Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Select PoemsColeridge, Samuel Taylor
General
Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Select Poems
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
English poetry
53--*honey-dew.* A sweet sticky substance found on plants, deposited
there by the aphis or plant-louse. It was supposed to be the food of
fairies. Not improbably Coleridge was thinking of manna, a saccharine
exudation found upon certain plants in the East. Mandeville describes it
as found in "the Land of Job:" "This Manna is clept Bread of Angels. And
it is a white Thing that is full sweet and right delicious, and more
sweet than Honey or Sugar. And it Cometh of the Dew of Heaven that
falleth upon the Herbs in that Country. And it congealeth and becometh
all white and sweet. And Men put it in Medicines."
53-4--*For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.*
Professor Cooper, in the article cited in the introductory note above,
points out that this part of the poem contains perhaps reminiscences of
the stories told of the Old Man of the Mountain. This was the title
popularly given to the head of a fanatical sect of Mohammedans in Syria
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, whose method of getting rid of
their enemies has given us the word _assassin_. To quote from
Mandeville's "Travels," which has the essentials of the story, though
the chief is here called Gatholonabes, and his domain is not in Syria
but in the island Mistorak, "in the Lordship of Prester John:"
"He had a full fair Castle and a strong in a Mountain, so strong and so
noble, that no Man could devise a fairer or a stronger. And he had made
wall all the Mountain about with a strong Wall and a fair. And within
those Walls he had the fairest Garden that any Man might behold....
"And he had also in that Place, the fairest Damsels that might be found,
under the Age of fifteen Years, and the fairest young Striplings that
Men might get, of that same Age. And they were all clothed in Cloths of
Gold, full richly. And he said that those were Angels.
"And he had also made 3 Wells, fair and noble, and all environed with
Stone of Jasper, and of Crystal, diapered with Gold, and set with
precious Stones and great orient Pearls. And he had made a Conduit under
the Earth, so that the 3 Wells, at his List, should run, one Milk,
another Wine, and another Honey. And that Place he clept Paradise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account