Early Modern Mythological Texts: Troia Britanica VIII, Notes
Thomas Heywood. Troia Britanica (1609)
Notes to CANTO VIII
Ed. Patricia Dorval
strows: strews, spreads.
Antenor: F, Anthenor. An elderly councillor of Priam, who advocated a conciliatory policy throughout the Trojan war.
Sister: Hesione, Priam’s sister and daughter of the Trojan king Laomedon. As Caxton relates (Recuyell, I, 41), being short of money to fortify his city, King Laomedon seized all the money from the temples of the gods of the sun and sea. As he refused to pay back his debt, the gods caused a flood, and sent a pestilence upon the town (see stanza 17). Laomedon was told by an oracle to sacrifice a virgin to a sea monster. The lot fell on his own daughter, Hesione, who was bound to a rock. Hercules, who was sailing by, offered his help, and killed the monster in return for two rare mares. But again the king did not keep his word. Hercules soon returned with an army, and sacked the city. Caxton explains later (Recuyell, II, 9) how Hercules stopped in Troy for victuals on his way to conquer the golden fleece with Jason, and how he was denied any help. On his way back, he destroyed Troy a second time, and gave his friend, Telamon, Hesione as his concubine for having entered the city first. Hesione’s abduction was one of the causes of the Trojan war. Back to text
Theta: eighth letter of the Greek alphabet corresponding to the eighth canto. See note to canto I, arg. 2, “alpha”. Back to text
Ennius: F, “Emmius”. Quintus Ennius, a Roman poet born in Calabria in the third century B.C., regarded as the father of Roman poetry. See stanza 10 and endnotes, where the name is correctly spelt. In stanzas 1-4, on the history of poetry, Heywood follows very closely Thomas Langley’s 1546 Abridgement of the Notable Work of Polydore Vergil (STC 24656), I, viii, entitled “Of poetry and meter, and sundry kinds of the same”: “And therefore Ennius called poets holy because they be by a special prerogative commended and praised to us of God”, with a marginal note: “Poets be called holy of Ennius” (fol. 16r).
Moses: see stanza 4, “In verse hexameter did Moses praise / The heavens’ creator, through the Red Sea flying”. These lines clearly echo Polydore Vergil: “For Moses, the great captain of the Jews, what time he led them out of Egypt into the land of promise, passing the Red Sea, which by the power of God gave place to them, inspired by the holy ghost made a song of hexameter verses to render thanks to God for that benefit” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 16r). Back to text
David: see stanza 3, “He, that shall David’s Hebrew psalms rehearse, / Shall find true number in his words professed”. Compare with Polydore Vergil’s “And David, the holy prophet of God, after he was dispatched of all his affairs to war, and escaped the assaults and dangers of treason, living in great peace, devised many pleasant ballads and tunable hymns of the praise of God in sundry kinds of meter. For as Saint Jerome saith, the psalter of David goeth in as good number and measures as either the Greek Planudes or the Latin Horatius [Horace], sometime in Alcaeus numbers [Alcaeus of Mytilene, a Greek lyric poet contemporary of Sappho, supposed to have invented the alcaic meter], sometime in the meter of Sappho, sometime with half measures” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 16r-v). Back to text
Isaiah: see note on Deuteronomy, stanza 3.
Solomon: see note on Deuteronomy, stanza 3.
Pindarus: Langley’s abbreviated version of Polydore Vergil’s De Inventoribus Rerum introduces into Vergil’s development an interpolation from Jerome’s preface to his translation into Latin of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Greek Chronicon: “as Saint Jerome saith, the psalter of David goeth in as good number and measures as either the Greek Planudes or the Latin Horatius, sometime in Alcaeus numbers, sometime in the meter of Sappho, sometime with half measures” (see above). But Langley misquotes Jerome, substituting Planudes to Pindarus. Although Heywood follows Langley, he reintroduces Pindarus here. He may have checked out Jerome’s text, which says: “Denique quid Psalteris canorius? quod in morem nostri Flaccus et Graeci Pindari, nunc iambo currit, nunc alcaico personat, nunc sapphico tumet, nunc semipede ingreditur. Quid Deuteronomii et Esaiae cantico pulchrius? quid Solomone gravius? quid perfectius Job?” (Chronicon … Eusebii… D. Hieronymo interprete, Basel: Henri Pierre [Henricus Petrus], 1529, sig. Ar) (“Indeed, what is more harmonious than the Psalter? What, in manner of our Flaccus [Horace] and Greek Pindarus, now runs in iambic verse, now rings up in alcaic measure, now swells in sapphics, now advances in semifoot? What is more beautiful than the songs of Deuteronomy or of Isaiah? What more noble than Solomon? What more accomplished than Job?”).
Sappho: see note on David, stanza 1. Back to text
Deuteronomy: F, Deutronomium. See Polydore Vergil: “What is godlier than the song of Moses in Deuteronomy and of Isaiah? More ancient than Solomon? More perfect than Job? And we may worthily ascribe the invention of it to the Hebrews, but indeed Orpheus and Linus, and after them Homer and Hesiodus [Hesiod] did first polish and adorn the art with all kind of furniture [adorning, embellishing]” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 16v).
David: see note stanza 1.
Orpheus: see note on Deuteronomy, stanza 3.
Homer: see note on Deuteronomy, stanza 3.
Horace: Horace’: Horace’s. See note on David, stanza 1. The general idea is that nothing can surpass holy poetry. Back to text
Moses: see note stanza 1.
Saint Jerome: see note on David, stanza 1.
Archilocus: he was regarded by the ancients as one of the greatest Greek poets and was credited by some with the invention of the iambic rhythm. See Polydore Vergil: “… or of the quantity as iambus, because it standeth of a short and a long, which Archilocus found first” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 17r); from Horace, De Arte poetica, I, 79.
Apollo: see Polydore Vergil’s “Of meters there be diverse kinds that hath their name, either of the thing that is described therein, as heroical meter is so called of the valiant deeds of arms of noble men that be contained in it, wherein also Apollo gave his oracles, therefore Pliny saith we have that meter of Pythius [Pythian] oracle” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 17r). Back to text
Daphnis: F, Daphne. He was the son of Mercury. He grew up among nymphs, and became a shepherd and the creator of pastoral poetry. Pan taught him music, and he played the syrinx while singing bucolic songs. He loved a river-nymph, who had him swear eternal faithfulness. But a Sicilian king’s daughter tricked him. The nymph struck him blind for his infidelity, and Daphnis kept singing of his sorrow, but soon met his death by falling into a river. See Polydore Vergil: “… or of the number of feet, as hexameter and pentameter, which is also called elegiac—the shepherds’ songs―Daphnis the son of Mercury found” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 17r-v). Back to text
assays: to assay: to test and practise.
