SUCH as was Orpheus-] Orpheus was a godlike perfon, fon of the Mufe Calliope. He was in the famous Argonautic expedition, to give time to the rowers, to excite them to martial deeds, and to pacify their paffions. Orpheus is mentioned on like occafion, in Spenfer's Sonnet, xliv. Compare above, B. iv. Ĉ. 1. St. 23. Apollonius relates, that among the Argonauts ftrife was grown, and further till their ftrife had grown, he fays, had not Jaforr 'ufed his authority, and Orpheus his harp, by which he fhortly made them friends again. Compare Silius Italicus, iv. 85. II. II. Or fuch as that celeftial Pfalmift was Them reconcyld againe, and to their homes did drive,] None but a god or a godlike man can stop the curfed effects of difcord: fuch was Orpheus, who with his mufick appeased the Argonauts, whenever they quarrelled: fuch was David, who who quieted with his harp the evil fpirit, which tormented Saul, 1 Sam. xvi. 23. Such mufick is wife words with time concented. i. e. well-timed. Cic. Nat. Deor. i. 7. omnibus inter fe concinentibus mundi partibus. Ibid. i. 7. Stoici cum Peripateticis re concinere videntur. Such as that prudent Roman well invented, i. e. rightly ufed. What time his people into partes did rive, Them reconcyld againe, and to their homes did drive. his people, i. e. his countrymen, the Romans: into parte, into parties and factions: did rive, did divide themfelves: the active is used paffively, fee note on B. i. C. 5. St. 28. Then to her yron wagon fhe betakes, i. e. fhe be takes herself. So here, ---as they together way'd.) I fhall offer the reader two interpretations: 1ft. as they traveled together in the way. 2d, as they weighed things, and talked them over together. Spenfer spel's it What time his people into partes did rive, i. e. did often wayd, that the letters might answer in rive themselves. What time the Roman people did divide themfelves into factions, Menenius Agrippa reconciled them again, and fent them to their own homes. Virgil, I believe, had his eye particularly on Menenius Agrippa in that most elegant of all comparisons in Æn. i. 148. But left the reader fhould forget what I have already mentioned in a note on B. i. C. 3. St. 5. and in B. ii. C. xi. St. 1. viz. that Spenfer, like the beft of the Roman poets, often omits the relative or pronoun, Who, He; Qui, Ille: I think it not improper to tell him again, that Who or He, is to be fupplied in this paffage, now before us; Who them reconciled againe, &c. or, He them reconciled, &c. So in Ovid. Faft. ii. 443. Augur erat: nomen longis intercidit annis. Nuper ab Hetrufcâ venerat exful humo. i. e. Qui augur venerat. &c. or to tranflate it after Spenfer's manner, and with the ellipfis of the pronoun, according to the original, There was an augur: but his name is loft: Came late an exile from th' Etrurian coaft. But in this translation the omiffion of the relative does not much embarass the sentence. See a like omiffion of the relative in Milton, v. 674. vi. 415. vii. 203. all which paffages Dr. Bentley has corrected. Dr. Bentley likewife corrected the following paffage in Phaedrus, L. i. Fab. xxii. Hoc in fe dictum debent illi agnofcere, i. e. and thofe who do boaft. But he reads jactat, making it agree with privata utilitas. IV. It was to weet the bold Sir Ferraugh hight He that from Braggadochio whilome reft, VOL. II. the rhime. XV. Did bear them both to fell avenges eǹd.] i. c. to cruel vengeance, to the end of fell avenge. XIX. Betting. So the quarto and Folio of 1609. but moft of the other editions befitting. See note on B. i. C. 1. St. 30. XXIII. Fayreft of faire, that faireneffe doeft excell.] This expreffion our poet had, perhaps, from Chaucer, in the Knightes Tale, 2223. where Palamon addresses Venus, Faireft of faire, O ladie mine Venus. XXV That Satyrane a girdle did up-take.] See B. iii. C. 8. St. 49. This girdle he wears for Florimel's fake according to the custom of knights and gallants wearing for the fake of their mistreffes, fleeves, gloves, ribbands, &c. XXVII. And fave her honour.-] To you it pertains to guard that ornament of hers, against all those that challenge the infinitive mood, he often omits. it, And, to fave her honour, &c. To, the fign of XXIX. Ne certes can that friendship long endure, For vertue is the band that bindeth harts moft fure.] Friendship lafts not long, whatever appearance it makes, that doth enure, put in ure, or practife ill caufe or ill end. Virtue is the only band of friendship. This is a philofophical fubject, and often treated of by philofophers. See Arrian. Epict. L. ii. Cap. 22, and what is 4 F cited Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled,] Some will queftion this; whether Chaucer has not defyled the English with introducing, unvaried, and in their out-landish garb, out-landifh words. Hear Skinner in the preface to his ETYMOLOGICON LINGUÆ ANGLICANE. Chaucerus poeta, peffimo exemplo, integris vocum plauftris ex eadem Gallia in neftram linguam invectis, eam, nimis antea à Normannorum victoriâ adulteratam, omni fere nativå gratiâ et nitore fpoliavit, pro genuinis coloribus fucum illinens, pro verá facie larvam induens. Twas the very fault that Lucilius committed, for which he is treated fo frankly by Horace, At magnum fecit, quod verbis Græca Latinis Mifcuit. Oferi ftudiorum! &c. ་ As Lucilius mixed Greek with Latin, fo did Chaucer French with English. I will add Verftegan's judgment on Chaucer's mingling and marring the English with French. Some few ages after came the poet Geoffry Chaucer, who writing his poefies in English, is of fome called the firft illuminator of the English tongue of their opinion I am not, though I reverence Chaucer, as an excellent poet for his time. He was indeed a great mingler of English with French, unto the which language (by like for that he was defcended of French or rather Wallon race) he carried a 'great affection.' ་ : XXXIII. 