What if in every other ftarre unfeene,

Of other worldes he happily fhould heare ?] Seen or unfeen has nothing to do in this place: I therefore red,

What if in every other starrie fheen

i. e. ftarry brightnefs. Sheen for shine, i. e. brightness or fplendor, is according to Spenfer's perpetual method of accommodating his fpelling to his rhymes: the fenfe is, What if in every other ftar he happily [i. e. by hap, by chance. So Milton ufes it] fhould hear of other worlds? But afterwards I confidered if by pointing only, I could find out Spenfer's reading. Take away then the comma after unfeene, and you have that confufion of words, that fynchyfis, which grammarians find in the best of authors; what if in every other ftarre he happily fhould hear of other worldes UNSEEN. So that unfeene agrees

with worldes.

What if in every other flarre, unfeene Of other worldes he happily fhould heare?

i. e. Yet he dead fhall leave with thee his image for memory of his late puiffaunce. And thofe two ladies, their two loves UNSEENE. B. iv. C. 4. St. 3.

i. e. And thofe two unfeen ladies, their two loves.-Thefe inftances may fuffise at present. IV.

Of Faery lond yet if he more inquyre, By certein fignes here fett in foundrie place, He may it fynd; ne let him then admyre, But yield his fence to bee too blunt and bace, That no'te without an bound fine footing trace.] With refpect to Fairy land, befide its moral and metaphyfical allegory, we may confider it in its hiftorical allegory: look in England; there you have the Fairy queen, and brave knights of Maydenhead. Compare B. ii. C. 10. St. 75, 76. And B. iii. C. 3. St. 4. I fhall in thefe notes attempt to take off the covert vele from thefe hidden myfteries: and try by the certain figns here fet, if I can find Fairy land; and trace this fine footing without a hound. He fays,

That note without an hound fine footing trace,

i. e. that knows not to trace the game without an hound: viz. To hunt for himself, and read

the adjective in some other passages:

Unto thofe native woods for to repaire
To fee his fyre and offspring auncient.

B. i. C. 6. St. 30 i. e. To see his ancient fyre and fyres offspring. She flying faft from heavens hated face And from the world that her difcovered wide. B. i. C. 8. St. 50. i. e. And from the wide world that discovered her.

Then made he head against his enemies,
And Ymner flew of Logris mifcreate.

B. ii. C. 10. St. 38.
i. e. And flew the mifcreate Ymner king of
Loegria.
By that fame way they knew that fquyre unknowne
Mote algates paffe.
B. iii. C. 5. St. 17.

to be taken from what Zeno tells Socrates in Plato's Parmenides, that like the Spartan hounds he could trace the game, and perfue what was told him, wong as Axial oxúdanes s kind of expreffion we have in B. i. C. I. μεταθείς τε καὶ ἰχνέυει λεχθέντα. The fame

St. 11.

Which when by tract they hunted had throughout. i. e. Which when they had thoroughly traced out. Ital. tracciare, to follow the trace or footing: traccia, a footstep, mark or track. The fame allufion is likewife in Sophocles, where Minerva tells Ulyffes, that he has feen him by mifes her favourable interpofition in this hunttrack hunting for Ájax, xuyer, and the proing, (Th on #góduos numyía) i. e. to the finding Ajax and his defigns out. Compare Lucretius, i. 403.

CANTO

Artificer of fraud.

Sworne

Unto his Faery eene backe to retourne

He will then perceive the connection of these books; and that this poem cannot have an end, until all the knights have finished all their adventures; and until all return to the court of the Fairy queen, together with prince Arthur (the Briton prince) who is properly the hero of the poem; and whofe chief adventure, viz. of his feeking and at length finding the Fairy queen, is what connects the poem, and makes it a whole. Confider likewife, the common enemy is now loofed from his bands: Archimago, the adverfary, the accufer, the deceiver, is NOW GONE OUT AGAIN TO DECEIVE. HE IS LOOSED OUT OF PRISON.-This is not faid by chance, meerly to lengthen out, or after a botching manner to tack his poem together, but it is fcriptural, and his allegory required it fo to be. And he laid hold on him [viz. on the old deceiver, the cunning architect of cancred guyle] and bound him a thousand years, and caft him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and fet a feal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years be fulfilled and after that HE MUST BE LOOSED A LITTLE SEASON, Rev. xx. 2, 3. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan [Archimago] fhall be loofed out of his prison. [Audioslas in tñs quλaxñs UT, And frees himfelf out of caytive handes, i. e. captivity, ix Ovλaxñs.] And shall go out to deceive the nations, which are in the four quarters of the earth, GoG and MAGOG, to gather them together to battle, ver. 7, 8. Gog and MAGOG, are the Sarazins, Sansfoy, Sansjoy, Sansloy, &c. who

puts in motion and energy his contrivances. Out of CAYTIVES hands-So the two old editions read but the folio's, 1609, 1611, 1617,&c. CAYTIVE hands, i. e. captivity, in Quλaxñs, as cited above; out of thofe hands which had made him a captive: See B. i. C. 12. St. 36. In the next stanza there is the fame kind of error, for the Folio 1609, reads To natives crown: and not native as the quarto's. CAYTIVE hands, I would prefer to the reading of the two old quarto editions. Let me put the reader in mind of one thing more, which is, that the red-croffe knight, is now plain St. George: and that you muit not look any longer for that high character fhadowed in him, which he bore in fome adventures: he is still a holy, godly, and a christian knight.

