------------------------------------------------------------
{(de) VERE} *VOMERE* : *PLOUGHSHARE* (Italian, Latin) .......................................................
_______________ <= 18 =>
.
. O T H E O {N}L i[E| B E G E T T E R O
. F T H E S E {I}n[S| U I N G S O N N E
. T S M R W h a {L|L|H] A P P I{N}E S S
. E A N D t h a t {E|T|E} R N I T{I}E P
. R O M I S E D [B|Y|O]u{R} E V E R{L}I
. V I N G P O [E]t W|I]S H{E} T H(T)H{E}
. |W]E L L W I S h i n g A{d V e} N(T)U
. |R]E R I N S E t t i n g f o r .T H(T)T
.
{(de) VERE, H.} -19
[WR-IOTH-ESLEY]
--------------------------------------------------------------
. . . I HWH : HWH I
. .[HETH] VAV [HETH] YOD
. [8] + 6 + [8] + 10 = 32 ..........................................................
Pyramid {(de) VEER} *VOMERE* : *PLOUGHSHARE* (Italian, Latin) ...................................................
___ . . . . . . <= Sonnets 33/34 =>
.
___. /T/ OT __ [H] EONLIEBEGE TTE . [R] .OFTHESEINSUINGS
__- /O/ NN _. [E T] SMRWHALLH APPIN . [E] .SSEANDTHATETE
__ /R/ NI___ [T(I)E] *PROMISED*BYOUREV. [E] .RLIVINGPOET
_ /W/ IS___ [H E T H] THEWELL /WISHINGA [D V E] NTURERIN
_______________ SETTIN GFORTH ______________TT --------------------------------------------------------------
They *BURN* in love, THY CHILDREN Shakespear [HET] [THE]m
. Go, wo thy Muse, more NYMPhish brood BEGET THEm
.
[HET], v. t. & i. To *PROMISE*. [Obs.] --Chaucer. ..........................................................
Probability of two {(de) VERE/VEER} *VOMEREs* ~ 1 in 435] -------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . . . . SONNET 33
.
. Full many a glorious morning have I seen
. Flatter the mountain tops with *soVEREign EYE* ......................................................
. . . <= SONNET 33 (=3[H]s+{I}) =>
.
T O T [H] E O N L I E B E G E T T E R O F T H E S E I N S V I N G S
O N N [E T] S M R W H A L L H A P P I N E S S E A N D T H A T E T E
R N I [T{I}E] P R O M I S E D B Y O V R E V E R L I V I N G P O E T
W I S [H E T H] T H E W E L L W I S H I N G A D V E N T V R E R I N ......................................................
. . . . . . <= 33.5 =>
.
. .T O T [H] E O N L I E B E G E T T E R O F T H E S E I N S V I N G S
. O N N [E T] S M R W H A L L H A P P I N E S S E A N D T H A T E T E
.R N I [T{I}E] P R O M I S E D B Y O V R E V E R L I V I N G P O E T
W I S [H E T H] T H E W E L L W I S H I N G A D V E N T V R E R I N ......................................................
. . . <= SONNET 34 (=3[HETH]s+{YODH}) =>

T O T [H] E O N L I E B E G E T T E R O F T H E S E I N S V I N G S O
N N [E T] S M R W H A L L H A P P I N E S S E A N D T H A T E T E R N
I [T{I}E] P R O M I S E D B Y O V R E V E R L I V I N G P O E T W I S
[H E T H] T H E W E L L W I S H I N G A D V E N T V R E R I N ..................................................................
ABRAHAM purchased the Cave Of Machpelah from the sons of [HETH]. ------------------------------------------------------------------ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Bridge_(Virginia)

