What if in wild amazement, and affright,

Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp
Of savage hunger, or of savage heat?

356

360

Eld. Bro. Peace, brother! be not over exquisite
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils.
For grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid?
Or if they be but false alarms of fear,
How bitter is such self delusion?

I do not think my Sister so to seek,

365

(359) Of the two brothers I take the elder to be the one on the left hand nearest to South America, as well because he is nearer to the Peer and accordingly described as the shepherd's master's heir in 506, (it being remembered that the Peer's prototype lies on the banks of the River Amazon) as because, in 593, he uses the expression this I hold firm, alluding to the district of Terra Firma in South America, on which his prototype borders; which district seems to be again alluded to in line 603.

Or so unprincipled in virtue's book,

And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, As that the single want of light and noise

(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370 Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, And put them into misbecoming plight.

Virtue could see to do what virtue would

By her own radiant light, though sun and moon

(374.) Having now explained that the ague and fever is the subject of this mask or drama, and furher explained the principal dramatis personæ, it is now fit to point out the preventives or remedies for that ague and fever, which, (disguisedly indeed and as under a mask) are here and there indicated in it. The allusion to the smoking of tobacco contained in the 324th line, has already been noticed. Antecedently to that, namely in the 215th and 219th lines, I think there was an allusion to camphor, by a reference to its whiteness (unblemished form) its glistering or shining (219) and from its well known efficacy in subduing the desires of love and promoting chastity (215).

Were in the flat sea sunk; and wisdom's self 375 Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,

Where, with her best nurse contemplation,

She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,
That in the various bustle of resort

Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impair'd. 380
He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit i' th' centre and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts,

These two I regard as preventives rather than remedies; the latter, camphor, is for that reason called a guardian in 219; and in this line, the 374th, we have an allusion to another substance, useful for the like purpose, alum, or alumine, as it is sometimes called, (a name which is played upon in the word light, or lumen, 374, 381). In the expression, she plumes her feathers (378) there is a special reference to the sort called the plumous or feathered alum. This substance also, according to the concluding lines of this speech of the elder brother, is treated (here at least) as a preventive. It will be observed upon again in a future note.

Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

Himself is his own dungeon.

2 Bro. 'Tis most true,

That musing meditation most affects

The pensive secrecy of desert cell,

Far from the chearful haunt of men and herds,
And sits as safe as in a senate house;

For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,

His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,
Or do his grey hairs any violence?

38.5

390

But beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree

Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard 395

(395) This line alludes to the lady's having her prototype in a district adjoining to the gold-producing country of Mexico; the mines of which (unsunn'd heaps, 399) as well as their neighbourhood to the country of the Buccaneers, (outlaw's den, 400) are presently noticed; and the 401st line proves that the brother is the righthand one of the Gemini, as being situate near the gold-producing country just now mentioned. In the 406th line the apparently coarse term dog in

younger

Of dragon-watch, with uninchanted eye,

To save her blossoms and defend her fruit
From the rash hand of bold incontinence.

You may as well spread out the unsunn'd heaps

Of miser's treasure by an out-law's den,

And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope
Danger will wink on opportunity,
And let a single helpless maiden pass
Uninjur'd in this wild surrounding waste.
Of night, or loneliness it recks me not;

I fear the dread events that dog them both,

4.00

405

Lest some ill greeting touch attempt the person

Of our unown'd sister:

Eld. Bro. I do not, brother,

Infer as if I thought my sister's state
Secure without all doubt or controversy:
Yet where an equal poise of hope or fear
Does arbitrate th' event, my nature is,

That I incline to hope rather than fear,

410

And gladly banish squint suspicion.

My sister is not so defenceless left

415

volves a pun upon the word cub, in Cuba; of

which confirmations will be offered hereafter.