Early Modern Mythological Texts: Troia Britanica XV, Notes
Thomas Heywood. Troia Britanica (1609)
Notes to CANTO XV
Ed. Patricia DORVAL
Epeus: Raoul Le Fèvre calls him Apius: “Ce cheval fist un moult saige maistre nomme Apius”. Caxton identifies “Apius” with Sinon (“This horse made a passing wise master as Apius [Epeus] was, whose name was Synon [Sinon], and he made it so subtly that without forth no man could perceive nor see entry nor issue”, Recuyell, III, 26). But Heywood follows Virgil in ascribing the invention of the horse to Epeus (Aeneid, II, 264). See stanza 23, below. Most of this canto closely follows Aeneas’ account of the fall of Troy in Aeneid, II.
hoise: hoist.
Asia’s: F, Asiaes. Back to text
Laocoon: F, Laocon, a Trojan who admonished his people not to bring the horse within their gates. See below, stanza 14.
Polites: a young son of Priam slaughtered by Pyrrhus. See below, stanzas 74-76.
King: F, K. Back to text
deflu’st: The word comes from the Latin defluere, to flow down; it has given adjectives like “defluent” or “defluous” and the nouns “defluence”, “defluency” and “defluent”. The obsolete and rare corresponding verb is “deflow”. The meaning is that the traitor’s race descends from Satan. Back to text
Queen: F, Q.
Doctor Parry: A spy and conspirator, Parry (d. 1585) was involved with Catholic circles on the continent, where he apparently favoured Mary Stuart against Elizabeth, to the extent of seeming favourable to her assassination, but he then informed the queen. He was elected to Parliament in 1584. In 1585, he was arrested and executed for treason. Holinshed provides a detailed account of “the horrible treasons practised by William Parrie against the queens majesty…”, The Third Volume of Chronicles (London, Denham, 1586), pp. 1382-95 sqq. On Parry’s ambiguities, see Julian Lock, ‘Parry, William (d. 1585)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21437, accessed 18 Aug 2017] ; William Parry (d. 1585): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21437.
train: treachery. Back to text
Moe: more
Babington: Anthony Babington, a young recusant, was one of the leaders of what came to be known as the 1586 Babington plot, which aimed to assassinate Elizabeth and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on the English throne. The plot failed and two groups of seven men (hence the “fourteen fierce traitors”) were executed in September 1586. The uncovering of this plot led to Mary’s trial, and her execution in February 1587. See Holinshed’s account of the “horrible conspiracie of Babington”, pp. 1553-79. On Babington and the plot, see Penry Williams, “Babington, Anthony (1561–1586)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2015 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/967, accessed 18 Aug 2017]. Anthony Babington (1561–1586): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/967
His: F, their. Back to text
Percy and Catesby: Thomas Percy and Robert Catesby were, with Guy Fawkes, leading conspirators in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot to blow up King James I and the members of Parliament.
Guido Vaux: Guy Fawkes, one of the ringleaders of the Gunpowder Plot. A collection of verse published by John Rhodes, “minister of Enborne”, in 1606 links the Babington conspiracy and the Gunpowder plot as instances of treason against the monarchy and plans to “bring Strangers, / heere to reign” (sig. B2r). The 32-page volume includes songs of commendation to James and an anthem “often sung … in any time of danger … And may serve at all times for us” (sig. C3v); it is dated 1588, that is, just after the Babington conspiracy. John Rhodes, A Briefe summe of the treason intended against the king & state, when they should have been assembled in Parliament. November 5. 1605 (London, printed by E[dward] A[llde] for Edward White, 1606). Back to text
strangers: Guy Fawkes fought in the Eighty Years’ War on the side of Catholic Spain before returning to England and taking part in the Gunpowder Plot. When he returned to England, his plan was to restore Catholic rule by murdering James I.
thirst: F, thurst, for eye rhyme. Back to text
devours: F, devowers for eye rhyme.
three great kingdoms: England, Scotland and Ireland. The style here recalls commendatory poems and anthems, such as those published by John Rhodes. Back to text
steed: Heywood follows Virgil, Aeneid, II, 13-20, rather than Caxton’s terse treatment of the Trojan horse in Recuyell, III, 26.
tree: A wooden structure or vessel, applied to ships; OED notes that Gavin Douglas used the word in 1513 to describe the Trojan horse.
mountain structure: “instar montis equum … aedificant” (Aeneid, II, 15-16). Back to text
wind: turn.
ports: gates.
plain: adv., plainly. Back to text
Aeacides: Achilles.
invade: assault. See Heywood, Troia, XII, 40-51.
pitched: placed himself or possibly set his camp.
wan: won.
logged: was like a log, sluggish, when he refused to fight and idly stayed in his tent. On Achilles keeping to his tent, see Troia, XIII. Heywood expands Aeneid, II, 19, which refers only to Achilles and the Dolopes.
played: practised, plied. Back to text
Dolopes: Heywood explains in his endnotes that the “Dolopes are a people of Thessaly in the borders of Phthiotis, out of which province Ulysses made choice of his guard.” The Dolopes are indeed a people of Thessaly dwelling on the border of Phthia, a town of Phthiotis, the southernmost region of ancient Thessaly, east of Mount Othrys. It is generally admitted that Phthia is the land of the Myrmidons, Achilles’s guard. In The Iliad, Achilles threatens Agamemnon with sailing back to “deep-soiled Phthia” if the latter does not relinquish his war prize, Briseis (IX, 363). The name “Dolopians” occurs once in The Iliad (IX, 484), where they are presented as the people of Phoenix, who accompanied Achilles on his expedition against Troy: “And he [Peleus] made me rich and gave many people to me, and I dwelt on the furthermost border of Phthia, ruling over the Dolopians”. The Dolopians appear four times in Virgil’s Aeneid: II, 6-8; II, 29; II, 413-15; II, 785-86. The Dolopians tend to be associated with Achilles and the Myrmidons. Perhaps the first reference (“Quis talia fando / Myrmidonum Dolopumue aut duri miles Ulixi…”, “What Myrmidon or Dolopian, or soldier of the stern Ulysses, could refrain from tears in telling such a tale” [the destruction of Troy], II, 6-8) misled Heywood into associating Ulysses with the Dolopians. See stanza 64, below. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations of the Aeneid are taken from Virgil, Eclogues, Georgics, Aeneid I-VI, and Aeneid Books VII-XII; Appendix Vergiliana, ed. Jeffrey Henderson, transl. H. R. Fairclough, rev. G. P. Goold Loeb, vols 1 and 2 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1916, rev. ed. 1999; and 1918, rev. ed. 2000). Back to text
stately piece: stately building. See Caxton, Recuyell, III, 26: “they [the Greeks] prayed the kynge pryant that he wold suffre thys horse entre into the cyte; and that hit myght be sette in the temple of Pallas, for as moche as they sayd that they had maad hyt in the honour of Pallas for a vow that they had maad for restytucion of the Palladyium that they hadde doon be taken oute of the same temple” and later: “Then prayed the grekes that they myghte sette the hors of brasse wyth in the temple of pallas for the restitucyon of palladyum, to thende that the goddesse Pallas myght be to them aggreable”.
fawn: spelling variant of “fane”, for rhyming purposes, a temple.
brazen: but “timber” above.
staid: grave, serious.
fleece: plunder, rob.
pawn: pledge. Back to text
module: a physical representation or model. See Heywood, XII, 88, 2.
whose brains are with more judgment guided: “quorum melior sentential menti” (Aeneid, II, 35). This and the following stanzas follow Virgil very closely.
Laocoon: he cautioned the Trojans against drawing the horse into the city as related in Virgil’s Aeneid, II, 40-56. Not in Caxton. Back to text
Danavish: F, Danauish. Danaan, i.e. Greek. However this seems to be the only occurrence throughout EEBO. Perhaps coined on Virgil, “aut ulla putatis dona carere dolis Danaum? sic notus Ulixes? … Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes” (“Do you think that any gifts of the Greeks are free from treachery? Is Ulysses known to be this sort of man? … I fear the Greeks, even when bringing gifts”) (II, 43-44, 49).
joy: rejoice.
compiled: constructed, built. Back to text
spurn: strike with their feet.
mure: wall.
pale: fence.
Maugre: in spite of.
guards: the walls.
rung: rang or rhyme sake. Back to text
mole: great mass, large piece.
caverns: cavity.
transfixed: pierced through. Back to text
attend: listen to.
uncouth: strange.
novel: piece of news.
exalt: raise. Back to text
his: the Greek prisoner’s.
comfortable: comforting. Back to text
Palamed: F, Palimed. Palamedes was falsely accused of treason by Agamemnon, Diomedes and Ulysses, and as a result was condemned to die, which is related in canto XII.
drill: drip. Back to text
threat: threaten, or in a more archaic sense, blame, rebuke.
then: F, than, for rhyme purposes.
Calchas: on Calchas advising Ulysses, see below XV, 25-27. Back to text
wants: lacks.
wreak: punishment.
Sinon: Sinon’s tale (stanzas 18-35) is absent from Caxton but follows Virgil very closely (Aeneid, II, 57-198). Back to text
consecrate: consecrated. Back to text
Eurypylus: F, Euriphilus, after Virgil, Aeneid, II, 114-15: “Suspensi Eurypylum scitatum oracula Phoebi / mittimus “Perplexed, we send Eurypylus to ask the oracle of Phoebus.”
Delos: the island of Delos was the birthplace of Apollo (Phoebus, the Sun) and Venus. There is a confusion here between Delos and Delphi, the sanctuary with its oracle, which Virgil refers to without naming the place.
retire: return. Back to text
vulgar: common man; here the Greek troops.
craves: desires.
deprave: disparage. All prophesy is the ruin of the man who dares blame Ulysses as Calchas the soothsayer will interpret the god’s words accordingly, to meet Ulysses’ desires.
oil-tongued: oily-tongued, i.e. excessively smooth-spoken, of Ulysses, denoting slyness. Back to text
run: F, ron (rhyme with “don”/done).
entreat: implore. Back to text
pontifical: denoting a high-ranking priest. Back to text
saggy: sedgy, reedy. A rare word with only two occurrences including this one in the OED.
covert: shelter, thicket.
obscure: hide, conceal.
assure: make safe. Back to text
dejection: casting down. Heywood develops here Sinon’s complaint. Back to text
adore: revere.
confines: territory. Heywood omits Priam’s “quae machina belli?” (“is it a war engine?”) (Aeneid, II, 151). Back to text
Ithaca: Ulysses.
commencèd: begun.
spleen: resentment.
fawn: fane, temple: see above Troia, XV, 13. Back to text
Calchas: F, Chalchas.
equinal: equine.
pile: mass. See Aeneid: “Calchas bade them raise this mass of interlaced timbers so huge, and build it up to heaven” (II, 185-86).
percullised: portcullised, furnished with a portcullis. See Troia, VIII, 49. Back to text
unwieldy: clumsily massive.
