Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

P. 60. The name of Profper, it did bafe my trefpafs.] I fhould chufe to read Profpero, as he is every where called except by Caliban. Anon:

Act. 4. fc. 2.

And thy broom groves,

Whofe Shadow the difmiffed Batchelor loves Being lafs-lorn.] Undone by a lafs. In that fenfe Chaucer ufes the word lorn. "And I am lorn, withoutin remedy.

Squier's Tale, 649.

"Lorde Phebus caft thy merciable cye, "One wretched Aurelius, which am but lorne. Frankelyn's Tale, 2582.

So Spenfer ufes the word. See Gloffary. See likewife Hearne's Gloffary to Peter Langtoft's Chronicle.

Milton gives the epithet. of love-lorn to the nightingale.

Sweet echo, fweeteft-nymph that liveft unseen,
Within thy airy fbell.

By flow Meander's margent green,

And in the violet embroider'd vale,

Where the love-lorn nightingale,

Nightly to thee her fad fong mourneth well, &c. Milton's Poems upon feveral occafions, P. 218. 4th Edit.

Sc. 3. p. 63.

Iris. Thy turfy mountains.] Turfy feems to be an odd epithet to a mountain: why might not the poet give it tufty mountains, to which

flat

flat meads is rightly oppos'd in the next line?

Anon.

Id. ib. Thy banks with pioned, and tulip'd brims] Twilled brims. Edit. fol. 1632.

Sc. 5.

Cal. Pray tread foftly, that the blind mole may not bear a foot fall.] The mole though it is defective in fight, has that defect probably made up, by a quickness of hearing.

Dr. Derham (Phyfico-Theology, Book 4. ch. 3.) gives the following curious account of the Mole's ear." Moles have no protuberant ear, "but only a round hole between the neck and "shoulder; which fituation of it, together "with the thick fhort fur that covers it, is a "fufficient defenfive against any external an

[ocr errors]

noyances. The meatus auditorius is long, round, and cartilaginous, reaching to the "under part of the fkull. Round the infide

runs a little ridge, refembling two threads "of a fkrew: at the bottom thereof is a pretty inlet, leading to the drum, made on the one "fide with the aforefaid cochleous ridge, and

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

on the other with a small cartilage. I ob"ferved there was cerumen in the meatus.

66

[ocr errors]

"As to the inner ear, it is fomewhat fingu"lar, and different from that of other quadrupeds. There are three fmall bones "only (all hollow) by which the drum (to "ufe the old appellation) or the membrana tympani (as others call it) acts upon the auditory nerve. The firft is the malleus which

66

66

[blocks in formation]

hath two proceffes nearly of equal length; "the longer of which is braced to the mem

brana tympani, the shorter to the fide of the "drum, or os petrofum; the back part of it re"fembles the head and ftalk of a fmall mufh"room, fuch as are pickled. On the back of "the malleus lies the next fmall bone, which "may be call'd incus, long and without any

[ocr errors]

procefs, having fomewhat the form of the "fhort fcoop, wherewith water-men throw water out of their wherries. To the end of this, the third and last small bone is tacked by a very tender brace. This little bone bears "the office of the tapes, but is only forked "without any bafe: one of these forks is at "one feneftra, or foramen, the other at an"other; in which feneftra I apprehend the "forks are tack'd to the auditory nerve. These feneftræ (equivalent to the feneftra ovalis, and rotunda in others) are the inlets into the cochlea, and canales femicirculares, in which the auditory nerve lieth. The femicircular canals lie at a diftance from the "drum, and are not lodged (as in other ani"mals) in a strong, thick body of bone, but are thruft out within the fkull, making an "antrum, with an handfome arch leading into "it, into which part of the brain enters.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"One leg of the malleus being faftened to the membrana tympani, and the incus to the "back of the malleus, and the top of that to the: top of the tapes, and the forks and the bran

D

"ches

I

ches of the ftapes to the auditory nerve; "obferv'd that whenever I moved the mem"brane, all the little bones were at the fame "time moved; and confequently the auditory nerve thereby affected alfo.

[ocr errors]

"I hope the reader (says Dr. Derham) will "excufe me in being fo particular in this organ "only of the mole, a defpifed creature, but

as notable an example of God's work, as it's "life is different from all other quadrupeds, for "which reason it partly is, that I have enlarg"ed on this part differing from that of others; "and which no body that I know of, hath "taken much notice of."

Id. ib. A noife of hunters beard: Enter diverse fpirits in fhape of dogs and bounds bunting them about, Profpero and Ariel setting them on.] ShakeSpeare might have in view" Arthur's Chace, "which many believe to be in France, and "think that it is a kennel of black dogs, follow'd by unknown huntfmen, with an exceeding great found of horns, as if it was a very "hunting of fome wild beast.”

[ocr errors]

See Treatife of Spectres, tranflated from the French of Peter de Loier, and publish'd in 4to, 1605. p. 11.

Act v. fc. ii. p. 75.

Prof. Ye elves of bills, &c.] Spenfer derives elves from the fabulous ftory of the man that Prometheus made, and at the fame time gives an account whence the word fairy is derived.

"The

"The man fo made, he called elfe, to weet "Quick, the firft author of the elfin kind: "Who wandring thro' the world with weary feet, "Did in the gardens of Adonis find "A goodly creature, whom he deem'd in mind "To be no earthly wight, but either spright, "Or angel, the author of all womankind, "Therefore a fay, he her according hight, "Of whom all fairys fpring, and fetch their lineage right."

66

Fairy Queen. Book 2. Canto 10. 71.

Dr. Heylin fays, [Cofmography,] "That fome "are of opinion, that the fiction of elfs and "goblins, was derived from Guelphs and Gib "belines." See Hobgoblins Minfhieu's Guide into Tongues. Col. 364.

Id. ib.
Profp.

You demy puppets, that

By moonshine do the green fair ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites.] Ringlets of grafs are very common in meadows, which are higher, fowrer, and of a deeper green, than the grass that grows round them; and by the common people, are usually call'd fairy circles. "To dance on ringlets in the whistling wind." Midfummer Night's Dream. A&t ii. fc. ii. p. 110. Chaucer has fomething like it, [Wife of Bath's Tale, 857, &c.]

"In the old dayis of king Arthure (Of which Bretons spekin grete honour) "All was this land fulfillid of fairy, The elquene with her jolly company

D 2

Daunfid

« PredošláPokračovať »