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Notes: Transcription
Editorial note
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.
Line number 14
Physical note
“u” written over an “a”
Line number 20
Physical note
e is smeared over
Line number 28
Physical note
“n” originally written as “t”
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with
any currently displayed witness.
Transcription
Transcription
[Emblem 48]
The Oyster and the Mouse(Emblem 48)
Emblem 48 (The Oyster and the Mouse)
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here. — Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here. — Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
I’ve chosen to preserve Pulter’s spelling and capitalization, while expanding superscripts and contractions and lightly modernizing punctuation. — Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
This poem relates a tale which Pulter’s father may have told about his time as Lord Treasurer to James I or Charles I. At first, it seems a merely amusing anecdote: a mouse, scampering across a dining table, is caught when an oyster (one of the dishes) snaps shut. The ocean’s changing tides bizarrely affect even the dinner table, stimulating the oyster to snap open and release the mouse. Pulter briefly toys with setting this episode in mock-epic form before treating it, instead, in a more characteristic manner. First, she reads the trapped mouse as emblematic of the sinful soul, temporarily walled up in a fleshly shell. Then, she pins this universal scenario to the particular politics of interregnum England, a time when “a vulgar”—presumably, Oliver Cromwell or his son, Richard—had “rise[n] to reign” in place of the “noble spirit” he “restrain[ed].” That usurped spirit is, first and foremost, Charles I (Pulter’s beloved, imprisoned, then beheaded king), but also her royalist compatriots (among them, many nobles) and indeed herself, since she frequently railed against confinement. In the end, the tidal metaphor offers a kind of comfort, since it suggests we must all, mouse-like, merely wait out any uncomfortable but temporary phase, in politics as in mortality. — Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
Pulter’s emblems often draw on bestiary lore to illustrate spiritual precepts—a conventional technique found in the work of other emblematists as well.
1 Here, by contrast, Pulter alters the formula, reaching into her own personal experience to extract from it a bestiary-style exemplum. This process introduces tension, or even contradiction, into the fabric of the poem. On one hand, the emblem trades on a conventional contemptus mundi motif, exhorting us not to think “our Sinfull Souls … Secure” in this changeable world. But much of the poem’s energy remains invested in the very worldly goods and attainments it instructs us to contemn: Pulter’s father’s erstwhile appointment as Lord Treasurer and the gastronomic connection this entailed to the privy kitchen and the king himself. (The trappings of courtly luxury extend even to the food, with “large fish and seafood such as sturgeon, baked porpoise, and whale [traditionally] singled out as courtly foods, along with lamprey eels and oysters.”
Gloss Note
Ken Albala, Eating Right in the Renaissance (Berkeley: U of California P, 2002), 206.
2) Through this tension, Pulter rehearses a standard interregnum royalist pose—a resigned renunciation of worldly affairs, coupled with a wistful recollection of the affairs thus renounced. And in fact, an undercurrent of militancy runs through this emblem, suggesting the limits of Pulter’s godly self-denial. Her “dismale bloudy Fights / Betwixt the Frogian and the Mecian Knights” derive from John Ogilby’s translation of “The Battel of the Frog and Mouse,” a late martial variant of an earlier, more rustic fable by Aesop.
See John Ogilby, The Fables of Aesop (London, 1651), Fable 6, 11-12. For the earlier form of the fable, see William Caxton, The Subtyl Hystories and Fables of Esope (London, 1484), 1.3 (f. 32v).
3 Moreover, Ogilby’s version also incorporates themes from the anonymous mock epic Battle of Frogs and Mice (c. 3rd century BCE), often attributed to Homer and rendered into English in 1624 by George Chapman as part of his translation of Homer’s works.
Gloss Note
George Chapman, The Crowne of all Homers Workes (London, 1624), 1-17.
4 Such poems seem to embody Pulter’s own literary aspirations: “Oh, that I now could speak the Mecian Tongues, / Or Frogian Language! But I want such Lungs.” Likewise, Pulter’s final couplet—“Then trust in God, Extoll Him Day and Night: / For Sun and Moon and Stars, shall for thee Fight”—tracks close to the royalist rhetoric of Shakespeare’s Richard II: “Yet know, my master, God omnipotent, / Is mustering in his clouds, on our behalf, / Armies of pestilence.”
Gloss Note
William Shakespeare, Richard II, ed. Peter Ure (London: Methuen, 1978), 3.3.85-7.
5 At such moments, Pulter’s emblem seems more interested in re-fighting old battles than in forsaking the field for heavenly things. Hence, too, the poem’s interest in “Tide, or Time, or Death”—the instruments whereby God reveals his will to mortals: these move in recurrent cycles, affording the oppressed a promise of future liberation, either here on earth through change of fortune or, in the case of death, among the saints in heaven. — Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
1
When Royall ffergus Line did Rule this Realm
When royal
Gloss Note
descendants of Fergus, the first king of Scotland
Fergus’s line did rule this realm,
When
Gloss Note
Traditionally the first king of Scotland, Fergus serves here as the original ancestor of King Charles I. According to George Buchanan’s Rerum Scoticarum Historia (1582), Fergus reconquered Scotland from the invading Romans—an account which may here contribute to the martial undertones of Pulter’s emblem.
royal Fergus’ Line did rule this Realm,
2
My ffather had the Third place at the Helme
Gloss Note
Pulter speaks here in her own voice of her father, James Ley, who served James I and then Charles I as Lord Treasurer from 1624 to 1628.
My father had the third place at the helm.
My Father had the Third place at the Helme.
3
Out of the Privie Kitchin came his Meat
Out of the
Gloss Note
i.e., the king’s private kitchen
privy kitchen came his
Gloss Note
food generally as well as flesh specifically
meat;
Out of the Privie Kitchin came his Meat;
4
Of Sixteen Diſhes hee might dayly Eat
Of sixteen dishes he might daily eat.
Of sixteen Dishes hee might dayly Eat.
5
All things that were in Seaſon out were Sought
All things that were in season
Gloss Note
were sought out
out were sought.
All things that were in Season out were Sought.
6
Amongst the Rest they Welfleet Oysters Brought
Amongst the rest they
Gloss Note
See John Norden, Speculi Britanniae Pars: An Historical and Chorographical Description of the Country of Essex, Edited from the Original Manuscript in the Marquess of Salisbury’s Library at Hatfield, ed. Henry Ellis (London, 1840), p. 10: “Some part of the sea shore of Essex yieldeth the best oysters in England, which are called Wallfleet oysters.”
Wallfleet oysters brought;
Amongst the rest they
Gloss Note
The town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, home to the eponymous strain of New England oysters, derives its name from the Wallfleet oysters of Essex. However, the American and English oysters are of different species: Crassostrea virginica and Ostrea edulis, respectively.
Welfleet Oysters Brought,
7
Which being Set Ready till my ffather Comes
Which, being set ready till my father comes,
Which being set ready till my Father Comes,
8
A Mouſ leaps on the Table for the Crumbs
A mouse leaps on the table for the crumbs;
A Mous leaps on the Table for the Crumbs,
9
Then Skipping up and down her Tayl did Glide
Then, skipping up and down, her tail did glide
Then Skipping up and down, her Tayl did Glide
10
By chance betwixt the Shels, T’was then full Tide
By chance betwixt the shells;
Gloss Note
Early modern thinking suggested that even an oyster served for dinner could “gapeth for air,” or open, “against the tide” (Thomas Johnson, Cornucopiae, or Diverse Secrets [London, 1595], sig. B4v).
’twas then full tide.
By chance betwixt the shells. T’was then full Tide.
11
The Oyſter ffeeling one within her Hoſ
The oyster, feeling one within her house,
The Oyster, Feeling one within her Hous,
12
Clapt cloſe her doors, and thus ſhee Catch’d ye Mou’s
Clapped close her doors, and thus she catched the mouse.