Ilium: F, Islium. Back to text
Mycene: F, Meceane.
Devast: lay waste, devastate.
spiring: of edifices, soaring aloft, reaching to a great height.
infinites of: exceedingly large numbers of.
chief: great.
belief: the syntax is somewhat obscure. The meaning is that Sinon’s protestations, etc., won him the king’s belief. Back to text
keel: ship, vessel.
rout: crowd. Back to text
serpents: after Virgil’s Aeneid, II, 199-233.
applied to: headed for, directed their course towards.
Laocoon: F, Laocon. He is described as a priest of Neptune in the Aeneid (II, 201) and tried to warn the Trojans to beware of the horse (stanzas 14-16).
trains: the elongated bodies of large snakes.
enlarged: released from confinement, set free. The serpents kill Laocoon. See Troia, XIII, 67: “his force extends / As far as life, the prisoned soul t’enlarge”. Back to text
38-41: The description of how the horse is brought through the door to the heart of the city closely follows the Aeneid, II, 234-49, which may itself have been inspired by Euripides’ Trojan Women (lines 511-50).
monster multitude: F, monster-multitude, i.e. of extraordinary size.
stayed: supported.
engine: machine but possibly also a snare. Virgil uses the same word, “machina”. The same polysemy is at play in the fact that the horse is a gift to Minerva (donum) and a snare (dolus) (see Walter Moskalew. “Myrmidons, Dolopes, and Danaans: Wordplays in Aeneid 2”. The Classical Quarterly 40.1 (1990): 275-79). Back to text
Buckle: resolutely apply themselves (to work).
machine: F, muchine.
inthronged: crowded.
Big… ready to be delivered: this image of the machine as a monstrously pregnant woman translates Virgil’s “scandit fatalis machina muros / feta armis” (“The fateful engine climbs our walls, big with arms”) (Aeneid, II, 337-38). Heywood first introduces the image when Laocoon tries to warn his countrymen: “this swelling womb is big with child / Of armèd Greeks” (Troia, XV, 15). See also below, stanza 42, “the big-bellied stallion”. Back to text
Anent: F, anenst, i.e. close against.
girdle: rampart, bulwark.
unaghast: unafraid. The sound of the Greeks’ armours inside the horse is heard four times without causing any fear among the Trojans. Back to text
ocean: Heywood translates “Vertitur interea et ruit Oceano nox / involvens umbra magna terramque polumque / Myrmidonumque dolos” (Aeneid, II, 250-52).
involving: enveloping, “involvens” (Aeneid, II, 250-57).
craft: strength, power. Translates “dolos” (craftiness, cunning).
great Atrides: Agamemnon. See Troia, XII, 24.
Tenedos: first mentioned by Heywood in Troia, VI, 101. In canto XI, 18ff., Heywood relates how the Greeks first gathered at the port of Tenedos, which they sacked, before sailing to the Trojan shore at the start of the war. The Greeks hide there after leaving the horse outside Troy (Aeneid, II, 21-24). See also Caxton: “The same day the Greeks feigned to go unto Thenadon” (Recuyell, III, 26). See stanza 11, above: “Beneath a promontory not far thence, / They anchor east, where they concealèd are”. What we should read here perhaps is “back from Tenedos” according to Virgil’s “a Tenedo” (Aeneid, II, 255).
through the silence of the moon: “tacitae per amica silentia lunae” (Aeneid, II, 255). Back to text
wafts: waves as a signal.
palpèd: touched, felt; groped his way through darkness.
harnessed: equipped with armour and arms. See Troia, XIV, 95. Back to text
Pyrrhus: Heywood adds Pyrrhus to Virgil’s list, Aeneid, II, 259-69.
loft: upper place.
halting: limping. Heywood departs from Virgil’s cruel Ulysses, “dirus Ulixes” (Aeneid, II, 261). Ulysses is wounded once by Socus, whose spear “sheared off” the flesh from his side (Iliad, XI, 434-45). In Troia Britanica, it is Achilles whom Hector shot with one of his arrows in the thigh (Heywood, XIII, 100).
Atrides: Menelaus. See Troia, XII, 24.
Tysander: F, Tysandar. The Aeneid has the name “Thessandrus” instead of “Tysander”. See Troia, XIV, 99.
Acamas: F, Athanas. Acamas was sent to Troy with Diomedes to claim Helen. Not in Caxton. Not to be mistaken for another Acamas, son of the Trojan Antenor (Iliad, II, 823; XI, 60; XII, 100; XIV, 476, 478, 488; XVI, 342).
Sthenelus: F, Stheuelus. See Troia, XII, 54. Back to text
Pelidus: not in Caxton. Virgil and Heywood list nine identical or near-identical names, except for Pelidus, added by Heywood, possibly owing to a misinterpretation of the Latin: “illos patefactus ad auras / reddit equus, laetique cavo se robore promunt / Thessandrus Sthenelusque duces et dirus Ulixes, / demissum lapsi per funem, Acamasque Thoasque / Pelidesque Neoptolemus primusque Machaon / et Menelaus et ipse doli fabricator Epeos” (“The opened horse restores them to the air, and there joyfully come forth from the hollow wood Thessandrus [here called Tysander] and Sthenelus the captains, and dread Ulysses, sliding down the lowered rope; Acamas and Thoas and Neoptolemus son of Peleus [Pyrrhus, grand-son of Peleus], the leader Machaon, Menelaus, and Epeus himself, who devised the fraud”) (II, 258-64). Heywood may have read “Pelides”—meaning descendant of Peleus as the name of yet another Greek warrior.
mould: something which has been moulded or fashioned, here the horse. Back to text
’nvade: invade. F’s spelling for scansion. Back to text
46-50: Heywood closely follows Virgil’s account of Aeneas’ dream (Aeneid, II, 270-97).
affright: a cause of fear.
clottered: clotted, stuck together in blood clots.
thongs: on Achilles tying with Ajax’s belt Hector’s feet to his horse and dragging him three times around the city, see Troia, XIII, 110. Back to text
Achilles’ spoils: “exuvias … Achilli” (Aeneid, II, 275). Patroclus was wearing Achilles’ armour, arms, crest and shield when Hector slew him, mistaking him for Achilles. Hector then wore Achilles’ spoils. See Troia, XIII, 29-35.
ranged: moved in all directions over a vast area.
Argive: F, Achive. See Troia, XII, 62 and XV, 52.
wildfire: a composition of highly inflammable substances readily ignited and not easily extinguished used in warfare (OED).
flew: transitive use. Back to text
thee: thyself.
reched: F, retched, i.e. stretched, made its way, hence reached. Back to text
availed: made use of.
bailed: freed. Back to text
descends: the description recalls the staging of ghost scenes, with a trapdoor in the stage floor through which by the ghost could descend as if regaining the abode of the dead. As a playwright, Heywood may well have had this type of stage business in mind. Virgil does not mention how Hector’s ghost vanishes. Back to text
51: stanzas 51-52 follow the Aeneid, II, 298-317.
several: different.
reeking: steaming. Back to text
scimitar: F, semitar, a short sword with a curved blade, associated with the Orient.
Argive: F, Achive. See Troia, XV, 47. Back to text
Panthus Othryades: F, Panthus Otriades. “Panthus Othryades, arcis Phoebique sacerdos”, Panthus, son of Othrys, priest of Phoebus in the citadel (Aeneid, II, 319). Stanzas 53-55 follow Aeneid, II, 318-35.
Sun: Apollo. Back to text
Troy was, and Ilium was: “Fuimus Troes, fuit Illium”, Aeneid, II, 325.
mure: F, meure. Back to text
irruption: eruption, escape. Back to text
Erinys: F, Erinnis. Fury, goddess of revenge; “whether Erinys calls” translates “quo tristis Erinys … vocat” (Aeneid, II, 337).
Iphitus: F, Iphilus.
Dymas: F, Dimas.
Coroebus: F, Chorebus.
tried: experienced.
glister: shine. Back to text
Mygdonia: F, Megdomia, originally a small province of Macedonia, whose inhabitants called Mygdones migrated into Asia, and settled near Troas, where they formed a new country named after their former abode. Virgil describes Coroebus as “Mygdonides”, son of Mygdon (Aeneid, II, 342). On Coroebus’ love for Cassandra, see Aeneid, II, 342-46. See also Heywood’s endnotes.
prove: try, test.
task: engage.
remove: move, go.
spoils: destruction.
saw: Saying, maxim. Heywood’s variation on Virgil’s “Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem” (“One chance the vanquished have, to hope for none”) (Aeneid, II, 364). Back to text
58: follows Aeneid, II, 358-69.
live’s blood: life’s blood.
falchion: a broad sword with a blade more or less curved with the edge on the convex side (OED). Back to text
59: For stanzas 59-63, see Aeneid, II, 370-423.
trains: soldiers accompanying Androgeos. Back to text
ken: know, distinguish. Back to text
soon: F, son. See Virgil, Aeneid, II (407-08), “non tulit hanc speciem furiata mente Coroebus / et sese medium injecit periturus in agmen” (“Maddened in soul, Coroebus brooked not this sight, but flung himself to death into the midst of the band”).
Frightful Coroebus: “furiata mente Coroebus” (“Coroebus maddened in soul”) (Aeneid, II, 407). Back to text
Their: their friends, that is other Trojans. Virgil depicts how “Here first from the high temple roof we are overwhelmed with the weapons of our friends, and piteous slaughter arises from the appearance of our arms and the confusion of our Greek crests” (Aeneid, II, 410-12).
