gave it here, Armenian mount." Niphates was in the neighbourhood of Affyria, therefore he fays Affyrian mount. See note on B. ii. C. 7. St. 54. and on St. 52.

He fays, of thing like toÆgyptian or Affyrian flime, was built this edifice of man; but duft it was originally, and to duft it will return again. In the book of Wisdom ix. 15. the body is called an earthly tabernacle, ynŵdes oxñvos. Compare 2 Corinth. v. 1. If we turn to the poets, we fhall find that man was made by mixing water and earth; or as Spenfer calls it, by a flime: fãsavudu pugur. Terram aquâ mifcere, Hef. Op. et Di. ver. 61. and to this opinion Menelaus alludes, where he wishes the coward Greeks might be refolved back into the principles of water and earth, from which they were origimally compounded.

ἀλλ ̓ ὑμῖις μὲν πάντες ὕδωρ και γαια γένοισθε. Atqui vos quidem omnes aqua et terra fiatis,

XXII.

The frame thereof feemd partly circulare, And part triangulare; Oworke divine! Those two the first and last proportions are ; The one imperfect, mortall, foeminine, Th' other immortal, perfect, mafculine; And twixt them both a quadrate was the base, Proportiond equally by feven and nine; Nine was the circle fett in heavens place : All which compacted made a goodly diapafe. The poet in the former Stanza having confidered this our earthly building, this tabernacle and house of clay, as fubject to change, decay, and diffolution, comes now to confider Man in the united view of Mind, Soul, and Body. And what a compounded creature is Man, made up of the variously mixed elements, and yet in his more divine part, the image of his great Creator? He is Being both changeable and inchangeable; diverfe and yet the fame. He

is the universe in miniature: and whatever can be predicated of this God-directed Univerfe, may be predicated, in a lefs degree, of this Mind-directed Microcofm.

-Quid mirum nofcere mundum Si poffint homines, quibus eft et mundus in ipfis, ·Exemplumque Dei quifque eft in imagine parvâ? Manil. iv. 893. Confider likewife what juft Idea can we form of Beauty, or of Mufick; but from variety and uniformity, from oppofitions well contrafted, and difcords well adjusted? fo likewife from the friendly contrarieties, and difagreeing concords,

The frame thereof feemed partly circulare
And part triangular-

Circular refers to the mind, and triangular to the body. The moft fimple figure, the first conceived, and the element of all figures, is a triangle, made up of three right lines, including fpace, and hence aptly applied to body. Compare Plato's Timaeus, pag. 53. 54. edit. Steph. The most perfect, beautiful and comprehenfive ginning, middle nor end: immortal, perfett, maf of all figures is the circle: it has neither beculine. Dux atque imperator vitae mortalibus animus eft incorruptus, acternus, rector humani generis, agit atque habet cuncta, neque ipfe habetur x ára nài én ixera.] Salluft. Bell. Iugurth. Compare Plato's Timaeus, pag. 33. edit. Steph. and Cicero, de Nat. Deor. ii. 18. The center of God is every where, and his circumference no where: and with refpect to the mind of man, the image of his great Creator, all intellectual ference: mind is all things intellectually, árta fcience begins and ends within its own circum

g. Compare. M. Anton xii. 3, and fee how he applies the allegorical sphere of Empedocles; and in the fame manner are we to explain the fphere of Parmenides in Plato, Sophift. pag. 244. edit Steph. The world itself is opagodas, See Plato's Timaeus, pag. 33. And hence is to be explained the following verfes of Manilius, i. 211.

Haec aeterna manet, divifque fimillima forma,
Cui neque principium eft ufquam, nec finis in ipfo,
Sed fimilis toto remanet, perque omnia par eft.

