Page 80. Elegie II.
l. 4. Though they be Ivory, yet her teeth be jeat: i.e. 'Though her eyes be yellow as ivory, her teeth are black as jet.' The edition of 1669 substitutes 'theirs' for 'they', referring back to 'others'. Grosart follows.
l. 6. rough is the reading of 1633, 1669, and all the best MSS. Chambers and Grosart prefer the 'tough' of 1635-54, but 'rough' means probably 'hairy, shaggy, hirsute'. O.E.D., Rough, B. I. 2. Her hair is in the wrong place. To have hair on her face and none on her head are alike disadvantageous to a woman's beauty.
Page 81, ll. 17-21. If we might put the letters, &c. Compare:
As six sweet Notes, curiously varied
In skilfull Musick, make a hundred kindes
Of Heav'nly sounds, that ravish hardest mindes;
And with Division (of a choice device)
The Hearers soules out at their ears intice:
Or, as of twice-twelve Letters, thus transpos'd,
The World of Words, is variously compos'd;
And of these Words, in divers orders sow'n
This sacred Volume that you read is grow'n
(Through gracious succour of th'Eternal Deity)
Rich in discourse, with infinite Variety.
Sylvester, Du Bartas, First Week, Second Day.
Sylvester follows the French closely. Du Bartas' source is probably:
Quin etiam passim nostris in versibus ipsis
Multa elementa vides multis communia verbis,
Cum tamen inter se versus ac verba necessest
Confiteare et re et sonitu distare sonanti,
Tantum elementa queunt permutato ordine solo.
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, I. 824-7.
Compare Aristotle, De Gen. et Corr. I. 2.
l. 22. unfit. I have changed the semicolon after this word to a full stop. The former suggests that the next two lines are an expansion or explanation of this statement. But the poet is giving a series of different reasons why Flavia may be loved.
ll. 41-2. When Belgias citties, the round countries drowne,
That durty foulenesse guards, and armes the towne:
Chambers, adopting a composite text from editions and MSS., reads:
Like Belgia' cities the round country drowns,
That dirty foulness guards and arms the towns.
Here 'the round country drowns' is an adjectival clause with the relative suppressed. But if the country actually drowned the cities the protector would be as dangerous as the enemy. The best MSS. agree with 1633-54, and the sentence, though a little obscure, is probably correct: 'When the Belgian cities, to keep at bay their foes, drown (i.e. flood) the neighbouring countries, the foulness thus produced is their protection.' The 'cities' I take to be the subject. The reference is to their opening the sluices. See Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic, the account of the sieges of Alkmaar and Leyden. 'The Drowned Land' ('Het verdronken land') was the name given to land overflowed by the bursting of the dykes.