Thespis: an early Greek dramatic poet deemed to be the inventor of tragedy (6th century B.C.). This passage is derived from Polydore Vergil, I, ix, on “The beginning of tragedies, comedies, satires and new comedies”: “The beginning of them [tragedies], after the mind of Horace, was Thespis” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 18r).
Eschylus: F, Thespis: Quintilian Tragedies devisd, / Which Sophocles soon after enterprisd.
Langley’s version of Polydore Vergil’s De Inventoribus Rerum helps to reconstruct the first line: “The beginner of them [tragedies], after the mind of Horace, was Thespis; albeit Quintilianus saith Eschylus set forth first openly tragedies afore any other, Sophocles and Euripides did furnish them more gallantly” (I, ix, fol. 17v). It is probable that a printer’s mistake replaced “Eschylus” by “Quintilian”, which was originally meant as a marginal note. Polydore Vergil’s text is based on Horace’s De Arte poetica, I, 275-80, and Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria, X, i, 66-67. Back to text
only: alone.
ostent: ostentation; exhibiting excessive vanity. Back to text
Penelop: Penelope.
Helen: F, Hellen.
Spartan king: Menelaus.
host: army. Back to text
he: the Trojan Hector.
guled: stained or dyed gules, i.e. in heraldry, the colour red.
him: Achilles.
Homer: According to Heywood, what survives is the poetic fiction, irrespective of what actually happened.
his: Achilles’.
Myrmidons: F, Myrindons, Greek soldiers led by Achilles, as described in Homer’s Iliad.
him: he, that is Achilles.
imbrued: stained. Back to text
Alcide: Alcides, i.e. Hercules.
stigmatic: deformed, ill-favoured. Back to text
Ennius: see stanza 1. Quintus Ennius was on intimate terms with the elder Scipio Africanus, and was said to have accompanied the general in most of his military campaigns. A bust of Quintus Ennius was erected after his death in the Scipios’ family sepulchre.
meed: recompense, reward.
guerdoned: rewarded.
Theophanes: F, Theoptanes. Theophanes of Mytilene was a learned Greek historian and intimate friend of Pompey. He attended on the Roman general in many of his campaigns, and wrote the history of his expeditions in the most favourable light. Pompey’s friendship with Theophanes is reported in Plutarch’s Lives (“Pompey”, xlii, 4). In his translation, Thomas North explains how “coming unto Mytilene, he [Pompey] released the city of all taxes and payments for Theophanes’ sake” (The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, 1579, “Pompeius”, p. 699). Back to text
Heliconian: inspired by the Muses. The Helicon was a mountain in Boeotia sacred to them. Back to text
Thais: a famous Greek courtesan who accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaign in Asia. She is best known for having convinced the conqueror, under the influence of drink, to burn the royal palace at Persepolis. Both she and Alexander the Great are conjured up by Marlowe’s Faustus.
Lais: another celebrated Greek courtesan, native of Corinth. She was notorious for her great beauty and extravagance that drew many strangers from all parts of Greece.
blazed: made known as with a trumpet.
eschews: shuns.
stews: brothels. Back to text
exhibitions: allowance of money, pension. Back to text
free: liberal.
remiss: mild. Back to text
precise: strict or scrupulous in the observance of rules.
mercurial mixtures: a reference to the “mercurial ointment”, or “blue ointment”, composed of metallic mercury triturated with lard (OED), used to whiten women’s complexion.
unctions: ointments or unguents. Back to text
dispaint: paint, as in French “dépeindre”.
inter: bury. Back to text
Phoebus’ wrath: a reference to Apollo’s and Neptune’s ire against King Laomedon. See note on Hesione in Argumentum.
Neptune’s inundation: ibid. Back to text
Aegypseus: after Caxton’s “Egypseus”: “This Pryamus [Priam] had espoused and wedded a much noble lady daughter of Egypseus, king of Thrace” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 1). Le Fèvre is following one of two traditions making Hecuba a Thracian princess commonly identified as daughter to King Cisseus (Euripides, Hecuba, 3, followed by Virgil, Aeneid, VII, 320, and X, 705). In the other tradition, she is the daughter of the Phrygian King Dymas (Homer, Iliad, XVI, 715). Boccaccio describes Hecuba as “Cisseus’ daughter” (Genealogia, VI, xiv, as from Micyllus’ 1532 Basel edition). But in earlier editions of Boccaccio’s Genealogia (1472, 1481, 1494, 1511), she is presented as “Hecuba filia Cipsei” instead of "filia Cissei". The form Cipseus led to Cypseus in some manuscripts of Le Fèvre, and “Gypseus” in others: Caxton may have read “Gypseus” as the truncated form of Egypseus and consequently “restored” the name to the full form. Back to text
Hecuba: Priam divorced his first wife Arisbe and wedded Hecuba, who bore him nineteen children—up to fifty according to Euripides.
Deiphebus: Deiphobus; following Caxton’s “Deyphebus”, but also for the homophony with “Phoebus”. Back to text
Polydore: Polydorus. Following Caxton: “Virgil recounteth that he had two other sons by his wife of whom that one was named Polidorus […]. That other son was named Gaminedes [Ganymede]” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 1). Actually nothing in the Aeneid (III, 22ff.) testifies to his parentage. Polydorus is a son of Hecuba in the opening scene of Euripides’ eponymous play (Hecuba, 3), while according to the Iliad his mother is Laothoe. See Heywood’s appended notes at the end of the canto: “Polydor was son to Priam and Hecuba, who was committed to Polynestor [Polymestor], to be kept in the time of the Trojan wars with a great sum of money”. Back to text
Hebe’s: F, Aebes place, a probable typographer’s mistake for “Hebe’s place” as is clear from Caxton’s “That other son was named Gaminedes [Ganymede] / Whom Jupiter ravished and made him his butler, in the stead of Hebe the daughter of Juno whom he put out of that said office” (Recuyell, III, 1).
