XXXVI. In which feven bead-men,-] 'Tis no fmall elegance in our poet thus mafterly to contraft and oppofe his images. The knight was carried by Ducffa to the house of Pride, where he faw and luckily avoided the feven deadly Sins: he is now brought by Una to Dame Caelia, where he is difciplined in facred lore, and brought to a holy hofpital to be inured to Charity, which is reduced by the fchoolmen to feven heads: viz. I. To entertain those in diftrefs. II. To feed the hungry, and to give drink to the thirsty. III. To cloath the naked. IV. To relieve prifoners and redeem captives. V. To comfort the fick. VI. To bury the dead. VII. To provide for the widow and orphan. XL. And though they faulty were, yet well he wayd, That God to us forgiveth every howre Much more then that, why they in bands were layd; And he that harrowd hell with heavie flowre, The faulty foules from thence brought to his heavenly bowre.] i. e. And though perhaps thofe prifoners and captives might have been guilty of faults, and deferving their captivity, yet he well confidered, that God forgiveth us daily much more than that, which occafioned their captivity. And he that harrowed Hell-this is Chaucer's expreffion, Now helpe, Thomas, for him that harrowed hell. Our poet ufes it again, in Sonnet lxviii. This contemplative ftate is the most perfect and godlike; and for which man is as much conftituted by nature, as he is for the discharge of the relative duties of life. Man is born for action and contemplation, fays Zeno in Diogenes, Laert. vii. 130. And according to Zeno and the whole Stoical fyftem, the active state of life, with the difcharge of all relative duties, was the proper preparation for the contemplative ftate. ftate. Action and theory were by them never separated: And 'tis far from being true, as Epictetus and M. Antoninus both testify, what a modern poet lays to the charge of the Stoics, In this great fcene of life man is both an actor and a contemplator. See Arrian. p. 35. p. 246, and the notes. So Longinus, C. xxxv. and Cicero, de Natur. Deor. ii. 14. Ipfe autem homo ortus eft ad mindum contemplendum, & imitandum. Hence too Milton, iv. 288. Two of far nobler shape, ere and tall, For contemplation he, [wgòs Sawglar] & valor [mgòs çáž] form'd. When Philosophy appears to Boetius her garment is marked below with П, and above with ☺. in as much as to fay, by practic philofophy you must ascend to theoretic: and this ftate is (as I faid above) the highest of all and moft difficult, and fuppofed hence to dwell on a hill both fleepe and by: which feems imaged from Cebes: Anim Iláda dwells on a fteepie rock, where two fair fifters Forbearance and Indurance ftand ready, with the fame office aligned them, that Mercy has here, affifting and encouraging thofe that mount the hill. body, and bring it into fubjection: [vπwál, verbum athleticum.] Corinth. ix. 27. L. Whereof the keies are to thy hand behight] Faith gives to Contemplation the keys [the fymbol of power] which open the gates of heaven. There is an allufion, not unlike, in Æfchylus Eumen. ver. 830. Καὶ κλῆδας οιδα δωμάτων μόνη 9. Minerva having the keys of heaven, the alone, [viz. Wifdom] can give you entrance thither. LI. Whofe ftaggering steps thy steady hand doth lead, And thewes the way his funfull foule to fave.] i. e. and to whom thy fteady hand points out the way of falvation. Prefently after, Thou doeft the praiers of the righteous fead Prefent before the maieftie divine,-Meaning thro' mercy our prayers are acceptable. She, like the angel in the Revelation, offers incenfe with the prayers of the faints upon the golden altar: and the smoke of the incenfe [offered by her] afThe mercycended up before God. Revel. viii. 4. feat or propitiatory, in the old law, is fuppofed to be a type of Chrift, the merciful, and the propitiation in the new law. Hence Milton, Till from her bands the fpright affoiled is,] Before the man can be renewed, and his mind truly fpiritualized, he muft get rid of all his carnal encumbrances; that pure, and unmixed with the groffer elements, he may contemplate Being, Truth, Beauty, Mind. The philofophical Homer with the covert veil of poetry, makes Wifdom to remove the films from off the carnal eye before it fees God. So Virgil, Taffo, and Milton, all following their great mafter.-Juft above instead of Bring them to joyous reft-I have printed it Brings, &c. from the folio of 1609. Ibid. Thou man of earth,] The reader will not fee the propriety of this addrefs, till he reads, St. lxv, Ixvi. for it does not fignify an earthly-minded man, in the fenfe of Pfal. x. 18. To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppreffe. But in the fenfe of Gen. ix. 20. And Noah began to be an husbandman. Heb. A man of the earth. 