinct from mail, Fr. malle = trunk or bag, especially one for letters, which is of Teutonic origin) is ultimately from Lat. macula, in its secondary sense of a hole, an interstice, a mesh; which sense it has for instance in Ovid's Her. v. 19, where Enone speaks of her old pastimes with Paris: "Retia sæpe comes maculis distincta tetendi." Hence macula, becoming macla, becoming maille, the Eng. mail, denotes steel-ring armour; then, generally, steel armour of any kind. 21. flatter'd. Leigh Hunt breaks out into an ecstasy on the use of this verb here. He says, the old man thinks the music is for him as well as for others, &c. &c.; see Imagination and Fancy. But probably Keats uses the word somewhat vaguely-he is not a very accurate writer-for softened, Lat. solvit. Comp. Dryden's Dufresnoy apud Johnson: "A consort of voices supporting themselves by their different parts make a harmony, pleasingly fills their ears, and flatters them." Johnson defines flatter in this usage, as, "to please, to sooth." This sense, he says, is "purely Gallick." Etymologically, flatter is closely akin to flatten, fiat, &c. 177. 31. chide. 32. the level chambers. Comp. the level matting in 1. 196. = revelry revellers. See note to trashtrie, Twa Dogs, 63. 38. tiara is a Persian word, brought into Europe by the Greeks. See Esch. Pers. 661: “βασιλείον τιάρας φάλαρον πιφαύσκων.” Of like antecedents, and perhaps of much the same meaning, except that the Tiapa was used specially of the king's head-dress, were κυρβασία and κίδαρις, οι κίταρις. For κυρβασία see Herod. v. 49, where Aristagoras speaks depreciatingly of the Persian trowsers (avaέúpides) and kupßάoiai. Turban, too, is of Persian origin. Here it would seem that tiara refers to the ladies' head-dresses. 40. triumphs. See L'Alleg. 120. 43. [Explain this use of brooded. Can you illustrate it from the Latin or the Greek ?] 45. [How would you explain as here?] 49. upon, &c. So Tennyson's Mariana: "Upon the middle of the night." Virgil's "nocte super media" (En. ix. 61) 52 supine lying on the back = See 1. 54. So the Greek VTTIOS. Contrast pronus, πрηns. From the complete relaxation of the attitude comes the secondary sense of indolent. "The fourth cause of errour," says Sir Thomas Brown, in his Vulgar Errors, “is a supinity or neglect of enquiry, even in matters wherein we doubt, rather believing than going to see.' 54. for. The construction is according to the analogy of pray for, &c. 60. tip-toe excited. See Hen. V. IV. iii. 42. 178. 70. hoodwink'd = strictly, hooded or covered as to the eyes, i. e. blinded; see All's Well that Ends Well, IV. i. 90; Romeo and Juliet, I. iv. 3: "We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf, &c." So the simple hooded in Meas. for Meas. V. i. 358; comp. hoodman. For hood see l. 18. Wink in this compound seems that which winks, the eye, though, as a simple word, it does not appear to occur in that sense. Perhaps it is shortened from winkers. Blinkers is used for eyes in the dialect of " slang." faery Fairy land; as in the title of Spenser's poem. all amort. See Taming of the Shr. IV. iii. 36, &c. Probably, as Nares suggests, a corruption of alamort. Fanshawe writes alamort in his translation of the Lusiad, v. 85. 71. [What is the force of to here?] 75. on fire. In aflame the on is corrupted. 77 [What is meant by buttress'd here?] Buttress and abutment and butt are all cognate. 82 Comp. the visit of Romeo and his friends to the house of the Capulets. 84. citadel is the Ital citadella, dim, of citta. 90 beldam So 1 Hen. IV. III. i. 32, &c. Perhaps the bel belle is used ironically, perhaps euphemistically. Johnson says that in Old Fr. the word " signified probably an old woman, as belle âge, old age." But belle âge scarcely illustrates belle dame. In English we can speak of a fair age," "a good age," 'a good old age;" but we couldn't say a good or a fair man" for "a good-aged man." Goodman and goodwife mean something very different. 66 66 46 94. hall-pillar. From the words immediately following it would seem that Keats uses hall here in the modern acceptation, for a vestibule; not in the medieval, for the chief room of the house. 179. 100. dwarfish. Dwarf is the later form of the Ancient English dweorh or dweorg = crooked 101. fit is perhaps connected with fight. It is quite a distinct word from fit, the adj., also used substantively, which is from the Fr. fait. 105. gossip god-sib, strictly, a god-kinsman, or a kinsman with respect to God, that is, in a religious sense; a sponsor at one's baptism, a godfather or godmother. On the corruption of meaning see Trench's Eng. Past and Pres. 116. See the extract from the Translation of Naogeorgus, apud Brand: "Then commes in place St Agnes Day, which here in Germanie Is not so much esteemde nor kept with such solemnitie: As spring and head of wondrous gaine, and great commoditee. For in St Agnes' church upon this day while masse they sing, Two lambes as white as snowe the nonnes do yearely use to bring: (For in this thing there hidden is a solemne mysterie) They offer them. The servants of the pope when this is done Whereof, being ssonne and drest, are made the pals of passing gaine." 