50 foone as day - 1 This is tranflated from Virgil, xi. 183. Prefently after we find the Amazonian dame dreffing for battle in her proper warlike habiliment: the reader at his leifure may confult Petitus in his treatise of the Amazons; who mentions not a cemitare, but a battle-axe, as their peculiar offenfive weapon but I have seen at Wilton, among my Lord Pembroke's collection, a figure of an Amazonian defending herfelf with a fword against an horfeman.He adds.

in a note on B. i. C. 1. St. 30. Presently after, And at her ftrooke-yet with her fhield fhe warded IT, viz. the stroke: the fubftantive is elegantly included in the verb. See note on B. i. C 2. St. 19. XVII.

So was he overcome not overcome.] Virgil vii. 295, has the like repetition and play on the word> Num capti potuere capi?

XIX.

He would not once affay

To refkew his own lord] Becaufe by the

freedom.

And on her fhoulder hung her fhield

Πέλτη, pelta,

As the faire moone in her most full afpect--

τῇ δ' ἀπάνευθε σέλας γένετ' ηύτε μήνης. Ejus autem [clypei] in longinquum fulgur ibat tanquam lunae. Hom. II. r'374. Milton had this paffage in his mind, i. 287. The broad circumference

Hung on his fhoulder like the moon whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist fees. As Homer minutely defcribes his chief heroes, viz. Agamemnon and Achilles, dreffing them felves for battle; fo Spenfer, to raife your ideas of her prowess, minutely arms his Amazonian dame and I believe he had Q. Calaber, L. i. Пaçaλ in view, where he defcribes Penthefilea arming herself for battle. He feems likewife to have in view the ftory told of Achilles, who having vanquished Penthefilea, when her helmet was loofed, he himself was vanquifhed with her beautiful face, St. 12, 13.

But whenas he difcovered had her face,
He faw, &c.

Aurea cui poftquam nudavit caffida frontem,
Vicit victorem candida formą virum.
Propert. iii. Eleg. 9, 15.
VI.

She hewd, fhe foynd-] See note on B. i. C.7. St. 8.

X.

With spightfull fpeaches fitting with her well.] Spenfer, a great imitator of the old poets, wrote, I believe, fitting: which fee proved and explained

XXIV.

How for Iolas fake---] His wife Deianira to cure him of his ignominious love fent him, as fhe thought a charm, but it happened to be a poifoned fhirt, which caufed his death. 'Twas not however Iole, but Omphale, a queen of Lydia, with whom he changed his lion's fkin and club for the spindle and diftaff. Sidney in his Arcadia has the fame confufion of proper names, viz. Iole for Omphale,

XXXI.

Ah! my deare DREAD.--] Clarinda, like Anna in Virgil, is the confident of this love-fick queen---'Whilst her mistress is in earnest, she is jefting, and ringing the changes on the word dread, like a profeffed punfter; I fuppofe with intention to make her miftrefs fmile, and to change her melancholy mood.---I know not whether 'tis worth mentioning that Sir Lancelot in the Hiftory of Prince Arthur, is taken captive by four queens, and led into a strong caftle, and releafed from thence by a damfel who falls in love with him, Chap. 103, 104. These kind of adventures are common in Romance writers. .XXXV.

Even at the marke-white of his hart she roved.} She shot her roving arrows at the white mark [alba meta] of his heart.

XXXVI. Fortune envying good.] See note on B.ii. C. 9. St. 8. XXXVIII. Yet weet ye well+] See note on on B. ii. C. 6. St. 1. XLIX. .

With which the rods themselves are mylder made.] Eurip. Medea.

- πένθειν δώρα καὶ Θεὸς λόγος,

4 K 2

CANT О

VI.

Shiftes, &c. And Ovid likewise alludes to this Etymology, in a paffage which is mifunderftood, Epist. i. 40.

Rettulit et ferro Rhefumque Dolonaque cacfos, Utque fit hic fomno proditus, ille dolo. Aufus es, o nimium nimiumque oblite tuorum Thracia nocturno tangere caftra pede. Not dolo a fecond time repeated; the ufual error of transcribers, and particularly the errour, that runs generally through all the Editions of Spenfer. This Dolon had three fons, Guizor flain by Arthegal, B. v. C. 2. St. 11. The other two by Britomart.

Ibid.

But with fie fhiftes and wiles did underminde.] For undermine. As he claims the liberty of tak ing away a letter by rhetorical figure, the more eafily to introduce his jingling terminations, as I have shown in a note on B. iv. C. 11. St. 46. So by another rhetorical figure he claims the licence of adding a fupernumerary letter. In old Inscriptions and old copies you read, Thenfaurus, formonfus, byemps, emptum, fumptus, Juppiter, &c. And in Spenfer in like manner, underminde for undermine.