<<Herman Melville alluded to Virginia’s [HETH?]
. Natural Bridge bridge in describing Moby-Dick: ...........................................................
. . THE WHALE : CHAPTER 133. THE CHASE—FIRST DAY
.
And thus, through the serene tranquillities of the tropical sea, among
waves whose hand-clappings were suspended by exceeding rapture, Moby
Dick moved on, still withholding from sight the full terrors of his
submerged trunk, entirely hiding the wrenched hideousness of his jaw.
But soon the fore part of him slowly rose from the water; for an
instant his whole marbleized body formed a high arch, like Virginia’s
Natural Bridge, and warningly waving his bannered flukes in the air,
the grand god revealed himself, sounded, and went out of sight.
Hoveringly halting, and dipping on the wing, the white sea-fowls
longingly lingered over the agitated pool that he left. ...........................................................
. . THE WHALE : CHAPTER 79. THE PRAIRE
.
<<Champollion deciphered the wrinkled granite hieroglyphics. But there
is no Champollion to decipher the Egypt of EVERy man’s and EVERy being’s face. Physiognomy, like EVERy other human science, is but a passing fable.
If then, Sir William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could not read
the simplest peasant’s face, in its profounder and more subtle meanings,
how may unlettered Ishmael hope to read the awful Chaldee of
the Sperm Whale’s brow? I but put that brow before you.
. . . . Read if it you can.>> -------------------------------------------------------------
. Golding's Ovid.
.
A hurtfull Art. His owne two wings he waveth VERiE trim,
And looketh backward still upon his sonnes. The fishermen
Then standing angling by the Sea, and shepeherdes leaning then
On sheepehookes, and the PLOUGHMEN on the handles of their PLOUGH,
Beholding them, amazed were: and thought that they that through
The Aire could flie were Gods. And now did on their left side stand
The Iles of Paros and of Dele and Samos, Junos land:
And on their right, Lebinthos and the faire Calydna fraught
.
With store of HONIE: when the Boy a frolicke courage caught
To flie at randon. Whereupon forsaking quight his guide,
Of fond desire to flie to Heaven, above his boundes he stide.
.
And there the nerenesse of the Sunne which burnd more hote aloft,
Did make the Wax (with which his wings were glewed) lithe and soft.
As soone as that the Wax was molt, his naked armes he SHAKES,
And wanting wherewithall to wave no helpe of Aire he takes.
But calling on his father loud he drowned in the wave:
And by this chaunce of his those Seas his name for EVER have. -------------------------------------------------------------------
Clark Jun 23 1999, 12:00 am
Newsgroups: humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

I must confess that up until now I haven't spent much time following the involved debate regarding the definition of "upstart" as Greene uses the
term to describe Shakespeare in his "Groatsworth of Wit." OED defines
"upstart" this way, Webster defines it that way, and Funk & Wagnalls
defines it the other way. It struck me that it doesn't really matter
what OED, or Webster, or Funk & Wagnalls says the word means, what
matters is what Robert Greene thought it meant when he used it.

So how do we find out what Robert Greene meant by the word "upstart"?

In reviewing the long history of posts, I noticed that Art
Neuendorffer
occasionally quoted a line or two from Greene's "A Quip for an Upstart Courtier." Perhaps, I thought, Greene would give us some guidance on
his use of the word in a book that included the word "upstart" in the
title. I found a copy of "A Quip for an Upstart Courtier" in vol. 11
of the "Life and Complete Works in Prose and Verse of Robert Greene,
M.A.", reprinted from the 1881-1886 Huth Library edition.

"A Quip for an Upstart Courtier" is basically a refereed argument
between a pair of Cloth Breeches, who represents the honest yeomanry,
and a pair of Velvet Breeches, the "upstart"
whose character becomes clear as the work progresses:

"As I have had always that honest humor in me to measure all estates by
their vertues, not by their apparel, so did I never grudge at the
bravery of any whom birth, time, place, or dignity made worth of such
costly ornaments, but if by the favour of their Prince and their own
deserts they merited them, I held both lawful and commendable to answer
their dignities. I am not so precise directly to inveigh against the
use of velvet, either in breeches or in other suits, nor will I have men
go like John Baptist, in coats of Camels hair. Let Princes have their
Diademes, and Caesar what is due to Caesar, let Noblemen go as their
birth requires, and Gentlemen as they are born or bear office: I speak
in my own defence, for the ancient Gentility and yeomandrie of Englande,
and inveigh against none, but such malapart *upstart* as raised up
from the PLOUGH, or advanced for their Italian devices, or for
their witless wealth, covet in bravery to match, nay to exceed
the greatest Noblemen in this land." -- [page 231]

I found that Greene not only gives us ample indication of what the
word "upstart" means to him, he actually defines it on page 237.

"In faith goodman gosecape, you that are come from the start ups, and
therefore is called an *upstart*, quasi start up from clowted shoone
(sic), your lips hung in your light, when you brought forth this Logic:
for I hope there is none so simple, but knows that handicrafts
and occupations grew for necessity, not pride: that mens'
inventions waxed sharpe to profit the common wealth,
not to prank up themselves in bravery..."

