the request of a friend . . . himself alone: the friend was one George Tadlowe, of whom nothing is known. See Robinson’s dedication to William Cecil (printed in the Appendix of Ancillary Materials) which was included in the first edition of Robinson’s translation but dropped in the second.
more haste than good speed: Robinson is playing on the old meaning of ‘good speed’ = success, and implying that his haste led him to overlook errors.
the Latin proverb . . . whelps: from Erasmus’s collection of classical proverbs Adagia (1500): Canis festinans caecos ponit catulos (quoting Aristotle and Galen).
this notable saying of Terence . . . corrigas: see the Roman comic dramatist Terence’s Adelphoe, or The Brothers, ll. 739–41. The meaning of the lines is accurately explained by Robinson.
More . . . sendeth greeting: Peter Giles (also spelt ‘Gilles’) was a pupil and friend of Erasmus, born in Antwerp in 1586, and appointed Chief Secretary of the town in 1510. Erasmus introduced him to More in 1515. This letter originally appeared in the first edition of Utopia.
Raphael: Raphael Hythloday, who reports to More his visit to Utopia.
Truth . . . plainness: some of the marginal notes in this edition appear to have been written by Robinson. Others were translated from notes that appeared in the Latin editions of the text. Peter Giles claims credit for some of these in his letter to Busleyden (see below); elsewhere, however, they are attributed to Erasmus.
John Clement, my boy: Clement was a page in More’s household and later married More’s adopted daughter. He was a student of Colet at St Paul’s School. In 1519 he became Reader at Oxford, and later in life was a well-known physician.
Hythloday: ‘Hythloday’ is from the Greek huthlos (‘nonsense’, ‘trifles’) and daio (‘distribute’, ‘kindle’), thus ‘peddlar of trifles’, ‘kindler of nonsense’. Raphael was one of God’s archangels. R. M. Adams suggests that a ‘trilingual pun could make the whole name mean “God heals [Heb. Raphael] through the nonsense [Gk. huthlos] of God [Lat. dei]”’. There has been some recent disagreement over the meaning of Hythloday’s name, however. Halpern (1991: see Select Bibliography) suggests that ‘nonsense’ is an inaccurate translation of huthlos, and proposes instead that pleasurable, non-philosophical speech rather than falseness is what Hythloday peddles.
late famous vicar of Croydon in Surrey: possibly Rowland Phillips, Canon of St Paul’s and Warden of Merton College Oxford. He was vicar of Croydon in 1497. As the marginal note makes clear, it is uncertain whether or not More was describing a real person here.
danger of gunshot: the proverb appears in Erasmus’s Adagia.
Raphael Hythloday: see note to p. 6 above.
Henry the eighth . . . king of Castile: the future Charles V, who became Prince of Castile in 1516, and Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. The controversy to which More refers here concerns the wool trade: the English had prohibited the export of wool to the Netherlands after Charles’s Dutch dominions had imposed strict import duties on English wool.
ambassador into Flanders . . . Master of the Rolls: the prohibition of wool sales to the Netherlands had adversely affected the English wool trade. A delegation, of which More was a part, was sent to Flanders to negotiate in 1515: More wrote Book Two of the Utopia while serving on this delegation (Book One was written after his return to England). Cuthbert Tunstall was also a member of the delegation to Flanders; greatly respected by More for his learning, he was appointed Master of the Rolls (Clerk of the Chancery Court) in 1516.
as the proverb saith: sayings similar to this appear in Erasmus’s Adagia.
the Margrave . . . profoundly learned: the Margrave was the chief magistrate, or mayor; Bruges was an important port for the English wool trade. George Temsice, also a native of Bruges, and sometimes known as George (or Georges) de Themsecke (or Theimsecke), was, as More says, Provost, or Chief Magistrate, of Cassel.
but in reasoning . . . few fellows: whose debating skills were second to none, partly by virtue of his native intelligence, partly thanks to his extensive experience.
Peter Giles: see note to p. 4 above.
Our Lady’s Church: the Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame.
stricken in age: of advanced years.
not as the mariner Palinurus . . . Plato: Palinurus was the pilot of Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid; Ulysses the hero of Homer’s Odyssey. Plato was reported to have travelled widely in his search for knowledge. More seems to be drawing a distinction here between those who travel for money or glory and those who travel in pursuit of higher virtues; he may also expect his readers to remember that Palinurus lost his way in a storm, landing the ship on the island of Celaeno and her Harpies (see below), and later dropped asleep at the helm, fell overboard, and was murdered by the inhabitants of the island he washed up upon (Virgil, Aeneid, iii. 202, v. 832, and vi. 340).
saving a few of Seneca’s and Cicero’s doings: Seneca was a Stoic; Cicero had Stoic sympathies.
for he is a Portugall born: the Portuguese were amongst the most tireless of early modern European explorers, reaching Cape Bojador in 1434, Gambia in 1446, the Congo in 1484, and India in 1498. They discovered, and for many years dominated, the Cape route to India and South East Asia.
Amerigo Vespucci . . . in every man’s hands: born in 1451, Vespucci made four voyages between 1497 and 1504, the last two for the King of Portugal. He claimed to have discovered America (named after him) and published two accounts of his voyages (New World and Quatuor Americi Vesputii Navigationes, or The Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci) in the early years of the sixteenth century.
the twenty-four . . . the country of Gulike: Robinson has misunderstood More’s Latin text here. More is referring to Vespucci’s account of having left twenty-four men behind, in a fort: Robinson misunderstood the Latin for ‘fort’ as denoting the name of a town (Julich).
for his mind’s sake: because he desired it.
these sayings: the first saying derives from Lucan (Pharsalia, vii. 819); the second from Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations, i., xliii. 104.
Taprobane: an ancient name for Sri Lanka.
Calicut: a port in Southern India on the Malabar coast, which under the navigation of an Indian pilot was the first Indian port visited by Vasco de Gama in May 1498.
nothing less than looked for: completely unexpectedly.
the lodestone . . . unknown: magnets began to be extensively used in shipping from the fifteenth century.
as for monsters . . . incredible monsters: More alludes here to the reports of monsters that littered early modern travel narratives, which he compares with classical monsters (known to be purely mythical). Scylla was the monster (described by Homer as six-headed, by Virgil as having a woman’s torso, a wolverine’s belly, and a dolphin’s tail) who lay in wait on one of the two rocks between Italy and Sicily (see Homer’s Odyssey, xii; Virgil’s Aeneid, iii. 426). Celaeno was a Harpy, a birdlike creature with the head of a woman (see Virgil’s Aeneid, iii. 212). The Lestrygonians were cannibalistic giants who destroyed eleven of Odysseus’ ships together with their crews (Odyssey, x).
in bondage to . . . at your pleasure: the distinction in the Latin is between servias (slave) and inservias (in service to); the Latin text has a sentence, omitted by Robinson, which draws attention to the pun. More himself hesitated over entering the service of the king.
my mind . . . clean against: completely counter to my principles and nature.
So both the raven . . . fairest: again a proverb which appears in Erasmus’s Adagia.
Trip takers: those who trip up other men’s arguments.
the insurrection . . . suppressed and ended: in 1497, after one tax too many, the Cornish rebelled, being brutally defeated at Blackheath. According to Hall’s Chronicle the rebels lost more than 2,000 men in the battle.
John Morton, Archbishop . . . I will say: Morton was a statesman under Henry VI and Edward IV and was created Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor by Henry VII. More served as a page in Morton’s household between 1490 and 1492, and was encouraged by Morton to go to Oxford. Hythloday’s admiration for Morton was not shared by a good deal of the English population, who hated him for devising a number of ingenious taxes. According to Bacon, the best-known of these was ‘Morton’s fork’, which taxed those who spent on the grounds that they were rich, and those who did not spend on the grounds that they must have saved up money.
In the which . . . took great delectation: he took great delight in ready wit and bold spirit, since these were his own virtues too, just so long as those virtues were not accompanied with insolence.
that strait and rigorous . . . upon one gallows: The Latin text states that sometimes twenty would be hanged on one gallows. But the severity with which the death penalty was applied in England was notorious: according to Holinshed’s Chronicle, for example, 7,200 thieves were hanged during the reign of Henry VIII alone.
simple theft: theft alone (i.e. not accompanied by actual or threatened violence).
