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Upon Madam Ursly. Epig.
By Robert Herrick
For ropes of pearl, first Madam Ursly shows
A chain of corns picked from her ears and toes;
Then, next, to match Tradescant's curious shells,
Nails from her fingers mew'd she shows: what else?
Why then, forsooth, a carcanet is shown
Of teeth, as deaf as nuts, and all her own.
Extra Info:
Tradescant, a collector of curiosities. See Note.
Mew'd, moulted.
Deaf as nuts. Cf. De Quincey, "a deaf nut offering no kernel."
Tradescant's curious shells: John Tradescant was a Dutchman, born towards the close of the sixteenth century. He was appointed gardener to Charles II. in 1629, and he and his son naturalised many rare plants in England. Besides botanical specimens he collected all sorts of curiosities, and opened a museum which he called "Tradescant's Ark". In 1656, four years after his death, his son published a catalogue of the collection under the title, "Museum Tradescantianum: or, a collection of rarities preserved at South Lambeth, near London, by John Tradescant". After the son's death the collection passed into the hands of Ashmole, and became the nucleus of the present Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.'''
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