Everywhere he uses the word, Greene uses it in the same context. An
"upstart" is a person who is living above his station. Someone who has
risen from the dirt, put on fine clothes, and struts around like he's
one of his betters. In calling Shakespeare an "upstart", Greene isn't
saying that Shakespeare has "suddenly appeared," or that he has
"suddenly started up or come into existence." No, as consistently used
in "A Quip for an Upstart Courtier," Greene is saying that Shakespeare
has had the presumption to rise above his station, and has
the audacity to think himself the equal of his betters. - Clark -----------------------------------------------------------
. www.thorshof.org/zthorstar.htm
.
<<Ursa Major: known as the PLOUGH in England and the Big Dipper
in the USA. All across Scandinavia and in Germany this constellation
is known as the WAIN. This constellation seems to have been ascribed
to THOR and is called 'Karl WAGEN', Karl being the familiar title
given to the god in Scandinavia, normally translated as 'the Old Man'.
This name is found in Denmark, Sweden and Iceland. It is highly
likely that the WAIN was given to any prominent deity
who travelled in a chariot, which would also include
Freyr, Freyja, and the old earth goddess Nerthus.>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
. 1 KING HENRY IV Act 2, Scene 1
.
First Carrier:
. Heigh-ho! an it be not FOUR by the day, I'll be hanged:
. CHARLES' WAIN [URSA MAJOR] is over the new chimney,
. and yet our HORSE not packed. What, ostler [Shaks' London gig]! --------------------------------------------------------------------
An old rhyme describing the god THOR figures at Upsala:
.
<<The God THOR was the highest of them, He sat naked as a child,
. SEVEN STARS in his hand and CHARLES' WAIN.>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
PISTOL: Sweet knight, I kiss thy neaf: what!
. we have seen the SEVEN STARS. ----------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted from Gerard de Sede, Les templiers sont parmi nous,
ou l'enigme de Gisors, (The Templars Are Among Us, or the
. Enigma of Gisors), Julliard, Paris. 1962
. http://www.memorymap.com/plantard_01.htm
.
Plantard then talks about astronomy, 'the most ancient of the natural sciences', and of the work of Eudoxus in the 4th century BCE, which
defined the 260 northern stars, 349 zodiacal stars and 317 southern
stars, a total of 1,026 stars grouped in 48 constellations.
.
'It is on the study of the sky, added to the mathematical
(using the squares of numbers called "magic") and Hermetic data
(the symbolic interpretation of Biblical and mythological texts)
that all the constructions of art were built.'
.
It was this data that was incorporated into the architecture of
sacred buildings. The aim was to produce the ideal temple of the
celestial ladder, linking the constellations following geometric
proportions by means of 'the rule, the compass and the square'.
.
This was the marvellous dream that Jacob had on the stone:
"Here is the house of God, here is the gate of heaven".
.
He then talks about the three 'celestial chariots'
. that the pagans considered sacred:
.
1. The Great Chariot, which the Christians named the Chariot of David,
Artos (the bear) for the Gauls, the Great Bear composed of seven
principal stars and which the Romans saw as seven cows of which
the OXherd was the guardian. Septem triones, from whence the name
Septentrion, the region of the North, known also by the name of Helix.
It is the board for drawing the pieces of architecture, the Square
of Three [SM: Square of Three is the Square of Saturn],
on which the Tuscane is seated.
.
2. The Little Chariot, to which also a rich symbolism is attached. It
is the labourer's PLOUGH, the Phoenix or Phoenice which could be reborn
from the seed of ashes, the flat plate or Square of Five [SM: Square of
Mars], the Little Bear of modern times, the aloe or eloa, the immolated
victim whose sacrifice could give back life, the "triumphal cart of
antimony" of the alchemist Basil Valentine. The body of the chariot was
the invisible support of that which was visible on the buckle
of Vulcan, such as the Iliad (chapter XVIII) describes to us.
.
3. The Chariot of the Sea, the White Ship of Juno with the 63 lights
of which one is Canopus, the sublime eye of the architect, which
opens every 70 years to contemplate the Universe [eye = ayin = 70],
the ship Argo that transported the Golden Fleece, in Christianity the
modest barque of Peter. It is the symbolic Ark where nothing profane
can penetrate without incurring punishment: "To the sacriligious a
fall, to the thief death within a year." Only those who are capable of
working the cube of the wood of Mars - that magic "die" entrusted to the vigilance of two children: Castor and Pollux - to perfection, in every
sense, can enter there. [CP: 'wood of Mars' is wood from the Elm tree.]
.
The enigma of Gisors is therefore this "chance three times renewed",
that tri-unity that allows the miracle of Nicholas. Two children are
present, a third protege [poulain] returns once a year, on the 25
December...' [SM: Nicolas Poulain was imprisoned in the Tower at Gisors
for 14 years. The name itself has many levels of meaning, eventually
refering to an alchemical process. The 'prison du poulet' is the Egg...] -----------------------------------------------------------------------
. http://www.mistral.co.uk/hammerwood/elgin.htm
.
<<Hephaestus will be required to go away and find another place in the
heavens to find another mother Earth, another Demeter, to bear the new creation. He will be banished there to go and look after the new colony.
So Hephaestus will have to make PLOUGHs when he gets there
. and will have to teach agriculture.>> ----------------------------------------------------
. Coriolanus Act 5, Scene 3
.
CORIOLANUS: My mother bows;
. As if Olympus to a molehill should