Rout: run, dash.
meets: meet, ie, mete, distribute. Joining forces, the Trojans send down missiles onto those below.
webs: sheets of lead, as used for roofing. See Virgil’s passage further down: “Dardanidae contra turris ac tota domorum / culmina convellunt; his se, quando ultima cernunt, / extrema iam in morte parant defendere telis” (“The Trojans in turn tear down the towers and all the rooftop of the palace; with these as missiles ― for they see the end near ― even at the point of death they prepare to defend themselves”) (II, 445-47).
stounding: stunning.
craft: trick.
deceived: betrayed, exposed. Back to text
64: follows Aeneid, II, 413-15; 424-29.
Ulysses: Heywood substitutes Ulysses for Virgil’s Dolopian host (“Dolopumque exercitus omnis”, Aeneid, II, 415). See stanza 12 and the note on the Dolopes.
Dymas: Heywood departs from Virgil by displacing the passage about Ajax, the two Atrides and Ulysses, so that Coroebus, Ripheus and Dymas all seem to fall at the hands of the Greeks. In the Aeneid, Virgil describes how Aeneas and his friends are outnumbered and overwhelmed by both their Trojans friends who mistake them for Greeks and by the Greeks who “recognize [their] shields and lying weapons, and mark [their] speech as different” (II, 422-23). It follows that some are slain by Greeks, others by Trojans: “pereunt Hypanisque Dymasque / confixi a sociis” (“Hypanis and Dymas perish, pierced by friends”, II, 428-29). Heywood skips that detail.
decline: F, declive, fall. Back to text
65: stanzas 65-66 follow and compress Aeneid, II, 437-70. Heywood heightens the pathos by having Eneas escape alone where Virgil has him leave with two other Trojans.
hying: hastening. Back to text
cleave: cling.
jettying: projecting, jutting out. This example is given in OED.
once: F, ones, for rhyme.
the’: they, for metric purposes.
slacked: slaked, i.e. smeared, daubed. Back to text
broil: contend in a confused struggle.
eminent: imminent.
irruption: eruption, escape. See stanza 55 above.
devolve: F, divolve; turn this way and that.
tried: choice, refined (silver).
Fires: catches fire.
drills: drip. See stanza 20. Back to text
68: stanzas 68-70 follows Aeneid, II, 470-95.
Automedon: F, Antomedon. See canto XII, 46.
arms: armours.
overheat: overheated.
shocking: striking. Back to text
waxeth: increases in size.
slake: make less intense, cause to burn less strongly. Back to text
71: stanzas 72-77 follow Aeneid, II, 507-43.
Th’alarum: F, the larum. Back to text
canker: corrosion on the surface of metal, verdigris or rust (Heywood imitates here Caxton’s variations on near-synonymous adjectives). Back to text
burdenous: heavy, constituting a burden. Back to text
Polites: F, Polytes.
runs: F, rons, for the visual rhyme. Back to text
slaughter-thoughted: F, slaughtered-thoughted; whose thoughts are bent on slaughter.
bale: evil, bent on destruction.
scathe: F, scath, for rhyme sake; scathing, destructive?
imbrued: stained, dyed.
Sparkled: spattered. Back to text
Hyrcan: Hyrcanian, of Hyrcania, an ancient region on the Caspian Sea. See Macbeth, III.iv.99-100: “Approach thou like the ruggèd Russian bear, / The armed rhinoceros, or th’Hyrcan tiger”. In Hamlet, Shakespeare also compares Pyrrhus with the “Hyrcanian beast”: “The ruggèd Pyrrhus, like th’Hyrcanian beast” (II.ii.453).
shrined in heaven: see Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy. Hieronymus. “I have not seen a wretch so impudent. / O monstrous times where murders set so light, / And where the soule that should be shrined in heauen· / Solely delights in interdicted things, / Still wand’ring in the thorny passages, /That intercepts itself of happiness.” (III.vi.89-94). Back to text
78: stanzas 78-81 follow Aeneid, II, 544-58.
skirt: edge, rim.
boss: the convex centre of the shield. See canto XII, 43.
idle: ineffective. Back to text
whisk: sudden, sweeping movement. Heywood may be remembering Hamlet, II.ii.466-68: “Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide; / But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword / Th’unnervèd father falls”. Back to text
grovelled: lying with his face downwards.
ding: knock, strike.
curtlax: curtle-ax, a short broad cutting sword. Back to text
groundsels: or ground-sills, foundations.
corse: corpse. “Iacet ingens litore truncus, / auolsumque umeris caput et sine nomine corpus” (“He lies, a huge trunk upon the shore, a head severed from the neck, a corpse without a name!”, Aeneid, II, 557-58. Back to text
82-83: Heywood speeds up Virgil’s narrative, suppressing Anchises’ refusal to leave, until he sees the omen that seems to designate Aeneas and Ascanius as the heirs of Troy (II, 638-704).
amain: at once.
Ascanius: F, Askanius.
run: F, ronne, for eye rhyme. Back to text
guardant: protecting.
Creusa: three syllables. Back to text
84: follows Aeneid, II, 735-51.
Creusa: Virgil has Aeneas leave his father, son and servants in a safe place before retracing his steps through burning Troy to try and find Creusa. Her ghost tells him that he will suffer a long exile before reaching the land of Hesperia (Italy), where he will at last know happy days, kingship and a royal wife (II, 776-89).
Helenus: Aeneas’ meeting with Helenus (stanzas 84-89) is Heywood’s addition. Helenus, a son of Priam, survives and is taken as a slave to Chaonia where he becomes king after Pyrrhus’ death at the hands of Orestes and marries Andromache, whom Pyrrhus had taken as a concubine (see below, stanzas 105 and 106). In the Aeneid, Aeneas meets up with Helenus in Chaonia (III, 333-36). Helenus’ prophetic skills enable him to advise Aeneas on the best way to reach the Italian shore (374-462). Not in Caxton, Le Fèvre, Lydgate, delle Colonne, Dares and Dictys. Back to text
Scaean: F, Seaan. See endnotes: “Scaea is a gate of Troy opening to the west, where Laomedon was buried; of that gate the sea and shore adjacent bear the name of Scaea.” The Scaean gates are mentioned in the Aeneid (II, 612 and III, 351). Heywood does not include Scaea when he lists the six gates of Troy in VIII, 49, perhaps because he was following Caxton at that point (Recuyell, III, 1).
loured: frowned, scowled. Back to text
Mediterr’an: Mediterranean: F, Meditteren.
Latium: F, Latium Liguria. The list of the regions of ancient Italy in stanzas 87 and 88 is Heywood’s addition. It derives, probably indirectly, from a cosmographical treatise, e. g. Flavio Biondo’s Italia Illustrata (1474), Pedro Juan Oliver’s scholia to Solinus in C. Iulii Solini Polyhistor, Rerum toto orbe memorabilium (Basel: Isingrinius and Henricus Petri, 1538, p. 23.
Etruria: F, Hetruria, the usual spelling for the period. Back to text
Carnia: F, Craunia. The region of Tolmezzo.
Apentium: Aprutium, Latin name of Abruzzo. Oliver, “Samnium sive Aprutium”, Münster, “Aprutium seu Samnium”, the region of the ancient Samnites.
Aemilia, else called Romandiola: F, Rhomandiola. Oliver, “In Aemiliam seu Romandiolam, quam et Flaminiam vocant, in qua urbes sunt Ravenna, Ferraria, Bononia, etc.” Münster, “Flaminia alio nomine vocatur Romandiola, habetque Bononiam et Ferrariam”.
Romandiola: F, Rhomandiola.
Gallia Cisalpina: F, Gallia, Cisalpina. “hodie Lombardia”, according to Oliver, cuius metropolis est Mediolanum [Milan]”. Münster concurs. Back to text
Picenum: F, Pycetium. Oliver, “Picenum, quod nunc Marchia Anconitana, in qua est Ancona, Urbinum, etc.” Today’s Marche region.
Iapygia: F, Iapidia. Former name of Apulia according to Oliver: “In Apuliam, quae Iapygia olim dicta fuit”.
Flaminia: F, Flavinia. Another name of Emilia, or Romandiola, according to Oliver: see note above.
Samnium: F, Sumnium. The other name of Aprutium for Oliver and Münster, after Flavio Biondo (see note above). Cooper repeats the information: “Samnium a countrey in Italy called nowe Aprutium”.
All these are Italy, with great Lucania, / Which shall in times to come be called Rhomagna: If the relative clause refers to Italy, the sentence could be read as “All these, with great Lucania, are Italy, which shall in times to come be called romana”, alluding to the Roman unification of several original peoples. If the relative clause refers to Lucania, the sentence reads “All these are Italy, with great Lucania, / Which shall in times to come be called Romagna”, with the difficulty that Lucania (now Basilicata) is in Southern Italy while Romagna refers to Northern Italy.” Back to text
divine Helenus: “vatus Helenus”, Aeneid, III, 712. See also below, stanza 106, “Helenus that kenned divinest things”. Back to text
sparpled: dispersed, scattered. See “But with the next [stroke] his sparpled brains appear” (Troia, XIII, 99). Heywood’s two uses of the adjective are among the few citations of the OED.
their golden locks: In his own version of Aeneas’ narrative, Marlowe has “Virgins half dead, dragged by their golden hair, / And with main force flung on a ring of pikes” (Dido, Queen of Carthage, II.i.195-96). There is no equivalent scene in Virgil. Back to text
Astyanax: son of Hector and Andromache. In Caxton, Hector has two sons, both of whom are spared: “And then Andromache and Helenus prayed for the two sons of Hector, which were saved how well that Pyrrhus was thereagainst and debated it a little, but in the end he agreed it, and so the children were respited” (Recuyell, III, 26). Astyanax’s death is referred to indirectly by Andromache in Book III of the Aeneid, when she meets Ascanius, who reminds her of her son (III, 488-91). The source here is most likely Ovid’s Metamorphoses: “mittitur Astyanax illis de turribus, unde / pugnantem pro se proavitaque regna tuentem / saepe videre patrem monstratum a matre solebat” (“And Astyanax was hurled down from that tower where he was wont often to sit and watch his father whom his mother pointed out fighting for honour and safeguarding his ancestral realm”) (XIII, 415-17).
floor: F, flower, for rhyming.
thrust: forced their way. Back to text
Neoptolemus: F, Neptolemus; Pyrrhus, Achilles’ son. In Caxton, Pyrrhus enquired after Polyxena, whom he considered as/to be the cause of his father’s death. She was discovered imprisoned in an ancient tower and delivered to him by Agamemnon. Pyrrhus then led her to Achilles’ tomb where he “smote her with his sword, seeing the queen her mother, and slew her cruelly, and cut her all in pieces, and cast them all about the sepulture of his father” (Recuyell, III, 26). In Metamorphoses, Achilles’ ghost springs up from the “wide-gaping earth” and demands that Polyxena be sacrified in honour for all his services during the war. Polyxena defies the Greeks in a long speech, requesting that her body be restored to her mother without ransom, before baring her breast for the sacrifice (XIII, 441-80). Not in Virgil or Homer.
satued: not referenced in the OED. The meaning may be saturated, soaked in, imbued with (blood) or the word may be “statued” due to a misprint, meaning that Pyrrhus resembles a statue because he is caked in blood.
red lives: red blood. See “live bloods” above (XV, 59).
become: suit, befit.
piecemeal hews: dismembers. Back to text
Polydore: F, Polidore. Polydorus. On the story of Polydorus, see Troia, VIII, 19 and endnotes.