Clapt close her doors, and thus shee Catch’d the Mous.
13
Oh that I now could Speak the Mecian Tongues
O, that I now could speak the
Gloss Note
imaginary term for the languages spoken by mice
Micean tongues,
Oh, that I now could speak the
Gloss Note
Apparently an orthographic back-formation from “Grecian,” the “Mecian Tongue” here offers a humorous counterpart to the all-male “puberty rite” of grammar-school Latin study (Walter Ong, Jr., “Latin Language Study as a Renaissance Puberty Rite,” Studies in Philology 56.2 [April, 1959], 103-24).
Mecian Tongues,
14
Or ffrogian Language but I want Such
Physical Note
“u” written over an “a”
Lungs
Or
Gloss Note
imaginary term for the language spoken by frogs
Frogian language! But I want such lungs
Or Frogian Language! But I want such Lungs
15
As hee that writ the diſmale bloody ffights
As
Gloss Note
John Ogilby published popular and politicized translations of Aesop’s fables in the 1650s, which included the fable of a battle between the empires of the mouse and frog; the description of animal languages, in lines above, and the heroic dueling of the animals are drawn from this fable.
he that writ the dismal bloody fights
As hee that writ the dismale bloody Fights
16
Betwixt the ffrogian and the Mecian Lnights
Betwixt the Frogian and the Micean knights.
Gloss Note
Ogilby’s version of the fable of the frog and mouse owes a great deal to the pseudo-Homeric mock epic Battle of Frogs and Mice (Batrachomyomachia), whose epic war begins when the king of the frogs inadvertently drowns the mouse-prince Psycharpax.
Betwixt the Frogian and the Mecian Knights.
17
Surely noe Weomen and I think few Men
Surely no women, and I think few men,
Surely noe Weomen, and I think few Men,
18
Can dance Soe well as hee w:th feet and Pen
Can
Gloss Note
Ogilby was a dancing master as well as a translator who (as the next lines indicate) did not learn Latin and Greek until late in life.
dance so well as he with
Gloss Note
In addition to meaning parts of legs, “feet” refers to units of poetic meter.
feet and pen;
Can dance soe well as hee with feet and Pen.
19
But hee thoſe Tongu’s as I have heard did Seek
But he those tongues, as I have heard, did seek
But hee those Tongues as I have heard did Seek
20
Before hee Learnd the Latin
Physical Note
e is smeared over
e’or the Greek
Before he learned the Latin or the Greek.
Before hee Learnd
Gloss Note
Ogilby mastered the classical tongues belatedly, after injury cut short his career as a dancing master. Wendy Wall has noted how dancing could be used to figure “the precarious freedom most female writers had when they sat down to compose their literary works” (The Imprint of Gender: Authorship and Publication in the English Renaissance [Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1993), 283).
the Latin or the Greek.
21
But now the Captive Mouſ her dubious ffate
But now the captive mouse her dubious fate
But now the Captive Mous her dubious Fate
22
In my own Mother Tongue I must Relate
In my own mother tongue I must relate.
In my own Mother Tongue I must relate.
As
23
As her impriſonment came by A fflow
As her imprisonment came by
Gloss Note
of the tide
a flow,
As her imprisonment came by A Flow,
24
Soe the next happy Tide did let her goe
So the next
Gloss Note
fortunate; fortuitous
happy tide did let her go.
Soe the next happy Tide did let her goe.
25
O wonderfull who would have ever thought
Oh, wonderful! Who would have ever thought
O wonderfull! who would have ever thought
26
That from the Deliane Twins help Should bee brought
That from
Gloss Note
Apollo and Artemis, Greek god and goddess of the sun and moon, respectively; tides are caused by the sun and moon.
the Delian twins help should be brought?
That from the
Gloss Note
The deities Apollo and Artemis, traditionally born on the island of Delos, appear here by virtue of their respective association with the sun and moon, which lends them influence over tides.
Deliane Twins help should bee brought?
27
Then let us learn while ffleſh doth here immure
Then let us learn, while flesh doth here
Gloss Note
enclose in walls; imprison
immure
Then let us learn, while Flesh doth here immure
28
Our
Physical Note
“n” originally written as “t”
Sinfull Souls, not think our Selves Secure
Our sinful souls—not think our selves secure.
Our Sinfull Souls, not think our Selves Secure.
29
As this dul ffiſh was Torn up from A Rock
As
Gloss Note
the oyster
this dull fish was torn up from a rock,
As this dul Fish was Torn up from A Rock,
30
This Spritely Mous in Priſon thus to Lock
This
Gloss Note
vigorous; energetic
spritely mouse in prison thus to lock,
This Spritely Mous in Prison thus to Lock,
31
Soe from A vulgar one may Rise to Raign
So, from a
Gloss Note
a person from the common class in a community, associated with being uneducated; Pulter is referring to Oliver Cromwell, a non-elite statesman who led Parliamentarians against King Charles I during the English civil war, and later became Lord Protector.
vulgar, one may rise to reign
Soe from A
Gloss Note
Literally “of the common people” (from Latin vulgaris). The mock-heroic comparison to oysters (“As this dul Fish”) disparages Cromwell along the Great Chain of Being. More generally, Pulter trades here between differing markers of—and perspectives on—status: as high-class consumables, the oysters are fit for a king, whereas their dull fishiness associates them with Cromwell and the common sort. The captive mouse, on the other hand, stands in for the oppressed followers of King Charles, while also figuring forth their hopes for an eventual reversal of fortune.
vulgar one may rise to Raign
32
That many a Noble Spirit may Restrain
That many a noble spirit may restrain.
That many a Noble Spirit may Restrain.
33
This is too true, Yet let them patient bee
This is too true; yet let them patient be,
This is too true; yet let them patient bee
34
ffor Tide, or Time, or Death, will Set them free.
For tide, or time, or death, will set them free.
For Tide, or Time, or Death, will set them free.
35
Then trust in God, Extoll him Day, and Night:
Then trust in God,
Gloss Note
elevate with praise
extol Him day and night:
Then trust in God, Extoll Him Day and Night:
36
ffor Sun, and Moon, and Stars, Shall for thee ffight.
For sun, and moon, and stars, shall for thee fight.
For Sun and Moon and Stars, shall for thee Fight.
Notes: Elemental Edition
Editorial note
The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.
Headnote
This poem relates a tale which Pulter’s father may have told about his time as Lord Treasurer to James I or Charles I. At first, it seems a merely amusing anecdote: a mouse, scampering across a dining table, is caught when an oyster (one of the dishes) snaps shut. The ocean’s changing tides bizarrely affect even the dinner table, stimulating the oyster to snap open and release the mouse. Pulter briefly toys with setting this episode in mock-epic form before treating it, instead, in a more characteristic manner. First, she reads the trapped mouse as emblematic of the sinful soul, temporarily walled up in a fleshly shell. Then, she pins this universal scenario to the particular politics of interregnum England, a time when “a vulgar”—presumably, Oliver Cromwell or his son, Richard—had “rise[n] to reign” in place of the “noble spirit” he “restrain[ed].” That usurped spirit is, first and foremost, Charles I (Pulter’s beloved, imprisoned, then beheaded king), but also her royalist compatriots (among them, many nobles) and indeed herself, since she frequently railed against confinement. In the end, the tidal metaphor offers a kind of comfort, since it suggests we must all, mouse-like, merely wait out any uncomfortable but temporary phase, in politics as in mortality.
Line number 1
Gloss note
descendants of Fergus, the first king of Scotland
Line number 2
Gloss note
Pulter speaks here in her own voice of her father, James Ley, who served James I and then Charles I as Lord Treasurer from 1624 to 1628.
