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In Satyr's fhape Antiopa he fnatch'd,
And like a fire, when he Ægin' affay'd:
A fhepherd, when Mnemofyne he catch'd:
And like a ferpent to the Thracian maid.
From Ovid, Met. VI. 103.

Mæonis elufam defignat imagine tauri
Europen.

Fecit et Afterien aquila luctante teneri :
Fecit olorinis Ledan recubare fub alis:
Addidit, ut Satyri celatus imagine pulchram
Jupiter implerit gemino Nycteïda fætu:
Amphitryon fuerit, cum te, Tyrinthia, cepit:
Aureus ut Danaën, Afopida luferit igneus;
Mnemofynen paftor: varius Deoïda ferpens.

I don't remember to have read that Jupiter turned himself into a ram for Helle's fake. She whom Spenfer calls the Thracian maid, is called by Ovid Deoïs, and fuppofed to be Proferpina. As Spenfer fays, to beat the buxom air, So Milton: Winnows the buxom air.

STANZ. XXXVI.

1

And thou, fair Phoebus, in thy colours bright,
Waft there enwoven, and the fad diftrefs
In which that Boy thee plunged, for despite
That thou bewrayd'st his Mother's wantonnefs.-
For-thy he thrill'd thee with a leaden dart,
To love fair Daphne, which thee loved less.

It

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It is a downright blunder to say that Cupid shot Apollo with a leaden dart, when he made him love Daphne. Hear Ovid, Met. I. 468.

Eque fagittifera promfit duo tela pharetra

Diverforum operum. Fugat hoc, facit illud amorem.
Quod facit, auratum eft, et cufpide fulget acuta:
Quod fugat, obtufum eft, et habet fub arundine plumbum
Hoc Deus in nympha Peneide fixit; at illo

Lafit Apollineas trajecta per offa medullas.

Spenfer fays that Phoebus was thus punished for having discovered the affair of Mars and Venus; but Venus took her revenge of him, by making him fall in love with Leucothee. At leaft Ovid fays fo, Met. IV. 190.

STAN Z. XXXVII.

He fays that Coronis, the miftrefs of Apollo, was turned into a fweet-briar: a metamorphofis, of which Ovid fays nothing in the ftory of Coronis.

STANZ. XXXIX.

Speaking of Phobus:

He loved Iffe for his deareft dame,
And for her fake her cattle fed awhile,
And for her fake a cowherd vile became
The fervant of Admetus, cowherd vile,

Whiles that from heaven he fuffered exile.
Long were to tell each other lovely fit,
Now like a lion, hunting after fpoil,
Now like a bag, now like a falcon flit.

Here is a fault, either of the poet's, or elfe occafioned by a wrong punctuation: for, as the text stands, the sense is, that Apollo, for the fake of Iffe, and that he might feed her cattle, became the cowherd of Admetus. They are two diftinct Fables; and they might be separated by a full stop, or a colon, thus:

And for her fake a cowherd vile became :
The fervant of Admetus, cowherd vile,
Whiles that from heaven he suffered exile.

That is: he also became the fervant of Admetus, a cowherd vile, &c. This is pretty much in Spenfer's elliptical manner, fo that poffibly he might intend it fo.

In Hughes' Edit. it is:

The fervant of Admetus' cowherd vile.

That is, the fervant of the cowherd of Admetus; which is ftill worse.

He follows Ovid, Met. VI. 122.

Eft illic agreftis imagine Phabus:

Utque modò accipitris pennas, modò terga leonis
Gefferit; ut paftor Macareïda luferit Iffen.

The words in Ovid, agreftis imagine Phabus, which

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are not explained by the Commentators that I have seen, relate probably to his ferving Admetus. Inftead of bag, I read

Now like a ftag, now like a falcon flit.

Natalis Comes, IV. 10. fays of Apollo: Fertur bic deus in varias formas ob amores fuiffe mutatus in leonem, in CERVUM, in accipitrem.

STANZ. XL.

That his fwift chariot might have paffage wide, Which four great Hippodames did draw in teamwife ty❜d.

Hippopotamoi, Sea-horses.

STANZ. XLI, XLII.

For, privy love his breast empeirced had;
Ne ought, but dear Bifaltis, ay could make him glad.
He loved eke Iphimedia dear;

And Æolus' fair daughter, Arne hight,
For whom he turn'd himself into a steer,
And fed on fodder, to beguile her fight.
Alfo to win Deucalion's daughter bright,
He turn'd himself into a dolphin fair;
And like a winged horfe he took his flight,
To fnaky-lockt Medusa to repair,

On whom he got fair Pegafus, that flitteth in the air.

He

He speaks of Neptune. From Ovid, Met. VI. 115.
Te quoque mutatum torvo, Neptune, juvenco
Virgine in Eolia pofuit. Tu vifus Enipeus
Gignis Aloïdas; aries Bifaltida fallis.
Et te, flava comas, frugum mitiffima mater,
Senfit equum; te fenfit avem crinita colubris
Mater equi volucris: fenfit delphina Melantho.
See the Commentators. See alfo Hefiod, Theog.
280. who fays, that when Perfeus cut off the head
of Medufa, Pegafus fprang forth.

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Next Saturn was, (but who would ever ween
That fullen Saturn ever ween'd to love?
Yet love is fullen, and Saturn-like feen,
As he did for Erigone it prove ;)

That to a Centaur did himself tranfmove.
So prov'd it eke that gracious God of wine,
When for to compass Phillira's hard love,
He turn'd himself into a fruitful vine,

And into her fair bofom made his grapes decline.

How many mistakes are here! Saturn, fays he, lov'd Erigone, and Bacchus Phillira. On the contrary, Bacchus loved Erigone, and Saturn Philyra, for that is her name. Nor did Saturn turn himfelf into a Centaur, but into a horse.

Ovid. Met. VI. 125.

Liber ut Erigonen falfâ deceperit uvâ:
Ut Saturnus equo geminum Chirona crearit.
N 2

Virgil,

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