Spenfer

Spenfer fays the triangular frame, imaging the Body is mortal and imperfect: this I believe wants no interpretation; and that the circular frame, imaging the more divine part, is immortal and perfect, nor does this need any comment. But why does he call the Body feminine, and theMind mafculine? He feems to have taken this from the Pythagorcan philofopher mentioned above, rò Tidos Móyor öxes aggirós Targès, Idea autem, i. e. είδος λόγον ἔχει ἀξξενός τε καὶ πατρὸς, forma, rationem habet maris et patris. The Mind is the form generating, as it were, and working into effence the paffive and feminine matter: ἃ δ ̓ ὕλα θήλεος τι και ματέρος, materia autem faeminae et matris. Timaeus Locrus, pag. 95. edit. Steph. How easy is the interpretation confidering Mind as Form, and Body as Matter? And how aptly is the one called mafculine, and the other feminine? But we shall be more diffufe on this fubject, of Form, Matter, and Privation, when we come to confider Spenfer's allegory, of the Gardins of Adonis, in Book iii. Canto 4.He fays,

And twixt them both, a quadrate was the bafe.

i. e. betwixt the Mind and Body, represented
emblematically by the circle and triangle, the
facred TETPAKTTE, the fountain of perpetual nature,
(as called in the Pythagorean verfes) the myfteri-
ous quadrate, was the bafe. This quadrate or facred
quaternion, comprehended all number, all the
elements, all the powers, energies, and virtues
in man ; Nᾶς, Επισήμη, Δόξα, Αισθησις ; Tem-
perance, juftice, fortitude, prudence. Hope
fear, joy, grief. Cold, hot, moift, dry. Fire,
air, earth, water. *ý άжλws τà ÖVTa márta in
TETPAE anoncalo, Hierocles, pag. 169. Com-
ándícalo,
pare Plato's Timaeus, pag. 32. He adds,

Proportiond equally by SEVEN and NIne.
NINE was the circle fett in heavens place:
All which compacted made a goodly diapafe.

This flanza is not to be understood (I believe) without knowing the very paffage our poet had in view; namely Cicero's SomniumScipionis, which Macrobius has preferved and commented upon : Proportioned equally, agrees with them both, viz. mind and body; which receive their harmonic proportion, relation, and temperaments from the even planetary orbs, and from the ninth orb, infolding and containing all the reft. What influence the feven planets have upon man, you may learn from Manilius, and the aftrologers: but the ninth orb,

-The circle fett in heavens place,

Summus ipfe Deus, arcens & continens caeteros,-What theift doubts this influence? This is the fource, the fea, the fun, of all beauty, truth and MIND. But hear Cicero, NOVEM tibi orbibus, vel potius globis connexa funt omnia: quorum unus eft caeleftis extimus, qui reliquos omnes complectitur, SUMMUS IPSE DEUS, arcens et continens caeteros, in quo infixi funt illi, qui volvuntur, ftellarum curfus fempiterni: cui fubjecti funt SEPTEM qui verfantur retro contraria motu, &c. See what he fays afterwards of the mufic of the spheres; and compare with Macrobius, L. i. C. 6. And Pliny. L. ii. C. 22. Ita feptem tonos effici quam diapafon harmoniam, hoc eft univerfitatem concentus. It will appear (as I faid) very plain what Spenfer means by,

Nine was the circle fett in heavens place, After confidering the paffage above cited from the Somnium Scipionis, with Macrobius' comment, and the following diagram, of the nine infolded spheres, as Milton calls them in his poem, intitled Arcades, where (from Plato's Xth book of the republick) he mentions that harmony, which is heard only by philosophical ears, of the celestial Sirens,

That fit upon the nine infolded spheres.

XXIII.

