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. xxxiii).
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.
Noble 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 title-pages of the pamphlets will be found in the Bibliography (vol. ii., p. lvii).