Line number 3
Gloss note
i.e., the king’s private kitchen
Line number 3
Gloss note
food generally as well as flesh specifically
Line number 5
Gloss note
were sought out
Line number 6
Gloss note
See John Norden, Speculi Britanniae Pars: An Historical and Chorographical Description of the Country of Essex, Edited from the Original Manuscript in the Marquess of Salisbury’s Library at Hatfield, ed. Henry Ellis (London, 1840), p. 10: “Some part of the sea shore of Essex yieldeth the best oysters in England, which are called Wallfleet oysters.”
Line number 10
Gloss note
Early modern thinking suggested that even an oyster served for dinner could “gapeth for air,” or open, “against the tide” (Thomas Johnson, Cornucopiae, or Diverse Secrets [London, 1595], sig. B4v).
Line number 13
Gloss note
imaginary term for the languages spoken by mice
Line number 14
Gloss note
imaginary term for the language spoken by frogs
Line number 15
Gloss note
John Ogilby published popular and politicized translations of Aesop’s fables in the 1650s, which included the fable of a battle between the empires of the mouse and frog; the description of animal languages, in lines above, and the heroic dueling of the animals are drawn from this fable.
Line number 18
Gloss note
Ogilby was a dancing master as well as a translator who (as the next lines indicate) did not learn Latin and Greek until late in life.
Line number 18
Gloss note
In addition to meaning parts of legs, “feet” refers to units of poetic meter.
Line number 23
Gloss note
of the tide
Line number 24
Gloss note
fortunate; fortuitous
Line number 26
Gloss note
Apollo and Artemis, Greek god and goddess of the sun and moon, respectively; tides are caused by the sun and moon.
Line number 27
Gloss note
enclose in walls; imprison
Line number 29
Gloss note
the oyster
Line number 30
Gloss note
vigorous; energetic
Line number 31
Gloss note
a person from the common class in a community, associated with being uneducated; Pulter is referring to Oliver Cromwell, a non-elite statesman who led Parliamentarians against King Charles I during the English civil war, and later became Lord Protector.
Line number 35
Gloss note
elevate with praise
Sorry, but there are no notes associated with
any currently displayed witness.
Elemental Edition
Elemental Edition
[Emblem 48]
The Oyster and the Mouse(Emblem 48)
Emblem 48 (The Oyster and the Mouse)
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here. — Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here. — Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
I’ve chosen to preserve Pulter’s spelling and capitalization, while expanding superscripts and contractions and lightly modernizing punctuation. — Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
This poem relates a tale which Pulter’s father may have told about his time as Lord Treasurer to James I or Charles I. At first, it seems a merely amusing anecdote: a mouse, scampering across a dining table, is caught when an oyster (one of the dishes) snaps shut. The ocean’s changing tides bizarrely affect even the dinner table, stimulating the oyster to snap open and release the mouse. Pulter briefly toys with setting this episode in mock-epic form before treating it, instead, in a more characteristic manner. First, she reads the trapped mouse as emblematic of the sinful soul, temporarily walled up in a fleshly shell. Then, she pins this universal scenario to the particular politics of interregnum England, a time when “a vulgar”—presumably, Oliver Cromwell or his son, Richard—had “rise[n] to reign” in place of the “noble spirit” he “restrain[ed].” That usurped spirit is, first and foremost, Charles I (Pulter’s beloved, imprisoned, then beheaded king), but also her royalist compatriots (among them, many nobles) and indeed herself, since she frequently railed against confinement. In the end, the tidal metaphor offers a kind of comfort, since it suggests we must all, mouse-like, merely wait out any uncomfortable but temporary phase, in politics as in mortality. — Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
Pulter’s emblems often draw on bestiary lore to illustrate spiritual precepts—a conventional technique found in the work of other emblematists as well.
1 Here, by contrast, Pulter alters the formula, reaching into her own personal experience to extract from it a bestiary-style exemplum. This process introduces tension, or even contradiction, into the fabric of the poem. On one hand, the emblem trades on a conventional contemptus mundi motif, exhorting us not to think “our Sinfull Souls … Secure” in this changeable world. But much of the poem’s energy remains invested in the very worldly goods and attainments it instructs us to contemn: Pulter’s father’s erstwhile appointment as Lord Treasurer and the gastronomic connection this entailed to the privy kitchen and the king himself. (The trappings of courtly luxury extend even to the food, with “large fish and seafood such as sturgeon, baked porpoise, and whale [traditionally] singled out as courtly foods, along with lamprey eels and oysters.”
Gloss Note
Ken Albala, Eating Right in the Renaissance (Berkeley: U of California P, 2002), 206.
2) Through this tension, Pulter rehearses a standard interregnum royalist pose—a resigned renunciation of worldly affairs, coupled with a wistful recollection of the affairs thus renounced. And in fact, an undercurrent of militancy runs through this emblem, suggesting the limits of Pulter’s godly self-denial. Her “dismale bloudy Fights / Betwixt the Frogian and the Mecian Knights” derive from John Ogilby’s translation of “The Battel of the Frog and Mouse,” a late martial variant of an earlier, more rustic fable by Aesop.
See John Ogilby, The Fables of Aesop (London, 1651), Fable 6, 11-12. For the earlier form of the fable, see William Caxton, The Subtyl Hystories and Fables of Esope (London, 1484), 1.3 (f. 32v).
3 Moreover, Ogilby’s version also incorporates themes from the anonymous mock epic Battle of Frogs and Mice (c. 3rd century BCE), often attributed to Homer and rendered into English in 1624 by George Chapman as part of his translation of Homer’s works.
Gloss Note
George Chapman, The Crowne of all Homers Workes (London, 1624), 1-17.
4 Such poems seem to embody Pulter’s own literary aspirations: “Oh, that I now could speak the Mecian Tongues, / Or Frogian Language! But I want such Lungs.” Likewise, Pulter’s final couplet—“Then trust in God, Extoll Him Day and Night: / For Sun and Moon and Stars, shall for thee Fight”—tracks close to the royalist rhetoric of Shakespeare’s Richard II: “Yet know, my master, God omnipotent, / Is mustering in his clouds, on our behalf, / Armies of pestilence.”
Gloss Note
William Shakespeare, Richard II, ed. Peter Ure (London: Methuen, 1978), 3.3.85-7.
5 At such moments, Pulter’s emblem seems more interested in re-fighting old battles than in forsaking the field for heavenly things. Hence, too, the poem’s interest in “Tide, or Time, or Death”—the instruments whereby God reveals his will to mortals: these move in recurrent cycles, affording the oppressed a promise of future liberation, either here on earth through change of fortune or, in the case of death, among the saints in heaven. — Leah Knight and Wendy Wall
1
When Royall ffergus Line did Rule this Realm
When royal
Gloss Note
descendants of Fergus, the first king of Scotland
Fergus’s line did rule this realm,
When
Gloss Note
Traditionally the first king of Scotland, Fergus serves here as the original ancestor of King Charles I. According to George Buchanan’s Rerum Scoticarum Historia (1582), Fergus reconquered Scotland from the invading Romans—an account which may here contribute to the martial undertones of Pulter’s emblem.
royal Fergus’ Line did rule this Realm,
2
My ffather had the Third place at the Helme
Gloss Note
Pulter speaks here in her own voice of her father, James Ley, who served James I and then Charles I as Lord Treasurer from 1624 to 1628.
My father had the third place at the helm.
My Father had the Third place at the Helme.
3
Out of the Privie Kitchin came his Meat
Out of the
Gloss Note
i.e., the king’s private kitchen
privy kitchen came his
Gloss Note
food generally as well as flesh specifically
meat;
Out of the Privie Kitchin came his Meat;
4
Of Sixteen Diſhes hee might dayly Eat
Of sixteen dishes he might daily eat.
