Then to the reft his wrathful BRAND he bends. This is agreeable to Spenfer's manner of expreffion, and preferving that iteration of letters, which he is fo apparently fond of: befides the expreffion is more poetical, keeping up the idea of a foldier, his wrathful brand.--

L.

to cover what SHE ought by kind.] So the

Folios: but the old quarto, what THEY ought by kind, i. e. by nature. The reading of the old quarto is not to be entirely difregarded; for the transition from the fingular to the plural, from Serena to women in general, is eafy; and agreeable to the manner of the best writers of antiquity.

CA

II.

-WHICH I forbore

To finish then.] See B. vi. C. 3. St. 26.

where fhepherds lie

In winter's wrathfull TIME.] I believe Spenfer wrote TINE or TEEN: which fee in the Gloffary; 'tis Chaucer's expreffion, and he uses it, B. iv. C. 3. St. 23. where confult the note in page 588. He has Chaucer in view likewife in the following stanza,

The whyles their beaftes there in the budded broomes Befide them fed

So in the house of Fame, Urry's edit. p. 466. ver. 134.

And pipis made of grene corne,
As have little herde gromes,
That keepin beftis in the bromes.

E. K. who wrote notes on Spenfer's Paftorals, fays he took the following verfes in February, Ecl. ii. from Chaucer,

So loyt'ring live you little herd groomes, Keeping your beafts in the budded broomes. He uses Chaucer's expreffion likewife in St. 7. Such homely what as ferves the fimple clown. Such homely fare, things, wherewithal, &c. So in the House of Fame pag. 470. ver. 651. Ne ellis what [nor any thing elfe] fro women fent. And in the Rom. of the Rofe 6737.

For to worchin, as he had what, [i. e. wherewithal.]

So likewife our poet in his ixth Ecl. September, Then plainly to fpeake of shepheards most what. VOL. II.

And in his viith Ecl. July,

IX.

Come downe, and learne the little what
That Thomalin can faine.

Spenfer in his letter to his friend Gabriel Harvey says that he is maintained abroad, most what, by the Earl of Leicester.---He likewise in St. 8. keeps ftill Chaucer in view,

The luftie fhepheard swaynes fate in a rout. Chaucer's Troil. and Cref. ii. 613.

And men cried in the freet, fee Troilus Hath right now put to flight the Grekis rout. i. e. the Grecians. So in ver. 620.

An eafie pace riding, in routis tweine,

i. e. in two companies. It feems to me that our poet had Chaucer perpetually in view in all these paffages here cited, and all following each other and as the emendation which I offer is more poetically expreffed, and has its fanction too from Chaucer, fo I make no question myfelf but he wrote

In winter's wrathful TINE ---

But we offer our emendations, and place them only in the notes, at a diftance from the context, for the examination of the reader.

the paftoral of Daphnis and Cloe by Longus: which paftoral-romance if the reader confults, he will find fome correfponding paffages and

imitations.

XXI.

Quamobrem vereor equidem ne homines temerè deos incufent quafi mala ab iis inferantur: ii verò feu protervitate quadam, five infipientia fibi ipfi dolores morte acriores pariunt. So Ficinus: who fhould have tranflated it, fuâ ftultitiâ præter fatum

Crefcentem fequitur cura pecuniam.

Ibid.

Aud my flockes father daily doth amend it.] This expreffion is taken from the paftoral poets. Ω τράγε, τῶν λευκᾶν ἀιγᾶν ἄνερ, Ο hirce, albarum caprarum vir. Theoc. viii. 49. Vir gregis ipje caper, Virg. Ecl. vii. 7.

Thy flockes father his courage hath loft. Spenf. in Feb. Ecl. 2. Let me add a fimilar expreffion of Horace L. i. Od. 17. Olentis uxores mariti.

XXIX.

In vain, faid then old Melibee, doe MEN
The heavens of their fortunes fault accufe;
Sith they know beft what is the best for THEM:
For they to each fuch fortune dae diffufe,

As they doe know each can most aptly ufe.] THEM rhymes fo faintly to MEN that I confulted all the editions over again to fee if I could find any difference, or the following reading,

Sith they know beft what is the best. And then
They to each one juch fortune dae diffufe,
As they, &c.

Spenfer has made this fine reflection before; and, like Homer he repeats his fine reflections and good fayings, that you might not forget them.

Right true: but faulty men ufe oftentimes To attribute their folly unto fate, And lay on heaven the guilt of their own crimes. B. v. C. 4. St. 28. Old Homer led the way; thus tranflated by Mr. Pope Odyff. i. 32.