Polyxene: Polyxena. Back to text
Arms: the passage on weapons (stanzas 20-25) is not in Caxton, but closely follows Langley’s Abridgement, II, vii, “The beginning of war with other things concerning the same”, which is largely inspired from Pliny’s Natural History, VII, on inventions, §200-202. Back to text
Diodorus: see Polydore Vergil, “as Diodorus thinketh, the manner of war was found out by Mars”. On the following page, Polydore Vergil continues: “Diodorus affirmeth that Mars forged first weapons, and armed soldiers with them, and therefore the finding out of them is attributed to him; but the instruments of war were found by diverse men at sundry times” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 48v).
Pallas: the Greek goddess of war, Athena. See Polydore Vergil: “Chivalry, wherein is declared the manly courage of noble captains, was devised (as Tully saith) by Pallas” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 58r). Polydore Vergil is referring to Cicero’s De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods, III, 21.53) where Minerva/Athena is pictured as “the fabled patroness and originator of warfare”. Back to text
Tubal-Cain: see again Polydore Vergil, “Albeit Josephus telleth that Tubalcain, which was afore the flood did first practise feats of arms, whereby it appeareth that the use of wars is of great antiquity, but it is uncertain who was the first warrior” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 58r). In Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94 AD), Flavius Josephus insists on Tubal-Cain’s martial look: “And as touching Tubal […] he surpassed all other his brethren in force, and bravely managed the affairs of war […]. He it was that first invented the art of forging” (trans. Thomas Lodge, 1602, I, 3, “Of the posterity of Adam”). Back to text
Vulcan: smith and craftsman.
stith’: stithy, anvil.
Homer: the Olympian smith crafted Zeus’ Aegis (Iliad, XV, 310ff.), Diomedes’ breastplate (Iliad, VIII, 194-95), Achilles’ armour (Iliad, XVIII, 468-617) and many other weapons, helmets and shields for gods and heroes. The reference to Homer and Vulcan is not in Polydore Vergil. Back to text
Lacedaemons: Spartans. Polydore Vergil: “Helmets, swords, and spears, the Lacedemonians found” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 48v).
found: invented.
Haberion: habergeon, a sleeveless coat or jacket of mail or scale armour (OED). Polydore Vergil: “The haberion was devised by Midius [Midias] Messenius” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 48v).
Midias Messenius: Midias of Messene. See Heywood’s endnotes: “Mideus was called Messenius, of Messe, a town in Peloponnesus”. Back to text
Aetolus: see Polydore Vergil: “Leg-harness and crests of sallets were invented by the Carians, javelins Etolas, darts with thongs or strings by Etolus, son to Mars” (Langley’s Abridgement, fols. 48v-49r). Heywood simplifies somewhat Polydore Vergil’s version and inserts the final part of the quotation in a marginal note. Pliny: “Light spears were invented by the Aetolians, the spear thrown with a thong by Aetolus son of Mars” (trans. Mary Beagon, Oxford University Press, 2005). From Pliny’s text, we understand that Polydore Vergil’s “Etolas” stands for the Aetolians. Aetolus is the eponymous ancestor of the Aetolian people inhabiting the northwestern parts of Greece.
compiled: devised, made up. Back to text
Herodotus: Polydore Vergil’s “[…] yet Herodotus supposeth the targets and sallets to be the invention of the Egyptians, and so to have come into Greece” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 48v). Heywood substitutes “helmets” to “targets”, light round shields.
sallets: also salades, i.e. in medieval armour, a light head-piece without a crest, the lower part curving outwards at the back (OED).
Carians: Polydore Vergil is here credited in a marginal reference: “Leg-harness and crests of sallets were invented by the Cariens [Carians]” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 48v). Heywood leaves out the “crests of sallets” having already devoted a line to sallets. Caria was a district of Asia Minor. Back to text
Polydore: F, Polidor.
Jason: not in Polydore Vergil, who refers to Jason elsewhere (III, xi) as the inventor of the galley.
Fulvius Flaccus: F, Fulvius Flachus. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, a Roman consul who fought the second Punic war. After being defeated by Hannibal at the first battle of Capua in 212 B.C., he laid siege to the city, and took it over the following year. Polydore Vergil: “jousting spears and morris-pikes [were invented] by Tyrrhenus: they were used first in the siege of Capua, that Fulgius [Fulvius] Flaccus laid to it” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 49r). A morris-pike is a spike supposed to be of Moorish origin. Back to text
joustings spears: jousting-spears.
Tyrrhenus: F, Tyrhenus; mythical ancestor of the Tyrrheni, or Etruscan people.
Plutarch: There is no reference to Plutarch concerning the siege of Padua in Polydore Vergil. Jacques Amyot appended to his translation into French of Plutarch’s Lives a translation into French by Charles de l’Escluse of Donato Acciaiuoli’s Hannibalis atque Scipionis praestissimorum ducum Historia (Zwolle: A. Kempen, 1502), which Thomas North translated into English together with Plutarch’s Lives. It is in Acciaiuoli’s “Life of Hannibal” in North’s Plutarch that Heywood could find a reference to Fulvius Flaccus’ role in the battle of Padua. Back to text
brown bill: a kind of halberd painted brown, as used by foot-soldiers and watchmen.
Polydore Vergil: “bills [were invented] by the Thracians” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 49r). Back to text
Pises: F, Pyses; Pisaeus, son of Tyrrhenus, according to Pliny. Polydore Vergil: “Penthesilea imagined pole-axes, and Piseus hunting staves” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 49r).
Penthesilea: daughter of Mars, queen of the Amazons. She sided with the Trojans and perished at the hands of Achilles. Polydore Vergil: “Penthesilea imagined pole-axes” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 49r).
Cretans: see “Of all engines of war, the Cretans found first the crossbows” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 49r). Back to text
quarries: quarrels, i.e. square-headed arrows.
bolts: arrows, especially short and stout, blunt-headed ones, shot from a crossbow or other device.
Syrians: see “the Syrians [found] quarrels, or bolts” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 49r).
Phoenicians: see “the Phoenicians found brakes and slings” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 49r). Back to text
brakes: crossbows, or ballistas.
lists: place of combat.
