The meat-boat of bear's college, Paris-garden, By this time had they reached the Stygian pool White, black, blue, green, and in more forms outThan all those atomi ridiculous, [started, Whereof old Democrite, and Hill Nicholas,* And that ours did. For yet, no nare † was tainted, to the great lumbering lighter which obstructed the course of the wherry. Nicholas Hill, a fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, who, according to Antony Wood, adopted the notions of Democritus about atoms, end was a great patron of the Corpuscular philosophy. † Nose; from nares. Cats there lay, divers had been flayed and roasted, And now, above the pool, a face right fat, [was? * Cats were called tiberts, or tyberts, of which there is an early example in the story of Reynard the Fox. Shakspeare plays upon the name of Tybalt, from its affinity to the name given to the cats, and makes Mercutio call him rat-catcher' and 'king of cats. The modern name tabby is, apparently, a descendant of tibert. † Banks and his famous horse Marocco, whom he taught to dance and perform a variety of feats, are frequently alluded to by the writers of the time, and had the honour of being specially mentioned by Sir Walter Raleigh in his History of the World. Shakspeare is supposed to refer to Marocco, as the dancing horse' in Love's Labour Lost; but dancing was one of the least of his acquirements. Banks taught him a variety of tricks; and one of his most notable feats was an ascent to the top of St. Paul's. Dekker speaks of this achievement in his Gulis Horn-book: Hence you may descend, to talk about the horse that went up; and strive, if you can, to know his keeper; take the day of the month, and the number of the steps; and suffer yourself to believe verily that it was not a horse, but something else in the likeness of one.' It appears from a passage in the Owle's Almanack (1618) quoted by Nares, that this feat was performed in 1601: Since the dancing-horse stood on the top of Powles, whilst a number of asses stood braying below, 17 years.' In consequence of the marvellous stories related about this remarkable horse, poor Banks was considered by many people to be in league with the devil. Carrying his exhibition to Paris, he was there imprisoned, and the horse put under sequestration, upon a suspicion of magic, but liberated when it was shown that the whole was the result of mere training, Banks offering to teach any horse to perform similar feats within a twelvemonth. At Rome, however, his explanations were of no avail; and when he appeared in the Holy City, he was seized, and he and his horse wero burned for witchcraft. Our brave heroes with a milder glare, Behold where Cerberus, reared on the wall Of Holborn-height (three sergeants' heads) looks o'er And Madame Cæsar, great Proserpina, Is now from home; you lose your labours quite, They cried out, Puss!' He told them he was Banks, They laughed at his laugh-worthy fate; and passed At last, Calling for Rhadamanthus, that dwelt by, A soap-boiler; and acus him nigh, Who kept an ale-house; with my little Minos, My muse had ploughed with his that sung A-jax.t * An arrow maker-the person who pat on the feather. From flèche, an arrow. † Sir John Harrington, who wrote a treatise called Misacmos; of, the Metamorphosis of Ajax. The Forest.* 1. WHY I WRITE NOT OF LOVE. SOME act of Love's bound to rehearse, II. TO PENSHURST.† Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show * The text is printed from the folio of 1616. The seat of the Sidneys; afterwards rendered famous by Waller as the residence of Saccharissa. Whalley says that touch was the common kind of black marble used in funeral monuments. This is an error; touch was a term applied to costly marble, which is clearly the sense in which it is here employed. Its original and proper application was to the basanites of the Greeks, a hard black marble, which, being used as a test of gold, was hence called touch-stone. Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made, At his great birth, where all the muses met.* Bright eels that emulate them, leap on land, Then hath thy orchard fruit, thy garden flowers, Fig, grape, and quince, each in his time doth come; Sir Philip Sidney. There is an old tradition that a Lady Leicester (the wife undoubtedly of Sir Robert Sidney) was taken in travail under an oak in Penshurst Park, which was afterwards called my lady's oak.'-G. In this copse, Barbara Gamage, the first wife of Sir Robert Sidney, used to take great delight in feeding the deer from her own hands. Hence the copse was called Lady Gamage's bower. |