The Major Works (English Library) (78 page)
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Authors: Sir Thomas Browne
11
. i.e. microscopes.
12
. i.e. lens.
13
. Cf. Plutarch,
The E at Delphi
: ‘the beginning and ground of even numbers is Two, and of odde, Three…: which being joined together is engendered Five,… worthily named
μος
, that is to say, Mariage; because the even number hath some resemblance to the female, and the odde, a reference to the male’ (Holland’s translation, 1603; in
M
).
15
. ‘Beware of all fifth days; they are harsh and angry’ – in
Works and Days
, 802 (Browne marg.).
16
.
Laws
, VI (Browne marg.).
17
. Matthew 25.1.
19
. So Plutarch (Browne marg.).
20
. i.e. the fifth of the creation (Genesis 1.20–23).
21
. i.e. Venus: ‘the lips that Venus has imbued with the quintessence of her own nectar’ (Browne suppl., quoting the Latin of Horace,
Odes
, I, xiii, 15–16).
22
. According to Archangelus Burgonovus (Browne marg.) in his defence of the cabalistic or esoteric Judaeo-Christian doctrines of Pico (
§178
).
23
. i.e. the letter ‘h’, when Abram was renamed Abraham (Genesis 17.5).
24
. i.e. the letter ‘iod’ (the tenth of the Hebrew alphabet) was changed to ‘h’ (the fifth) when Sarai became Sarah (Genesis 17.15).
25
. ‘Or very few’ (Browne marg., mentioning a spider with ten legs noted by Clusius and de Laet – ‘If perfectly described’, he adds).
26
. The three Hebrew letters in Yahweh (‘Jehovah’) denote the three numbers mentioned.
27
. As above,
p. 71, note 49
.
28
. Leviticus 19.23–5.
29
. Watery.
30
. i.e. that the second day of creation was ‘good’ – the benediction mentioned in every other instance (Genesis 1.6–8). On the number two as ‘Feminine’, see above,
p. 380, note 13
.
31
. i.e. that it was ‘good’ (Genesis 1.10 and 12).
32
. Leviticus 6.5.
33
. i.e. the ‘trespass offering’ of ‘five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines’ (1 Samuel 6.4).
34
. Leviticus 6.5 (‘five of you shall chase an hundred’).
35
. 1 Corinthians 14.19.
36
. The ensuing seven paragraphs reduced Coleridge to ecstasy: ‘Quincunxes in Heaven above, Quincunxes in Earth below, & Quincunxes in the water beneath the Earth; Quincunxes in Deity, Quincunxes in the mind of man, Quincunxes in optic nerves, in Roots of Trees, in leaves, in petals, in every thing!’
37
. The consonants in the roots of Hebrew words.
38
. The Pentateuch or first five books of the Bible were said to contain just over 600,000 ‘radicall Letters’; and the warriors of Israel, to have been nearly as many (Numbers 1.46).
39
. John 6.9–10 and Matthew 15.34–8, respectively.
40
. Genesis 45.22 and 1 Samuel 17.40, respectively.
41
. Scaliger – ‘the Criticall Physician’ or literary doctor – had claimed that the Latin word for five derives from the Greek of ‘four and one’ (Browne marg.).
42
. In
Epidemics
, VII, 3.
43
. “
Αγαθ
χη
, or
bona fortuna
, the name of the fifth house’ (Browne marg.). The celestial regions were divided into twelve ‘houses’.
44
. ‘Conjunct, opposite, sextile, trigonal, tetragonal’ (Browne marg.).
45
. The Biblical episode (1 Samuel 16.23) elicited many elaborate discourses as by Mersenne (quoted in
M
).
46
. According to an inscription printed by Gruterus (
G2
).
47
. i.e. the four parts of any dramatic poem (Browne marg., naming the terms in Greek).
48
. Horace,
The Art of Poetry
, 189–90.
49
. i.e. the science of magnetism.
50
. i.e. turn away their vertices so that, in pointing north, they avoid the decussation.
51
. As above,
p. 180, note 39
.
52
. ‘loss’ (Blount).
53
. As above,
p. 242, note 12
.
54
. Referring to a coin illustrated by Agostino (as above,
p. 341, note 58
).
55
. i.e. venefical: malignant. The myth is described in ‘draughts’ (drawings) and related by Ovid,
Metamorphoses
, IX, 298–300.
56
. The ancient Amphidromia at the naming of a child.
57
. Ovid,
Metamorphoses
, III, 126.
58
.
Odyssey
, IV, 412.
59
.
Iliad
, II, 403, and VII, 315.
60
. Marcus Aurelius,
Meditations
, XI, 12; etc.
61
. i.e. nauseated by stale truths.
62
.
Iliad
, XVIII, 468 ff.
63
. i.e. the Pythagorean tetrad (1+2+3+4 = 10), suggestive of the totality of things and their underlying design. See
§56
.