Why charge mankind on heaven their own offence, And call their woes the crime of Providence? Blind! who themselves their miferies create, And perish by their folly, not their fate. Plato fays very finely in Rep. x. ἀιτία ἐλομένε, Ords úrários. Eligentis culpa eft; Deus extra culpam. and dwells on this fubject in his 2d Alcibiades, iyw μὲν ἦν ἀπορῶ μὴ ὡς ἀληθῶς μάτην θεὺς ἄνθρωποι ἀιτιῶνται ἐξ ἐκεινων φάμενοι κακὰ σφίσιν εἶναι· ὁι δὲ αυτὸν σφῆσιν ἔντε ἀταυθαλίαισιν (Jcribe ατασθαλίησιν, Hom. Od. ά. 34, vel communi linguâ àτaobariais.) ἴτε ἀφροσύναις χρὴ ἐπεῖν, ὑπὶς μόρον ἄλγε' ἔχεσι.

Hom. Od. ά. 34. Juvenal from this Socratic chart has borrowed his xth Satire. Plautus has imitated it in Pfeudol. A&t ii.

Stulti haud fimus, fruftra ut fimus, cum quod cupienter dari

Petimus nobis, quafi quid in rem fit, poffimus nofcere.

Gerta amittimus, dum incerta petimus, atque hoc evenit,

In labore atque in dolore, ut mors obrepat interim. Shakesp. Ant. and Cleop. Act. II.

----We ignorant of ourselves

Beg often our own harms, which the wife Powers
Deny us for our good; fo find we profit
By lofing of our prayers.

Chaucer in the Knight's Tale, 1253.

Alas! why phleynin men fo in commune
Of purveyance of God, or of Fortune,
That giveth them full ofte in many a gife
Well bettir than themfelvin can devife.
In Troil. and Cref. IV. 197.

O Juvenal (Lorde!) trewe is thy fentence,
That litil wenin folke what is to yerne,
That thei ne findin in ther defire offence,
For cloud of error ne lette hem difcerne
What beft is.

Juvenal Sat. x.

Pauci dignofcere poffunt

Vera bona, atque illis multum diverfa, remotá
Erroris nebulâ: quid enim ratione timemus
Aut cupimus?

Nil ergo optabunt homines? fi confilium vis
Permittes ipfis expendere numinibus, quid
Conveniat nobis, rebufque fit utile noftris:
Nam pro jucundis aptiffima quæque dabunt Dii :
Carior eft illis homo, quàm fibi. Nos animorum
Impulfu et cæca magnaque cupidine ducti
Conjugium petimus-------

This verfe I formerly corrected: Juvenal was not fo little of a philofopher as to bid us contradict all impulfes and inftincts of the mind; nor fo bad a poet as to fay et cæca magnaque cupidine, as if he wanted to prop his verfe by a number of epithets; but he seems to have written,

--nos animorum

Impulfu cæco, magnaque cupidine duɛti Conjugium petimus, partumque uxoris; at illis Notum, qui pueri, qualifque futura fit uxor. The only petition in the hymn of Adam and

Eve is in verse 206.

Hail univerfal Lord, be bounteous ftill
TO GIVE US ONELY GOOD.

Which Milton did not take from that celebrated
prayer in Plato Ziv Cache, x. A. as Bentley
βασιλεῦ, λ.
thinks, but he literally tranflates Xenophon,
απομο Bib. ά. κεφ. γ'. καὶ εύχετο δὲ πρὸς τὸς θεὸς
ΑΠΛΩΣ ΤΑΓΑΘΑ ΔΙΔΟΝΑΙ, ὡς τὰς Θεὺς κάλλιςα
ἐιδότας ὁποια ἀγαθά ἐςι. Socrates autem precabatur
deos fimpliciter ut bona largirentur tanquam dii
optime fcirent, cujufmodi res fint bona.
fint bone. In our
most excellent and truly divine Book of Com-
mon Prayer, we have feveral petitions of like
fort.---Fulfil the petitions of thy fervants as may be
most expedient for them---Almighty God, the foun-
tain of all wifdom, who knoweft our neceffities be-
fore we afk, and our ignorance in asking, "&c.--
We beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things,
and to give us thofe things which be profitable for us,
&c. Many of the collects are drawn up in
this true chriftian and philofophical spirit of

prayer.

XXX.

XXXII.

So forth he drew much gold, and torvard him it drive]
For drives. See note on B. iv. C. II.
St. 46.
XXXVI.

