NOTES ON POEMS
371
PAGE
| 'that he remembered hay sold there in his early days.' | ||
| 30. | l. 19. | Course-a-Park] A country game, akin to Barley-break, and not unlike Kiss-in-the-ring. See W. Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, I., iii. 25: 'Or that he cours'd a park with females fraught, Which would not run except they might be caught.' New Eng. Dict. quotes Teonge's Diary, 1675, ed. 1825, p. 112: 'Like boys and gyrles at course-a-packe, or barly breakes.' |
| l. 31. | The maid] Hazlitt cites the opinion of an anonymous commentator, that 'Moore's description of Lilias (sic) in The Loves of the Angels appears to be an imitation of Suckling.' The resemblance, if there be any, is of the most general kind. W. W., commenting on the 'bashful tenderness' of the bride at l. 49, remarks that Suckling's 'portraits of female beauty are not so finished as those of Moore and Byron; but they possess greater attraction, because he gives only a glimpse, and leaves the rest to fancy. Indeed, Homer, in describing the peerless Helen, leaves it almost entirely to the imagination, which is the great secret of poetry.' Suckling mentions presumably Lady Margaret Howard in his letter to Jack [? Bond] headed 'A Dissuasion from Love' (see p. 301): 'I know you have but one way'—i.e., of teaching the art of getting into love,—'and will prescribe me not to look upon Mistress Howard.' | |
| l. 32. | Whitson-ale] See Brand, Pop. Antt., i. 276-284. The surplus of these feasts, supplied by parochial contributions, was devoted to repairs, etc., connected with the church fabric or furniture. Thus an inscription on the ringing-gallery at Cawston, Norfolk, records 'what good ale this work made'; and another, on the 'bachelors' loft' before the south chapel of the chancel at Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex, states that part of the expense was defrayed by 'alys.' | |
| l. 34. | kindly ripe] Ripe after its nature, and so thoroughly ripe. The latest example of this use of 'kindly' cited by New Eng. Dict. is Romeo and Juliet, II., iv. 59. |
