Part 42 (1/2)

Dr. Grosart hunted out an obscure Neapolitan, Marcus Aurelius Severino, and ascribed to him the originals of these translations. They are of course from the _De Consolatione Philosophiae_ of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, and are a continuation of the pieces already printed in _Olor Isca.n.u.s_ (pp. 125-143).

P. 245. Pious Thoughts and e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns.

These are much in the vein of _Silex Scintillans_. They probably belong to various dates later than 1655, when the second part of that collection appeared. _The Nativity_ (p. 259) is dated 1656, and _The True Christmas_ (p. 261) was apparently written after the Restoration.

P. 261. The True Christmas.

Vaughan was no Puritan; _cf._ his lines on _Christ's Nativity_ (vol. i., p. 107)--

”Alas, my G.o.d! Thy birth now here Must not be numbered in the year,”

but he was not much in sympathy with the ideals of the Restoration either; _cf._ the pa.s.sage on ”our unjust ways” in _Daphnis_ (p. 284).

P. 267. De Salmone.

On Thomas Powell, _cf._ p. 57, note.

P. 272. The Bee.

_Hilarion's servant, the sage crow._ There seems to be some confusion between Hilarion, an obscure fourth-century Abbot, and Paul the Hermit, of whom it is related in his _Life by S. Jerome_ that for sixty years he was daily provided with half a loaf of bread by a crow.

P. 278. Daphnis.

The subject of the Eclogue appears to be Vaughan's brother Thomas, who died 27th February, 1666. On him _see_ the _Biographical Note_ (vol.

ii., p. x.x.xiii).

_true black Moors_; an allusion, perhaps, to Thomas Vaughan's controversy with Henry More.

_Old Amphion_; perhaps Matthew Herbert, on whom see note to p. 158.

_The Isis and the prouder Thames._ Thomas Vaughan was buried at Albury, near Oxford.

_n.o.ble Murray._ Thomas Vaughan's patron, himself a poet and alchemist, Sir Robert Murray, Secretary of State for Scotland. His poems have been collected by the Hunterian Club.

FRAGMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS.

The larger number of the verses in this section are translated quotations scattered through Vaughan's prose-pamphlets. Dr. Grosart identified some of the originals; I have added a few others; but the larger number remain obscure and are hardly worth spending much labour upon. The t.i.tle-pages of the pamphlets will be found in the _Bibliography_ (vol. ii., p. lvii).

P. 289. From Eucharistica Oxoniensia.

I have already, in the _Biographical Note_ (vol. ii., p. xxviii), given reasons for doubting whether this poem is by the Silurist. It was first printed as his by Dr. Grosart. Charles the First was in Scotland, trying to settle his differences with the Scots, during the closing months of 1641.