FOR who but thou alone NT O That art yborne of heav'n and heavenly fire, Can tell things doen in heav'n fo long agone.] The poet, reaffuming his fubject, calls upon the affiftance of the Muse, in imitation of his brother poets. Compare Homer. Il. ii. 484. Dicite nunc Mufæ cæleftia tecta tenentes ; Nam vos diva eftis, nec abeftis, cunctaque noftis ; Ad nos vix tenuis famæ perlabitur aura. See likewise Virg. vii. 641. and Milton i. 27. Say firft, for heav'n hides nothing from thy view— IV. VII. Ipfa, i. e. fponte fuâ. Compare a like image in Lucretius i. Tibi fuaves dadala Tellus fummittit flores. And in Homer. Il. 347. From whom Milton, in B. viii. 513. So our poet again in St. 10. And all the earth far underneath her feet Was dight with flowers that voluntary grew Out of the ground-- IX. So hard it is---] This Stanza I think misplaced, it seems to me that it fhould be put after the 12th Stanza. For fee how regularly they follow each other. But th' earth itfelf of her free motion And all the earth far underneath her feet Ibid. That old dan Geffrey---- in his Foules parley] viz. The affemble of Foules [edit. Urry. page 413. See ver. 302, &c.] Ibid. But it transferd to Alane, who he thought Had in his plaint of KINDES defcribed it well. We must read plaint of kinde: fo Chaucer, in the Affemble of Foules, verf. 316. And right as Alaine in the plaint of KINDE He refers to a treatife written by Alanus de In fulis, DE PLANCTU NATURÆ contra Sodomie vitium: This book was never (fo far as I can find) printed, nor ever feen by Spenfer, which makes him fay, Which who will read fet forth, fo as it ought, Go feek he out that Alane, where he may be fought. There is a MS. of this Alane, De Planetu Naturæ, of the plaint of kinde, or of Nature, in the Bodley Library: which begins thus, In lacrymas rifus, in luctus gaudia verto, X. Tenne thousand mores of fundry fent and bew.] In Hughes' edition 'tis fpelt more: we use the word in the Weft of England for roots, &c. Somner, Anglo-S. moɲan, acini, baccæ, femina. XII. On Haemus hill-'twixt Peleus and dame Thetis.--] He fays the bridale of Peleus and Thetis was celebrated on Haemus (a hill on the confines of Theffaly) because Ovid reciting the amours of Peleus and Thetis (Met. xi. 229.] begins, Eft finus Haemoniæ, &c. And Peleus is called Haemonius Peleus, by Tibullus, L. i. Eleg. vi. verf. 9. But Apollodorus fays exprefly, p. 218. that the marriage was celebrated on mount Pelion and Catullus who wrote the Epithalamium (Spenfer alluding to it fays Phoebus felf did fing the poufall hymne) begins with, Peliaco quondam, &c. : XIII. This great grandmother of all creatures bred, Great Nature-] This great grandmother of all creatures that ever were bred or born, viz. great Nature, &c. He feems to call Nature great grandmother, &c. in imitation of Orpheus' hymn to Nature, Ω Φύσι, παμμήτειρα θεά, πολυμήχανε μήτης. See the note above on Canto vi. St. 35. And fpeaking of Nature, ftill moving, yet unmoved from her fled, he feems to have Boetius in his eye, who thus addreffes the God of Nature, -Stabilifq; manens das cuncta movere. XVII. calls the beafts The wild burgefes of the foreft. And Davenant in Gondibert, B. ii. C. 6. St. 69. with Spenfer, perhaps, in his eye, fays, Each bumbled thus his beafts led from aboard, As fellow paffengers and heirs to breath, Joint tenants to the world, he not their lord. The thought was too pretty to efcape the notice of Mr. Pope, hence in his Effay of Man, iii. 152. Man walk'd with beaft joint tenant of the fade. XXV. Thus all these four (the which the ground-work bee Of all the world-] The poet had his eye on Pythagoras' doctrine in Ovid. Met. xv. 239. Quatuor æternus genitalia corpora mundus Continet XXX. Laden with fruits that made him laugh, full glad That he-] The context is faulty by an error of the prefs. These four feasons are characterized as perfons in