Polymnestor: The source is not Caxton, where Thelamon claims that he “had slain the king Polmestor [Polymnestor] to whom the king Pryant [Priam] had put Polidorus [Polydorus] his son, and after had slain the same Polidorus, and had brought a great treasure that he found unto the host of the Greeks” (Recuyell, III, 27). Heywood follows Virgil (Aeneid, III, 49-56) who also tells how Aeneas and his men made Polydorus a solemn sepulchre and performed fitting funeral rights (III, 49-68). Ovid also tells the story in Metamorphoses (XIII, 429-38), following Euripides’ Hecuba, with Polymnestor slaying Polydorus and throwing the body into the sea. Back to text
eyes: after Ovid, who follows Euripides’ Hecuba. As wretched Hecuba walks to the shore for water to clean Polyxena’s wounds before burying her, she discovers the lifeless body of her last son, Polydorus (Metamorphoses, XIII, 534-44). She heads for Polymnestor’s palace, where she seeks an audience with him supposedly to entrust him with a store of gold for her son. Calling to the other captive Trojan women for help, “digitos in perfida lumina condit / expellitque genis oculos” (“she … dug her fingers into his lying eyes and gouged his eyeballs from their sockets” (XIII, 549-64, 561-62).
records: recalls, remembers.
frantic: quasi-adverb, frantically. See Shakespeare’s Sonnet 147, 9-10: “Past cure I am, now reason is past care, / And frantic mad with evermore unrest.” Back to text
death of Hecuba: Hecuba’s fate has inspired a wide range of traditions. See Tanya Pollard’s entry, “Hecuba” in the online Dictionary of Shakespeare’s Classical Mythology. Heywood, who turns from the classical authors to Caxton in the following stanza, may also have had a passage from Recuyell in mind: “When Hecuba the queen saw thus her fair daughter [Polyxena] slain, she fell down a-swoon, and after went out of her wit and became mad, and began to run vagabond and all araged, and assailed with her teeth and with her nails all that she might come by, and casted stones and hurt many of the Greeks. Then they took her by force and led her into an isle, and there they stoned her to death. And thus the queen Hecuba ended and finished her life, and the Greeks made for her a noble sepulture, and put her body therein, and her sepulchre appeareth yet in the same isle unto this day” (Recuyell, III, 26). Back to text
95: Heywood follows Caxton, “Dares put in the end of his book that the siege endured ten year ten months and twelve days. And the sum of the Greeks that were slain at the siege to fore Troy was eight hundred & six thousand fighting men. And the sum of the Trojans that defended them against the Greeks that were slain was six hundred and six and fifty thousand of fighting men” (Recuyell, III, 31). Actually, for Dares the war lasted ten years, six months and twelve days. He furthermore estimated the number of deaths at 866,000 Greeks and 676,000 Trojans (44).
inured: accustomed.
tane: taken.
tried: experienced. Back to text
Hector: See Heywood’s endnotes to this canto.
Paris: “Paris slew Palamedes the emperor of the host of the Greeks, the king Achilles and the king Ajax; Ajax and Paris slew each other” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 31).
Achilles: see Heywood’s endnotes to this canto. Back to text
Sagittary: Sagittarius, a skilful archer. The Sagittary’s death by Diomedes is recorded in canto XIII, 73.
Diomede: see Heywood’s endnotes to this canto.
Aeneas: see Heywood’s endnotes to this canto.
engrossed: written in large letters.
Pyrrhus: see Heywood’s endnotes to this canto.
obeyed: submitted; three royal lives submitted themselves to Pyrrhus’ wrath. Back to text
Not: this is the beginning of a long anaphora by which Heywood uses preterition, proclaiming he will not tell of some events while yet dealing with them, albeit concisely.
Metamorphoses: Ajax and Ulysses’ contention over Achilles’ armour is related by Ovid (XIII, 1-398). As the company of chiefs decide to reward the power of eloquence over that of courage and strength by choosing Ulysses over Ajax, the latter plunges his sword deep into his own breast “ne quisquam Ajacem possit superare nisi Ajax” (390) (“lest any man save Ajax ever conquer Ajax”). He takes his own life with the sword given him by Hector. On Hector and Ajax’s interchange of gifts, see XIII, 7-8.
The death of Ajax: see canto XIII, 8, where Heywood announces Ajax’s suicide: “With Hector’s sword, Ajax must Ajax kill”. Back to text
proved: put to the test.
Telegonus: Son of Ulysses and Circe. The story of how, learning who his father was, he travelled to Ithaca and accidentally slew him, is told by Apollodorus, Greek Library, “Epitome”, 36-37. It is also told in Caxton (Recuyell, III, 31).
Calypso: F, Calipso. Back to text
Naulus: Nauplius. Palamedes’ father is called “Naulus” throughout Troia Britanica.
Palamedes: Caxton relates that “some evil people […] that could not be in ease without grieving and annoying of other” told Nauplius that Palamedes was not honourably slain in battle but “covertly by Ulixes [Ulysses] and Diomedes” (Recuyell, III, 28). They told the king that while Palamedes was in command of the whole Greek army, Agamemnon and Menelaus contrived a false letter testifying to his having committed himself to betray his camp against a large amount of gold. Accordingly Ulysses had the gold slipped under Palamedes’ head as he slept. As the Greeks found the letter and the gold, they wanted to run upon Palamedes but he offered to fight with whomever accused him. No one dared confront the general and Ulysses with his accustomed fair words appeased the men. But soon after, he and Diomedes “on a day did Palamydes [Palamedes] to understand that they knew a pit wherein was much treasure, and that they would that he had his part, and that they should go the night following. When the night was come, they went all three alone without more company, and there offered Palamydes [Palamedes] for to go down into the pit first, and they said they would follow. And as soon as he was within, the other two cast stones upon him, so many that they slew him” (III.28). Caxton concludes this episode by saying that all this was false. See also Heywood, Troia, XII, 24. Back to text
shipwrecked: F, shipwracked. Caxton goes into more detail, recalling how King Nauplius and his son, whom he calls Cetus, knowing that the Greeks on their return from Troy could not but sail by his realm, had great fires lit every night upon the mountains by the seaside so that when the Greeks should see these fires by night, they would head for them believing to find a peaceful haven. Some two hundred Greek ships were wrecked in this way. The rest of the fleet, on hearing the ships crashing against the rocks and the cries of the drowning men, veered seaward (Recuyell, III, 28).
ran: F, ronne. Back to text
Clytemnestra: F, Clitemnestra, and Cletemenestra in the marginal note; Clitemestra in Caxton, Le Fèvre and delle Colonne.
death of Agamemnon: On learning that Agamemnon had escaped shipwreck, Nauplius’ son, Cetus [Cetus in Caxton and Le Fèvre], whom Caxton also calls Pellus [Peleus in Le Fèvre], wrote to Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife, claiming that he had fallen in love with one of Priam’s daughters, whom he was bringing back to marry her and make her queen, and consequently to “put out Clitemestra [Clytemnestra] or to do slay her” (Recuyell, III, 28). During her husband’s long absence, Clytemnestra had taken a lover, Aegisthus, and plotted with him to kill Agamemnon on his return. See Odyssey, IV, 514-37.
Aegisthus: F, Egistus; Egystus in Caxton, Egistus in Le Fèvre and delle Colonne; in his endnotes Heywood spells the name Aegistus. Back to text
Orestes: F, Horestes; Horrestes or Horestes in Caxton, Horrestes in Le Fèvre. According to Caxton, Orestes was brought up by his uncle the king of Crete, Ydumeus. When he reached the age of 24, the young man begged his uncle to help him avenge his father’s murder and recover his land. Helped by “wise and hardy” knights, Orestes conquered Mycenae, cast his mother in a cell and captured Aegisthus. In the morning he had his mother brought before him naked: “he ran upon her with his naked sword, and cut off her two paps, and after slew her with his hands, and made her to be drawn to the fields for the hounds to eat and devour and to the birds” (III.29). Then Orestes “did do despoil Egistus [Aegisthus] and do draw him through the city. And after did do hang him on a fork. And in like wise he did to all them that were culpable of the death of his father” (Recuyell, III, 29). Back to text
stale: stole.
Hermione: Daughter of Helen and Menelaus, betrothed to Orestes before being give to Pyrrhus by Menelaus according to Ovid, Heroides, VIII (although other sources differ). Caxton tells how Pyrrhus ravished her (Recuyell, III, 30). Orestes killed Pyrrhus at Delphi. See canto IX, Heywood’s commentary on the epistles, after line 659. In Gynaikeion Heywood writes: “Orestes the sonne of Agamemnon slewe Pyrrhus the sonne of Achilles, being surprised with the beautie of Hermione daughter to Menelaus and Helena” (p. 217).
trothed: betrothed. Back to text
sans: without.
fail: failure, especially used in “without fail” or “sans fail”, that is without any doubt.
who: Orestes.
