-Sed horrificis juxta tonat Aetna ruinis, Interdumque atram prorumpit ad aethera nubem, Turbine fumantem piceo & candente favilla; Attolitque globos flammarum et fidera lambit: Interdum fcopulos avolfaque vifcera montis Erigit eructans, liquefactaque faxa fub auras Cum gemitu glomerat, fundóque exaeftuat imo. Aen. iii. 571. The affected nicety of Longinus feems difpleafed with these kind of expreffions, belching out flames and ragged ribs of molten mountains, which heaven with horrour choke :-attollitque globos flammarum et fidera lambet: fcopulos avolaque vifcera montis erigit erutans.—πρὸς ἐρανὸν ἐξεμεῖν· ἐ τραγικὰς ἀλλὰ παρατράγῳδα. Longinus fect. iii. But neither Spenfer nor Milton feem much to have hearkened to Longinus,

the whole allegory very plain: and hence may be explained, why he calls the tree of life, the crime of our first fathers fall.

By a kind of metonymy, that is applied to the tree of life which belongs to man: and it means that tree, which was made criminal for us to prefume to reach; which was prohibited to us, through the crime of Adam. As Spenfer keeps nearly to scripture, and preferves all along his allegory, fo likewife as far forth as his fubject allows, he loofes not fight altogether of the legendary history of St. George: of whom 'tis related that the Dragon affaulted our knight fo furiously, that both man and horse came to the ground fore bruifed.-That it happened a tree grew near the place, where the fight was, of fuch pretious virtue, that no venemous worm durft approach its branches.-That under this tree, and with its goodly fruit our hero refreshed himfelf awhile, and then returned more vigorous to the battle.

XLIX.

For he was deadly made,] Nigh the tree of life the Dragon durft not approach, for he was deadly made, made for death, hell and deftruction; not for life, heaven and happiness.

L.

There stood a hill not far whofe griefly top Belch'd fire and rowling fmoke.

XLVI.

There grew a goodly tree-] The reader knows that the scene of action is in Eden; and that our Knight, emblematically the Captain of our Salvation, is come to restore loft Paradife: who, after his SECOND fall, is to rise victorious over death and hell, and to lead captivity captive. These two trees, the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge, are particularly mentioned in Gen. ii. 9. Hence our divine poet, And all amid them flood the tree of life, High eminent, blooming ambrofial fruit Of vegetable gold; and next to life, Our death, the tree of knowledge grew faft by; Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill.

Milt. iv. 218. This tree of life, fhadowing out in a figure, everlasting life, is mentioned in Revel. ii. 7. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradife of God. Again Revel. xxii. 2. And the leaves of the tree [viz. the tree of life.] were for the healing of the nations. This paffage of the Revelation makes

XV.

LII.

Then freshly up arose the doughty knight, All healed of his burts and woundes wide,] God would not leave his foul in hell, neither fuffer HIS HOLY ONE to fee corruption. Pfal. xvi. 10. Acts ii. 27. After Two days will he revive us, in the THIRD DAY he will raise us up, and we shall live He ROSE AGAIN THE in his fight. Hofea vi. 2. THIRD DAY according to the fcriptures. I Corinth. 4. THE THIRD DAY I shall be perfected. Luke xiii. 32. Let the reader confider these texts of Scripture, and he will fee how proper it was, that this fight should laft to the third day; nor could it, confiftent with the allegory, have been shortened. This HOLY ONE, this captain to us in this fight with the Dragon; viz. the old of our falvation perfect through suffering is fhadowed Serpent, and Satan. And 'tis plain that Milton hence imaged the battle in heaven: for on THE THIRD DAY God fends Meffiah his fon; for whom he had referved the glory of that victory. Two days are therefore paft, THE THIRD is thine; For thee I have ordain'd it, and thus far Hhh 2

Have

So downe he fell, and forth his life did breath, That vanifht into smoke and cloudes fwift; So downe be fell, that th' earth him underneath Did grone, as feeble fo great load to lift; So downe he fell, as an huge rocky clift, Whofe falfe foundacion waves have washt away, With dreadfull POYSE is from the mayne-land rift, And rolling downe, great Neptune doth dismay: So downe he fell, and like an heaped mountaine lay.] So downe he fell,-is four times repeated that the dreadful image might be fix'd in the readers mind and not only for this very good reafon, but likewife becaufe the fame kind of repetition is made at the fall of Babylon, of which this dragon is a type. Revel. xiv. 8. Babylon is Revel. xiv. 8. Babylon is FALLEN, is FALLEN. See too Ifai. xxi. 9.

Milton, x. 540. in his account of the metamorphofis of the infernal fpirits into ferpents, repeats thrice the fame word,

down their arms,

Down fell both fpear and fhield; down they as faft.
This fimile before us of a rock broken from its
foundation, and falling into the fea, originally
belongs to Homer; but almoft all the poets
have imitated it, with additions or alterations,
as their subject requires. Our poet fays, With
dreadful POYSE, i. e. force or weight: none of
the Editions read PUSH, as Milton, Homer,
and Virgil, in their fimilitude, exprefs it,
As if on earth

Winds underground, or waters, forcing way,
Side-long had PUSHD a mountain from his feat
Half-funk with all his pines.
Milton, vi. 195.