Acrisius: see Heywood’s endnotes, “Of Acrisius we have spoke before, the father of Danae. His brother Proetus sought to dispossess him of his kingdom, and they are said to be the first that used a shield in battle”. This follows Polydore Vergil: “shields [were devised] by Proetus and Acrisius as they fought together” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 48v). See Apollodorus: “These two quarrelled with each other while they were still in the womb, and when they were grown up they waged war for the kingdom, and in the course of the war they were the first to invent shields” (The Library, II, ii, 1. Trans. J. G. Frazer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1921). Back to text
Epeus: “The Rammer [battering ram] called in Latin Aries, wherewith walls be overthrown, was made by Aepeus at Troy” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 49r). A son of Panopeus, he built the Trojan horse with the help of Athena (Odyssey, VIII, 493ff.; Aeneid, II, 264).
Tortoise: testudo, i.e. a shelter formed by a body of troops locking their shields together above their heads (OED). Back to text
Artemon Clazemonius: Artemon of Clazomenae, after the name of a city on the Ionian coast. See Polydore Vergil: “[t]hey sought a tortoise called in Latin “testudo” to mine walls, [which] Artemon Clazemonius instituted” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 49r-v). The story derives from Plutarch’s “Life of Pericles”, XXVII, iii-iv. In Thomas North’s 1579 translation, “Ephorus, the historiographer, writeth that it was there, where first of all they began to use engines of war to pluck down great walls, and that Pericles used first this wonderful invention, and that Artemon, an engineer, was the first deviser of them. He was carried up and down in a chair to set forward these works because he had a lame leg, and for this cause he was called Periphoretos. But Heraclides Ponticus confuteth Ephorus therein by the verses of Anacreon, in the which Artemon is called Periphoretos many years before the war of Samos began, and saith that this Periphoretos was a marvellous, tender man and so foolishly afeared of his own shadow that the most part of his time he stirred not out of his house, and did sit always having two of his men by him that held a copper target over his head for fear least anything should fall upon him. And if upon any occasion he were driven to go abroad out of his house, he would be carried in a little bed hanging near the ground, and for this cause he was surnamed Periphoretos” (p. 183). See Heywood’s endnotes. Back to text
Bellerophon: Bellerophon managed to tame the wild immortal winged horse Pegasus. See “The way to reclaim [i.e. tame or train] and ride horses, after the judgement of Pliny, Bellerophon taught first, which rode the swift Pegasus” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 49v). Back to text
Sagittarius: featured as an archer, half man, half horse.
backed: mounted.
jennet: a small Spanish horse. Back to text
divine: think, believe.
trappings: a richly ornamented caparison.
Pelethronians: F, Peletronians. See Heywood’s appended notes: “The Peletronii were the Lapiths, who first found the use of bridles, bits, and snaffles, so called of Peletronium, a town in Thessaly”. Polydore Vergil: “Bridles, bites, horse harness or trappers the Pelethronians, a nation of Thessaly, found, and as some think the cast [skill, art] to break wild horses was learnt of them” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 50r). See also Virgil, Georgics, III, 115. Back to text
Almain: a German. See Polydore Vergil: “But of all other that ever were devised to the destruction of man, the guns be most devilish, which was perceived by a certain Almain, whose name is not known. After this sort, it chanced that he had in a mortar powder of brimstone that he had beaten for a medicine, and covered it with a stone, and as he stroke fire it fortuned a spark to fall into the powder; by and by there rose a great flame out of the mortar, and lift up the stone wherewith it was covered a great height. And after he had perceived that, he made a pipe of iron, and tempered [prepared by mingling, concocted] the powder, and so finished this deadly engine, and taught the Venetians the use of it, when they warred against the Genuates [Genoese], which was in the year of our lord 1380. For this invention he received this benefit that his name was never known lest he might for this abominable device have been cursed and evil spoken of whilst the world standeth” (Langley’s Abridgement, fol. 49v). Back to text
Florentine History: F, historie florentina. Machiavelli’s Istorie Fiorentine, first published in 1532, was translated into English by Thomas Bedingfield in 1595 under the title The Florentine Historie. “Then the Genovesi [Genoese] (who diverse years had lived under government of the Visconti) rebelled. Betwixt them and the Venetians (for the Island called Tenedo) grew wars of great importance, and divided all Italy. In these wars was great shot and artillery first seen, as instruments then newly devised by the Almains. And albeit the Genovesi had for a time in this war the advantage, and diverse months besieged Venice, yet in the end the Venetians had the better, and by mediation of the Pope made peace in the year 1381” (The Florentine Historie, London: Thomas Creede for William Ponsonby, 1595, I, vi, p. 23) (STC 17162).
Genoese: F, Genoes. Back to text
Priam: See Heywood’s appended notes, “The description of the Trojans be according to Dares the Trojan, who lived in the wars of Troy, and writ their utter subversion”. Following Le Fèvre, Caxton mentions Dares in Recuyell, III, 1, where he briefly describes the gates of Troy, Priam and his progeny, before returning to the king more extensively—still under the aegis of Dares—some twenty pages later (III, 4). It is this second passage Heywood draws on and fleshes out. Heywood follows Caxton closely and introduces the elements in the same order (this passage is a good illustration of Heywood’s method: “Of them that were within Troy, the same Dares saith first of King Pryant [Priam] that he was long grizzle and fair, and had a low voice, right hardy. And that gladly ate early in the morning, a man without dread, and that hated flatterers. He was veritable [speaking the truth] and good justicier. And gladly he heard sing and sounds of music. And strongly loved his knights and enriched them” (Recuyell, III, 4).
Dares: in F, this marginal note faces stanza 23. A Trojan priest mentioned in the Iliad (V, 9), believed to have written a history of the destruction of Troy, De Excidio Troiae Historia, probably written in the 5th century A.D., and still influential until late in the sixteenth century. Jean de Sponde included it in his edition of Homer’s works (Basel: Herwagen, 1583). Dares is not once mentioned by Polydore Vergil either in his chapter on the beginning of war nor by Pliny in the corresponding chapter. Heywood may be referring to Dares via Caxton (see stanza 26). Back to text
Hector: see Caxton’s “Of all his sons there was none so hardy as was Hector, the oldest son of King Pryant [Priam]. This was he that passed in his time all other knights in puissance, and was a little besgue [modern French “bègue”, i.e. having a stutter]. He was great, And had hard members and might souffre [suffer] much pain, and was much hairy and crisp and lisped. There issued never out of Troy so strong a man nor so worthy. Nor there issued never out of his mouth a villainous word. He was never weary of fighting in batayle [battle]. There was never knight better beloved of his people than he was” (Recuyell, III, 4). In Les Illustrations de Gaule et Singularitez de Troye, Jean Lemaire de Belges gives a similar description of Hector, including his stutter: Hector “estoit un peu lousche, comme escript Dares de Frigie et besguioit de la langue quant il estoit course”, I, xli (Paris: Geoffroy de Marnef, 1512), fol. 76r. (“Hector squinted a little as Dares Phrygian writes, and had a stutter when he was angry”). The common source for Le Fèvre/Caxton and Lemaire de Belges is Dares Phrygius, De Excidio Troiae Historia (12), where Hector is described as both “blaesus” and “strabus”.