120. See Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, Book xii, chap. xvi. p. 145, of Ed. 1665: "Leonardus Vairus saith that there was a Prayer extant whereby might be carried in a sieve water or other liquor. I think it was clam clay, which a crow taught a maid that was promised a cake of so great quantity as might be kneaded of so much flour as she could wet with the water that she brought in a sieve, and by that means she clam'd it with clay, and so beguiled her sisters, &c. And this Tale I heard among my grannams maids, whereby I can decipher this witchcraft." 121. You should be Oberon himself. 125. mickle. The Ancient Eng micel or mycel, Old Eng. moche, Mod. Eng. much. 129. urchen, strictly a hedgehog, coming ultimately from the Lat. ericius, is used jocosely for a child. The father See Christabel, conclusion to Part II., where with the consummate philosophical and poetica! power combined which characterizes him, Coleridge discusses such whims of speech. crone means strictly a crooning or groaning sound. As if a beggar should be called a whine. 133. brook is oddly used here. Brook, from the Anct. Eng. brucan (comp. Germ. brauchen, Lat. fruor, fructus), means to use, to bear, to endure. He scarce could brook tears must mean "he could scarcely tolerate tears," certainly not "he could scarcely refrain from tears." 180. 136. [like a full-blown rose. What is the point of the simile? What verb, or verbal does the phrase strictly qualify?] 153. fang'd. Fang is strictly that which seizes or clutches. Probably finger is of the same root. 156. passing bell. It was called also the soul bell. See Ellis' Brand's Pop. Antiq. Ellis quotes from the Advertisements for due Order, &c. 7 Eliz. "Item, that when anye Christian bodie is in passing that the bell be tolled, and that the curate be speciallie called for to comforte the sicke person; and after the time of his passinge to ringe no more but one shorte peale," &c. He mentions "the present national saying:" "When the bell begins to toll, Lord have mercy on the soul." 158. plaining. So plaint. 162. betide is from Anct. The stem is Lat. plango. = Eng. tidan to happen. Tidings what happens, occurrences; then an account of what happens. weal. So wealth, as in the Book of Common Prayer: "Grant her in health and wealth long to live." 169. [pale enchantment. How would you explain the epithet?] 171. Evident reference is made to the fearful storm which swept over the woods of Broceliande, the night of that day when Merlin revealed his charm to his mistress and was tree-prisoned for ever. But Keats seems to be confusing that story with some other. See Tennyson's Vivien. 181. 177. cater is the Old Fr. acater, Mod. Fr. acheter, Low Lat. acceptare. 180. = "Utinam nunquam resurgam." 181. hobble is formed from hop. 188. amain. See Lycid. 111. 193. like a mission'd spirit = like a spirit commissioned to succour the old woman. 196. matting. The poet should mean the rushes that were strewn over the medieval floor; see 2 Hen. IV. V. v 1, Tam. of the Shrew IV. i. 48, &c.; but matting can scarcely denote them. See note on carpet, l. 251. 199. ring-dove. The cushat or wood-pigeon, is so called from a white line that runs round its neck. In this fled. Many neut. verbs in Eng have past part. used in an active sense. respect as in many others, the affinity between English and Greek is noticeable. Fled here = buyovon. It could not be translated into Latin by any one word; imagine such a form as fugita. The only verbs in Latin which have past participles with an active sense are what are termed deponent verbs: thus dead is exactly represented by mortuus, risen by ortus, started (on a journey) by profectus, &c. 202. [What do you think is meant by visions wide?] 204. voluble. See it in its more literal sense in the form volubil accented on the penult., in Par. Lost, iv. 594: "Whether the prime orb Incredible how swift, had thither roll'd Diurnal; or this less volubil earth By shorter flight to the East had left him there," &c. Elsewhere Milton uses voluble. 206. When the tongue-bereft Philomela of the old Greek story was transformed into a nightingale, her tongue was restored her, or she might have died such a death. 182. 208. casement strictly, the case or frame of the window. Case radically means that which contains or encloses, the ultimate stem being the Lat. capsa. 212. [What is the force of of here?] 213. tiger-moth. See Wood's Nat. Hist., Insects. 