Blackheath field . . . the wars in France: Blackheath field was the site of the bloody 1497 defeat of the Cornish rebels (see note to p. 17 above). Henry VII’s wars with Charles VIII were terminated at the Treaty of Étaples in 1492. Henry VIII’s troops also suffered heavy casualties in wars with France in 1512–13.
their tenants . . . raising their rents: ‘poll and shave’, i.e. exploit to the limit. Exploitative landlords purchased or leased property solely in order to raise the rents of sitting tenants, who had no protection under the law against such abuses.
idle and loitering serving men: such servants constituted the last vestiges of private armies retained by feudal noblemen, which had been broken up by Henry VII.
Yet France . . . much sorer plague: the French army was made up principally of mercenaries.
of Sallust: by the Roman historian Sallust, in Catiline’s War, xvi. 3.
the examples of the Romans . . . manifestly declare: all these lost control of their armies, either because those armies were made up of slave labour, or because they employed, or fought against, mercenaries.
of their own armies . . . a readiness: by their own standing armies (which, being mercenaries or slaves, were ready to turn on them).
French soldiers . . . unpractised soldiers: England had achieved several large victories over the French, the most recent of which was Agincourt (1415).
picked and chosen men: handpicked, the very best.
your sheep . . . very men themselves: in pursuit of the considerable profits to be had from the wool trade, landowners were turning arable land into pasture for sheep, and enclosing large tracts of land previously held in common. In so doing they deprived commoners of their livelihoods, since they no longer had anywhere to graze their livestock, and since their skills in arable farming were no longer a means to employment when arable land was turned into pasture. (The Latin refers to this last consequence in a sentence which Robinson does not translate.) As a result, the peasantry was increasingly fragmented and atomized, forced from subsistence into destitution, from the land into the towns, and eventually, from being basically self-supporting smallholders into a mass of wage labourers.
certain abbots, holy men no doubt: the Church was frequently accused of enclosing common land; Cistercian monks, for instance, had practised sheep-farming on a large scale in the Pennines since the twelfth century.
cormorant: used figuratively to describe someone who was rapacious and insatiably greedy.
very little worth . . . the sale: which would be worth almost nothing even if its owners were able to sell it in the best possible market.
And yet . . . vagabonds: such ‘vagabonds’ came from a variety of sources. Some were disappropriated peasants, others ex-retainers from dismantled private armies. By the time Robinson produced his translation of the Utopia, the unemployed population had been swelled by Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, since no provision was found for the considerable number of servants employed by the monks.
no man . . . young store: no one to devote himself to the breeding of young stock.
bred . . . brought up: bred more quickly than they are sold. This is the present state of affairs; Hythloday is anticipating what will happen when exploitative landlords turn their attentions to places so far untouched.
unlawful games: both Henry VII and Henry VIII passed various laws attempting to limit pastimes such as these.
engross and forestall: to monopolize commodities and hoard goods.
advance . . . felons: flatter yourselves that you do justice on your criminals.
Hold your peace, quoth the Cardinal: according to the marginalia in some early editions, Cardinal Morton did habitually curtail the garrulous.
what violence . . . to the mischief: what punishment (other than the death penalty) could prevent robbery from people who (are so base as to) believe that a reduction in the penalty is an invitation to the crime?
And if any man . . . be lawful . . .: if anyone should think that God’s prohibition of killing only operates when it is not in conflict with killing sanctioned by the state . . .
after what sort: to what degree.
Moses law . . . clemency and mercy: for Mosaic, or Old Testament, law (as opposed to New Testament law with which More contrasts Mosaic law), see Exodus 19–24.
did . . . please the Romans: the Romans, like the Greeks, made considerable use of slave labour.
the Polylerites: from Greek polus (‘much’) and léros (‘nonsense’), thus ‘nonsensical people’.
But if the thing . . . and children: if the stolen item has disappeared, then its value is made up from the thief’s own property, but apart from this, all the rest of his property is bestowed upon the thief’s wife and children.
be not only tied . . . with stripes: in More’s Latin text the convicts are flogged rather than imprisoned, not as well as.
a coat of their own colour: (they may receive) clothing (so long as) it is of the proper colour.
to him that openeth and uttereth . . . large gifts: informants are generously rewarded.
forasmuch as the end . . . for the same: inasmuch as the objective of their punishment is only to destroy vice and nurture virtue, by so treating and educating people that they cannot help but act virtuously, and use the rest of their lives to make amends for the harm they have done in the past.
taken with the manner: caught with the items.
it is not to be thought . . . true and an honest man: there is no need to worry that they would confide in one another, since they know this would endanger those who concealed such confidences and benefit those who informed upon them. On the other hand, no one is deprived of the hope of being freed for good behaviour.
the privileges of all sanctuaries: by tradition, criminals could take sanctuary in holy places such as churches and churchyards. The practice of sanctuary still applied in some places.
to resemble and counterfeit the fool: to play the fool.
the proverb . . . hit the mark: again, a similar proverb appears in Erasmus’s Adagia.
For I had . . . good: for I would much prefer.
distributed . . . religion: forcibly placed in monasteries and convents.
lay brethren: people who took monastic vows, but who carried out only manual labour and were not admitted to orders.
friars: the distinction invoked is between monks and nuns, who lived and worked in monasteries and convents, and mendicant friars, who begged for their living.
scripture sayeth . . . your souls: see Luke 21: 19.
Be you angry, and sin not: see Psalms 4: 4.
The zeal of thy house hath eaten me: Psalms 69: 9.
The scorners of Elisha . . . zeal of the bald: 2 Kings 2: 23. Children mocked Elisha because he was bald; Elisha, in retaliation, made ‘she bears’ devour forty-two of the children.
For Solomon . . . be many bald men: for Elisha’s story, see the previous note. For Solomon’s proverb, see Proverbs 26: 5. Friars shaved their heads.
to hear his suitors: to attend to legal petitions brought before him.
whereas your Plato . . . philosophy: see the Republic, v. 473, where Plato maintains that civic good can only prosper when political power is informed by the wisdom of philosophy.
King Dionysius: Plato was called to Syracuse in 361 BC to instruct the dissolute Dionysius the Younger in philosophy, but was unsuccessful in the endeavour. The story is told in Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers, iii. 17 ff.
the French king: the following passage refers to the empire-building of French kings such as Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I, and more generally to the attempts of various European magnates to annex for themselves the choicest possessions of their peers. Milan and Naples were both repeatedly conquered and lost by French kings between 1495 and 1515. Venice was divided between France, Spain, Austria, and the Pope in 1508. Flanders was part of the Austrian Netherlands as was Brabant; Burgundy was annexed to France, but its possessions passed to Austria. Various methods were utilized to achieve these ends, ranging from treaties whose terms were broken as soon as it became expedient to do so, to the use of German or Swiss mercenaries (the latter being so talented in the ‘arts’ of warfare that they were frequently paid not to fight). The emperor is Maximilian I of Austria; the King of Aragon is Ferdinand. Navarre (on the Franco-Spanish border) was coveted by both countries and annexed by Ferdinand in 1512.
Lance knights: ‘lansquenets’, i.e. German or Swiss mercenaries.
his five eggs: his two bits, his insignificant contribution.
to hook in . . . affinity or alliance: attempts to use marital alliances to acquire land, resolve conflict, or unite power were common.
the Scots must be had in a readiness: alliances between French and Scots against the English were frequent and long-standing.
some peer of England that is banished his country: covert support of rebels (such as Perkin Warbeck and Richard de la Pole, both of whom have been suggested as the referend of this passage) was (as it still is) a common tactic of nations aiming to destabilize their enemies.
