Notes on Jurgen

There have been printed eight hundred and fifty copies of Notes on Jurgen of which eight hundred and thirty-one are for sale.

This is number 801

If, like John Charteris, Mr. Cabell is an Economist; he is also, like Jurgen, a pawnbroker. And, whatever economy he may show in parsimoniously using his characters in as many different books as their recorded ages and the credulity of his readers permit, and in charitably reintroducing those characters into not wholly unfamiliar plots; his display of treasures at second-hand is more generous than that of any rival since Hebrew was first spoken beneath the triple emblem of the Medici. For in his books are long-dead authors and unremembered heroes and old, out-moded gods, garnered from the dust heap of thrown-by years and here magically refurbished and given a new lease on immortality. And there is no form of antiquarian research more remunerative in hard-won success and stimulating frustration than that undertaken in this pawn shop of dreams which bears upon its signboard the name of Jurgen.

So, for a great many spare hours in the last six years, I have wandered among these literary antiques, studying them and seeking to discover something of the lands and ages of their origin. I have sought them in the indices of the encyclopedias, tracked them down the finely printed columns of mythological dictionaries, and found many of them shamefacedly hiding upon the "Children's Shelves" where most public libraries' meager wealth of folk-lore is stored. Through tall volumes in history they have led me and through quaintly worded myths and black tomes on witchcraft. And in the end I have captured many of them, depriving them of the renewed life that Mr. Cabell gave them, have placed them in this book, like dead trophies on a wall for anyone's inspection.

And inspection, it must be confessed, may reveal faults enough. Curiosity alone claims credit for the notes that follow, and scholarship admits to no aid in their composition. The question, simply, was whether or not these strange names had ever existed anywhere save in a Virginia gentleman's imagination. And, if they did so exist, what light might their stories throw upon the incidents of Jurgen's bold journey towards futility. And the answers are such as a search through the shelves of the nearest public libraries and the book cases of my friends could furnish me. Whenever it was possible, the particular phase of any subject referred to in Jurgen has been stressed in the note concerning it; failing that, I have set down as much of the available knowledge as seemed interesting. Naturally, no character out of folk-lore or mythology could be ignored, but to those with whom every educated reader might well be acquainted, I have given only the smallest space. And, whenever a character who plays an important part in any of Mr. Cabell's other romances strays briefly into Jurgen, I have pointed out where a further account of his adventures may be found. Furthermore, with what may indeed seem an excess of generosity, I have called attention to certain aspects of the tale which one, meeting the pawnbroker of Poictesme for the first time, might easily overlook.

But I cannot, as Jurgen does, so glibly cite my authorities. Long ago, when these notes were begun, I had no thought of their publication and so kept no record of their origins: later, when I began to jot down my sources, it was only that I might find again the books I had consulted. So the Bibliography at the end of this book must be innocent of such minute details as places and dates of publication, and sometimes even the authors' initials. In it, however, are listed most of the books I have found useful; though some have supplied me with material for one note only, while others have furnished a score or more. A few volumes, directly mentioned and quoted in the text, are not included.

But some allusions were not to be found in any book: there is not yet an end to searching after "Cabell references." Such strange fellows as Phorgemon and Graemagog still remain elusive, while the exact geographical location of Amneran Heath and Lacre Kai might prove interesting. And when there is left in Jurgen no more cause for searching, Figures of Earth, besides offering nice problems in medieval history, presents such charming mysteries as Suskind and Freydis and the Zhar-Ptitza Bird. [DR: There is a follow-up book, Notes on Figures of Earth.] And there are other romances concerning Poictesme which go even further afield into the lands of myth. So he who chooses may join me in this gay, troublesome task of searching after the old, forgotten homes of all those battered beauties of the earth, whose ghosts so brightly move again through Mr. Cabell's pages.

J.P.C.

1 [xv] Authorities — The authorities – de Ruiz, Verville, Bülg, Lewistam, Codman, and Prote – quoted by Mr. Cabell, are conspicuously absent from the encyclopedias are probably faked. Of only one of them, Bülg, have we any biographical details. Ben Ray Redman, writing in The Reviewer for November 1921, on Bülg the Forgotten, says that Gottfried Johannes Bülg was born in Strasburg in 1753; was educated at the University of Leipsig; became famous upon the publication of a monumental work, in 1782, on the folk-lore of Poictesme; and died, in 1795, of heart failure. Bülg, says Mr. Redman, stole the entire work from another scholar and changed it materially, so as to give it more popular appeal. Mr. Redman's article is obviously a hoax, an effort to carry Mr. Cabell's joke one step further.

3 [209] The Judging of Jurgen — This was originally published as a pamphlet, in October 1920, by The Bookfellows, Chicago. It was worked into the thirty-second chapter of the English edition of Jurgen; and was added, at the eighth printing, to the Foreword of the American edition.

3 [209] Philistines — The word Philistine, since the seventeenth century, has been a word of contempt used by the cultured concerning their inferiors in intellect and taste. It was first used in England by Carlyle; and Matthew Arnold made in popular, using it in the sense of "those inaccessible to and impatient of ideas."

3 [209] Tumblebug — This is Mr. Cabell's polite personification of John S. Sumner, Secretary of the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice, who was chiefly instrumental in obtaining the temporary suppression of Jurgen.

3 [209] Pages — Note the pun here.

4 [210] St. Anthony — This is Anthony Comstock, who started the campaign against immoral literature in America, and who is largely responsible for the prudish Puritanism of our suppression laws. His name is immortalized in "comstockery," a word invented by George Bernard Shaw

5 [210] Edgar — This is Edgar Allan Poe (see also Wikipedia).

5 [211] Walt — This is Walt Whitman (see also Wikipedia).

5 [211] Mark — This is Mark Twain (see also Wikipedia). The books which Mark hid away until after he was dead are The Mysterious Stranger, published in 1916; What is Man, published in 1917; his Autobiography, published (in part, at least) in 1924; A Million Years Among the Microbes, not yet (1928) published; and 1601, which is in circulation, although perhaps too obscene to be issued save in a very limited edition.

Some similar controversial (for its day) unfinished work can be found in The Devil's Race-Track, Mark Twain's Great Dark Writings. This includes the fragment, "Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes".

Why Jurgen Did the Manly Thing

9 [3] Poictesme — This is a land of Mr. Cabell's own invention, the geography of which is hopelessly mixed, since it draws on many realms of the earth and several of the imagination for its component parts. In the earlier romances it is simply somewhere on the map of Europe; in books dealing with a later time it is placed definitely within the boundaries of France. Two maps of Poictesme exist: one, drawn by Mr. Cabell, is to be found in James Branch Cabell, by Carl Van Doren; and the other, drawn by Frank C. Papé, may be had in the form of an ordinary map for the wall. The Papé drawing is also used as a decoration on the end-papers of the limited first edition of The Silver Stallion.

