Specimens of English literature from the 'Ploughmans crede' to the ...

,-7 NOTES.—— ——26. Sits, it befits, becomes. It is not an error for fits, as might besupposed. The word is sufficiently common in Early English. In953, we have—Morte Arthure, ed. Perry, 1.•He salujede that sorowfulle with sittande wordez'i. e. he saluted that sorrowful one with fitting words, where the alliterationmakes us quite sure about the first letter. It occurs again in theFaerie Queene, i. i . 30.39. May, maiden; no connection with the month. See the Glosse.53. Melpomene. The line quoted by Kirke is not in the Eclogues,Gcorgics, or vEneid of Virgil. It is, in fact, from Ausonius, Idyllxx. 20.^5. Possibly, by Hecuba, Kirke means Polydorus; for his ghost appearswith the very first line of the Hecuba of Euripides, saying"H/fOJ viKpojv K€v9fj,u!va Kal CKOTOv TTvXas\iirujv, iv"'Al5t]s x^^P's qiKiarai 6eu)V, k.t.X.The ghost of Tantalus appears in the first scene of Seneca's tragedyof Thyestes.98. Heame, home. It is certain that the Shepheardes Calender containsmany traces of Northern dialect, and the fact is important, asclearly indicating that he resided in Lancashire not only after going toCambridge, as is known, but also for a considerable time before it.Compare his autobiographical statements in the eclogue for December.I should also conclude that Dido was a north-country girl, a Lancashire•witch ' probably. But her lover was ' Lobbin,' not ' Colin.'105. An allusion to the famous Dance of Death, founded on someverses originally written by one Macaber in German. See Wart on,ii. 271, ed. 1840; iii. 55, ed. 1871.I41. Pbilomele. Kirke, in mentioning Gascoigne, refers to an elegycomposed by him, and printed in 1576, with the title 'The Complayntof Phylomene.' It is worthy of remark that 11. 25 and 26 of this elegywell illustrate 1. 26 above. The Nightingale is there thus spoken of•Now in good sooth, quoth she, sometimes I wepeTo see Tom Tyttimouse so much set by [esteemed].'148. Fatall sisters ; see note above, p. 461 ; and cf. 1. 163 below.186, E. K. refers us to Plato. There is a passage somewhat to thiseffect in Plato's Phaedo, § v. where Socrates says that all who take aworthy view of the matter must wish for death, yet they may not layviolent hands upon themselves. Lucan (iv. 519) has the fine linesExpert, experience ;•Uicturosque dei celant, ut uiuere durent,Felix esse mori.'a word coined by Spenser, and badly coined.187. Astert, evidently intended to mean 'befall unawares,' as E. K.