Achorians: from a (‘not’, ‘without’) and chora (‘place’), thus (like ‘Utopians’) ‘those who live in a place that does not exist’.
the valuation of money . . . gather any: Edward IV and Henry VII frequently tampered with the value of coinage in the attempt to raise funds.
to feign war: in 1492 taxes levied by Henry VII for a war with France over Brittany were appropriated by the monarch for other uses when the conflict was settled instead by the Treaty of Étaples.
old and moth-eaten laws: Empson and Dudley, counsellors to Henry VII, had fined people for failure to observe laws until then largely forgotten. Morton also participated in the practice.
to forbid many things . . . sustain loss and damage: to prohibit many practices (especially those counter to public interest) under penalty of severe fines; and then to license those damaged by these new prohibitions so as to allow them to go on indulging in the practices now forbidden.
selling . . . licences: selling exemptions (from these new laws).
endanger unto . . . his side: to ensure that the judiciary remains on his side.
to take . . . in a trip: to catch his opponent out.
the king’s indisputable prerogative: in fact, the question of the extent of monarchical privilege was a matter of growing debate.
the rich Crassus: Marcus Licinius Crassus, an enormously wealthy Roman. According to Cicero, Crassus declared that only those with enough money to maintain an army would be capable of taking part in government (Cicero, On Duty, i. 8).
the office . . . himself: see Ezekiel 34: 2 and Plato’s Republic, i. 343, where Plato argues that a true ruler is he who only acts in the interests of his subjects. Diogenes Laertius also mentions Plato’s views on the matter in his Lives of Eminent Philosophers, iii. 17.
Fabricius: Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, famous for his austerity and integrity. The saying attributed to him here is actually attributed (by Plutarch) to another Roman, Manius Curius Dentatus. See Plutarch’s Moralia, 194, under the section on Manius Curius.
Let him do cost not above his power: spend only his income.
Macarians: from the Greek makarios, ‘happy’, ‘blessed’, thus ‘happy people’.
school philosophy: academic philosophy, scholastic philosophy.
comedy of Plautus . . . Seneca disputeth with Nero: Plautus wrote farcical comedies, Seneca highly serious tragedies (amongst other works). Seneca did not write the tragedy Octavia (although it was handed down in his manuscripts), but appears as a character in it, arguing with the tyrant Nero about the evil of tyranny in the second act of the play.
the dumb person: a mute character in Greek drama.
that Plato feigneth in his weal-public: the Republic.
those things . . . in open houses: see Luke 12: 3 and Matthew 10: 27.
a rule of lead: a lead ruler was flexible and thus adaptable to curved surfaces; it was sometimes used as a metaphor for malleable ethics.
as Mitio saith in Terence: the reference is to a speech of Mitio’s at the end of the first act of Terence’s comedy Adelphoe, or The Brothers.
Wherefore Plato . . . commonwealth: ‘Goodly similitude’, i.e. fine analogy. Plato compares the man who wishes to do good to a traveller sheltering under a wall in a dust-storm. See the Republic, vi. 496.
Plato . . . commodities: Plato was invited to rule the Arcadians and the Thebans but declined when he learnt that they would not agree to equality of possessions. See Diogenes Laertius, The Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, iii. 23.
a statute . . . sum of money: laws limiting both land ownership and conspicuous consumption (the latter known as sumptuary laws) were enacted by several countries in early modern Europe.
offices should not . . . in their offices: once again, abuses such as the selling of offices were common in early modern England.
receiveth in ships . . . the land: allows ships to pass across it in the direction of any part of the land.
King Utopus: here and elsewhere, More’s Latin does not refer to ‘King Utopus’ but simply to ‘Utopus’; Robinson’s later references to ‘princes’ are similarly misleading. Utopia is not a monarchy.
Abraxa: the derivation of this name is not known. Some suggest it is derived from ‘Abraxas’, a mystical term (whose numerical equivalent is 365) which might have meant ‘Holy Name’ or ‘The Blessing’, and referred to the highest heaven. Turner suggests instead that it comes from the Greek a (not) and brakae breeches: he ‘translates’ the term as ‘Sanscullottia’. It is also possible that the Greek word abrachos may be another form of the word abrochos (‘waterless’); if so, and given the context (Abraxa’s attachment to the mainland), it seems likely that More may have had this in mind.
Amaurote: from the Greek amauros (‘faint’, ‘dim’, ‘dark’), thus ‘dim city’, ‘shadowy city’.
Philarch: from Greek phularchos, meaning ‘head of the group’. There may also be a play on phil (‘love’) and arché (‘rule’), thus ‘loving ruler’.
Anyder: from the Greek a (‘not’) and hudor (‘water’), thus ‘dry’, ‘without water’.
Whoso will may go in: also a practice of Plato’s republicans. See the conclusion of Book 3 of the Republic.
the history of 1,760 years: Logan and Adams note R. J. Schoeck’s observation that 1,760 years before 1516 would be 244 BC, in which year Agis IV, who was eventually executed for attempting to effect egalitarian reforms, became King of Sparta.
fine linen . . . or amber: glass was rare in English windows until the seventeenth century. The inhabitants of the New Atlantis also have oiled cloth in their windows.
Syphogrant . . . Philarch: the derivation of these words is unknown. For the first syllables of syphogrant, some have suggested the Greek sophos (‘wise’); others have proposed supheos (‘of the pigsty’). It is also possible that the derivation might play on suphar (‘a piece of old wrinkled skin’). For the second syllable of ‘syphogrant’ derivations suggested have included gerontes (‘old men’) and krantor (‘ruler’). For the first syllables of ‘tranibor’ suggestions have included tranos (‘clear’, ‘distinct’) and thranos (‘bench’); for the second, most commentators have used a variant of bora (‘food’). Some of these suggestions stem from associations editors of the text have made between the practices used by the Utopians and the ritual dinners enjoyed by lawyers of the various Inns of Court in sixteenth-century England.
of the prince: the Latin has princeps (‘ruler’, ‘leader’): More means something like ‘chief magistrate of the city’, not ‘prince of the island’.
counsels: probably a misprint for ‘councils’.
the life of workmen . . . Utopia: early modern agricultural workers had to work from daybreak to nightfall during autumn and winter, and from about 5 a.m. to about 8 p.m. during spring and summer.
dinner: unusually, the second edition introduces a misprint here, which is absent from the first edition of Robinson’s translation, and which makes the text contradictory, since the total number of hours worked adds up to nine rather than six. The text should have read: ‘. . . assign only six of those hours to work; three before noon, upon which they go straight to dinner . . . then they work three . . .’
Dice-play . . . or a set field: ‘dice-play’, i.e. gambling. The ‘battle of numbers’ and the battle between vices and virtues seem to have been games invented by More.
money . . . swing: where money alone is valued.
Barzanes . . . Adamus: the derivation of Barzanes is uncertain. It may come from Mithrobarzanes (Menippus’ guide to the Underworld in Menippus by the Greek comic writer Lucian), and hence have connotations of wisdom. Some have suggested that it means ‘Son of Zeus’, from the Hebrew bar (‘son of’), plus zanos. ‘Adamus’ is Robinson’s mistake, or a misprint: it should be ‘Ademus’ from the Greek a (‘without’) and demos (‘people’), thus ‘without people’.
stood one man in much money: cost one man a lot of money.
meat markets: food markets.
the number of their halls: the number of people in their halls.
the hospitals: the only English hospital at the time was St Bartholomew’s, in London.
They begin every dinner . . . virtue: formerly the practice in monasteries, and the contemporary practice in universities, reading instructive literature aloud during meals was customary in More’s own household.
incontinent the lack . . . abundance of the other: those who have immediately give up their excess to those who have not.
they sell for ready money . . . paid at a day: sell for hard cash or for promise of payment at a later date.
follow the credence of private men: trust individuals.
be set together by the ears among themselves: be set in conflict with one another.
cast away nuts: a Latin proverb for giving up childish things.
Anemolians: from the Greek anemos (‘wind’), thus ‘windy people’.
those three citizens . . . every city: i.e. those representatives from each city who come together to confer on matters relating to the commonwealth.
apparelled . . . colours: dressed in clothes of many different colours.
