Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

venly councils and fecrets: he could not digeft his happiness, fays Pindar very finely, daλà yàp καταπέψαι μέγαν όλβον ἐκ ἐδυνάσθη, non potuit concoquere magnam felicitatem. Olym. A. 87. See there the Scholiaft. Hence he is called proditor by Ovid. Amor. L. iii. Eleg. xii. 30. Proditor in medio Tantalus amne fitit.

And Euripides fays of him, Ακόλαςον ἔσχε γλῶσσαν.

Quaerit aquas in aquis, et poma fugacia captat

Tantalus: hoc illi garrula lingua dedit.

What Hyginus relates of Tantalus, Fab.
lxxxii. confirms the emendations propofed
above both of Spenfer and Ovid. Jupiter
Tantalo concredere fua confilia SOLITUS erat et ad
epulum deorum admittere: quae Tantalus ad homines
renunciavit, ob id dicitur ad inferos in aquam media
fine corporis ftare, femperque fitire; et cum hauftum
aquae vult fumere, aquam recedere. So his punish-
ment is related in Hom. Od. λ. 581.
Κὰι μὴν Τάνταλον ἐισῖιδον, χαλέπ ̓ ἄλγε ̓ ἔχοντα,
Εςαότ ̓ ἐν λίμνῃ ἡ δὲ προσέπλαζε γενένῳ.

Et fane Tantalum vidi, graves dolores patientem,
Stantem in lacu, hic autem alluebat ad mentum.
So Spenfer,

Deepe was he drenched to the utmost chin.

Ibid.

Of grace I pray thee give to eat and drinke to mee.] This is a Greci{m, δὸς ἐμὸν φαγῖιν καὶ πιεῖν.

LX.

"blood thus the Roman governor wafhed "his hands, and faid, I am innocent of the blood "of this just perfon." If 'twas ufual for the Romans thus to wafh in token of innocence, the learned note-writer fhould have produced fome inftance for here Pilate used a Jewish custom, not a Roman one: among the Jews he conformed to their rites and ceremonies in common and ordinary affairs. 'Tis well known that the Romans, as well as Grecks, ufed expiatory washings, and religious ablutions: but the cuftom of wafhing in token of innocency, was a Jewish cuftom. See Deuter. xxi. Lord of life to the spiteful Jews to be put to 6.-Juft above Pilate fays, he delivered up the death, to Jews defpiteous. Ital. difpettofo. Gall. defpiteaux, defpiteufe. Chaucer ufes the word in his character of the Parfon, ver. 518. He was not to finful men difpiteous. i. e. Spiteful, ill-natured, morofe. If any fhould be offended to find Pontius Pilate and Tantalus in the fame place of punishment, I think it might be faid, by way of apology, that wicked men will fuffer hereafter in fome ftate or place of punishment, proportionable to their crimes; and that the poet, who defcribes fuch a place, is at liberty to fend thither, what wicked perfons foever he pleafes, provided he acts according to poetical decorum. LXIII.

Thou feareful foole,

Why takeft not of that fame fruit of gold,

Ne fitteft downe on that fame SILVER STOOLE.]

Enfample be of mind more temperate.] So the firft Mammon tempts Sir Guyon with the golden quarto; but the following editions,

of mind intemperate.

and forbidden fruit: which if he had gathered, he had betrayed an avaricious difpofition. He tempts him likewife to fit down on the filver ftodle;

Prefently after, he fays Tantalus blafphemed which if he had done, he would have fhewn heaven, i. e. the gods.

[blocks in formation]

himself a lazy knight, and deserving the punishment of Thefeus for fitting on this flothful feat,

Thefeus condemnd to endlesse floth by law.

B. i. C. 5. St. 35. Sedet, aeternumque fedebit

Infelix Thefeus. Virg. vi. 617. Where Taubmannus has the following obfervation, Thefeus cum Pirithoo ad rapiendam Proferpinam defcendens fuper quadam petra confedit [typified in this filver feat: the forbidden feat in the myfteries] à quâ petrâ licet femel al Hercule avulfus fuerit, poft mortem tamen deftinatus eft, ut in memoriam iftius rei æternùm in ignefcente ifta petrå perfideat. This filver Stoole is mentioned above, St. 53.