Ovid. Met. ii. 27. xv. 206. Lucretius v. 736. And in Spanheim's notes on Callimachus, pag. 726. there is an engraving of a medal, representing the four seasons with their proper fymbols. XXXII. And in a bag all forts of feeds y fame,] i. e. collected together: 'tis a participle, from the Anglo-Sax. ramnian, or geramnian, to collect or gather together: the Anglo-S. ze was into y, and prefixed oftentimes to participles. afterwards by our old English writers changed Yfame is not in this paffage now before us, the adverb, rame, fimul, unà, pariter: though the very learned editor of Junius feems to think fo, YSAME, yfome,fimul, unà. Spenferus. Anglo-S. Goth. Samana, quod confonum eft ram. Gr.ua.' 'Tis not yfame, that is an adverb; but fame or fam: as our poet ufes it in his Eclogue named May, verf. 168. For what concord have light and darke SAM ? i. e. together. Let me add in confirmation of my interpretation the Teutonick, SAMMEN I do poffeffe the worlds moft regiment] The Colligere. Hence our word Sum, meaning the chief government of the world. XVIII. fum total of many particulars collected together though a Latinift will not doubt but that we had this word from them. : XXXVII. A lovely maid- the which was cround With cares of corne, and full her hand was found.] i. e. And her hand was found full of eares of corn: fee the figure of Virgo in Hyginus: fhe is there pictured with three cares of corne in her right hand: Aratus feems to say she had but one eare of corn, Spicum inluftre tenens fplendenti corpore Virgo. Germanicus. Aratus: Compare Theo's commentary on from which, and the tranflators of Aratus, as well as from her figure in the globes, I would correct Aratus, and read, — ρ ἐν ΧΕΙΡΙ Φέρει ταχυν ἀιγλήεντα, noti, XEPEI. So Spenfer her hand, not her hands. XXXIX. -in the wine fats fee.] See, or Sea, is, by a kind of a catachrefis, used for the liquor in the The fame which by Dianas doom unjust Slew great Orion-]Orion was a famous hunter, in love with Aurora; (or the morning, as hunters generally are ;) Diana out of a fit of womanifh jealoufy, because he was not the fole object of his care and love, fent a fcorpion that killed him. Her doom was therefore unjuft. XL. The feed of Saturne and faire Nais----] Chiron was the fon of Saturne, and of a faire Naid, viz. Philyra daughter of the Ocean. See note on B. iii. C. 11. St. 43. XLI. Upon a fhaggy bearded goat he rode; The fame wherewith dan Jove in tender years, They fay, was nourisht by the Iaan mayd.] So these verses should have been printed; Shaggy and bearded are two diftinct epithets joined without any connective particle to one fubftantive; See the note above, Canto 6. St. 22. There fhould But not have been fo full a point after yeares. what does he mean by the Lean mayd? The Mythologifts (Hyginus and Eratofthenes) inform us that Capricornus was made a conftellation, because he was educated with Jupiter: and when Jupiter affumed the throne of heaven, he placed Capricorn, and the goat his fofter-mother among the ftars. Capricorn is called Caper in the verfes defcribing the names of the Zodiac: hence perhaps Spenfer, in the hurry of a poet, took the goat that nourished Jupiter for the goat that was nourished with Jupiter. Naïs Amalthea, Cretaâ nobilis Idâ, XLII. Yet did he quake and quiver like to quell.] like to die; or to be starved. Ibid. Upon an huge great earth-pot fteane he flood, From whole wide mouth there flowed forth the Roman flood] Earth-pot fteane, viz. Amphora: fo the conftellation is named in the well-known verses that mention the twelve figns of the Zodiac: by Eratofthenes called oxón, by Ovid and Manilius, Urna. Spenfer's fpelling feane is agreeable to the Belgic word fteen, a iteenpot. Aquarius is painted pouring out from his fteen-pot or urn, a flood, xúc idát, effusio aqua, which Spenfer calls the Roman flood: not to be confounded with the conftellation