9 [3] Origen — Origen (185-254) was one of the most distinguished and influential theologians of the ancient church. He did much to reconcile the Christian religion with Greek philosophy, especially that of the Stoics. His most controverted teachings – and those referred to here by the priest – were those on the ultimate salvation of all, as he held that even the devils would finally be redeemed.

10 [4] Bellegarde — Bellegarde is a town in eastern France, on the Rhone. A French fortress near the Spanish border also bears this name.

12 [6] Morven — Morven means "a ridge of high hills." It was a name formerly applied to all the northwest of Scotland.

12 [6] Amneran Heath — ?

13 [7] Walburga's Eve — This is the night of April the thirtieth, the eve of May Day, on which St. Walburga is commemorated. It was a night especially favored by the witches for their Sabbat.

Assumption of a Noted Garment

15 [9] Koshchei the Deathless — Mr. Cabell, in this and other romances, seems to use Koshchei as the supreme deity of the universe, the universal demiurge, the god of things as they are. In Russian folk-lore, Koshchei is the personification of evil, appearing sometimes in human shape and sometimes as a snake. In the legends concerning him, he is generally discovered, imprisoned behind a forbidden door, by a bridegroom prince. He tricks the prince into releasing him, and promptly carries off the prince's fairy wife, who is rescued only with the greatest difficulty. Koshchei is not really deathless, but only hard to kill; as his death lies in an egg, that is in a duck, that is in a hare, that is in a casket, that is under an oak in an inaccessible place.

16 [10] Nessus — The shirt of Nessus, which Jurgen so carelessly dons, is regarded as a source of misfortune from which there is no escape. Hercules ordered Nessus, the centaur, to carry his wife, Dejanira, across a river. The centaur, midway across the stream, attacked the woman, and Hercules shot him with a poisoned arrow. The dying Nessus, in order to be revenged, gave Dejanira his tunic, steeped in his poisoned blood, saying that the person to whom she gave it would love her exclusively. Dejanira gave it to her husband, who was devoured by the poison as soon as he put it on; so that, after enduring great agony, the hero threw himself on a funeral pile and was consumed.

The Garden between Dawn and Sunrise

18 [12] Danaë's Shower — While Danaë was confined in a brazen tower by her father, Zeus descended to her in a shower of gold, and she gave birth to Perseus.

19 [12] Count Emmerick — Emmerick, the only son of Dom Manuel to be born in wedlock, figures very slightly in the legends of Poictesme. He is introduced into Book First of The Cream of the Jest; and, in The Silver Stallion, reigns rather weakly over Poictesme, at first under his mother as regent, and later under the dominance of his somewhat elderly wife.

19 [13] Storisende — This is probably "story's end." The use made of the castle in The Cream of the Jest, where it is first introduced into Mr. Cabell's books, strengthens this interpretation.

19 [13] Rudolph and Anne — This is Rudolph Musgrave and Anne Willoughby, afterwards Anne Charteris. For the history of this couple see The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck.

19 [13] The Red Mustard Jar — The two who are "walking in the glaze of the red mustard jar" are Robert Townsend and Stella Musgrave. For this couple see The Cords of Vanity; and, for the particular incident alluded to here, see page 203 of that book.

The Dorothy Who Did Not Understand

22 [16] Dorothy la Désirée — This was Dom Manuel's third child. She plays a prominent part in this book only.

24 [18] Dom Manuel — Dom Manuel was the legendary redeemer of Poictesme, whose life history is set forth in Figures of Earth, and whose metamorphosis from a rather fallible human being to a holy redeemer is described in The Silver Stallion. According to Figures of Earth, Jurgen was a small child when he saw Manuel die; according to this passage, it seems, he was over twenty-one. The Lineage of Lichfield says that Manuel was born 23 December 1213, and died 29 September 1239; and that Jurgen was born 8 April 1235; which would make Jurgen four years old at the time.
    However, the apparent discrepancy above might be explained by the fact that, technically, Manuel's reign extended through the regency of Niafer and ended only in 1258, when Emmerick became of age and succeeded his father as Count of Poictesme.

26 [20] Gâtinais — Gâtinais was an ancient province of central France, the capital of which was Montargis. It is now a part of the department of Loiret.

26 [20] Vidame de Soyecourt — The descendants of this nobleman appear in other books by Mr. Cabell as Princes of Gâtinais. In Gallantry, Louis de Soyecourt becomes Grand Duke of Noumaria and, in one of Kennaston's dreams in The Cream of the Jest, goes bravely to his death on the guillotine during the French Revolution. In The High Place, Antoine de Soyecourt is a second in the fraternal duel in which Florian kills Raoul.

Requirements of Bread and Butter

34 [27] Valkyries — In Norse myth, the Valkyries were female warriors, who carried the souls of those slain in battle to Valhalla, and there attended them at banquets.

34 [27] Amazons — The Amazons were a mythical race of female warriors who brought up only their daughters, either killing or sending away their sons.

34 [27] Cynocephali — In the Middle Ages it was generally believed that there existed, somewhere in the remote parts of the earth, a race of satyrs, with bodies like men and heads like hounds, who were called Cynocephali.

34 [27] Baba-Yagas — The Baba-Yaga is the Russian witch, a huge, gaunt hag, with disheveled hair and a nose so long it projects through the ceiling when she lies down. She lives in a house built on fowl's legs, that turns around to face the forest at her command; and she rides in a mortar, using a pestle for a whip and sweeping away all traces of her flight with a broom. She lives on human flesh, which she bakes nicely in her oven before eating it.

34 [27] Morfei — In Russian folk-lore, Morfei is a magic cook who can supply, in any amount, any kind of food his master may demand.

34 [27] Oh — In Russian folk-lore, Oh is a magician who sometimes appears upon the calling of his name. In one case the invocation was, "Oh, I am so tired."

35 [27] Lepracauns — In Irish folk-lore, the lepracaun is a fairy shoemaker, a little old man seen always alone and working on one shoe only. He is a miser and very rich.

35 [27] Men of Hunger — In Irish folk-lore, the Fear-Gorta, or Man of Hunger, is an emaciated phantom that goes through the land in time of famine, begging for alms and bringing good luck to the giver.

35 [27] Clobhair — In Irish folk-lore, the Clobhair-ceann, or Cluricaun, is a fairy, greatly resembling the lepracaun, who steals into wine cellars and makes himself drunk.

