XXXV. thereby there lay An huge great flone, which stood upon one end, And had not bene removed many a day; Some land-marke feemd to bee, or fign of fundry way. It feem'd to be fome land-mark-or, which stone feemed to be fome land-mark-For fo Spenser leaves us often to supply the conftruction. These ftones, thus ufed in boundaries, our forefathers called Dowle-ftones from dælan, dividere, partiri.-Thereby there lay an huge great flone which stood upon one end, idov xisperer in media, péλανα, τρηχύν τε μέγαντε, Hom. Il. xxi. Saxum antiquum ingens, Virg. xii. 896. Scaliger in comparing together Virgil and Homer (Poetices Lib. v.) fays Virgil's epithet, antiquum is more to the purpose than Homer's, édava, nigrum— he fays 'tis poffible too, it was not Tx, afperum, if it was placed as a boundary. It feems however plain to me, that Spenfer had Homer's epithet in view, Tax, by faying, a stone which food upon one end, for that is the meaning of Homer's epithet. all attend On whom the foufing eagle should defcend. To foufe is to plung: the faulcon foufes, when the plunges and defcends upon her quarry. Wacht. faufen, ftrepitum edere. convenit iavoa, refonare. XLI. And his bright field that NOUGHT him now avayld.] I venture to say Spenfer did not write fo: or if he did, he forgot himself. This bright shield reprefented allegorically Truth and Reason, which gets the better over all illufive phantafms, and ever did avayle: fee the defcription of this fhield, B. i. C. 7. St. 33, 34, 35. He seldom used this fhield, thinking he was fufficient without its extraordinary affiftance. See B. i. C. 8. St. 19. Never but once. See B. v. C. 8. St. 37. With a very little alteration, I reduce the paffage, agreeable to the history and allufion of this inchanted shield. And his bright fhield that MOTE him now avayld. His fword he laid afide, and his bright fhield that might have now availd him; the most infallible refource against fuch illufions. The fhallop was floating when thruft from the who does not now fee that the former IT was ftrand. And forth yewd, as on the readie flore B. iii. C. 12. St. 3. This grave or tragical perfonage was ready and prepared for the part, which he was to per form: not the flore on which the mask or pa geant was to be acted. But as he lay upon the humbled grafs. B. vi. C. 7. St. 26. i. e. as he lay humbled upon the grafs. This conftruction gives a figurative air to the diction, and places it above vulgar ufe: and hence it has been adopted by the best of poets. -poftquam arma dei ad Vulcania ventum est. i. e. quando ventum eft ad arma Vulcani dei. Virg. xii. 732. Tyrrhenufque tubae mugire per aethera Clangor. i. e. Clangor Tyrrhenae tubae. Virg. viii. 528. Non animum modo uti pafcat profpectus inanem, vel, inanis profpectus. Virg. G. ii. 285. And I believe Virgil wrote, premit alto corde dolorem, Æn. i. 213. and not altum, as the more poetical language. So Statius ix. 796, -baud unquam deformes vertice mitras' Induimus, TURPIQUE manu jaƐtavimus haftas. i. e. nunquam manu jalavimus TURPES baftas, viz. Thyafos. Pofitofque vernas, ditis examen domus, Circum renidentes Lares. Horat. Epod. ii. 65. renidentes properly belongs to vernas (viz. renidentes circum Lares) but that is profaical: 'tis therefore in conftruction joined to Lares, which is more poetical and figurative. Premant Calenâ falce, quibus dedit Fortuna vitem. Horat. Lib. i. Od. 3r Dr. Bentley alters this, and reads Calenam vitem. See note on B. i. C. 4. St. 48, and note on B. iv. C. 8. St. 16. Ibid. Adowne he keft IT with fo puiffant wreft, Tho when he felt him dead adowne he keft inferted in the context by the Printer's ufual blunder of fuffering his eye to be caught by the word juft under it ?