Early Modern Mythological Texts: Troia Britanica IV (Notes)

Thomas Heywood. Troia Britanica (1609)

Notes to CANTO IV

Ed. Nathalie VIENNE-GUERRIN



Argumentum

Esculapius: the healer son of Apollo. The story of Jupiter and Esculapius is told in Ovid, Fasti, VI, 733-62. See also the last book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (XV, 622-745). He is punished for pushing his art too far (Fasti, VI, 760). On Esculapius in Ovid, see Carol E. Newlands, Playing with Time, Ovid and the Fasti (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), pp. 192-97. Back to text

drives: forces, compels. Jove obliges Apollo to keep Admetus’ sheep.

Admetus: Apollo was punished by Jupiter and sentenced to serve Admetus, a mere mortal. Back to text

Parthemy: Heywood reproduces Caxton’s “Parthemye” (Recuyell, I, 4 sqq.), which in turn follows Le Fèvre’s “Parthemye”. See note on “Parthemia”, canto I, stanza 92. Back to text

Acrisius: Danae’s father.

daughter: Danae. See Ovid, Metamorphoses, IV, 607-12. Back to text

scales: mounts, climbs, gets over. In Shakespeare’s The Rape of Lucrece, the word “scale” is used in the description of the rape and conveys the military metaphor of a fortress that is “scaled”:

His drumming heart cheers up his burning eye,

His eye commends the leading to his hand.

His hand, as proud of such a dignity,

Smoking with pride marched on to make his stand

On her bare breast, the heart of all her land,

Whose ranks of blue veins, as his hand did scale,

Left their round turrets destitute and pale. (435-41)

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Jove came down to Danae in the form of a golden rain in which Perseus was conceived. Back to text

 

Argumentum 2

Gods made first of men: gods are originally outstanding men that were deified; Heywood follows Le Fèvre’s and Caxton’s evhemerism. Back to text

Perseus: See Ovid, Metamorphoses, IV.

Delta: Fourth letter of the alphabet, corresponding to the fourth canto. See note to canto I, arg. 2, “alpha. Back to text

 

2

simples: plants or herbs used for medical purposes. Back to text

 

3

Butler: probably Charles Butler, naturalist, 1560-1647. Butler was notably the author of The Feminine Monarchie, or, A Treatise Concerning Bees, Oxford, 1609 (STC 4192). Back to text

Paddy: F, Pady. Sir William Paddy (1554-1634), “one of the most prominent physicians of his time” (ODNB), was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, which he presided from 1609 to 1611, then again in 1618. In 1603, at the advent of James I, he praised the new king as a new Solomon, which earned him a knighthood and an appointment as one of the king’s personal physicians (Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London—commonly Munk’s Roll—, volume I (1518-1700), p. 100). Back to text

Turner: probably William Turner (c.1509-1568), English naturalist and religious controversialist, considered as the “father of English botany and ornithology” (ODNB). He was Dean of Wells Cathedral (1551-1553 and 1560-1564), where he created a herbal garden. His published works include a treatise on ornithology, Avium praecipuarum, quarum apud Plinium et Aristotelem mentio est, brevis et succincta historia, (Cologne: Johannes Gymnicus, 1544: STC 24350.5) and several books on botany, Libellus de re herbaria novus, (London: John Bydell, 1538: STC 24358), The names of herbes… (London: S. Mierdman for John Day and William Seres, 1548: STC 24359); his major achievement, A new herbal, wherein are contained the names of herbes, was published in three parts in 1551, 1562 and 1568 successively. A modern edition was provided by George Chapman, Anne Wesencraft, Frank Mc Combie and Marylin Tweddle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). Heywood might also be simultaneously complimenting William Turner’s son, Peter Turner (?-1614), who took his degree of doctor at Heidelberg in 1571, before he was incorporated at Cambridge, then at Oxford, where he remained until the time of his death (Munk’s Roll, I, p. 84). Back to text

Poe: Leonard Poe (?-1631). According to Munk’s Roll (I, p. 149), Leonard Poe was frowned upon by his medical colleagues because he practised empirically, without a licence. In 1596, at the insisting entreaty of the earl of Essex, he was conceded a licence, but with restrictive conditions. A fuller licence was first refused by the College authorities, then finally granted thanks to the support of the earls of Suffolk, Northampton and Salisbury. By placing him among the most reputed British physicians, Thomas Heywood renders him a significant tribute and sides with the court circle that supported him: although we do not know in what month of 1609 Troia Britanica appeared, its publication may have coincided with or immediately followed Leonard Poe’s appointment as physician of the royal household on 26 June, 1609, and his subsequent admission as a fellow on 7 July, 1609, which the College authorities finally granted, apparently yielding to aristocratic pressure. Back to text

Atkinson: Munk’s Roll (I, p. 87) lists a Christopher Atkinson who was admitted to the Royal College of Physicians as a licentiate in 1585. He might be the Doctor Atkinson who was reported to have contributed to “a broth for the cough of the lungs … for the Lord Treasurer” in W. M., The Queen’s Closet Opened, 1655, p. 59-60 (Wing M96, Thomason E.1519[1]). Back to text

Lister: F, Lyster. The Lister family produced four doctors, Edward, Joseph, Martin, and Matthew. The better known are Edward and Matthew. Edward Lister (?-1620) became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians on 30 September, 1594, and was one of the physicians in ordinary to Queen Elizabeth and to James I (Munk’s Roll, I, p. 104). Matthew Lister (?-1656) became a fellow of the College on 5 June, 1607; he ably managed the estate of Mary, Countess of Pembroke, and served as physician to James’s queen, Ann of Denmark (Munk’s Roll, I, p. 123). As both Edward and Mathew were prominent in 1609, Heywood’s tribute may have been collective. Back to text

Lodge: Thomas Lodge (1558-1625). Besides being a prominent writer and translator, Thomas Lodge was also a doctor. He took his degree in arts at Trinity College in 1577 and his medical degree at Avignon, before being incorporated at Oxford in 1602; he was admitted a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians on 9 March, 1609/10, but never became a fellow, perhaps on account of suspected Catholic sympathies (Munk’s Roll, I, p. 155). Back to text

Galen: Heywood considers contemporary physicians as new Galens: Aelius Galenus, known as Galen of Pergamon, was a famous Roman physician (129-c.210) whose treatises were originally written in Greek. Translated into Latin, and widely circulated, his works were still immensely influential in Heywood’s time. Back to text

moe: archaic form of “more”.

cordials: medicines.

spirits: vital energy (OED 16b). Back to text

 

4

hold: consider. Back to text

Arabus: Heywood had read Langley’s abridged translation of Polydore Vergil’s De rerum inventoribus, in which he found a chapter treating of the invention of physic: “it is supposed that Mercury found it among the Egyptians, some say it was Apis their god, or Arabus, son to Apollo”, An Abridgement of the Notable Work of Polydore Vergil (London: Richard Grafton, 1546), fol. 30r. Boccaccio devoted a brief chapter to Arabus, Genealogia, V, xxiii; Boccaccio’s and Polydore’s Vergil common source is Pliny’s Natural History, XXIX, i. Back to text

Apis: See preceding note.