35 [27] Chiron — In Greek mythology, Chiron was the wisest of the Centaurs, and their king.

35 [28] The Sphinx — The Sphinx was a fabulous monster, part woman and part lion, which infested the highway near the city of Thebes, asking a riddle of all who passed by and killing all who could not answer it. Œdipus answered the riddle, and the Sphinx killed herself in mortification.

35 [28] The Chimæra — The Chimæra was a mythological monster which breathed fire, and whose body was composed of the parts of a lion, a goat, and a dragon. It was killed by Bellerophon, riding on Pegasus.

35 [28] Cerberus — Cerberus was the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to Hades.

36 [29] Caesar Pharamond — This was, perhaps, Andronicus Comnenus, emperor of the East, a sort of princely Don Juan, born in the early part of the twelfth century. He was handsome and eloquent, but licentious; and at the same time active, hardy and courageous; a great general and an able politician. He served under his cousin, the emperor Manuel (note that this is a historical Manuel and not Cabell's Manuel — DR) , and was alternately in and out of favor with that monarch. When Alexius II succeeded Manuel to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire, and, by his conduct, caused popular indignation, giving rise to disorders amounting almost to civil war; Andronicus marched on Constantinople and was soon master of the situation. In 1180, having married the daughter of Alexius, he was proclaimed co-emperor with him. In 1183 he caused Alexius to be strangled with a bow-string, and so became sole emperor. It is obvious that Jurgen, who was not born until 1235, could have had no dealings with Andronicus; so in later editions of the book the name of this emperor is changed to Palælogus [BL: should be Palæologus] ; who, as Michael VIII, ruled over the Eastern Roman Empire from 1260 to 1282. It seems that he was no more adverse to assassination than was his ancestor.

37 [29] The Giants — The giants are Bread and Butter, so that the garden may be altered, as is predicted at the beginning of the chapter, "by the requirements of bread and butter."

37 [29] Ædhumla — In Norse mythology, Ædhumla was the cow of Ymir, the first living being in the universe. Ædhumla licked out of the rocks the figure of a man, who became the progenitor of the gods.

Showing that Sereda is Feminine

40 [33] Mother Sereda — Sereda is the Russian word for Wednesday. It means "the middle," since Wednesday is the middle of the week. Mother Wednesday is a personification of the day after which she is named; and, in Russian folk-lore, is represented as a woman no longer young and wearing a white towel by way of headdress. If Wednesday's traditional tasks, spinning and bleaching, are not properly done, she is likely to enter the house and do them; but her visit is a thing to be dreaded, and prevented at all costs.

40 [33] Léshy — This is Mr. Cabell's name for all supernatural beings. Léshy is a name given to the gods of Poictesme very much in the same way as Æsir is a name given to the Scandinavian gods. The supernal rulers of Poictesme owe only their names to the léshy of the Russian folk-tales, since these last are wood sprites with iron heads and copper bodies who live in the depths of the forest and kidnap humans.

40 [33] Clotho and Lachesis — These were two of the three Classic Fates, whose business was to spin the thread of human destiny.

40 [33] Pyatinka — This is Mother Friday of Russian folk-lore. She is a foe to spinning and weaving and does not like to see it done on her day.

40 [33] Nedelka — Nedelka is the Russian Mother Sunday. She rules the animal world and can collect her subjects by playing on a magic flute. The accompanying names are, of course, the Russian words for the other days of the week: Pandelis, Monday; Utornik, Tuesday; Chetverg, Thursday; and Subbota, Saturday.

44 [37] Sabellius — Sabellius was a Libian priest of the third century and one of the most prominent of the Gnostic leaders.

44 [37] Artemidorus — Several ancient writers bore the name of Artemidorus. One was Artemidorus the Geographer, a native of Ephesus, who was the author of travel accounts, and who lived about 100 B.C. Another was the Dream Interpreter, born at Ephesus in the beginning of the second century A.D., who was surnamed "the Daldian," and who wrote books upon the interpretation of dreams. Still another was a grammarian of the time of Sulla, who is said to be the first editor of the poems of Theocritus. One of these may have been the Artemidorus Minor whom Jurgen pretends to quote.

45 [37] Saevius Nicanor — Suetonius, in his Lives of Eminent Grammarians, Chapter V, says "Saevius Nicanor first acquired fame and reputation by his teaching; and, besides, he made commentaries, the greater part of which, however, are said to have been borrowed. He also wrote a satire, in which he informs us that he was a freedman, and had a double cognomen, in the following verses.

Saevius Nicanor Marci libertus negabit,
Saevius Posthumius idem, sed Marcus, docebit.

What Saevius Nicanor the freedman of Marcus, will deny
The same Saevius, called also Posthumius Marcus, will assert.

46 [38] Such and such a year — The Lineage of Lichfield, page 23, note, makes this year 1256. From the same authority we learn that Jurgen set forth upon his eventful journey on the last [DR: typographical error in the text of the book; sentence does not finish]

Of Compromises on a Wednesday

48 [40] Messire de Montors — Ayrart de Montors was the second son of Dom Manuel's half-sister, Matthiette. (For additional comments about Matthiette, see also the entry for Math (page 50) in Notes on Figures of Earth. — DR) According to Mr. Cabell, he held the papal chair as Adrian VII from 1268 to 1271. His method of obtaining election to this high post, as described in Domnei, is very similar to that which Dumas, in his Celebrated Crimes, relates of Pope Alexander VI. Historians less well informed than Mr. Cabell say there was no Pope Adrian VII and that, from 1268 to 1271, the papacy was vacant. The events of the "replevined Wednesday" referred to, are more fully set forth in the early chapter of Domnei.

48 [40] Brunbelois — Brunbelois was a mountain in Northumberland in which the fairy Mélusine was fabled to have imprisoned her father, Helymas.

49 [40] Perion de la Forêt — This was the lover of Manuel's eldest daughter, Melicent, and the hero of Domnei. According to The Lineage of Lichfeld, he was the father of Raymondin de la Forêt, who figures in the famous Lusignan legend as the husband of Mélusine.

49 [40] Vicomte de Puysange — This is the philanthropic gentleman who gave his name and title to the child of Jurgen and Félise. It is related in Domnei how Perion, also, for a brief while, stole this same name.

49 [40] Melicent — Melicent was Dom Manuel's eldest child. Her story is related at length in Domnei.