And

And in the midft thereof a filver feat. This foole, on which it was unlawful to fit, our poet imaged from the forbidden feat in the Eleufinean myfteries. See Meurs. Eleufin. p. 10. and the ingenious treatife concerning thefe myfteries, of Mr. Warburton in his divine legation of Mofes, Vol. I. p. 202. Our knight has now gone through a kind of initiation, and paffed all the fiery trials; and comes out more temperate and juft, as filver tried in the fire. LXV.

Which two [food and fleepe] upbeare, Like mighty pillours, this fraile life of man.] The pillars of heaven--The pillars of the earth-are expreffions in the fcripture, metaphorically taken from a building, founded upon its proper bafis and supported by pillars, So this little world of man, and this earthly edifice, is propt up and kept from falling (as it were) with these two

pillars, food and fleep. The body likewife is often called a house, a temple, &c. which wants its proper pillars to fupport it: our earthly houfe, 2 Corinth. v. I. Food is called the prop or Stomacho pillar, in Horace St. ii. iii. 154. fultura ruenti. Where the reader at his leisure may confult the notes of Dr. Bentley. Ni cibus atque

INGENS accedit ftomacho FULTURA ruenti,
Ingens fultura, a mighty prop, a mighty pillar.
The very expreffion of Spenfer.

LXVI.

For lenger time then that (viz. three days) no living wight, Belowe the earth might fuffred be to stay.] Alluding to Matt. xii. 40. As fonas was three days and three nights in the whales belly, fo fhall the fon of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

[blocks in formation]

These fine-turned verfes must be felt by every one, that knows the leaft thing belonging to the power of words and dignity of fentiment.And in the beginning of a fentence is expreffive of paffion; fometimes of admiration, fometimes too of indignation. Ovid feems to exprefs indignation in the beginning of his elegy, Et quifquam ingenuas etiamnum fufcipit artes? Amor. L. iii. Eleg. viii.

[blocks in formation]

VIII.

O why should heavenly God to men have fuch regard? Pfal. 144. 3. Lord, what is man that thou haft fuch respect unto him: or the son of man, that thou fore

gardeft him?

III.

[blocks in formation]

faid to make his will known by a voice. So God This is agreeable to scripture, in which God is fpake to Samuel, 1 Sam. iii. 4. Compare likewife Matt. iii. 17. And lo! a voice from heaven, ix Tev, which the Jews call Bathkol. φωνὴ τῶν ἐξανῶν, He heard a voice, that called lowd and cleare, Come hether, COME hether, O come haftily So the 1ft and 2d quarto edit. but the fol. 1609. Come hither, hither, o come baftily. Which perhaps should thus be printed, Com hither, hither O come haftily. Com hither, hither O come haftily.

Printers and tranfcribers are often guilty of repeating the fame words, which is an error to be met with in all books, more or lefs.

[blocks in formation]

Nunc PRIMUM opacat flore lanugo genas.
Ora puer PRIMA fignans intonfa juventâ.

See note on B. ii. C. 12. St. 79. In defcribing
this angel, he says,

-Two fharp winged fheares
Decked with diverse plumes—to cut his ayery wayes,
His wings like a pair of fheares to cut his ayery
wayes, aerias vias,

Quis crederet unquam
Aërias hominem carpere poffe vias.

Ov. Art. Am. ii. 44.
Decked with diverfe plumes, Plumis verficoloribus.
Spenfer plainly feems to me to have in view
Taffo i. 13, 14. thus most elegantly tranflated
by Fairfax.

A ftripling feemd hee, thrice five winters old,
And radiant beames adorn'd his locks of gold.
Of filver wings he took a fhining paire,
Fringed with gold, unwearied, nimble, fwift;
With thefe he parts the winds, the clouds, the aire,
And over feas and earth himself doth lift:
Thus clad, he cut the pheares and circles faire,
And the pure fkies with facred feathers clift.
On Libanon at firft his foot he fet,

And fhooke his wings with rofie may-dewes wet.
Let me obferve by the bye, that this poetical
defcription of the angel's fhaking his ambrofial
plumes, in the above-cited verses, was not for-
gotten by Milton, iv. 285.

Like Maya's fon (Virg. iv. 252.) he stood,
And fhook his plumes.

Like as Cupido

VI.