64
. i.e. experimental knowledge, the ‘experience’ and ‘reason’ commended in
Pseudodoxia Epidemica
(see
above, p. 35
).
65
. ‘Hyades near the Horizon about midnight at that time’, i.e. the beginning of March (Browne marg.). Hyades is the cluster of five stars in the vicinity of Pleiades.
66
. i.e. the five senses.
67
. Previous thoughts.
68
. In
On Dreams
(Browne marg.).
69
. ‘Artemidorus & Apomazar’ (Browne marg.): see below,
p. 476, note 5
.
70
. ‘strewed with roses’ (Browne marg.).
71
. Hesiod,
Theogony
, 123.
72
.
Iliad
, II, 6, where Zeus sends not sleep but a dream (somnium).
73
. ‘Think thou’, exclaimed Coleridge, ‘that there ever was such a reason given before for going to bed at midnight, to wit, that if we did not, we should be acting the part of our
ANTIPODES
!!’
74
. ‘ – what Life, what Fancy! Does the whimsical Knight give us thus a dish of strong green Tea, & call it an
Opiate
?’ (Coleridge).
1
. Persius, III, 105: ‘He stretches out his heels cold and stark towards the door’.
2
. The reference is not to Plutarch’s story (‘the great Pan is dead’) but to George Sandys’s report in 1621 that the death of ‘one Antonio called the Rich’ was foretold by ‘a voice’ (
§ 321
). Browne’s preference for Sandys’s account may have been dictated by the fact that the daughter of Sir John Pettus (see headnote, above) had married into the Sandys family.
3
. Plautus,
The Captives
, 647–8: ‘thin face, sharp nose, complexion fair, black eyes, hair a little reddish, waving, and curle’.
4
. ‘moribund’ (
§176
). The allusion is to Hippocrates’s description (in
Prognostics
, II) of the dying man.
5
. i.e. East Anglia. Air containing nitre was said to be conducive to health (
M
).
6
. ‘When death comes, Sardinia is in the midst of Tivoli’ (Browne marg., quoting the Latin of Martial,
Epigrams
, IV, 60, 5–6). Sardinia was regarded as unhealthy.
7
. ‘In the King’s Forests they set the Figure of a broad Arrow upon Trees that are to be cut down’ (Browne marg.).
8
. In
Epidemics
, VI, vii, 9 (Browne marg.).
9
. So Bellonius (Browne marg.).
10
. The heart as first seen in embryos (
M
).
11
. Striving.
12
. See above,
p. 386, note 55
.
13
. ‘
Monstra contingunt in medicina. Hippoc
. Strange and rare Escapes there happen sometimes in Physic’ (Browne marg.).
14
. So Angelus Victorius (Browne marg.).
15
. Matthew 4.23 (Browne marg.).
16
. The
Archidoxis magica
(as
above, p. 85, note 123
).
17
. ‘Aristotle adds that no animal dies except when the tide is ebbing. The observation has been often made on the ocean of Gaul; but it has only been found true with respect to man’ (Browne marg., quoting the Latin of Pliny, II, ci, 220).
18
. As in Hesiod,
Theogony
, 212.
19
. ‘The hanging part of the ear is called the lobe. Not every ear has this part: those who are born at night do not have it, but those who are born in the day do, for the most part’ (Browne marg., quoting the Latin of Scaliger’s commentary on Aristotle).
20
. Accidental.
21
. ‘fever’ (
MSS.: M, K, E
).
22
. So Pliny, VII, 52
23
. See
above, p. 66, note 29
.
24
. See
above, p. 99, note 188
.
25
. ‘According to the
Egyptian
Hieroglyphick’ (Browne marg.). Cf. Pierius: ‘The snake eats its own tail to show the immortality of its generations and to demonstrate that the beginning is turned to the end and the end turned back to the beginning’ (
M
). Browne himself was to die on his birthday, 19 October 1682.
26
. So Knolles on the Duke John Ernestus (Browne marg.).
27
. Satisfying meal.
28
. In the Poet
Dante
his description’ (Browne marg.):
Purgatorio
, XXIII, 28. Cf. above,
p. 296, note 89
.
29
. ‘he that telleth of thinges to come by lokynge in beastes bowelles’ (Elyot).
30
. Taking out the entrails.
31
. Carried by six (Juvenal,
Satires
, I, 64).
32
. In his treatise
Concerning the Diseases of Children
, 15 77 (Browne marg.).
34
. ‘
Morta
, the Deity of Death or Fate’ (Browne marg.).
35
. ‘When Mens Faces are drawn with resemblance to some other Animals, the
Italians
call it, to be drawn in
Caricatura
’ (Browne marg.).
36
. i.e. retrogressively.
37
. In his treatise
Concerning the Use of the Human Beard
(Browne marg.).
38
. ‘The Life of a Man is Three-score and Ten’ (Browne marg.): Psalm 90.10.
