75

Of human mould with gross unpurged ear;
And yet such music worthiest were to blaze
The peerless height of her immortal praise,
Whose lustre leads us, and for her most fit,
If my inferior hand or voice could hit
Inimitable sounds, yet as we go,
Whate'er the skill of lesser gods can show,
I will assay, her worth to celebrate,
And so attend ye toward her glittering state:
Where ye may all that are of noble stem
Approach, and kiss her sacred vesture's hem.

80

so,

Song II. O’ER the smooth enamell'd green, Where no print of step hath been,

85 73. With gross unpurged ear;] cred vesture's hem.] Fairfax, in Compare Shakespeare, Mids. N. the metrical dedication of his Dr. a. ii. s. 1.

Tasso to Queen Elizabeth, bids And I will purge thy mortal grossness his Muse not approach too boldly,

nor soil That thou will like an airy spirit go.

her vesture's hem. And see Comus, v. 997.

I must not quit Milton's Genius List mortals, if your ears be true.

without observing, that a Genius

T. Warton. is more than once introduced in 77. —Hand or voice could hit, See the poems on Lord Bacon's

Jonson's Underwoods and Masques. &c.] Parad. Reg. iv. 254.“ Tones birth-day, written 1620, vol. vi. “ and numbers hit by voice or

425. and in “ Part of the King's “ hand." And, i. 171." The hand with the voice.” T. War

“ Entertainment passing to his sung

“ Coronation," the Genius of ton. 81. And so attend ye toward

London appears. Ed. fol. 1616.

p. 849. And in the Entertain. her glittering state:) Jonson, ment at Theobald's, 1607, the diaHymenæi, vol. v. 272.

logue is chiefly supported by a And see where Juno

Genius, p. 887. And the Fates Displays her glittering state and chair,

are represented teaching future A state is a canopy. See the things to the Genius of this piece, notes P. L. vii. 440. and x. 445. who is the Genius of the palace T. Warton.

of Theobald's, p.888. T. Warton. 83. Approach, and kiss her sa- $4, enamelld green.] Eng.

90

Follow me as I sing,

And touch the warbled string,
Under the shady roof
Of branching elm star-proof.

Follow me,
I will bring you where she sits,
Clad in splendor as befits

Her deity.
Such a rural Queen
All Arcadia hath not seen.

95

Song III. NYMPHS and Shepherds dance no more

By sandy Ladon’s lilied banks,

melled, with this application, oc- See Peacham's Minerva Britanna, curs repeatedly in Sylvester's p. 182. edit. 1612. 4to. But Du Bartas. And in Drayton, literally the same line is applied Sydney, and Peele. T. Warton. to a grove in the Faerie Queene,

87. -warbled string.] That i. i. 7. Where Spenser seems to is, the lute accompanied with the have imitated Statius, Theb. I. x. voice. T. Warton.

85. 89. -branching elm star-proof) -Nulli penetrabilis astro That is, which will resist the evil

Lucus iners. influence of the planets. It is a Compare our autbor, P. L. b. ix. vulgar superstition that

1088. species of elm has this virtue.

Where highest woods impenetrable Warburton.

To star, or sun-light, spread their But I believe he means no umbrage broad. more than, proof against the rays Sylvester has Sun-proof arof the sun ; impenetrable to star « bours," Du Bartas, p. 171. or sun-light, as he says P. L. ix. edit. 1621. Works. But star1086. where see the note. Hurd. proof is astrological, as in Martin's

One of Peacham's Emblems is Dunbe Knight, 1608. Reed's the picture of a large and lofty Old. Pl. iv. 479. grove, which defies the influence

Or else star-cross'd with some hagg'sof the moon and stars appearing hellishness. over it. This grove, in the

T. Warton. verses affixed, is said to be,

97. By sandy Ladon's lilied Not pierceable to power of any starre. banks, &c.] This was the most

VOL. II.

Gg

100

On old Lycæus or Cyllene hoar

Trip no more in twilight ranks,
Though Erymanth your loss deplore,

A better soil shall give ye thanks.
From the stony Mænalus
Bring your flocks, and live with us,
Here

ye

shall have greater grace,
To serve the Lady of this place.
Though Syrinx your Pan's mistress were,
Yet Syrinx well might wait on her.