Doubtful he calleth . . . very little worth: in this marginal note Robinson appears to be uncertain how to translate More’s Latin. His note means: ‘More uses “doubtful” to qualify either the value of the counterfeit stones themselves, or the pleasure men take in them.’
which selfsame wool . . . than a sheep: see Lucian, Demonax, 41. For a story similar to that of the Anemolian ambassadors, see Lucian’s Nigrinus.
as an augmentation . . . his money: as if he himself were a bonus prize over and above his wealth.
pointed to of us: pointed to by us.
our new logicians . . . with our finger: More here satirizes the academic discipline of logic, and its teaching in the schools and universities of medieval and early modern Europe. The Small Logicals was probably a logic textbook written by Petrus Hispanus (Peter of Spain), who later became Pope John XXI; ‘restrictions’, ‘amplifications’, and ‘suppositions’ were all terms for various logical procedures. ‘First’ and ‘second’ ‘intentions’ were terms used to distinguish between categories of perception. ‘First intentions’ referred to the mind’s perception of a singular, material object; ‘second intentions’ to the mind’s capacity to make distinctions between abstract notions of objects by comparing one with another, or categorizing them by their properties into species or other kinds of type. In this case, the distinction invoked is that between man as an individual, and ‘Man’ in the abstract, as a species.
heavenly spheres: Ptolemaic astronomical theory held that the earth is stable, and surrounded by a number of revolving spheres upon which were carried the planets.
deceitful divination by the stars: astrology.
qualities of the soul . . . and of fortune: see Plato’s Laws, iii. 697; Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, i. viii. 2 and Politics, vii. i. 3–4. At numerous points in the ensuing dialogue Utopian thinking recapitulates, rejects, or is otherwise in dialogue with classical philosophy. For more extensive notes on this aspect of the Utopia, see the edition by Logan and Adams (in Select Bibliography).
the opinion of them . . . felicity to rest: such hedonism allies the Utopians with Epicurean ethics, and also, Logan and Adams suggest, with Vespucci’s account of native peoples in his Four Voyages. Epicurean ethics underlie much of the Utopian thinking about pleasure.
In this image . . . their own conceit: those who take so much pleasure in giving themselves airs (just because their ancestors were noble) are themselves one of the greatest, and most ridiculous, examples of this kind of false pleasure.
Nor they buy . . . and bare: and they won’t even buy (the stones) unless they first remove them from their settings, and strip off from them all the gold.
the opinion of them . . . counted a pleasure: for this discourse see Book 9 (582 ff.) of Plato’s Republic and also the argument between Socrates and Callicles in Plato’s Gorgias, 494b ff.
that onwardness . . . refreshed: the process of regaining one’s proper strength generates in us the pleasure which refreshes us so much.
the own wealth and goodness: its own good.
For what man . . . that is not: anyone who is conscious is aware of his good health, unless he is ill.
chief part . . . conscience of good life: see Cicero, On Old Age, iii. 4.
that man must needs . . . scratching and rubbing: see Plato’s Gorgias, 494c. More himself wore a hair shirt.
Greek literature . . . and poets: More himself thought that there was a great deal more of value in Greek literature than in Latin.
if the book were not false: so long as the text were not corrupt.
Theophrastus: a Greek naturalist and philosopher, Aristotle’s pupil and friend, and his successor as head of the Lyceum, or Peripatetic school (Aristotle’s school of philosophy in Athens). He is the reputed author of hundreds of works, most of which are now lost.
Of them that have written the grammar . . . Galen’s ‘Microtechne’: all of these authors had been recently published. Constantine Lascaris’s Erotemata or Grammatica Graeca was one of the first books ever printed (at Milan, in 1476). Theodorus Gaza’s Greek grammar was published at Venice in 1495. Hesychius’s Greek lexicon was published in 1514. Pedanius Dioscorides did not write a dictionary; his Materia Medica, published in 1499, discussed the properties of drugs, herbs, and other substances. Four of Lucian’s comic dialogues were translated by More into Latin. Nine of Aristophanes’ comedies were published in 1498, seventeen of Euripides’ plays in 1503, and the first edition of Sophocles in 1502. Most of these authors were published by the printing firm run by Aldus Pius Manutius and his two sons, which, renowned for its accuracy, was the first printing house to print Greek texts in Greek type. In 1502 Aldus’s firm also published Thucydides and Herodotus, and in 1526 Hippocrates (to whom early medical writings were attributed). Galen was a famous Greek physician. The name of Hythloday’s companion derives from the names of two towns in Apulia, Apina and Trica, said to have been sacked by Diomedes, and infamous for their insignificance. Thus ‘Tricius Apinatus’ implies ‘trifler’, or ‘insignificant person’.
such as they can get out of foreign countries: the European slave trade was beginning in the early years of the sixteenth century. In 1509 the Bishop of Chiapas, Bartolomé de Las Casas, proposed that Spanish settlers should all try to import slaves from Africa to the New World; in 1518 a licence to import 4,000 African slaves to the Spanish New World was granted to Lorens de Gominot.
actually: the first edition of Robinson’s translation has ‘bodily’.
a custom which seemed to us very fond and foolish: if John Aubrey is to be believed, shortly after the publication of Utopia More had occasion to put Utopian theory into real practice on the betrothal of his eldest daughter Margeret to William Roper. ‘Roper’, Aubrey relates, ‘came one morning, pretty early, to my Lord, with a proposal to marry one of his daughters. My Lord’s daughters were then both together abed in a truckle-bed in their father’s chamber asleep. He carries Sir William into the chamber and takes the sheete by the corner and suddenly whips it off. They lay on their Backs, and their smocks up as high as their armepitts. This awakened them, and immediately they turned on their bellies. Quoth Roper, I have seen both sides, and so gave a patt on the buttock he made a choice of sayeing, Thou art mine. Here was all the trouble of the wooeing.’ (John Aubrey, Aubrey’s Brief Lives, ed. Oliver Lawson Dick (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1962), 283).
in buying a colt: the name of More’s first wife was Jane Colt. But the comparison has a history: Horace also invokes it in defence of an argument for seeing women naked before sleeping with them. In his view congress with a prostitute is safer than adultery with a married woman, because prostitutes display their ‘wares’ openly, whilst married women do not (Horace, Satires, i. 2). Seneca also says that one uncovers a horse before buying it in order to expose its defects: he compares the practice to the buying of slaves (Seneca, Moral Epistles, 80). Plato suggests that boys and girls should dance naked together prior to marriage so that they can take a good look at each other (Plato, Laws, vi. 772).
change and take another: separation after adultery was permitted in More’s England; remarriage was not.
bringeth sickness . . . sickness itself: see the third act of Terence’s Phormio.
the open punishment . . . honest manners: the example of a public punishment would encourage others to better behaviour.
fools: fools were employed by rich households: More’s own fool, Henry Pattinson, appears in Holbein’s portrait of More’s family. This kind of fool, familiar to us from Shakespearean comedy, was witty and intelligent, but the word could also refer to the mentally disabled: it is the latter to whom More appears to be referring here.
so to help the same with paintings: to use make-up.
honest conditions and lowliness: honesty and humbleness.
cap of maintenance: a special headdress or hat made of crimson velvet lined with ermine and originally worn only by dukes.
attorneys, proctors, and sergeants at the law: an attorney’s duties were akin to those of a solicitor, as were those of the proctor, but the latter practised in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts. A sergeant at the law was the highest kind of barrister.
they bring home again . . . their country: they send home (to Utopia) with honour and praise, and replace them with new (Utopian) officials.
where they take place . . . break justice: where they influence verdicts, forthwith incapacitate the power of justice.
for here in Europe . . . the head bishops: the monarchs and pontiffs (‘head bishops’) of early modern Europe broke treaties all the time.
because it shall not run at rovers: so that it does not run off at a tangent.
lest they should . . . need should require: in case they should be ignorant of the art of warfare when the need arose.
the contrary part: the other side.
Which they do . . . under the colour of justice: they do this not only when their friends’ lands and possessions have been plundered by invading armies, but also, and more aggressively, when their friends’ merchants have been cheated when trading abroad, either through the misapplication of good laws or the correct application of bad ones.
the Nephelogetes against the Alaopolitans: ‘Nephelogetes’ is from the Greek nephelé (‘cloud’), thus ‘cloudy people’; ‘Alaopolitans’ from the Greek alaos (‘blind’) and polites (‘citizen’) thus, ‘blind men’, ‘blinkered people’.
their friends’ merchant men: those with whom their friends trade.
set in their necks: make them obsessed with.
Zapoletes: from the Greek za (an intensifier) and poletes (‘seller’) thus ‘arch-seller’, ‘those who will sell anything’ (including themselves). More was probably referring to the Swiss here, Europe’s most notorious mercenaries.
be both private and out of office: who secretly stand by in readiness.
in set field: in battle formation.
spite of their teeth: despite their most vehement opposition.
them that keep watch . . . sudden adventures: those who are posted in armour as sentinels over the trench, to warn of unexpected attacks.
lay it upon their necks that be conquered: make the conquered pay the costs.