49 [41] Félise de Soyecourt — Later Félise de Puysange. For Jurgen's dealings with her, see the foreword to "The Wedding Jest" in The Line of Love, page 8. One of her descendants was that Florian de Puysange who, in The High Place, so notably conformed to his neighbors' notions of what was proper.

49 [41] Ettarre — For the chaste, but somewhat protracted, love affairs of this youngest of Manuel's daughters, see The Cream of the Jest.

49 [41] Guiron des Rocques — In The Cream of the Jest, Sir Guiron is the most moral and high-minded champion who, for a while, at least, wins the love of Ettarre.

49 [41] Maugis d'Aigremont — This was the hero of a medieval romance, Maugis d'Aigremont et Vivien son Frère. For his place in the legends of Poictesme, where he figures as a lover of Ettarre, see Book First of The Cream of the Jest.

56 [47] Lisuarte — ?

[DR]: Note a reference in Book 1, Chapter 2, paragraph 1 of The Cream of the Jest, ". . . The tale narrates how from Naimes to Lisuarte, and in the wild hill-country back of Perdigon, knights made ready for the tournament . . ."

Old Toys and a New Shadow

61 [51] Holda — Holda was a moon goddess among the primitive Germans.

61 [51] Sclaug — In The Silver Stallion, Sclaug is a vampire in the form of an old, yellow gentleman, with webbed fingers, who goes upon all fours. He is the keeper of a library which contains every book ever written.

61 [51] Phorgemon — ?

61 [51] Will o' the Wisp — The ignis fatuus, of which this is a common name, was thought to be a spirit which led travelers astray.

61 [51] Brachyotus — ?

[BL]: For what it's worth, it means "wide-eared".

[APW]: Brachyotus palustris is the North American short-eared owl.

61 [51] Kitt — "Kit with the canstick" is a hob-goblin mentioned in Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft. (An excerpt from The Discovery of Witchcraft is posted by Hanover College Department of History; here is the Amazon listing. — DR)

61 [51] Eman Hetan — This was a charm repeated by the witches of the Basses-Pyrenees before flying to the Sabbat.

61 [51] Tom Tumbler — This is another spirit which was used in Scot's day to frighten children.

[BL]: "Scot's day" is a bit unclear – the reference is to Reginald Scot, who published The Discoverie of Witchcraft (containing the reference to Tom Tumbler) in 1584. The reference is, however, to a rather vaguely specified past time, not utterly out of mind, rather than to the immediate present at that time.

61 [51] Stadlin — This was one of the witches in Middleton's play, The Witch (see also Amazon).

61 [51] Marmaritin — Scot mentions "Marmaritin, whereby spirits might be raised."

61 [51] Tib — Mother Demdyke (Elizabeth Southernes), who was tried for witchcraft in England in 1612, confessed that she was led astray by a "spirit or devil in the form of a boy wearing a parti-colored coat of brown-and-black" who was named Tibb.

61 [51] A ab hur hus — This is a cry which Middleton puts in the mouth of one of his witches. Scot gives it as a charm to cure toothache.

61 [51] Bembo — Could this be the same as that "infernal, terrestrial, and celestial Bombo" who is mentioned in an old invocation to Hecate, which is closely paraphrased in Figures of Earth, page 116?

64 [53] Sidon — Sidon was a seaport city of ancient Phenicia: the modern Saida.

[BL]: Unless you want "Phenix" (and "Paleologus"), and you don't, this should be Phoenicia (or Phœnicia).

65 [54] Shadow — The shadow is Mother Sereda's, which she sent along to watch Jurgen during his regained youth.

The Orthodox Rescue of Guenevere

69 [58] Thragnar — Perhaps Thragnar and certainly the episode with which he is here connected have their origin in the Northern Sagas. In the Saga of Hromund Greipson, Thrain the Viking is discovered, like Thragnar here, seated in an underground place, fully armed, with a kettle of quivering red flames over his head and at his feet three chests of silver. In another saga the demon king Raknar is found by the hero, fifty fathoms under ground, seated in his ship surrounded by five hundred of his men, who breathe jets of vapor from their nostrils. The northern heroes were not so lucky as Jurgen, for they found no maidens with the buried kings and had to fight before they got either treasures or swords. Could the name Thragnar have been made by combining the words Thrain and Raknar?

70 [59] Guenevere — This is the Guenevere made familiar to us by Malory and Tennyson; she is the future wife of King Arthur, the legendary hero of Britain.

70 [59] Gogyrvan — According to ancient Welsh legends, Arthur had three queens and each of them was named Guenevere. The third of these was the daughter of Gogyrvan Gawr. The following rime concerning her was, for a long while, current in Wales:

Gwenhwyvar, the daughter of Gogyrvan the Giant,
Bad when little, worse when great.

70 [59] Glathion — ?

70 [59] Red Islands — ?

70 [59] Logreus — Logres was a name for certain parts of Britain in the days of King Arthur.

70 [59] Caliburn — Caliburn was another name for Excalibur, King Arthur's magic sword.

71 [60] Miramon Lluagor — Miramon Lluagor, we are told in Figures of Earth, was a noted magician, lord of the kind kinds of sleep and prince of the seven madnesses, who helped Manuel to conquer Poictesme. During Manuel's reign, we learn from The Silver Stallion, he became Seneschal of Gontaron and one of the Fellowship of the Silver Stallion. After Manuel's death he returned to his magic making, and was finally killed by his son, Demetrios.

Pitiful Disguises of Thragnar

72 [61] Gihon — ?

73 [62] Artein — ?

74 [63] Crim Tartary — Crim Tartary is now called the Crimea.

Appearance of the Duke of Logreus

78 [66] Cameliard — Cameliard was the land ruled over by Leodegrance, Guenevere's father in the English legends of Arthur.

78 [66] Enisgarth — Perhaps this is the same as Inisguerth, an ancient name for the Isle of Wight.

78 [66] Camwy — ?

78 [66] Sargyll — ?

79 [67] Arthur — This is the legendary hero of early Britain, who is best known to English readers through Malory's Morte d'Arthur and Tennyson's Idylls of the King.

80 [68] Sornatius — Sornatius is cited by the elder Pliny, but his works have perished.

81 [69] Merlin Ambrosius — Satan, angered at Christ's victory over him, begot a son unlawfully upon a virgin. This son was to possess the wisdom of Socrates, but to teach anti-Christian doctrine. Blaise baptized the infant and saved it from Satan's power. The child was Merlin, the powerful magician of Arthurian romance. At the height of his powers he fell in love with the child Nimuë and rashly taught her certain of his charms; so that, while he was sleeping, she wove about him one of the magic spells he had taught her and imprisoned him forever in an invisible tower. Mr. Cabell's account of Merlin's doings with Nimuë is to be found in Chapter 31 of Something About Eve.