Of sixteen Dishes hee might dayly Eat.
5
All things that were in Seaſon out were Sought
All things that were in season
Gloss Note
were sought out
out were sought.
All things that were in Season out were Sought.
6
Amongst the Rest they Welfleet Oysters Brought
Amongst the rest they
Gloss Note
See John Norden, Speculi Britanniae Pars: An Historical and Chorographical Description of the Country of Essex, Edited from the Original Manuscript in the Marquess of Salisbury’s Library at Hatfield, ed. Henry Ellis (London, 1840), p. 10: “Some part of the sea shore of Essex yieldeth the best oysters in England, which are called Wallfleet oysters.”
Wallfleet oysters brought;
Amongst the rest they
Gloss Note
The town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, home to the eponymous strain of New England oysters, derives its name from the Wallfleet oysters of Essex. However, the American and English oysters are of different species: Crassostrea virginica and Ostrea edulis, respectively.
Welfleet Oysters Brought,
7
Which being Set Ready till my ffather Comes
Which, being set ready till my father comes,
Which being set ready till my Father Comes,
8
A Mouſ leaps on the Table for the Crumbs
A mouse leaps on the table for the crumbs;
A Mous leaps on the Table for the Crumbs,
9
Then Skipping up and down her Tayl did Glide
Then, skipping up and down, her tail did glide
Then Skipping up and down, her Tayl did Glide
10
By chance betwixt the Shels, T’was then full Tide
By chance betwixt the shells;
Gloss Note
Early modern thinking suggested that even an oyster served for dinner could “gapeth for air,” or open, “against the tide” (Thomas Johnson, Cornucopiae, or Diverse Secrets [London, 1595], sig. B4v).
’twas then full tide.
By chance betwixt the shells. T’was then full Tide.
11
The Oyſter ffeeling one within her Hoſ
The oyster, feeling one within her house,
The Oyster, Feeling one within her Hous,
12
Clapt cloſe her doors, and thus ſhee Catch’d ye Mou’s
Clapped close her doors, and thus she catched the mouse.
Clapt close her doors, and thus shee Catch’d the Mous.
13
Oh that I now could Speak the Mecian Tongues
O, that I now could speak the
Gloss Note
imaginary term for the languages spoken by mice
Micean tongues,
Oh, that I now could speak the
Gloss Note
Apparently an orthographic back-formation from “Grecian,” the “Mecian Tongue” here offers a humorous counterpart to the all-male “puberty rite” of grammar-school Latin study (Walter Ong, Jr., “Latin Language Study as a Renaissance Puberty Rite,” Studies in Philology 56.2 [April, 1959], 103-24).
Mecian Tongues,
14
Or ffrogian Language but I want Such
Physical Note
“u” written over an “a”
Lungs
Or
Gloss Note
imaginary term for the language spoken by frogs
Frogian language! But I want such lungs
Or Frogian Language! But I want such Lungs
15
As hee that writ the diſmale bloody ffights
As
Gloss Note
John Ogilby published popular and politicized translations of Aesop’s fables in the 1650s, which included the fable of a battle between the empires of the mouse and frog; the description of animal languages, in lines above, and the heroic dueling of the animals are drawn from this fable.
he that writ the dismal bloody fights
As hee that writ the dismale bloody Fights
16
Betwixt the ffrogian and the Mecian Lnights
Betwixt the Frogian and the Micean knights.
Gloss Note
Ogilby’s version of the fable of the frog and mouse owes a great deal to the pseudo-Homeric mock epic Battle of Frogs and Mice (Batrachomyomachia), whose epic war begins when the king of the frogs inadvertently drowns the mouse-prince Psycharpax.
Betwixt the Frogian and the Mecian Knights.
17
Surely noe Weomen and I think few Men
Surely no women, and I think few men,
Surely noe Weomen, and I think few Men,
18
Can dance Soe well as hee w:th feet and Pen
Can
Gloss Note
Ogilby was a dancing master as well as a translator who (as the next lines indicate) did not learn Latin and Greek until late in life.
dance so well as he with
Gloss Note
In addition to meaning parts of legs, “feet” refers to units of poetic meter.
feet and pen;
Can dance soe well as hee with feet and Pen.
19
But hee thoſe Tongu’s as I have heard did Seek
But he those tongues, as I have heard, did seek
But hee those Tongues as I have heard did Seek
20
Before hee Learnd the Latin
Physical Note
e is smeared over
e’or the Greek
Before he learned the Latin or the Greek.
Before hee Learnd
Gloss Note
Ogilby mastered the classical tongues belatedly, after injury cut short his career as a dancing master. Wendy Wall has noted how dancing could be used to figure “the precarious freedom most female writers had when they sat down to compose their literary works” (The Imprint of Gender: Authorship and Publication in the English Renaissance [Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1993), 283).
the Latin or the Greek.
21
But now the Captive Mouſ her dubious ffate
But now the captive mouse her dubious fate
But now the Captive Mous her dubious Fate
22
In my own Mother Tongue I must Relate
In my own mother tongue I must relate.
In my own Mother Tongue I must relate.
As
23
As her impriſonment came by A fflow
As her imprisonment came by
Gloss Note
of the tide
a flow,
As her imprisonment came by A Flow,
24
Soe the next happy Tide did let her goe
So the next
Gloss Note
fortunate; fortuitous
happy tide did let her go.
Soe the next happy Tide did let her goe.
25
O wonderfull who would have ever thought
Oh, wonderful! Who would have ever thought
O wonderfull! who would have ever thought
26
That from the Deliane Twins help Should bee brought
That from
Gloss Note
Apollo and Artemis, Greek god and goddess of the sun and moon, respectively; tides are caused by the sun and moon.
the Delian twins help should be brought?
That from the
Gloss Note
The deities Apollo and Artemis, traditionally born on the island of Delos, appear here by virtue of their respective association with the sun and moon, which lends them influence over tides.
Deliane Twins help should bee brought?
27
Then let us learn while ffleſh doth here immure
Then let us learn, while flesh doth here
Gloss Note
enclose in walls; imprison
immure
Then let us learn, while Flesh doth here immure
28
Our
Physical Note
“n” originally written as “t”
Sinfull Souls, not think our Selves Secure
Our sinful souls—not think our selves secure.
Our Sinfull Souls, not think our Selves Secure.
29
As this dul ffiſh was Torn up from A Rock
As
Gloss Note
the oyster
this dull fish was torn up from a rock,
As this dul Fish was Torn up from A Rock,
30
This Spritely Mous in Priſon thus to Lock
This
Gloss Note
vigorous; energetic
spritely mouse in prison thus to lock,
This Spritely Mous in Prison thus to Lock,
31
Soe from A vulgar one may Rise to Raign
So, from a
Gloss Note
a person from the common class in a community, associated with being uneducated; Pulter is referring to Oliver Cromwell, a non-elite statesman who led Parliamentarians against King Charles I during the English civil war, and later became Lord Protector.
vulgar, one may rise to reign
Soe from A
Gloss Note
Literally “of the common people” (from Latin vulgaris). The mock-heroic comparison to oysters (“As this dul Fish”) disparages Cromwell along the Great Chain of Being. More generally, Pulter trades here between differing markers of—and perspectives on—status: as high-class consumables, the oysters are fit for a king, whereas their dull fishiness associates them with Cromwell and the common sort. The captive mouse, on the other hand, stands in for the oppressed followers of King Charles, while also figuring forth their hopes for an eventual reversal of fortune.
vulgar one may rise to Raign
32
That many a Noble Spirit may Restrain
That many a noble spirit may restrain.
That many a Noble Spirit may Restrain.