That who had feene him then, would have bethought
On Phrygian Paris by PLEXIPPUS brook,
When he the love of faire BENONE fought,
What time the golden apple was unto him brought.]
This is the reading of the quarto and all the
folios: Hughes has printed it Oenone; which is
indeed right; and yet Spenfer I believe wrote
Benone; for he loves to mifwrite proper names.
-Paris was educated on mount Ida, where he
married the nymph Oenone,

PEGASIS Oenone, Phrygiis celeberrima fylvis.
Ovid. Epift. v. 3.

Obferve this word Pegafis, and fee if from hence we cannot get the true explanation and understanding of Plexippus' brook. [Oenone fontis filia and Ts. See Burman's edit. and notes.] Spenfer loves, as I faid above, to mifwrite proper names; he does not fay Pege, Pegafis, Pedafis or Pegafion: nor follows any commentator; but as he corrupts the name of Oenone and writes Benone; fo he corrupts the name of the Brook near which Oenone was educated, and who was faid to be the daughter of a fountain, and writes it Plexippus.-This is my

XXXI.

Since then in each mans felf, faid Calidore, It is to fashion his owne lyfes eftate.] So above, each hath his fortune in his breaft.-Sith each unto himself his life may fortunize. Quifque fue fortuna faber, Salluft. Valentior omni fortuna eft animus; qui in utramque partem res fuas ducit, beatæque ac miferæ vitæ fibi caufa eft: Seneca.

Nam fapiens quidem pol ipfe fingit fortunam fibi.
Plautus Trin. ii. z.

A manly grace and wit may fhun the Snare:
Tis faid a wife man all mishaps withstands:
For though by ftarres we borne to mischiefs are,
Yet grace and prudence bayles our careful bandes.
Each man (they fay) his fate hath in his hands,
And what he marres or makes to leefe or fave,
Of good or evil, is even felf doe felf have.

Higgins Mirr. of Magistr. Fol. 252.

formerly understood it otherwife: viz. that Plexippus was the fame as Hippocrene; from nańrlw, Ew, percutio and Tros, equus imaging that this whole ftory of Paris and the three goddeffes, which appeared on mount Ida, was invented by the drinkers of the fountain Hippocrene. But let the reader please himself, and improve the hint here given, if he thinks it not fatisfactory.

XXXVII.

He durft not enter into th' open greene,
For dread of them unwares to be defcryde,
For breaking of their dance, if he were feene.]
Sir Calidore durft not enter into the
open
green, for fear of being unawares feen by them,
For breaking, i. e. on account of, or left they
fhould break their dance, if he were feen. I
cannot however help thinking that For twice
thus repeated is the ufual error in the printing
this book; and a much better reading occurs,
viz.

He durft not enter into th' open greene,
For dread of them unwares to be defcryde,
And breaking off their dance, if he were feene.

Look how the crown-] The comparison of thefe fair damzels, dancing in a ring, to the conftellation called Ariadne's crown, is very elegant and juft: but our poet differs from the mythologifts, in fuppofing that the Centaurs. and Lapithæ fought at the wedding of Thefeus. If the reader at his leifure is defirous of feeing the various accounts of this conftellation, he may confult Hyginus, Poet. Aftron. L. ii. C. 5. The accounts of Ariadne, as well as of her conftellation, are very various, as may be feen in Plutarch's life of Thefeus; Homer's Odyff. xi. 324. and the Scholiaft. This beautiful conftellation is described by Ov. Met. viii. 178. Faft. iii. 511. And by Manilius i. 326.

At parte ex alia claro volat orbe Corona,
Luce micans variâ; nam ftellâ vincitur unâ
Circulus, in media radians quæ maxima fronte,
Candidaque ardenti diftinguens lumina flammâ,
Gnoffia deferta fulget monumenta puellæ.

In tranfcribing these verses I have made a very fmall alteration, viz. diftinguens for diftinguit: but Doctor Bentley has too far left the original in his alterations.

Comes L. iv. C. 15. But poets and mythologifts relate very various ftories of the Graces, both as to their parents, and names, and number. XXIV.

But two of them ftill forward feemd to bee,

But one fill towards fhowd herself afore.] This is wrongly printed from the old quarto and Folio, 1609. It fhould have been printed from the Folio 1617, and 1679.

But two of them ftill froward feemd to beei. e. as he explains it in the last verse of this Stanza, that good bould goe FROM US in greater ftore than come TOWARDS us. Anglo- S. peano, verfus. fɲampeand, froward. See Spenfer's 4th Ecl. April: with the notes of his friend E. K.