Which foone as th' royall virgin he did spy. But Spenfer omits relatives, and pronouns, and particles. So B. iv. C. 2. St. 2. Such mufick is wife words-fuch as Menenius well invented; What time his people into parts did rive, Them reconcild again and to their homes did drive. i. e. who reconcild them, &c. or, He reconciled them, &c. III. i. e. and he could menage, &c. or, and who could menage, &c. Other inftances will be mentioned in their proper places. The Latin writers omit in the fame manner and with the fame conftruction: Ille or Qui. and with the fame construction: Ille or Qui. Jam dederat Saliis (à faltu nomina ducunt.) Ov. Faft. iii. 387. i. e. Qui Salii ducunt, see Heinfius' note. Ita rectè omnium veterrimus Mediceus. Vulgò illis Vulgati codices, raptos qui, &c. Æn. i. Let me vindicate the fame conftruction, in the fame manner, of Æn. x. 705. Et face praegnans. Ciffeis regina Parim creat: urbe paterna Occubat. &c. i. e. Qui quidem Paris, &c. vel, Ille Paris Occubat, i. e. Qui quidem paftus, &c. vel, Ille aper paftus-Subftitit. VI. O bow can beautie maifter the most firang] O how: beautie knowes, is able, to mafter the most strong! Anglo-S. cunnan fcire, cann noui, Chaucer fo ufes it in the Wife of Bath's Prologue, 231. A wife Wife shall, if that she can her gode, Berin them in bond that the cow is wode. i. e. if the knoweth or understandeth her interest. VII. As the God of my life?] Pf. xlii. 10. I made my prayer unto the God of my life. xliii. 4. The God of my joy and gladness. But applied as Cicer. Orat. ii. poft Reditum. Sect. iv. Princeps P. Lentulus, parens ac deus noftrae vitae, fortunae, B. i. C. 7. St. 37. memoriae, nominis, hoc fpecimen virtutis, &c. A goodly perfon, and could menage faire His ftubborne fteed with curbed canon bitt. IX. IX. The lyon would not leave her defolate.] Our chriftian knight is led aftray by the scarlet whore: Meantime Una is attended and guarded by a lion. This defender of the Faith and of Una, fuggefts England, or the English king: for kingdoms are imaged by their arms or enfigns: or what if the allegory points more minutely to K. Henry VIII. to whom this title was firft given, and who opened a way for a thorough reformation of the church? fee this allufion further applied, below St. 18. and 43. Now when Aldeboran was mounted hie, Above the finie Caffiopeias chaire.] Rather Aldebaran; fo the Arabian aftronomers called the ftar in the eye of the bull, which the Greeks ftar in the eye of the bull, which the Greeks named auradas. I have not altered Spenfer's fpelling, for I know what liberty he, as well as Chaucer, took in fuch kind of words. Our old bard thus writes it, in the Squire's Tale, v. 285. And yet afcending was the befte royall The fame obfervation may be made with re Abeffa, daughter of Corceca flow.] Forfaken Truth takes up her lodging with blind Devotion: whom our poet calls Corceca, i. e. Cui caecum eft cor: in allufion to what the apostle writes, Rom. 18. Whofe understanding is darkned, being alienated i. 21. Whofe foolish heart was darkned. Ephef. iv. because of THE BLINDNESS OF HER HEART. As from the life of God, through ignorance that is in her, 'twas owing to blind devotion that Abbies, monkeries, &c. were built and endowed, hence Abella is the daughter of Corceca: which daughter was enriched with the spoil of the laborious and fimple. The poet adds, Wont to robbe churches, meaning that the church itself was robbed of its tythes to enrich thefe fuperftitious houfes. This Kirkrapine or church-robber, was deftroyed by the lyon, Una's defender, that is by our English king, THE DEFENDER of the FAITH. See below St. 43. Vivant en pure deïté. Spenfer omits often pronouns and particles, and But pray take notice of his most elegant mix- See more inftances below, on the following He hath his field redeem'd, and forth his fword he draws. XX. His bleeding hart is in the vengers hand.] i. e. His bleeding heart is in the pawes of the lion, which revenged her caufe. In Spanish the forefeet of beafts are called, Manos. And Cicero speaking of the proboscis of the Elephant fays, MANUS etiam data elephantis, &c. Nat. Deor. ii. 47. But what is nearer to our purpofe Lucian [in Philofepud. pag. 331.] calls the forefoot of the lion, i xilendiğiά. I might mention too Dante, Inferno C. vi. in his defcription of Cerberus, E'l ventre largo, e unghiate le mani. Le Roman de la rose, 5248. The verfes commonly called the golden verses Moreover let us add, Cicero de Orat. L. i. 44. XXII. -And her daughter deare.] i. e. her own daugh- Whom overtaking, they gan loudly bray, Dan. vi. 27. Who hath delivered Daniel from the With hollow bouling and lamenting cry, power of the lions. Heb. hand. Shamfully at her rayling all the way.] I would ra- B. vi. C. I. St. 9. With which he bayd, and loudly barkt at mee. XXIV. With paines far palling that long wandring Greeke, That for his love refufed deitye.] That long-wandring Greeke, Ulyffes, Ὃς μάλα πολλὰ Πλάγχθη, qui valde multum Erravit. Hom. Odyff. á 1. #ohÚTλαYNTOS, multum-errans, Od. That for his love [Pene--in mighty arms emboft.] i. e. of imbossed work. lope] refufed deitie, [the Goddess Calypfo, Odyff. perfecta atque afpera fignis.