. In supplication nod: and my young boy
. Hath an aspect of intercession, which
. Great nature cries 'Deny not.' let the Volsces
. PLOUGH Rome and harrow Italy: I'll nEVER
. Be such a gosling TO OBEY instinct, but stand,
. As if a man were author of himself
. And knew no other kin. -----------------------------------------------------------------
. Symphonic Shakespeare By Paul Schuyler Phillips http://buweb.univ-angers.fr/EXTRANET/AnthonyBURGESS/NL2Symphonic.html
.
It is a season of shepherds and farmers: the former "pipe on
oaten straws", the latter rise at dawn each day with the LARKS,
who "are *PLOUGHMEN's* clocks".
To ready their warm weather clothing,
"maidens bleach their summer smocks."
.
But spring has its negative side. A season of life, it is also a time of
sexual activity that "mocks married men." It is the season "when turtles tread", i.e. when turtledoves (read "lovers") mate, and the cuckoo "on
EVERy tree" sings his "word of fear": "cuckoo, cuckoo". Married men
are reminded of that fear not just by the sound of the cuckoo,
but by the flowers in the field: "cuckoo buds", "lady-smocks"
(synonym for cuckoo-flower), and "violets", since "blue had come
in the Middle Ages to symbolize infidelity, cuckoldry and folly." -----------------------------------------------------
_Aubade_ by Sir William Davenant (1606-1668)
.
. [T]HE LARK now leaves his wat'ry nest,
. [A]nd climbing SHAKES his dewy wings.
. [H]e takes this window for the East,
. And to implore your light he sings?
. Awake, awake! the morn will nEVER rise
. [T]ill she can dress her beauty at your eyes.
. [T]he merchant bows unto the seaman's star,
. [T]he PLOUGHMAN from the sun his season takes,
. But still the lover wonders what they are
. [W]ho look for day before his mistress wakes.
. [A]wake, awake! break thro' your VEILS of lawn!
. [T]hen draw your curtains, and begin the dawn! --------------------------------------------------------
. The Rape of Lucrece Stanza 137
.
'To show the beldam daughters of her daughter,
.To make the child a man, the man a child,
.To slay the tiger that doth live by SLAUGHTER,
.To tame the unicorn and lion wild,
.To mock the subtle in themselves beguiled,
.To cheer the PLOUGHMAN with increaseful crops,
.And WASTE huge stones with little water drops. -------------------------------------------------------------
Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941). The Golden Bough. 1922.
XLIX. Ancient Deities of Vegetation as Animals
. § 1. Dionysus, the Goat and the Bull
. http://www.bartleby.com/196/115.html
.
<<Dionysus was also figured, as we have seen, in the shape of a bull.
. The bull is a common embodiment of the corn-spirit in Northern
. Europe; and the close association of Dionysus with Demeter
. and Persephone in the mysteries of Eleusis shows that
. he had at least strong agricultural affinities.
.
In other rites than those of Dionysus the ancients slew an OX
as a representative of the spirit of vegetation(; e.g., in the
Athenian sacrifice known as "the murder of the OX" (BOUPHONIA).
.
. It took place about the end of June
.
when the threshing is nearly over in Attica. According to tradition the sacrifice was instituted to procure a cessation of drought and dearth
which had afflicted the land. The ritual was as follows. Barley mixed
with wheat, or cakes made of them, were laid upon the BRONZE
altar of Zeus Polieus on the Acropolis. OXen were driven round
the altar, and the OX which went up to the altar and ate the offering
on it was sacrificed. The axe & knife with which the beast was slain
had been previously wetted with water brought by maidens called "water-carriers." The weapons were then sharpened and
handed to the BUTCHERS, one of whom felled the OX
with the axe and another cut its throat with the knife.
As soon as he had felled the OX, the former threw the axe from
him and fled; and the man who cut the beast's throat apparently
imitated his example. Meantime the OX was skinned
and all present partook of its flesh.
.
. Then the hide was stuffed with straw and sewed up;
.
. next the stuffed animal was set on its feet
. and YOKED to a PLOUGH as if it were PLOUGHing.
.
. "The OX HATH therefore stretch'd his YOKE in vain"
. -Titania, AMND, II, i
.
A trial then took place in an ancient law-court presided over by
the King (as he was called) to determine who had murdered the OX.
The maidens who had brought the water accused the men
who had sharpened the axe and knife;
the men who had sharpened the axe and knife blamed the men who
had handed these implements to the BUTCHERS; the men who had handed
the implements to the BUTCHERS blamed the BUTCHERS; and the BUTCHERS
laid the blame on the axe and knife, which were accordingly
found guilty, condemned, and cast into the sea.
.
The name of this sacrifice,- "the murder of the OX,"-the pains taken
by each person who had a hand in the SLAUGHTER to lay the blame
on some one else, together with the formal trial and punishment
of the axe or knife or both, prove that the OX was here
regarded not merely as a victim offered to a god,
but as itself a sacred creature, the SLAUGHTER of which was sacrilege
or murder. This is borne out by a statement of Varro that to kill an
OX was formerly a capital crime in Attica. The mode of selecting
the victim suggests that the OX which tasted the corn
was viewed as the corn-deity taking possession of his own.
.
In Beauce, in the district of Orleans, on the 24th or 25th of April
. they make *A STRAW MAN* called "the great mondard."
For they say that the old mondard IS NOW DEAD and it is necessary
to make a new one. The straw man is carried in solemn procession
up & down the village and at last is placed upon the oldest apple-tree.
There he remains till the apples are gathered, when he is taken down and
thrown into the water, or he is burned and his ashes cast into water.
But the person who plucks the first fruit from the tree succeeds