Such a rural Queen
All Arcadia hath not seen. *

105

amnem

beautiful river of Arcadia, and Hic distentus aqua sata lambit pinguia the others are famous mountains

Ladon. of that country: and the poet But by lilied banks we are calls it sandy Ladon after Ovid, perhaps only to understand water- . Met. i. 702.

lilies. Lilied seems to have been Donec arenosi placitum Ladonis ad

no uncommon epithet for the

banks of a river. So in SylVenerit.

vester, cited in England's Parand it might properly be said to nassus, 1600. p. 479. (Works, have lilied banks, since Diony- ut supr. p. 1201.] sius, as I find him quoted by By sobie cleare river's lillie-pared side. Farnaby, has called it Evxanagov

T. Warton. ποταμον και εύστεφανον Λαδωνα.

* Alice, Countess Dowager of 97. I know not that Dionysius Derby, was the lady before whom mentions the river Ladon any this Mask was presented at Harewhere, but in the following verse field.

field. She married Ferdinando of the Periegesis, v. 417.

Lord Strange; who on the death Hχι δε ωγυγιος μηκύνεται ύδασι Λαδω». .

of his father Henry, in 1594, Ovid mentions Ladon more than became Earl of Derby, but died once, but without its lilies. Com- the next year. She was the pare Statius, Theb. ix. 573. And sixth daughter of Sir John SpenCallimachus, Hymn. Jov. v. 18. ser of Althorpe in Northampton

Festus Avienus, I believe, is shire. She was afterwards marthe only ancient Latin poet, if ried to Lord Chancellor Egerton, he deserves the name, who speaks who died in 1617. See Prelim. of the fertility of the fields N. on Comus. And Dugd. Baron. washed by Ladon. Descript. Orb. iii. 414, 251. She died Jan. 26, v. 574.

1635-6, and was buried at Hare

v. 536.

a name

field. Arcades could not there- Charillis, or Anne ; these three fore have been acted after 1636. of Sir John Spenser's daughters See MSS. Willis, Bibl. Bodl. fol. being best known at court. See Num. viii. f. 54. Pedigr. Bucks. Harrington has an Epigram to

Ne lesse praise-worthy are the Sisters this lady, b. iii. 47. In praise of

three, &c. the Countesse of Derby, married After a panegyric on the two to the Lord Chancellour.

first, he next comes to Amarillis, This noble Countesse lived many or Alice, our lady, the Dowager yeeres

of the above-mentioned FerdiWith Derby, one of England's great- nando Lord Derby, lately dead.

est peeres ; Fruitfull and faire, and of so cleare But Amarillis, whether fortunate,

Or else unfortunate, as I aread, That all this region marvell’d at her That freed is from Cupid's yoke by fame:

fate, But this brave peere extinct by Since which, she doth new bands hastned fate,

adventure dread : She staid, ah! too too long, in Shepheard, whatever thou hast heard widowes state;

to be And in that state took so sweet state In this or that praysd diversly apart,

In her thou maist them all assembled All eares, eyes, tongues, heard, saw, and told, ber honour, &c.

And seald up in the treasure of her

heart. A Dedication to this Lady Dowager Derby, full of the most And in the same poem, he exalted panegyric, is prefixed to thus apostrophises to her late Thomas Gainsford's Historie of husband Earl Ferdinand, under Trebizonde, a set of tales. Lond. the name Amyntas *. See v. 432. 1616. 4to.

Amyntas quite is gone, and lies full But Milton is not the only lowe, Great English poet who has cele- Having his Amarillis left to mone! brated this Countess Dowager

Help, O ye Shepheards, help ye all

in this, of Derby. She was the sixth

Her losse is yours, your loss Amyntas daughter, as we have seen, of Sir John Spenser, with whose Amyntas, flowre of Shepheards pride family Spenser the poet claimed

forlorne : &c. an alliance. In his Colin Clouts And to the same lady Alice, come home again, written about when Lady Strange, before her 1595, he mentions her under the husband Ferdinand's advanceappellation of Amarillis, with her ment to the Earldom, Spenser sisters Phillis, or Elizabeth, and addresses his Teares of the Muses,

upon her

see

is ;

published in 1591, in a Dedica- ties which she had conferred tion of the highest regard: where upon the poets. Thus the Lady he speaks of, “ your excellent who presided at the represent“ beautie, your virtuous beha- ation of Milton's Arcades, was “ viour, and your noble match not only the theme but the paor with that most honourable troness of Spenser. The peer“ Lorde the verie patterne of age-book of this most respectable right nobilitie."

He then ac

Countess is the poetry of her knowledges the particular boun- times. T. Warton.