the wheeles and the burning marle they drove on, were fervid even before the race. But Spenfer very judiciously fays, With burning charet wheeles it nigh to finite Melaque ferventi circueïnda rotâ. For at that berth another babe fhe bore, MAA Clado Ov. Art. Am. iii. 396. Great wreake to many errant knights of yore, But who that fmites it mars his joyous play, Perhaps he had Neftor's speech in Homer be- —λίθε δ' ἀλέασθαι ἀπαυρῖιν, Μήπως όππως το τρώσης, κατὰ θ ̓ ἅρμαλα ἄξης. -In lapidem verò evites impingere, Ne forte equofque vulneres, currumque confringas. XLII. Till him Chylde Thopas to confufun brought.] In the epifode before us we fee fhameful luft, reonly to be overmatched by Chastity, Palladine. prefented by Argante a gyanteffe, pursued, and For what could Typhoeus doe, or his unnatural daughter, Contra fonantem PALLADIS aegida? Argante and Ollyphant were the twins of Typhoeus and Tellus. This Ollyphant is mentioned by Chaucer in the Rhime of Sir Thopas, where the doughty knight arriving at the countre Yet therewith fore enrag'd with ftern regard-1 of Fairie, finds a grete gyaunt named Olyphant, A perillous man of drede,. Milton has borrowed this expreffion from our And on his collar laying puissaunt hand, Dereptumque ab equo dextra conplectitur hoftem, He faid, childe, by Termagaunt, Anon I flea thy fede.→→ The child [viz. Sir Thopas] faied, ALSO MOTE To morrower woll 1 metin the, When I have mine armour. We must read in Chaucer not ALSO, but as XLIX. -So fowly to devoure Her native fefb,] This is a latinism. Plaut. Afin. LVIII. This alludes, as Servius fays, to a fecret piece In quefto tempo il gigante Orione ! XLVI. Thereat full bartely laughed Satyrane.] The Folio And how he fell into the gyaunts hands,] So the 1ft of 1609 fpells it laught. quarto; the 2d and Folios, -HOW causelesse of her own accord.] How caufelefs, how without any juft caufeOf her own accord, for fhe was in pursuit of Marinell. See above, B. iii. C. I. St. 15. and B. iii. C. 6. St. 54. II. Tyde with her broken girdle-] So the 2d quarto edition and folio. This famous girdle was loofed from Florimel, but 'twas not broken, as the reader may fee by comparing B. iii. C. 7. St. 36. B iii. C. 8. St. 49. B. iv. C. 2. St. 25. particularly B. iv. C. 4. St. 15, and the fol. lowing Canto, where the ladies try to gird themselves with this chaft, unbroken, and golden zone. I have therefore recalled the reading of the 1ft quarto, golden girdle. VIII. VII. Yet golden wyre was not fo yellow thryfe As Florimels fayre beare. i. e. was not a thirdpart fo yellow. Juft above, like to womans eyes, is the reading of the 1ft quarto: the 2d and Folios, like a womans eyes. This phantom is decked out with pretty imagination; and may be compared with the vifionary fhade mentioned above, B. i. C. 1. St. 45. See the note on that paffage. Below St. 11. he calls her IDOLE, which is Homer's expreffion for the like phantom deck'd out by Apollo, II. v. 449. Αυτὼς ὁ ΕΙΔΩΛΟΝ τεῦξ ̓ ἀργυρότοξος Απόλλων, Αυτῷ τ' Αινείᾳ ἴκελον καὶ τέυχισι τοῖον. Virgil tranflates idλov, imago, Aen. x. 643. IX. WHO feeing her gan freight upftart, and thought She was the lady felfe, WHO he fo long had fought.] The word above caught the printer's eye: how often do we meet with this error? 'Tis who in the ift and 2d quarto editions, and whom in the Folios. XIV. He gan make gentle purpose to his dame.] This Nor gentle purpose, nor endearing fmiles So too in the following verfe, glozing Speeches, which Milton likewife has in B. iii. 93. bis glozing lies. XV. An armed knight, upon a courfer firong, cam-> campum, a lap og lea of land, ab AS. ley. terra: She was without her zone, and in a wretched leag, campus, Skinner. He very plainly tranf-plight. I know not rightly (fays the) to delates Virgil viii. 596. clare what hard misfortune brought me to this fhameful plight; however I am glad that I am here in fafety-Compare this old Fisher with the old Hermit in Ariosto, the old Hermit in Ariofto, Orl. Fur. viii. 31. Quadrupedante putrem fonitu quatit ungula campum. This armed knight the reader is kept in fufpence of till B. iv. Č. 2. St. 4. XVI. Bad that fame boafter, as he mote, on high Or BIDE HIM BATTEILL without further treat.] He As bidding bold defiance to his forman neare. But if that thou Sir Satyrane- So in Fairfax's elegant Verfion of Taffo, vii. 84. them by name, to affift the diftreffed Florimel, -myfelf behold Am come prepard, and BID thee battle here. If I thought the reader would doubt of this cor- This faid, they both a furlongs mountenance feems imitated from Ariofto, who twice ufes the fame kind of apoftrophe; viz., where Angelica is going to be devoured by a monster, Orl. Fur. viii. 68, and where Ruggiero is flung into prifon, Orl. Fur. xlv. 21. 'Tis very ufual for Spenfer by way of furprise or fufpence, to cite names of heroes and knights, which he intends to bring you better acquainted with hereafter. Sir Satyrane we know; Sir Calidore, the knight of Courtesy, we shall better know hereafter. But who is Sir Peridure? certainly not the Peredure mentioned in B. ii. C. 10. St. 44. for he was a British king compare Jeff. of Monmouth, Arioft. Orl. Fur. xxiii. 