Delphos: Delphi. See Hyginus, Fabulae, CXXIII.
bale: sorrow, hence remorse.
death of Helen: see canto XIV, endnotes. Back to text
Antenor: in canto XIV, 107-8, Heywood tells how Antenor, after failing to convince Priam of the need to seek peace with the Greeks, helped Ulysses to steal the Palladium. Heywood departs from Caxton’s Recuyell, where Antenor is banished from Troy by his own countrymen (III, 27) and seems to reconnect with Dictys (Ephemeris Belli Trojani, V, 17) and Dares (De Excidio Troiae Historia, 44), according to whom Antenor rebuilt a city on the site of Troy.
Aeneas: he takes with him his father, Anchises, and his son, Ascanius. See above XV, 82-83. Back to text
fire-brand: Helen.
Trojan: Paris.
stale: stole. See XV, 103.
exclaimed: protested. The “two and twenty” ships of Aeneas’ fleet (the number given by Caxton; “bis denis”, “twice ten” in Aeneid, I, 381) are those Paris took to Greece on his expedition to abduct Helen, which Aeneas obtained from the Greeks when they banished him from Troy for having hidden Polyxena: the story is told by Caxton, Recuyell, III, 26-27. Back to text
bate: strife, contention; possibly dejection after the intransitive verb, to feel dejected, low. Possibly a “typographic error for “fate”.
captain-led: taken by the captain, here Pyrrhus. Aeneas meets Andromache in Aeneid (III, 294-344 and 482-91). Her story is also told by Euripides and Seneca. Caxton relates what happened to her after she was led away by Pyrrhus (Recuyell, III, 30). Back to text
Cassandra: she was taken as a concubine by Agamemnon.
kenned: knew.
Diomede: See canto X, 38, XI, 20-46, XII, 56.
derive: turn to, proceed with. Back to text
[Heywood’s endnotes to canto XV]
Phthiotis: F, Phthiolis. On the Dolopians serving under Achilles and Phoenix (not Ulysses), Strabo, Geography, IX, v, 5. See above, stanza 12.
Attica: F, Atticis. After Conti: “Scriptum reliquit Pausanias in Atticis Minervam Neptuni et Tritonidis Africae paludis filiam fuisse, quae Gygis temporibus floruit” (“In his chapter on Attica, Pausanias reported that she was the daughter of Neptune and Tritonis, the nymph of an African marsh in Gyges’ time”), Mythologia, IV, v, “On Pallas”, p. 197), from The Description of Greece, on “Attica”, I, xiv, 6.
Herodotus: Conti, Mythologia, IV, v, p. 197), from Herodotus, The Histories, “Melpomene”, IV, clxxx, 5.
Gyges: F, Giges. After Conti, from Pausanias (see note above).
Apollonius: From Conti, “Fuerunt tamen qui e Iovis cerebro armatam Minervam natam fuisse memoriae prodiderint, ut scripsit Apollonius libro quarto Argonaut.” (“Some, however, left it on record that Minerva was born fully-armed from Jove's brain, as Apollonius wrote in his Argonautica, book IV”), Mythologia, IV, v, p. 197.
Pallada…: F, Palluda quandam / Cum patris è capite exiliit Clarissima parvam / Laverunt Tritonis aquae. “Pallas, when she came out, resplendent, from her father's head and they [nymphs] bathed her small body in Triton's water”. Heywood quotes the latter part of Conti's Latin translation of his quotation from Apollonius’ Argonautica, IV, 1309-11 (see preceding note). Back to text
Stesichorus: Conti, Mythologia, IV, v, p. 197: “Atqui primus omnium Stesichorus Minervam è Jovis capite natam fuisse dixit, quem secutus est Apollonius” (“Yet Stesichorus was the very first author to say that Minerva was born from Jupiter's head, and Apollonius followed suit”. Conti’s source is a scolion on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, IV, 1310. See David Campbell, ed., Greek Lyric 3: Stesichorus, Ibycus, Simonides and others (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), pp. 162-63.
Lucianus: Lucian. Conti, Mythologia, IV, v, p. 197: “et acerrimus derisor humanae dementiae Lucianus in dialogis Deorum Jovem parturientem introducit, et Vulcanum cum acutissima et praevalida securi, ut sibi caput dividat, quod erat sibi pro castris; nam ex illo in duas partes diviso armatam virginem erupisse inquit” (“and that sharp derider of human folly, Lucian, in his Dialogues of the Gods, introduced Jove giving birth and Vulcan, with a powerful, razor-sharp ax, to cut open his head, which was like a barracks, for when it was dvided in two, an armed maid came out of it”. See Lucian, “Hephaestus and Zeus”, Dialogues of the Gods, in Works, vol. VII, ed. M. D. Mac Leod (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961), pp. 304-07.
Strabo: Conti, Mythologia, IV, 5, p. 197: “Strabo [...] libro decimoquarto scriptum reliquit in insula Rhodiorum aurum pluisse cum Minerva è capite Jovis nata est” (In his fourteenth book, Stabo wrote that gold rained on the island of Rhodes when Minerva was born). See Strabo, Geography, ed. H. L. Jones, vol. VI (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1929), XIV, ii, 10, pp. 276-77. Strabo himself was quoting Pindar, Olympian Odes, VII, 61. Back to text
Apollodorus: Conti, Mythologia, IV, v, p. 198: “Nam ut ait Apollodorus Pallas Tritonis filia fuit, at Minerva alumna” (“For as Apollodorus says, Pallas was Triton's daughter but Minerva his foster daughter”. See Apollodorus, The Library, III, xii, 3: “after her birth, Athene was brought up by Triton, who had a daughter, Pallas”, transl. Robin Hard (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 123.
Athenodorus Byzantius: Conti, Mythologia, IV, v, p. 198: “Alii dicunt, inter quos Athenodorus fuit Byzantius, Thetidem in varias formas versam denique compressam a Jove fuisse; quae cum esset gravida, audiens Jupiter fore ut ex ea nasceretur, qui coeli imperio potiretur, illam absorbuit; quare ipse gravidus factus apud amnem Tritonem peperit” (“Others, among whom Athenodorus of Byzantium, say that Thetis, who changed herself into various forms, was finally raped by Jupiter; when she was pregnant, Jupiter, hearing that one would be born of her that would rule in heaven, swallowed her, so that he himself became pregnant and gave birth near the river Triton”). The story Conti attributes to Athenodorus of Byzantium is told by Apollodorus with Metis instead of “Thetis”, The Library, I, iii, 6, transl. Robin Hard (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 31, a version that derives from Hesiod’s Theogony, 885-900.
Cranaus: F, Craunus.
Tzetzes: F, Zezes. Conti, Mythologia, IV, v, p. 198: “At vero ridiculum videtur quod modo è Jove, modo è Tritonide palude, modo è Cranao, ut sensit Zezes, nata sit” (“But it does seem ridiculous that she would be born now of Jupiter, now of Tritonis, now of Cranaus, as Tzetzes thought”). See Tzetzes, Chiliades, V, xxvi, 670, where Erichthonius is referred to as the son of “Athena, Cranaus’ daughter”. Back to text
Cicero: Heywood follows Conti (Mythologia, IV, v, p. 198), who quotes Cicero, De Natura Deorum, III, xxiii, 59.
Nile: F, Nyle.
Coryphe: F, Ceriphe.
Coria: F, Cerin. Coria, both for Cicero and Conti.
Callimachus: Conti, Mythologia, IV, v, p. 198: “Callimachus in hymno in lavacra Palladis [...] eandem Palladem et Minervam esse censuit” (In his hymn “On the bath of Pallas” [Hymns, V], Callimachus thought that Pallas and Minerva were the same goddess).
Tritonia: F, Triloma.
Iovis: F, Ihovis. With “Iovis filia gloriosa Tritonia”, Heywood borrows Conti’s Latin translation of Homer’s Odyssey, III, 378, where she is not “Tritonia” but Tritogeneia, as also in Iliad, IV, 514-15, VIII, 39, XXII, 183, The Homeric Hymn to Athene, 28, 4, and The Shield of Herakles, 197. See also Hesiod, Theogony, 895.
Simonides Coeus: Heywood borrows the name from Natale Conti (Mythologia, IV, v, p. 199). The fragment Conti attributes to Simonides of Ceos is from Simonides the Genealogist. Back to text
Isaacius: F, Isacius. Conti (Mythologia, IV, v, p. 199) explains that because of her warlike nature, Minerva was counted among the gods “ut in his ait Isacius” (as Isaacius says in his commentary). Conti quotes Isaac Tzetzes's scholion on Lycophron's Alexandra, 355. See C. G. Müller's edition of Isaac and John Tzetzes's scholia on Lycophron (Leipzig: Vogel, 1811), vol. 2, pp. 553-54.
Horatius, Carminum I: F, Carnium. Conti, Mythologia, IV, v, p. 199: “Huic deae cum armata dicatur è capite Jovis exiliisse, mox arma et currum tribuerunt, ut testatur Horatius in primo carminum: iam galea Pallas et aegida, / currusque et rabiem parat” (As this goddess was said to have sprung fully armed from Jupiter's head, they soon attributed weapons and a chariot to her, as Horace testifies in the first book of his Odes: Already has Pallas her helmet, her aegis, her chariot and her rage ready. Odes, I, xv, 11-12).
Tytanoyes: Titans; this is the only occurrence in Troia Britanica but Heywood also uses the name in The Golden Age (1611) and The Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels (1635), with variant spellings. The name is also to be found in Caxton’s Recuyell with the spelling “Tytanoys” or “Titanoys” (I, 9, I, 10, I.12) and a handful of other authors.
Gigantomachia: F, Gigomantichia, i.e. the battle between the giants and the gods. The spelling “Gigomantichia” is also to be found in the Golden Age (III, 1) and Gynaikeion I, (“Minerva”, p. 15 and “The Daughters of Triton”, p. 37). Back to text
Pallada: F, Palluda bellorum studiis Cautanus amicam / è Ihove progenitam magno quae destruit urbes. “We sing of Pallas, favourer of war, destroyer of cities, born of great Jupiter”. Borrowed from Conti’s Latin translation of Stesichorus (Mythologia, IV, v, p. 199). Compare with Stesichorus, fr. 274 in David Campbell, ed., Greek Lyric 3 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), pp. 184-85.
