Read The Major Works (English Library) Online
Authors: Sir Thomas Browne
The Major Works (English Library) (72 page)
2
. ‘In one sent me by my worthy friend Dr
Thomas Witherley of Walsingham
’ (Browne marg.). See further below,
p. 280
.
3
.
Manes
are the spirits of the dead;
aræ
are altars for demigods or heroes, and
altaria
, for gods.
4
. The urns were in fact Saxon, not Roman (see
§298
). Browne later recognises that some ‘might somewhat doubt’ whether the urns did not belong ‘unto our
Brittish, Saxon
, or
Danish
Forefathers’ (below,
p. 281
).
5
. i.e. county.
6
. As early.
7
. Tacitus,
Annals
, XIV, 31–8.
8
. The Gammadims (Ezekiel 27.11) were thought to be the inhabitants of Anconia (from the Greek
άγκών
, ‘bend of the elbow’). Hence Norfolk’s ‘Emphaticall appellation’ (
G2
).
9
. ‘The population is innumerable; the farm-buildings are found very close together, being very like those of the Gauls’ (Browne marg., quoting the Latin of Caesar,
Gallic War
, V, 12).
10
. i.e. ramparts.
11
. ‘In the ground of my worthy Friend
Rob. Jegon
Esq. wherein some things contained were preserved by the most worthy Sir
William Paston
, Bt.’ (Browne marg.).
12
. ‘From
Castor
to
Thetford
the Romanes accounted thirty two miles, and from thence observed not our common road to
London
, but passed by
Combretonium ad Ansam, Canonium, Cæsaromagus
[i.e. Ipswich, Dedham, Kelvedon, Chelmsford], &c. by
Bretenham, Coggesball, Chelmeford, Burnt-wood
, &c.’ (Browne marg.). Castor is Caistor St Edmunds (Venta Ice-norum); but Sitomagus is Stowmarket, not Thetford.
13
. ‘Most at
Caster
by
Yarmouth
, found in a place called
East-bloudy-burgh furlong
, belonging to Mr
Thomas Wood
, a person of civility, industry and knowledge in this way, who hath made observation of remarkable things about him, and from whom we have received divers Silver and Copper Coynes’ (Browne marg.).
14
. Belonging to that Noble Gentleman, and true example of worth Sir
Ralph Hare
Baronet, my honoured Friend’ (Browne marg.).
15
. ‘A peece of
Maud
[i.e. Matilda] the Empresse said to be found in
Buckenham
Castle with this Inscription,
Elle n’a elle
’ (Browne marg.). The reference is probably to a coin; but the inscription is meaningless.
16
. ‘At
Thorpe
’ (Browne marg.).
18
. So the
Chronicon Brompton Abbatis Jornalensis
(Browne marg.).
19
. In Plutarch,
Lycurgus
, IX (Browne marg.), the money is iron, not copper.
20
. Caesar,
Gallic War
, V, 12, also mentions other metals.
21
. Later mintage (R).
22
. ‘Stowe Survey of
London
’ (Browne marg.).
24
. Septimius Severus (d. 211). See further below,
p. 285, note 8
.
25
. ‘They denounce funeral pyres and condemn cremation’ (Browne marg., quoting the Latin of Minucius Felix,
Octavius
, XI, 4).
26
. Sidonius Apollinaris,
Letters
, III, 3 (Browne marg.).
27
. Genesis 23.9 (Browne suppl., quoting the Vulgate).
28
. ‘smalness’ (Blount).
29
. Propertius,
Elegies
, IV, vii, 9.
30
. As reported in Vegenère’s edition of Livy (Browne marg.).
31
. As reported by Chifflet (Browne marg.).
32
. Joshua 24.30 (31) according to the Septuagint.
33
. Cicero,
Letters to Quintus
, II, xv (xvi), 4.
34
. So Dio Cassius, LXXII, 12 (Browne marg.).
35
. ‘As also by
Amandus Zierexensis
in
Historia
, and
Pineda
in his
Universa historia
. Spanish’ (Browne suppl., correcting the inadvertent introduction of this phrase into the text of the 1st edition).
36
. In
Gallic War
, VI, 16.
37
. In
Agricola
, XXI.
38
. i.e. Swedes and Goths. ‘Sarmatia’ is the area extending across N.E. Europe.
39
. A district in Schleswig (R).
40
. ‘Roisold, Brendetiide, Ildtyde’ (Browne add.), each signifying the Age of Burning.
41
. In his
Danica Monumenta
(Browne marg.). Wormius is the principal authority for these paragraphs.
42
. So Cypraeus (Browne marg.).
43
. ‘In Norfolk’ (Browne marg.). Three other marginal notes in this paragraph specify Browne’s sources as Camden, Twyne, and Holinshed.
1
. Matthew 23.29 (Browne marg.).
2
. Euripides,
Hecuba
, II. 317–20 (Browne marg.).
3
. Psalm 63.9 (Browne marg.).
4
. See above,
p. 103, note 208
.
5
. ‘that whiche hath a shelle’ (Elyot).
6
. ‘a sharde [fragment] of a potte or tyle, also an erthen pot’ (Elyot).
7
. So Pliny, XXXV, 45 and 49.
8
. ‘Thou shalt hold that man whom the world could not hold’ (Browne marg., quoting the Greek of Dio Cassius, LXXVII, xv, 4; R).
10
.
Iliad
, XXIII, 254.
11
. ‘coverynge or cover’ (Elyot).
12
. ‘With tears they laid out [the corpse]’ (Browne marg., in Latin).
