83 3. This was theatrical wit. Cf. Dryden, An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (Arber's English Garner, iii. p. 553): “The Tо yeλoîov (facetious absurdities) of the old comedy, of which Aristophanes was chief, was not so much to imitate a man, as to make the people laugh at some odd conceit, which had commonly somewhat of unnatural or obscene in it. Thus when you see Socrates brought upon the stage, you are not to imagine him made ridiculous by the imitations of his actions; but rather, by making him perform something very unlike himself, something so childish and absurd, as, by comparing it with the gravity of Socrates, makes a ridiculous object for the spectators."

83 6. Tasten. Tasted.

837. Presently. Cf. 7 31, 18 27, 73 3.

83 12. To the tumbril again. The allusion is to Horace (Ars Poetica, 275, et seqq.), which Jonson translates thus:

Thespis is said to be the first found out

The tragedy, and carried it about,

Till then unknown, in carts, wherein did ride

Those that did sing and act: their faces dyed

With lees of wine.

On this Donaldson writes: "The wagon of Thespis, of which Horace writes, must have arisen from some confusion between the λeós, or stage for the actor, and the wagon of Susarion" (Theatre of the Greeks, ed. Bohn, p. 66).

83 18.

this.

83 29.

To the resolving. In modern English, for the resolution of

Action hath his largeness. Cf. 20 7, 44 16, 47 35, 76 1, 85 5. 84 11. What we understand by the whole. Cf. Aristotle's Poetica, 7. What follows is little more than a free translation of Aristotle's passage. Jonson has, however, expanded and added to the illustrations.

84 16. A lion is a perfect creature. Cf. Aristotle (ibid.), who uses this illustration in the abstract, speaking of "a very large animal." He follows with mention of an animal ten thousand stadia in length, which Jonson makes concrete with the illustration of Tityus.

84 18. Rhinocerote. This form is not given by Nares or Halliwell. Its formation, however, from the oblique cases of ¿ɩvókepws, is perfectly

obvious.

84 26. Tityus. A giant, killed by Apollo, and cast into Tartarus. See Odyssey, 11. 576, and Æneid, 6. 595.

85 5. His utmost bound. See 83 29, and references there.

85 15.

That it exceed not the compass of one day. Jonson's treat

ment of the unities is consistent with his theories as far as the circumstances of his age would permit. Several of his plays, The Alchemist and The Silent Woman especially, are triumphs over the difficulties of time and place. See Sir Philip Sidney's strictures on the popular stage of his earlier day, and Professor Cook's notes thereon (Defense of Poesie, ed. Cook, pp. 47-52).

85 35.

86 10.

86 14.

86 19.

86 20.

The action of one man to be one. Cf. Aristotle, Poetica, 8.
How he fought with Achilles: Iliad, 20. 404-409.

Error.

In the Latin sense, wandering.

The philosopher. Aristotle.

All the actions of Theseus labors of Hercules. Cf. Poetica, 8: "Hence all those poets appear to have erred who have written the Heracleid and Theseid, and such like poems. For they suppose that because Hercules was one person, it was fit that the fable should be one. Homer, however, as he excelled in other things, appears likewise to have seen clearly, whether from art or from nature, for in composing the Odyssey, he has not related everything which happened to Ulysses, etc.; but he composed the Odyssey, as

also his Iliad, upon one action."

86 22.

Hoarse Codrus. Cf. Juvenal, Satires, I. 2 and 3. 203: "Codrus was possibly merely a fictitious name under which the Roman poets were wont to ridicule the poetasters of their age."

86 31. Sophocles, his Ajax. Of this play Professor Mahaffy says: "The Ajax . . . stands, perhaps, more remote than any of Sophocles's works from modern notions. There is no finer psychological picture than the awakening of Ajax from his rage, his deep despair, his firm resolve to endure life no longer, his harsh treatment of Tecmessa, and yet his deep love for her and his child” (History of Greek Literature, i. p. 306).

66

87 17.

Combat of Ajax with Hector (Iliad, 7. 204, et seqq.).

87 19. After a reading of these later passages of the Discoveries, we may well agree with Professor A. W. Ward in his statement: [Jonson's] veneration for Aristotle was no mere lip-service. He understood the definitions and rules of the Poetics better than those who were forever mumbling their dry bones in later periods of our dramatic literature" (Engl. Dram. Lit., i. p. 596).

87 22. Et, quæ per salebras, etc. (Martial, Epigrams, 11. 90). It will be noted that aside from the adaptation to the context, by which et is read for sed, the first word, Jonson has omitted two lines between the first and his second, and inverted the second and third. The whole passage translated reads thus: "You approve of no verses that run

with a smooth cadence, but of those only that vault, as it were, over hills and crags; you read with ecstasy such words as terrai frugiferai (the fruit-producing earth), as well as all that Actius and Pacuvius have sputtered forth." Actius and Pacuvius were early and popular Roman playwrights. It is to be remarked that this final note, as Mr. Swinburne says, 66 seems tumbled in without reference to the context," and that the first line of this epigram of Martial is a favorite of the author, as he has quoted it twice before in the Discoveries. Cf. 24 26 and 62 4.

INDEX OF PROPER NAMES.

(Folio) indicates a marginal reference, dependent alone on the authority of the
edition of 1641.

Archy (Archibald Armstrong) 13 18. Courtier, The, 71 31.

Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, Lysippus 79 10.

Gellius, Aulus, quoted 14 13, 14, Machiavelli, Nicholas, 38 23, 39 8;