Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

STANZ. XLII.

'Twixt his two mighty arms him up he fnatch'd, &c.

The combat of Prince Arthur with Maleger is taken from that of Hercules with Antæus.

pare Spenfer with Lucan, IV. 693, &c.

CANTO XII. 23.

Com

Bright Scolopendraes, arm'd with filver fcales, Mighty Monoceros, with immeafured tails.

I would read, in the plural, as before. Mighty Monocerofes, with immeasur'd tails.

So II. x. 8.

As far exceeded men in their immeafur'd mights.

STANZ. XXIV.

Huge Ziffius, whom mariners efchew No less than rocks (as travellers inform.) I fancy he means Xiphias.

STANZ. XXV.

All thefe, and thousand thousands many more, And more deformed monfters thousand-fold, With dreadful noife, and hollow rombling roar, Came rufhing in the foamy waves enroll'd, Which feem'd to flie for fear, them to behold. Spenfer is very modeft here-feem'd to flie: though in other places he talks in another ftrain. Racine,

in

in his Phèdre, A.v. Sc. vi.upon a subject like this, fays, more boldly:

Cependant, fur le dos de la plaine liquide, S'élève à gros bouillons une montagne humide. L'onde approche, se brife, et vomit à nos yeux, Parmi des flots d'écume, un monftre furieux. Son front large eft armé de cornes menaçantes; Tout fon corps eft couvert d' écailles jaunifantes. Indomptable taureau, dragon impétueux, Sa croupe fe recourbe en replis tortueux : Ses longs mugiffemens font trembler le rivage. Le Ciel avec horreur voit ce monftre fauvage; La Terre s'en émeut; l'air en eft infecté ; Le Flot, qui l' apporta, recule épouvanté. You may fee, in fome editions of Boileau, what he and La Motte have faid upon thefe lines.

STAN Z. XXXI.

Speaking of the Mermaids:

They were fair ladies, till they fondly striv'd
With th' Heliconian Maids for maistery;
Of whom, they overcomen, were depriv'd
Of their proud beauty, and th' one moiety
Transform'd to fish, for their bold furquedry:
But th' upper half their hue retained still,
And their sweet skill in wonted melody;
Which ever after they abus'd to ill,

T'allure weak travellers, whom gotten they did kill.

It is plain by this, and by what follows, that

[blocks in formation]

Spenfer defigned here to defcribe the Mermaids as Sirens. He has done it contrary to mythology; for the Sirens were not part women and part fifhes, as Spenfer and other moderns have imagined, but part women and part birds. They were the daughters of one of the Mufes, as fome relate. We learn from the Emperor Julian, that they contended with the Muses; but that the Mufes overcame them, took their wings away, and adorned themselves with them, as with trophies, and in token of their victory. ̓Αλλὰ ἐδὲ Θαμύριδα το Θρᾳκὸς τελευτὴν ήκεσεν, ὃς ταῖς Μέσαις ἐκ ἐυτυχῶς ἀπεφθέγξατο, τί γὰρ δεῖ τὰς Σειρήνας λέγειν, ὧν ἔτι τὸ πλερὸν ἐπὶ τῇ μετώπε φέρεσιν αἱ νικήσασαι. Epift. XLI, tõ

ων

The fame ftory is to be found in other authors; See Paufanias in Boeot, as cited in the Polyhistor Symbolicus of Cauffinus, Lib. II. §. 77. P. 302.

[blocks in formation]

So now to Guyon, as he paffed by,
Their pleasant tunes they fweetly thus apply'd;
"O thou, fair fon of gentle Fairy,

That art in mighty arms moft magnify'd
Above all knights, that ever battle try'd;
"O turn thy rudder hitherward a while :"
With that, the rolling fea refounding foft,
In his big bafe them fitly answered, &c.

This fong of the Mermaids is copied from Homer, Odyff. M. 184. where the Sirens fay to Ulyffes:

Δεῖρ ̓ ἄγ' ἰων, πολύαιν' Οδυσεν, μέγα κύδος Αχαιών,
Νῆα καλάσησον, ἵνα νωϊτέρην ὅπ' ακέσης.

[blocks in formation]

O decus Argolidum, quin puppim flectis Ulyffes,
Auribus ut noftros poffis agnofcere cantus.
Nam nemo hæc unquam, &c.

What follows in Spenfer,

With that the rolling fea refounding foft

is very beautiful; and is his own invention, as far as I know.

[blocks in formation]

Said then the Palmer; Lo! where does appear The facred foil, where all our perils grow! Therefore,fir knight, your ready arms about you throw,

The facred foil was the place where the Enchantress lived: therefore I conclude that by facred he means curfed, deteftable, according to that ufe of the word facer. So V. XII. I,

O facred hunger of ambitious minds,

And impotent defire of men to reign!

"Sacred hunger;" Sacra fames. "Impotent defire;" as in Latin impotens rabies, motus animi, dominatio, &c.

STANZ.

STANZ. XLVIII.

Speaking of the God who is called Genius:
Therefore a god him fage antiquity

Did wifely make, and good Agdiftes call..

There is an Agdiftis, of whom fee a strange story in Arnobius, B. V. p. 158. and the notes of Elmenhorst. Spenfer's Agdiftes is in Natalis Comes. IV. 3.

STAN Z. L. &c.

Thus being entred, they beheld around
A large and fpatious plan, on every fide
Strowed with pleafance, whofe fair graffy ground
Mantled with green, and goodly beautify'd
With all the ornaments of Flora's pride,

Thereto the heavens, always jovial,

Look'd on them lovely, ftill in ftedfaft ftate,
Ne fuffred ftorm nor froft on them to fall,
Their tender buds or leaves to violate;

Nor fcorching heat, nor cold intemperate

T' afflict the creatures, which therein did dwell; But the mild air with feafon moderate

Gently attempred, and difpos'd fo well,

That ftill it breathed forth fweet fpirit and wholesome

fmell.

More

« VorigeDoorgaan »