airy: delicate. Back to text
Pannonian: pertaining to ancient Pannonia, an extensive region situated between the Danube and the Alps. See Caxton: “At his court Hector, his eldest son, was not for he was in the parties of Pannonye [Pannonia] on the affairs and certain works of his father for as much as Pannonye was subject unto King Pryant [Priam]” (Recuyell, III, 1). See stanza 60, where Hector is said to have conquered three kingdoms, Pannonia, Phrygia and Thrace.
cask: head-piece, helmet [French “casque”]. Back to text
fluence: fluency.
behooves: befits.
Paris: “Parys [Paris] was a passing fair knight and strong, soft-haired and true, swift and sweet of speech, tote mouthed, well drawing a bow, wise and hardy in batayle [battle] and well assured and covetous of lordship” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 4). “[T]ote mouthed” appears as “tutmouthed” in the 1597 edition. Tut-mouthed signifies having protruding lips or alternately a projecting under jaw.
dream: shortly before giving Paris’s birth, Hecuba dreamt she brought forth a firebrand. The baby was exposed on Mount Ida, but was rescued by shepherds, who brought him up. They named him Alexander (“the defender”) because of the care he took in protecting the flocks. Back to text
chess: this marginal comment is preceded by the mention “Paris” in F, probably duplicated from the previous marginal note (stanza 32). “The King Pryant [Priam] did do come all the people and habitants of the country there about, and made them dwell in the city, and there came so many that there was never city better anorned [adorned] with people and with noble men and citizens than it was. There were founden many games and plays, as the chess play, the tables [i.e. boards on which chess, draughts, backgammon, etc. are played] and the dice and other diverse games” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 1). Le Fèvre derived the Trojan origin of the chess game from Benoît de Sainte Maure, Le Roman de Troie, 3179-86. Back to text
seldom sad: F, seldome glad. This makes no sense in this context: “glad” and “sad” may have been inverted at the ends of lines 3 and 5.
glad: F, sad. Back to text
Deiphebus: see stanza 18. Caxton: “Deyphebus [Deiphebus] and Helenus were passing like of fashion in such wise [way] that a man might not well know that one from that other. And they resembled passing well the King Pryant [Priam] their father. Deyphebus [Deiphebus] was wise and hardy in arms” (Recuyell, III, 4).
clerk: a priest, here a soothsayer. Helenus is Cassandra’s twin brother. Like her, he received the gift of prophecy during a night spent in the sanctuary of the Thymbraean Apollo. Caxton: “And Helenus was a much wise clerk” (Recuyell, III, 4). Back to text
saws: sayings, speeches.
grubbed: one could readily imagine that the meaning is “grabbed”. But according to the OED the verb “grab” was not used before the 1800s, and “grub” is no acknowledged form variant. To “grub”, i.e. uproot, dig up does not fit either. Thomas Dekker has an enlightening passage: “If all the water in the Thames were ink, and all the feathers upon swans’ backs were pens, and all the smoky sails of western barges were white paper, and all the scriveners, all the clerks, all the schoolmasters, and all the scholars in the kingdom were set awriting, and all the years of the world yet to come, were to be employed only in that business, that ink would be spent, those pens grubbed close to the stumps, that paper scribbled all over, those writers wearied, and that time worn-out […]” (A strange horse-race at the end of which, comes in the catch-poles masque (1613), last page). The lexical field clearly suggests that “grubbed” means “worn-out from excessive use”. Back to text
Troilus: “Troylus [Troilus] was great and of great courage, well attempered [tempered] and sore beloved of young maidens. In force and gladness he resembled much to Hector, and was the second after him of prowess; and there was not in all the royaume [realm, kingdom] a more strong nor more hardy young man” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 4).
Calchas: the celebrated seer who accompanied the Greeks to Troy. Back to text
apprises: achievements.
comprise: comprehend, sum up.
encounter: style, behaviour when meeting someone.
Aeneas: “Eneas [Aeneas] had a great body, discreet marvellously in his works [deeds, conduct], well-bespoken and attempered [tempered] in his words, full of good counsel and of science conning [knowing]. He had his visage joyous and the eyes clear and grey, and was the richest man of Troy after the King Pryant [Priam] in towns and castles” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 4).
imparts: shares. Back to text
set: build or make of a person.
seild: rhyming with “filled”: seld, seldom.
Anchises: Aeneas was born from Anchises’ union with Venus. Back to text
Antenor: “Anthenor [Antenor] was long and lean, and spoke much, but he was discreet and of great industry, and whom the King Pryant [Priam] loved greatly, and that gladly played among his fellowship, and was a right wise man” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 4).
suspected: with the evolution of the Trojan cycle, the figure of Antenor changed, and from Priam’s closest counsellor, he came to be considered as a traitor, who helped deliver the city and the Palladium over to the Greeks. Back to text
Polydamas: F, Polydanus. “Polydamas his son was a goodly young man and a fair, hardy and of good manners, long and lean like his father, brown, and was strong in puissance of arms, and of well-attempered [tempered] words” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 4). Caxton relates Antenor’s and Polydamas’ betrayal of Troy in Recuyell, III, 25, entitled "How Anthenor [Antenor] and Aeneas spoke together among them for to deliver the city unto the Greeks by treason”.
swart: swarthy. Back to text
Menon: “The King Menon was great and a goodly knight, large shoulders, great arms, hard in the breast and of great prowess, and that brought many knights unto Troy” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 4).
disgraded: degraded, i.e. brought into dishonour.