Sed: “But first she freed her horses’ steaming necks from their yokes and washed them in the waves of the deep Ocean”. Heywood quotes Conti’s translation into Latin of Callimachus’ hymn On the Bath of Pallas, 9-10 (Mythologia, IV, v, pp. 199-200). Compare with A. W. and G. R. Mair's edition of Callimachus (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1921), pp. 112-13.
Mygdonia: F, Migdonia. “Mygdonia: Asiae regio, in ea Phrygiae parte quae Troadi superjacet, ad Rhyndacum amnem et Dascyliticum lacum, ut est videre apud Strabonem libro 12” (“a region of Asia in that part of Phrygia which is above Troad, near the river Rhyndacus and lake Dascylitis, as may be seen in Strabo [Geography, XII, xxii]”, Calepinus's Dictionarium (Lyon: Frellon, 1558). See above, stanza 57.
Coroebus: F, Chorebus. Virgil describes him as “Mygdonides”, i.e. son of Mygdon (Aeneid, II, 342). See above stanza 57.
Scaean: According to Servius in his commentary on Virgil’s Aeneid, Troy would not fall so long as Laomedon’s tomb, which was in the Scaean gate, remained inviolate (Servius on II, 13 and 241, III, 351), but it is through that gate that the horse was introduced (Servius on II, 612) See above stanza 85. Harmonise with stanza note if need be. Back to text
Archilochus: see Troia, XII, 58-59 and XIII, 73 where he is slain. The list of kings killed by Hector occurs in the final pages of Caxton (Recuyell, III, 31), Le Fèvre, and Guido delle Colonne, Historia Destructionis Troiae, ed. Griffin, p. 274. The corresponding passage in Lydgate is in Troy Book, IV, 26-48. Dares’s list of Hector's victims is restricted to Orchomenus, Ialmenus, Epistrophus, Schedius, Elephenor, Diores and Polyxenus (21).
Protesilaus: “Protheselaus” in Caxton and Le Fèvre; “Prothesilaus” in Guido delle Colonne. See Troia, X, 26, X, 39, XI argumentum (anticipating on the death of Protesilaus by Hector), XI, 47, XI, 56 (relating how Hector slew King Protesilaus) and XI endnotes. On Protesilaus’ death by Hector, see also Caxton (Recuyell, III, 10), Guido delle Colonne (pp. 121 and 274), Benoît de Sainte Maure (7511-30) and Dares (19). Dictys has him struck down by Aeneas (II, 11); Homer remains vague as to who slew Protesilaus, and merely says a Dardanian warrior killed him as he leapt from his ship, (Iliad, II, 695-702).
Patroclus: see Troia, XIII, 32-34. Back to text
Menon: Meriones. “Menon” in Caxton and Le Fèvre. Heywood describes Hector shooting an arrow through Menon’s breast from his chariot in Troia, XI, 71-72. Caxton depicts Menon’s death differently: after Menon had prevented him from taking away Patroclus’ arms, Hector met him before a tent, and “smote him so great a stroke that he fell down to the ground. And after Hector alighted down and smote off his head, and would have taken his arms from him, but […]” (Recuyell, III, 11). Although he brings in a “Menoun” too (IV, 32), Lydgate identifies the man as Merion—spelt Meryon (Troy Book, IV, 37), as do Guido delle Colonne (“Merion”, alternately “Menon”) (pp. 134 and 274), Benoît de Sainte Maure (8520-25, 16832) and Dares (19) There exists another warrior by the name of Menon who fought on the opposite Trojan side and was slain by Leonteus (Iliad, XII, 188-94).
Prothoenor: F, Protenor, “Prothenor” in Caxton, Le Fèvre, Lydgate, Guido delle Colonne and Benoît de Sainte Maure. See Troia, X, 23, 42; XI, 48, 77, 85 and XIII, 73. On this episode, see Caxton (Recuyell, III, 12), Lydgate (Troy Book, III, 2610-29), Guido delle Colonne (p. 150), Benoît de Sainte Maure (10911-34, 16833) and Dares (20); not in Dictys.
Orchomenus: F, Archimenes, from Caxton's Archymenus (Recuyell, III, 31). Orchomenus is originally a place name. According to Dares (14), and Dictys (I, 13 and 17), Ascalaphus and Ialmenus came from Orchomenus. So Caxton, “The duke Ascalapus [Ascalaphus] and the earl Helmins [Ialmenus] from the province of Orconomye [Orchomenus] thirty ships” (Recuyell, III, 5) and Heywood, “With fifty ships from Orconomy’s [Orchomenus’] bay, / Helmius [Ialmenus] and Duke Ascalaphus appear” (Troia, X, 23). Besides his own “Ascolophus” and “Almenus”, who come from “Orcomenie”, Benoît de Sainte Maure introduced an “Orcomenis” who came from India (12094) and was killed buy Hector (12099-115), 16836). He becomes Orchimenus for Guido delle Colonne (p. 274), Archymenus in Caxton’s Recuyell. Back to text
Polemon: Polemon appears in the lists of Guido delle Colonne, Le Fèvre, and Caxton. In a brief recapitulation of the warriors Hector killed during the fifth battle, Benoît de Sainte Maure mentions “Alamenis”, who appears as “Palamenis” or “Palemonis” in some manuscripts of Le Roman de Troie (12662). Benoît’s Alamenis, also appearing as Almenus in Le Roman de Troie, derives from Dares’s Ialmenus (21).
Epistrophus: F, Epistropus as in Caxton, Le Fèvre and Guido delle Colonne. Lydgate spells the name “Epistrophus” (Troy Book, IV, 35). Benoît de Sainte Maure narrates his death at Hector's hand (12162-92) and recalls it line 12664; from Dares (21). He is a minor Greek figure in Heywood’s Troia, X, 23. There is another Epistrophus on the Troyan side according to Dares (18): he appears in Heywood's Troia, XI, 28-29, XIII, 59 and 74, XIV, 14 and 29.
Schedius: F, Ecedius after Caxton’s “Ecedyus” and Le Fèvre’s “Ecedius”. Guido delle Colonne uses the name Cedius, Benoît de Sainte Maure Scedius (5615, 12225-61, 12663, 16832), from Schedius in Dares (21) and Dictys (I, 17 and III, 10). See Homer, Iliad, II, 517-24 and XVII, 306-11. Heywood spells the name “Sedius” in Troia, X, 23, after Caxton (III, 5). Back to text
Diores: F, Doxius; Doccius in Caxton (III, 31) and Le Fèvre; Dorius in Guido delle Colonne (p. 274) and Benoît de Sainte Maure (12664, 16836), Diores in Dares, where he is killed by Hector (21) and Dictys, where he is wounded (III, 5). Homer's Diores dies at the hands of Peiros, son of Imbrasus (Iliad, IV, 517-24). Caxton's Doccius of III, 31 also appears as Dorius (III, 11) and Doreus (III, 14).
Polyxenus: F, Polixenus, after Caxton (III, 31), as in Le Fèvre and Guido delle Colonne (p. 274). But in Caxton's Recuyell III, 11, Polyxenus is slain not by Hector but by a “Dinadorus”, “one of the bastard brethren of Hector” and Heywood follows suit in Troia, XI, 93-94, although there Polyxenus is smitten off his horse, not explicitely killed. Lydgate identifies the Trojan as “Dyndaron” (Troy Book, III, 1399-1407) and Guido delle Colonne as “Dinadaron” (p. 140). The apparent inconsistency comes from the fact that out of Dares's Polyxenus, killed by Hector (21) Benoît de Sainte Maure made two different characters, Polixenart or Polixenon, killed by Delon (9017-20) and Polixenarz, killed by Hector (12397-403, 12665, 16837).
Phibus: “Phybus” in Le Fèvre and Caxton (III, 31); “Pheypus” in Guido delle Colonne (p. 274). He is “Phelipon” (16839) in Benoît de Sainte Maure or (according to different manuscripts, Philipum or Phyllipus). Benoît also calls him “Phelis” (13953-55; 13993). Lydgate brings in a “Phillis” slain by Hector (Troy Book, III, 4489-98), listed again in IV, 35 among Hector’s war victims. The ultimate source is Dares's Phidippus (24).
Antiphus: F, Anthiphus. Dares mentions three different characters named Antiphus: Antiphus of Meonia fights with the Trojans (18, 21); Antiphus of Elis belongs to the Greek party (14); so does Antiphus of Calydna (14), who is killed by Hector (23). In the lists of Hector’s victims, he becomes Antippus (or in other manuscripts Xantippus) in Benoît de Sainte Maure's Roman de Troie (16834); Xantipus in Guido delle Colonne (p. 274), Anthipus for Le Fèvre and Anthypus for Caxton (III, 31). Back to text
Leonteus: F, Cenetus. “Lenutus” in Caxton's Recuyell (III, 31), from Le Fèvre's “Lemitus”. “Leontus” in Guido delle Colonne (p. 274), where his name also appears as “Leochides” (p. 174). He is “Leotetus” (or “Leothetes”) in Benoît de Sainte Maure's Roman de Troie (16838), where he also appears as Leotetès—or Leothedes—(16109). Lydgate has “Leothydes”, a Greek knight slain by Hector (Troy Book, III, 5268-73). He appears as Leonteus in Dares (14 and 24), Dictys (I, 17) and Homer (Iliad, II, 738-47 and XXIII, 836-49), but of these last three authors, only Dares writes that he was killed by Hector.
Polypoetes: F, Polibetus; “Polibetes” in Le Fèvre and Caxton (III, 31), “Pollibetes” in Guido delle Colonne (p. 274) and “Polibetès” in Benoît de Sainte Maure's Roman de Troie (16155-84, 16838). According to Dares, Polypoetes accompanied Leonteus with forty ships (14) and was slain by Hector (24). Dictys writes about Polypoetes’ journey to Troy with a fleet of forty ships (I, 17) but refers to him again only to record his participation in a long-distance race organized for Patroclus’ funeral (III, 19). So does Homer (Iliad, II, 738-47, XXIII, 836-49).