With his faire mother, HE him dights to play,
And with his goodly fifters, Graces three.] Obferve
how elegantly he is added, when according to
grammatical conftruction it might be omitted:
but yet thus added, it gives an emphasis and a
pathos, and fometimes a perfpicuity to the fen-
tence. We have several instances of like fort,
fome of which have been taken notice of already,
but here I fhall be more diffuse.

It fortuned, faire Venus having loft
Her little fon,

[blocks in formation]

Whom Calidore perceiving faft to flie,
He him pursued-

B. vi. C. 1. St. 22.

Other paffages may be added eafily, but these
are fufficient to put the reader fully in mind
that our language in many inftances can equal
the Greek or Roman. Dr. Bentley in his ele-
gant and learned notes on Horace, (Lib. 1.
Od. ix.

Nec dulces amores
Sperne puer, neque tu choreas)

brings from Virgil and Homer instances of ille,
and oys thus pleonaftically introduced.
Praecipitemq; Daren ardens agit aequore toto,
Nunc dextra ingeminans ictus, nunc ille fmiftra.
Aen. v. 456.

Η τινας ἐκ Πύλο άξει ἀμύντορας ημαθόεντος,
Η ΟΓΕ και Σπάρτηθεν, ἐπέι νυ περ ἵεται ἀινῶς.

Hom. Od. . 326.

Servius cites feveral other instances from Virgil
in his notes on Aen. xii. 5.

Saucius ille gravi venantum vulnere pectus,
Tum demum movet arma leo-

nariox, ille leo, fays Servius: and Cerda
obferves, ILLE non vacat, fed major emphafs.
much in the fame words, but what he fays from
Dr. Clarke has the fame obfervation, pretty
himself is unfortunely added,

Εἰσόκε, σ ̓ ἢ ἅλοχον ποιήσεται ἢ ΟΓΕ δέλων.

II. . 409.

"Vox oye nequaquam hîc fupervacanea eft, fed "elegantiffimam tum in Graeco tum in Latino "fermone emphasin habet, quam linguae recen"tiores PRORSUS ignorant." Strange indeed that our English language fhould be ignorant of this elegance! for I question if there be any beauties, in any language, which ours cannot at least afpire to; but how came Dr. Clarke fo unattentively to read the following, which he must have red a thousand times? Almighty God, the father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who defireth not the B. i. C. 2. St. 9. death of a finnerHE pardoneth--Or how

Him for to feek, fhe left her heavenly house,

B. iii. C. 6. St.11, 12

But fubtill Archimago, when his guests
He faw divided--

He praised his devilish arts.

[ocr errors]

came

Watch thou, I fay,
IX.

came he, when he wrote his notes on St. John's
gofpel, to overlook that beauty in our tranflati- For evil is at hand-
on, which he so much admires in Homer? But
the comforter, which is the holy Ghost, whom the
father will fend in my name, HE will teach you all
things, &c. John xiv. 26.-But leaft we fhould
be too diffufe, let us leave this fubject, and con-
fider what follows,

And with his goodly fifters, Graces three.

I have often obferved how Spenfer varies his mythological tales, and makes these always subfervient to his poem. Another genealogy of

the Graces is mentioned in B. vi. Č. 10. St. 22.
according to Hefiod. Concerning this genealogy,
the reader may at his leifure confult Falkenburg.
ad Nonnum, pag. 539. And Boccace L. iii.
C. 22. Dicunt Venerem Gratias peperiffe: nec
nrum; quis unquam amor abfque gratia fuit? So
Milton.

But come thou goddess fair and free
In heaven yclepd Euphrofyne,
And by men, heart-cafing Mirth,
Whom lovely Venus at a birth,
With two fifter-Graces more,
To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore.

[blocks in formation]

The Palmer Seeing his left empty place,
And his flow eies beguiled of their fight] i. c. The
Palmer feeing his place left empty; and his eyes
being beguiled of their fight. And his flow eyes,
&c.
is put abfolute. The fame conftruction we have
above B. i. C. 5. St. 45. and B. ii. C. 3. St. 36.
ing of the various editions, have been mifun-
which paffages if we might guess from the print-
derftood; and might eafily be fo, if my rule is
not observed, which is to tranflate our poet into
fome other language, when his construction, or
his idiom, feems intricate and uncouth.

Ibid.

