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ds

The Domesday Book contains the results of a survey ordered by William the Conqueror (King William I of England) in 1086 to verify tax revenues.

dt

That is, Robert Grosseteste (c.1175-1253), bishop of Lincoln; he wrote numerous works on science, geometry, and optics as well as commentaries on Aristotle.

du

Or Gerald de Barri (c.1147-1223), Welsh clergyman and historian, perhaps best known for his history of the Norman conquest of Ireland.

dv

Archdeacon and historian of early medieval England (c.1084-1155); Irving refers to his treatise Epistola de Contemptu Mundi.

dw

Latin poet (died c.1210), author of De Bello Trojano, and an epic, now lost, on the deeds of Richard I. ‡John Wallis is possibly a reference to the Oxford mathematician whose A Treatise of Algebra Both Historical and Practical (London, 1685) includes a history of mathematics in medieval England; English historian William of Malmesbury (c.1090-c.1143) was known for his history of English kings entitled Gesta regum Anglorum; Simeon (c.1060-1130) was a Benedictine monk and precentor of Durham Cathedral; Benedict (died 1193) was abbot of Peterborough; John Hanville of St. Albans (born c.1180) was a Dominican monk and archdeacon of Oxford. §In Latin and French hath many soueraine wittes had great delyte to endite, and have many noble thinges fulfilde, but certes there ben some that speaken their poisye in French, of which speche the Frenchmen have as good a fantasye as we have in hearying of Frenchmen’s Englishe.—Chaucer’s Testament of Love [Irving’s note]. The Testament of Love was actually written by English author Thomas Usk (died 1388) while he was incarcerated in Newgate Prison.

dx

British printer (died c.1535) who succeeded William Caxton in 1491 to become the second printer in England.

dy

Robert of Gloucester (flourished 1260-1300), author of a chronicle of England.

dz

Holinshed, in his Chronicle, observes, “afterwards, also, by deligent travell of Geffry Chaucer and of John Gowre, in the time of Richard the Second, and after them of John Scogan and John Lydgate, monke of Berrie, our said toong was brought to an excellent passe, norwithstanding that it never came unto the type of perfection until the time of Queen Elizabeth, wherein John Jewell, Bishop of Sarum, John Fox, and sundrie learned and excellent writers, have fully accomplished the ornature of the same, to their great praise and immortal commendation” [Irving’s note].14

ea

See footnote on p. 102.

eb

Xerxes I (c.519—465 B.C.), king of ancient Persia; the anecdote that follows is taken from the Greek historian Herodotus’ Histories (7.44—46).

ec

For Sir Philip Sydney, see footnote on p. 104. English poet Thomas Sackville (1536—1608) contributed to the collection The Mirror for Magistrates (1563) and is credited with its arrangement. John Lyly (see footnote on p. 49) is described as “unparalleled” in a collection of his plays published by Edward Blount in 1632.

ed

Live ever sweete booke; the simple image of his gentle witt, and the golden-pillar of his noble courage; and ever notify unto the world that thy writer was the secretary of eloquence, the breath of the muses, the honey-bee of the daintyest flowers of witt and arte, the pith of morale and intellectual virtues, the arme of Bellona in the field, the tonge of Suada in the chamber, the sprite of Practise in esse, and the paragon of excellency in print.—Harvey, Pierce’s Supererogation [Irving’s note]. Gabriel Harvey (c.1550-1631 ) was an English poet and scholar.

ee

Ben Jonson’s famous jibe against his rival Shakespeare—“Thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek”—is from his poem “To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us.”

ef

Excessive, or profuse.

eg

Thorow earth and waters deepe,

The pen by skill doth passe:

And featly nyps the worldes abuse,

And shoes us in a glasse,

The vertu and the vice

Of every wight alyve;

The honey comb that bee doth make

Is not so sweet in hyve,

As are the golden leves

That drop from poet’s head!

Which doth surmount our common talke