LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 339 



" Fly, Joy, on wings of popinjays 

 To courts of fools; there, as your plays, 

 Die," &c. 



"Where as," as then used, would make it the ''plays" 



that were to die. 



" As he Lucasta nam'd. a groan 

 Strangles the fainting passing tone; 

 But as she heard, Lucasta smifes. 

 Posses her round; she's shpt mean whiles 

 Behind the blind of a thick bush." (p. 68.) 



Mr. Hazlitt's note on "posses" could hardly be matched 

 by any member of the posse comitatus taken at ran- 

 dom : — 



'' This word does not appear to have any very exact 

 meaning. See Halh well's Dictionary of Archaic Words, art. 

 Posse, and Worcester's Diet., ihid., &c. The context here 

 requires to turn sharply or quickly^ 



The"^6^cZ., (tc." is delightful; in other w^ords, "find 

 out the meaning oi joosse for yourself." Though dark to 

 Mr. Hazlitt, the w^ord has not the least obscurity in it. 

 It is only another form of p^ish, nearer the French 

 pousser, from Latin 2^uhare, and " the context here re- 

 quires " nothing more than that an editor should read a 

 poem if he wish to understand it. The plain meaning 



is, — 



*' But, as she heard Lucasta, smiles 

 Possess her round." 



That is, when she heard the name Lucasta, — for thus 

 Sar in the poem she has passed under the pseudonyme 

 of Amarantha. " Possess her round " is awkward, but 

 mildly so for Lovelace, who also spells " commandress " 

 in the same way with a single s. Process is spelt pi^'osses 

 in the report of those who absented them-selves from 

 Church in Stratford. 



" O thou, that swing'st upon the Avaving eare. 

 Of some well-filled oaten beard." (p. 94.) 