82. Jeff. of Monmouth, Lib. ix. C. 12. one of Lib. iii. C. 18. but the Peredure mentioned by Già l'un da l'altro è dipartito lunge; XX. Yet there that cruell queene avengereffe-] He returns Prince Arthur's worthies, and knight of the round table And perhaps intended by our poet to perform fome notable adventure in Fairy land. XXX. An aged Sire with head all frowy bore.] I have fpoken of Proteus above, B. iii. C. 4. St. 25. But what is the meaning of frowy? We find the word in his 7th Eclogue, or like not of the frowie Claud, de Bell. Get. 631. fede. Spenfer's friend, who wrote the notes, Sed dea, quae nimiis obftat Rhamnufia votis, I note read aright XXIII. What hard misfortune brought me to THIS SAME.] interprets Frowie, mufty or moffie. We use Frouzy vulgarly for mufty. But all the editions except, the two old quartos have all frory hore, as, below, St. 35, his frory lips. Fairfax, ii. 40. The feaning feed with froary bit to feare. 4 C XXXII. Like as a fearful partridge-] This is a pretty and lively mile, and true from obfervation. Other poets have used the fame. So from the hawk, birds to men's fuccour flee. Cowley David. B. iii. Ecce autem parvidae virgo de more columbae, Quae fuper ingenti circumdata praepetis umbra In quemcunque tremens hominem cadit: haud fecus illa Icta tremore gravi, &c. Valer. Flac. viii. 32. XXXIII. -When Proteus she did fee her by] fo the rft quarto, but the 2d quarto and Folios, thereby. XXXVII. His bowre is in the bottom of the maine, That with the angry working of the wave, Eft fpecus ingens, ExESI latere in montis Panope (here mentioned as a fervant of Proteus to keep his cave clean) is a Nereid in Virgil and Hefiod the poet chofe this name (perhaps). for the fake of its etymology (viz. nã› & ö^w) which though it might in Hefiod have an aliufion to the tranfparency of the water, yet in Spenfer it may allude to her carefully looking into every thing, and taking care of every thing for our poet has a mythology of his Own. XLII. Eternall thraldom was to her more deare Then loffe of Choflity We fee now Florimel in prifon, and tempted by her keeper. 'Tis faid that the Queen of Scots, when flung into prifon. and committed to the care of the earl of Shrewsbury, was hardly dealt Moft virtuous virgin, glory be thy meed Shal be t' advance The poet turns from his fubject, and apoftrophizes the Lady. Thus Virgil breaks off in rapture of the friendship of Nifus and Euryalus. Si quid mea carmina possunt, So likewife Ariofto (Orl. Fur. xxix. 26, 27.) in no lefs admiration of the chastity and martyrdom of Ifabella, breaks out into a moft elegant apoftrophe. The poet intends, by leaving Florimel in this woful ftate, to keep the reader's minu ia pity and fufpence: 'tis no unufual thing for him thus to break off the thread of his flory; and in this he imitates the Romance-writers, particularly Boyardo and Ariofto, who leave you often in the midst of a tale, when least you fufpect them, and return to their tale again in as abrupt a manner. He .eturns to Sir Satyrane, whom he left, B. ii. C. 7. St. 61. And he reaffumes the ftory of Florimel, B. iv. C. 11. St. I. Edoubted knights and honourable dames-] The poet fpeaks himfelf generally in the beginning of his Cantos; and moralizes agreeable to his fubject, and after the manner of Ariofto and Berni. This introduction feems tranflated from the Orlando Furiofo, Canto xxii. St. 1. and Canto xxviii. I. II. for good by paragone Of evill may more notably be rad, As white feems fayrer matcht with black attonce.] So the 1ft quarto; but the 2d quarto and folios more agreeable to the rhime, attone, i. e. together, at once, at one: in Chaucer this word is variously written: atone: atoon: atenes : atones.-'Tis a maxim in the fchools that things are knowable by their contraries: eadem eft fcientia contrariorum. Whether Spenser had Chaucer (in Troil. and Creff. i. 638.) before him or Berni, I leave to the reader, the fentiment and expreffions agree: By his contrarie' is every thing declared Provafi appreflo per filofofia, Che quando due contrari fono accofio, III. IX. Then liften, Lordings,-] So Chaucer introduces his tale of Sir Thopas, Liflenith, Lordings, in gode entent. And in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, Harry Bayley (the honeft hoft that kept the fign of the Taberde in Southwerk) addreffes his company with the title of Lordings, i. e. my Sirs, my Mafters; 'tis a diminitive of Lord. Sir P. Sidney ufes the expreffion in Aftrophel and Stella, Sonnet xxxvii. Liften then, Lordings, with good eare to me, The Squire of Dames begins his account of Malbecco and Hellenore at ver. 5. Therein a cancred-and it should have been printed in Italicks like the rest of the fpeeches. IV. For which he others wrongs and wrekes himself.] i. e. revenges, unless the reader chooses a very obvious alteration, and rackes himself. i. e. torments himself. The covetous and jealous man is his own tormentor. Ibid. Whofe beauty doth her bounty farre surpasse.] So the ift and 2d editions in quarto: her bounty either in the difpofal of her charms or of her money was ftinted by the watchfulness and covetoufnefs of her husband: if this reading is admitted, fomething like this explanation muft be offered. But the folio of 1609, reads, which feems eafier, IVhofe beauty doth his bounty farre furpasse. Ibid. For he does joy to play emongst her peares.] Inter aequales ludere. . an obfcene image Hor. L. iv. Ode 13. Berni. Orl. Innam. L. ii. C. 7. St. 3. learnedly exprefied. 4 C 2 Ludifque |