Excursus of Yolande's Undoing

82 [70] Rience of Northgalis — King Rience of North Wales was among Arthur's chief foes. One of Arthur's first acts was to drive him out of Cameliard, which he was ravaging, and so win Guenevere, the daughter of the grateful king of that country. Later Rience, having conquered eleven kings and used their beards with which to embroider his mantle, insultingly demanded Arthur's beard to complete this unique piece of fancy work. He was finally conquered by the knights Balan and Balin, and made to swear allegiance to Arthur.

83 [71] Graemagog — ?

[APW]: Possibly a variation on Gogmagog, a fictional giant of British history named for the Biblical Gog and Magog.

83 [71] Jurgen's reward — It appears that Jurgen was by no means original in the trick he played upon Yolande. Malory, in Book IV, Chapter XXII, of Le Morte d'Arthur, relates, "Will ye, said Sir Gawaine, promise me to do all that ye may, by the faith of your body, to get me the love of my lady? Yea, sir, said she, and that I promise by the faith of my body. Now, said Sir Gawaine, it is yourself that I love so well, therefore I pray you hold your promise. I may not choose, said the Lady Ettard, but if I should be foresworn; and so she granted him to fulfill all his desire."

Philosophy of Gogyrvan Gawr

88 [75] The Lady of the Lake — The Lady of the Lake was a beneficent sorceress in Arthurian legends. The daughter of the godson of the goddess Diana, she dwelt in fairyland, which was concealed by a mirage of water. It was she who gave Arthur his magic sword, Excalibur, and who was present at his death and burial. It was she, also, who stole Lancelot away from his mother and brought him up at the bottom of her lake; and who learned Merlin's secret and shut him up forever in a magic tower. Malory seems to mention two Ladies of the Lake: one who gave the sword to Arthur, and who was beheaded by Balin; and Nimuë, Merlin's love. Originally, however, Nimuë had no connection with the Lady of the Lake.

[BL]: I find myself wondering (and wondering, and wondering) just how the Arthurian legends got crossed with the goddess Diana, and even more how godsons came into it. This looks like rehashed fourth-hand nonsense to me.

88 [75] Carohaise — ?

[APW]: Modern Carahès or Carhaix in Brittany.

Preliminary Tactics of Duke Jurgen

96 [82] Ariphus of Belsize — ?

96 [82] Poliger — ?

96 [82] Scleroveus — ?

96 [82] Pisander — Pisander was an early Greek poet, born at Camirus, in the island of Rhodes. He is thought to have flourished about 650 B.C. His poem, Heraclea, deals with the exploits of Heracles.

96 [83] Giarmuid — ?

96 [83] Orc — This is an old name for Orkney.

96 [83] Persaunt — ?

96 [83] "Lo, for" — Here begins a sonnet, metrically correct but very eccentrically rimed. The riming words are italicized below.

Lo, for I pray to thee, resistless Love,
That thou to-day make cry unto my love,
To Phyllida whom I, poor Logreus, love
So tenderly, not to deny me love!
Asked why, say thou my drink and food is love,
In days wherein I think and brood on love,
And truly find naught good in aught save love,
Since Phyllida hath taught me how to love.

If she avow such constant hate of love
As would ignore my great and constant love,
Plead thou no more! With listless lore of love
Woo Death resistlessly, resistless Love,
In place of her that saith such scorn of love
As lends to Death the lure and grace I love.

[BL]: "Metrically correct" is strange. The riming is part of the metre. It is, however, in iambic pentameter, and divided into octet and sestet.

100 [86] Napsacus — ?

101 [87] Evrawc — This name occurs in The Mabinogion, where Evrawc is the father of Peredur, one of the heroes of that book.

103 [89] Ophelion — Ophelion was an Athenian comic poet, who lived about 380 B.C.

103 [89] Fabianus Papirius — This was a Roman rhetorician and philosopher of a time of Tiberius and Caligula.

103 [89] Sextius Niger — Sextius Niger Quintus was a Roman who lived during the last days of the Republic and under Augustus. He was the founder of a philosophical system which aimed at the improvement of morals on the principles of the Stoics and Pythagoreans. He wrote in Greek.

Of Compromises in Glathion

109 [94] Anaïtis — Anaïtis, or Anahita, was a Persian goddess, and a feminine form, perhaps, of the god Mithra. She was a goddess of fertility and of fertilizing waters; and, according to the Avesta, purified the seed of males and the milk of females, and was invoked by marriageable girls, and by women at the time of childbirth. She is described as a "beautiful maiden, powerful and tall, her girdle fastened high, wrapped in a gold embroidered cloak, wearing earrings, a necklace, and a crown of gold, and adorned with thirty otter skins." At Erez, in Akilisene, there was a sanctuary which contained a golden statue of the goddess. To this sanctuary, which was famous for its wealth, the daughters of the noble families of Armenia used to go and, as a religious rite, prostitute themselves before their marriage. Anaïtis was also worshiped in Cappadocia and Pontus; and at Zela, in Pontus, a festival in her honor, the Sacæ, was held annually. It is hard to say just what grounds, other than those of expediency, Mr. Cabell has for connecting her with the Lady of the Lake. It may be that, in very early times, the Lady of the Lake was a Celtic goddess of fertility (i.e., a love goddess), but all traces of this have disappeared from the later Arthurian legends. It seems that Mr. Cabell intends to present Anaïtis as the universal love goddess, appearing under different names and forms in different lands and ages.

[BL]: Rendering "goddess of fertility" as "love goddess" explicitly is strange. They are not the same, and in the days when they were "officially" confused as a sort of euphemism the former would not be mentioned at all. Similar considerations apply to goddesses of sex – sexual desire, pleasure, and activity – which are yet a third thing.

109 [94] Sir Dodinas le Sauvage — Sir Dodinas is mentioned several times in Le Morte d'Arthur as a knight of King Arthur's court.

109 [94] Earl Roth of Meliot — ?

109 [95] Sir Epinogris — In Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Ipinogris is mentioned as "the king's son of Northumberland."

109 [95] Sir Hector de Maris — Sir Hector de Maris was the youngest brother of Sir Lancelot, and played a fairly prominent part in the Arthurian legends.

[BL]: This is a strange way to describe Arthur's foster-father!

109 [95] Earl Damas of Listenise — In Le Morte d'Arthur there is a Sir Damas who aided Morgan le Fay in imprisoning Arthur, intending to slay him by treachery.

Divers Imbroglios of King Smoit

111 [96] Aribert — ?