Serapis: not mentioned in either Polydore Vergil’s Latin original or Langley’s translation. Heywood gives the additional information that Serapis is another name for Apis. Thomas Elyot gives the two names as synonymous in his Dictionary (1538); in the Genealogia, II, iv, “De Api”, Boccaccio quotes Augustine, The City of God, XVIII, 5, to explain why Apis, after his death, became Serapis. Back to text

chief: mainly, first and foremost. Back to text

what time: at the time when.

made abode: F, made aboad. Resided, lived. Back to text

 

5

Hippocrates: Heywood literally reproduces a marginal note in Langley’s translation of Polydore Vergil, “Hippocrates reduced it to an art” (An Abridgement, fol. 30v). Back to text

Galen … Arruntius: This list of physicians is borrowed from Langley’s Abridgement of Polydore Vergil’s De inventoribus rerum, I, xvi, fol. 31v. Its ultimate source is Pliny’s Natural History, XXIX, v, where they are said to have earned fees amounting to 250 000 sesterces a year. Polydore added Galen and Avicenna. Heywood adds further details that are neither in Pliny, nor in Polydore Vergil’s Latin version, I, xx, “Quis primus medicinam invenerit”, nor in Langley’s English translation. Back to text

Galen: See note to stanza 3, above.

Avicenna: Persian physician whose Canon of Medicine, completed in 1025, was translated from Arabic into Latin under the title of Canon Medicinae by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century. A complete Latin version was printed by Adolf Rusch in Strasburg (c. 1473), followed by several further editions in the course of the 16th century. Back to text

Cassius: This Cassius, whom Pliny refers to along with Calpitanus, Rubrius and Antonius Musa (Natural History, XXIX, v), cannot be identified with Cassius Felix of Cirta, author of De medicina (AD 447), who lived in the 5th century, well after Pliny’s time (AD 23-AD 79). He might be Cassius Medicus (Iatrosophista), author of Quaestiones medicae, whose precise dates are unknown, but who seems to have lived some time towards the end of the 1st century BC or the beginning of the 1st century AD. Aulus Cornelius Celsus (29 BC-37AD) refers to him as “ingeniosissimus saeculi nostri medicus” (“the cleverest physician in our time”) in his De re medica (Proemium, 69). Back to text

Calpitanus, Rubrius: Not much seems to be known about these Roman physicians outside Pliny’s reference to their fees. Back to text

Antonius Musa: Physician of the Roman Emperor Augustus, who became famous for having cured him. Pliny mentions the story twice in his Natural History, in XXIX, v, and, with more details, in XIX, xxxviii. He is also referred to by Suetonius in his “Life of Augustus”, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, 59 and 81. Back to text

Arruntius: F, Aruntius. Spelt Aruncius in Langley’s Abridgement, but Aruntius or Arruntius was the more common form. Back to text

Archagatus: Also, Archagathus. Mentioned by Pliny (Natural History, XXIX, vi) as the first Greek physician to have settled in Rome; at first, he received a warm welcome, but his medical practice soon earned him the nickname “carnifex” (torturer, executioner) and made the whole profession disreputable. Pedro Mexia embroiders the story slightly in his Dialogue concerning Physic and Physicians (1547), translated into English by T. N. (Thomas Newton?) in 1580 (STC 17848): “The space of 600 years, the Romans defended themselves from physicians, and would in no wise suffer them in Rome; since which time they never lived so sound. True it is, that in the time when Enullius [Emilius] and Marcus Libio [Libius] were consuls, which was after the foundation of Rome 535 years, I know not by whom persuaded, they admitted a Greek physician Pelopones [from Peloponnese] called Archagatus, unto whom they gave a house and public stipend; and as a new thing, at the beginning, he pleased some men. But after they had experience of his letting blood and his cauteries, with strange inventions of curing, he and others that were newly come were banished by the authority and counsel of the great Cato Censorinus, who lived 85 years, because you may consider what want he had of Archagatus or of any other” (sigs. B3v-B4r). Although Archagatus, understandably, does not appear among Polydore Vergil’s and Langley’s great physicians, it does not seem to have troubled Heywood to add him to the list, as if he chose to ignore his bad reputation to remember only that he was the first physician to profess in Rome. Back to text

 

6

The tale of Esculapius: Heywood follows Caxton’s narrative, Recuyell, I, 12. Back to text

simples: plants or herbs used for medical purposes.

champion: countryside, related to French “champagne”, “campagne”. Back to text

swain: young man attending on a knight (OED).

basilisk: a fabulous reptile also called a cockatrice. Back to text

 

7

out-gaze he gan: he (the shepherd) proceeded to, began to out-gaze. Back to text

simple: medicine.

wreath: chaplet of flowers. Back to text

ware: wore.

 

8

chaplet: a wreath or garland for the head. Back to text

begirt: encircled, surrounded.

ardency: intense eagerness. Back to text

her eyes: Heywood here considers the basilisk as feminine while he used “his eye” in stanza 7. Either of the two possessive adjectives might be the result of a printer’s mistake. Back to text

 

9

invirtued: endowed with medicinal virtue, powerful, active. Back to text

scales: climbs. Back to text

 

10

sun’s herb: probably the heliotrope, sometimes also called sun’s herb, or sunflower; some, like Shakespeare, identified it with the marigold (The Rape of Lucrece, 397; Sonnets, 25; The Winter’s Tale, IV.iv.105; Cymbeline, II.iii.23), but others (e. g. William Turner, The Names of Herbs, 1548 or Thomas Cooper, Thesaurus, 1565) questioned that assimilation. The idea that the “sun’s herb” protects from the basilisk’s gaze is possibly Heywood’s invention, unless it somehow derived from Pliny’s confident assertion that mixed in wine and hydromel, the heliotrope is an excellent antidote to the venom of snakes and scorpions (Natural History, XXII, xxix). Back to text

charmed: with the properties of a charm, magical. 

perceant: F, persaunt. Back to text

 

11

virtued: efficient, endued with virtue, efficacy.

chaplet: here, a crown of herbs and flowers. Back to text

 

12

12: F, 11. Back to text

stanzas 12-14: To illustrate the power of plants to bring the dead back to life, Caxton provided the story of Hippolytus: “O, merveillous [marvelous] vertu [efficacy] of herb! Men rede [relate] that by this same herb, Ipolitus [Hippolytus], which came unto his death by the mean of his styfemoder [stepmother] that accused him falsely, afterward was raised to life again and after that he had be long dead and drawn by bushes, egghes [edged, pointed] montaignes [mountains] and thorns, when his body was found, that they that found him laid him in a meadow upon a plant of herbs like unto the herb whereof is spoken tofore, by vertu of the which his wounds were healed and his life was given and yelde [yielded] unto him again” (Recuyell, I, 12). To the mythological story, Heywood substitutes “scientific” exempla drawn from Polydore Vergil’s chapter on herbs, as translated in Langley’s Abridgement, I, xvii, “The inventors of herbs medicinable, what remedies men learned of beasts”. Back to text

bruised: that have been ground, crushed.

balin: Heywood follows Langley’s version of Polydore Vergil: “Xanthus, an historiographer, as Pliny recordeth, telleth how a dragon revived his young fawn, that was slain, by the vertue of an herb called balin” (fols. 31v-32r). Back to text

dittany: F, dettany. “A labiate plant, Origanum Dictamnus, called also Dictamnus Creticus or dittany of Crete; formerly famous for its alleged medicinal virtues.” (OED). It was supposed to be found on Mount Dicte in Crete, hence its name. Langley writes that “the hart stricken with an arrow driveth it out with detany” (fol. 32v). Venus uses the salve to cure Aeneas’ wound in the Aeneid, XII, 411-15: “At this Venus, shaken by her son’s cruel pain, with a mother’s care plucks from Cretan Ida dittany clothed with downy leaves and purple flower; thar herb is not unknown to wild goats, when winged arrows have lodged in their flank”, transl. H. Rushton Fairclough (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), vol. 2, pp. 329-31. Back to text

dictamnum: F, dictamum, the Latin name of Heywood’s “dittany”: see preceding note. Back to text

 

