ST A NZ. XX.

Therewith the spew'd out of her filthy maw
A flood of poison horrible and black,
Full of great lumps of flesh and gobbets raw,
Which ítunk so vildly-

Our poet paints very strong here, as he does also in this book, Canto VIII. 4748. where he defcribes Duessa. Longinus would have blain'd him for it, who thus censures the author of the Aspis : "Ω ανόμοιέν γε το Ησιόθειον επι της ΑχλύG, έιγε Ησιόδο και τ' 'Ασπίδα θέλέον, Της έκ μεν ρινών μύξαι ρέον. . Ου γαρ δεινόν επόγησε το ειδωλον, αλλά μισήλόν. şi 9.

Cui disimile eft illud Hefiodi de Tristitia, fi quidem ftatu-
endum fit etiam poema illud dictum Scutum elle Hefiodi,
Ejus ex naribus humores fluebant.
Neque enim fecit imaginem terribilem, sed odiofam,

S T A N 2. - XXI,

As when old father Nilus ’gins to swell
With timely pride above th’ Ægyptian vale,
His fatty waves do fertile slime outwell,
And overflow each plain and lowly dale';

But

:

But when his latter ebb ʼgins to avail,
Huge heaps of mud he leaves, wherein there breed
Ten thousand kinds of creatures, partly male
And partly female of his fruitful seed.

Again, B. III. Canto VI. 8.
So after Nilus' inundation
Infinite shapes of creatures men do find,
Informed in the mud, on which the sun hath shin'd.

Ovid. Met. I. 422.
Sic ubi deferuit madidos feptemfluus agros
Nilus, et antiquo fua flumina reddidit alveo;
Ætherioque recens exarfit fidere limus ;
Plurima cultores verfis animalia glebis
Inveniunt, et in his quædam modo cæpta sub ipfinë
Nascendi Spatium; quædam imperfecta, suisque
Trunca vident numeris: et eodem in corpore fape
Altera pars vivit; rudis eft pars altera tellus.

!

Theophrastus, p. 474. "Oru lv 'Ang úr lo detrodas Past μύας γίνεσθαι και μεγάλες, έχεσι δε έτοι και τες έμπροσθίας σοδας, αλλ' και βαδίζεσιν επ' αυτούς. χρώνται δε αυτούς, οία χερσίν. όταν δε φευγωσι, πηδώσε.

Ferunt in Ægypto magnos illos bipedes mures nafci, habere autem et anteriores pedes, fed illis non incedere : imo uti pro manibus, faltu vero fugere.

Plutarch

Plutarch. Sympos. II. p. 637. Ed. Paris. Zwa di αυτότελή και ολόκληρα μέχρι νυν αναδίδωσιν ή γή, μύς εν Αιγύπίω,

Animalia autem perfeEla et integra hodieque terra parit: mures in Ægypto, &c.

Macrobius, VII, 16. Perfecta aùteni in exordia fieri potuiffe teftintonio funt nunc quoque non pauca animantia, quæ de terra et imbre perfe&ta nafcuntur : ut in Ægypto mures, et aliis in locis rana, serpentesque, &c.

Mela, I. ģ. Nilus,adeo efficacibus aquis ad

geo. merandum, ut - glebis etiam infundat animas, ex ipfaque humo vitalia effingat, &r.

Ælian. de Animal. VI. 41:

Spenser rightly calls the Nile Father. Pater is ari appellation conmon to all rivers, but more particularly to the Nile, as Broukhusius has observed on Tibullus, I. VIII. 23. and many before hima

STANZ. XXXIV.

Thereby a crystal stream did gently play, Which from a sacred fountain welled forth alway.

So

So facri fontes frequently occur in the ancient poets. They are called divini in some inscriptions: 'Αriftophanes, Νub. 282.

Και σολαμών ζαθέων κελαδήμαία, Heads of rivers and fountains had temples and altars erected to them, and other divine honours paid to them. See Gruter's Inscript. No 94. 1072 Fabretti, p. 432. Spon. Misc. Erud. Ant. p. 31. Cicero de Nat. Deor. III. 20. and Davies there: Frontinus, de Aqued. p. 225. Tacitus, Annal. XIV. 22. and Lipfius there. Seneca, Epift. XLI. Pausanias, VΙ. 22. Scamander's Prieft, 'Αρηθήρ Σκαμάνδρε, mentioned by Homer, Il. E.77. Horace, Carm. III. ΧΙΙΙ.

Ηefiod. Εργ. 737:
Μηδέ σοι αενάων πολαμών καλλίρροον ύδωρ
Ποσσί σεράν, πρίν γ' έυξη έδων ές καλα ρέεθρα,
Χέιρας νεψαμεν σολυηράτω ύδαίι λευκώ.
Nec unquam perennium

fluviorum limpidam aquam Pedibüs tranfito, priufquarz oraveris adfpiciens pulchre

flumina, Manus lotus amạna aqua limpida:

What follows is still better, 757. Μηδέ ποέν τσροχοή σόλαμών αλαδε προρεόνων, Μηδ' επί κρηνάων ερέιν μάλα δ' έξαλέασθαι. Μηδ' εναποψύχειν.

Neque

Neque unquam in alveo fluviorum mare influentium,
Neque super fontes meito; quin valde evitato.
Neque incacato.

This was part of the religion of the Persians. Herodotus I. 138. "Es wélapór

'Ες πολαμον δε έτε ενερέτσι, έτε εμπλύεσι, και χειρας εναπονίζονlαι, έδε άλλον έδένα περιορώσι, áracà rébovlar wolqués ponosco In flumen nec immeiunt, nec infpuunt, nec manus abluunt, nec alium ista facienter negligunt, fed flumina religiofisme colunt.

Strabo. Eis yap wolapadv år' šęšti, šte viałortai Tégσαι, έδε λέονται, έδε νεκρον εκβάλλεσι, εδ' άλλα των δοteóulwv Tivao uvoaçãv. In fluvium Perfæ non immeiunt, nec lavant, nec abluuntur, nec cadaver injiciunt, nec alia qua immunda esse videantur. Vid. Herodot: Po 588. Ed. Gronov.

Then chusing out few words most horrible,
(Let none them read) thereof did verses frame;
With which, and other spells like terrible,
He bad awake black Pluto's griefly dame,

A bold bad man, that dar'd to call by name Great Gorgon, prince of darkness and dead night, At which Cocytus quakes, and Styx is put to flight:

Gorgon