'fay all the printed books that I have feen, and 'alfo Mfs.' XXXIV. Then pardon, o moft facred happie fpirit, That I thy labours loft may thus revive,] Spenfer fuppofes the tale loft, not unfinished; Milton, that the tale was left untold. Ibid. Ne dare I like, but through infufion fweete Of thine owne fpirit, which doth in me furvive, I follow here the footing of thy feete,] Spenfer seems to fay, that Chaucer's fpirit was infufed into him, according to the Pythagorean fyftem. So Ennius faid the fpirit of Homer was infufed into him. See Perfius, vi. 10. Horat. Epist. ii. i. 50. Lucretius, i. 118. XXXV. Whofe children werne All three as one; the first hight Priamond,-] Perhaps, for the rhime, Spenfer wrote worne; changing a letter, as his manner is. weren he ufes very frequently from the Anglo-S. Obferve in the beginning of this Stanza how elegantly the verfes are turned, with a repetition. after Ovid's manner: and in the clofe of this Stanza he brings together his three feveral perfons, and in the next Stanza he feparates and characterizes them. This beauty we have fpoken of in a note on B. ii. C. 6. St. 13. and in B. ii. C. 12. St. 70, 71. The fame obfervation might have been made on B. ii. C. 12. St. 24. where mentioning Reproch, Repentance, That famous moniment hath quite defafte,] Me- Shame, all in one verfe, he then feparates thein thinks he fhould have faid, That famous moniment hath near defaßte. See Urry's Edition, pag. 60. The Squire's Tale: The King of Araby fendith to Cambufcan, King of Sarra, a horse and a fword of rare qualitee, and to his daughter Canace a glafs and a ring; by the virtue whereof the underftandeth the languages of all fowles. Much of this tale is either loft, or elfe never finifhed by Chaucer.' And at the end is added, There can no more be found of this tale, which hath been fought for in divers places, and marks them diftinctly. Virgil has many of thefe beautiful ftrokes, fee at leifure, Ecl. vii. 2. Georg. iv. 339. Æn. v. 294. Their mother was a Fay,-] The Fay Agape feems imaged from the Fay Feronia in Virgil, En. viii. 564. who had procured for her fon Nafcenti cui tres animas Feronia mater Virgil fays moreover of the Fay Feronia, -Viridi gaudens Feronia luco. Æn. vii. 800. She then began them humbly to intreate, Which is exactly what Spenfer fays of the Fay Ultima volventes oravit penfa forores, Ut traherent parva slamina pulla morâ. Ibid. But fhe, as Fayes are wont, in privie place XLV. —and there, as it is told-] viz. in the authentic XLVII. From tract of living went,] of the way or path Not all the gods can chaunge, nor Jove himself can Qued fore paratum eft, id fummum exuperat fovem. Ζεὺς δ ̓ ἐπὶ ἦν ΤΡΩΑΣ τι » ΕΚΤΟΡΑ νηυσὶ πέλασσε admevit. Il. xiii. I. Scholiaftes: κιχώρικε τῶν λοιπῶν τρώων τὸν Εκλορα, κατ ̓ CA A IX. N TO THAT not. Ibid. XIII. III. His wearie ghost affoyld from fleshly band Like an old oke, whole pith and Jap is feare,] Per- Ψυχὴ δ ̓ ἐκ ξεθέων ΠΤΑΜΕΝΗ ἀϊδόςδε βεβήκει. Nec in aëra folvi Paffa recentem animam, caeleftibus intulit aftris. Ovid, M. xv. 845. But it was by traduction derived into his furviving brethren, as his mother prayed the three fatal fifters, C. 2. St. 52. According to the Pythagorean Metempfychofis, his life paffed from one body into another; by traduction; by a kind of transplanting, or taking imps or graffs from one tree and transferring them to another: from this metaphorical mode of fpeech the fchool-men form a question, An anima fit ex traduce? XV. Like lightning after thunder,] If lightning and thunder are confidered as light and found; the lightning must be feen, BEFORE we hear the thunder; had this been Spenfer's meaning he would have written, -Like lightning before thunder. But ftrictly speaking lightning and thunder are caused both together; or rather the thunder is BEFORE the lightning, being produced according to the fyftem prevailing in Spenfer's time by the falling and clafhing together of black clouds, to which Milton finely alludes in his beautiful fimile in Paradife Loft, ii. 714. or according to the modern hypothefs by the kindling of fulphureous exhalations. XXII: Who him affronting foone to fight was readie preft.] Like as a fnake, whom wearie winters teene And newe fruit filled [r. fyled i. e. defiled] with wintir teene, i. e. with the mifchief or injury of winter. Mean time with genial joy to warm the foul, wine. XLIII. Inftead thereof sweet peace and quiet age] i. e. quietneffe. Saecla quieta, aetatem quietam, i. e. quietem. Saecla ferarum, i. e. ferae. Lucret. iv. 415. puerorum aetas, i. e. pueri. Lucret. i. 938. XLV. Much more of price and of more gratious powre Defcribed |