Hecuba: “The Queen Hecuba was a rude woman and seemed better a man than a woman. She was a noble woman, passing sage, debonaire and honest, and loving the works of charity” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 4).
well-staid: steady, sober. Back to text
Andromache: “Andrometha [Andromache], the wife of Hector, was a passing fair woman and white, and that had fair eyes and fair hair. She was among all other women right honest and attempered [tempered] in her works [deeds, conduct]” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 4). Back to text
thews: manners.
endued: endowed. Back to text
Cassandra: “Cassandra was of fair stature and clear, round-mouthed, wise, shining eyes. She loved virginity, and knew much of things to come by astronomy and other sciences” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 4).
mean-statured: of medium, intermediate stature. Back to text
Polyxena: “Polyxena was a much fair daughter and tender, and was the very ray of beauty, in whom nature failed nothing save only that she made her mortal, and she was the fairest maid that was in her time, and the best formed. Many more were within the town and without during the siege. But these were the principal and greatest of name [names]. And therefore Dares declareth the fashion of them and rehearseth [gives a description] not of the other” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 4). Back to text
another’s colour: F, another colour’s. The emendation echoes the beginning of the second line, and fits in better. Back to text
46: F, 29. Back to text
complete: faultless, perfect.
cheat: escheat, in the sense of “hand over as an escheat”. See William Warner’s “And to his coffers did escheat a world of wealth” (The First and Second Parts of Albion’s England, 1589, V, 28, p. 126) (OED).
surplus: superabundance.
largesse: bountiful bestowal of gifts (by nature). Back to text
surview: survey, take a full view of.
quit: requite, avenge.
Hesione: see note to Argumentum 2. Back to text
percullised: portcullised, furnished with a portcullis.
Dardany: Dardania. The form chosen by Heywood, modelled on Caxton’s “Dardane” (Recuyell, III, 1), suits the meter and eye rhyme. Dardania is another name for Troy, after Dardanus, the mythical founder of the city.
Timbria: F, Fimbria, due to a misprint but “Tymbria” in Caxton (Recuyell, III, 1).
Helias: F, Hely; “Helyas” in Caxton (Recuyell, III, 1).
Chetas: from Caxton (Recuyell, III, 1). Back to text
Troyen: after Caxton’s “Troyenne” (Recuyell, III, 1).
Antenorides: from Caxton (Recuyell, III, 1). See Dares Phrygius, De Excidio Troiae Historia, 4; Lydgate in The History, Siege and Destruction of Troy (1513): “… had gates VI to enter into the town, / The first of all and strongest eke withal, / Largest also and most principal, / Of mighty building alone peerless, / Was by the king called Dardanydes, / And in story like as it is found, / Tymbria was named the second, / And the third called Helyas, / The fourth gate hight also Cetheas, / The fifth Troiana, the sixth Anthonydes” (Book II, fol. f1r), or Shakespeare’s 1602 Troilus and Cressida (Prologue, ll, 15-7): “Priam’s six-gated city― / Dardan and Timbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien / And Antenorides [Antenonidus in Shakespeare’s first folio]”. Back to text
staples: an authorized place of trade for foreign merchants.
marts: markets.
wares: articles of merchandise, goods. Back to text
Simois: F, Symois. A river-god whose waters flow from Mount Ida through the plains of Troy where they join the river Scamander. The name occurs throughout classical literature, but Caxton calls the river Paucus: “In this city were men of all crafts and merchants that went and came from all the parties [parts] of the world. In the middle of the city ran a great river named Paucus which bore ships and did great profit and solace unto the habitants” (Recuyell, III, 1). Caxton derives the name Paucus from Le Fèvre. This name has not been traced anywhere: it may derive from the name of another Trojan river, Xanthus, spelt “Xantus”. In some types of medieval handwriting, a capital “X” can be misread as a “P”; “n” and “u” are often interchanged, and confusions between “c” and “t” are frequent in Le Fèvre’s incunabula (see Vesca for Vesta). For the Simois, see Homer, Iliad, V, 774; and VI, 4; Virgil, Aeneid, V, 261. Back to text
lighters: boats or vessels, usually flat-bottomed barges, used in unloading (sometimes loading) ships that cannot be discharged (or loaded) at a wharf, etc., and for transporting goods of any kind, usually in a harbour (OED).
quays: F, keys, i.e. wharfs. Back to text
o’erpeering: looking upon from above.
vane: A metal plate having the form of a flag or banner bearing a coat of arms, esp. one supported by the figure of an animal, sometimes serving the purpose of a weather-cock (OED). See “Over the gates were arches with towers embattled set with vanes and scutcheons of the arms of the emperor and the king” (Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustrate Families of Lancaster and York, 1548, “Henry VIII”, fol. 96, STC 12721).
porphyr: porphyry. Back to text
terras: terraces.
bowers: dwellings, abodes. Back to text
Olympic: Olympian. Back to text
universe: orb, as part of a monarch’s regalia. Back to text
Palladium: see Heywood’s endnotes. Usually depicted as being a wooden effigy of the goddess Pallas, the Palladium is called “Jove’s branch” in canto VI, stanza 52. Caxton describes it as being made of wood (Recuyell, III, 25). But Heywood describes the Palladium as a tree with roots and branches. Natale Conti’s Mythologia, Heywood’s source for his endnotes on the Palladium, provides no such description. Heywood might be drawing upon Plutarch, who has the following description of the Palladium at Delphi: “And in a temple also in the city of Delphos, where was a little image of Minerva of gold, set upon a palm tree of copper... Upon that palm tree sat certain crows many days together, and never left pecking and jabbing at the fruit of it, which was all of gold, until they made the same to fall from the tree.” (Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans compared, transl. Sir Thomas North (London, 1579), p. 588.
strows: strews. Back to text
invested: in ceremonial dress.
eat: ate.
nones: rhyming with “stones”: “for the nonce”, for that purpose. Back to text
our sovereign: James I, who lavishly entertained foreign ambassadors.
sold: F, sould, for eye-rhyme.
Landgrave: F, Landsgrave. The name might refer to any of the several German Landgraves. One of them, however, Moritz (or Maurice) of Hesse-Cassel, was well known in London. His interest in the arts incited him to attract to his court English musicians―like John Dowland―and English comedians, as Heywood himself notes in An Apology for Actors, 1612, Book II, sig. Er and Book III, sig. G3r. Back to text
Brunswick: Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick (1564-1613), whose wife Elizabeth was Anne of Denmark’s sister. He was therefore James I’s brother-in-law.
Archduke: Albrecht VII, Archduke of Austria, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands (1559-1621).
Spaniard: Philip III, king of Spain.
pressed: crowded at James I’s court.