111 [96] Urien — This personage, in the various editions of Jurgen, figures under three different names. In the early American editions, he is called Olwen; in the English edition, Orien; and in the later American editions, Urien. In all editions he is mentioned the second time by the name of Urien. This confusion may have been caused by the discovery that Olwen is a feminine name. Urien is probably taken from The Mabinogion where a man so named is the father of Owain, a hero of that book.

111 [96] Pengwaed-Gir — In Welsh myth, Pengwaed is the Land's End, the extreme southern point of Britain.

111 [96] Trooping Fairies — In Celtic lore, this is a name given to the fairies who go about in groups to distinguish them from the solitary fairies, like the Lepracaun, who are always seen alone. The trooping fairies always wear green clothes; the solitary ones, red.

[DR]: This page describes the Trooping Fairies. It's a chapter from an anthology of Irish folklore, edited by W. B. Yeats.

111 [96] Westphalia — Westphalia was an ancient political district of Germany.

111 [96] Neuedesberg — ?

112 [97] King Smoit — The Mabinogion mentions Selyf, the son of Smoit, as one of Arthur's warriors.

[BL]: Lloyd Alexander's "Chronicles of Prydain", at least, suggests that more is known about Smoit from somewhere, though of course I wouldn't take him as an authority.

112 [97] Queen Sylvia Tereu — ?

115 [100] Ursula — The legends goes that Ursula was a British princess who, bound for France with her virgin train, was driven by adverse winds to Cologne, where she and her eleven thousand accompanying virgins were martyred by the Huns. Ursula is the Swabian ursel or hörsel, the moon, and her virgins are the stars.

[BL]: The claim about "Sanctae Ursula et undecim mille virgines" has been plausibly alternatively explained as a mis-reading of something like "Sanctae Ursula et Undecimilla virgines". I am seriously in doubt about "ursel" as relevant. The Greeks saw the Greater and Lesser She-bears (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) as pushing the sky about the cosmic axis. An association with the moon is intriguing, but may only be a coincidence (or a mistake).

116 [100] Emperor Locrine — Locrine, son of the Trojan Brutus, was left king of all Britain by his father. He was not captured and killed by Corineus, but by his wife Gwendolin, the daughter of Corineus, whom he had cast off in favor of Astrild, the daughter of the king of Germany. His history is related in Book II, Canto X, of The Faerie Queene.

116 [100] Suevetii — ?

116 [100] Gozarin — ?

116 [100] Osnach — ?

116 [100] Corineus — Corineus, a follower of Brutus, killed the giants of Gog and Magog; and for this exploit was made ruler of the western province of Britain, which, in his honor, was called Cornwall.

117 [101] Tyrnog — ?

117 [101] Craintnor — ?

118 [102] Penpingon Vreichvras ap Mylwald Glasanief — In Welsh names, "ap" means "the son of" and "Vreichvras" is a common Welsh cognomen, meaning "with the brawny arm." The Mabinogion mentions a porter of King Arthur's, called Penpingon.

About a Cock That Crowed Too Soon

There is no data for this chapter.

Why Merlin Talked in Twilight

129 [111] Mirror and white pigeons — See, in this connection, Book Second, Chapter VII, and Book Third, Chapter III, of The Cream of the Jest.

130 [111] My father — You will recall that "Merlin's father" was reputed to be Satan.

131 [113] Adéres — "But you have things backwards. It was Sereda..." Adéres is Sereda spelled backwards.

132 [113] The Round Table — Leodegrance gave the Round Table, along with a hundred knights to fill its seats, to Arthur as a dowry for Guenevere. It had originally been the property of Uther Pendragon, and seated a hundred and fifty knights.

132 [113] Uther Pendragon — Uther Pendragon was the king of all England, and the father of Arthur.

133 [115] Apollonius Myronides — This was a physician who lived in the first century B.C. He is often identified with Apollonius Herophileius.

133 [115] Myrosis — This book, attributed to Apollonius by Pliny, is thought to be a treatise on unguents.

133 [115] Apollonius Herophileius — This Apollonius was a physician, and the author of a pharmaceutical work. He probably lived in or before the first century B.C.

134 [115] Dirghâgama — ?

[APW]: The Dirghâgama is a Buddhist holy book.

The Brown Man with Queer Feet

136 [117] The Brown Man — In this chapter The Brown Man closely resembles Pan, the Grecian god of plants and fields, whose unseen presence caused "Panic fear." But in The High Place and Something About Eve, he clearly becomes the everlasting spirit of evil in the world, the "adversary of all the gods of men," whom Christians call Satan. In connection with this episode on Jurgen's life it is interesting to read "The Great God Pan" in Arthur Machen's The House of Souls.

136 [117] Wennofree — The allusion here seems to be to Egyptian theories of what became of the soul after death. The "two truths," for those who are eager for such unblushing veracity, are further elucidated in Part Five of Something About Eve.

Efficacy of Prayer

142 [122] Bishop of Merion — ?

142 [122] Melchisedek — By certain heretics of the early Church, Melchisedek was believed to be either Christ Himself or the Holy Ghost.

142 [122] Shem — Early heretics called the Sethians believed that Christ was really Shem, the son of Noah.

142 [122] Adam — In several Gnostic sects the First Man – Anthropos or Adamas – occupied a very important place. He stood for pure mind, emanating from God and not yet darkened by contact with matter. This First Man was often confused with the Adam of the Scriptures, and was described as "the Christ, who was from the beginning and is always; who was ever present to every generation, in a hidden manner indeed, yet ever present."

[BL]: "Anthropos" is simply "Human being", of course, and not really a name. It's more like a personification.

142 [122] Logos — The Logos, in Hellenic and Hebrew philosophy, seems to express the idea of immanent reason in the world. Almost every Gnostic and Christian writer of the early Church gave it a different meaning. Some taught that it was an emanation from God; some that it was immanent in God; some that it was the counselor of God; and some that it was the creative power of God, which became the man Jesus.

142 [122] Arians — The Arians were followers of Arius, an early leader in the Church, who held that Christ was not one with God, but a lesser god, created by Him. His doctrines were denied by the Church at the famous council of Nicaea, in 325.

142 [122] Sabellians — These were followers of Sabellius, who taught the unity of God, and that the Trinity merely expressed three states of one and the same God.

143 [122] Zagreus — Zagreus was a surname for the mystic Dionysus, whom Zeus, in the form of a serpent, is said to have begotten on Persephone before she was carried off by Pluto. He was torn to pieces by the Titans. His remains were buried at Delphi and Athene brought to his heart to Zeus, who swallowed it and thereupon brought forth a new Dionysus, called Iacchus.