Mithra: Mithras was a Persian god, worshipped as the sun-god in Rome, especially in the army.
all things common . . . the rightest Christian communities: for the disciples’ communism see Acts 2: 44–5 and 4: 32–5. See also Mark 10: 21. The ‘rightest Christian communities’ are probably monasteries and convents.
one of our company: i.e. one of the Christians.
suffer him not to dispute . . . among the common people: he is prohibited from talking about his beliefs only with commoners, (being encouraged to discuss them with priests and scholars).
that the dead be presently conversant among the quick: that the dead are always present among the living.
the praise thereof coming: the praise of God which issues from the contemplation of nature.
For whatsoever unpleasant . . . embraiding others therewith: for they happily take upon themselves the distasteful and hard work whose difficulty and unpleasantness would scare others away, and, constantly labouring themselves, let others rest and never upbraid them for not working as hard as they.
from eating of flesh . . . of beasts: the distinction here is between meat, and the flesh of other kinds of animals (such as fish or poultry).
Buthrescas: from the Greek bous (‘cow’, used in compounds to indicate something of enormous size) and threskos (‘religious’), thus ‘very religious’.
by secret voices: by a secret ballot.
consecrate of their own company: ordained by the other priests.
it is their office . . . in divine matters: it is the priests’ duty to offer encouragement and advice (concerning behaviour), whereas the duty of secular officials is to punish wrongdoing; the single exception being that the priests can excommunicate particularly incorrigible offenders, barring them from religious occasions.
Cynemernes . . . Trapemernes: ‘Cynemernes’ (which Robinson misprinted ‘Lynermenes’) is probably from the Greek kun (‘dog’) and hemera (‘day’): the name probably derives from an association between dogs and Hecate, and from thence the beginning of the month, specifically, the night between the old moon and the new. Trapemernes is probably from trepó (‘change’) and hemera (‘day’), thus ‘changing day’.
sacrifice: ritual, since the Utopians have no sacrifice.
not supposing this . . . the prayers of men: not believing these items to be particularly useful to the divine being––any more than human prayers are.
in changeable colours: in many colours.
divers feathers of fowls: reports of tribes who wore feathers for decoration appear in a number of early modern travel narratives, including, Turner notes, Vespucci’s Quatuor Americi Vesputii Navigationes, mentioned earlier by Peter Giles.
goldsmith: goldsmiths often acted as bankers.
the remembrance . . . killeth them up: the thought of poverty in their old age kills them off.
by common laws: possibly a reference to the Statute of Labourers, a series of laws with a long history which fixed the price of labour for the benefit of landowners and other employers. In 1373, for instance, the Statute of Labourers fixed the price of a reaper’s labour at 2 or 3 pence per day; later the Statute fell into abeyance, but was revived in 1495–6 and again in 1514.
So easily might men . . . should be opened: men might live very easily if it were not for money, [since] money, invented to help us to survive, actually prevents us from making a living.
no jeopardy of domestical dissension: no danger of civil strife.
To the Right Honourable . . . Health and Felicity: Jerome Buslide, or Busleyden, was from Luxembourg; More met him in 1515. Arienn is Aire, a town near Calais; Charles was Prince of Castile. Busleyden was also canon of Brussels and Mechlin. He left money to fund the teaching of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin at the University of Louvain. The letter first appeared in the first (Latin) edition of Utopia (1516). See the Appendix for Busleyden’s response.
A Metre of Four Verses: the poem was originally published in ‘Utopian’ with a Latin ‘translation’, in the first edition of Utopia. The Utopian alphabet appeared with it. A facsimile of the alphabet as it first appeared is reprinted in the Appendix of Ancillary Materials.
A short metre of Utopia: again, this appeared in the first Latin edition of the text. ‘Anemolius’, as glossed above, means ‘windy’. The poem is in part another variant on the central joke about Utopia: that it does not exist.
Eutopie: the first occasion of the pun on Greek eu (‘good’) being explicitly read into ‘utopia’.
Gerard Noviomage: Gerhard Geldenhaur, called Novimage after his birthplace, Nimeguen in Guelderland. He was a teacher of philosophy in the University of Louvain, and served as chaplain to Charles of Austria. He later converted to Protestantism. The poem appeared in the first Latin edition of Utopia.
Cornelius Graphey: also known as Cornelius Grapheus or Cornelis de Schrijver. He lived in Antwerp and was a friend of Peter Giles.
The Printer to the Reader: appeared only in the 1556 edition of the text.
Ambrosius Holbein: the brother of Hans.
Jerome Busleyden to Thomas More: the letter appeared in the first edition. The translation is J. H. Lupton’s.
for the palm: for the highest honour.
Plato’s word for it: see Plato’s Laws, vi. 715.
Magistrates . . . justice in all: see Plato’s Republic, iv. 428–34.
my house at Mechlin: Busleyden had two country houses. The one at Mechlin was especially rich and sumptuous.
Thomas More . . . Peter Giles: this second letter from More to Giles only appeared in the second edition of Utopia. The translation is by Philipc E. Hallett, from his edition of Utopia (London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1937).
that very clever man: the identity of this person (if indeed he existed) is unknown.
Mysis in Terence: see Terence’s The Girl from Andros, 786.
Guillaume Budé to . . . Lupset: Guillaume Budé was a famous French humanist, a close friend of Erasmus and Colet, and a courtier at the French court. Thomas Lupset was educated by Colet and Lily; he was at the time studying in Paris, and was involved in the printing of the second edition of Utopia (Paris 1517), where this letter first appeared. The translation is J. H. Lupton’s.
Linacre . . . Latin: Linacre founded the Royal College of Physicians. Budé was involved in the printing of the books he mentions here.
Croesus or a Midas: like Croesus Midas was, in antiquity, of fabulous wealth.
Jesus Christ . . . Pythagorean communion: for the Christian tradition of communism see Acts 2: 44–5 and 4: 32–7. A communist lifestyle was also ascribed to the followers of Pythagoras.
Ananias: Ananias and his wife tried to trick God into thinking they had given him the entire value of their possessions when in fact they had offered him only a part. See Acts 5: 1–5.
Udepotia: from the Greek oudepote (‘never’), thus ‘Neverland’.
wrapping-paper for shops: to wrap commodities in (like newspaper for fish and chips).
the Golden Age: a mythical paradisiacal age, supposedly governed by Saturn.
Aratus: a Greek poet who said that Astraea (Justice) fled the earth as a consequence of human evil.
Fortunate Isles: a mythological paradise of the Blest, like the Elysian Fields, to which the virtuous dead were thought in mythology to go.
Hagnopolis: City of the Saints; Holy City. Budé may have intended to invoke Augustine’s City of God.
conscientious scruple: see More’s letter to Peter Giles, p. 5 above.
Jehan Ruelle: Johannes Ruellis, a physician and scholar.
Minerva: the Roman goddess of wisdom.
Erasmus to . . . John Froben: Erasmus, the great Dutch humanist, was More’s great friend. Johann Froben was a printer in Basle; Erasmus was godfather to Froben’s son Johann Erasmus (hence ‘gossip’, from ‘god-sib’, ‘siblings in God’). Froben printed the third edition of Utopia, in which this letter first appeared. The translation is J. H. Lupton’s.
never gone . . . Netherlands: More had in fact also been to Louvain and Paris. The trip Erasmus mentions here was the one during which More wrote Book Two of Utopia.
Prolusions: Youthful Exercises. these were translations into Latin of Greek epigrams by More and Lily, printed with Utopia in Froben’s edition.
William Cecil . . . honour: Cecil was Robinson’s patron. This was the preface to Robinson’s first edition of Utopia. It was dropped in the second for reasons that are not clear.
Upon a time . . . all hands: the story is from Lucian; the Diogenes referred to Diogenes the Cynic (not Diogenes Laertius) who was said to have lived in an earthenware barrel
‘Forsooth . . . working’: Rabelais uses the same story to illustrate substantially the same point in his Prologue to The Third Book of . . . Pantagruel. This was published in 1546, so Robinson may well have read it.
even to the very death: Robinson refers to More’s refusal to take the Oath of Supremacy (see Chronology of More’s life).
this place: the New Atlantis first appeared in 1627, at the end of the volume containing the Sylva Sylvarum: or, A Natural History.
W. Rawley: William Rawley was Bacon’s chaplain, secretary, and literary executor.
the South Sea: the Pacific.
showeth . . . deep: a quotation from Psalms 107: 24. The preceding paragraph has many more indirect allusions to the same psalm.
as in the beginning . . . dry land: see Genesis 1: 9.
foremost man: leader.