216. [What does shielded mean here? What other meanings does it sometimes bear?] shielded scutcheon. Strictly this phrase is tautologous; for scutcheon or escutcheon is the Old Fr. escusson, which is from the Lat. scutum. (Comp. espérer with sperare, espace with spatium, &c. Cognate is esquire, Old Fr. escuier from scutarius. The form from which escusson immediately comes is scutionem; scutionem corrupted gives scution, whence scusson, or with the prosthetic vowel escusson, Mod. Fr. ecusson, see Brachet's Dict. Etym. de la L. Fr. Technically scutcheona heraldic shield; so achievement, commonly corrupted into hatchment (here there is a radical reference to the service in return for which the armorial ensigns were granted). Keats somewhat inaccurately uses scutcheon here to denote simply armorial bearings. 218. gules red colour, represented in engraved shields by vertical lines. See Hamlet, II. ii. 477, of "heraldry," with which Pyrrhus was smeared: "Head to foot Now is he total gules, horridly trick'd With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons," &c. In Timon of Athens, IV. iii. 59, the misanthrope bids Alcibiades "With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules." The ultimate stem is that Lat. gula the throat. According to Mr Millais' illustration, this exquisite passage is founded on a falsity. The light of the moon would not be strong enough to reflect the colours of the window. One feels a wretched iconoclast for saying so. 221. amethyst violet. Commonly a violet-coloured precious stone, so called primitively because it was believed to have the virtue of preventing drunkenness. 222. a glory. So nimbus, and aureola. 229. bodice. Formerly bodies. from fitting close to the body, as Fr. corset, from corps. "A woman's bodies, or a pair of bodies, corset, corpset." Sherwood's Dict. "Thy bodies bolstred out with bumbast and with bagges." Gascoigne in R., i. e. "Thy bodice stuffed out with cotton" (Wedgwood). Ben Jonson writes bodies, see an Elegie: "The whalebone man That quilts those bodies I have leave to span," for probably here those bodies that bodice: but it is possible it may those boddices. Laced boddices seem to have been the mode in the first half of the eighteenth century. See Fairholt's Costume in England. 230. attire. See note on Lycid. 146. 231. mermaid sea-maid. Mer is of the same family as the mor in Ar-mor-i-ca and in Mor-ini, the Lat. mare, Eng. mar-iner, mar-ish or mar-sh, &c. 237. Prosaically, the epithet poppied should perhaps be attached to sleep, rather than to warmth, but indeed warmth of sleep is but a phrase for warm sleep, like 'Cato's virtue for 'the virtuous Cato,' 'Hercules' strength' for 'the strong Hercules,' &c. See Georg. i. 78 : "Lethæo perfusa papavera somno." [What does he mean, do you think, by poppied?] tival. = 239. the morrow-day. Morrow strictly morning, the -ow -ing, both being diminu But the strict sense has been forgotten, as in Tomorrow-night. 240. = unread, and so unopened. Mohammedans would no more care to peruse the Christian Scriptures, than Christians those of Mohammed. 242. See Tennyson's Ulysses. 183. 244. stolen. See note on 1. 199. [What does so mean here?] 247. tenderness. Comp. "tender-taken breath" in Keats' Last Sonnet, "a gentle sigh," lenis of sounds in Latin writers, &c. 251. carpet. So in 1. 360. But in the Middle Ages carpets in the modern sense were almost unknown. What were called carpets then, were our table-cloths, as in Tam. of the Shrew, IV. i. 57. The only exception seems to have been that sometimes in palaces carpets were laid down in "my lady's chamber." "Isabella, queen of Edward II., had a black carpet in her chamber at Hertford," &c.; see Our English Home. Floor-carpets (obs. the significance of this compound) were not common till the 17th century. 255. This was a carpet in the medieval sense. 257. Morphean. The accent ought to be on the penult. as in the case of Orpheus in Par. Lost, iii. 17. amulet, of Arabian origin, strictly something carried. origin, and strictly something consecrated. 261. This may serve to illustrate In Mem. xxviii. Talisman is of Greek 263. lavender'd. Lavender, Fr. lavande, derives its name from the usage here referred to. 265. candied is said to be derived from the Pers. gand sugar. So that sugar-candy is simply tautologous, as Brown Bess (see Blackley's Gossip about Words), Mount benjerlaw (where ben = law = Mount), &c. quince is the Fr. coing, Old Fr. cooing, Prov. codoing, Ital. cotogna, Lat. cotonea (see Brachet), which comes from Cydonia, the name of a town in Crete. gourd is from the Fr. congourde, Lat. cucurbita (from curvus). 267. syrops. Fr. sirop, Low Lat. sirupus, Arab. sharab. Shrub and sherbet are cognate are in fact but various forms of syrup. 268. argosy is derived from Argo the famous old Greek ship; or, more probably, from Ragusa the famous late medieval port (at its greatest prosperity 1427-1440). 269. [Where are Fez and Samarcand?] |