Greenwich: in 1606, the Danish King Christian IV sailed to England to visit his sister, Queen Anne, and his brother-in-law, King James I, and was magnificently entertained at Greenwich. This visit was commemorated in various publications by Henry Roberts, Ben Jonson, Sir John Harington, to mention but a few, compiled in John Nichols’ The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities of King James the First, vol. II, London, 1828. Back to text
Pannonia, Phrygia, Thrace: for Pannonia, see stanza 30. Heywood refers again to Hector’s conquests in The Iron Age, II, 1, citing other places: “I much have heard / Of such a knight called by the name of Hector, / If thou beest he whose sword hath conquered Kingdoms, / Pannonia, Illyria, and Samothrace [A Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea], / And to thy father’s empire added them …”. Back to text
tourneys: tournaments.
rare: of uncommon excellence. Back to text
father: Laomedon is defeated by Alcides (Hercules). See canto VII, stanza 89.
slew: overcame with affliction (OED, 3.11). Back to text
Peleus: following Caxton (Recuyell, III, 1). Peleus was king of Phthia in southern Thessaly. Back to text
Telamonis Ajax: Telamon Ajax, used for Ajax, son of Telamon. See line 8 of the same stanza (“Duke Ajax”), and stanza 95, line 6 (“[Paris] Shall rather see his aunt from Ajax freed”). Heywood is mistaken for it is Telamon who received Hesione from Hercules because he had entered the city of Troy first, as related in Caxton, Recuyell, II, 9 (see note to Argumentum)―not his son Ajax, born from his union with Hesione (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 11). Caxton himself calls Telamon Ajax “Thelamon” on several occasions, which is confusing. Heywood also gets confused about this filiation in Gynaikeion, or Nine Books of Various History (1624): “Telamon, the son of Ajax, had the praise in disco, or casting the bullet or the stone” (Book V, p. 228).
Salaminae: four syllables for metric purposes. “Salamyne” in Caxton. The place is Salamis, an island off the coast of Attica, whose king is Telamon. In Gynaikeion, or Nine Books of Various History (1624), Heywood also calls Telamon "Duke of Salamine" (VII, p. 359). Back to text
Bands: bonds. Back to text
maugre: F, mauger, i.e. in spite of; see the French “malgré”. Back to text
Achaia: “Achaye” in Caxton, a region of the Peloponnesus.
Castor and Pollux: the Dioscuri born from Jupiter’s liaison with Leda, Tyndarus’ wife. Jupiter took the shape of a swan to seduce Leda, who laid an egg from which Castor, Pollux and Helen were born. See Heywood’s appended note: “Castor and Pollux were two twins, whom Jupiter begot of Leda, Kings in Achaia, brothers to Helena”. Back to text
Nestor: Caxton indicates Nestor’s place as being “Pyllon”, i.e. Pylos, on the south-west coast of the Peloponnesus.
Atrids: Agamemnon and Menelaus, Atreus’ sons, not in Caxton, who does not mention the other Argive kings either.
pack: leave, depart. Back to text
disannul: to cancel, hence to avoid. Back to text
grand-sire: Laomedon. Back to text
vaunt: proclaim boastingly. Back to text
meed: worth. Silver Age: “thy body meeds a better grave” (Act I, B3), i.e. deserves. Back to text
guest: stranger, man.
vantbrace: F, vauntbrace; a defensive armour for the arm or forearm.
congeed: bowed in courtesy or obedience. Back to text
Ida: the name of the mountain where Paris had his dream.
three beauties: Juno, Pallas and Venus.
ball: the apple which Paris attributed to the most beautiful of the three goddesses, an event known as the judgement of Paris.
Venus: Venus promised, if he should choose her, to give him the most beautiful woman in Greece, i.e. Helen. Back to text
Indued: endowed. Back to text
surprisèd: captured.
preys: with a possible pun on pray, suggesting an opposition between Paris’ warlike behaviour and Helenus’ priestly prayers.
meet: (adv.) sufficiently, copiously, properly (OED).
hests: commands. Back to text
graced: F, gracst. Back to text
Cassandra: see Heywood’s endnotes, where he compares Cassandra’s bane that her predictions are never believed or understood and Tiresias’ similar predicament.
trammels: plaits, braids or tresses. Back to text
her: their. Back to text
God: F, gold.
speed: succeed in his purpose. Back to text
sooth: true. Back to text
Polydamas: F, Polydamus. See stanza 39.
Ajax: see note to stanza 69, line 5. Back to text
graced: F, gracst. See stanza 88. Back to text
[Heywood’s Endnotes to Canto VIII]
Ovid: Heywood quotes Ovid’s Art of Love, III, 405-16, which he may have started translating in the 1590s [M. L. Stapleton, Thomas Heywood’s Art of Love. The First Complete English Translation of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000), III, 580-95]. See canto V, endnotes. The later version follows this passage rather closely. Stapleton shows how the same passage was translated anew by Heywood in Hierarchy of the blessed angels (1635), Book IV, p. 242. Back to text
hard: heard.
Ennius: see note to stanza 1, line 3. Back to text
public: F, publish. Heywood’s Art of Love reads “public”.
place: the second excerpt is loosely derived from Ovid’s Art of Love, III, 535-38, 548-49—or, in Heywood’s later translation, III, 714-17, 727-29. Back to text
Nemesis: a courtesan, the subject of Tibullus’ second book of poetry.
Cynthia: she was the theme of Sextus Propertius’ first book of love elegies. Back to text
Lycoris: Gaius Cornelius Gallus’ mistress, for whom he composed four books of elegies that became a source of inspiration for Tibullus, Propertius and Ovid. Back to text
Corinna: to whom Ovid addressed his series of erotic poems, Amores. Back to text
Pierides: the nine daughters of King Pierus, who challenged the Muses to a contest of skill, which they lost, so that the Muses turned them into chattering magpies. Back to text
with: F, which.
Polymestor: F, Polynestor. See stanza 19, and also canto XV, stanza 93. A king of Thrace, who married one of King Priam’s daughters, Ilione. When Troy was besieged, Priam sent his youngest son, Polydorus, along with a large treasure, and consigned him to the care of Polymester. The latter remained faithful to his word so long as Troy withstood the Grecian onslaught. But as soon as tidings reached him of the fall of Troy and the death of King Priam, he slew Polydorus and took hold of the treasure. Back to text
Dares: see stanza 26.
Peletronii: called “Peletronians” in a marginal note to stanza 24. Back to text
snaffles: a simple form of bridle-bit without a curb.