Latin of the School: university Latin, Latin of the Scholastic philosophers.
cherubins’ wings: biblical cherubim are non-human creatures, described as having various numbers of wings and faces, and associated with the ceaseless worship of God, and with his mercy.
had languages: spoke different (European) languages.
sign of the cross to that instrument: the symbol of the cross on that document.
some little store . . . chargeable unto them: some goods which, if they wished, we could offer in recompense for the services they offered us.
gilt in some part of it: painted gold in places.
accounted for . . . already done: considered the services already performed for us to be most honourable and of great humanity.
fruit . . . like an orange: oranges were used for the prevention and cure of scurvy, a disease particularly prevalent in sailors, induced by exposure and a diet too rich in salt, and caused by lack of vitamin C.
twice paid for one labour: Bacon was himself impeached for accepting bribes in 1621. There may be an allusion here to Plato, Laws, xii. 955.
prevented the hour: come early.
put their arms a little abroad: stretched their arms out a little to the side.
with handsome windows . . . cambric oiled: as in Utopia, and in early modern England, only the very rich had glass in their windows until well into the seventeenth century. Oiled cloth was used instead.
collegiate diet: institutional meal, as in a university.
as Jonas . . . whale’s belly: see Jonah 1–2.
let us not bring . . . ourselves: ‘confusion of face’ is a biblical term meaning ‘shame’. See Ezra 9: 7.
take some taste of our manners and conditions: observe our conduct and behaviour.
some divine pool of healing: the pool of Bethesda, a Biblical pool at Jerusalem whose waters sometimes healed the sick, and where Jesus made the cripple walk. See John 5: 2–4.
as looking that: believing that.
it was impossible . . . inflamed: we could not help but desire to.
our tongues . . . prayers: a direct quotation from Psalms 137: 6.
this island of Bensalem: ‘Bensalem’ could derive either from Hebrew or from Arabic. In Hebrew, ben means ‘son’ or ‘offspring’ and Salem is the early name for Jerusalem (see Genesis 14: 18, and Psalms 76). This would make the name mean ‘Son of Jerusalem’. Etymologically, Salem derives from the root shlm, whose primary meaning is ‘peace’. A similar connotation would be present given the possible Arabic roots of the word. In Arabic ben also means ‘son of’, and salem, ‘safety’ or ‘peace’. This would make ‘Bensalem’ indicate ‘someone who has been granted peace’. ‘Salem’ is also a man’s name in Arabic, however, which might suggest that Bacon is playing with the similarity between ‘Salem’ and ‘Solomon’. Such a view is given support by the fact that elsewhere in the text Bacon uses words which appear to be Arabic in structure, if not in meaning. See the notes to ‘Altabin’ and ‘Tirsan’ below.
for the entertainment of the time: for the efficient use of time.
we were met . . . of the world: we came from the opposite ends of the earth.
we were . . . Christians: we were on both sides Christians.
first seek the kingdom of heaven: a biblical injunction: in return for its fulfilment, God will clothe and feed the faithful. See Matthew 6: 33.
Renfusa: Weinberger suggests that the name is derived from the Greek rhen (‘sheep’) and phusis (‘life’, ‘growth’), thus ‘sheep-like’, ‘raised like sheep’.
pillar of light: God led Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt in the form of a pillar of fire (by night; by day a pillar of cloud). See Exodus 13: 21–2.
those of our order: of the order of Salomon’s House.
impostures and illusions of all sorts: magical or deceptive ways of creating things, as opposed to divine, natural, or human ways.
thy Finger: thy own work.
cast itself . . . stars: dispersed itself into many tiny points of light.
a small green branch of palm: palm leaves are a biblical symbol of happiness and blessedness; they were waved by the people on Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem.
canonical books . . . not at that time written: the ‘canonical books’ are those scriptures deemed authentic (the decision as to which these were had been controversial well into the Reformation); the ‘Apocalypse’ is ‘The Revelation of St John’, the last book in the Bible. Vickers points out that ‘not yet written’ would be true, since at the date at which this event is supposed to be happening (AD 49) most of the New Testament had not been written, although Bacon would not have known this.
Bartholomew: one of the twelve Apostles, reputed to have taken St Matthew’s Gospel to the Indians.
Gift of Tongues: speaking in tongues. At Pentecost the Apostles, inspired by God, spoke to a crowd made up of many nationalities; each individual in the crowd heard the Apostles’ words in his own particular language. See Acts 2: 1–11.
which he formerly spake: which he said before:
discoveries and navigations of this last age: just a few of these were: Dias rounding Africa and entering the Indian Ocean in 1487; Cabot rediscovering Newfoundland in 1497; Vasco da Gama reaching India in 1498; Cabral seeing the coast of Brazil in 1500; Magellan reaching the Philippines in 1521. Columbus discovered the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola in 1492, whilst searching for a western route to the Moluccas (the Spice Islands); it was not until Verrazzano’s expedition in 1524 that America was understood to be a continent.
with a countenance taking knowledge: with an expression indicating.
how much it is increased . . . six-score years: see note on ‘the discoveries . . . of the last age’ above. Counting from 1492, this would make 1612 the date of the discovery of Bensalem.
abounded then in tall ships: in this and the following passages Bacon mentions a number of nations, both legendary and real, famous for their shipping and/or for their empires. The ‘ark’ is Noah’s. The Phoenicians were great maritime traders between the twelfth and the sixth centuries BC, and much of the coastlines of what are now Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya were under their control, as well as part of the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. The Tyrians were natives of Tyre, a Phoenician town; Carthage (now Tunis) was reputedly one of their colonies. Egypt was a major ancient power, as were China, Persia, and Mesopotamia (whose inhabitants were the Chaldeans).
Straits . . . East Tartary: the ‘Straits’ were those of Gibralter. Paguin and Cambaline were former names for Beijing (which Bacon apparently believed to be a seaport). Quinzy is Hangchow, and was visited by Marco Polo. East Tartary stretched from Turkey to Mongolia.
narration and description which is made by a great man with you: see Plato’s Timaeus, 21–5, Critias, 113–21.
Neptune: the Roman god of the sea.
which, as so many chains, environed the same site: which, like chains of jewellery, encircled the location.
Peru . . . Tyrambel: Bacon invented these alternative names, though ‘Coya’ was the name for the chief wife of an Inca sovereign.
Egyptian priest . . . citeth: see Plato’s Timaeus, 22.
Neither had . . . if they had not: the Coyan voyage would have fared no better had they not.
Altabin: Weinberger suggests that this is from the Latin alta (‘high’) and bi (‘twice’), thus ‘twice high’, ‘twice lofty’. But the word also has an Arabic structure: ‘Al-tabin’ could be an Arabic name.
Divine Revenge: nemesis.
not by a great earthquake . . . part of the old world: in Plato’s account, Atlantis was destroyed by an earthquake (see Timaeus, 21–5); Bacon substitutes a flood of almost biblical proportions (although not the actual biblical flood, mentioned below as the ‘universal flood’). See Bacon’s essay ‘On the Vicissitude of Things’ for similar attempts to account for the differing technological expertise of various peoples, and for his contention that South America and the West Indies had no earthquakes.
your inhabitants of America: the inhabitants of America.
not able to leave . . . civility: not able to leave writings, skills, or civilization. See Plato’s Laws, iii. 676–9.
tigers, bears, and great hairy goats: there are no tigers in the Americas though there are pumas and jaguars, as well as goats and bears. By ‘great hairy goats’ Bacon may have been thinking of the alpaca, or of llamas.
the feathers of birds: reports of native peoples’ wearing of birds’ feathers were common in the travel narratives of the early modern period. They may also, as noted earlier, have influenced Utopian ritual dress codes (see note to p. 117 above).
in respect of: because of.
a natural revolution of time: see Bacon’s essay ‘Of the Vicissitude of Things’, for the Baconian concept of cyclical temporality.
and specially . . . left and omitted: and especially long voyages were not undertaken, since now they were only embarked upon by those in galleys and other ships which were hardly capable of sailing in the high seas.
