P. 410. Nor marks of wealth so from a nation fled.] The folio has, "from our nation fled." The unwarranted change is meaningless.

P. 410. What a strong fort old Pimlico had been!

How it held out! how, last, 'twas taken in.] The "taking in" of Pimlico has been already proposed in The Devil is an Ass, vol. v. p. 82. The "powder corns shot at the Artillery Yard" are celebrated in The Alchemist, vol. iv. p. 13; and the couplet about training "the youth of London in the military truth," is also to be found in vol. v. p. 75.

P. 415. Like Solon's self, explat'st the knotty laws.] Gifford says that the word explation is in Coles, but Nares sought for it there in vain. The adjective explete is in the Manipulus Vocabulorum of Peter Levins, a curious old Rhyming Dictionary of 1570, which has been reprinted for the Camden Society, and most carefully edited by Mr. H. B. Whestley.

P. 419. Dedication of the King's new cellar to Bacchus.] This is the same building of which Jonson speaks so contemptuously as a "cave for wine" in his Expostulation with Inigo Jones, ante,

p. 114.

P. 420. And Charles brings home the lady.] Charles embarked February 14, 1623, Valentine's day.

P. 420. On the Court Pucelle.] This word Pucelle was more commonly used in Jonson's day than ours, when it seems to be confined to Joan of Arc, and to fortresses that have never been captured. The French (see Cotgrave) had also the verb puceler, to deflower, which I don't find in modern dictionaries, but Bacon used it in writing to Queen Elizabeth (Spedding, Letters, ii. 165), "the best of your possessions useth to be pucelled and deflowered.” Richard Brome also made another verb out of it, see ante, p. 324, note.

This set of verses was a source of trouble to Jonson. Drummond reports, in the Conversations, "That piece of the Pucelle of the Court was stolen out of his pocket by a gentleman who drank him drousie, and given Mrs. Boulstraid; which brought him great displeasure. Donne, in his Elegy on the death of this lady, speaks of her as young, beautiful, and witty, and proof against the sins of youth."

P. 421. What though with tribade lust she force a muse.] From the Greek Tpißás, “an immodest woman of a most abandoned kind."

*

*

P. 422. To the honoured countess of ] The phrase "widowed wife" leaves little doubt that this is addressed to the Countess of Rutland, the only child of Sir Philip Sidney. See vol. ix. p. 385.

P. 424. On lord Bacon's birth-day.] Although the poet expressly

says,

"This is the sixtieth year

Since Bacon, and thy lord, was born and here,"

he means us to understand that it was written on the Chancellor's fifty-ninth birthday; i. e. on what we should now call the 22nd January, 1620. For some reason this particular anniversary of the birthday was kept with special care, as Camden thought it worthy of note in his Annalium Apparatus, 1620, January 12:— Franciscus Baconus, Cancellarius Angliæ, natalem diem LIX. ætatis celebrat."

P. 425. Out of their choicest and their whitest wool.] See the same expressions in Love's Welcome at Bolsover, ante, p. 139.

P. 427. To William Earl of Newcastle.] This affords an opening for another attack upon Horace Walpole, about the importance, historical, literary and artistic, of whose collections people have altered their opinions a good deal since 1816.

"Bold Sir Bevis and his horse Arundel" were celebrated in Every Man in his Humour, vol. i. p. 79.

P. 429. To master Arthur Squib.] I can find nothing regarding Arthur Squib, except that on September 21, 1616, he received a grant of a Tellership in the Exchequer for life; and that on December 27, 1623, the surrender of this Tellership was brought into the Enrolment Office.

P. 430. To master John Burges.] The Mr. Alexander Glover, mentioned in the note, was most probably the same who on April 18, 1616, was appointed "keeper of the game," in Lambeth, and throughout the county of Surrey, for life. He was still in the

office in 1620.

P. 432. My woeful cry

To Sir Robert Pie.] Sir Robert Pye was not appointed to the Auditorship of the Exchequer so early as Gifford supposes. Chamberlain writes to Carleton, January 22, 1620, "Lady Bingley gone to Newmarket to solicit against her husband's loss of his place, but she will fail, the place being given to Sir Robert Pye, a creature of Buckingham's." Though a creature of the favourite's, he appears to have been an honest and an out-spoken one, warning him against his personal extravagance, as well as the impolicy

of his public conduct. In 1627 he lost his seat for Westminster, "the feeble cry of his for a Pye! a Pye! being overwhelmed with derisive shouts for a Pudding! a Pudding!" Forster's Life of Eliot, vol. ii. p. 100. According to Clarendon he was holding Leicester for the king in 1645.

P. 433. As if that part lay for a folio there is no dash

P. 357.

most fit.] Here in the but simply a blank space. See ante,

P. 440. On the Prince's birth, 1630.] According to the note on this epigram, the moon on this occasion had the singular power of being able to eclipse itself. The king was on his way to St. Paul's to return thanks for the birth of his son, when the star made its appearance.

P. 443. With touch of learned thumbs.] The folio has "dainty thumbs," which is surely preferable; and in the last line of the page, instead of "put the ceston on," the folio reads, "got the ceston on," which I also like better.

I

END OF VOLUME VIII.

CHISWICK PRESS-PRINTED BY WHITTINGHAM AND WILKINS,

TOOKS COUrt, chancery Lane.