But unto hell did thrust him down alive,
With flashing thunderbold ywounded fore:
Where long remaining, he did always ftrive
Himfelf with falves to health for to restore,
And flake the heavenly fire, that raged evermore.

From Virgil, Æn. VII. 765.

Namq; ferunt fama Hippolytum, poftquam arte noverca Occiderit, patriafque explerit fanguine pænas,

Turbatis diftratus equis, ad fidera rurfus

Etherea et fuperas cæli veniffe fub auras,
Pæoniis revocatum herbis, et amore Diana.
Tum pater omnipotens, aliquem indignatus ab umbris
Mortalem infernis ad lumina furgere vitæ,
Ipfe repertorem medicina talis et artis

Fulmine Phabigenam Stygias detrufit ad undas.

What Spenfer says of Æfculapius endeavouring to heal his wounds, is his own, I believe, and is finely imagined. He fays Phædra killed herself with wretched knife. In Seneca's Hippolytus, Phædra ftabs herself with a fword. The more common opinion is that she hanged herself. Obferve this expreffion,

began to rend

His hair, and hafty tongue.

Did he rend his tongue? No; but the paffage must be fupplied thus, or in fome fuch manner-began to rend his hair, and (to blame, to curfe) his tongue, &c.

If

If any one cenfure this expreffion of Spenfer's, he must condemn all the ancients, in whofe writings this fort of ellipfis is frequent. See Davies on Cicero De Nat. Deor. I. 17. on the Epitome of Lactantius, p. 199. and the Commentators on St. Paul to Timothy, I. iv. 3.

STANZ. XLVII.

There was that great proud king of Babylon, &c. See Daniel iii.

IBID.

And proud Antiochus, the which advaunc'd
His curfed hand 'gainst God, and on his altars daunc'd.

From Maccabees i. I.

STANZ.

XLVIII.

And them long time before great Nimrod was,
Who firft the world with fword and fire warraid;
And after him, old Ninus far did pass
In princely pomp, of all the world obey'd.
There also was that mighty Monarch laid
Low under all,

We are to understand by this, that Nimrod and
Ninus were there, as well as Crofus, Antiochus, &c.
But it is carelessly exprefs'd.

STANZ.

STANZ. XLVI. TO STANZ. LII.

"In the dungeon, among the captives of Pride, "the Poet has reprefented Nebuchadnezzar, "Cræfus, Antiochus, Alexander, and feveral "other eminent perfons, in circumstances of the " utmost ignominy. The moral is truly noble." Mr, HUGHES, in his Remarks. I agree with this Gentleman; but I think Spenfer was very injudicious in placing Scipio amongst them, Stanz. 49. which ever of the Scipios he meant. I take it for granted that he meant Scipio Africanus.

STANZ, L.

Fair Sthenoboea, that her felf did choke
With wilful cord.

Quære. Whether any ancient writer says that Sthenoboa hanged herself. Hyginus fays fhe killed her felf, without mentioning how. We learn from Ariftophanes that the poisoned herself, Ran. 1082.

Ὅτι γενναίας καὶ γενναίων ἀνδρῶν ἀλόχες ανέπεισας

Κώνεια πιεῖν

fays Æfchylus there to Euripides, reproaching him for introducing Sthenoboa upon the stage. Scholiaft. μὴ φέρεσα τήν Αἰσχύνην ἡ Σθενέβοια, κωνείῳ ἐχρήσατο,

dispatch'd

dispatch'd herself with hemlock. It is hardly worth obferving, that Ariftophanes and the Scholiaft call her Σθενέβοια.

CANTо VI. I.

As when a fhip, that flies fair under fail,
A hidden rock escaped hath unwares,
That lay in wait her wrack for to bewail;
The mariner yet half amazed ftares
At peril past, and yet in doubt ne dares
To joy at his fool-hardy overfight.

So Fol. Edit. 1679. Either Spenfer by and yet in doubt, means and yet is in doubt, and according to his custom drops the verb; or he is to be thus understood, The mariner yet half amazed, and yet in doubt, flares, &c. Take it as you will, there should be a Comma or Semicolon after doubt. To bewail her wrack seems unintelligible.

STAN Z. X.

As when a greedy wolf through hunger fell A filly lamb far from the flock does take, Of whom he means his bloody feast to make, A lion spies fast running towards him, The innocent prey in hafte he does forfake, Which quit from death, yet quakes in every lim With change of fear, to fee the lion look fo grim,

Here

Here again is a faulty expreffion: As when a wolf-takes a lamb-fpies a lion-be does forfake his prey. But the fimile is pretty, and partly taken from Homer, Il. A. 479.

Ωμοφάγοι μιν [ἔλαβον] θῶες ἐν ἔρεσι δαρδάπλεσιν,
Ἐν νέμει σκιερῷ· "επί τε λῖν ἤγαγε δαίμων
Σίνην θῶες μὲν τε διέτρεσαν, αυτάρ ὁ δαπλει

Cruda-vorantes eum [cervum] thoës in montibus dilaniando vorant,

In nemore umbrofo: leonem autem adducit fortuna Exitialem: tum thoës quidem diffugiunt, fed ille vefcitur.

STANZ. XIV.

So towards old Silvanus they her bring:
Who with the noise awaked cometh out,
To weet the cause, his weak steps governing
And aged limbs on cyprefs ftadle stout.-
By view of her he 'ginneth to revive
His ancient love, and deareft Cypariffe,-
And how he flew with glancing dart amifs
A gentle hind, the which the lovely boy
Did love as life, above all worldly blifs;
For grief whereof the lad n'ould after joy,
But pin'd away in anguish and self-will'd annoy.

Ovid. Met. X. 130.

Tunc [cervum] puer imprudens jaculo Cypariffus acuto Fixit: et ut favo morientem vulnere vidit,