Iftic eft de fole fumptus ignis, ifque mentis eft. So that to make the foul to be an ethereal, fiery fubftance, a ray of light, &c. is no new doctrine and Belphoebe was one of thefe Genii, all elementary purity, and chastity. VIII. So after Nilus inundatio Infinite fhapes of creatures men doe fynd Sic ubi deferuit madidos feptemfluus agros Great father he [the fun] of generation— Ovid. Met. i. 430. (The houfe of goodly formes and faire ASPECTS, him, She promift kiffes fweet and fweeter things, Unto the man that of him tydings to her brings. This ftory Spenfer might have taken from the Aminta of Taffo, where Cupid is introduced difguifed in a paftoral drefs, having juft plaid the truant from his mother. Spenfer fays, St. 11. that for fome light difpleasure-he had fled. In Taflo, Love fays, that he was conftrained to fly, and to conceal himfelt from his mother, because she would difpofe of him and his arrows according to her will; and as a vain and ambitious woman would confine him Io da lei fon conftretto di fuggire, Pur tra le corti, e tra corone, e fcettri. Love then mentions his retiring into the woods and cottages; his mothers purfuing him thither, and promifing to the discoverer of her fugitive fon either fweet kiffes, or fomething else more fweet. I have no occafion to put the reader in mind that the Prologue of Taffo's Aminta is chiefly taken from Bio. XVIII. that late in treffes bright Embreaded were for hindring of her hafte.] i. e. left they fhould hinder. The laft verfe in this ftanza, viz. And were with fweet ambrofia all besprinkled light, is imitated either from Homer, defcribing the locks of Jupiter, Αμβρόσιαι χᾶιται, Π. ά. 529. or from Virgil, defcribing the locks of Venus, Æn. i. 403. Ambrofiaeque comae divinum vertice odorem The picture, which our poet here draws of Diana and her nymphs furprized by Venus, feems taken from the ftory of Acteon in Ovid; and the closing verfe in St. 19. Whiles all her nymphes did like a girlond her inclofe, is plainly a tranflation of the following, -circumfufaeque Dianam Corporibus texere fuis. Ovid. Met. iii. 180. By Stygian lake I vow, whofe fad annoy The gods doe dread, he dearly fhall abye.] I vow by the river Styx (whofe fad annoy, annoyance, i. e. whom to injure or offend by perjury the gods do dread) he dearly fhall pay for it. Stygiamque paludem, Dii cujus jurare timent, et fallere numen. Virg. vi. 324. I fcarce doubt but that Spenfer had in view the Epigram in Antholog. pag. xi. where the Mufes reply to Venus, who was perfuading them to pay fome greater regard to her, or fhe would arm her fon against them, Go to (fay they) and talk in this impudent ftrain to Mars, that boy of yours comes not to us, He comes not here, we fcorn his foolish joy. ̓́Αρει τὰ σώμυλα ταυτα 6 peons, from the follies and the madneffes, with which this goddess of beauty infpires her votaries. Eurip. Traod. 989. ΤΑ ΜΩΡΑ γὰρ πάντ' ἔστιν Αφροδίτη βροτοῖς, Και τόνομ ̓ ὀρθῶς ΑΦΡΟΣΥΝΗΣ άρκει θεᾶς. Euripides likewise in his Hyppolytus ufes μgia i. e. folly, for immodefly: and Plautus, in the same fenfe fays ftultè facere. Several instances there are in Scripture where to play the whore, and to act FOLLY, are expreffions of the fame import. XXV. So her the foon appeafd With fugred words, and gentle blandifhment, Which as a fountaine from her sweete lips went. And this is plainly the true reading. Sugred words is the expreffion of Ariftophanes in Avibus ver. 909. μsiyλwσow iné. So our old poets, Chaucer and Lydgate : Thy fugir drops fwete of Helicon Ch. Court of Love, ver. 22. Certys Homer for all thy excellence XXVI. But Venus THENCE-] So the 1st edition, Ἡμῖν δ' ἐ πέταται τέτο τὸ παιδάριον. XXIX. Or Or it in Gnidas be-] Venus mentions thefe her Eft Amathus, eft celfa mihi Paphus atque Cythera, facrificed unto his foule, as if dead; affirming on the next that he lived, and was afcended into heaven. For feigned it is, that • Venus made an agreement