1xx. Kai αto Nwe avSewnos yewprès jus. Where yewgyos feems to be a glofs or interpretation, Hence the knight's name, Tewpyos, George. The very fame address and allufion you have in Milton, for Adam fignifying a man of earth, hence very properly Eve speaking to him says, Adam, earths hallowd mould. v. 321. See what we have observed below in a note on That blood-red billowes like a walled front-] Such a one as Mofes dwelt forty days upon, who with his wand difparted the red-fea. Cowley in his ode on the plagues of Aegypt, St. 17. fays, Which fhall with crimson gore New paint the waters name, and double dye the shore Upon which paffage he has the following note, i.e i. e. give a new occafion for it to be called the Red-fea. Concerning the name of which, the opinions are very different; that which 'feems to me moft probable, is, that it is denominated from Idumaea; and that from E'dom, or Efau, that fignifies red; and the kind Erithra, or Erythrus, from whence the Grae'cians derive it, was Efau, and Erythraea his country, Idumaea, both fignifying the fame thing in Hebrew and in Greek; but because that opinion of the redness of the fhore in 'fome places, has been most received, and is 'confirmed even to this day by fome travellers, and founds most poetically, I allude to it here, whether it be true or not.' See Pompon. Mela, L. iii. C. 8. and Plin. L. vi. C. 24. and Rawleigh's hiftory of the World. p. 219. What he adds, like a walled front, is from Exod. xiv. 22. The waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. But them lets pafs, Ibid. Milt. xii. 197 Where writt in ftone With bloody letters by the hand of God, The bitter doome of death and balefull mone He did receive, whiles flashing fire about him fhone.] Mofes had the law delivered to him in thunderings, in lightnings and tempeft; and with all the circumftances of fear: his laws were armed with curfes, and maledictions, and written in blood: neither the firft teftament was dedicated without blood. Heb. ix. 18. And without fbedding of blood is no remiffion. ver. 22. This law written with bloody letters, this hand-writing of ordinances, Christ has blotted out who came with bleffings and in love. St. Paul calls the law, rò xa'r Xespóreaper. Coloff. ii. 14. Chirographum non eft, nifi quod ab ipfo debitore fcriptum eft, et eft adverfus fcribentem, qui debitum fuum eo pacto profitetur. confiftebat illud chirographum in ritibus, adeoque folrum Ifraëlitarum fuit, quibus ifti ritus proprii fuerunt, ex voluntate Dei inftituti. etenim quoties Ifraelitae pro peccato vel reatu adduxerant viɛlimam, confitebantur debitum fuum, atque illud quafi SANGUINE SCRIBEBANT. Altingius Tom. v. Operum in Heptade Differtat. pag. 24. LV. Or like that facred hill,-] The mount of Olives stands eastward of Jerufalem; from hence Jefus afcended into heaven. Olivet (fays Sandys in his travels, p. 104.) overtoppeth the neighbouring mountains, whofe weft fide doth give you a full furvey of each particular part of the city; bedect with Olives, almonds, &c. See likewife Maundrel's Travels, p. 104. LV. The city of the greate king hight it well,] i. e. 'Tis well and properly named the city of the great king. Revel. xxi. 10. And he carried me away in the fpirit to a great and high mountain, and fhewed me that great city the holy Jerufalem, defcending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and her light was like unto a flone most precious. Whofe wals and towres were builded high and frong Of pearle and precious stone This is the Jerufalem which is above, alluded to in Gal. iv. 26. The ftate and happinefs of heaven, The new Hierufalem, that God has built, Saint George of mery England, THE SIGNE of victoree.] Teffera, ordna, the word, SIGNUM, the figne: See Lipf. on Tacit. Annal: L. 13. SIGNUM more militiae petenti tribuno dedit. Shakesp. in Ant. and Cleop. calls it, the magical word of war. St. George is the word which Englishmen give in their battles; he is the tutelar faint and patron of England: K. Edward III. dedicated to him the order of the garter. He is a canonized faint, and his festival is kept, April xxiii. Ut Martem Latii, fic nos te, dive Georgi, Nunc colimus. Inclyte bellorum rector, quem noftra juventus Pro Mavorte colit. Mantuan. LXII. What need of armes, where peace doth ay remaine, (Said he) and bitter battailes all are fought? As for loofe loves they' are vaine, and vanish into nought.] Thefe verfes are thus printed in the corrected in the 2d quarto,-and [where] batoldeft quarto Edit. The fecond verfe Spenfer for lofe loves they are vaine,-seems corrupted by tailes none are to be fought? The third verfe, As the Editors in the 2d quarto and Folios, As for loofe loves are vaine and vanish into nought. Though I must own Spenfer frequently omits they, He, &c. and often by fuch omiffions makes his conftruction difficult. bringers up. The latin poets ufe incunabula, the cradle, for the place where one was born, or bred. -Jovis incunabula Creten. Ov. M. viii. 99. -Gentis cunabula noftrae. Virg. iii. 105. Expreffions of this kind are frequent: fo Nidus fignifies not only a neft, but the young in