33
This is too true, Yet let them patient bee
This is too true; yet let them patient be,
This is too true; yet let them patient bee
34
ffor Tide, or Time, or Death, will Set them free.
For tide, or time, or death, will set them free.
For Tide, or Time, or Death, will set them free.
35
Then trust in God, Extoll him Day, and Night:
Then trust in God,
Gloss Note
elevate with praise
extol Him day and night:
Then trust in God, Extoll Him Day and Night:
36
ffor Sun, and Moon, and Stars, Shall for thee ffight.
For sun, and moon, and stars, shall for thee fight.
For Sun and Moon and Stars, shall for thee Fight.
Notes: Amplified Edition
Editorial note
I’ve chosen to preserve Pulter’s spelling and capitalization, while expanding superscripts and contractions and lightly modernizing punctuation.
Headnote
Pulter’s emblems often draw on bestiary lore to illustrate spiritual precepts—a conventional technique found in the work of other emblematists as well.
1 Here, by contrast, Pulter alters the formula, reaching into her own personal experience to extract from it a bestiary-style exemplum. This process introduces tension, or even contradiction, into the fabric of the poem. On one hand, the emblem trades on a conventional contemptus mundi motif, exhorting us not to think “our Sinfull Souls … Secure” in this changeable world. But much of the poem’s energy remains invested in the very worldly goods and attainments it instructs us to contemn: Pulter’s father’s erstwhile appointment as Lord Treasurer and the gastronomic connection this entailed to the privy kitchen and the king himself. (The trappings of courtly luxury extend even to the food, with “large fish and seafood such as sturgeon, baked porpoise, and whale [traditionally] singled out as courtly foods, along with lamprey eels and oysters.”
Gloss Note
Ken Albala, Eating Right in the Renaissance (Berkeley: U of California P, 2002), 206.
2) Through this tension, Pulter rehearses a standard interregnum royalist pose—a resigned renunciation of worldly affairs, coupled with a wistful recollection of the affairs thus renounced. And in fact, an undercurrent of militancy runs through this emblem, suggesting the limits of Pulter’s godly self-denial. Her “dismale bloudy Fights / Betwixt the Frogian and the Mecian Knights” derive from John Ogilby’s translation of “The Battel of the Frog and Mouse,” a late martial variant of an earlier, more rustic fable by Aesop.
See John Ogilby, The Fables of Aesop (London, 1651), Fable 6, 11-12. For the earlier form of the fable, see William Caxton, The Subtyl Hystories and Fables of Esope (London, 1484), 1.3 (f. 32v).
3 Moreover, Ogilby’s version also incorporates themes from the anonymous mock epic Battle of Frogs and Mice (c. 3rd century BCE), often attributed to Homer and rendered into English in 1624 by George Chapman as part of his translation of Homer’s works.
Gloss Note
George Chapman, The Crowne of all Homers Workes (London, 1624), 1-17.
4 Such poems seem to embody Pulter’s own literary aspirations: “Oh, that I now could speak the Mecian Tongues, / Or Frogian Language! But I want such Lungs.” Likewise, Pulter’s final couplet—“Then trust in God, Extoll Him Day and Night: / For Sun and Moon and Stars, shall for thee Fight”—tracks close to the royalist rhetoric of Shakespeare’s Richard II: “Yet know, my master, God omnipotent, / Is mustering in his clouds, on our behalf, / Armies of pestilence.”
Gloss Note
William Shakespeare, Richard II, ed. Peter Ure (London: Methuen, 1978), 3.3.85-7.
5 At such moments, Pulter’s emblem seems more interested in re-fighting old battles than in forsaking the field for heavenly things. Hence, too, the poem’s interest in “Tide, or Time, or Death”—the instruments whereby God reveals his will to mortals: these move in recurrent cycles, affording the oppressed a promise of future liberation, either here on earth through change of fortune or, in the case of death, among the saints in heaven.
Line number 1
Gloss note
Traditionally the first king of Scotland, Fergus serves here as the original ancestor of King Charles I. According to George Buchanan’s Rerum Scoticarum Historia (1582), Fergus reconquered Scotland from the invading Romans—an account which may here contribute to the martial undertones of Pulter’s emblem.
Line number 6
Gloss note
The town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, home to the eponymous strain of New England oysters, derives its name from the Wallfleet oysters of Essex. However, the American and English oysters are of different species: Crassostrea virginica and Ostrea edulis, respectively.
Line number 13
Gloss note
Apparently an orthographic back-formation from “Grecian,” the “Mecian Tongue” here offers a humorous counterpart to the all-male “puberty rite” of grammar-school Latin study (Walter Ong, Jr., “Latin Language Study as a Renaissance Puberty Rite,” Studies in Philology 56.2 [April, 1959], 103-24).
Line number 16
Gloss note
Ogilby’s version of the fable of the frog and mouse owes a great deal to the pseudo-Homeric mock epic Battle of Frogs and Mice (Batrachomyomachia), whose epic war begins when the king of the frogs inadvertently drowns the mouse-prince Psycharpax.
Line number 20
Gloss note
Ogilby mastered the classical tongues belatedly, after injury cut short his career as a dancing master. Wendy Wall has noted how dancing could be used to figure “the precarious freedom most female writers had when they sat down to compose their literary works” (The Imprint of Gender: Authorship and Publication in the English Renaissance [Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1993), 283).
Line number 26
Gloss note
The deities Apollo and Artemis, traditionally born on the island of Delos, appear here by virtue of their respective association with the sun and moon, which lends them influence over tides.
Line number 31
Gloss note
Literally “of the common people” (from Latin vulgaris). The mock-heroic comparison to oysters (“As this dul Fish”) disparages Cromwell along the Great Chain of Being. More generally, Pulter trades here between differing markers of—and perspectives on—status: as high-class consumables, the oysters are fit for a king, whereas their dull fishiness associates them with Cromwell and the common sort. The captive mouse, on the other hand, stands in for the oppressed followers of King Charles, while also figuring forth their hopes for an eventual reversal of fortune.
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Amplified Edition
Amplified Edition
[Emblem 48]
The Oyster and the Mouse(Emblem 48)
Emblem 48 (The Oyster and the Mouse)
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here. — Bruce Boehrer
The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here. — Bruce Boehrer
I’ve chosen to preserve Pulter’s spelling and capitalization, while expanding superscripts and contractions and lightly modernizing punctuation. — Bruce Boehrer
This poem relates a tale which Pulter’s father may have told about his time as Lord Treasurer to James I or Charles I. At first, it seems a merely amusing anecdote: a mouse, scampering across a dining table, is caught when an oyster (one of the dishes) snaps shut. The ocean’s changing tides bizarrely affect even the dinner table, stimulating the oyster to snap open and release the mouse. Pulter briefly toys with setting this episode in mock-epic form before treating it, instead, in a more characteristic manner. First, she reads the trapped mouse as emblematic of the sinful soul, temporarily walled up in a fleshly shell. Then, she pins this universal scenario to the particular politics of interregnum England, a time when “a vulgar”—presumably, Oliver Cromwell or his son, Richard—had “rise[n] to reign” in place of the “noble spirit” he “restrain[ed].” That usurped spirit is, first and foremost, Charles I (Pulter’s beloved, imprisoned, then beheaded king), but also her royalist compatriots (among them, many nobles) and indeed herself, since she frequently railed against confinement. In the end, the tidal metaphor offers a kind of comfort, since it suggests we must all, mouse-like, merely wait out any uncomfortable but temporary phase, in politics as in mortality. — Bruce Boehrer
Pulter’s emblems often draw on bestiary lore to illustrate spiritual precepts—a conventional technique found in the work of other emblematists as well.