13

cancer: a plant used medicinally for the treatment of ulcers and cancers (OED). According to Langley’s version of Polydore Vergil, “if he [the stag] be stinged with a spider, he healeth himself with eating pills [husks, rinds or shells] or a certain herb named cancer” (fol. 32v). Back to text

boar: “the boar in his sickness cureth himself with the ivy”, Langley’s abridgement of Polydore Vergil, fol. 32v. Back to text

savory: any plant of the genus Satureja (family Lamiaceae [Labiatae]), comprising aromatic herbs and low shrubs from the Mediterranean and south-west Asia (OED). See John Gerard, Herball, London, 1597 (STC 11750), II, 165, p. 460, and William Copland, A boke of the propreties of herbes called an herball, London, 1552 (STC 491: 06), sig. Iiir-v. In Langley’s version of Polydore Vergil, “The snail or tortoise, ready to fight with the serpent, armeth himself with the savory or marjoram” (fol. 32v). Heywood’s marginal note “savory or marjoram” probably models itself on Langley’s formulation. Back to text

marjoram: F, majoram. See Gerard’s Herball, II, 207, pp. 538-39 (Marjerome, or Majorane). Savory and marjoram are notably mentioned in The Winter’s Tale, IV.iv.104. Back to text

centaury: F, centery. A plant, the medicinal properties of which were said to have been discovered by Chiron the centaur (OED). In Langley’s version of Polydore Vergil, “Chiron, son to Saturnus and Philara, was the finder [of medicinal plants], and devised also salves for wounds, sores and biles, albeit some think it was Apollo, some refer it to his son Esculapius, whom Chiron brought up, some to the Samothracians. But I suppose they attributed the invention of it to Chiron because he found the herb centaury, wherewith he healed the wound that he had by Hercules’ shafts falling on his foot as he was handling of his weapons”, fol. 32r-v. Polydore Vergil borrows the story from Pliny’s Natural History, where it is merely alluded to in VII, lvi, but more fully developed in XXV, xxx. See Gerard, Herball, II, 153, p. 436: “Pliny reciting the words of Theophrastus doth in his book 25, chapter 4, write that they were found out by Chiron Centaurus and surnamed Centauria. Also affirming the same thing in his chapter 6, where he more largely expounding both the centauries, repeateth [them] to be found out by Chiron; and thereupon he addeth that either of them is named Chironium. Of some it is reported that the said Chiron was cured therewith of a wound in his foot, that was made with an arrow that fell upon it, when he was entertaining of Hercules into his house; wherupon it was called Chironium; or of the curing of the wounds of his soldiers, for the which purpose it is most excellent.” Back to text

yarrow: the common name of the herb Achillea Millefolium, also called milfoil (OED). The discovery of its medical properties is attributed to Achilles by Polydore Vergil, who follows Pliny. See Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 32v, and Pliny, Natural History, XXV, xix. See Gerard, Herball, II, 422 and 423. Gerard concludes that “This plant Achillea is thought to be the very same wherewith Achilles cured the wounds of his soldiers” (p. 916). Back to text

moly: a fabulous herb with magic powers, said by Homer to have been given by Hermes to Odysseus as a charm against the enchantments of Circe, and described as having a white flower and a black root (OED). See Homer, Odyssey X, 303-06. According to Polydore Vergil, “Mercury found the use of moly, Achilles yarrow, Esculapius panace”, Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 32v. See Pliny, Natural History, XXV, viii and Gerard, Herball, II, 90, “Moly or the sorcerer’s garlic”. Gerard notably refers to “Homer’s Moly” (p. 144) and notes about these plants that: “If any be desirous to hear of their charming qualities, wherewith the Circes and magicians have used to bring to pass their diabolical incantations, let them read Homer touching that matter in the twentieth chapter of his Odysses, and there shall they find matter scarce worth the reading.” (p. 145). But it is in Odyssey, X, not XX, that moly is mentioned. Back to text

 

14

organy: F, orgamy. Another name for origan. Thomas Elyot’s dictionary (1538) defines “origanum” as “an herb called organy”; Richard Huloet’s Abecedarium Anglico-Latinum (1552) gives “organy herb” as the English equivalent of “origanum”. Heywood follows Langley’s Abridgement of Polydore Vergil, fol. 33r. See also Gerard, Herball, II, 208 and 209, pp. 240-44. Back to text

adders’: F, adders. This could read either “adder’s” or “adders’”.

eschew: avoid. Back to text

rue: F, Rew. A sort of dwarf shrub. According to Langley’s Abridgement of Polydore Vergil, “the weasel in chasing the serpent preserveth herself with rue, and the stork with organye”, fol. 33r. See Pliny, Natural History, XX, li. Back to text

 

15

swain: a young man attending on a knight, a man of low degree, a servant. Back to text

Paphos: a city in Cyprus. Although it is better known as having been consecrated to Venus, Caxton makes it Apollo’s city in Recuyell, I, 12. See also below, note to Endnotes. Back to text

 

16

unknown to me: Caxton explains in Recuyell, I, 12 that Jupiter waged war against Apollo, king of Paphos, who had helped the “Titanois” after their defeat. Back to text

his son: Esculapius. Back to text

 

17

Saturn’s seed: Saturn’s son, Jove. Back to text

aspire: rise up.

desirest: F, desires. Back to text

 

18

scapes: escapes. Back to text

 

19

erst: earlier.

grief: grievous, grave, troublesome, oppressive (OED), here, “excessive”. Back to text

ostent: ostentation.

 

20

alone: only. Back to text

atone: unite.

parley: conversation. Back to text

pursuivants: F, persevants.

spousals: marriage. Back to text

 

21

Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, I: F, Apol. lib. 1 bib. Heywood owes this reference to Natale Conti’s Mythologia, II, 1, “Fama est quod Metim, Oceani filiam, uxorem duxit Jupiter, ut scriptum reliquit Atheniensis Apollodorus lib I Bibliothecae” (Venice: 1581), p. 61 (“It is reported that Jupiter married Metis, Ocean’s daughter, as Apollodorus the Athenian left it written in the first book of his Bibliotheca”). The reference is to Apollodorus’ Library, I, iii, 6. Back to text

Hesiodus: Heywood is still following Conti’s Mythologia, II, 1 (Venice: 1581), p. 62. The reference is to Hesiod’s Theogony, 886. Back to text

Johannes Diaconus: F, Jho Diaconus. Heywood borrows the reference from Conti’s Mythologia, II, 1 (Venice: 1581), p. 62, “Gravidam factam deglutivit, ut scripsit Johannes Diaconus” (“He swallowed her when she was pregnant, as John the Deacon wrote”). As John Mulryan and Stephen Brown have shown in their edition of Conti’s Mythologia (2006, vol. 1, p. 77), Conti’s reference is mistaken. In reality, he is not referring to John the Deacon, but to Johannes Galenus’ Allegories on Hesiod’s TheogonyBack to text

tympanus: tympanum (spelt “tympanus” for the sake of the rhyme with “thus”). An unhealthy swelling of the belly. The anonymous Exposition of Obscure Words in Physic (British Library, Sloane MS, 16th century) specifies that “The second [kind of dropsy] is named Tympanum, because the belly is swollen, hard bent and full of wind”. Presumably so called becaused the swollen belly looked and felt like a drum. Back to text

throes: F, throws.

Pallas: Minerva. Back to text

 

22

bed.: F, bed, The comma following bed, in F, gives the wrong impression that it is Themis, not Juno, that Jupiter married in Crete. This edition replaces it by a full stop to restore the meaning, although the syntax remains awkward. Back to text

Gnossean isle: Crete (of Gnossos, or Cnossos, in Crete). Heywood is following Conti’s Mythologia, II, 1 (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 62, “postea Themim, ut quidam tradiderunt, ac tertiam, quam cepit in regione Gnosia apud fluvium Therenum” (“after Themis, as some report, [he married] yet a third one, whom he took in the region of Gnosia [Crete], near the river Therenus”. Conti’s information derives from Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, V, lxxii, 4: “Men say also that the marriage of Zeus and Hera was held in the territory of the Cnossians, at a place near the river Theren”, transl. C. H. Oldfather, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1935). Back to text

Therenus: F, Theremus. See preceding note.