with Proferpina, that for fix moneths of the yeere he fhould be And Horace addreffes Venus as Queen of Cni-prefent with either: alluding unto corne, dus and Paphus, O Venus, regina Cnidi Paphique. L. i. Od. 30. Phaphia comprehendeth the weft of the Island Cyprus, fo called of the maritime city Paphus. No place there was through the whole earth where Venus was more honoured, Illa Paphum fublimis abit, fedefque revifit Laeta fuas Virg. i. 419. • Weft of this stood Cythera, a little village, at this day called Conucha; facred alfo to Venus, and which once did give a name unto Cyprus.' Sandys Trav. pag. 221. have from the authorities of the 2d quarto, and folios, altered Gnidas into Gnidus. Spenfer, imitating Chaucer, says Citheron, and not Cy thera. Ibid. I The gardin of Adonis-] Spenfer has already mentioned the gardins of Adonis, in B. ii. C. 10. St. 71. and here he is profufe in the description of them. Milton I believe had Spenfer in his mind, where he compares the garden of Paradife with the garden of Adonis, B. ix. 439. Spot more delicious than thofe gardens fein'd no There was no fuch garden ever exiftent, or even FEIGN'D, [furely there was, and that too by Spenfer in the epifode now before us] • uññoi Adwvidos, the gardens of Adonis, fo frequently mentioned by Greek writers, were thing but portable earthern pots, with lettice or fennel growing in them, &c.' Bentley. I shall refer the reader to what I have already written on this fubject in Critical Obfervations on Shakespeare, page 151, and will now give the reader fome opening into this beautiful allegory. But firft it feems not improper to fee how fome of the ancients allegorized this fable, which take in the words of the learned Sandys, who thus writes in his Travels, pag. 209. Biblis was the royal feat of Cyneras, who was alfo king of Cyprus, the father of Adonis flaine by a bore; deified, and yeerly deplored by the Syrians in the moneth of June; they then whipping themselves with univerfal lamentations: which done, upon one day they 4 which for fo long is buried under the earth, and for the reft of the yeare embraced by the temperate aire, which is Venus. But in the general allegory, Adonis is faid to be the funne, the Boar the Winter, whereby his heate is extinguifhed; when defolate, Venus (the Earth) doth mourne for his abfcence; recreated againe by his approach, and pro• creative vertue.-Three miles on this fide runnes the river Adonis, which is faid by Lucian to have ftreamed bloud upon that folemnized day of his obfequies.' See Milton, i. 450. The allegory of Adonis is in the fame manner explained by Macrobius, Lib. I. Theocritus, Idyll. xv. as celebrated by Arfinoë: Cap. xxi. His obfequies are mentioned in there indeed the gardens of Adonis are not fo poorly furnished as the proverb is explained, but decked out with all the fruits of the earth that could be procured, and ornamented with filver baskets filled with earth, in which was planted flowring fhrubs, &c. In that fame gardin all the goodly flowres— But Spenfer varies from antiquity frequently The one of yron, the other of bright gold, The one of yron, th' other of bright gold, Lucretius mentions often the Walls of the Univerfe, Mania mundi, i. 74. v. 120. mean. ing its faftenings and bindings: thefe walls were ftrong and beautiful, the one of iron the other of gold; with two gates, imaging the entrance into life, and the going out of it. The porter of thefe gates is Old Genius. This This is plainly taken from Cebes; in whofe allegorical picture, an old man ftands by a gate, holding in one hand a roll of paper, and pointing with the other: this gate is the entrance into life; and the old man is the dictating and infpiring Genius, ἔτος Δαίμων καλείται. XXXIII. A thousand thousand NAKED babes attend-] It has been the opinion of fome that when God formed the foul of Adam, he then formed the fouls likewife of all mankind: and from this preexiftent ftate