Notes on Lines on the Mermaid Tavern.

PAGE 131. l. 10. bold Robin Hood. Cf. Robin Hood, p. 133.

l. 12. bowse, drink.

PAGE 132. ll. 16-17. an astrologer’s . . . story. The astrologer would record, on parchment, what he had seen in the heavens.

l. 22. The Mermaid . . . Zodiac. The zodiac was an imaginary belt across the heavens within which the sun and planets were supposed to move. It was divided into twelve parts corresponding to the twelve months of the year, according to the position of the moon when full. Each of these parts had a sign by which it was known, and the sign of the tenth was a fish-tailed goat, to which Keats refers as the Mermaid. The word zodiac comes from the Greek +zôdion+, meaning a little animal, since originally all the signs were animals.