143 [122] Acharamoth — Acharamoth – more generally called Sophia Achamoth – was, according to certain branches of the Valentinians, the fallen and degraded Sophia (i.e., divine spirit), or the personification of the material world. Achamoth was to be redeemed and lifted into spiritual purity by marriage with Christ. Mr. Cabell follows Flaubert in this unusual spelling of the word.

143 [122] Valentinians — The Valentinians were followers of Valentinus, who sought to reconcile Gnosticism and Christianity, and was, perhaps, the most prominent leader of the Gnostics.

143 [122] Pantherus — According to early Jewish texts hostile to Christianity, the birth of Jesus was due to an illicit or even adulterous union of his parents. The father was a common soldier, named Pantherus.

143 [122] Kalakau — According to The Encyclopedia Britannica, the followers of Basilidês did not regard Kalakau as a god or as a form of Christ; but as a mystic word which Christ used in His ascent to and descent from heaven. They believed that, armed with this word, they could conquer all the demons that sought to hinder their passage to the highest heaven. Mr. Cabell follows Flaubert who, in The Temptation of St. Anthony, makes Basilidês say that "the Savior with all his virtues" is called Kaulakau.

143 [122] Basilidês — Basilidês was one of the most celebrated of the early Gnostic teachers. He lived in Alexandria, probably in the early part of the second century. His actual beliefs are not known and have been the subject of much controversy.

143 [122] Docetes — The Docetês were an early heretical sect that maintained that Jesus Christ was God only, and that His visible form was merely a phantom.

143 [122] Merinthians — Merinthians was an infrequent, and perhaps derogatory, name (Merinthus – noose) applied to the Cerinthians, the followers of Cerinthus. Cerinthus taught that the world was not created by the real God, but by one of God's inferior angels, who became the God of the Jews; that Jesus was a mortal, the son of Joseph and Mary, and that, after his baptism, Christ descended to him in the form of a dove.

144 [124] Lancelot — Sir Lancelot, son of King Ban of Benwick and heir to the kingdom of France, was the bravest and greatest of Arthur's knights. When still a child, he was stolen from his mother by the Lady of the Lake, and brought up by her in her domain of Fairyland. His love for Guenevere caused the breaking up of the Fellowship of the Round Table, and led to the wars in which Arthur met his death.

145 [124] Cocaigne — Cocaigne was a medieval Utopia wherein "the rivers were of wine, the houses were built of cake and barley-sugar, the streets were paved with pastry, and the shops supplied goods for nothing. Roast geese and fowls wandered about inviting folks to eat them, and buttered larks fell from the skies." The name is now used to designate a land that is perfect in every way.

148 [127] Anistar and Calmoora — The curious probably can find the only satisfying account of this couple in Gerald Musgrave's privately printed and extremely rare Myth of Anistar and Calmoora, the writing of which by the Sylan is described in Something About Eve.

149 [127] Procris — According to the ancients, the life of Procris was a series of domestic tragedies. While her husband, Cephalos, was held captive by Eos, the Dawn, who loved him, Procris met Minos and cured him of an evil charm, put upon him by his wife Pasiphaë, whereby he must fall in love with every woman whom he saw and work harm by that loving. Cephalos returned, disguised as another, and successfully wooed his wife. When he threw off the disguise, however, and revealed himself as her husband, her affection for him was so genuine that he forgave her for yielding. As a token of her love she gave to him a magic javelin which Minos had given her, and which could not miss its mark. With this javelin he hunted so frequently that Procris grew jealous. She followed him upon one of his hunting trips and, hiding near his hunting place, heard him invoking the breeze. His words were ardent, and his wife, not quite understanding them, thought they were addressed to some more tangible maiden. In her grief she forgot caution and made a movement that caused the bushes to rustle. Cephalos, thinking that some wild beast made the sound, hurled his unerring javelin at the spot and killed his wife.

149 [127] Minos and Pasiphaë — In classic mythology, Minos aimed at supremacy over Crete, and declared that is was destined to him by the gods, asserting as proof that the gods always answered his prayers. In offering up a sacrifice to Poseidon, he prayed that a bull might come forth from the sea, and promised to sacrifice the beast. The bull appeared, and Minos became king of Crete. However, his admiration for the bull was so great that he kept him and sacrificed another in his place; whereupon Poseidon rendered the bull furious and made Pasiphaë, the wife of Minos, conceive a passion for the animal. Daedalus, the artizan, constructed a wooden cow, by means of which Pasiphaë might gratify her passion, and she became the mother of the Minotaur, a monster half animal and half man.

151 [130] Venus Mechanitis — That is, Venus the Contriver, usually of unnatural devices.

151 [130] Khepre — Kheperi was the Egyptian name for the dung beetle, or tumblebug, which lays its egg in a ball of dung and compacts the pellet by rolling it up hill with its hind legs and allowing it to roll back down again. The Egyptians compared the pellet to the sun, and held the insect sacred to the sun-god. It is the original of the well-known scarab. In the sixty-second chapter of The Silver Stallion, this beetle again appears, under the name of Khypera, and shapes a world much after the same fashion as the Egyptians thought this world to have been shaped.

152 [131] Jigsbyed — This was probably one of the demons worshiped by some of the disciples of Lamaism, a corrupt form of Buddhism once prevalent in Tibet. Statuettes of the god, similar to the one here described, actually existed.

152 [131] Tangaro Loloquong — In Melanesian mythology, Tangaro Loloquong, the Fool, is the eleventh and youngest brother of Qat, the chief god. All that Qat does, Tangaro Loloquong tries to undo.

152 [131] Legba — Legba is the love god of Dahomey, a French colony in West Africa. He is represented by a phallus, and the honey bees, nature's fertilizers, are his messengers. The worship of the gods of Dahomey was of a licentious description, and wholesale human sacrifices were of frequent occurrence.

153 [132] St. Cosmo and St. Damianus — Cosmo and Damianus were brothers who lived in the third and fourth centuries. They were brought up Christians, received an excellent education, and entered the medical profession because they could thus most benefit their fellows. They were put to death with extreme tortures during the persecution by Diocletian, A.D. 303-311.

153 [132] St. Guignole — Guignole was a saint born in the Amorique of a family of Gaulish princes. He founded the monastery of Landevenec, near Brest, and submitted his body to the most extreme austerities.

[BL]: I think "Amorique" should be "Armorique" – that is, Brittany.