Apollonius Rhodius: Quoted from Conti, who introduces the story of Jupiter’s metamorphosis into a cuckoo with a remark on the god’s character: “totus in libidines et in convivia vertitur; neque ulla fuit formosa mulier quam quidem viderit, à qua abstinuerit, ut testatur Apollonius Rhodius lib. 4. Argonaut.” (“he indulged in luxury and banqueting and would not abstain from any pretty woman that he could see, as Apollonius Rhodius testifies in book 4 of his Argonautica”, Mythologia, II, i (Venice: 1581, p. 62). Conti alludes to Apollonius’ remark that “he [Jupiter] is always preoccupied with these acts [of love], whether sleeping with immortals or with mortal women”, Argonautica, IV, 794-95, transl. William H. Race (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008). Back to text

 

23

welkin: sky. Back to text

 

24

Pausanias, “Corinth”: F, Pausan corint, placed opposite stanza 22 in F, here restored to its proper place opposite stanza 24. Borrowed from Conti’s Mythologia, which reports a more respectable version: “alii dicunt non prius sororem compressisse, quam promiserit matri se uxore in illam ducturum, quod et postea fecit, ut testatur Pausanias in Corinthiacis” (“others say that he did not lie with his sister before he had promised his mother that he would marry her, which he did do later on, as Pausanias testifies in his chapter on Corinthians” (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 63. Pausanias, Description of Greece, “Corinth”, II, xvii, 4, reports the story of the cuckoo while specifying that he does not believe it. Back to text

Preces: prex, preces, Latin word for “prayer”. See following note.

Orpheus in Argonautica: This marginal note, placed opposite stanza 22 in F, has been restored opposite stanza 24, where it really belongs. In Mythologia, II, i, Natale Conti refers to “Orpheus in Argonautica” about the Prayers (Preces): “Huius filiae dicuntur fuisse Preces, sicut ait Orpheus in Argonaut.” (“The Prayers are said to have been his [Jupiter’s] daughters, as Orpheus says in Argonautica”) (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 62. Conti refers to the Orphic Argonautica, 105-06, when Orpheus replies to Jason’s supplication that the entreaties of Jupiter’s daughters, the Prayers, are not to be spurned. On the Prayers (or Litai) see also Homer, Iliad, IX, 502. Back to text

Hermesianax Elegorum scriptor: F, hermesinax eleg. scriptor. It is highly improbable that Heywood had a direct knowledge of Hermesianax, a Hellenistic elegiac poet; what has survived of his work was only fragmentarily accessible in Book XIII of Athenaeus’ Deipnosophists, first published in Greek in 1514 (Venice: Aldus Manutius). Translations into Latin were also available: one of them, by Natale Conti, was published in 1556 by several printers (Sébastien Barthélemy Honorat in Lyon, his brother François in Paris; Henri Pierre (Petrus) in Basel, and Andrea Arrivabene in Venice). Natale Conti’s Latin translation was reprinted in Venice by Francisco Ziletti (1572), but soon superseded by a bilingual edition with the Greek text established by Isaac Casaubon and a translation into Latin by Jacques Dalechamps, printed in 1583 (Lyons: Antoine de Harsy), reprinted in 1598 (Heidelberg: Commelin), and later again into the seventeenth century. However, nothing in the Hermesianax fragment available in those editions corresponds to any element in Heywood’s poem. Moreover, both Conti’s and Dalechamps’s translations call Hermesianax “Hermesianax Colophonii”, while Heywood’s “Hermesianax eleg. scriptor” is clearly modelled on Natale Conti’s “Hermesianax elegorum scriptor” in Mythologia (Venice: Comin da Trino,1581), p. 65, in the very chapter from which Heywood borrowed all his preceding references. Conti, however, quotes Hermesianax in a sentence dealing with Attis, a subject which does not seem to bear any clear relation to Heywood’s theme. Heywood does not usually quote at random, but might not be immune from oversights. Back to text

 

25

rarieties: rarities. Back to text

 

26

Hebe: “the daughter of Jupiter and Juno, who was butler of Jupiter before the ravishing of Ganymedes, and she was called of the Paynims, the goddess of youth.” Thomas Elyot’s Bibliotheca, s. v. Hebe. Back to text

 

27

brook: endure. Back to text

 

28

Still fear is apt things threatened to believe: Fear is always prone to “believe things threatened” (to take threats seriously).

inly: inwardly. Back to text

 

29

spite: F, “spight”. Malice, rancour, hatred.

affright: terror. Back to text

ceased: eliminated, killed.

 

30

champions: countryside, hence battlefields here. Back to text

 

31

affied: trusted. Back to text

 

32

but so late: not so late. Back to text

 

33

cries “To arms!”: F, (to armes). Back to text

 

34

erst: earlier.

cry “Assault!”: F, (cry Assault): can also be read “cry assault” but the use of direct speech makes the text livelier and is coherent with “To arms”, stanza 33. Back to text

 

35

assuage: appease. Back to text

 

37

37: F, 40. Back to text

 

38

scapes: escapes. Back to text

 

41

41: According to Hesiod, Theogony, 188-206, Aphrodite was born of the foam created on the sea by Uranus’ genitals when he was castrated by Cronus, the ultimate source for Heywood’s adaptation of the story to Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. While reporting the mythological story, Heywood distances himself from it, making it the “idle dream” of “superstitious people”. The rationalization he suggests instead, that Jupiter distributed his father’s gold to his soldiers, which led them to indulge in luxury, is inspired from Caxton’s Recuyell, I, 17, “And then began Jupiter to reign in distributing and departing unto the Arcadians the tresours of his father, whereof they had great joy and gladness, and for this cause sayen the poets that Jupiter gelded his father and cast his genitoires [genitals] into the sea, of whom was engendred Venus; that is to say that he casted the tresours of his father into the bellies of his men, whereof engendered all delectation, which is compared and likened unto Venus”. Back to text

 

42

accrue: grow. Back to text

 

43

43: F, 42. Back to text

opinion: on opinion, see Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, I.iii.142-210.

irregular: those who do not conform to laws and moral values. Back to text

wright: construct.

 

44

44: F, 43. Back to text

 

45

45: F, 44. Back to text

 

46

46: F, 45. Back to text

 

47

47: F, 46. Back to text

 

48

the atheist’s scorn, the Christian’s fear, / The Arrian’s error: could also be read as plurals (atheists, Christians, Arrians) but as the “Turk” appears in the singular, we have opted for the singular. Back to text

Arrian’s error: Arrius (AD c. 250-336), founder of arrianism. In his Golden Book of the Leaden Gods, London, 1577 (STC 1583), Stephen Batman defined his heresy: “This man was a priest in the church of Alexandria in the year of our Lord 320. His error was that the son was not equal with the father in deity, nor of the same substance, but that he was a very creature. He infected a marvellous great number with his heresy, for the which the great Counsel of Nice [Council of Nicea, AD 325] was holden by the emperor Constantinus Magnus, himself being present with 318 bishops. Afterward, Arrius horribly finished his life, for, by going to the stool, his guts went from him, and so he died” (fol. 32r). Back to text

Alcoran: the Koran, the holy book of Islam.

Haly: Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, head of one of the factions which fought over Muhammad’s succession. Usually spelt Haly in early modern English texts. Back to text

Prester John: A legendary oriental Christian king, supposed to have been a Nestorian.

