[Page 28, l. 1.]—This and the following stanza are quoted by Sir Harris Nicolas with just admiration. In fact, Drayton’s description of the marshalling and departure of the expedition are the best part of his poem.
[Page 29, ll. 4–6.] “In Ensignes there, Some wore the Armes of their most ancient Towne, Others againe their owne Diuises beare.”—The catalogue which follows is entirely in the spirit of Italian romantic poetry, and may be especially compared with that of Agramante’s allies and their insignia in the “Orlando Innamorato.” In many instances the device, as Drayton says, represents the escutcheon of some town within the county; in others he seems to have been indebted to his imagination, though endeavouring not unsuccessfully to adduce some reason for his choice.
[Page 30, l. 11.] “Brack.”—Brine.
[Page 30, l. 20.] “Lyam.”—A band or thong by which to lead a hound; hence lyme-hound.
[Page 31, l. 3.] “A Golden Fleece and Hereford doth weare.”—Grammar requires this line to begin And Hereford. Awkward dislocations, however, are not infrequent in Drayton.
[Page 31, l. 6.] “The Shiere whose surface seems most brute.”—George Eliot, like Drayton a native of fertile Warwickshire, entitles the neighbouring county Stonyshire.
[Page 33, l. 17.] “The Fleet then full,” etc.—Compare this fine stanza, which might have been written by one who had never been on shipboard, with the still more poetical and at the same time intensely realistic one of Shakespeare (“Henry V.,” act iii., prologue), which proves that he must have been at sea on some occasion:
“Play with your fancies, and in them behold
Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing;
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give