The Worm Ouroboros

again into Neverdale: Gro abandons the cause of Witchland for that of Demonland: his and Mevrian’s meeting with Juss and Brandoch Daha on their return home after two years: revolt of the east and relief of Galing: masterly dispositions both by Corinius and by the Demons for a decisive encounter: battle of Krothering Side and expulsion of the Witches from Demonland. 402. Second expedition to Impland, in which Gaslark and La Fireez join the Demons, lands at Muelva on the Didornian Sea: Juss, Spitfire, Brandoch Daha, Gro, Zigg, and Astar cross the Moruna: Juss’s riding of the hippogriff to Zora Rach and deliverance of Goldry: Laxus sent by the King with an overwhelming power of ships to close Melikaphkhaz Straits against the Demons on their homeward voyage: battle off Melikaphkhaz: destruction of the Witchland armada: Laxus and La Fireez slain: a single surviving ship brings the tidings to Carcë: Corund called captain general in Carcë: gathering of the Witchland armies and their subject allies: landing of the Demons in the south: parley before Carcë: the King’s warning to Juss: implacable enmity between them: signs and prognosticks in the heavens: the King’s desperate resolution if the fight should go against him: battle before Carcë: slaying of Gro and Corund: defeat of the King’s forces: council of war in Carcë, Corinius the second time captain general: Corsus, counselling surrender, falls greatly into the King’s displeasure and is by him shamed and dismissed: in despair he compasses the taking off of Corinius and the sons of Corund, and unhappily of his own son too and his duchess, by poison, but is himself slain by Corinius: blasting of the Iron Tower in the miscarriage of the King’s last conjuring: the Demons enter into Carcë: their encounter there with Queen Prezmyra: her tragical end and triumph: in all of which is completed the fall of the empire and kingdom of the house of Gorice in Carcë. 403. Queen Sophonisba in Demonland: the marvel of marvels that restored the world on Lord Juss’s natal day, the thirty-third year of his life in Galing.

Bibliographical Note on the Verses

Chap.
III	The Funeral dirge on King Gorice XI	William Dunbar (late 15th century) “Lament for the Makaris: quhen he wes seik.”
”	Lampoon on Gro	Epigram in memory of William Parrie, “a capital traitor,” executed for treason in 1584: quoted by Holinshed.
IV	Prophecy concerning the last three Kings of the house of Gorice in Carcë	—
VII	Song in praise of Prezmyra	Thomas Carew (1598⁠–⁠1639).
”	Corund’s Song of the Chine	An Antidote Against Melancholy (1661).
”	Corsus’s “Whene’er I bib the wine down”	Anacreonta XXV; transl. from the Greek, E. R. E.
”	Corsus’s other ditties	From the Roxburgh Ballads (collected 1774).
IX	Mivarsh’s staves on Salapanta	Herrick (1591⁠–⁠1674), Hesperides.
XV	Prezmyra’s song of Lovers	Donne (1573⁠–⁠1631).
”	Corinius’s love ditty: “What an Ass is he”	Merry Drollerie (1691).
”	Corinius’s song on his Mistress	Ibid.
XVI	Laxus’s Serenade	Anacreonta II; transl. from the Greek, E. R. E.
XVII	March of Corsus’s veterans	—
XXII	Mevrian’s ballad of the Ravens	Old Ballad: “The Three Ravens.”
XXIV	Mevrian’s quotation on the asbeston stone	Robert Greene (1560⁠–⁠92), Alphonsus, King of Arragon.
XXX	Gro’s serenade to Prezmyra	Sir Henry Wotton (1568⁠–⁠1639), verses to Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia.
XXXI	Prophecy concerning conjuring	—
XXXIII	Lines quoted by Queen Sophonisba on the fall of Witchland	Webster (beginning of 17th century); The Duchess of Malfi, Act V, v
”	Queen Sophonisba’s Sonnet	Shakespeare, Sonnet XVIII

The text here printed of Wotton’s poem is that of Reliquiae Wottonianae, 1st ed., 1651, edited by Izaak Walton; except that I read (with the earlier texts) l. 5 “Moone,” l. 8 “Passions,” l. 16 “Princess,” instead of “Sun,” “Voyces,” “Mistris” of the 1651 edition.

Shakespeare’s Sonnet is from the Quarto of 1609.

The passage from Njáls Saga in the Induction is quoted from the late Sir George Dasent’s classic translation.

Colophon

The Worm Ouroboros
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