Humerus: There is no corresponding character in Homer, Dictys, or Dares. Benoît de Sainte Maure invented one Huniers, or Hunerius, killed by Hector (Le Roman de Troie, 9810-18). He becomes Humerus for Guido delle Colonne (p. 143), and thus for Le Fèvre and Caxton (Recuyell, III, 11), as well as for Lydgate (Troy Book, III, 1748-56). Heywood refers to him in Troia, XI, 91 and XI, 98. Back to text
Fumus: Caxton has Fumus, like some of Le Fèvre's manuscripts, deriving from Guido delle Colonne’s Fumus. Possibly from Benoît de Sainte Maure's Ifidus (16061-65, 16837), derived from Dares's Iphinous, wounded by Hector (24). In the Iliad, VII, 11-16, Iphinous is killed by Glaucus.
Exampitus: Exanpitus in Caxton and Le Fèvre, from Guido delle Colonne's Xantipus or Antipus (pp. 167 and 274), from Benoît de Sainte Maure's Antipus (14043-76, 16834) and Dares's Antiphus (14 and 23). See note above on Antiphus.
Cupemus: Caxton's Cupemus, Recuyell (III, 31) is modelled on Le Fèvre, deriving from Guido delle Colonne's Euphenius (p. 274), Benoît de Sainte Maure's Eufemis (12305-09, 12647), ultimately from Dares's Euphemus (18, 21).
Yponeus: From Caxton, Recuyell (III, 31), modelled on Le Fèvre. From Guido delle Colonne's Yponeus, or Hypotus (p. 274), and Benoît de Sainte Maure's Hipot or Hipotus (12044-64, 12648), deriving from Dares's Hippothous (18, 21).
Plebeus: F, Plebeius; Plebeus in Caxton (Recuyell, III, 31), Le Fèvre and Guido delle Colonne (p. 274). He appears as Phileis in Benoît de Sainte Maure's Le Roman de Troie (12512-16, 12648), deriving from Dares (21) and is also mentioned by Dictys (III, 14).
Austerus: From Caxton (Recuyell, III, 31), modelled on Le Fèvre and Guido delle Colonne (p. 274). Benoît de Sainte Maure has Astor (Steropeus or Astropeus), killed by Achilles (12649), deriving from Dares's Asteropaeus (21). In his list of Priam's dead sons, Dictys includes Asteropaeus, killed by Achilles (IV, 1). See Homer, Iliad, XXI, 136-208). Back to text
Lymonius: F, Cymonius. Lymonyus in Caxton (Recuyell, III, 31), modelled on Le Fèvre. Guido delle Colonne has Ligonius or Lyconius (p. 274), corresponding to Benoît de Sainte Maure'e Licaon (Le Roman de Troie, 14102-18), deriving from Dares (23). See also Dictys (IV, 9) and Homer, Iliad, XXI, 114-20).
Memnon: Menon in Caxton (III, 31), Le Fèvre and Guido delle Colonne (p. 274). Mennon in Benoît de Sainte Maure (Le Roman de Troie, 21577-625), deriving from Memnon in Dares (33). In Troia Britanica, Memnon is killed by Achilles in canto XIII, 61-64, after Caxton, (Recuyell, III, 22).
Neoptolemus: Neptolonyus in Caxton, Recuyell (III, 31), Neptolomus in Le Fèvre, from Neptholonus in Guido delle Colonne (p. 274). The presence of Neptholonus in Guido delle Colonne's list of Troyan warriors killed by Achilles is erroneous: in Benoît de Sainte Maure's Roman de Troie, Neptholemus or Neoptholemus are variant forms of Telepolus or Telepolemus, a Greek warrior deriving from Dares's Tlepolemus (11, 14, 26). The similarity with Achilles' son Pyrrhus frequently called Neoptolemus, as in Troia, XII, 11 and XIV, 40 (marginal note) is purely accidental.
Hector: on Hector’s death at Achilles’ hands, see Heywood’s XIII, 102-107, after Caxton, Recuyell, III, 17.
Troilus: on Troilus’ death, see Heywood’s XIV, 27-31, after Caxton, III, 22.
Margareton: not in Caxton’s or delle Colonne’s lists. See Heywood’s XIII, 93-96 on Margareton’s death at Achilles’ hand, after Caxton, III, 17. Back to text
Palamedes: F, Palumides. After Caxton: “Paris slew Palamedes, the emperor of the host of the Greeks” (Recuyell, III, 31), modeled on Le Fèvre's Recueil which derives from Guido delle Colonne (p. 274). Benoît de Sainte Maure narrates how Palamedes was killed by Paris' arrow (Le Roman de Troie, 18826-40), an account he elaborates from Dares (28). According to a different tradition, reported, among others, by Ovid (Metamorphoses, XIII, 56-62 and 306-12) and Dictys (II, 15), Palamedes was falsely accused of treachery by Ulysses and consequently stoned to death. See Heywood, Troia Britanica, XII, argumentum and XII, 24.
Ajax: on Ajax’ death by Paris, see Heywood, Troia Britanica, XIV, 93-94. Once again, while following Caxton, Heywood overlooks Ajax’s simultaneous death from one of Paris’ poisoned arrows: “Paris slew […] the king Ajax; Ajax and Paris slew each other” (Recuyell, III, 31).
Achilles: for the death of Achilles, see Heywood, Troia Britanica, XIV, 37-39.
Amphimachus: Amphimachus, killed by Aeneas in the fifth battle in Caxton (Recuyell, III, 14), Le Fèvre and Guido delle Colonne (p. 274), Benoît de Sainte Maure (Le Roman de Troie, 12217-24, 12669-71) and Dares (21). Benoît de Sainte Maure has another Greek Amphimachus (9001-05), slain by Hector like Homer's in the Iliad (XIII, 184-89). A Trojan Amphimachus, ultimately derived from Dares's (37, 38, 40) through Benoît de Sainte Maure, Guido delle Colonne and Le Fèvre-Caxton, reappears in Heywood's Troia Britanica, XIV. Unlike his predecessors, Heywood makes him die in a battle (Troia, XIV, 100). Back to text
Nireus: F, Mereus. Nireus is killed by Aeneas in Dares's Historia Destructionis Troiae (21). He disappears from Benoît de Sainte Maure's Le Roman de Troie but reappears in Guido delle Colonne (p. 274), then as Nereus in Le Fèvre and Caxton, who lists him with Amphimacus: “Aeneas slew the king Amphymachus [Amphimachus] and the king Nereus [Nireus]” (Recuyell, III, 31). Nereus’ beauty had been made proverbial by Homer’s Iliad, II, 671-75, which Heywood knew in Chapman’s Seaven Bookes (1598), pp. 39-40.
Priam: Priam’s death is related above in stanza 80. Heywood insists on Pyrrhus’ cruelty, in the way he presents his victims, close in this to Caxton: “Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, slew the queen Panthasilee [Penthesileia], and also he slew the noble king Pryant [Priam], whom he found unarmed and without defence, as a cruel tyrant; he slew the fair maid Polixene [Polyxena] and the best-mannered of the world” (Recuyell, III, 31).
Penthesileia: F, Penthisilea. The Amazonian queen is wounded by the Greeks and savagely hewn to pieces by Pyrrhus in XIV, 103-05. Back to text
Polites: F, Polytes. Priam’s young son is slaughtered in stanzas 74-76 above.
Polyxena: on Polyxena’s death, see stanza 92 above.
Diomede: “Dyomedes slew the king Antypus [Antiphus], the king Escorpus [Escorius], the king Prothenor [Prothoenor] and the king Obtyneus [Obstineus]” (Caxton, Recuyell, III, 31).
Sagittary: Benoît de Sainte Maure introduced the Sagittary, who was killed by Diomede in the fifth battle (Le Roman de Troie, 12450-98). Guido delle Colonne (p. 258), Le Fèvre and Caxton (Recuyell, III, 14) followed suit. So did Heywood, Troia Britanica, XIII, 73. Back to text
Antiphus: F, Antipus. See note above on the three warriors called Antiphus. The Troyans' ally is killed by Diomede: Dares (21), Benoît de Sainte Maure (Le Roman de Troie, 12127-34), Guido delle Colonne (pp. 157, 275), Le Fèvre and Caxton (Recuyell, III, 14).
Escorius: Dares's Diomede kills Mesthles (21), who becomes Merceres or Menestrem (in certain manuscripts Mnestorem) in Benoît de Sainte Maure, where he is slain by Diomede in the fifth battle (Le Roman de Troie, 12647-52). He reappears as Esterion in Guido delle Colonne (p. 275); in Le Fèvre, Estorius, which Caxton transformed into Escoryus (Recuyell, III, 31). Back to text
Obstineus: Obtyneus in Caxton, Obtomeus in Le Fèvre, Optonemus or Optomenus in Guido delle Colonne In Dares and Benoît de Sainte Maure, the only Trojans killed by Diomedes are Antiphus and Methles. Many manuscripts and early editions of Dares gave a final recapitulative list of killed warriors. Some mistakenly added “Protenorem” and “Horcomeneum” (or “Orcomeneum”)—the Greek warriors Prothoenor and Orchomenus—to the list of Troyans killed by Diomede.
Prothoenor: F, Protenor, from Caxton's Prothenor (Recuyell, III, 31). A Greek warrior killed by Hector in Dares, Benoît de Sainte Maure, Guido delle Colonne, Le Fèvre, Caxton and Heywood's Troia Britanica, X, 23, 42; XI, 48, 77, 85 and XIII, 73 (see note above). The name reappears erroneously in the list of Troyan warriors killed by Diomede in Guido delle Colonne (p. 275), reproduced by Le Fèvre and Caxton and uncritically by Heywood. Back to text
De arte amandi, II: Heywood's translation of Ulysses's tale of the fall of Troy in Ovid's Ars Amatoria, II, 127-42. As in the endnotes to canto X, in the following notes, Ovid's Ars Amatoria is referred to as AA, while Heywood's complete translation, The Art of Love, quoted from M. L. Stapleton's edition (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000) is referred to as AL. On Heywood's use of Ars Amatoria, see “Heywood's Library”.
