XXVIII. Peplo etenim induta erat fplendidiore ignis fulgore. Ne to your lady will I fervice done.Ji. e. do.Anglo-S. I think from hence we are to explain that beaudon to Do Somn. tiful address to Venus by Sappho, XXX. So underneath her feet their fwords they fhard.] Mote princes place befeeme fo deckt to bee.] It might XXXIV. The walls were round about apparelled Ποικιλόθρον, ἀθάνατ' Αφροδίτα, Which M. Dacier renders, Grande & immortelle Philips has followed this in his tranflation, Spenfer has expreffed it learnedly and elegantly, coloured like the starry skies. And hence I would explain the epithet given to Aurora, Il. 9.565. To whom a thousand temples rifeIn Dionyf. Halicarn. 'tis printed loxov, cunning, crafty-minded: but then this epithet is too like Aoλóλox, which immediately follows. So that 1 think we are to bring back the old reading, Пoxogo, and interpret (as fome commentators already have interpreted it) from Homer, Ι. χ'. 441. ἐν δὲ θρόνα ποικίλ ̓ ἔπασσε, operaque picta varia fparfim intexebat. Ifóra i. e. manihμata, The fayre Adonis turned to a flowre.] The walls ären. From this paffage of Homer Sappho of Castle Joyous were hung with fuch costly seems to have formed her compounded epithet, clothes as are now made at Arras or Tourer, alluding to her mantle and drefs, as 'Tis usual for poets to bring minuter circumstances down to their own times: which may be more allowable in a Fairy, than in an Epic or Tragic poem: and yet the most approved writers in both, have, by a kind of anticipation, alluded to their own cuftoms and fashions, arts and fciences. So above in B. i. C. 4. St. 14. He introduces the fafhionable dreffes of Queen Elizabeth's court. And in B. i. C. 4. St. 26. he alludes to the fowle evil not known, 'till brought into Europe by the crew of Columbus. Several of these anticipating allufions occur not only in our poet, but in every the most correct poet of antiquity-He adds, in which with cuna ning hand, &c. i. e. fkilful. Tis frequently fo ufed in the tranflation of the Bible, Cherubims of cunning work, Exod. xxvi. 1. a cunning player on a harp, 1 Sam. xvi, 16.-The story of Adonis, the paramour of Venus, being turned into the flower anemone, is told in Ovid. Met.L. x. Fab. 12. XXXVI. Her mantle colourd like the ftarry Skyes.] The beautiful drefs of Venus is mentioned by Homer, Il. v. 338. Αμβροσία διὰ πέπλα, ὃν ἂν χάριτες κάμον αυτάι. And in the hymn to Venus, which some think Πέπλον μὲν γὰς ἵεσο φαεινότερον πυρὸς ἀυγῆς. poves, not pulchro in folio fedens; but alluding to her variegated and flowery veft, in which (to poetical eyes) fhe appears dreft, when the first unbars the gates of light: 'tis with the fame kind of allufion that Homer gives her the epithet of xgonówewλog, croceo-peplo-induta, II. 9'. 1. XXXVI. And whilft he bathed, with her two crafty pyes.] By a metonymy he ufes SPYES for that which the pyes with, viz. her eyes. Speculatores i. e. oculi quibus fpeculatur. The faine expreffion he has in B. i. C. 2. St. 17. and B. vi. C. 8. St. 43. as Grimas ir tais orais, thofe that look out of the windows. Ecclef. xii. 3. XXXVII. But for fhe faw him bent to cruell play, Parce mes, juvenis, temerarius effe periclo: E chiaramente fe veder ch'ella era. xi. 625. So again to Ferrau, xxxv. 78. And all the while fweet mufic did divide grataque faeminis Imbelli cithara carmina divides. Hor. i. xv. 15. And thus Seneca, Hercul. Oet. 1080. according to Dr. Bentley's correction, Orpheus carmina dividens. I must not omit Milton in his ode on the paffion: And ever against eating cares, And Dryden likewise imitating these soft meafures, Softly fweet in Lydian meafures Soon he footh'd his foul to pleasures. The following verfes fhould perhaps thus be printed, Which when thofe knights