III.

Him therefore now the object of his spight And deadly food he makes-] Food is fo fpelt in B. i. C. 8. St. 9. for the fake of the rhime, to which all spelling, and fometimes both grammar and fenfe, fubmits: but as there is no occafion for fuch spelling here, I perfuade myself it is the printer's mistake; and from the authority of the Folio's of 1609, 1611, 1617. I have printed it feude. See the Gloffary.- Juft below, His fayre filed tongue; this I have printed için, as the grammarians call it; which fee explained, B. i. C. 1. St. 25, With respect to the verfe which closes this ftanza,

For hardly could be hurt who was already ftung. The two old quarto editions thus read, and rightly, after Spenfer's manner of expreffion,

For

tenance of Socrates, was yet STERNE, Taugndov Chénov, fo Plato expreffes it in Phaedo. Optima torvae forma bovis: Says Virgil: Georg. iii. 51. Surely the etymology is not far-fetched, if I bring fterne from Taugnd, by prefixing the hiffing letter: and furely Spenfer had most of these paffages, above mentioned, in view; if not, great wits and philofophers luckily agree, and illuftrate each other.

Ibid.

Well could be tourney and in lifts debate; And knight-hood tooke of good Sir Huon's hand, When with king Oberon he came to Faery land.] Debate, i. e. contend. See the gloffary in debate. King Oberon was king of the Fairies, and father of Tanaquil, the fairy queen. See B. ii. C. 10. St. 75, 76. Sir Huon I take to reprefent Sir Hugh de Paganis founder of the knights templars, who were inftituted to defend the chriftians, and fight against the Sarazins: they wore a red-crofs on their breaft. 'Tis Spenfer's manner to anticipate his ftories, and to give the names of perfons, whom he intends to introduce

in fome other Canto or book. This is no un

pleasant manner of firft perplexing the reader, and then refolving his doubt. But Sir Huong we hear no more of in these Cantos now remain

ing: I am perfuaded Spenfer intended not to leave us altogether in the dark concerning him, no more than concerning king Oberon, whom, he mentions hereafter.

In the Introduction to this book, St. 4. he tells us, he exhibits a mirror, which fhews plainly queen Elizabeth, in the Fairy queen, and her realms in Fairy land. If I fhould therefore over-refine in tracing out the hiftory alluded to, as well as the moral, the reader will pardon me, as I am starting the game for him to purfue.-Sir Guyon's adventure, in whom is imaged temperance, is chiefly against a false inchantrefs named Acrafia, i. e. intemperance. This wicked witch had flain the parents of young Ruddymane, the bloody-handed babe :plainly alluding, I think, to the rebellion of the Oneals, whofe badge was the bloody-hand, and who had all drank fo deep of the charm and venom of Acrafia that their blood was infected with fecret filth. B. ii. C. 2. St. 4.-This adventure then is affigned to Sir Guyon. In this mirror can we fee reprefented any particular knight? Or is it temperance only we muft look for? Temperance certainly we must chiefly look for but there may be another walk; and there are hiftorical, as well as moral allufions. Among the verfes which were fent by Spenfer to the great men (and truly great men they were) who

dwelt in land of Faery, he defires the earl of Effex not to fdeigne to let his name be writ in this poem. The Earl of Effex was bred among the Puri tans, and he himself was a Puritan; his countenance demure and temperate fo he is characterzed by Sir H. Wotton. The Earl of Effex was knight of the garter. Sir Guyon, fays of himself, C. 2. St. 42.

To her I homage and my fervice owe,

In number of the nobleft knightes on ground; 'Mongft whom on me fhe deigned to bestowe Order of Maydenhead.

The Earl of Effex was great master of the horse let us know very particularly concerning Sir to queen Elizabeth: and great care is taken to' Guyon's lofty ftede with golden fell, B. ii. C. 2. St. 11.-who is ignorant of the affection and particular kindnefs which queen Elizabeth, the Faery-queen, fhewed both to Leicester and Effex? many more circumstances might here be added, but them I fhall mention in other places : well acquainted with queen Elizabeth's reign, and perhaps from this hint given, the reader, may purfue it much farther, and without an bound the fine footing trace.

A comely palmer

VIII.

That with a Staffe his feeble steps did fire,
Leaft HIS long way his aged limbes fhould tire.] Stire,
the rhyme requires for ftir. So B. ii. C. 5.
St. 2.

When with the maistring spur he did him roughly stire.
His is thrice repeated in two verfes, one of them
perhaps may be owing to the printer.
Leaft the long way his aged limbes should tire.

This Palmer, in the allegorical and moral allufion, means prudence: in the historical (as I think) Whitgift, who was tutor to the Earl of Effex, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. See Whitgift's character in Wotton's life of the Earl of Effex.

