Read The Major Works (English Library) Online
Authors: Sir Thomas Browne
46
.
Iliad
, XIV, 123.
47
.
Odyssey
, XXIV, 341; according to the explication by Favorinus and Philoxenus (Browne marg.).
48
. ‘In rows’ (Theophrastus,
On Plants
, IV, iv, 8, and vii, 7–8).
49
. ‘
συσ
δ
ς
μπ
λων
’ (Browne marg., quoted from
Polities
, VII, x, 5): suggestive of the quincunx in the planting of vines.
50
. ‘Give your rows more elbow-room; but see that the alleys of trees are planted there in squares with equal precision’ (Browne marg., quoted in Latin from Virgil’s
Georgics
, II, 277–8). On Quintilian see above,
p. 320, note 9
.
51
. The identification had been ventured by Bochart among others (
G2
).
53
. Drunkenness (Genesis 9.21), the first offence recorded after the Flood (
G2
).
54
. On Abraham’s grove see Genesis 21.33; on Solomon’s garden, the Song of Solomon.
55
. i.e. botanist; here, God.
56
. ‘beautiful or graceful in appearance’ (Blount).
57
. In Ecclesiastes 2.5–6, quoted next.
58
. Cf. Nehemiah 3.15.
59
. ‘environing, encompassing’ (Blount).
61
. ‘figure or image’ (Elyot).
62
. ‘Which King
Numa
set up with his fingers so disposed that they numerically denoted 365’ (Browne marg., referring to Pliny, XXXIV, 16).
63
. i.e. the sun’s – and so Apollo’s.
1
. Triangular.
2
. In
Of Architecture
, VII, i, 3–4.
3
. Engraved drawings.
4
. Laurel patterns.
6
. A marginal note refers to the five parts of a building, the five types of column, and the five means of spacing columns.
7
. So Chifflet (Browne marg.;
M
).
8
. Contained.
9
. Bands (cf. above,
p. 273, note 37
).
10
. i.e. the ‘common picture’ or illustration of Exodus 28 (in the Geneva Bible of 1560).
11. 1
Maccabees 11.13 (Browne marg.).
12
. ‘The larger sort of Medals’ (Browne suppl.).
13
. Net-like.
14
. Translated from the Septuagint version of Ezekiel 41.16:
θυρίδєς δ
κ
υω
α
(Browne marg.).
15
. Song of Solomon (‘Canticle of Canticles’) 2.9, in
AV
(Browne marg.).
16
. 1 Kings 7.17–20 and Exodus 27.4
17
. i.e. the gladiators armed with swords (cf.
below, p. 427, note 45
).
18
. i.e. mosquito-net.
19
. Cf. the ‘pots of woven rush’ in his
Idylls
, XXI, 11.
20
. Leviticus 3.4 (Browne suppl.).
21
.
Odyssey
, VIII, 326 (Browne marg., quoting the Greek).
22
. Heraldic lozenge-patterns.
23
. i.e. vairy: in heraldry, the colours of the coats’ fur.
24
. ‘
Lapidarie
, One that selleth or polisheth precious stones: a Jeweller’ (Bullokar).
25
. Isosceles (as below,
p. 371, note 35
).
26
. Engravers.
27
. Cross-shading (R).
28
. Turning across or athwart.
29
. ‘As in the contention between
Minerva
and
Arachne
[i.e. Spider]’ (Browne marg.). ‘Textury’ is weaving.
30
. White bryony or tetterberry (R).
31
. Eustathius commenting on
Odyssey
, I, 401 (Browne marg.).
32
. Backgammon.
33
. ‘Chec-mate’ in some copies (
G2
).
34
. Contain (as above,
p. 335, note 8
).
35
. Cf. Plato,
Phaedrus
, 274e–d (Browne marg.). ‘High’, as so often in Browne, means ‘ancient’. On Hermes Trismegistus see above,
p. 79, note 97
.
36
. Forceps-like.
38
. ‘plucking up’ (Blount).
39
. Pressure.
41
. Impelling forces.
42
. ‘In the disposure of the Legions in the Wars of the Republike, before the division of the Legion into ten Cohorts by the Emperours’ (Browne marg.). So Salmasius.
43
. In
Georgics
, II, 279–81: ‘in war… a legion deploys by companies from column of route into line across an open plain, and the ranks are dressed by the right’.
44
. The front, second, and reserve lines, respectively.
45
. At Zama in 202
B
.
C
., against the Carthaginians (Livy, XXX, xxxii, 10 ff.).
46
. Narses defeated the Franks in 553; Julian, the ‘Almans’ (Germans) in 357.
47
. So Aelian (Browne marg.).
48
. i.e. rectangle.
49
.
v πλα
σ
(Browne marg., quoted from Thucydides, VI, lxvii, 1): suggestive of hollow rectangles used in moulding bricks.