Notes on Milfoil's Nativity Ode. 323 



And in the same poem Fletcher represents Christ as standing under 

 a wild olive tree : 



As with her leaves she seemed to crown His head, 

 And her green arms to embrace the Prince of Peace. 



Spenser, Slicp. Cal., April : , 



Chloris, that is the chiefest Nymph of all, 

 Of olive bramiches beares a Coronall : 



Olives bene for peace, 



When wars doe surcease : 

 Such for a Princesse bene principall. 



Prudentius (b. 348) thus describes Concordia, Psych. 687—8 : 



Ipsa redimitos olea frondente capillos 

 Ostentans festis respondet laeta choreis. 



Readers of Dante will recall how Beatrice appears [Purg. 30. 31) 

 to the poet ' cinta d'oliva.' 



For the general connection of the olive with peace, see, for 

 example, Virgil, G. 2. 425; ^n. 8. 116; 11. 333; Ovid, F. 1. 1. 31; 

 Plutarch, T/ws. 18 ; Prudentius, CatJi. 3. 55 ; Isidore of Seville, Etyni. 

 17. 7. 62. In Greek literature, Sophocles, O.K. 3 ; ^schylus, Eum. 

 43. In Hebrew literature, Ps. 52. 8 ; 128. 3. Concord carries a 

 branch of flowering olive in her hand in Alain de Lille's Anticlau- 

 dianus (Migne, Pair. Laf. 210. 502): 



Virginis in dextra, foliorum crine comatus, 

 Flore tumens, fructus exspectans, ramus olivae 

 Pubescit. 



Clement, Handbook Leg. and Myth. Art, p. 5, says : ' The olive, as 

 the emblem of peace, is given to the Archangel .Gabriel. ... It 

 is . . . sometimes borne by the angels who announce the Nativity ' ; 

 cf. p. 187. 



sliding-. W. L'Isle had published in 1623 a poem, To the 

 Prince, in which (stanza 11) occurs the line: 



But peace straight from aboue gan softly slide. 



Cf. P.L. 8. 301-2: 



And over iields and waters, as in air 

 Smooth sliding without step. 



The verb represents Lat. labi, as in Virgil, ^n. 1. 394; 3. 243; 4. 

 223; 5. 216; 6. 202; 11. 595. The Latin word is employed in 

 relation to a falling star: Virgil, G. 1. 366; 2. 693. 