 

49

Capuccians: F, capoochians. Friars of the order of St. Francis, of the new rule of 1528. So called from the sharp-pointed capuche, adopted first in 1525, and confirmed to them by Pope Clement VII in 1528 (OED). Back to text

 

50

precise: a word that is often associated with the figure of the Puritan. See Measure for Measure, I.iii.50. Back to text

poted: crimped (quoted in OED). Back to text

 

52

lecture: F, Lector.

Turks: Infidels. See “Are we turned Turks?”, Othello, II.iii.163. Back to text

 

53

choristers: F, quirristers. Back to text

 

54

Brownists: Robert Browne (1550-1633), dissenter and Congregationalist; his ideas were refuted by Richard Alison in A plain Confutation of a Treatise of Brownism published by some of that faction, London, 1590 (STC 355). Back to text

canons: rules of the Church.

 

57

Lucina: F, Lucian. Back to text

 

58

refuses: all the parallel examples in the stanza lead one to expect a synonym of “invoke” or “pray”. Could Heywood have written  “abuses” (in the sense of “overuses”)? unless one hypothesises “reluses” or “reluces” (in the sense of “reflects”). Back to text

 

59

mace: weapon, heavy staff or club. Back to text

 

60

Belus: Early modern dictionaries (such as those of Charles Estienne, Thomas Elyot or Thomas Cooper) mention several characters named Belus. Here, Heywood is introducing the Egyptian Belus, father of Egyptus and Danaus, and grandfather of the Belides or Danaides, whose story he narrates as from stanza 69. The story was told in Caxton’s Recuyell, I, 18, but it is from Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle that Heywood derived the near contemporaneity of Danaus and Egyptus, the abduction of Orithyia and Moses’ death (fols. 21v-22r). Back to text

Moses: According to Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, in 2492 after the creation and 1470 before Christ, Moses “died in the mount Nebo, being of age 120 years. Whose eyes were never dim, nor teeth loose; he was buried by angels and his sepulchre was yet never known unto man” (fol. 22r).

Joshua: F, Jossua. “After Moses, Joshua was second Judge, or duke, of the Hebrews. And reigned 28 years according to the Hebrews’ computation. He brought the children of Israel into the land of promission [the promised Land]. The sun prolonging the day, he overthrew 31 kings and divided the land of Chanaan to the Tribes. He was godly, sapient, in wars mighty, in peace fortunate and endowed with all vertues. When he was 110 years of age, he ended his life” (Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, fol. 22 r). Back to text

Boreas: At the same period as Moses’ death and Josuah’s election, according to Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, “Orithya [Orithyia] was ravished of Boriatrax” (fol. 22r). The form “Boriatrax” for Boreas does not seem to be found outside Lanquet/Cooper. It probably originated from misreading a manuscript mentioning “Boreas thracius” (“the Thracian Boreas”), abbreviated as “Boreas trax”. The 1483 edition of Eusebius’ Chronicle (Venice: Erhard Ratdolt) has: “Erechthei filiam Orithiam Boreas Astrei filius Trax rapuit” (“Boreas, son of Astreus, Thracian, abducted Orithyia, daughter of Erechtheus”). The abduction of Orithyia by Boreas is narrated in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, VI, 682-721. Back to text

her mother: F, his, a typographical mistake. 

Orithyia: F, Orithia. Back to text

 

61

his three brothers: the three other winds, Notus (the south wind), Eurus (the east wind), and Zephyrus (the west wind), the three brothers of Boreas (or Aquilo), the north wind.

braves: bravadoes (OED, b2). Back to text

 

62

Mediterranean sea: Heywood follows Natale Conti’s account of the formation of the Mediterranean sea in his chapter on Aeolus (Mythologia, VIII, x): “prius nullum esset mare mediterraneum, vis tempestatis in oceano orta per quoddam spatium terram discidit, unde aqua per Calpen ingressa mare quod est intra terram fecit, ob depressam regionem, Africamque ab Europa disterminavit” (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 568 (“before, there was no Mediterranean sea, the strength of a storm born in the Ocean split the earth on a certain stretch and the water flowing in through Calpe made a land-enclosed sea, because that area had sunk, and separated Africa from Europe”). Conti himself quotes Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica, I, 584-90. Back to text

brake: broke.

reins: possible pun.

shoulders aside: shoulder is a verb here (pushes aside). Back to text

 

63

Calpe: F, Calpes. Calpe: a mountain in the south of Spain, one of Hercules’ columns, which Hercules separated to let the ocean invade the Mediterranean. Back to text

roomth: space.

Tellus: the earth. Back to text

 

64

Valerius Flaccus, lib. 1 Argonautica: the reference is borrowed from Conti, Mythologia, p. 568. See note to stanza 62 above. Back to text

 

65

Jove’s daughters born of heavenly seed: the Muses.

delate: report, relate. Back to text

 

66

66: All of Jupiter’s loves (except for Io and Semele) quoted in Heywood’s stanza 66 are gathered in Arachne’s tapestry in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, VI, 103-14. Back to text

stale: stole.

Leda: F, Loeda. Back to text

Mnemosyne: Jupiter lay with her nine nights, after which she gave birth to the nine Muses: Hesiod, Theogony, 53-67, 915-17; Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI, 114.

Asopis: F, Esopis. One of Asopus’ daughters, sometimes identified with Aegina, another of Asopus’ daughters, raped by Jupiter then transformed into an island. See Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, IV, lxxii, 1-5 and Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI, 113; VII, 616. Back to text

Astery: Asteria. Trying to shun Jupiter’s advances, she changed into a quail, and later became the island of Delos: Apollodorus, The Library, I, iv, 1; Hyginus, Fabulae LIII; Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI, 108.

Nycteis: F, Nicteis. Antiope, daughter of Nycteus: Apollodorus, The Library, III, v; Hyginus, Fabulae, VII and VIII; Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI, 111. Back to text

 

67

scaled: climbed. Back to text

 

68

68-71: The genealogy of Danae is substantially borrowed from Caxton’s Recuyell, I, 18. Back to text

hight: called, named.

swayed: ruled. Back to text

Afric: F, Affrick.

Busiris: F, Busyris. Back to text

 

69

Egyptus: F, Egiptus. While substantially following Caxton’s account (Recuyell, I, 18), Heywood restores Egistus (so called by Caxton and Raoul Le Fèvre) to his real name Egiptus, here modernized as Egyptus. Back to text

2490/1473: Heywood complements Caxton’s Recuyell with this information from Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle (fol. 21v). F mistakenly has 2409 instead of 2490. 2490 refers to the “year of the world” while 1473 refers to the “year before Christ”: “Danaus, the 10th king of Argives, expulsing Stelenus, reigned over them 50 years. Orosius writeth, that between the children of Danaus and Aegyptus in one night was committed 50 murders [Orosius, Adversum Paganos, I, xi, 1]. After which, Danaus, the author of all this mischief, was driven out of his royaulme, and fled to the Argives. Where he persuaded them to this lewdness, that by their help he expelled Stelenus, that received him void of all help and reigned there.” Back to text

 

70

Hypermnestra: F, Ypermenestra, modelled on Caxton’s “Ypermestra”. Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, following Orosius, ignores Hypermnestra, who had saved her husband, and makes all fifty Danaides murderers. Except for the date of episode, which he takes from Lanquet and Cooper, Heywood follows Caxton’s Recuyell, I, 18. See also Ovid, Heroides, XIV. Back to text

bewrayed: disclosed, revealed.

Lynceus: F, Linceus. Hypermnestra’s husband, whose life she saved when her 49 sisters killed their respective husbands. See canto VI, 55. Back to text

Egyptus: F, Egistus, Caxton’s spelling, which Heywood had corrected in the preceding stanza.