1 Here, by contrast, Pulter alters the formula, reaching into her own personal experience to extract from it a bestiary-style exemplum. This process introduces tension, or even contradiction, into the fabric of the poem. On one hand, the emblem trades on a conventional contemptus mundi motif, exhorting us not to think “our Sinfull Souls … Secure” in this changeable world. But much of the poem’s energy remains invested in the very worldly goods and attainments it instructs us to contemn: Pulter’s father’s erstwhile appointment as Lord Treasurer and the gastronomic connection this entailed to the privy kitchen and the king himself. (The trappings of courtly luxury extend even to the food, with “large fish and seafood such as sturgeon, baked porpoise, and whale [traditionally] singled out as courtly foods, along with lamprey eels and oysters.”
Gloss Note
Ken Albala, Eating Right in the Renaissance (Berkeley: U of California P, 2002), 206.
2) Through this tension, Pulter rehearses a standard interregnum royalist pose—a resigned renunciation of worldly affairs, coupled with a wistful recollection of the affairs thus renounced. And in fact, an undercurrent of militancy runs through this emblem, suggesting the limits of Pulter’s godly self-denial. Her “dismale bloudy Fights / Betwixt the Frogian and the Mecian Knights” derive from John Ogilby’s translation of “The Battel of the Frog and Mouse,” a late martial variant of an earlier, more rustic fable by Aesop.
See John Ogilby, The Fables of Aesop (London, 1651), Fable 6, 11-12. For the earlier form of the fable, see William Caxton, The Subtyl Hystories and Fables of Esope (London, 1484), 1.3 (f. 32v).
3 Moreover, Ogilby’s version also incorporates themes from the anonymous mock epic Battle of Frogs and Mice (c. 3rd century BCE), often attributed to Homer and rendered into English in 1624 by George Chapman as part of his translation of Homer’s works.
Gloss Note
George Chapman, The Crowne of all Homers Workes (London, 1624), 1-17.
4 Such poems seem to embody Pulter’s own literary aspirations: “Oh, that I now could speak the Mecian Tongues, / Or Frogian Language! But I want such Lungs.” Likewise, Pulter’s final couplet—“Then trust in God, Extoll Him Day and Night: / For Sun and Moon and Stars, shall for thee Fight”—tracks close to the royalist rhetoric of Shakespeare’s Richard II: “Yet know, my master, God omnipotent, / Is mustering in his clouds, on our behalf, / Armies of pestilence.”
Gloss Note
William Shakespeare, Richard II, ed. Peter Ure (London: Methuen, 1978), 3.3.85-7.
5 At such moments, Pulter’s emblem seems more interested in re-fighting old battles than in forsaking the field for heavenly things. Hence, too, the poem’s interest in “Tide, or Time, or Death”—the instruments whereby God reveals his will to mortals: these move in recurrent cycles, affording the oppressed a promise of future liberation, either here on earth through change of fortune or, in the case of death, among the saints in heaven. — Bruce Boehrer
1
When Royall ffergus Line did Rule this Realm
When royal
Gloss Note
descendants of Fergus, the first king of Scotland
Fergus’s line did rule this realm,
When
Gloss Note
Traditionally the first king of Scotland, Fergus serves here as the original ancestor of King Charles I. According to George Buchanan’s Rerum Scoticarum Historia (1582), Fergus reconquered Scotland from the invading Romans—an account which may here contribute to the martial undertones of Pulter’s emblem.
royal Fergus’ Line did rule this Realm,
2
My ffather had the Third place at the Helme
Gloss Note
Pulter speaks here in her own voice of her father, James Ley, who served James I and then Charles I as Lord Treasurer from 1624 to 1628.
My father had the third place at the helm.
My Father had the Third place at the Helme.
3
Out of the Privie Kitchin came his Meat
Out of the
Gloss Note
i.e., the king’s private kitchen
privy kitchen came his
Gloss Note
food generally as well as flesh specifically
meat;
Out of the Privie Kitchin came his Meat;
4
Of Sixteen Diſhes hee might dayly Eat
Of sixteen dishes he might daily eat.
Of sixteen Dishes hee might dayly Eat.
5
All things that were in Seaſon out were Sought
All things that were in season
Gloss Note
were sought out
out were sought.
All things that were in Season out were Sought.
6
Amongst the Rest they Welfleet Oysters Brought
Amongst the rest they
Gloss Note
See John Norden, Speculi Britanniae Pars: An Historical and Chorographical Description of the Country of Essex, Edited from the Original Manuscript in the Marquess of Salisbury’s Library at Hatfield, ed. Henry Ellis (London, 1840), p. 10: “Some part of the sea shore of Essex yieldeth the best oysters in England, which are called Wallfleet oysters.”
Wallfleet oysters brought;
Amongst the rest they
Gloss Note
The town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, home to the eponymous strain of New England oysters, derives its name from the Wallfleet oysters of Essex. However, the American and English oysters are of different species: Crassostrea virginica and Ostrea edulis, respectively.
Welfleet Oysters Brought,
7
Which being Set Ready till my ffather Comes
Which, being set ready till my father comes,
Which being set ready till my Father Comes,
8
A Mouſ leaps on the Table for the Crumbs
A mouse leaps on the table for the crumbs;
A Mous leaps on the Table for the Crumbs,
9
Then Skipping up and down her Tayl did Glide
Then, skipping up and down, her tail did glide
Then Skipping up and down, her Tayl did Glide
10
By chance betwixt the Shels, T’was then full Tide
By chance betwixt the shells;
Gloss Note
Early modern thinking suggested that even an oyster served for dinner could “gapeth for air,” or open, “against the tide” (Thomas Johnson, Cornucopiae, or Diverse Secrets [London, 1595], sig. B4v).
’twas then full tide.
By chance betwixt the shells. T’was then full Tide.
11
The Oyſter ffeeling one within her Hoſ
The oyster, feeling one within her house,
The Oyster, Feeling one within her Hous,
12
Clapt cloſe her doors, and thus ſhee Catch’d ye Mou’s
Clapped close her doors, and thus she catched the mouse.
Clapt close her doors, and thus shee Catch’d the Mous.
13
Oh that I now could Speak the Mecian Tongues
O, that I now could speak the
Gloss Note
imaginary term for the languages spoken by mice
Micean tongues,
Oh, that I now could speak the
Gloss Note
Apparently an orthographic back-formation from “Grecian,” the “Mecian Tongue” here offers a humorous counterpart to the all-male “puberty rite” of grammar-school Latin study (Walter Ong, Jr., “Latin Language Study as a Renaissance Puberty Rite,” Studies in Philology 56.2 [April, 1959], 103-24).
Mecian Tongues,
14
Or ffrogian Language but I want Such
Physical Note
“u” written over an “a”
Lungs
Or
Gloss Note
imaginary term for the language spoken by frogs
Frogian language! But I want such lungs
Or Frogian Language! But I want such Lungs
15
As hee that writ the diſmale bloody ffights
As
Gloss Note
John Ogilby published popular and politicized translations of Aesop’s fables in the 1650s, which included the fable of a battle between the empires of the mouse and frog; the description of animal languages, in lines above, and the heroic dueling of the animals are drawn from this fable.
he that writ the dismal bloody fights
As hee that writ the dismale bloody Fights
16
Betwixt the ffrogian and the Mecian Lnights
Betwixt the Frogian and the Micean knights.
Gloss Note
Ogilby’s version of the fable of the frog and mouse owes a great deal to the pseudo-Homeric mock epic Battle of Frogs and Mice (Batrachomyomachia), whose epic war begins when the king of the frogs inadvertently drowns the mouse-prince Psycharpax.
Betwixt the Frogian and the Mecian Knights.