-Clypeus caelatus á 56.] or deitie, may be interpreted, immortality and this latter interpretation, I think the true one for fo Chaucer ufes the word, and Chaucer's authority is very great in interpreting Spenfer. XXVII. Or ought have done that ye difpleafen might: That fhould as death unto my deare heart light.] Or to have done ought that might difplease you.Spenfer often keeps the true rule of ufing ye in the nominative, and you in oblique cafes. Observe this ancient termination displeafen, which Chaucer uses and our old English writers from the Anglo-S. Obferve likewife fhould ufed here for would, that should as death, &c. i. e. The Rom. of the R. 5656. which would have been death to me. Pythagoras himself reherfes- And purely live in diete. Unto my my deare heart, i. e. unto my own heart: 'tis Homer's expreffion, Pixo xng. Ibid. My chearefull day is turnd to chearelee night, And eke my night of death the shadow is. My day, i. e. my joy, is turned to night, i. e. Sorrow. dies and tenebrae, are so used in Horace, L. iv. Od. 4. -Et pulcher fugatis Ille dies Latio tenebris. And indeed as the metaphor is eafy, fo is the expreffion common, not only to the poets, but to the facred writers. Pfal. xviii. 28. The Lord my God fhall make my darkness to be light. Hence we may fee with what elegant propriety, literally or metaphorically confidered, he fays, the chearful face of Phoebus, B. i. C. 5. St. 23. heavens chearful face, B. i. C. 8. St. 38. joyous day-chearful fun-chearless night, &c. These epithets pleafed Milton fo much, that he uses them in like manner, as in B. ii. 490. Heavens chearful face. iii. 545. Chearful dawn. XXVIII. Ibid. He thereto meeting faid-] Talibus occurrit dictis. Terra prius falfo partu deludet arantes, Where Archimago faid-] See above, B. i. C. 1. St. 31. prefently after there is a confufion of diction, but the verses I think are thus to be pointed and conftrued, Good caufe of mine excufe that mote ye please I hope that ye might please well to accept this fufficient caufe of my excufe. That is Optatively used.-Archimago was a lyar from the beginning. XXXI. And Nereus crownes with cups.] The expreffion is fomewhat hard: perhaps he means, And does honour to Nereus by pouring out libations to him. He feems to have had that paffage of Virgil in view, where Anchifes, upon feeing Italy, takes a bowl, and crowning it with flourets, fills it with wine and makes his libation by pouring it into the sea. If this expreffion is hard, And Nereus crownes with cups-what shall we fay of that just above where he calls the feas the teares of Tethys.-The misfortune is that Teare jingles and hitches in rhyme. Wicked rhymes to miflead fo excellent a poet! Tis true that the Pythagoreans, to express the impurity of the Sea, called it the tears of Saturn (as Plutarch informs us in Ifis and Ófiris) expreffion, nor can mythology or allegory be but this by no means will vindicate our poet's tortured to vindicate it: nothing can be its plea but jingling rhyme. By the fcorching flames of Orions bound, he means the dog-ftar. Canis aeftifer, Virg. G. ii. 353. Ków Selavos, Orion's hound, Hom. Il. x. 26. He hath his field redeem'd; and forth his fword he draws.] I muft detain the reader a moment to confider a beauty which might otherwife In mind to reave his life.] See the gloffary in efcape him, and that is the mixture of tenfes reave, and bereave, i. e. to take away. Ibid. That flew Sansfoy with bloody knife: Henceforth his ghoft freed from repining ftrife, In peace-] With bloody knife, this word would not now find a place in poetry; tho' our old poets used it in the fame fenfe as tipos, from which original 'tis plainly derived. What he derived.-What fays presently after, that Sansfoy may now pafs in peace over Lethe, as this victim is paid to his manes, is from ancient fuperftition. Hence Aeneas killed Turnus, tho' he begged his life; and still more cruel, that the ghost of Pallas might be freed from repining ftrife, takes feveral prifoners alive, to purge with the life of enemies the mourning altars of his friend: Aen. x. 519. Inferias quos immolet umbris. And thus Achilles acted in Homer. Such cruelties has false religion given her fanction to. XXXVII. Therewith in hafte his helmet gan unlace.] 'Tis frequently mentioned in romance writers that when the conquered falls, the conqueror unlaces, the helmet of his adversary and then cuts his throat.-See B. ii. C. 8. St. 17. B. ii. C. 8. St. 52. Ferraù l'elmo tofto gli dislaccia which Spenfer often introduces to give variety, and to paint more circumftantially. This I call the Virgilian mixture of tenfes, of the prefent with the prefent-perfect, as Dr. Clarke calls it, in his notes on Homer, Il. á. v. 37. not but that other poets use it likewife. Terra TREMIT; fugere ferae, et mortalia corda Per gentes humilis ftravit pavor- Virg. G. i. 330. Incubuere mari, totúmque à fedibus imis Unà Eurúfque Notufque ruunt- Aen. i. 84. Intonuere poli, et crebris micat ignibus aether. Tis endless to add inftances: Let me however give fome few from Spenfer, The fame fo fore annoyed has the knightHis forces faile-B. i. C. 1. St. 22. He no where doth appeare But vanifht is. Dead was it fure, as fure as death indeed, Thy darts in none do triumph more, ne braver proofe of thy power fhewdft thou then in this royall Berni Orl. Innam. L. i. C. 3. St. 72. maide. B. iii. C. 3. St. 3. Rinaldo fmonta fubito, e gli afferra Forth fhe beats the dusty path; L'elmo pria, che fi levi, e gli lo flaccia. Arioft. Orl. Fur. v. 89. Love and defpight at once her corage kindled hath. B. iii. C. 4. St. 12. There |