[179] Hoped and unhoped, anciently meant only expected and unexpected. Puttenham, in his "Art of English Poesie," 1589, mentions the Tanner of Tamworth, who, in his broad dialect, said to King Edward, upon discovering his rank, and remembering the familiarities he had used with him while in disguise; "I hope I shall be hanged to-morrow," for "I fear me I shall be hanged." The use of the verb hope, was therefore limited to its present sense, even in Queen Elizabeth's time. But Dryden, in translating an old poet, used some latitude in employing ancient language.
[180] There may be room to suspect, that the line should run,
A court of coblers, and a mob of kings;
as better expressing the confusion of ideas incident to dreaming.
[181] Kenelm, son of Kenulph, king of Mercia, was murdered at the age of seven years by his sister Quendreda, and accounted a martyr.
[182] This vision Chaucer found, not in Homer, but in Dares Phrygius. Shakespeare alludes to it:
——Come, Hector, come, go back,
Thy wife hath dreamed.——
[183] In principio refers to the beginning of Saint John's Gospel.
[184] Taken from a fabulous conversation between the Emperor Adrian and the philosopher Secundus, reported by Vincent de Beauvais, Spec. Hist. Quid est Mulier? Hominis confusio; in saturabilis bestia, &c. The Cock's polite version is very ludicrous.
[185] Indulging, as usual, his political antipathies, Dryden fails not to make the fox a Puritan.