A comely Palmer clad in black attire. And in B. ii. C. 8. St. 7. the angel calls him, reverend Sire: and bids him take care of his PUPIL. Thefe expreffions are artfully brought in by the poet, that those who look deeper than the dead letter, may not be mifled in their interpretation of his hiftorical allufions. However the moral of the fable is, that prudence fhould accompany temperance. Prudentia eft rerum expetendarum fugiendarumq; fcientia. Cic. Off. i. 43. Prudence is a kind of intellectual virtue and a proper directrefs of temperance, a moral virtue.

And

And ever with flowe pace the knight did lead. With flowe pace, i, e. even, equal, not in a hurry and confufion: ἡσυχῆ ἐν τῶν ὁδοις βαδίζειν. I am apt to think that Spenfer had the following paffage of Plato, in Charmides, in view, where he is Speaking of temperance, to rooμins nárta gale, καὶ ἡσυχῆ ἐν τε ταις ὁδοις βαδίζειν, καὶ διαλέγεσθαι, καὶ ἄλλα πάντα ὡσάντως ποιειν, temperantiam fibi videri, omnia moderatè et decorè agere; quiete per viam incedere, et colloqui, et alia omnia eodem modo agere. Let me add, Cic. Off. i. 34. Status, inceffus, feffio, accubatio, vultus, oculi, manuum motus, teneant illud decorum. cavendum eft autem, ne aut tarditatibus utamur in greu mollioribus, ut pomparum ferculis fimiles effe videamur, aut in feftinationibus fufcipiamus nimias celeritates; quae cum fiunt, anhe

litus moventur, vultus mutantur, ora torquentur: ex quibus magna fignificatio fit non adeffe conftantiam. Ibid.

He gan to weave a web of wicked guile.] dono qui, telam fraudis texebat. Hom. Il. z. 187.

X.

When that lewd rybauld, with vile luft advaunft,
Laid firft his filthie hands on virgin CLEENE
To poyle her dainty corps fo faire and SHEENE.]
With vyle luft advaunft, i. e. pufhed on, incited.
-I believe the words here are got out of their
order; for Sheene should be joined to virgin,
i. e. bright, beautiful, &c. and cleene to corps,
i. e. pure.

Laid firft his filthie hands on virgin fheene,
To fpoyle her dainty corps fo faire and cleene.
XII.

And doen the heavens afford him vitall food?] vitali pafcitur aurâ?

XVI.

Madam, my life.-] I have printed it liefe from the 2d. quarto and folio editions; fo the rhime and fenfe require. Life is often printed for liefe. Presently after.

When ill is chaunft, but doth the ill increafe, And the weak mind with double woe torment. i. e. when ill happens [IT, viz. all this weeping] doth but increase the ill, and doth but torment the weak mind with double woe. I put the reader now and then in mind of Spenser's conftruction, left he fhould forget it.

XIX.

Now by my head-] Per caput hoc juro. Virg. ix.300.

Ibid.

XX.

your blotting name.] See critical obfervations on Shakespeare. B. iii. Rule v. of active participles being ufed paffively. But as blotted makes the fentence eafier, and as it has the authority of the 2d quarto and folio of 1609. I have departed from the reading of the old quarto edition, XXII.

Her late forlorne andnaked-] Dueffa having been ftript naked (See above B. i. C. 8. St. 46.) as foretold in the Revel. xvii. 6. and flying to the wilderness to hide her fhame, is brought back again to Fairy land, and new decked out by Archimago.

XXIII.

And draw them from pursuit of praise and fame.] Very frequently words of like fignification are thus joined together by the beft authors: as pugnas et proelia, Lucret. ii. 117.- ineant pugnas et praelia tentent. Virg. xi. 912, worsμor a páx τε — πολεμίζειν ἠδὲ μάχεσθαι. Homer.

Ibid. And end their days with irrenowmed fhame.] Virg. G. iii. 5. calls Bufiris irrenowmed, illaudatus. By this negation of all praife, thewing he de ferves all disgrace. XXIV.

Himfelfe refreshing with the liquid cold.] The adjective is ufed fubftantively; as in the learned languages. τὸ ὑγρὸν.

Ut tibi fi fit opus liquidi non amplius urnâ.

Horat. S. i. 1. 54.

I will add other inftances of adjectives thus used fubftantively and what are befide unnoticed, the reader himself may observe from these here given.

And mightie proud to humble weake does yield.

B. i. C. 3. St. 7.

More mild in beaftly kind then that her beastly foe. B. i. C. 3. St. 44. in beasts than in

i. e. There is more mildness
that beastly foe of hers.
And mighty ftrong was turnd to feeble fraile.

Who with her witchcraft and mif-seeming tweet.
B. i. C. 7. St. 6.
B. i. Č. 7. St. 50.

-he rufht into the thick.

B. ii. C. 1. St. 39.

-this direful deepe.

of the red-croffe, had the adventure affigned

B. ii. C. 12. St. 6.

VOL. II.

Kkk

B. iii. C. 8. St. 26 An.