For not of wood nor of enduring bras, But of more worthy fubftance framd it was.] This manner of expreffion we have in the bible, veffels not of filver but of gold. 1 Kings x. 21. We have it frequently too in Chaucer. By telling you what a thing is not, your ideas are raised concerning what it is. Before the reader confiders the following ftanzas, in which he might perhaps think that the house of Alma is too minutely and circumftantially expreffed, I would have him think over with himfelf the following allegorical description in Ecclefiaftes, xii. 4. In the day, when the keepers of the HOUSE [the hands, which keep the body, the caftle of Alma] shall tremble; and the ftrong men [the legs, the pillars and fupport] hall bow themselves; and the grinders ceafe, because they are few; [but originally twife fixteen, St. 26.] And thofe that look out at the windows be darkned; [viz. the eyes. lxx. à Crémeσai ir tãis oras, the fpyers, or pyes, as Spenfer calls them, B. i. C. 2. St. 17. B. iii. C. 1. St. 36. and B. vi. C. 8. St. 43.] And the doors fhall be fut, i. e. the lips, or the mouth, St. 23, 24. THE GATE with pearles aud rubies, richly dight, Through which her words fo wife do make their Spenf. Sonnet. 81.

way.

And twixt the pearles and rubies fofely brake A filver found

B. ii. C. 3. St. 24.

But he does not fay here of what fubftance the gate was framed for by leaving the imagina tion at liberty he raises your ideas. Over this gate hangs the portcullis, imaging the nofe. Compare the Timaeus, where the defcription of the human body takes up feveral pages. See Longinus Sect. xxxii. Ispì wandus μetapogas, de multitudine metaphorarum. 'Aλà μàu ev ye tãs τοπηγορίαις καὶ διαγραφαῖς ἐκ ἄλλο τι ἔτως κατασημαντικόν, ὡς ὑἱ συνεχεῖς καὶ ἐπάλληλοι τρόποι· διῶν καὶ παρὰ Ξενοφώντι and waive oxives avaтoμn ПомпIKE, μᾶλλον ἀναζωγραφεῖται θέιως παρὰ τῷ Πλάτων. Atqui in communium locorum tractationibus et in defcriptionibus nihil aliud tam fignificans eft, quàm frequentes fibique inftantes tropi quibus et apud Xenophontem anatome magnifico more depingitur: et adhuc magis divino more apud Platonem. Spenfer had plainly in view the difcourfe of Socrates with the atheistical and doubting Ariftodemus, L. i. C. iv. which Longinus refers to and likewife the Timaeus of Plato. pag. 65. edit. Steph. And Cicero, Nat. Deor. L. ii. 54, &c.

XXVII.

alva multa funt mirabilitur effecta, quae conftat fere nervis, &c.

Did order all th' Acates in feemly wife.] So the two
old quarto editions. Harrington ufes this word in
his tranflation of Ariofto. xliii. 139.
The Mantuan at his charges him allowth
All fine Acates that that fame country bred.
The folios read,

Did order all the Cates in feemly wife.
XXXII.

By fecret wayes that none might it cftye.] Thofe who write of final caufes, and the order and beauties of nature, mention as no fmall inftance of the wisdom of Providence, the removing from our fight, what is meerly neceffary, and fubfervient to use, rather than agreeable to the eye. Επὲι δὲ τὰ ἀποχωρι να δυσχερή, ἀποτρέψαι τὰς τέτων σχετὸς, καὶ ἀπενεγκεῖν ἡ δυνατὸν προσωτάτω ἀπὸ τὸν ἀισθήσεων quumque molefta funt [Spenf. noyous and nought] quae excernuntur, canales horum averterentur, ut quàm remotiffime ab ipfis fenfibus aveherentur. Χen. Απομ. L. i. C. iv. Atque ut in aedificiis architetti avertunt ab oculis naribufque dominorum ea, quae profluentia neceffario taetri efTent aliquid habitura : fic natura res fimiles procul amandavit à fenfibus. Cicero Nat. Deor. ii. 56. Principis, corporis noftri magnam natura ipfa videtur habuiffe rationem: quae formam noftram, reliquamque figuram, in quâ effet Species bonefta, cam pofuit in promptu ; quae autem partes corporis ad naturae neceffitatem datae, adfpectum effent deformem habiturae atque turpem, eas contexit atque abdidit. Cic. de Offic. Lib. I. C. 35.

Ibid.

Poft

Poft infepulta membra different lupi, Et Efquilinae alites.