called by various names, viz. moraμès, Fluvius, Oceanus, Nilus, Eridanus, Padus, &c. 183 XLV. The Howres Spenfer fays they were ] daughters of Jupiter and Night, i. e. of day and night: Our poet has a mythology of his own: Hefiod fays, of Jupiter and Themis, Theog. ver. 900. They were porters of Heaven's gate: So Homer, Iliad é 749. Ovid introduces Janus in his Faft. Lib. i. faying that he and the Hours together were porters of Heaven, Præfideo foribus cæli cum mitibus Horis. Milton, likewise, who could not keep himself from mingling his mythological lore with his more divine fubject, affigns the Hours an office in Heaven; and 'tis remarkable that he gives it an angel's fanction, for Raphael speaks, B. vi. ver. 3. PA ADDENDA & AGE 332. column 1. line 13. for B. iv. C. 2. St. 10. read B. iv. C. 11. St. 10. P.333. P. 333. C. 1. 1.45. for B. ii. C. 6. St. 76. read B. ii. Č. 10. St. 76. P. 334. C. 2. 1. 1. for del mi' read del mio. P. 337. C. 1. 1. 4. for typefied read typified. 25. for Perrigil read Pervigil: P. 338. C. 1. 1. Veneris. P. 339. C. 2. 1. 13. dele at a time. P. 340. C. 2. 1. 40. add, This last seems plainly the trueft interpretation; but it may admit a question whether the poet did not write, The Mirrbe, fweet bleeding in her bitter wound. P.341. C. 1.1. 16. for in Comus read in his Mask. P. 347. C. 2. 1. 13. read Gallicifm. 1. 41. dele more. ·P. 350. C. 2. 1. 37. for find his hero, read fend his hero. P. 357. C. 1. l. 33. after beforehand, add, See note on B. ii. C. 1. St. 36. P. 365. C. 2. 1. 22. add xxxi. Much like-] See note on B. vi. C. 11. St. 44. P. 372. C. 2. 1. 48. add xli. Whofe Shield he bears renverft-] Compare B. v. C. 3. St. 37. where Braggadocio is difgraced and degraded, Then from him reft his shield, and it renverst. The punishment of these recreant knights was reputari pro felono ac arma fua reverfari. See Renverft in the Gloffary. P. 383. C. 2. 1. ult. read Hiftory of the world, B. i. Chap. x. Sect. 1. P. 391. C. 2. 1. 37. after need another place, add, I believe that Cervantes has abruptly broken off the combat between the valorous Bifcainer and Don Quixote in imitation of Boyardo and Ariofto: and hence likewife we may illuftrate Hudibras in the firft Canto, where the author tells us, Th' adventure of the Bear and Fiddle, Is fung, but breaks off in the middle. N. B. The printer after page 392. has wrongly numbered fome of the following pages. P. 391. note XLV. place this in page 398. C. 2. after note XLIV. P. 419. after note L. add LI. With merry note ber loud falutes the mounting lark.] He feems to have Chaucer in view, in the Knight's Tale, 1493. The merry lark, messenger of day, Salewing in her fong the morow gray. P. 469. C. 1. 1. 31. after of mind intemperate, add, And this reading, namely, Enfample be of mind intemperate. he ufes enfample for punishment. Let us hear I rather think to be our poet's true reading: A. Gellius, L. vi. C. 14. Poenitio propter exemplum eft neceffaria — idcirco veteres quoque noftri exempla pro maximis graviffimifque pœnis dicebant. So Plautus Captiv. Act III. Quando ego te exemplis excruciavero. P. 470. C. 2. 1. 18. at the end of note LXVI. add, It may allude likewife to the time allowed for furveying, according to the facred mysteries, the infernal regions, which was two nights and one day: And this time Spenfer calls three days. See Plutarch de Genio Socratis: and confult the commentators on Virgil vi. 535. P. 481. at the end of note XXII. add, Perhaps the reader might think fome fraud intended him, if he should hear that Sir Kenhelm Digby had commented on this mysterious Stanza, and no notice taken of it in my notes; which I am very glad were written before I had fuffered myfelf to have been prepoffeffed by this ingenious adept, whofe following letter was first printed in the year 1644, and afterwards reprinted in a collection of letters entitled Cabala. To |