to the title of "the great mondard."
Here the straw figure, called "the great mondard" and placed
on the oldest apple-tree in spring, represents the spirit of the tree,
who, dead in winter, revives when the apple-blossoms appear on the
boughs. Thus the person who plucks the first fruit from the tree and
thereby receives the name of "the great mondard" must be regarded
as a representative of the tree-spirit. Primitive peoples are usually
reluctant to taste the annual FIRST-FRUITS of any crop,
until some ceremony has been performed
which makes it safe and pious for them to do so.
The reason of this reluctance appears to be a belief that
*the FIRST-FRUITS* either belong to or actually contain a divinity.>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
John (Giovanni) Florio was born in London in 1553 of Italian
parents. At age 25, his first work, *FIRST-FRUITS* , was published -------------------------------------------------------------------
. THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS
.
<<In the one hundred and thirtieth year after Israel's going down to
Egypt Pharaoh dreamed that he was sitting upon his throne, and he lifted
up his eyes, and he beheld an old man before him with a balance in his
hand, and he saw him taking all the elders, nobles, and great men of
Egypt, tying them together, and laying them in one scale of the balance,
while he put a tender kid into the other. The kid bore down the pan
in which it lay until it hung lower than the other with the bound
Egyptians. Pharaoh arose early in the morning, and called together all
his servants and his wise men to interpret his dream, and the men were
greatly afraid on account of his vision. Balaam the son of Beor then
spake, and said: "This means nothing but that a great evil will spring
up against Egypt, for a son will be born unto Israel, who will destroy
the whole of our land and all its inhabitants, and he will bring forth
the Israelites from Egypt with a mighty hand. Now, therefore,
O king, take counsel as to this matter, that the hope of Israel
be frustrated before this evil arise against Egypt."
.
"From all that the king may devise against the Hebrews, they will be
delivered. If thou thinkest to diminish them by the flaming fire, thou
wilt not prevail over them, for their God delivered Abraham their father
from the furnace in which the Chaldeans cast him. Perhaps thou thinkest
to destroy them with a sword, but their father Isaac was delivered from
being SLAUGHTERed by the sword. And if thou thinkest to reduce them
through hard and rigorous labor, thou wilt also not prevail, for their
father Jacob served Laban in all manner of hard work, and yet he
prospered. If it please the king, let him order all the male children
that shall be born in Israel from this day forward to be thrown into the
water. Thereby canst thou wipe out their name, for neither any of them
nor any of their fathers was tried in this way.
.
Balaam's advice was accepted by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. They knew
that God pays measure for measure, therefore they believed that the
drowning of the men children would be the safest means of exterminating
the Hebrews, without incurring harm themselves, for the Lord had sworn
unto Noah never again to destroy the world by water. Thus, they assumed,
they would be exempt from punishment, wherein they were wrong, however.
In the first place, though the Lord had sworn not to bring a flood
upon men, there was nothing in the way of bringing men into a flood. Furthermore, the oath of God applied to the whole of mankind, not to a
single nation. The end of the Egyptians was that they met their death in
the billows of the Red Sea. "Measure for measure"--as they had drowned
the men children of the Israelites, so they were drowned.
.
The women that remained united with their husbands would go out into
the field when their time of delivery arrived, and give birth to their
children and leave them there, while they themselves returned home. The
Lord, who had sworn unto their ancestors to multiply them, sent one of
His angels to wash the babes, anoint them, stretch their limbs, and
swathe them. Then he would give them two smooth pebbles, from one of
which they sucked milk, and from the other honey. And God caused the
hair of the infants to grow down to their knees and serve them as a
protecting garment, and then He ordered the earth to receive the babes,
that they be sheltered therein until the time of their growing up, when
it would open its mouth and vomit forth the children, and they would
sprout up like the herb of the field and the grass of the forest.
.
When the Egyptians saw this, they went forth, every man to his field,
with his yoke of OXEN, and they PLOUGHED up the earth as one PLOUGHs
it at seed time. Yet they were unable to do harm to the infants of the
children of Israel that had been swallowed up and lay in the bosom of
the earth. Thus the people of Israel increased and waxed exceedingly.
And Pharaoh ordered his officers to go to Goshen, to look for the male
babes of the children of Israel, and when they discovered one, they tore
him from his mother's breast by force, and thrust him into the river."
But no one is so valiant as to be able to foil God's purposes, though
he contrive ten thousand subtle devices unto that end. The child
foretold by Pharaoh's dreams and by his astrologers was
brought up and kept concealed from the king's spies.>> -------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Wyberg, observing the total solar eclipse of 8 April 1652
at Carrickfergus, Scotland.
.
". . . the country people tilling, loosed their PLOUGHs.
. The birds dropped to the ground." ---------------------------------------------------------------------
THE PHILOBIBLON OF RICHARD DE BURY
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY E. C. THOMAS