So then . . . sail to us: so then, that contact with other nations that might come from others visiting us.
draw nearer . . . question: come closer to answering your main question.
his name was Solamona . . . inscrutable for good: the name of the King invokes the biblical Solomon, the lawgiver said to own ‘largeness of heart’, and ‘wisdom and understanding exceeding much’, in 1 Kings 4: 29ff. Proverbs 25: 3 states that ‘the heart of kings is unsearchable’: by ‘inscrutable for good’ Bacon means that the king’s goodness cannot be gauged or delimited. Solomon was described elsewhere by Bacon as the king who ‘excelled in the glory of treasure and magnificent buildings, of shipping and navigations of service and attendance, of fame and reknown . . . yet he maketh no claim to any of those glories, but only to the glory of inquisition of truth; for so he saith expressly, “The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of the King is to find it out” as if, according to the innocent play of children, the Divine Majesty took delight to hide his works, to the end to have them found out; and as if kings could not obtain a greater honour than to be God’s playfellows in that game’ (The Advancement of Learning ed. Brian Vickers (see Select Bibliography), 151–2). But the precise relation between the biblical Solomon and King Salomona is left opaque in the text, as is the relation of the name of Salomon’s House to both Solamona and Solomon.
how sufficient . . . of the foreigner: how the land was self-sufficient, and capable of being independent (economically and agriculturally) of any other country.
doubting novelties . . . of manners: frightened of (the potentially disruptive effect of) new ideas and the mixing of customs.
the like law . . . foolish nation: the Chinese were famous for their isolationism; they had little contact with the outside world, laws restricting the entry of foreigners had been in operation since ancient times, and they were supposedly profoundly ignorant of both the cultures and the geographies of the world beyond their borders. In fact though, and as Bacon notes below, the Chinese had in the past participated in the discovery of a complicated network of sea routes in South East Asia, and a couple of centuries previously, under the direction of Admiral Cheng-Ho, had sent out maritime expeditions which found their way through the Straits of Malacca to the Malabar coast of India, Persia, East Africa, and finally into the Red Sea, to Jedda in Arabia.
as reason was: as courtesy required.
Solamona’s House . . . King of the Hebrews: see note to p. 165 above for the relation between Salomon’s House, Solamona, and Solomon.
cedar of Libanus . . . life and motion: see 1 Kings 4: 33.
commodity of matter: material commodity.
God’s first creature . . . of the world: see Genesis 1: 3. In Bacon’s essay ‘Of Truth’ he describes God’s ‘first creature’ as the ‘light of sense’ and his last as ‘the light of reason’.
in great courtesy . . . and descended: politely changed the subject, and condescended.
think with ourselves: consider amongst ourselves.
Tirsan: as far as I know ‘Tirsan’ has no meaning. But it is, again, structured like an Arabic word.
distressed or decayed: fallen into poverty.
true ivy: real ivy.
streamed with gold: striped with gold lines.
and though such charters . . . of the family: and although these charters are issued in such cases as a matter of course, they are nevertheless varied in their natures, according to the size of the family and its importance in the community.
the subject . . . Father of the Faithful: Adam gave issue to the human race in the beginning; Noah to the human race after the flood. For the story of Abraham see Genesis 11–25; for his description as the Father of the Faithful see Romans 4: 16 and Galatians 3: 7.
in whose . . . only blessed: our own births, blessed only in the birth of Christ.
days of thy pilgrimage: see Genesis 47: 9.
every of them: every one of them.
so they be not above two: as long as there are not more than two of them.
Joabin: Weinberger suggests that Joabin is named after the biblical Joab, a nephew of David. Joab was a talented military commander and a ruthless murderer: ignoring David’s instruction to spare his rebellious son Absalom, Joab stabbed him through the heart when he was entangled in an oak tree. After David’s death Joab supported Adonijah, who plotted against Solomon; Solomon ordered him killed in retaliation for this, and also for two of his earlier murders. See 2 Samuel 11 and 18; 1 Kings 2. Another Joab is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4: 14. This Joab is a craftsman.
the Milken Way: the Milky Way, believed by the Jews to flow from the throne of God.
the Eliah of the Messiah: Elijah (or Elias) the Prophet. See Malachi 4: 5; Matthew 17: 10.
the people thereof . . . at Hierusalem: ‘Nachoran’ is possibly suggestive of Abraham’s brother Nahor, who had many sons. See Genesis 11; 22: 20–4.
A cabbala is the Hebrew name for the tradition of mystical interpretation of the Old Testament, said to derive from Moses. For the second coming see Mark 13: 26–37; Matthew 14: 41–3; Mark 8: 38–9: 1.
I have read . . . ugly Ethiop: the book referred to is unknown. A similar (but later), story appears in La Motte Fouqué’s Sintram (1820). ‘Ethiop’ was a racist byword for ugliness, as in Romeo’s ‘like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear’, Romeo and Juliet, i. v. 50; racist anxieties about rapacious black sexuality were already in circulation. For a more extended performance of such anxieties see The Isle of Pines.
But when men have at hand . . . instituted: most aristocratic marriages in the early modern period were arranged, in order to promote the wealth or the power of the families involved. Although working partnerships often developed out of such marriages, the development of emotional ties between couples happened, if they did happen, after marriage, not before; such ties were therefore especially vulnerable to threat from adulterous liaisons.
being of the same matter: being of the same corrupt flesh.
Lot’s offer: in the Bible Lot’s action is virtuous, and rewarded by God: Lot offers his daughters to the Sodomites who are besieging his house in an attempt to rape his male guests, two of God’s angels. See Genesis 19.
masculine love: homosexuality.
widow of Sarepta . . . Elias: Sarepta (New Testament name), or Zarephath (Old Testament name) is a Phoenician port; Elijah was given food and lodging there by a poor widow. See 1 Kings 17: 8–24.
intermarry or contract: marry each other or become engaged.
I have read in a book . . . one another naked: More’s Utopia. See p. 90 and accompanying note.
a rich . . . litter-wise: in something akin to a sedan-chair, apparently carried by horses.
emeralds of the Peru colour: very green emeralds.
tissued upon blue: woven upon a blue background.
the Companies of the City: probably Merchants’ guilds.
as if they had been placed: as if they had been put there, or instructed to stand there.
any degrees to the state: any steps up to the low throne.
warned the pages forth: asked the pages to leave.
the imitation of natural mines: the artificial production of natural mineral veins.
We have burials . . . porcelain: Chinese porcelain was thought to be obtained by a process which involved burying it underground.
engines for multiplying . . . divers motions: machines for increasing the intensity of winds, to bring about different movements.
as tincted upon vitriol: vitriol is the hydrous sulphate of a metal. ‘Tincting upon vitriol’ is the adding of vitriol to water to make mineral water.
take the virtue: absorb the property.
made very sovereign: rendered the very best, the most efficacious.
some artificial rains of bodies . . . and divers others: beliefs about various kinds of spontaneous generation were, in the absence of the microscope (see below), common in the early modern period. Below, Bacon refers to the generation of animals from decaying matter (putrefaction): it was thought that maggots, for instance, bred spontaneously in dung or dead animals. Here, Bacon rehearses the belief that swarms of insects are spontaneously generated in hot weather.
We make a number . . . putrefaction: see previous note.
drinks of extreme thin parts . . . fretting: drinks made up out of elements so tiny that they can be absorbed painlessly through the skin.
meats . . . otherwise it would be: native Peruvians chewed coca leaves to produce effects similar to those described here.
exact forms of composition . . . natural simples: exact methods of combining these substances, so that they fuse together almost entirely, as if they were originally and naturally one ingredient alone.
as well for such as are . . . those that are: for those things that are not commonly used, as well as for those that are.
but yet . . . patterns and principals: but in any case, of all those things that we invented ourselves, we keep examples to serve as blueprints or models (for future reference).
that pass divers . . . progresses, and returns: of diverse intensities, undergoing cyclical variations, increasing and diminishing.
lime unquenched: ‘unquenched’: unslaked, not hydrated. Lime generates heat only when it is slaked.
producing of light . . . divers bodies: making light originate from various substances.
means of seeing objects . . . distinctly: some lenses, such as the magnifying glass, had been in use since ancient times. Eyeglasses had been in use since the fourteenth century. The telescope was in use in some parts of Europe; it had been invented around 1600, perhaps by Hans Lippershey. Microscopes were a very recent, and still largely unknown invention (possibly invented by Zacharias Jansen, they were named by the naturalist John Faber in 1625). It was not until the publication of Robert Hooke’s Micrographia in 1665 that the potential of the microscope was really recognized.