Calypso: F, Calipso. AA, 129: “pulchra Calypso” (fair Calypso).
Casting her eyes upon the neighbour flood:AL, 174: Casting their eyes upon the neighbouring flood. Not in AA: Heywood's addition.
Odrysian: F, Odrisean, referring to the Thracian king Rhesus. The epithet is commonly used to designate a Thracian. In Ars Amatoria, 130, Calypso does not ask to be told about Rhesus's “bloody deeds” but about his cruel fate (“fata cruenta”). Back to text
When: AL, 177: Then.
white wand: AA, 131: “levi virga” (light wand). Heywood omits AA, 131: “virgam nam forte tenebat” (for he happened to hold a wand).
Circe: Confusion between Calypso and Circe.
for here the town is meant: AL, 179: and then the walls he paints. AA, 133: “muros in litore fecit” (he made walls upon the beach). Back to text
Scythian: F, Scithian. AL, 185: Scithian. AA, 137: “Sithonii ... Rhisi” (of Sithonian Rhesus).
Rhesus: On Rhesus's death, see also Homer, Iliad, X, 433-511 and Virgil, Aeneid, I, 469-73.
Dolon: “Here Dolon died” is a drastic abbreviation of AA, II, 135-36, “Campus erat (campumque facit, quem caede Dolonis / Sparsimus, Haemonios dum vigil optat equos” (“‘There was a plain’ (and he draws a plain) ‘which we sprinkled with Dolon’s blood, while he watched and yearned for the Haemonian steeds’”)Loeb translation. AL, 181-84: “There was the place in which Dolon was slaine / About the vigill watch, when with the raine / The Hemonian horses play. Back to text
Shores: F, shewers. AL, 188: shore.
Overflow: F, overthrow. AL, 188: overflow.
Goddess: F, To whom the goddesses dares Ulisses trust. AL, 191: To which the Goddesse: dares Ulisses try.
Trust: AL, 191: try. Back to text
De remedio amoris: Heywood follows and adapts Ovid’s Remedia Amoris, 263-86. We have no trace of any extant translation by Heywood of Remedia Amoris other than a few passages such as the two included in his endnotes to canto XV. Yet in his address to the reader at the opening of The Brazen Age, Heywood complains that his translations of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria and two books of Remedia Amoris were stolen from him (sig. A2). On Heywood’s possible authorship of the two (truncated) books of Remedia Amoris attributed to John Overbury, see M. L. Stapleton, “A Remedy for Heywood?”, Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 43:1 (Spring 2001), 74-92 and Stapleton (ed.), “The First and Second Part of The Remedy of Loue, Overbury, Thomas, Sir, 1581-1613”, Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 43:1 (Spring 2001), 93-115.
thoughts: F, thoughs.
’spite: F, spight, i.e. however spiteful she may be.
suppressed: kept in a state of subjection.
thou: F, thy.
fore-sheet: usually the “rope by which the lee corner of the foresail is kept in place” (O.E.D.). The meaning here is clearly that of foresail.
mizzen: the principal sail on the mizzen-mast.
launcheth: F, lancheth. Back to text
Telegonus: F, Telegons. See stanza 100.
Tzetzes: Conti, Mythologia, VI, vi: “Habuit Telegonum etiam filium Circe ex eodem Ulysse, [...] ut ait Zez. Hist. 16. Chil. 5”. (By the same Ulysses, Circe also had a son, Telegonus, as Tzetzes says, Chiliades, V, 16 [in Nikolaus Gerbel’s edition, Ioannis Tzetzae Variarum Historiarum Liber (Basel: Oporinus, 1546)]).
Perses: Perseis, or Perse, she is Perses for Heywood as for Estienne’s and Calepinus’s dictionaries.
Hesiodus in Theog.: Conti, Mythologia, VI, vi, p. 374: “Circe, ut scripsit Hesiodus in Theogonia, Solis et Perseidis Oceani dicitur fuisse filia” (Circe, as Hesiodus wrote in his Theogony [956-57 and 1011],was the daughter of the Sun and of Perseis, Ocean’s daughter). Back to text
Homerus: Conti, Mythologia, VI, vi, p. 374: “Homerus tamen in libro X Odysseae illum Solis et Perses filiam, at non Perseidis inquit” (But Homer says in the tenth book of his Odyssey [X, 138-39] that she was daughter of the Sun and of Perse, not Persis).
Hecate: Conti, Mythologia, VI, vi, p. 375: “Alii crediderunt Hecates, alii Aeetae fuisse filiam, at non sororem” (Others believed that she was Hecate’s daughter, or then the daughter, not the sister, of Aeetes), and later, “Dionysius Milesius libro primo Argonauticorum scriptum reliquit hanc Hecates Persei et Aeetae filiam fuisse” (In the first book of his Argonautica, Dionysius of Milet wrote that she was the daughter of Aeetes and of Hecate, Perses’ daughter). In attributing this genealogy to Dionysius of Milet, Conti follows the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, III, 200. The same genealogy is given by Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, IV, xlv.
Asterope: F, Asteripes. Conti, Mythologia, VI, vi, p. 375: “Alii contra Asteropes & et Hyperionis filiam tradiderunt, sicuti testatur Orpheus in Argonauticis” (On the contrary, others, reported that she was the daughter of Asterope and Hyperion, as Orpheus attests in his Argonautica [Pseudo-Orpheus, Argonautica Orphica, 1213-15). See note below.
Argonautica: F, Argonantis. Back to text
Aeetae affinis...: F, Aeetae affinis coniunctaque sanguine, solis / Filia quam proprio dixerunt nomine Circen / Astropey, paruus Hiperiony est auus, illa, etc. Natale Conti’s own Latin translation of Pseudo-Orpheus, Argonautica Orphica, 1213-15 (Parent and blood kin of Aaeta, daughter of the Sun, by her own name Circe, whose mother was Asterope and whose grandfather was Hyperion). See note on Asterope above.
Hesiodus in Theogonia: F, Theogonea. Conti, Mythologia, VI, vi, p. 377: “Haec cum Ulysse versata Agrium ac Latinum peperisse ex eo dicitur, ut in his ait Hesiodus in Theogonia. Habuit Telegonum etiam filium Circe ex eodem Ulysse, et Ausonem à quo Ausonia dicta est, et Casiphonem; verumtamen si ridiculum est, ut ait Zez. Hist. 16. Chil. 5. quod cum Ulysse unum annum versata tres filios pepererit, quanto magis abhorret à veritate ut quinque genuerit? dicitur praeterea Marsus à quo Marsi populi vocati sunt, et Romanus, filii fuisse eiusdem Circes”” (When she was Ulysses’ companion she was said to have given birth to Agrius and Latinus, as Hesiod reports in his Theogony [1011-14]. Of the same Ulysses, Circe had another son, Telegonus, and also Auson, from whom Ausonia derives its name, and Casiphon. However, if it is ridiculous, as Tzetzes says in his Chiliades, V, 16, to think that she had three sons with Ulysses, with whom she lived but one year, how much more distant from truth it would be to say that she gave birth to five. And one also says that Marsus, from whom the Marsi took their name, and Romanus were sons of the same Circe). Both Charles Estienne and Calepinus attribute to Flaccus Verrius the notion that Ausonus, “son of Ulysses and Calypso”, founded Ausonia. Back to text
Lycophron: Instead of referring to Tzetzes’s Chiliades, which Conti is alluding to (see preceding note), Heywood seems to have thought of Tzetzes’s commentary on Lycophron’s Alexandra. But there, Tzetzes mentions only two of Circe’s children whom she had with Ulysses, a son, Telegonus, and a daughter, Cassiphone: Müller’s edition of Tzetzes’s scholia on Lycophron (Leipzig: Vogel, 1811), vol. 2, ad 798, p. 789 and ad 805, pp. 793-94.
Marsus: F, Marsius. n their dictionaries, Charles Estienne and Calepinus after him define the Marsi as “populi Italiae [...]à Marso Circes filio orti, qui saliua sua serpentum morsibus medebantur” (an Italian people, descending from Circe’s son Marsus, who cure snakes’ bites with their own saliva). The source is Pliny’s Natural History, VII, ii.
Marsians: F, Marsiaus.
Romanus: F, Rhomanus. Charles Estienne’s Dictionarium acknowledges one “Romus, Ulyssis et Circes filius”. Back to text
Strabo: Conti, Mythologia, VI, vi, p. 377: “memoriae prodidit Strabo lib. 9. Circes mortuae sepulchrum in altera Pharmacularum insularum, quae non procul distant à Salamine, erectum fuisse” (In his ninth book [IX, i, 13], Strabo left it on record that after her death Circe’s sepulchre was built in one of the Pharmacusae islands, not far from Salamis).
Timaeus Siculus: F, Tymaeus. Heywood’s reference is drawn from Conti (Mythologia, VII, v, p. 476), who himself bases his account of Diomedes’ death on Timaeus’ fragment quoted by Tzetzes on Lycophron’s Alexandra, 615.
Daunus: F, Danaus. Back to text
Clytemnestra: F, Clitemnestrae. See above, stanza 102.
De arte amandi: from Heywood’s own verse translation of the whole Ars Amatoria, Book II, lines 531-38, which contains a certain amount of changes from Troia Britanica.
Chryseis: F, Criseis.
Jars: discord, dissension between Agamemnon and Achilles over Briseis.
Lyrnessus: F, Lyrnesis. Refers to Briseis, daughter of Briseus of Lyrnessus.
Thyestes: F, Thiestes. Ovid, Ars Amatoria, 407, “Thyestaden” (Thyestes’ son, i. e. Aegysthus).
Aegisthus: F, Aegistus.
De remedio amoris: Ovid, Remedia Amoris, 161-68.
Ilium: F, Islion. Back to text
Back to canto XV (1-50 & 51-106)
How to cite
Patricia Dorval, ed., 2018. Troia Britanica Canto XV (1609). In A Dictionary of Shakespeare's Classical Mythology: A Textual Companion, ed. Yves Peyré (2009-).
http://www.shakmyth.org/page/Early+Modern+Mythological+Texts%3A+Troia+Britanica+XV%2C+Notes
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