Castor and Pollux: see stanza 72. Back to text
Epistle to Helena: Heywood’s translation of Ovid’s “Epistle of Paris to Helen” (Heroides, 16) is inserted in canto IX, after stanza 3. Back to text
Cassandra: see stanzas 89-94.
participated: shared. Back to text
strook: struck.
he: F, she, obviously a misprint. Back to text
Clazomenii: F, Clazemonii. See stanza 24. Although Heywood mentions Pliny, his direct source is Polydore Vergil as expounded above. According to Erasmus’ Adagia IV, i, 9, “Versatilis Artemon”, “Artemonem adulescentem fuisse quempiam certatim adamatum a mulieribus ob insignem formam” (“Artemon was a young man for whose love women competed because of his great beauty.”) Back to text
Mideus: see stanza 21. Back to text
Messe: Messene. Back to text
Proetus: F, “Praetus”. See stanza 23. Back to text
Palladium: see stanza 57. The passage on the Palladium is borrowed from Natale Conti’s Mythologia, IV, 5, “On Pallas”. Conti’s source seems to have been Tzetzes’ Commentary on Lycophron, 355. According to Conti, “apellata sunt Palladia, ut dicere solebat Pherecydes, omnes imagines, quae manibus non essent factae, et omnes quae forent è coelo in terram dejectae, cujusmodi fuisse dicitur illud Minervae celeberrimum Palladium. Id enim fuisse trium cubitorum fertur, et è coelo in Pesinuntem Phrygiae civitatem, quae ab eo casu nomen obtinuit, ut Dio putavit, et Diodorus delapsum. Quanquam non desuerunt historici qui ab alio casu circa Ganymedem raptum cum multi ibi in bello cecidissent, quo tempore Ilus frater Ganymedis adversus Tantalum, quem rapuisse Ganymedem putabat, dimicaret ita vocatum fuisse crediderint. Joannes Antiocheus Palladium illud non quidem de coelo cecidisse scribit, sed ab Asio quodam philosopho, ad cujus gratiam vocata sit Asia mundi pars, ac mathematico per optimum horoscopum fabre factum: ita ut illa civitas esset inexpugnabilis, in qua illud Palladium inviolatum servaretur: quod etiam largitus est Troianis.
…
Quidam addiderunt dificultatibus capiendae Troiae sagittas Herculis, quae dono datae fuerant Philoctetae, cui moriens Hercules in Oeta, monte inter Thessaliam et Macedoniam mandavit ne cui corporis sui reliquias indicaret, atque illud factum juramento affirmari voluit, cum donavit illi sagittas. Sed cum post modo, Delphicum oraculum Graecos monuisset Troiam sine sagittis Herculis capi non posse, aut sine reliquiis corporis, inventus est Philoctetes, et de Hercule interrogatus negavit se quidquam scire. Sed cum maxime cogeretur, ne jus jurandum violaret, tacuit quidem sed pede locum ostendit.” Mythologia, IV, 5 (Venice: Comin da Trino, 1581), p. 201-02.
(“As Pherecydes used to say, the Ancients called ‘Palladia’ all statues that were not made by hand, and all those that were thrown from Heaven onto earth, among which the most famous was said to be Minerva’s. That Palladium was reported to measure three cubits and to have fallen from the sky in Pesinus, a town in Phrygia, which took its name from that event, as Dio and Diodorus wrote. Some historians, however, believed that it was given that name because of another event, that took place around the time of the abduction of Ganymede, when many soldiers died as Ilus, Ganymede’s brother, waged war against Tantalus whom he thought had kidnapped Ganymede. John of Antioch writes that the Palladium did not fall from the sky but was made by one Asius, a philosopher and mathematician whose name was given in gratitude to that part of the world called Asia. Asius had made the Palladium according to the best-calculated horoscope so that the city in which it would be preserved and kept untouched would be inexpugnable; and it was bestowed upon the Trojans.
[Here Heywood omits a paragraph in which Conti explains how the Palladium fell in front of Ilus as he was following a spotted cow on his way to founding Troy.]
Some added that Hercules’ arrows also made it difficult to take Troy. When Hercules was dying on Mount Oeta, between Thessaly and Macedonia, he gave his arrows to Philoctetes against the oath he made him take, that he would never reveal where his ashes were. But when the Delphic oracle warned the Greeks that they could not take Troy without Hercules’ arrows or his remains, they found Philoctetes who, when asked after Hercules, claimed that he did not know anything. But as they pressed him further, he stayed silent, not to break the authority of his oath, but showed the place with his foot.”) Back to text
Palladia: Either Heywood misinterpreted the Latin or his wording is ambiguous (“all such images as are made without hands”). See preceding note on Palladium. Back to text
Pherecydes: Fragmente der Grieschichen Historiker, 1, A, 3, fr.79. Heywood derives the reference from Natale Conti’s Mythologia: see note on Palladium above. Back to text
Dio, Diodorus: Dio and Diodorus, quoted by Tzetzes on Lycophron, 355, ed. Christian Gottfried Müller (Leipzig: F. C. G. Vogel, 1811), p. 556. Tzetzes was available in the edition printed by Oporin in Basel (1546), but Heywood draws his knowledge from Natale Conti’s Mythologia. See note on Palladium above. Back to text
Cybel: Cybele; F, Sibell. This is not in Conti’s passage on Pallas. A city of Asia Minor, Pessinus was celebrated as a major seat of the worship of Cybele, a Phrygian goddess. The temple contained a wooden image of the goddess―or stone according to Livy―which was later carried to Rome. Back to text
Ilus: F, Icus. The episode of the Palladium falling from heaven is related in canto V, stanza 9, of Troia Britanica.
censure: opinion, judgement.
Johannes Antiochus: John of Antioch, quoted by Tzetzes on Lycophron, 355, ed. Christian Gottfried Müller (Leipzig: F. C. G. Vogel, 1811), p. 557. Heywood borrows the reference from Conti’s Mythologia: see note on Palladium above.
Hercules: the passage on Hercules’ shafts is likewise borrowed from Natale Conti: see note on Palladium above.
Philoctetes: a friend and armour-bearer of Hercules. He received Hercules’ bow and arrows for kindling the hero’s funeral pyre on Mount Oeta.
Oeta: a mountain in south Thessaly, celebrated in mythology as the place where Hercules burnt himself to death.
Back to Canto VIII (1-50)
Back to Canto VIII (51-96)
How to cite
Patricia Dorval, ed., 2013. Troia Britanica Canto VIII, 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+VIII
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