Abas: Hypermestra’s and Lynceus’ son, father of Acrisius: Caxton, Recuyell, I, 18. Abas is also incidentally mentioned as Acrisius’ father in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, IV, 606-07. Back to text

Argos: F, Arges, Caxton’s spelling.

 

71

entreat: F, intreat. Deal with. Back to text

hies: goes quickly. Back to text

 

73

Darrain: F, Darreia. Heywood repeats Caxton’s “tower Darrain”, a mistranslation of Raoul Le Fèvre’s “tour d’arrain” (i. e. “tour d’airain”, “bronze tower”). See stanza 91 below and canto V, stanza 33. Back to text

girts: encircles, surrounds.

mure: wall. From French “mur”. Back to text

 

74

gild: F, guilt. Gilded, adorned with a layer of gold.

terrace: F, tarras. Back to text

studs: F, stoods. Ornamental round knobs of metal (OED).

 

75

75: F, 60. Back to text

 

76

76: F, 61. Back to text

 

77

77: F, 62.

Anch’ress: F, Ancress. Anchoress. Female anchorite, a nun. Back to text

 

78

78: F, 63. Back to text

spake: spoke.

Would you be eternal, lived alone, / And never die?: F’s punctuation, “Would you be eternal lived alone? / And never die?” does not help clarify a compressed syntax, which can be developed as “Would you be eternal, [have] lived alone, / And never die?”. Danae suggests the misery of an eternal life that would involve the absence of issue and family bonds. Back to text

 

79

Lynceus: See above, stanza 70. 

adjourn: F, adjorne. Postpone, defer. Back to text

 

80

won: F, wun. Back to text

 

81

beldams: from French “belle dame”. Aged women.

lust: Vigour, lustiness; they are too old to be amorously inclined. Back to text

invade: with one of the meanings of Latin “invadere”, “to address vehemently”, hence sternly to enjoin. Back to text

crones: withered old women.

those would taste it: those who would taste love. Back to text

 

82

his: F, her. “his” makes better sense. Back to text

 

83

truss: from French “trousse”. A bundle.

hies: goes quickly. Back to text

at length: at last.

falls: drops. Back to text

 

84

crones: withered old women.

beldam: from French “belle dame”. Aged woman. Back to text

 

85

seated: F, seared.

sleight: F, slight. Cunning, trickery, artifice. Back to text

hamper: a large basket.

 

86

seize: F, cease. Back to text

crave: demand.

 

87

bleared: deceived, blinded. Back to text

fet: fetch.

 

88

might: power. Back to text

sconce: “A small fort or earthwork; esp. one built to defend a ford, pass, castle-gate, etc., or erected as a counter-fort” (OED).

 

90

mite: small coin of low value. Back to text

chaffer: trade, dealing.

ouches: an ouche is a brooch. Back to text

spake: spoke.

imparadise: F, imparadice. To place in Paradise. Back to text

 

91

Darrain’s gate: See stanza 73 above and note to canto V, stanza 33. Back to text

 

92

rare: pale. Back to text

 

93

forborn: to forbear: to abstain from something.

show’s: F, shewe’s. What show is in jewels… Back to text

 

95

jail: F, gayle. Back to text

 

96

coops: F, coopes. Confines into a small space. Back to text

And envying you a queen should be instated: fearing you might become a queen.

jealous: fearful, apprehensive. Back to text

 

97

homage: pay homage. Back to text

 

98

scape: escape. Back to text

 

101

lest: F, least.

spial: F, spyall. Observation, spying. Back to text

 

102

her: F, his. Back to text

 

103

Charles’ Waine: F, Charles-waine. “The asterism comprising the seven bright stars in Ursa Major; known also as The Plough” (OED). Back to text

Hyads seven: Hyades, “A group of stars near the Pleiades, in the head of the constellation Taurus, the chief of which is the bright red star Aldebaran” (OED). Back to text

 

104

fain: gladly, with pleasure. Back to text

 

106

hushtness: silence, stillness. The only example in OED is taken from Troia Britanica.

taciturnal: F, taciturnall: In the sense of OED, taciturn, “silent”. Back to text

 

107

ventures: F, venters. Back to text

 

109

emblazed: described profusely and emphatically. Back to text

 

110

bands: bonds (arms). Back to text

 

111

sieger: besieger.

stout: various meanings ranging from proud, arrogant to fierce, resolute or brave, hardy. Back to text

 

115

trot: old woman. Back to text

 

116

bounteous: generous. Back to text

 

119

Troos: Tros, king of Troy.

Tantalus: Heywood announces the beginning of his next canto, based on Caxton’s Recuyell, I, 22, “How the king Tantalus of Ffrygye [Phrygia] assailed by bataille [battle] the king Troos of Troy”. Back to text

Troos: F, Troas.

 

Heywood’s Endnotes to canto IV

Esculapius: Heywood follows Natale Conti’s chapter on Esculapius in Mythologia, IV, xi: “Aesculapium quidam Apollinis et nymphae Coronidis filium fuisse arbitrantur” (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 243 (“Some think that Esculapius was the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis”); and, further on, “natum fuisse Aesculapium ex Arsinoe Leucippi filia, at non è Coronide”, ibid., p. 244 (“Esculapius [is said] to have been born of Arsinoe, Leucippus’ daughter, and not of Coronis”). Back to text

Arsinoe: F, Arsiona.

Leucippus: F, Leusippus. Back to text

Homerus hymnographus: F, Homer hymno. Abbreviates Natale Conti’s “Homerus hymnographus” in Mythologia, IV, xi (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 243, a reference to Homer’s Hymn to Asclepius, 1-3, in which Esculapius is addressed as Coronis’ son. Back to text

Pausanias, in Messeniacis: F, Pauson. in messeniacis. From Natale Conti, Mythologia, IV, xi (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 244, a reference to Pausanias’ chapter on Messenia (IV, iii, 2), where Esculapius is said to be the son of Apollo and Arsinoe, daughter of Leucippus, not the son of Coronis. Back to text

Chiron: From Natale Conti, Mythologia, IV, xi (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 244, “apud Chironem Centaurum educatum fuisse” (“[Esculapius] was brought up by the centaur Chiron”). Conti adduces Ovid, Metamorphoses, II, 670. Back to text

Tzetzes, Chiliades 10: F, Zezes, chil. 10. From Natale Conti, Mythologia, IV, xi (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 244, a reference to Joannes Tzetzes, Historiarum Variarum Chiliades, X, 710-27. Back to text

Lactantius: F, Lactantius lib. De falsa Religione. Borrowed from Natale Conti, Mythologia, IV, xi (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 244: “Lactantius in lib. De Falsa Religione Aesculapium lacte canino nurritum, et Chironi traditum artem medendi ab ipso Chirone doctum fuisse scribit” (“In his book on False Religion, Lactantius wrote that Esculapius was nourished on dog’s milk, that he was entrusted to Chiron, and was taught the art of medicine by Chiron himself”).  Conti’s reference is to Lactantius’ Divine Institutes, Book I, “De Falsa Religione”, chapter x, in which Lactantius claims that Esculapius is of uncertain origin: an exposed child, he was found by hunters in the woods, where he had been fed on the milk of a female dog, before being entrusted to Chiron. Back to text

Eriope: From Natale Conti, Mythologia, IV, xi (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 245: “Hunc sororem habuisse Eriopen scriptum reliquit Myrleanus Asclepiades” (“Asclepiades Myrleanus left it written that he [Esculapius] had a sister called Eriope”). She is identified in Asclepiades of Myrlea’s scholia on Pindar’s third Pythian Ode, 14: Scholia Vetera in Pindari Carmina, ed. A. B. Drachmann (Leipzig: Teubner, 1910), vol. 2, p. 64. Back to text

Myrleanus: F, Merleanus. Asclepiades of Myrlea: see preceding note.