XXXIII.

And fome into a goodly parlour-] i. e. Where the powers of the imagination and various faculties of the mind refide: which powers or faculties are perfonifyed as a bevy of faire ladies, St. 34. They do homage to Alma, St. 36. for their province is to obey, not to govern. She is, and ought to be, the mistress and queen. τὸ ἡγεμονικόν. τὸ ἔνδον κυριεύον. τὸ νομοθετικὸν καὶ βασιλικόν. Such are the words that the Stoics give to Alma, recognizing her power, dignity and regal ftate.

Ibid.

In which was nothing pourtrahed nor wrought,
Not wrought nor pourtrahed, but cafe to be thought.]
See concerning this repeating of the fame words,
the note on B. iii. C. 2. St. 16, 17.

XXXVII.

And in her hand a poplar branch did hold.] Emblematically representing her character. The poplar branch was worn in the athletic games, and facred to Hercules. See note on B. ii. C. 5. St. 31. When Teucer made his chearful fpeech to his friends, he crowned his head with poplar branches,

Tempora populea fertur vinxiffe corona.

See the Commentators on Horat. L. i. Od. vi.
Servius on Virg. viii. 276. Broukh. on Tibull.
pag. 82. and Burman on Ovid, epift. ix. ver. 64.
-The rebuke of this lady to the prince, bears
a double meaning, confidering him as in pur-
fuit both of glory, and of Gloriana. See B. i.
C. 9.
St. 15.
and B. ii. C. 9. St. 7. And was it
not intended likewife as a fecret and delicate re-
buke to the earl of Leicester, in the hiftorical
allufion, as if his backwardness had kept him
from being married to a queen ?

The prince was inly moved at her Speach
Well weeting trew what she had RASHLY told.

XL.

Upon her fift the bird, which fhonneth vew, And keepes in coverts clofe from living wight, Did fitt, as yet afhamd how rude Pan did her dight.] Pan fell in love with Echo and begat a daughter on her named Jynx, who was by Juno [but Spenfer fays by Pan] turned into a bird of the fame name, because the endeavoured to practife her philters and incantations on Jupiter. See the

Schol. on Theocr. Idyll. ii. ver. 17.

What bird this Jynx is, cannot fo well be determined; but Spenfer feems, by his defcription to mean the Cuckow.

And Feloufie

That werd of yelow geldis a garland
And had a Cuckow fitting on her hand.

Chauc. Knights tale 1930.

Our old bard defcribes Shamfaftreffe in the Court of Love, ver. 1198. which our poet had I believe in view,

Eke SHAMEFASTENESSE was there, as I take hede,

That blufhid rede, and darft not been aknowe
She lovir was, for thereof had fhe drede;
She ftode and hing her vifage downe alowe:
As of these rofis rody on their flalke:
But foche a fight it was to fene, I trowe,
Ther coud no wight her spy to fpeke or talke.

Spenfer likewife describes fhamefaftnesse, in B. iv. C. 10. St. 50. But obferve the fufpenfe kept up till Stanza 43. which is very frequent in this

poem.

XLI.

And ever and anone with rofy red The bashful blood her fnowy chekes did dye, That her became, as polifht yvory, Which cunning craftefman hand hath over-layd With fayre vermilion or pure laftery.] With Craftefman hand, this is the reading of the old quarto editions, and is more poetical than craftefman's hand, which is the reading of the folios. The subftantive is frequently thus used adjectively, as in Horace L. i. epift. xii. 20. Stertinium acumen. Tuvana pagòr, Hom. Il. 58. See note on B. iii. C. 4. St. 40. -Laftery was an error of the prefs, corrected by Spenfer, Caftory, i. e. oil of caftor.

Spenfer has this fame image and allufion very frequent will it appear tedious if I offer them here once for all to the readers view?

With which, (viz. ftreams of blood) the armes, that earft fo bright did show,

Into a pure vermilion now are dyde.

B. i. C. 5. St. 9.