Click  in any note to return to poem. Passages marked [W] refer Suzanne Woods's notes to the Oxford University Press edition of Lanyer's poems.
 

line 1, "gratious Ladie, faire ELIZABETH": Princess Elizabeth (1596-1662), eldest daughter of King James I and Queen Anne. The dedication to her "grace" is a conventional appeal to her good favor [W]. Grace is also a title; just as Anne would properly be addressed as "Your Majesty," Elizabeth would have been called "Your Grace."

l. 3, "her": Queen Elizabeth I (d. 1603).

l. 4, "Phoenix":  mythical bird of great beauty which builds its own funeral pyre and rises again from its own ashes. A symbol of continuity past death and resurrection, often used as a symbol of Queen Elizabeth I. (W)  The Ladie Arabella (l. 3), the Queen of Sheba ("Salve Deus," 1689), and the Countess of Cumberland  ("Cooke-ham," 44) are also called Phoenixes.

l. 6, "zeale": see note to "Queenes Majestie," l. 120.

l. 7, "Mother": Cf. "Queenes Majestie," where Anne is called the "Mother of succeeding Kings" (2), and Nature is called "Mother of Perfection" (152).

l. 8, "our famous Queene": Anne, who had previously been invited to the feast, but, more famously, Elizabeth.

l. 9, "wholesome feast": both the Eucharistic feast and Lanyer's poem; see "Queenes Majestie," ll. 46, 83, 125.

l. 10, "wisedome": See "Queenes Majestie," l. 14, and "Vertuous Ladies," l. 25.

ll. 10-11, "wisdome . . . daily . . . increast": Cf. the Prayers for Baptism and Confirmation in The Book of Common Prayer: "Heavenly Father, we give thee humble thanks, that thou has vouchsafed to call us to the knowledge of thy grace and faith in thee: Increase this knowledge, and confirm this faith in us evermore" (BCP 272); and "Strengthen them, we beseech thee (O Lord) with the Holy Ghost the comforter, and daily increase in them thy manifold gifts of grace: (BCP 288). See also the Collect for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity: "Graft in our hearts the love of thy name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same" (BCP 186). See also Phil 1.9: "And this I pray, that your love may increase yet more and more in knowledge, and in all understanding" (BCP 209). See also the note to l. 13 below.

l. 12, "faire eyes farre better Bookes": Cf. Spenser, Amoretti 21.14: "such art of eyes I never read in bookes." Among the "better Bookes" alluded to are the works of Lady Mary Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke: "For to this Lady now I will repaire, / Presenting her the fruits of idle houres; / Thogh many Books she writes that are more rare, / Yet there is hony in the meanest flowres" ("Authors Dreame," 193-96).

l. 13, "first fruits": the poem, Lanyer's first published effort; an allusion to Christ as the "first fruits of them that slept"--as the immortal man (1 Cor 15.20) [W]. 1 Cor 15.20-22: "Christ is risen again, the first-fruits of them that sleep: for seeing that by man came death, by man also cometh the resurrection of the dea. For as by Adam all men do die, so by Christ, all men shall be restored to life" (BCP 152); cf. Rom 8.23: "we also which have the first fruits of the Spirit, mourn in ourselves also, and wait for the adoption of the children of God, even the deliverance of our bodies" (BCP 182); and James 1.18: "Of his own will beget he us with the word of truth, that we should be the first fruits of his creatures" (BCP 163). The idea of Christ as the "first fruits" derives from sacrificial practice in the Old Testament; see, for example, Ex 23.19: "the first of the first frutes of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God: Lev 23.10-12: "When ye be come into the land, which I giue vnto you, and reape the haruest thereof, then ye shal bring a sheafe of the first frutes of your haruest vnto the Priest, And he shal shake the sheafe before the Lord. . . .  And that day when ye shake the sheafe, shal ye prepare a lambe without blemish of a yere olde, for a burnt offring vnto the Lord"; and Prov 3.9: "Honour the Lord with thy riches, and with the first frutes of all thine increase."
    See also The Litany from the Book of Common Prayer: "That it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of grace to hear meekly thy Word, and to receive it with pure affection, and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit" (BCP 70). According to St. Paul, in the passage from Phil quoted above, the fruits of the spirit are love and righteousness: "And this I pray, that your love may increase yet more and more in knowledge, and in all understanding, that ye may accept the things that are most excellent; that ye may be pure, and such as offend no man, until the day of Christ; being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which cometh by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (BCP 209).

l. 14, "you[r]": both versions read "you" here, but the sentence demands the possessive.