13
. ‘made thick or gross’ (Blount).
14
. i.e. vinous quality. The detail is reported by Lazius (Browne marg.).
15
. ‘About five hundred years.
Plato
’ (Browne marg.). Cf.
The Republic
, VIII, 546.
16
. i.e. dated by the consuls in office at the time of vintage (R).
17
. The celebrated wine of 121
B
.
C
., in the consulate of Opimius, as reported by Petronius, XXXIV, 6 (Browne marg.).
18
. As reported in the Twelve Tables (Browne marg.). Cf. above,
p. 269, note 17
.
20
. So Pliny, XVI, 78 (Browne marg.).
21
. ‘
Conservatory
, a place to preserve, or keep things in’ (Blount).
22
. So Casalius (Browne marg.).
23
. Hebrews 9.4.
24
. In
Jewish Antiquities
, I, iii, 5; XX, ii, 2.
25
. So Goropius (Browne marg.).
26
. So Biringuccio (Browne marg.).
27
. ‘At Elmeham’ (Browne marg.).
28
. Plutarch,
Philopoemen
, XXI, 3.
29
.
Laws
, 958e.
30
. Matthew 27.5–8.
31
. Mingled.
32
. Where the bodies of those held in contempt were burnt or thrown to the dogs (R).
33
. ‘contrived’ (the word is a pen-and-ink correction in a copy of the 1st edition;
M
).
34
. Suetonius,
Tiberius
, LXXV, 3 (Browne marg.).
35
. Suetonius,
Nero
, XLIX, 4.
36
. Suetonius,
Domitian
, XVII, 3 (Browne marg.); and
Odyssey
, XXIV, 76–7.
37
. ‘S[ee] the most learned and worthy Mr
M. Casaubon
upon
Antoninus
’ (Browne marg.).
38
. Petronius, XXXIV.
39
. ‘ ’
Aγχώνην πα
ζειν
[i.e. The Hanging game]. A barbarous pastime at Feasts, when men stood upon a rolling Globe, with their necks in a Rope fastned to a beame, and a knife in their hands, ready to cut it when the stone was rolled away, wherein if they failed they lost their lives to the laughter of their spectators’ (Browne marg.). So Athenaeus IV, 155.
40
. ‘
Diis manibus
’ (Browne marg.) – i.e. ‘To the gods of the underworld’: the common way that Roman funerary inscriptions began.
41
. Dishes used in libations at sacrifices.
42
. Vault. As reported by Bosio (Browne marg.).
43
. Exodus 25.31 ff.
44
. Of whom the first lived in a tomb, and the second frequented the Roman catacombs.
45
. Repeatedly.
46
. Ezekiel 37.1 ff.
47
. Felt.
48
. So Pausanias (Browne marg.). ‘Attica’ corrects the erroneous ‘Africa’ of the 1st edition.
49
. So Lampridius (Browne marg.).
50
. The Emperor Trajan (Browne marg.).
51
. So Plutarch,
Marcellus
, XXX, 2–3 (Browne marg.).
52
. ‘The Commission of the
Gothish
King
Tbeodoric
for finding out sepulchrall treasure’ (Browne marg.); so Cassiodorus in
Variae
. ‘Expilators’ are plunderers.
53
. Literally, ‘damned earth’: in alchemy, the residue after calcination.
54
. Pliny, XXX, 4 (Browne marg.).
55
. Er, in
The Republic
, X, 614b.
56
. ‘Which could not be burnt’ (Browne suppl.). So Pliny, VII, 2.
57
. ‘made of erthe’ (Elyot).
58
. Decorated with representations of ancient funeral rites (
R
).
59
. Incombustible.
60
. ‘Old bones according to
Lyserus
. Those of young persons not tall nor fat according to [
Realdus
]
Columbus
’ (Browne marg.).
61
. Who died from dropsy, as reported by Diogenes Laertius.
62
. Plutarch,
Tiberius Gracchus
, XIII, 4–5 (Browne marg.).
63
. Thucydides, II, lii, 4 (Browne marg.).
64
. So Valla (Browne marg.).
65
.
Iliad
, XXIII, 164 (Browne marg., quoting the original Greek), and Plutarch,
Pompey
, LXXX, 2.
66
. Genesis 22.6: ‘the wood of the burnt offering [laid] upon Isaac’.
67
. ‘The brain.
Hippocrates
’ (Browne marg.).
68
. Capable of being made thinner.
69
. Amos 2.1 (Browne marg.).
70
. ‘cruelty, fierceness’ (Blount).
71
. ‘As
Artemisia
of her Husband
Mausolus
’ (Browne marg.).
72
. Earthenware vessels; cf. above,
p. 285, note 6
.
73
. Genesis 23.5–20 and 49.29–32, and Joshua 24.30.
74
. ‘
Siste viator
’ (Browne marg.) – i.e. ‘Stop passerby’: a variation on Cicero’s rendering of Simonides’s inscription at Thermopylae.
75
. Archbishop Cuthbert, buried in Canterbury Cathedral in 758.
76
. So Kirchmann (Browne marg.), one of the major sources for these paragraphs (cf.
above, p. 269, note 14
).
77
. ‘length’ (Bullokar). On St Helena see also
above, p. 96
.
78
. Corrected by some editors to ‘gnaw’d’ But Browne may have been thinking of the graveyard scene in
Hamlet
, e.g. ‘That skull had a tongue in it,… How the knave jowls it to the ground’ (V, i, 78–9; §298).