-With fo puiffant a wrest, Wrest is fo fpelt for the rhyme, and used for i. e. with fo puiflant an arm; fo puiffantly. the arm: pars pro toto. Virg. G. iii. -Tentanda via eft, qua me quoque poffim Quale il Libico Anteo fempre più fiero Arioft. ix. 77. GUYON NT O UrON through Palmers governance Doth overthrow the bowre of blis, And Acrafy defeat. The 2d quarto and Folio's read much better, Paffing through perilles great I. III. XII. He foone in vomit up againe doth lay.] This gulfe He foone in vomit up againe doth PAY. Now gins THIS goodly frame of Temperance -] Spenfer among the Errata corrects, THAT.Now begins that goodly frame of Temperance fairely to rife, and to advance her head, to pricke of highest praife, to the utmost point of praise. [Anglo-S. pnica, punctum. Horat. Art. Poet. 343. omne tulit pun&tum. i. e. fuffragia judicum: quippe veteres non fcribebant fuffragia, fed puncto notabant.] Formerly grounded, heretofore grounded and faft fettled on the firm foundation of magnificence, imaged in Prince Arthur, Quaeq; vomit fluctus totidem, totidemq; resorbet. who routed the foes of Alma. And this brave knight, that for this virtue fights I fomewhat queftion whether this is not twice repeated by the careless printer, And the brave knight, that for this virtue fights, viz. Sir Guyon. II. Upon the waves to spread her trembling light.] Il tremolante lume. Arioft. Orl. Fur. C. viii. St. 71. Tremulum lumen, Virg. viii. 22. Splendet tremulo fub lumine pontus, vii. 9. Virgil took this expreffion from Ennius: Lumine fic tremulo terra et cava caerula candent. Nunc forbere fretum, nunc REDDERE. Ov. Met. vii. 63 Epift. Med. 125. -vorat haec raptas revomitq; carinas. Met. xiii. 731. Compare Hom. Od. p. 235.-In the following ftanza Scylla is alluded to: "the rocke fo ce"lebrated by the poets; whofe unacceffable height is fo hyperbolically defcribed by Hom. "Od. xii." Sandy's Travels, pag. 247. Compare Virg. iii. 424. Through which the damned ghofts-] The lake Taenarias etiam fauces, alta oftia Ditis. VII. eft pulfa remis, PURPURASCIT. i. e. looks Spiritus Eurorum virides cum purpurat undas. Purpurat, id eft, Gall. fait blanchier la mer. See Qualem purpureis agitatam fluctibus Hellen. XIII. As th' ifle of Delos whylome men report -make shipwrack of their life and fame.] This is fcriptural, 1 Tim. i. 19. περὶ τὴν πίσιν ἐναυάγησαν i. e. interprete Hefychio, ixidóvevo av. Compare Cebes, ravayšou iv Cių. X. With his fiff oares did brush the fea fo ftrong, St. 29. And for Apolloes temple highly berried.] Delos was once a wandering or foating iland, πλωτὴ νῆσος, as Eolia defcribed by Homer, Od. x. 2. 'till Latona travelling or journeying that way, where the floating island swam, was there delivered of Apollo and Diana.-Hyginus (Fab. 140.) tells the ftory, and agreeable to him other mythologists, that Neptune hid Latona in the island Ortygia, afterwards called Delos, being perfecuted by Juno; and that here fhe was brought to bed. See Ov. Met. vi. 186. Virgil thus defcribes this facred ifland, Æn. iii. 73. By Doris lov'd and oceans azure god, But with his oares did fweepe the watry wilderneffe. Lies a fair ifle amid th' Egean flood; Some spread their failes, fome with ftrong oars fweepe. And the BRIGHT bubles daunced all along i. e. The bubles look'd like fparkles of fire, Which Phoebus fixd: for once be wanderd round Which after held the fun and moon in fee. Thenceforth it firmly XV. XV. She them efpying loud to them can call.] So the two And faft the land behind them fled away. But th' heedful boteman.] The 1ft quarto reads, th' earnest boteman: but the 2d quarto and the Folios, read as we have printed it: and Taffo xv. 24. the alteration I make no queftion is the poet's own. That th' utmost fandy breach they fhortly fetch. What is made by the breaking in of the fea, they call a Breach: They fetch, they come up to, they arrive at. None of the books read, Beach. Senec. Troas, 1044. The waves come rolling on, the billowes rore Virg. iii. 72. The verfe by this reading, fo very little changed, This is well tranflated by Mr. Pitt, We launch our veffels with a profperous wind, Templaq; Tifaeae mergunt obliqua Dianae: XVI. Valer. Flacc. ii. 7. Them gan to bord and purpofe diverfely.] She merrily began to bord, to jeft with them, and to purpofe to difcourfe with them diverfly. My wit is great although I borde or play. XXIII. Such as dame Nature felf mote feare to fee, I. Spring-headed hydres. i. e. Hydras with heads II. Sea-fhouldring whales: whales that shouldered! Ch. Pardoner's Tale, 2294 on the feas before them. TIL. Great |