<37.18>
<37.1> In the MS. copy this poem exhibits considerable variations,
and is entitled "Gratiana's Eulogy."
<37.2> ARIGO or ARRIGO is the Venetian form of HENRICO. I have no
means of identifying CHLORIS or GRATIANA; but AMYNTOR was probably,
as I have already suggested, Endymion Porter, and ARIGO was
unquestionably no other than Henry Jermyn, or Jarmin, who, though
no poet, was, like his friend Porter, a liberal and discerning
patron of men of letters.
"Yet when thy noble choice appear'd, that by
Their combat first prepar'd thy victory:
ENDYMION and ARIGO, who delight
In numbers--"
Davenant's MADAGASCAR, 1638 (Works, 1673, p. 212).
See also p. 247 of Davenant's Works.
Jermyn's name is associated with that of Porter in the noblest
dedication in our language, that to DAVENANT'S POEMS, 1638, 12mo.
"If these poems live," &c.
<37.3> This and the five next lines are not in MS. which opens
with "Her lips," &c.
<37.4> So original; MS. reads OF.
<37.5> This and the next thirteen lines are not in MS.
<<37.6>> i.e. tribute.
<37.7> FAIRE--MS.
<37.8> HER FAIRE--MS. The story of the phoenix was very popular,
and the allusions to it in the early writers are almost
innumerable.
"My labour did to greater things aspire,
To find a PHOENIX melted in the fire,
Out of whose ashes should spring up to birth
A friend"--
POEMS OF Ben Johnson jun.
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