All clad in linnen robes with filver hemd, And on their heads with long locks-] Spenfer never thinks himself tyed down to exactnefs in minute defcriptions: he has an allegory and a mythology of his own, and takes from others juft as fuits his scheme. 'Tis very well known that the Ægyptian priefts wore linnen robes, and were bald, quite contrary to what Spenfer fays, Qui grege linigero circumdatus, et grege CALVO. Juven. vi. 533. But Spenfer does not carry you to Egypt; you ftand upon allegorical and Fairy ground. He will drefs therefore the priests of Juftice, like the priests of Him, the affeffors of whofe throne Juftice and Judgment are. Pfal. lxxxix. 14. 97.

2.

In the prophet Ezek. though 'tis faid, the priests fhall be clothed with linnen garments: yet 'tis ordered, they shall not fhave their heads. The original command feems to intend that a diftinction fhould be kept up between the Jewish and Ægyptian priefts even in their drefs. See Levit. xxi. 5.

Ibid.

To fhew that Ifis doth the moone portend, Like as Ofiris fignifies the Junne.] Compare Plutarch de Ifid. et Ofir. pag. 131, 132. Edit. Squire. These two deities were looked on as the principals of all things good and beautiful; He the parent and giver of forms, She the receiver. Even the facred veftments of these deities had a hidden meaning; He One, unmixed, prior to all other beings, allowed only veftments of one colour, viz. white linnen robes:

TO

VII.

She like matter recipient of all forms and various natures, had vestments of various colours. The old Egyptian religion feems a confused and fabulous jargon of phyfical, moral, and metaphyfical learning.

VIII.

IVho well perceiving how her wand she shooke It as a token of good fortune TOOKE.] Accepit omen, Virg. xii. 260. 'tis frequently mentioned that the idols, by fome fign or other, gave tokens of their favouring or disfavouring the request of their votaries.

IX.

But on their mother earthes deare lap did lye.] i. e. mother of us all: Homer ufes pixos for fuus, as on their own mother the Earth, the common Spenfer does here and in feveral other places. The priests lye on the ground, like the priests of Jupiter Dodoneus, viz. the 'Exad or as Homer wrote them Fελλ, called afterwards Selli. Il. «. 235. X.

For wine they fay is blood

Even the bloud of gyants.] The Egyptian prifts were next in dignity to the king-they drank no wine until the time of Pfammeticus, the laft of the Pharoes, efteeming it to have sprung from the blood of the giants, &c. Sandys Travels, pag. 103. from Plut. De Ifid. et Ofir. The following Epigram is worth reading, viz. Caelii Calcagnini Ferrarienfis, de vini origine.

Terrigena victi; victor Saturnius; aðis

Undique Phlegrais molibus horror erat. Mafta parens Tellus in vites offa redegit

Čaforum, & vinum eft qui modo fanguis erat. Ah ne quis mala vina bibat! de fanguine nata Qui biberit, cades exitiumque bibet.

XII.

There did the warlike maide berfelf repofe Under the wings of fis all that night.] i. c. under the protection of Ifis. 'Tis a Hebrew phrafe; and frequently used by the Pfalmift... by Jeff. of Monmouth, that Brutus had a viOur poet certainly had in view the story told fion in the temple of Diana, and that the goddefs foretold his fuccefs: her oracle is well known, Brute fub occafu folis, &c.

Sic de prole tua reges nafcentur Jeffry of Monmouth fays, Brutus laid himself down upon a harts skin, which he had spread be

fore

fore the altar: this was according to ancient fuperftition; fee the commentators on Virgil, vii. 88. Pellibus incubuit ftratis. In like manner Britomart has a vifion figuring the future glory of Britain, St. 13. the fearlet robe and crown f gold, are the drefs of the British Kings and Queens, St. 14. The tempeft and outrageous flames image her troubles; which are put an end to by the Crocodile, (St. 15.) imaging Arthegal. The crocodile is the guardian Genius of the place; and among the Ægyptians, according to their facred emblems, reprefented Providence.

That of his game fhe foone enwombed grew
And forth did bring A LION.

meaning a British king, fee St. 23. This is no new invention of our poet; for the mother of Alexander the Great, and of Auguftus Caefar, were both enwombed of a dragon; fo likewise the mother of Scipio: see Milton, ix. 509.

And afterwards a fonne to him fhalt beare, That lion-like fhall fhew his poure EXTREME.] Compare St. 16. juft above, and forth did bring a lion-See likewife B. iii. C. 3. St. 29, 30. Here feems an error of the prefs: for these prophecies having a reference to Britain, 'tis agreeable to this manner of foreftalling events, that proper and peculiar words fhould and peculiar words fhould be used our kings are called sUPREME in all caufes-their Supremacy, and not their extremity, is perpetually recognized. Muft we not there

fore read?

That lion-like fhall fhew his powre SUPREME. XXIV.

Ne refted 'till fhe came without relent] i. e. without ftopping. Ital. rallentare, rallentamento. See