153 [132] St. Foutin de Varailles — This was a French saint whose name so closely resembles a certain indelicate word as to give rise to embarrassing legends. (the relevant French verb is foutre; the Wikipedia entry will explain all. — DR)

156 [134] Eumenidês — Eumenidês, meaning "the good tempered goddesses," was a name given to the Furies by the Greeks, who considered it bad policy to call them by their right name of Erinyes. They were Tisiphonê, Alecto and Megaera.

[DR]:

156 [134] "There is no law in Cocaigne save, Do that which seems good to you." — See the entry for Theleme, page 187. Also, this sounds like the "Wiccan Rede" (the following notes taken from this page):

162 [140] Yogini — The Yoginis were sorceresses or ogresses in attendance upon Kali, the dreadful Hindu goddess of the Thugs.

162 [140] Indawadi — ?

[APW]: Indawadi is a village in Madhya Pradesh, India.

162 [140] Muntrus — Muntrus, or mantras, were religious and magic charms or incantations used in the Vedic rites.

162 [140] Sacti Sodhana — In certain Hindu religious books, the sacti sodhana is described as a sacred banquet, at which the object of worship is a naked girl, ornamented with jewels and flowers. It terminates with licentious orgies among the votaries.

166 [143] Library — The Library of Cocaigne resembles, in several respects, that library which Tiberius Caesar had at Capri; and is, perhaps, modeled after it.

166 [143] Priapos — Priapos was a son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, and a god of the fruitfulness of fields and herds. He was generally represented by a rude wooden figure, stained with red and having a huge phallus.

[BL]: There seems to be inconsistency in Latinizing Greek names like Priapos/Priapus.

167 [144] Apis — Apis was the bull deity of Memphis, and an incarnation of Ptah, the creative deity. He is said to have been born of a cow that was impregnated by a stroke of lightning from heaven. He was black in color, with a white mark on his forehead, a mark like a half moon on his back, and a lump of flesh like a scarab under his tongue.

167 [144] Ba of Mendes — Ba, the god peculiarly sacred to the city of Mendes, was worshipped under the form of a goat.

[BL]: The worship of Ba was regarded with conspicuous prudish fascination by Herodotus. Hence "the goat of Mendes" as a ponderous way of referring to Satan as presiding over cultic sex (this even wandered, possibly by way of Dennis Wheatley, into Hammer horror).

167 [144] Sacæ — The Sacæ was a festival in honor of Anaïtis, held annually at Zela, in Pontus.

168 [144] Hortanes — ?

[APW]: A pagan Iberian fertility god.

168 [144] Fricco — Fricco was another name for Freyr, a fertility and love god of Sweden and Iceland. He is associated with the boar.

168 [144] Vul — Vul was the Assyrian god of atmosphere.

168 [144] Baal-Peor — Baal-Peor was the Priapus of the Moabites and Midianites.

169 [145] Sekhmet — Sekhmet, or Sekhet, was an Egyptian goddess who personified the destructive heat of the sun. She was represented with the head of a lioness.

169 [145] Io — Io was the daughter of the river god, Inachus. She was beloved by Jupiter who, to escape detection by Juno, was forced to change her into a heifer. In this shape she was long persecuted by the jealous goddess, but finally regained her human form.

169 [145] Derceto — Derceto was a Syrian fish goddess.

169 [145] Thoueris — This is Ta-urt or Taueret, an Egyptian goddess of maternity, whose symbol was the female hippopotamus.

169 [146] The Ephesian Diana — Diana of Ephesus was goddess of the moon and a power of nature. Unlike most moon goddesses, she was not regarded as a virgin, but as a mother and foster mother. The illustrations in the encyclopedias justify Jurgen's description of her.

[BL]: The Ephesian Diana was in fact Cybele, assimilated to Diana. Her normal cultic offering was the scrotum of a bull. The "many breasts" of Cybele are in fact votive scrota hung round her neck. This explains the association with virginity (well, sort of), and so the identification with Diana. Despite the text, moon goddesses as such aren't necessarily virgins – a wild generalization from Artemis/Diana.

169 [146] Tammouz — This was a Syrian deity, whose festival was celebrated by weeping and wailing among his worshipers.

176 [151] Stylites — The Stylites were pillar saints, that is, hermits who made their residence on top of a small platform, perched on top of a pillar, sometimes sixty feet high. To further assure their salvation, they spent hours at a time in uncomfortable positions, or in repeating mechanical actions. The most famous pillar saints were Simeon of Syria and Daniel of Constantinople.

176 [151] Thebaid — The Thebaid was one of the three great divisions of ancient Egypt. Its capital was Thebes, and the deserts surrounding this city were the favorite dwelling places of Christian hermits.

176 [151] Astyanassa — Astyanassa is said to have been a daughter of Musaeus and a slave of Helen's, and to have composed poems on immodest subjects. Her actual existence is very doubtful.

176 [151] Elephantis — Elephantis was the author of erotic books, and is supposed to have been a woman. Of her personality nothing is known.

176 [151] Sotadês — Sotadês was a Greek poet from Thrace, who lived in Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus about 276 B.C. For some sarcastic remark about the marriage of his own sister, Arsinoë, with the king, he is said to have been drowned in the sea in a leaden chest. He composed, in Ionic dialect, malicious satires, partly on indelicate subjects. He invented a form of verse which reads forwards and backwards the same ("Lewd did I live & evil I did dwel"), and which was named after him, Sotadic.

176 [152] Spintrian Treatises — It is not difficult to guess the character of these treatises when we recall that Tiberius Caesar had at Capri a troupe of men and women, especially trained in sexual perversities, whom he called spintriae.

176 [152] Asan of Cyrenê — For an account of pictures similar to those here described, see the Terminal Essay to Burton's edition of The Arabian Nights.

[DR]: Richard Burton's unexpurgated translation of The Arabian Nights includes a number of episodes that are raw and raunchy and politically incorrect, even by modern standards. Project Gutenberg has posted Volume 10 of Richard Burton's The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, which includes the Terminal Essay. A web page hosted by Fordham University, in a section that focuses on homosexuality in history, has published Section D of the Terminal Essay (presumably this is the section that is particularly relevant to the practices of Cocaigne) in a slightly more readable format. Their preface explains:

Richard Burton's ten-volume translation of the The Arabian Nights was followed by a "Terminal Essay" addressing a number of interpretative issues. Section D addressed "pederasty". Although Burton is careful to use words like "vice" and "inversion", this essay represents one of the earliest modern efforts to collect and make known both cross-cultural and historica information about "homosexuality" (a word not used by Burton).

176 [152] Æsred — Æsred is an anagram for Sereda, the letters being transposed in the order of 6-2-1-3-4-5. In his