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Shakespeare; Or, The Poet
by
[Footnote 580: Delphi. Here, source of prophecy. Delphi was a city in Greece, where was the oracle of Apollo, the most famous of the oracles of antiquity.]
[Footnote 581: Our English Bible. The version made in the reign of King James I. by forty-seven learned divines is a monument of noble English.]
[Footnote 582: Liturgy. An appointed form of worship used in a Christian church,–here, specifically, the service of the Episcopal church. Emerson’s mother had been brought up in that church, and though she attended her husband’s church, she always loved and read her Episcopal prayer book.]
[Footnote 583: Grotius. Hugo Grotius was a Dutch jurist, statesman, theologian, and poet of the seventeenth century.]
[Footnote 584: Rabbinical forms. The forms used by the rabbis, Jewish doctors or expounders of the law.]
[Footnote 585: Common law. In a general sense, the system of law derived from England, in general use among English-speaking people.]
[Footnote 586: Vedas. The sacred books of the Brahmins.]
[Footnote 587: AEsop’s Fables. Fables ascribed to AEsop, a Greek slave who lived in the sixth century before Christ.]
[Footnote 588: Pilpay, or Bidpai. Indian sage to whom were ascribed some fables. From an Arabic translation, these passed into European languages and were used by La Fontaine, the French fabulist.]
[Footnote 589: Arabian Nights. The Arabian Nights’ Entertainment or A Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Oriental tales, the plan and name of which are very ancient.]
[Footnote 590: Cid. The Romances of the Cid, the story of the Spanish national hero, mentioned in note on Heroism139:5, was written about the thirteenth century by an unknown author; it supplied much of the material for two Spanish chronicles and Spanish and French tragedies written later on the same subject.]
[Footnote 591: Iliad. The poem in which the Greek, poet, Homer, describes the siege and fall of Troy. Emerson here expresses the view adopted by many scholars that it was the work, not of one, but of many men.]
[Footnote 592: Robin Hood. The ballads about Robin Hood, an English outlaw and popular hero of the twelfth century.]
[Footnote 593: Scottish Minstrelsy. The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, a collection of original and collected poems, published by Sir Walter Scott in 1802.]
[Footnote 594: Shakespeare Society. The Shakespeare Society, founded in 1841, was dissolved in 1853. In 1874 The New Shakespeare Society was founded.]
[Footnote 595: Mysteries. See “Kyd, Marlowe, etc.” 531.]
[Footnote 596: Ferrex and Porrex, or Gorboduc. The first regular English tragedy, by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, printed in 1565.]
[Footnote 597: Gammer Gurtor’s Needle. One of the first English comedies, written by Bishop Still and printed in 1575.]
[Footnote 598: Whether the boy Shakespeare poached, etc. For a fuller account of the facts of Shakespeare’s life, of which some traditions and facts are mentioned here, consult some good biography of the poet.]
[Footnote 599: Queen Elizabeth. Dining her reign, 1558-1603, the English drama rose and attained its height, and there was produced a prose literature hardly inferior to the poetic.]
[Footnote 600: King James. King James VI. of Scotland and I. of England who was Elizabeth’s kinsman and successor; he reigned in England from 1603 to 1625.]
[Footnote 601: Essexes. Walter Devereux was a brave English gentleman whom Elizabeth made Earl of Essex in 1572. His son Robert, the second Earl of Essex, was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth’s.]
[Footnote 602: Leicester. The Earl of Leicester, famous in Shakespeare’s time, was Robert Dudley, an English courtier, politician, and general, the favorite of Queen Elizabeth.]
[Footnote 603: Burleighs or Burghleys: William Cecil, baron of Burghley, was an English statesman, who, for forty years, was Elizabeth’s chief minister.]
[Footnote 604: Buckinghams. George Villiers, the first duke of Buckingham, was an English courtier and politician, a favorite of James I. and Charles I.]
[Footnote 605: Tudor dynasty. The English dynasty of sovereigns descended on the male side from Owen Tudor. It began with Henry VII. and ended with Elizabeth.]
[Footnote 606: Bacon. Consult English literature and history for an account of the great statesman and author, Francis Bacon, “the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.”]