Epione: From Natale Conti, Mythologia, IV, xi (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 246: “Epione dicitur Aesculapii fuisse uxor, cuius filius fuit Machaon vir, ut ferebant ea tempora, artis medicae peritissimus” (“Epione is said to have been Esculapius’ wife, and their son Machaon, a man, as was reported in those times, most skilful in the art of medicine”). Conti adds that Homer names this Machaon as one of the Greek fighters in the Trojan war (Iliad, IX, 193-94). Back to text

Podalirius: F, Podilarius. See Natale Conti, Mythologia, IV, xi (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 246: “Fuit etiam Podalirius Aesculapii et Epiones filius, fraterque Machaonis, ut ait Pausanias in Messeniacis” (“Podalirius was also the son of Esculapius and Epione, and Machaon’s brother, as Pausanias says in his chapter on the Messenians”): Pausanias, IV, xxxi, 12, “Messenia”. Esculapius’ two sons are mentioned in Homer’s Iliad, II, 647-48, in Chapman’s translation: “In charge of Esculapius’ sons, physician highly praised, / Machaon, Podalirius, were thirty vessels raised”. Back to text

Aulonius: F, Antonius. The following list of names attributed to Esculapius is borrowed from Natale Conti, Mythologia, IX, xi (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 247: “Habuit et hic Deus multa cognomina à locis in quibus illi templa fuerunt dicata, vel ab aliis causis: ut Aulonius, Medicus, Oncaeata, Leuctricus, Gortinius, Corylaeus, Agnitas, Booneta” (“And this god had several names, from the places in which temples were dedicated to him, or for other causes, such as Aulonius, Medicus, Oncaeata, Leuctricus, Gortinius, Corylaeus, Agnitas, Booneta”). Back to text

Orpheus in Hymn.: F, Orpheus in hym. Orphic Hymn LXVI, “To Asklepios”, does not mention any of Esculapius’ names that Heywood borrows from Natale Conti, although Heywood may have mistakenly thought they came from the Orphic Hymn, which is quoted by Conti (“Orpheus in hymno quodam in Aesculapium”) on the opposite page (p. 246), where they refer to Esculapius’ marriage with Hygiaea (Health). Back to text

Oncaeata: F, oucaeata.

Gortynius: F, Cortineus. Back to text

Booneta: F, Booueta.

Epidaurians: Natale Conti, Mythologia, IV, xi (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 243, “in finibus Epidauriorum” (“within the frontiers of the Epidaurians”). Back to text

Paphos: The chapter of Caxton’s Recuyell Heywood is drawing on narrates several episodes of a war between Jupiter and Apollo, king of Paphos. In Heywood’s time, however, Paphos was known, above all, for its association with Venus. While following the main line of Caxton’s story, Heywood feels it necessary to account for the transfer of Paphos from Apollo and Esculapius to Venus. The notion that Paphos was built by Aeos, Typhon’s son, derives from Isidore’s Etymologies, XV, i, 48, which tersely states that “Aeos Typhonis filius Paphum”. Boccaccio repeats the information in Genealogia, IV, xxiii, while recalling that the foundation of Paphos is more commonly attributed to Pygmalion’s son Paphos and cautiously concluding “quod an verum sit, incertum habeo” (“I am not sure that this is true”). Back to text

Aeolus: In his chapter on Aeolus (Mythologia, VIII, x), Natale Conti, following the most widespread classical tradition, presents Aeolus as Hippotes’ son. But Heywood chooses to follow another tradition, made popular by Raphael Regius’s note on Ovid’s Metamorphoses, IV, 663: “Aeolus, Hippotae nepos. Nam Aeolus Jovis fuit filius ex Acesta, Hippotae Troiani filia. Is idcirco rex ventorum esse perhibetur, quod, ut scribit Varro cum apud novem Siciliae insulas Italiae propinquas Iliacis temporibus regnaret; ex consurgentibus nebulis ita futuros ventos praedicebat, ut in sua potestate eos a rudibus habere crederetur”, P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon Libri XV (Venice: Gryphius, 1565), p. 96 (“Aeolus, Hippotes’ grandson. For Aeolus was Jupiter’s son, begot of Acesta, daughter of Hippotes the Trojan. He was reported to be king of the winds because, as Varro writes, he reigned over nine islands of Sicily, next to Italy, at the time of the Trojans; from the cloudy vapours rising there, he could predict which way the winds would blow, so that the ignorant thought he had power over them”). Heywood, however, counts seven Aeolian islands, like Natale Conti, and the classical tradition represented by Strabo, Geography, VII, i, 5, and Pliny, Natural History, III, 92-94. Back to text 

Epaphus: Heywood follows Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle, according to which, in 1492 before Christ, “Epaphus, the son of Io and Jupiter, builded Memphis in Egypt” (fol. 21v). Substituting Isis to Io and Jupiter Belus to Jupiter, he makes the Egyptian background clearer, probably following commentaries on Ovid’s account of Io in MetamorphosesBack to text

Orosius: Borrowed from Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle (fol. 21v), which, for 1473 before Christ, notes that “Danaus, the 10th king of Argives, expulsing Stelenus, reigned over them 50 years. Orosius writeth that between the children of Danaus and Aegyptus in one night was committed 50 murders. After which Danaus, the author of all this mischief, was driven out of his royaulme, and fled to the Argives”. But while Lanquet/Cooper quoted Orosius accurately, who, in his ideological attack on “paganism”, had mentioned 50 murders to blacken the picture, Heywood takes care to restore the accurate number of 49, which takes Hypermnestra’s story into account. See above, note to stanzas 69 and 70. Back to text

Aaron:  From Lanquet and Cooper’s Chronicle (fol. 22r), which mentions Aaron’s death in 1472 before Christ. Back to text

Isis: A common notion. See for example Natale Conti, Mythologia, VIII, xviii, “post partum igitur Dea facta fuisse dicitur et ab Aegyptiis Isidis nomine culta (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 592 (“after giving birth, [Io] is said to have been made a goddess and venerated by the Egyptians under the name of Isis”). Ovid alludes to that deification in Metamorphoses, I, 747, and Raphael Regius commented upon it in detail. Jupiter and Belus were identified in Giovanni Nanni’s forged Berosus. See canto I, Heywood’s endnotes.  Back to text

Huic: Modern editions of Ovid’s Metamorphoses read “Huic” (I, 748). F’s “Hince” may represent a transcription from an early modern edition such as P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon (Venice: Gryphius, 1565), which reads “Hinc” (p. 31). Back to text

Jovis: F, Ihovis. From Ovid, Metamorphoses, I, 748-49 (“A son, Epaphus, was born to her, thought to have sprung at length from the seed of mighty Jove”, transl. Frank Justus Miller). Back to text

Phaeton: Having checked Io in his edition of Metamorphoses, and quoted two lines about the birth of Epaphus (I, 748-49), Heywood’s attention was drawn to the contention between Epaphus and Phaeton in the lines that immediately follow (I, 750-79). Back to text

Clymene: F’s Clymenen is Heywood’s literal transcription of the accusative form from the Latin text, where Epaphus goes to his mother Clymene (“ad Clymenen … matrem”, I, 756). Back to text

travail: travel. Back to text

Jupiter: The following list of Jupiter’s alleged children is directly borrowed from Natale Conti, Mythologia, II, i (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 64: “Suscepit filios Jupiter ex Europa … Minoem ac Rhadamantum, Arcadem è Callisto, Pelasgum è Niobe, Sarpedonem et Argum ex Laodamia, Herculem ex Alcmena uxore Amphitryonis, Taygetum e Taygete, …, Amphionem et Zetum ex Antiope, Castorem et Helenam et Pollucem et Clytemnestram è Leda, Perseum è Danae, Deucalionem ex Iodama, Britomartim è Carme Eubuli filia, …, Aethlium patrem Endymionis è Protogenia, et Epaphus eius filius fuit ex Ione, … , Aeginam … Asopi filiam, … Et Arcesilaus et Carbius è Torrebia, Colaxes ex Ora, et Cyrnus è Cyrno …, et Dardanus ex Electra, …, et Hiarbas è Garamantide, …, Preces, et Titias, et Proserpina, …”. Conti concludes his list with the following words: “ et alii complures Iovis filii nati esse dicuntur ex variis adulteriis, quos omnes numerare longum sane esset opus” (“and many other children of Jupiter said to have been born of various adulteries: to rehearse them all would assuredly be a long task”), which Heywood made his. Back to text

Minos: F, Minoes, incorrectly formed from Conti’s Latin accusative, Minoem. Back to text

Rhadamantus: F, Rhadamant.