beheld, with scornful eye They fdeigned fuch lafcivious difport. In the close of the ftanza, fort means company; as may be seen more fully in the Gloffary. Teneva la vifiera alta dal viso. Juft in the fame fenfe as below, C. 2. St. 24. Through whofe bright ventayle lifted up on high His manly face-lookt forth The ventayle is the vent or breathing part of the helmet, which is made to lift up. The virgin fhone in filver armes arraid, Alta tenea dal vulto. And G. D. in his verfion So Fairfax tranflates Taffo vi. 26. E la vifiera of Virgil xii. 434. Summaque per galeam delibans ofcula fatur. Per galeam, throw his helmes bentale. Chaucer writes it aventaile, and after him his imitator Lydgate. The a is added or omitted frequently (as it happens) in our language. 'Tis likewife called Umbriere from ombrare, because it shadows XLIII. the face. XLIV. And her knights fervice ought, to hold of her in fee.] And owed her knight's fervice, viz. to hold of her in fee, and to fight her battles. This lady of Caftle-Joyous is contrafted to the chaft Britomart: and the names of her knights correspond to their characters. XLVI. As hee that hath efpide a vermeil rofe, To which are thornes and breres the way forestall, But wishing IT far off his ydle with doth lofe.] I But wifhing them far off i. e. the thorns and briars. Characterizing Bri- Like Sparkes of fire that fall in fclender flex-] Ov. Met. i. 492. Non fecus exarfit- Ibia. Ov. Met. vi. 455. And ranfact all her veines with paffion entyre.] Ob- He weened that his affection entire i. e. to all her parts -into their harts and parts entire. i. e. and into all their parts. XLIX. Faire ladies-] Spenser apoftrophizes the ladies, whom he would not have blamed for the fault of one. In the fame manner he addresses them, B. iii. C. 9. St. 1. leaft they should take amifs his epifode of Malbecco and Hellenore. Ariofto VOL. II. addreffes the fair ladies in the fame manner, which the reader, at his leifure, may compare with Spenfer, Canto xxii. St. 1. and Canto xxviii. St. 1. He fays Emong the roses grow fome wicked weeds, i. e. noxious. Ibid. And in each gentle hart defire of honor breeds.] Berni, Orl. innam. L. ii. C. 4. St. 3. Whiles fruitful Ceres and Lyaus fatt Curam metumgne Caefaris rerum juvat Hor. Epod. ix. drinking makes people fat-bellied: hence he is Fatt is a proper epithet for Bacchus, because called Tarpa by Charon in Ariftophanes, Bar. V. 202. He is likewife pictured plump and fat in Gorlæus, Gemm. 205. which gem Cafaubon has printed and illuftrated in his treatife, De Satyrica Poefi. He is called plump Bacchus, in Shakespear's Antony and Cleopatra, A&t ii. S ene te laft. Sometimes Bacchus is painted all grace and beauty; fometimes fat; and fometimes with an old face and beard. So very whimfical and difcordant we find both painters and poets, who will often make mythology fubmit to their own fyftems.-Soon after, Nought wanted there that dainty was and rare. Nought wanted they that dainty was and rare. LII. s LII. So when they flaked had-] See note on B. i. To loofe her warlike limbs and ftrong effort. LV. Forthy he would not in difcourteife wife.] i. e. LVI. And through her bones the false inflilled fire Et pedibus prætentat iter, fufpenfa timore; Compare likewife Ariofto, xxviii. St. 62, 63. WHERE feeling one-] I fhould have printed it Their lady lying on the fenceleffe ground] Sencelesse But lightly rafed her foft filken skin That drops of purple blood thereout did weepe, Did fpred itfelfe and venime chofe infpire] Virg. iv. believe our poet had Homer in view, where Me 66. nelaus is wounded; for he almost literally tran- Ακρότατον δ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ὄιςὸς ἐπέγραψε χρόα φωτός" The moist daughters of huge Atlas.] Which Virg. Statim