Aeneas, a mythic warrior who survived the fall of Troy, es- caping from the ruined and burning city, and carrying his aged father Anchises out of it on his shoulders. For seven years he sailed the Mediterranean, then landed in Italy, founded a city, and became the ancestor of Romulus, the founder of Rome. Alexander the Great, king of Macedon (born 356 B.C., died 323 B.C.), conquered the Persian empire and pushed on as far as India.
Amurath IV, Sultan of Turkey, succeeded his father Amurath III in 1596, invited all his brothers to a feast in honour of his acces- sion, and had them all strangled at it.
Aristotle, a famous Greek philo- sopher.
Ate, the goddess in old Greek mythology who punishes men for rash and wild deeds. Spenser in The Fairy Queen places her dwelling hard by the gates of hell', and describes her as 'born of hellish brood', and being her- self the 'mother of debate'.
Bacchanals: see Thracian singer. Barbary, the Saracen countries along the North coast of Africa. Barrabas, Barabbas. This form is used by Shakespeare and Mar- lowe.
Brutus (121, 1. 134; 123, 1. 58). The royal family of the Tarquins were driven from Rome, and Rome itself was made a republic, because Sextus Tarquinius dis- honoured a noble Roman lady named Lucretia. The man who headed the rising against the Tar-
quins was Lucius Junius Brutus, an ancestor of the Brutus in Shakespeare's play. See Macau- lay's Lays of Ancient Rome.
Caesar's brag (35, 1. 20). In the summer of 47 B.C. Julius Caesar by rapid movements mastered Asia Minor. After striking down King Pharnaces of Pontus and storming his camp at Zela, he summed up the success in three words Veni, vidi, vici, 'I came, I saw, I conquered.' Caperdochie, a high-sounding name for the stocks.
Cassibelan, a British chieftain
whose tribe lived in Middlesex. He was entrusted with the chief command against Julius Caesar in 54 B.C., the second Roman invasion of Britain, and he was conquered.
Cato, a famous Roman who fought on the republican side against Julius Caesar. He is often spo- ken of as a type of 'the ancient Roman honour'. He killed him- self at Utica in North Africa, 46 B.C., to avoid falling into Caesar's hands after the repub- lican defeat. His daughter Portia married Brutus, the murderer of Caesar.
Charles's Wain, the Great Bear. Colchos. See Jason. Colossus, a gigantic figure of Apollo, 70 cubits high, standing over the entrance to the harbour of Rhodes; anciently one of the seven wonders of the world'. Crispian, Crispin, two brothers, shoemakers, martyred at Soissons in France about the year 287 A.D. Their day is October 25.
Fates. The three goddesses of Fate are mentioned rather ab- surdly in this book (199, 211), though Brutus has a serious reference to them (127). In the old myths they are three sisters, the daughters of Night, who watched over man's life; they were Clotho ('the Spinner') who spun the thread of life, Lachesis (the Disposer of Lots') who decided how long the thread should be, and Atropos ('the Un- avoidable') who cut it off. Ferryman (89). To pass from this world to the next, according to the old Greek and Roman idea, your spirit had to cross the river Styx (Loathing'), over which it was ferried by Charon, a dark and grim old man dressed in a black sailor's cloak. A small coin to pay the fare was put in the mouth of the dead.
Jason, the captain of the Argo- nauts, who sailed in the Argo, the first of ships, to the land of Colchis (or 'Colchos', as Shake- speare calls it) and captured there the golden fleece hung up in the grove of the Wargod. See Kings- ley's Heroes.
Jove, or Jupiter, the chief god of the Romans. It seems funny to us that Henry V in his great speech at Agincourt should swear by him (78, 1. 24), but these heathen oaths are often found in old plays, because in 1606 an Act of Parliament was passed to stop the free use of the word God' on the stage.
Katherine's, Saint, a royal hos- pital and college founded by Queen Matilda, wife of King Stephen, in 1148. The buildings were near the Tower, but have been removed to make way for St. Katherine's Docks.
Lethe, the River of Forgetful- ness one of the rivers in the other world according to the Greeks and Romans. The spirits of the dead drank of the water, and thus forgot their old life on earth.
*Limander (209). B. means Leander who swam the Helles- pont every night to visit his love Hero, and at last was drowned in crossing.
Lucifer. See Isaiah xiv. 12. Lud's town (36), London. Lud was a mythical king who was believed to have built Ludgate in 66 B.C.
Lupercal, on the (135), a primi- tive shepherd-feast at Rome, held on February 15, at the foot of the Aventine hill where Romulus and Remus were be- lieved to have been suckled by the she-wolf.
Mars, the Roman god of war,
Mercury, the messenger of the gods in the old mythology, and represented as wearing a winged cap and winged sandals which made him swift as the wind. Muse, one of the nine goddesses of poetry in the old mythology. Nazarite (153), Nazarene, or na- tive of Nazareth. This form of the name is found in all transla- tions of the Bible before 1611. Neptune, the Roman god of the
Nero, emperor of Rome, 54-68 A.D. His most brutal crime was the murder of his mother Agrip- pina.
Nervii, a Gallic tribe living in modern Belgium, conquered by Caesar in 57 B. C. after a stubborn battle in which Caesar himself showed great bravery. Sir Tho- mas North (whom Shakespeare used) describes the Nervii as 'the stoutest warriors of all the Belgae'.
Nicholas, Saint, popularly looked upon as the patron saint of thieves (his clerks as they are called, 215). It is supposed that his name got mixed up with that of 'old Nick'.
Olympus, the famous mountain of Thessaly which the Greeks be- lieved to be the home of their gods. Pannonians, a tribe who lived in modern Hungary.
*Phibbus (199). B. means 'Phoe- bus'.
Phoebus, Apollo, the Sungod, and the god of song.
Plato, a famous Greek philo- sopher.
Pluto, the Greek god of the under- world, or region of the dead; and so lord of the gold and mineral treasure lying underground. Pompey, a Roman general and statesman, born 106 B. C. became the rival of Julius Caesar,
and was defeated by him at the battle of Pharsalus, 48 B. C. Fly- ing from the battle he was killed in Egypt.
Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher, born about 580 B. C. He is said to have believed that when any creature died, its soul passed into another living body, human or animal, and so went on from life to life, being itself immortal. Rialto, the money-market or Ex- change of Venice.
Rome, and Room (121). A pun: 'Rome' in Shakespeare's day was pronounced 'Room '.
Shafalus and Procrus (209). Pro- perly, Cephalus and Procris, two lovers in the old mythology. Procris, jealous of Cephalus, fol- lowed him in his hunting; and he mistook her for an animal as he heard her move through the covert, and killed her. Sisters, Three (212). See Fates. Tarquin (123). See Brutus. Tartar (68), Tartarus, a name for hell in the Greek and Roman mythology.
Thisne (199). A silly pronuncia- tion of Thisbe'. Thracian singer (205), Orpheus, who, when his wife Eurydice was killed by a snake, won his way into the other world by his divine skill as a harper, and was allowed to take her back to life if he did not look back at her until she reached the earth; on the very brink of the light he looked back and saw her fade away. In his grief he wandered harping through the wild places of the earth, and was torn in pieces by a band of Bacchanals, or women worship- pers of Bacchus, upon whose secret rites he had intruded. Tisiphon, Tisiphone. See Furies. Trojan (215), a slang name for a thief.
Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press by HORACE HART, M.A.
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