Arcas: F, Archas. Back to text

Callisto: F, Calisto.

Sarpedon: F, Scarpedon. Back to text

Argus: F, Argas.

Laodamia: F, Laodomeia. Back to text

Taygete: F, Taigetes.

Zetus: F, Zetes. Back to text

Clytemnestra: F, Clitemuestra. Leda: F, Laeda.

Deucalion: F, Deucalia. Back to text

Britomartis: F, Britamart.

Io: F, Ione reproduces Conti’s Latin ablative form without restoring the proper nominative form, Io. Back to text

Aegina: From Natale Conti, Mythologia (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 64: “Aeginam quoque in insulam desertam è regione agri Epidaurii portavit Asopi filiam, quae insula cum prius Oenope vocaretur, postea dicta est Aegina et habitata, ut ait Callimachus de conditis insulis” (“[Jupiter] also carried Aegina, Asopus’ daughter, to a desert island opposite the territory of Epidaurus; this island, which was first called Oenope, was later called Aegina, and inhabited, as Callimachus says in On Islands”). Heywood, who may have read too fast, understood that Jupiter engendered Aegina on Asopus’ daughter. Back to text

Callimachus: F, Calimachus de conditis insulis. Misplaced in F; here restored to its proper place, as a marginal comment on Aegina (see preceding note). Refers to Callimachus the younger, nephew of the better-known author of Hymns. The De conditis insulis (On Islands) attributed to him is now lost.

Arcesilaus: F, Arcecilaus. Back to text

Torrebia: F, Terrebia.

Cyrna: Assuming that there is no printer’s mistake, Conti’s Latin, “Cyrnus e Cyrno”, is problematic. In the accusative, “Cyrnus” should be “Cyrnum”. “Cyrno”, however, is the right ablative of “Cyrnus”, a feminine name. Heywood makes it more clearly feminine by reading “Cyrna”, a possible ablative form of “Cyrne” (or “Cyrna”). Cyrne, Cyrna and Cyrnus all refer to Corsica. Conti’s terse formulation implies that Jupiter begot a daughter or a son called Cyrnus on a nymph (Cyrne, Cyrna, or Cyrnus), perhaps later transformed into an island—unless her son gave his name to an island. But in his Commentary on Vergil’s Eclogues (IX, 30), Servius writes that Cyrnus, who gave his name to Corsica, was Hercules’ son. Back to text

Dardanus: From Natale Conti, Mythologia (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 64: “Dardanus ex Electra, qui profugus à patria in locis Hellesponto proximis Dardanum urbem condidit, universamque regionem Dardaniam appellavit, ut ait Archelaus in lib. xii. de fluminibus” (“On Electra, [Jupiter engendered] Dardanus, who, having fled his mother country, founded the city of Dardanus in an area near the Hellespont and called the whole region Dardania, as Archelaus says in book xii of On Rivers”). Back to text

Archelaus: F, Archelaus lib de fluminibus. Misplaced in F; here restored to its proper place as a marginal comment on Dardanus (see preceding note). Archelaus’ De Fluminibus (On Rivers) is lost, but Conti’s information on Dardanus is confirmed by Tzetzes’ scholia on Lycophron, 72, ed. Christian Gottfried Müller (Leipzig: Vogel, 1811), vol. 1, p. 364. Back to text

Hiarbas: F, Hiarbus.

Garamantis: F, Garamantius. Back to text

Preces: Prayers; see above, note to stanza 24.

Tityus: F, the Titiae. Natale Conti, Mythologia II, i (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 64, has “Titias” (like the 1568 edition and successive editions), a probable misprint for “Titios”, i. e. “Tityos”, who, according to Apollodorus, was the son of Jupiter and Elare (The Library, I, iv, 1). Reading Conti’s “Titias”, Heywood may have taken it for the accusative plural of “Titiae” hence “the Titiae”. Back to text

Fit Taurus: “He turned into a bull, a swan, and a satyr, and gold, for the love / of Europe, Leda, Antiope, Danae”, an epigram from the Greek Anthology. Heywood transcribes Natale Conti’s Greek quotation and its translation into Latin, Mythologia, II, i (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 64. We keep Heywood’s transliteration of the Greek, but in the translation into Latin, we correct F’s “satyras” as “satyrus” and F’s “Eurotes” as “Europes”. See Heywood’s Library: Natale Conti’s MythologiaBack to text

Lucianus: F, Lucianus in dial. From Natale Conti, Mythologia (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), IV, x, p. 229: “Inde demissus ac exul errabundus mortalium calamitatibus factus est obnoxius ut testatur Lucianus in dialogis mortuorum” (“Abased and banished, a vagrant, he became exposed to the mortals’ misfortunes, as Lucian testifies in his Dialogues of the Dead”). Lucian alludes to Apollo’s enslavement to Admetus in “Zeus Catechized”, 8, in Lucian’s Works, ed. A. M. Harmon (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), vol. 2, p. 71. Back to text

Pindarus: From Natale Conti, Mythologia (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), IV, x, p. 229, quoting “Pindarus in Pythicis”. The reference is to Pindar’s Pythian Odes, IX, 64, where Apollo is hailed as “keeper of flocks”, Natale Conti’s “custodem ovium”.

affirms: F, affirme. Back to text

Horace, 1 carminum: F, Horace 1 carminum. From Natale Conti, Mythologia (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), IV, x, p. 229. Narrating Mercury’s theft of Apollo’s oxen, Conti quotes “Hora. In 1 Carminum”, i. e. Horace, Odes, I, x, 9-12 and concludes: “Cum Pindarus oves, alii boves pavisse Apollinem inquiant, Callimachus tamen in hymno in lavacrum Apollinis equas illum pavisse asserit ” (“Though Pindar says that Apollo grazed sheep and others oxen, Callimachus maintains in his hymn on Apollo’s bath that he grazed mares”). The reference is to Callimachus, Hymns, II, 47-49. Back to text

Callimachus: See preceding note.

Virgil: “You too, great Pales, shall we sing, and you, glorious shepherd from Amphrysus”. [Pales was the goddess of shepherds and meadows; Amphrysus is the region where Apollo kept Admetus’ herds]. Heywood found this quotation from Virgil’s Georgics, III, 1-2 in Natale Conti, Mythologia (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), IV, x, p. 230. While Conti’s Mythologia gave Virgil’s lines accurately, F’s transcription reads “Te quoq; Magne pales & te memorande Canemus / Pastor ab Amphriso”. This edition corrects his transcription. Back to text

 

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How to cite

Nathalie Vienne-Guerrin, ed., 2014.  Troia Britanica Canto IV, Notes (1609).  In A Dictionary of Shakespeare's Classical Mythology: A Textual Companion, ed. Yves Peyré (2009-).

http://www.shakmyth.org/page/Early+Modern+Mythological+Texts%3A+Troia+Britanica

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