autem fluxit fanguis purpureus ex vulnere. G. i. 221. calls Eoae Atlantides. LX. Then panting fofte, and trembling every joint, And lent her weary care to UNDERSTAND Hom. Il. iv. 139. So early ere the groffe earths gryefy fhade] I find gryefy printed often for gryefly, or griefly: and the poet perhaps intended it fhould have thus been printed here; fo in other places, griefly night, B. i. C. 5. St. 20. B. iv. C. 7. St. 22. griefty shadows, B. ii. C. 7. St. 51. B. iii. C. 4. St. 54. GRIESLY SHADE, B. iii. C. 6. St. 37. griefly shades of night, B. v. C. 10. St. 33. Anglo-S. gnirlic, horribilis. horrere. If we keep the received readagriran, ing GRYESY SHADE, we muft interpret it This paffage might have been imitated from the (though fomewhat far-fetch'd) moift, humid, -FOND. following, &c. as Virg. ii. 8. Humida nox. HUMENTEMQUE Aurora polo dimoverat UM BRAM. iii. 589, Humentibus umbris, iv. 351. Let the reader please himself; though I think the place is to be altered rather than interpreted. CANTO. CANTO II. HE I. ERE have I cause in men just blame to find That in their proper praise too partial bee-] I scarce know what to make of our poet: the flattery to his Fairy Queen has made him put on the gravity of a Spanish romance-writer. So Ariofto, with a half-laughing countenance, in the fame manner moralizes: See his introduction in praise of women, Canto xx. 1. and Canto xxxvii. 1, 2,-'Twas a faying of Mahomet, that among men he knew many perfect, but of women he could allow but four; and two of those four were his own wife and daughter, See Prid. life of Mahom. pag. 69. I omit Virgil and others; but let us hear Solomon, Among a thousand men I have found none; but not one woman among all. Ecclef. vii. 26. Now is not this, as Spenfer fays, for men to be too partial in their proper praife, i. e. in their own praife, in laude propriâ? Scarce doe they spare to one or two or three, Rowme in their writts; yet the fame writingPerhaps 'twas originally, yet that same writing for the and that are often confounded, because written with an abbreviation. III. And friving fit to make, I feare do marre.] But my rhymes are too rude, when they light on fo high an object, and ftriving fitly and agreeably to the dignity of the fubject TO MAKE, i. e. to compofe a poem, I fear they do rather spoil it :-to make and to marr are often opposed: here they are oppofed with another ufe of the word to make, i, e. to make verses, to compofe a poem, TOV. hence, Toinτns, a maker, a poet. And hath he fkill to make fo excellent. Spenf. Ecl. iv. Befides her peerleffe skill in making well. Colin Clout's come home againe. Juft above he fays, But ah! my rymes too rude and rugged are When in jo high an object they do lyte. None of the books read, When on fo high an object they do lyte. There are many other paffages where in is used for on. So Milton, i. 52. rolling in the fiery flood. i. 324 rolling in the flood, iii. 448. all who in vain things built their fond hope. Thefe paffages of Milton Dr. Bentley alters. Thyself thy praifes tell-] This seems taken from the addrefs of Tibullus to Messala, Nec tua praeter te chartis intexere quifquam She travelling with Guyon by the way, of fondry thinges faire purpofe gan to find-] Here is certainly a blunder, whatever was the occafion of it. Guyon, in the firft Canto of this book, encountreth Britomart; after their reconciliation he goes in queft of Florimell: but fhe went forward, as lay her journey, and fees fix knights attacking one, which was the redcroffe knight, or St. George; whofe adventure is told in the first book: him the rescues; and then St. George and Britomart go together to Castle Joyous; which having left they are now travelling together. It should have been written therefore; |