17
Surely noe Weomen and I think few Men
Surely no women, and I think few men,
Surely noe Weomen, and I think few Men,
18
Can dance Soe well as hee w:th feet and Pen
Can
Gloss Note
Ogilby was a dancing master as well as a translator who (as the next lines indicate) did not learn Latin and Greek until late in life.
dance so well as he with
Gloss Note
In addition to meaning parts of legs, “feet” refers to units of poetic meter.
feet and pen;
Can dance soe well as hee with feet and Pen.
19
But hee thoſe Tongu’s as I have heard did Seek
But he those tongues, as I have heard, did seek
But hee those Tongues as I have heard did Seek
20
Before hee Learnd the Latin
Physical Note
e is smeared over
e’or the Greek
Before he learned the Latin or the Greek.
Before hee Learnd
Gloss Note
Ogilby mastered the classical tongues belatedly, after injury cut short his career as a dancing master. Wendy Wall has noted how dancing could be used to figure “the precarious freedom most female writers had when they sat down to compose their literary works” (The Imprint of Gender: Authorship and Publication in the English Renaissance [Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1993), 283).
the Latin or the Greek.
21
But now the Captive Mouſ her dubious ffate
But now the captive mouse her dubious fate
But now the Captive Mous her dubious Fate
22
In my own Mother Tongue I must Relate
In my own mother tongue I must relate.
In my own Mother Tongue I must relate.
As
23
As her impriſonment came by A fflow
As her imprisonment came by
Gloss Note
of the tide
a flow,
As her imprisonment came by A Flow,
24
Soe the next happy Tide did let her goe
So the next
Gloss Note
fortunate; fortuitous
happy tide did let her go.
Soe the next happy Tide did let her goe.
25
O wonderfull who would have ever thought
Oh, wonderful! Who would have ever thought
O wonderfull! who would have ever thought
26
That from the Deliane Twins help Should bee brought
That from
Gloss Note
Apollo and Artemis, Greek god and goddess of the sun and moon, respectively; tides are caused by the sun and moon.
the Delian twins help should be brought?
That from the
Gloss Note
The deities Apollo and Artemis, traditionally born on the island of Delos, appear here by virtue of their respective association with the sun and moon, which lends them influence over tides.
Deliane Twins help should bee brought?
27
Then let us learn while ffleſh doth here immure
Then let us learn, while flesh doth here
Gloss Note
enclose in walls; imprison
immure
Then let us learn, while Flesh doth here immure
28
Our
Physical Note
“n” originally written as “t”
Sinfull Souls, not think our Selves Secure
Our sinful souls—not think our selves secure.
Our Sinfull Souls, not think our Selves Secure.
29
As this dul ffiſh was Torn up from A Rock
As
Gloss Note
the oyster
this dull fish was torn up from a rock,
As this dul Fish was Torn up from A Rock,
30
This Spritely Mous in Priſon thus to Lock
This
Gloss Note
vigorous; energetic
spritely mouse in prison thus to lock,
This Spritely Mous in Prison thus to Lock,
31
Soe from A vulgar one may Rise to Raign
So, from a
Gloss Note
a person from the common class in a community, associated with being uneducated; Pulter is referring to Oliver Cromwell, a non-elite statesman who led Parliamentarians against King Charles I during the English civil war, and later became Lord Protector.
vulgar, one may rise to reign
Soe from A
Gloss Note
Literally “of the common people” (from Latin vulgaris). The mock-heroic comparison to oysters (“As this dul Fish”) disparages Cromwell along the Great Chain of Being. More generally, Pulter trades here between differing markers of—and perspectives on—status: as high-class consumables, the oysters are fit for a king, whereas their dull fishiness associates them with Cromwell and the common sort. The captive mouse, on the other hand, stands in for the oppressed followers of King Charles, while also figuring forth their hopes for an eventual reversal of fortune.
vulgar one may rise to Raign
32
That many a Noble Spirit may Restrain
That many a noble spirit may restrain.
That many a Noble Spirit may Restrain.
33
This is too true, Yet let them patient bee
This is too true; yet let them patient be,
This is too true; yet let them patient bee
34
ffor Tide, or Time, or Death, will Set them free.
For tide, or time, or death, will set them free.
For Tide, or Time, or Death, will set them free.
35
Then trust in God, Extoll him Day, and Night:
Then trust in God,
Gloss Note
elevate with praise
extol Him day and night:
Then trust in God, Extoll Him Day and Night:
36
ffor Sun, and Moon, and Stars, Shall for thee ffight.
For sun, and moon, and stars, shall for thee fight.
For Sun and Moon and Stars, shall for thee Fight.
All Notes
Transcription
Editorial note
In these transcriptions we preserve as many details of the original material, textual, and graphic properties of Hester Pulter’s manuscript verse as we have found practical. Whenever possible, for instance, original spelling, punctuation, capitalization, lineation, insertions, deletions, alterations, spacing between words and lines, and indentation are all maintained; abbreviations and brevigraphs are not expanded; and superscript and subscript representations are retained. See full conventions for the transcriptions here.
Elemental Edition
Editorial note
The aim of the elemental edition is to make the poems accessible to the largest variety of readers, which involves modernizing spelling and punctuation as well as adding basic glosses. Spelling and punctuation reflect current standard American usage; punctuation highlights syntax which might otherwise be obscure. Outmoded but still familiar word forms (“thou,” “‘tis,” “hold’st”) are not modernized, and we do not modernize grammar when the sense remains legible. After a brief headnote aimed at offering a “way in” to the poem’s unique qualities and connections with other verse by Pulter or her contemporaries, the edition features a minimum of notes and interpretative framing to allow more immediate engagement with the poem. Glosses clarify synonyms or showcase various possible meanings in Pulter’s time. Other notes identify named people and places or clarify obscure material. We rely (without citation) primarily on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the Oxford Reference database, and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. When we rely on Alice Eardley’s edition of Pulter’s work, we cite her text generally (“Eardley”); other sources are cited in full. The result is an edition we consider a springboard for further work on Pulter’s poetry. See full conventions for this edition here.
Amplified Edition
Editorial note
I’ve chosen to preserve Pulter’s spelling and capitalization, while expanding superscripts and contractions and lightly modernizing punctuation.
Elemental Edition
Headnote
This poem relates a tale which Pulter’s father may have told about his time as Lord Treasurer to James I or Charles I. At first, it seems a merely amusing anecdote: a mouse, scampering across a dining table, is caught when an oyster (one of the dishes) snaps shut. The ocean’s changing tides bizarrely affect even the dinner table, stimulating the oyster to snap open and release the mouse. Pulter briefly toys with setting this episode in mock-epic form before treating it, instead, in a more characteristic manner. First, she reads the trapped mouse as emblematic of the sinful soul, temporarily walled up in a fleshly shell. Then, she pins this universal scenario to the particular politics of interregnum England, a time when “a vulgar”—presumably, Oliver Cromwell or his son, Richard—had “rise[n] to reign” in place of the “noble spirit” he “restrain[ed].” That usurped spirit is, first and foremost, Charles I (Pulter’s beloved, imprisoned, then beheaded king), but also her royalist compatriots (among them, many nobles) and indeed herself, since she frequently railed against confinement. In the end, the tidal metaphor offers a kind of comfort, since it suggests we must all, mouse-like, merely wait out any uncomfortable but temporary phase, in politics as in mortality.
Amplified Edition
Headnote
Pulter’s emblems often draw on bestiary lore to illustrate spiritual precepts—a conventional technique found in the work of other emblematists as well.