Ολοοίτροχος ὡς ἀπὸ πέτρης
Οντε κατὰ ξεφάνης ποταμὸς χειμάζξους ΩΣΗΙ
Ρήξας ασπίζω ἔμβρῳ ἀναιδέος ἔχμαία πέτρης

Lapis curfu perniciofus tanquam à petrá
Quem de vertice montis fluvius torrens IMPULERIT,
Abruptis immenfo imbre afpera retinaculis petræ.-
Hom. II. xiii. 137.

So Virgil xii. 685.

Ac veluti montis faxum de vertice praeceps
Cùm ruit avolfum vento, feu turbidus imber
Proluit, aut annis folvit fublapfa vetustas :
Fertur in abruptum MAGNO mons improbus ACTU,
Exultatque folo

Magno actu, with dreadful PUSH, impulse, &c. Statius has the fame fimile, vii. 744. Taffo, xviii. 82. and other poets.

C

XII.

I.

IV.

I. or from Statius, Sylv. iv. 89.

Jam Sidonios emenfa labores

Thebais optato collegit carbafa portu.

II.

--I therefore wrote,

From whofe INFERNAL bondage now they were releaft.

So B. I. C. I. St. 5. he is called the infernal

the fake of fome fuch like interpretation as follows, from whose bondage, which they imagined would have been eternal, they were now releaft, or, rom whofe bondage now they were eternally releaft. -But is not this, or any the like that may be

fug

Phrafe, ufes betwixt only once, as the generality of writers use it.

-betwixt earnest and game. Merch. Tale. 1110.

IX.

And after all the rafkell many.-] The rafcality, ô πoññó. Gall. racaille. Chaucer, Troil. and Cref. 1852.

Of Fove, Apollo, Mars, and fuch raskaile.

i. e. Such a mob of deities. The mob admire

him, as from heaven sent is sparóder xaraba, and gaze upon him with gaping wonderment : Illam omnis tectis agrifque effufa juventus Turbaque miratur matrum, et profpectat euntem ; Attonitis inhians animis. Virg. vii. 812. Τὸν δ ̓ ἄρα πάντες λαὸς ἐπερχόμενον θηεῦντο, Hunc fane omnes populi advenientem admirabantur. Hom. Od. ii. 13. Prefently after, the mob gathering around the dead dragon and discourfing of him, is humorously defcibed, and may be compared with Homer, be compared with Homer, Il. x. 370, where the many thus crowd with admiration around the body of Hector, and difcourfe of him when dead; or with Virgil, viii. 265. where the monster Cacus is defcribed killed by Hercules:

nequeunt expleri corda tuendo Terribiles oculos, voltum, villofaque factis Pectora femiferi, atque extinctos faucibus ignes. Ovid fpeaking of the Caledonian boar, when killed, Met. viii. 482. Says almoft in Spenfer's Words, ne durft they approach him nigh, or affay once to touch him,

Immanemq; ferum, multa tellure jacentem,
Mirantes fpectant; neque adhuc contingere tutum
Effe putant.

Compare B. iv. C. 7. St. 32.

If any should dislike this and the two following Stanzas, he should in justice to our poet suppose, that he intended them as a kind of relief, and by way of oppofition, to thofe terrible images which he defcribes in the living dragon. And this mixture of the dreadful and the comic, the ferious and the ridiculous, is much after the manner of Shakespeare, whofe genius feems in many respects to refemble Spenfer's. In Macbeth particularly, you have a comic scene introduced, as a kind of relief, juft after the horrid murder of the king.

XII.

Gifts of ivory and gold.] Such prefents as we read of in ancient authors: for our part is all antique.

This worthy king, of herte liberal,
Made a fefte, folempne and rial,
Which in deintrees furely did excelle;
But it were vein every courf to telle,
Her firaunge fewes and other fotilties;
Ne how they fat, like her degrees,
For lacke of tyme I lat overflide.

This old poet imitates his master Chaucer in the fquires tale, ver. 83.

Of which if I should tell all the array,
Then wolde it occupy a fommers day-
Which the old bard feems to express from Virgil,
O dea, fi primâ repetens ab origine pergam—-
Ante diem claufo componet vefper olympo.

Let me obferve, by the bye, the old and facred manner of ancient civility: their hofpitable Jupiter, who protected all ftrangers, would have punish'd the breach of thefe facred laws; which were, to entertain your stranger gueft, before you asked him any questions who and whence he were. Homer never entertained either guests or hofts with long speeches, till the mouth of hunger was topped. (Says the learned Sydney, Arcad. p. 15.) The obligations indeed that this old king and queen had to our knight were of the highest degree: they knew his prowess, and acknowledged their obligations. But in B. ii. C. 2. St. 39. Medina receives and entertains Sir Guyon unknown,

At laft, when luft of meat and drinke was ceaft,
She Guyon deare befought of curtefie
To tell from whence he came-

Who with bold grace- from lofty fiege began-
[-toro fic orfus ab alto, Virg. ii. 2.]

Nor doen undo, for vowes may not be vayne.] Nor doen undo, Αγένητα ποιεῖν τα πεπραγμένα.

Μόνο γαρ αυτῷ καὶ θεὸς περίσκεται,
Αγίνητα ποιεῖν ὅσσ ̓ ἂν ἡ πεπραγμένα.

of this one thing alone even God is deprived, namely, to make that undone, which is done.

Non