observations in urine: urine was analysed in order to diagnose disease: it was its colour which was thought to be the most significant indicator.
fossils: objects hidden in the earth, inorganic as well as organic.
lodestones: magnets had been known for centuries; the compass was a more recent invention. The Chinese had used magnetized needles as early compasses in shipping since about AD 1000, the Europeans since around the fifteenth century.
wildfires burning in water: naptha (liquid petroleum) had been used since ancient times for setting fire to enemy ships.
ships and boats for going under water: a submarine had been demonstrated in the Thames by the Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel in 1620.
brooking of seas: sailing over high waves.
clocks . . . perpetual motions: clocks telling the hour had been in use for centuries. The principle of isochronism (equal time of the pendulum’s swing) was discovered by Galileo at the end of the sixteenth century, ushering in a period of rapid advance in the art of time-keeping, although the pendulum clock was not invented until the middle of the seventeenth century. Perpetual motion is an impossibility.
images of men . . . serpents: mechanical models of animals, automata.
could in a world . . . the senses: could trick the senses in lots of different ways.
they do not show . . . affectation of strangeness: they never exhibit any natural product or object in an exaggerated manner, but only exactly as it is in nature, without any attempt to make it more unusual than it really is.
mechanical arts . . . brought into arts: mechanical arts are those cultivated for profit, liberal sciences (or liberal arts) those pursued for the sake of knowledge. The third category comprises those skills and endeavours not comprehended by the first two.
knowledge as well for works . . . parts of bodies: for practical knowledge as well as theoretical, and also for knowledge of how to predict changes in nature, and understanding of the qualities of various parts of bodies and other objects.
of a higher light: of a more profound nature.
your monk . . . gunpowder: perhaps Roger Bacon (1210–92), a scholastic philosopher and Franciscan friar, traditionally thought to have invented gunpowder.
the inventor of music . . . of sugars: most of these things were discovered by cultures, not by individuals. In Old Testament mythology Jubal is said to be the father of music (see Genesis 4: 21); in Greek mythology Dionysus is the god of wine, and Triptolemus of agriculture.
declare natural divinations: draw attention to nature’s warning signs.
temperature of the year: unusual changes to the weather normally expected at a given time of year.
The rest was not perfected: Rawley’s note to the text.
Magnalia Naturae . . . humanos: ‘The wonderful works of Nature, chiefly such as benefit mankind’ (Vickers’s translation). The list followed the New Atlantis in its first edition.
Pines: an anagram of ‘penis’. But the word ‘pine’ also meant ‘punishment’, ‘suffering’ (especially the suffering of hell), and (as a verb) ‘to lose one’s vitality or vigour’, as well as ‘to languish with desire’.
Rochelle: the French port La Rochelle, an important commercial centre for overseas trade and also the site of Huguenot revolts in 1621–8.
Cape Finis Terre: the location of this Cape Finis Terre is uncertain. There are several places with this name in various countries of the world, but none seems to fit the location suggested in the text. This, however, may be Neville’s ‘deliberate’ error, as Keek says below that ‘there may be some mistake in the number of the leagues, as also of the exact point of the compass, from Cape Finis Terre’.
the Island of Brasile: not Brazil, which had been known since it was sighted by Cabral in 1500 and since settled, mostly by the Portuguese. ‘Brasile’ was the name given to a mythical island, supposedly situated in the Atlantic somewhere south-west of Ireland, and the subject of a pamphlet entitled O Brasile, which described an imaginary civilization there.
Zealand: Zeeland, a region in the Low Countries which had been one of the main locations for the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Terra Australis Incognita: Australia was unknown at the end of the seventeenth century. ‘Terra Incognita Australis’ (unknown southern land) was a term periodically used to designate unknown lands; it later became the title of a French utopia written by Gabriel de Foigny in 1692 and translated into English the following year.
Henry Cornelius Van Sloetten: the name has both English and Dutch resonances and would appear also to have parodic sexual significance. It has been suggested that ‘Sloetten’ may be derived from ‘slut’. ‘Cornelius’ may be suspicious too, since the Latin for ‘horn’ is cornu, and horns were a symbol of cuckoldry.
the East Indies: the extraordinary wealth to be gained from exploiting the spice trade in the East Indies was one of the principal causes of the Anglo-Dutch War. By the mid-seventeenth century the Dutch had become dominant in the area, capturing Malacca from the Portuguese in 1641, and in 1623 massacring English traders at Amboina in the Moluccas. They had seized Macassar from the English in 1667.
isles of Cape Verd . . . Veridis: islands off the north-west (Senegambian) coast of Africa, a port for the Portuguese on the way to the East Indies. The Dutch developed a settlement at Goree on the mainland, the English a settlement slightly further south, at Cacheu.
under the Southern Tropic: Madagascar lies on the Tropic of Capricorn.
Isle del Principe: an island off the west coast of West Africa, below the Niger delta states, settled by the Portuguese.
Wat Eylant is dit?’: in Dutch the question would be ‘Welk Eiland is dat?’
great nut . . . apple: the OED records the first use of the term ‘breadfruit’ in 1697, where the author compares the tree that bears it to a European apple tree.
hereafter followeth: this point marks the first break between the framing narrative and Pine’s narrative: see the introduction for a brief publishing history of the text.
A way . . . certain Portugals: the narrator is now George Pine, the time the 1590s, over a century prior to the narrative of Cornelius Van Sloetten. The Portuguese had first reached Malacca in 1509, and the Spice Islands (the Moluccas) in 1512–13.
the Queen’s Royal Licence: one early edition of the text has a lengthy note at this point concerning Queen Elizabeth’s insistence that the English East India Company (founded in 1600) should trade in English silver (which was not recognized in the East Indies) and not the coin of the Spanish (which was). The note is reprinted in Henderson’s Everyman edition of the text.
the Island of St Helen: St Helena, in the Atlantic Ocean south-west of Angola, later a British colony.
St Lawrence: Madagascar.
a sort of fowl . . . swan: the bird has obvious similarities to the dodo, which lived in Mauritius.
my stomach would not serve me: I could not stomach it.
Amen: marks the end of Pine’s narrative, which was inserted in the framing narrative in the third edition of the text (see introduction). From here, the narration returns to Cornelius Van Sloetten.
these laws to be observed by them: the laws are a condensation of Mosaic law, most saliently in principle (an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe). See Exodus 21: 23–5 and, more generally, 19–24.
blaspheme . . . put to death: see Exodus 20: 2, 7; 22: 20, 28.
commit adultery: see Exodus 21: 14, 17.
laming of his limbs: see Exodus 21: 12.
taking . . . possesseth: see Exodus 21: 15; 22: 4, 7.
defame . . . the Governor: see Exodus 22: 28.
the third climate: ‘climate’ in the obsolete sense of a ‘belt of the earth’s surface contained between two given parallels of latitude’ (OED). Initially seven, by the end of the eighteenth century there were reckoned to be thirty lying between the equator and either pole.
reval: possibly derived from the French rêve (‘dream’).
marde: an anagram of ‘dream’.
Cambaia . . . the great Cham of Tartary: European commercial and colonial interests often found themselves in competition not only with each other, but also with the complex network of cultures and empires that existed before the European arrival in South-East Asia. ‘Tartary’ refers to lands north of China; the ‘great Cham’ was the title given to the descendants of Genghis Khan, and more generally to potentates of Mongolia, Tartary, and China. Cambaia may be Cambay, a trading centre on the northernmost coast of India, under the control of the Mughal empire during the seventeenth century.
Calicut: an important port on the Malabar coast of India.
Brachmans: Brahmins, i.e. high-caste Hindus.
King’s sisters’ sons . . . Kingdom: this inheritance system is still practised in some parts of the world, property being passed from a man, not to his own sons (of whose paternity he can never be entirely certain), but to his sister’s sons (with whom, he can be sure, he shares a genetic relation).
Argiere: Algiers. Pirates from the Corsair cities were greatly feared by European sailors.
Although perhaps . . . lie by authority: Neville’s syntax is confusing here; the sentence means that intelligent people will believe his report, since they will have the sense to contextualize the tale within the knowledge of the discovery of many such new places in recent years, while stupidly sceptical people will not. A ‘Nullifidian’ is someone who has no faith or belief.