1 Here, by contrast, Pulter alters the formula, reaching into her own personal experience to extract from it a bestiary-style exemplum. This process introduces tension, or even contradiction, into the fabric of the poem. On one hand, the emblem trades on a conventional contemptus mundi motif, exhorting us not to think “our Sinfull Souls … Secure” in this changeable world. But much of the poem’s energy remains invested in the very worldly goods and attainments it instructs us to contemn: Pulter’s father’s erstwhile appointment as Lord Treasurer and the gastronomic connection this entailed to the privy kitchen and the king himself. (The trappings of courtly luxury extend even to the food, with “large fish and seafood such as sturgeon, baked porpoise, and whale [traditionally] singled out as courtly foods, along with lamprey eels and oysters.”
Gloss Note
Ken Albala, Eating Right in the Renaissance (Berkeley: U of California P, 2002), 206.
2) Through this tension, Pulter rehearses a standard interregnum royalist pose—a resigned renunciation of worldly affairs, coupled with a wistful recollection of the affairs thus renounced. And in fact, an undercurrent of militancy runs through this emblem, suggesting the limits of Pulter’s godly self-denial. Her “dismale bloudy Fights / Betwixt the Frogian and the Mecian Knights” derive from John Ogilby’s translation of “The Battel of the Frog and Mouse,” a late martial variant of an earlier, more rustic fable by Aesop.
See John Ogilby, The Fables of Aesop (London, 1651), Fable 6, 11-12. For the earlier form of the fable, see William Caxton, The Subtyl Hystories and Fables of Esope (London, 1484), 1.3 (f. 32v).
3 Moreover, Ogilby’s version also incorporates themes from the anonymous mock epic Battle of Frogs and Mice (c. 3rd century BCE), often attributed to Homer and rendered into English in 1624 by George Chapman as part of his translation of Homer’s works.
Gloss Note
George Chapman, The Crowne of all Homers Workes (London, 1624), 1-17.
4 Such poems seem to embody Pulter’s own literary aspirations: “Oh, that I now could speak the Mecian Tongues, / Or Frogian Language! But I want such Lungs.” Likewise, Pulter’s final couplet—“Then trust in God, Extoll Him Day and Night: / For Sun and Moon and Stars, shall for thee Fight”—tracks close to the royalist rhetoric of Shakespeare’s Richard II: “Yet know, my master, God omnipotent, / Is mustering in his clouds, on our behalf, / Armies of pestilence.”
Gloss Note
William Shakespeare, Richard II, ed. Peter Ure (London: Methuen, 1978), 3.3.85-7.
5 At such moments, Pulter’s emblem seems more interested in re-fighting old battles than in forsaking the field for heavenly things. Hence, too, the poem’s interest in “Tide, or Time, or Death”—the instruments whereby God reveals his will to mortals: these move in recurrent cycles, affording the oppressed a promise of future liberation, either here on earth through change of fortune or, in the case of death, among the saints in heaven.
Elemental Edition
Line number 1
Gloss note
descendants of Fergus, the first king of Scotland
Amplified Edition
Line number 1
Gloss note
Traditionally the first king of Scotland, Fergus serves here as the original ancestor of King Charles I. According to George Buchanan’s Rerum Scoticarum Historia (1582), Fergus reconquered Scotland from the invading Romans—an account which may here contribute to the martial undertones of Pulter’s emblem.
Elemental Edition
Line number 2
Gloss note
Pulter speaks here in her own voice of her father, James Ley, who served James I and then Charles I as Lord Treasurer from 1624 to 1628.
Elemental Edition
Line number 3
Gloss note
i.e., the king’s private kitchen
Elemental Edition
Line number 3
Gloss note
food generally as well as flesh specifically
Elemental Edition
Line number 5
Gloss note
were sought out
Elemental Edition
Line number 6
Gloss note
See John Norden, Speculi Britanniae Pars: An Historical and Chorographical Description of the Country of Essex, Edited from the Original Manuscript in the Marquess of Salisbury’s Library at Hatfield, ed. Henry Ellis (London, 1840), p. 10: “Some part of the sea shore of Essex yieldeth the best oysters in England, which are called Wallfleet oysters.”
Amplified Edition
Line number 6
Gloss note
The town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, home to the eponymous strain of New England oysters, derives its name from the Wallfleet oysters of Essex. However, the American and English oysters are of different species: Crassostrea virginica and Ostrea edulis, respectively.
Elemental Edition
Line number 10
Gloss note
Early modern thinking suggested that even an oyster served for dinner could “gapeth for air,” or open, “against the tide” (Thomas Johnson, Cornucopiae, or Diverse Secrets [London, 1595], sig. B4v).
Elemental Edition
Line number 13
Gloss note
imaginary term for the languages spoken by mice
Amplified Edition
Line number 13
Gloss note
Apparently an orthographic back-formation from “Grecian,” the “Mecian Tongue” here offers a humorous counterpart to the all-male “puberty rite” of grammar-school Latin study (Walter Ong, Jr., “Latin Language Study as a Renaissance Puberty Rite,” Studies in Philology 56.2 [April, 1959], 103-24).
Transcription
Line number 14
Physical note
“u” written over an “a”
Elemental Edition
Line number 14
Gloss note
imaginary term for the language spoken by frogs
Elemental Edition
Line number 15
Gloss note
John Ogilby published popular and politicized translations of Aesop’s fables in the 1650s, which included the fable of a battle between the empires of the mouse and frog; the description of animal languages, in lines above, and the heroic dueling of the animals are drawn from this fable.
Amplified Edition
Line number 16
Gloss note
Ogilby’s version of the fable of the frog and mouse owes a great deal to the pseudo-Homeric mock epic Battle of Frogs and Mice (Batrachomyomachia), whose epic war begins when the king of the frogs inadvertently drowns the mouse-prince Psycharpax.
Elemental Edition
Line number 18
Gloss note
Ogilby was a dancing master as well as a translator who (as the next lines indicate) did not learn Latin and Greek until late in life.
Elemental Edition
Line number 18
Gloss note
In addition to meaning parts of legs, “feet” refers to units of poetic meter.
Transcription
Line number 20
Physical note
e is smeared over
Amplified Edition
Line number 20
Gloss note
Ogilby mastered the classical tongues belatedly, after injury cut short his career as a dancing master. Wendy Wall has noted how dancing could be used to figure “the precarious freedom most female writers had when they sat down to compose their literary works” (The Imprint of Gender: Authorship and Publication in the English Renaissance [Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1993), 283).
Elemental Edition
Line number 23
Gloss note
of the tide
Elemental Edition
Line number 24
Gloss note
fortunate; fortuitous
Elemental Edition
Line number 26
Gloss note
Apollo and Artemis, Greek god and goddess of the sun and moon, respectively; tides are caused by the sun and moon.
Amplified Edition
Line number 26
Gloss note
The deities Apollo and Artemis, traditionally born on the island of Delos, appear here by virtue of their respective association with the sun and moon, which lends them influence over tides.
Elemental Edition
Line number 27
Gloss note
enclose in walls; imprison
Transcription
Line number 28
Physical note
“n” originally written as “t”
Elemental Edition
Line number 29
Gloss note
the oyster
Elemental Edition
Line number 30
Gloss note
vigorous; energetic
Elemental Edition
Line number 31
Gloss note
a person from the common class in a community, associated with being uneducated; Pulter is referring to Oliver Cromwell, a non-elite statesman who led Parliamentarians against King Charles I during the English civil war, and later became Lord Protector.
Amplified Edition
Line number 31
Gloss note
Literally “of the common people” (from Latin vulgaris). The mock-heroic comparison to oysters (“As this dul Fish”) disparages Cromwell along the Great Chain of Being. More generally, Pulter trades here between differing markers of—and perspectives on—status: as high-class consumables, the oysters are fit for a king, whereas their dull fishiness associates them with Cromwell and the common sort. The captive mouse, on the other hand, stands in for the oppressed followers of King Charles, while also figuring forth their hopes for an eventual reversal of fortune.
Elemental Edition
Line number 35
Gloss note
elevate with praise
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