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Pro. Dearly, my delicate Ariel : Do not approach, Till thou doft hear me call.

Ari. Well, I conceive.

[Exit.

Pro. Look, thou be true; do not give dalliance Too much the rein; the ftrongeft oaths are ftraw To the fire i'the blood: be more abftemious, Or elfe, good night, your vow!

Fer. I warrant you, fir;

The white, cold, virgin-fnow upon my heart
Abates the ardour of my liver.

Pro. Well.

Now come, my Ariel; bring a corollary, Rather than want a fpirit; appear, and pertly. 'No tongue; all eyes; be filent.

A Mafque. Enter Iris.

[Soft mufick,

Iris. Ceres, moft bounteous lady, thy rich leas Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and pease; Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, And flat meads thatch'd with ftover, them to keep;

8 bring a corollary,] That is, bring more than are fufficient, rather than fail for want of numbers. Corollary means furplus. Corolaire, Fr. See Cotgrave's Dictionary. STEEVENS.

9 No tongue;-] Those who are prefent at incantations are obliged to be ftrictly filent, "elfe," as we are afterwards told, "the fpell is marred." JOHNSON.

-thatch'd with flover,-] Stover, from Eftovers, a law word, fignifies an allowance in food or other neceffaries of life. It is here used for provifion in general for animals.

From the following inftance, ftover should mean the pointed blades of grafs or corn:

.6 Beard, be confin'd to neatness, that no hair
"May ftover up to prick my mistress' lip
"More rude than briftles of a porcupine."

Love's Sacrifice, 1633.

The word occurs again in the 25th fong of Drayton's Polyolbion: "To draw out fedge and reed, for thatch and fover fit."

Again in his Mufes Elyzium:

"Their brows and flover waxing thin and fcant."

G 3

STEEVENS.

! Thy

2 Thy banks with pionied and twilled brims, Which fpungy April at thy heft betrims,

To make cold nymphs chafte crowns; and thy broom groves,

Whose shadow the difmiffed batchelor loves,

2 Thy banks with pionied, and twilled brims,] The old edition reads pioned and twilled brims, which gave rife to Mr. Holt's conjecture, that the poet originally wrote,

with pioned and tilled brims.

Spenfer and the author of Muleaffes the Turk, a tragedy, 1610, ufe pioning for digging. It is not therefore difficult to find a meaning for the word as it ftands in the old copy; and remove a letter from twilled and it leaves us tilled. I am yet, however, in doubt whether we ought not to read lillied brims, for Pliny, b. XXVI. ch. x. mentions the water-lilly as a preferver of chaftity; and fays, elsewhere, that the Pæony medetur Faunorum in Quiete Ludibriis, &c. In the Arraignment of Paris, 1584, are mentioned

"The watry flow'rs, and lillies of the banks.”

In the 20th fong of Drayton's Polyolbion, the Naiades are reprefented as making chaplets with all the tribe of aquatic flowers; and Mr. Tollet informs me that Lyte's Herbal fays" one kind of peonie is called by fome, maiden or virgin peonie."

In Ovid's Banquet of Senfe, by Chapman, 1595, I met with the following stanza, in which twill-pants are enumerated among flowers:

White and red jafmines, merry, melliphill,

"Fair crown-imperial, emperor of flowers, "Immortal amaranth, white aphrodill,

"And cup-like twill-pants ftrew'd in Bacchus bowers." If twill be the ancient name of any flower, the prefent reading, pionied and willed may uncontrovertibly ftand. STEEVENS. 3 and thy broom groves,] A grove of broom, I believe, was never heard of, as it is a low fhrub and not a tree. Hanmer reads brown groves. STEEVENS.

Difappointed lovers are still faid to wear the willow, and in thefe lines broom groves are affigned to that unfortunate tribe for a retreat. This may allude to fomne old cuftom. We still say that a husband hangs out the broom when his wife goes from home for a fhort time; and on fuch occafions a broom befom has been exhibited as a fignal that the house was freed from uxorial restraint, and where the mafter might be confidered as a temporary bachelor, Broom grove may fignify broom bushes. See Grava in Cowel's Law Dict, TOLLET,

Being lafs-lorn; thy pole-clipt vineyards;
And thy fea-marge, fteril, and rocky-hard,
Where thou thyfelf do'ft air; The queen o' the sky,
Whose watery arch, and meffenger, am I,
Bids thee leave thefe; and with her fovereign grace,
Here on this grafs-plot, in this very place,
To come and sport: her peacocks fly amain;
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain,

Enter Ceres.