And courd it tenderly,

As chicken newly hatcbt.] i. e. And protected it, as a hen fits couring o'er her young chicken. Skinner, to coure, ab Ital. covare. Fr. G. "couver, incubare, metaphorâ fumpta à gallinis ovis "incubantibus." See Menage in V. Couver. But Junius brings it from the old British word, Currian. Milton in Par. L. viii. 350. applies this expreffion to the fawning beafts bending or cowring down,

thefe [viz. the beafts] cowring low With blandifhment, each bird floopd on his wing.

But I believe Spenfer used it in the former sense, as Skinner and Menage explain it.

And courd it tenderly, IT agrees with his charge, viz. the knight in a fwoon. Et fuper ipfum incubabat, ficut gallina fuper pullos.In the Gloffary ufually printed with Spenfer's works, 'tis faid to be put for covered, as if corrupted from it. Spenfer had plainly that affecting fimile of our Lord in view, O Jerufalem, Jerufalem how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Matt. xxiii: 37.

ὃς ὑποπλέςεις,

-

Σώζω νεοσσάς, ὄρνις ὡς ὑφειμένη, i. e like a ben couring o'er them. Euripid. Herc. Fur. ver. 72.

[blocks in formation]

of one now fallen afleep: xxive, mortui. Sleep the brother, and image of Death, is often put for death itself.

"Tis a ufual threat in Homer to give the carcasses of the enemy to the fowls of the air: and the fame threat like wife the proud Philiftine makes in fcripture. Entombed, confidering the retorted Hom. II. x 241. repetition is very elegant, talk not to me of tombs: he hall have no other tomb but the ravenous birds of the

Ως ὁ μὲν ἄνθι πεσὼν κοιμήσατο χάλκιον ύπνον.

Olli dura quies oculos et ferreus urget
SOMNUS.

Virg. x. 745. The fentence is proverbial, and perhaps from Hom. Od. x. 412.

Οὐχ ὁσίη κταμένοισιν ἐπ ̓ ἀνδράσιν ευχετάασθαι.

Non fas eft mortuis viris infultare.
Nullum cum victis certamen, et aethere caffis.

Virg. xi. 104.
Neffuna, à me co'l bufto effangue, e muto
Riman piu guerra; egli mori, qual forte.

XV.

air.

XVII.

And covered field.] See B. i. C. 7. St. 33. Prefently after,

When under him he saw his Lybian steed to prance. Because excellent fteeds are produced in Lybia, he therefore fays, Lybian feed. This is Horace's perpetual mode of expreffion.

XVIII.

Taffo xix. 117. nobilezza. The French word, noblesse is of two
Flowre of grace and nobileffe.] From the Italian,

-Sith that he died entire ?]Since he died a natural death, entire not mangled or wounded: as we fay, in a whole skin. Intire, is derived from

fyllables.

XIX.

So would I, faid the enchaunter, glad and faine, integer: and integer is thus ufed by Statius, Syl. he intended for Braggadochio. See above B. ii. Beteeme to you THIS fword] This fword, which

L. ii. 1. 156.

[blocks in formation]

Ibid.

[ocr errors]

C. 3. St. 17, 18. 'Tis printed this, and rightly in the oldest quartos, but wrong in the folios, his fword.-Beteeme to you, i. e. give, beftow, deliver to you, as Shakespeare uses it in Midf.

A dead dog.] See the above note, on B. ii. Nights Dream, act 1. C. 3. St. 7.

XVI.

Ne blame your honour-] Caft not blame or reproach on your honour, fcandalize not → Gall. blamer. Ital. biafimare, à Lat blafphemare, Conv. The Sarazin threatens he will entomb him in the birds of the air: repeating and changing the terms which the Palmer used. But leave thefe relicks of his living might To decke his herce, and trap his tombe-blacke feede.

The horses of the dead knights were decked

out with black trappings, and with their armour; and thus walked in folemn proceffion to the tomb, where their arms and knightly honours were hung up: hence he fays, tomb-black. Herfe is used for the tomb.

HEARE, herfe, cenotaphium, tumulus honorarius: fignat et ornamentum fuper tumbam defuncti collocatum: nunc defignat feretrum ab equis tractum. Junius edit. Lye.-The Sarazin replies, what herfe (what tomb) or steed, fhould he have prepared for him,

But be ENTOMBED in the raven or the kight?

[blocks in formation]

Belike for want of rain, which I could well Beteem them from the tempeft of mine eyes.

[blocks in formation]
« VorigeDoorgaan »