"TAKE THOU A BOOK INTO THINE HANDS AS SIMON THE JUST TOOK THE CHILD
JESUS INTO HIS ARMS TO CARRY HIM AND KISS HIM. AND WHEN THOU HAST
FINISHED READING, CLOSE THE BOOK AND GIVE THANKS FOR EVERY WORD
OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD; BECAUSE IN THE LORD'S FIELD THOU HAST
FOUND A HIDDEN TREASURE." -- THOMAS A KEMPIS: Doctrinale Juvenum

PREFACE | CONTENTS

The Author of the Book. Richard de Bury (1281-1345), so called
from being born near Bury St. Edmunds, was the son of Sir Richard
Aungerville. He studied at OXford; and was subsequently chosen to be
tutor to Prince Edward of Windsor, afterwards Edward III. His loyalty
to the cause of Queen Isabella and the Prince involved him in danger.
On the accession of his pupil he was made successively Cofferer, Treasurer
of the Wardrobe, Archdeacon of Northampton, Prebendary of Lincoln,
Sarum, and Lichfield, Keeper of the Privy Purse, Ambassador on two
occasions to Pope John XXII, who appointed him a chaplain of the papal
chapel, Dean of Wells, and ultimately, at the end of the year 1333,
Bishop of Durham; the King and Queen, the King of Scots, and all the
magnates north of the Trent, together with a multitude of nobles and
many others, were present at his enthronization. It is noteworthy that
during his stay at Avignon, probably in 1330, he made the acquaintance
of Petrarch, who has left us a brief account of their intercourse. In
1332 Richard visited Cambridge, as one of the King's commissioners, to
inquire into the state of the King's Scholars there, and perhaps then
became a member of the Gild of St. Mary--one of the two gilds which
founded Corpus Christi College.