the neft: nidis inmitibus efcam, Virg. G. iv. 17. LXV. For well I wote thou fpringft from ancient race Of Saxon kinges,-] St. George, by the generality of writers, is fuppofed to be a Cappadocian, by fome, a Cilician: the old Legend concerning this canonized Saint of Rome, was written (tis faid) by Jacobus de Voragine. The romance writer of the feven Champions of Chriftendom makes him to be born of English parentage, and of the royal blood; his mother was a king's daughter, and his birth-place Coventry but as foon as born, he was miraculoufly conveyed away by an enchantrefs, called Caleb to which ftory Spenfer alludes, From thence [viz. Britain] a faery thee unweeting reft, And her bafe elfin brood there for thee left: Such men do chaungelings call, fo chaung'd by fairies theft. This fame ftory of changlings, he has likewise in B. iii. C. 3. St. 26. fpeaking of Arthegal, Yet is no fary borne, but fprong of feed terrestriall, And whylome by false faries ftolne away, Shakespeare likewise gives his poetical testimony to these vulgar tales. For Oberon [King of the Fairies: See Spenf. B. ii. C. 10. St. 75.] is paffing fell and wrath, Because that he, [viz. the Fairy Queen] as her attendant, hath A lovely boy, foln from an Indian king. Midf. Nights Dream, Act. II -O could it be prov'd, That fome night-tripping Fairy had exchang'd First P. of K. Hen. IV. A&. I. Ibid. And many bloody battailes fought in face,] So the ift quarto: but from the other Editions I have corrected it in place, which our poet often ufes more for rhime than reafon, All were fhe daily with himfelfe in place. B. i. C. 12. St. 23. Suffife that I have done my dew in place. B. iii. C. 8. St. 56. Soone as that virgin knight he saw in place. Thence she thee brought into this faery lond, And in an heaped furrow did thee kyde, Where thee a ploughman all unweeting fond, As he his toylefome teme that way did guyde, And brought thee up in ploughmans ftate to byde, Whereof Georgos he thee gave to name;] This paffage I formerly explained.-Georgos in the Greek language fignifying a husbandman, our poet hence takes occafion (according to his ufual method) of introducing the marvellous tale told of Tages, and applying it to his hero: Tages was the fon of the earth: a ploughman him under the furrough, which the coulter-iron (as he his toilfome teme that way did guide) found had turned up. This wonderful tale the reader may fee in Cicer. de Divin. ii. 23. Ovid. Met. xv. 553. and in other writers. Hence in allufion to his name Georgos, Spenfer in his letter to Sir W. R. calls him 6 a clounifh young man; who having defired a boone of the queen of Faeries, refted himself on the floor, unfit through his ruflicitie for a better place.' 'Tis worth while to fee with what great art our poet by degrees unravels his ftory: the poem opens with the Chriftian knight; you fee his character, yet know not his name or lineage; fome few hints are afterwards flung out; but in this Canto you are fully fatisfied. Spenfer is very fond of this kind of fufpence. word in his tranflation of Homer Il. xxiii. 641. Whofe glittering margins rais'd with filver fhine. (No vulgar gift) Eumelus fhall be thine. i. e. With filver brightness, with the fplendor of filver: filver is ufed adjectively.-I fuppofe he did not use shine for fheen. Pfalm xlvii. 4. His lightenings gave fhine unto the world. This faid, he vanifhd from his fleeping friend, To Una back he caft him to retyre.] i. e. He caft CA A III. N TO XI. and the delay and expectation is kept up for above twenty verses. Mean while the poet to awaken the attention of the reader to fome great argument and new matter calls upon the facred Mufe, after the manner of his mafters Homer and Virgil, Εσπετε νῦν μοι Μᾶσαι. Nunc age qui reges, Erato. Vos O Calliope.-So again B. iii. C. 3. St. 4. Begin then, o my dearest facred dame, In both these paffages the Mufe is called the daughter of Phoebus and Mnemofyne [i. e. memory] But Homer and Hefiod make the Mufes to be daughters of Jupiter. The poets are not however altogether agreed as to their genealogy. Ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἐς Μεσᾶιον ἀναφε ρομένοις δύο ισορῶνται γενέσεις Μεσῶν. πρεσβυτέρων μὲν, μετὰ τὸ Κρόνω γενομένων νεωτέρων δὲ, τῶν ἐκ Διός και Μνημοσύνης. Schol. Apollonii, iii. 1. Μίμνερμος δὲ φησὶν θυγατέρας Ουρανε τὰς ἀρχαιοτέρας Μέσας, τέτων δὲ ἄλλας νεωτέρας εἶναι Διος παῖδας. Paufanias Boeot. C. xxix. Ολίγοι δὲ τῶν ποιητῶν (ἐν οἷς ἐςὶ καὶ Αλκμάν) θυγατέρας ἀποφαίνονται Ουρανό και Γης. Diodorus Siculus, Lib. iv. p. 215. See likewife the Schol. on Pindar, Nea . ver. 16. But as Apollo is the god and father of poetry and mufic, what fhould hinder him from being reputed too the father of the Muses? Εκ γὰρ Μεσάων καὶ ἑκηβόλο Απόλλωνος "Ardpas dodol aor. Hef. Ooy. 94. The moft learned fcholiafts on Apollonius obferve, that the poet, in his opening of the fubject, invocates Apollo as having under his pro 4 tection |