Cer. Hail, many-colour'd meffenger, that ne'er Doft disobey the wife of Jupiter;

Who, with thy faffron wings, upon my flowers
Diffuseft honey drops, refreshing showers;
And with each end of thy blue bow doft crown
"My bofky acres, and my unfhrubb'd down,
Rich fcarf to my proud earth; Why hath thy queen
Summon'd me hither, 7 to this fhort-grafs'd green?
Iris. A contract of true love to celebrate;
And fome donation freely to estate
On the blefs'd lovers.

Cer. Tell me, heavenly bow,

If Venus, or her son, as thou do’st know,
Do now attend the queen? fince they did plot
The means, that dusky Dis my daughter got,

4 Being lafs-lorn;] Lafs-lorn is forfaken of his mistress. So Spenfer:

STEEVENS.

"Who after that he had fair Una lorn." 5thy pole-clipt vineyard,] To clip is to twine round or embrace. The poles are clipt or embraced by the vines. STEEVENS, My bofky acres, &c.] Bofky is woody. Bofquet, Fr. Sq Milton :

"And every bofky bourn from fide to fide.”

Again in K. Edward I. 1599:

7

"Hale him from hence, and in this boky wood
"Bury his corps." STEEVENS.

-to this fhort-grafs'd green?] The old copy reads fhortgraz'd green. Short-graz'd green means grazed fo as to be fort.

STEEVENS.

Her and her blind boy's fcandal'd company
I have forfworn.

Iris. Of her fociety

Be not afraid I met her deity

}

Cutting the clouds towards Paphos; and her fon
Dove-drawn with her: here thought they to have done
Some wanton charm upon this man and maid,
Whofe vows are, that no bed-rite shall be paid
Till Hymen's torch be lighted but in vain;
Mars's hot minion is return'd again;

Her wafpifh-headed fon has broke his arrows,
Swears he will fhoot no more, but play with fparrows,
And be a boy right out.

8

Cer. High queen of ftate,

Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait.

Enter Juno.

Jun. How does my bounteous fifter? Go with me, To blefs this twain, that they may profperous be, And honour'd in their iffue.

Jun. Honour, riches, marriage-bleffing,

Long continuance, and increafing,

High queen of fate,] Mr. Whalley thinks this paffage in The Tempeft:

High queen of fate,

Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait,

a remarkable inftance of Shakespeare's knowledge of ancient poetic story; and that the hint was furnished by the Divûm incedo Regina of Virgil,.

John Taylor, the water-poet, declares, that he never learned his Accidence, and that Latin and French were to him Heathen Greek; yet by the help of Mr. Whalley's argument, I will prove hin a learned man, in fpite of every thing he may fay to the contrary: for thus he makes a gallant addrefs his lady; "Moft

inestimable magazine of beauty! in whom the port and majefty of Juno, the wifdom of Jove's braine-bred girle, and the fea66 ture of Cytherea, have their domestical habitation." FARMER, So in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584:

Firft ftatelie Juno, with her porte and grace."

STEEVENS.

Hourly

9

Hourly joys be ftill upon you!
Funo fings her bleffings on you.

Cer. Earth's increase, and foifon plenty 1;
Barns, and garners, never empty;
Vines, with cluflring bunches growing 3
Plants, with goodly burden bowing;
Spring come to you, at the fartheft,
In the very end of harvest!

Scarcity, and want, shall shun you ;
Ceres bleffing fo is on you.

Fer. This is a moft majestic vifion, and * Harmonious charmingly: May I be bold To think thefe fpirits?

Pro. Spirits, which by mine art

I have from their confines call'd to enact
My prefent fancies.

Fer. Let me live here ever;

So rare a wonder'd father, and a wife,
Make this place paradise.

Pro. Sweet now, filence:

Juno, and Ceres, whisper feriously;

9 Earth's incrcafe,] All the editions, that I have ever feen, concur in placing this whole fonnet to Juno; but very abfurdly, in my opinion. I believe every accurate reader, who is acquainted with poetical history, and the diftinct offices of thefe two goddeffes, and who then ferioufly reads over our author's lines, will agree with me, that Ceres's name ought to have been placed where I have now prefixed it. THEOBALD.

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-foifon plenty ;] i. e. plenty to the utmost abundance;

foifon fignifying plenty.

So in Adam Davie's poem of the Life of Alexander:

"All the innes of the ton

"Hadden litel foyfon." STEEVENS.

Harmonious charmingly:-] Mr. Edwards would read,

Harmonious charming lay:

For though (fays he) the benediction is fung by two goddeffes, it is yet but one lay or hymn. I believe this paffage appears as it was written by the poet, who, for the fake of the verse, made the words change places; and then the meaning is fufficiently obvious. STEEVENS,

There's

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