In 1334 he became High Chancellor of England, and Treasurer in 1336,
resigning the former office in 1335, so that he might help the King
in dealing with affairs abroad and in Scotland. Wasted by long
sickness--longa infirmitate decoctus--on the 14th of April, 1345,
Richard de Bury died at Auckland, and was buried in Durham Cathedral.

CHAPTER I: THAT THE TREASURE OF WISDOM IS CHIEFLY CONTAINED IN BOOKS

The desirable treasure of wisdom and science, which all men desire by an instinct of nature, infinitely surpasses all the riches of the world; in respect of which precious stones are worthless; in comparison with which
silver is as clay and pure gold is as a little sand; at whose splendour
the sun and moon are dark to look upon; compared with whose marvellous sweetness honey and manna are bitter to the taste. O value of wisdom
that fadeth not away with time, virtue EVER flourishing, that cleanseth
its possessor from all venom! O heavenly gift of the divine bounty,
descending from the Father of lights, that thou mayest exalt the
rational soul to the very heavens! Thou art the celestial nourishment of
the intellect, which those who eat shall still hunger and those who
drink shall still thirst, and the gladdening harmony of the languishing
soul which he that hears shall nEVER be confounded. Thou art the
moderator and rule of morals, which he who follows shall not sin. By
thee kings reign and princes decree justice. By thee, rid of their
native rudeness, their minds and tongues being polished, the thorns of
vice being torn up by the roots, those men attain high places of honour,
and become fathers of their country, and companions of princes, who
without thee would have melted their spears into pruning-hooks and PLOUGHsHARES, or would perhaps be feeding swine with the prodigal.
.
Where dost thou chiefly lie hidden, O most elect treasure!
and where shall thirsting souls discover thee? ----------------------------------------------------
Goad, n. [AS. g[=a]d; perh. akin to AS. g[=a]r a dart, and E. gore.
See {Gore}, v. t.] A pointed instrument used to urge on a beast.
.
Goad, v. t. To prick; to drive with a goad; hence, to urge forward.
.
. That temptation that doth goad us on. --Shak.
.
Goad (Heb. malmad, only in Judg. 3: 31), an instrument used by PLOUGHMEN
for guiding their OXEN. ShamGAR slew six hundred Philistines with an
OX-goad. "The goad is a formidable weapon. It is sometimes ten feet
long, and has a sharp point. We could now see that the feat of ShamGAR
was not so very wonderful as some have been accustomed to think."
In 1 Sam. 13:21, a different Hebrew word is used, _dorban_, meaning
something pointed. The expression (Acts 9:5, omitted in the R.V.),
"It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks", i.e., against the
goad, was proverbial for unavailing resistance to superior power. ------------------------------------------------------------------
Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941). The Golden Bough. 1922.
. § 2. Demeter, the Pig and the Horse
. http://www.bartleby.com/196/116.html

<<The Thesmophoria has its analogies in the folk-customs of
Northern Europe which have been already described. Just as at the Thesmophoria-an autumn festival in honour of the corn-goddess-swine's
flesh was partly eaten, partly kept in caverns till the following year,
when it was taken up to be sown with the seed-corn in the fields for the purpose of securing a good crop; so in the neighbourhood of Grenoble the
goat killed on the harvest-field is partly eaten at the harvest-supper,
partly pickled and kept till the next harvest; so at Pouilly the OX
killed on the harvest-field is partly eaten by the harvesters, partly
pickled and kept till the first day of sowing in spring, probably to be
then mixed with the seed, or eaten by the PLOUGHMEN, or both; so at
Udvarhely the feathers of the cock which is killed in the last sheaf at
harvest are kept till spring, and then sown with the seed on the field;
so in Hesse and Meiningen the flesh of pigs is eaten on Ash Wednesday or

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