they are to tranfmigrate into their respective bodies. The thousand thousand naked bodies are the fouls in their preexiftent ftate, divefted of body. This or the like doctrine of the preexiftence of fouls is the foundation of the finest book in the Æneid. At pater Anchifes penitus convalle virenti -animae quibus altera fato. Corpora debentur. Ava So in Plato's Timæus, TTo аμа тйv OION TPOΧΟΥ ΠΕΡΙΑΓΟΜΕΝΟΥ γίγνεται. Seneca: nullius rei finis eft, fed in orbem nexa funt omnia. nunλéμsva távta. M. Anton. L. ii. S. 14. The Egyptians (as Herodotus informs us in Euterpe) were the first who afferted the immortality of of the foul: which after the deftruction of the body, always enters into fome other animal; and by a CONTINUED ROTATION, passing through various kinds of beings, returns again into a human body after a revolution of THREE THOUSAND YEARS. Some thousand yeares fo doen they there remayne, Has omnes ubi MILLE ROTAM VOLVERE PER Compare Plato de Repub. L. x. Firas de The Togéian X. I think 'tis plain from hiftory, that Orpheus brought thefe doctrines firft from Egypt, which were. afterwards better fyftematized by Pythagoras and Plato. I have now before me Dryden's elegant tranflation of the Pythagorean philofophy from Ovid. And my English reader will not be difpleafed to read the following verses, as they illuftrate our poet. Then death, fo call'd, is but old matter drefs'd In fome new figure, and a varied vest. Thus all things are but alter'd, nothing dies; And here and there th' unbody'd fpirit flies, By time, or force, or fickness difpoffeft, And lodges, where it lights, in man or beaft; Or hunts without, 'till ready limbs it find, And actuates thofe, according to their kind: From tenement to tenement is tofs'd, The foul is ftill the fame, the figure only lost. XXXV. Some made for beafts,-] one order of beings never breaks in upon the preeftablished order of other beings. He has plainly St. Paul in view, I Cor. xv. 39. as in the Stanza above, Gen. i. 22. XXXVI. Yet is the flocke not leffened nor spent,] Things are changed, but things don't perifh: and the world fubfidis by changes. σώσεσι κόσμον αι μεταβολαί. M. Anton. ii. 3. Nec perit in TANTO quidquam, mihi credite, mundo, I fhould think Ovid wrote IN TOTO mundo, in T. 'Tis Pythagoras fpeaks: the whole is never injured, never fuffers; parts are. τὸ ὅλους To Пa, are facred and myftical words in the mouths of Pythagoreans and Platonics. Scilicet huc reddi deinde, ac refoluta referri Omnia; nec morti effe locum- Virg. G. iv. 225. Confider likewife that though individuals dye; yet the flocke is not leffened-At GENUS immortale manet. Virg. G. iv. 208. Thus all particular forms, and all individuals are haftening on to their diffolution for the prefervation, good, and beauty of the WHOLE. Ibid. them into order. Milton feems to have been of this opinion where he calls the abyfs, The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave, ii. 911. rudis indigeftagne moles, Nec quicquam nifi pondus iners, congeftaque eodem Non bene junctarum difcordia femina rerum: Hanc Deus, aut melior litem Natura diremit. XXXVIII. des, of the gardens of Alcinous, of the golden While univerfal Pan [i. e. Nature] The trees bearing bloffoms and fruit at the fame Ovid. Met. i. time, is taken from Homer's description of the garden of Alcinous, and imitated both by Taffo in his description of the garden of Armida, and by Milton in his description of Paradise, iv. 147. For every fubftaunce is conditioned To chaunge her hew, and fondry formes to don,] to don, i. e. to put on. The reader will fee all this doctrine in the old Timæus, and in the Timæus of Plato, where Subftance, or Matter, is called πάσης γενέσεως ὑποδοχή, οἷον τιθήνη-παιδίx-and in pag. 50. Expayiior yàg Quos war ται, κινέμενόν τε καὶ διασχηματιζόμενον ὑπὸ τῶν ἰισιόντων, φάινεται δὲ δὲ ἐκεινα ἄλλοτε ἀλλοιον. Compare Timæus Locrus, pag. 94. M. Autoninus has frequent allufions to this alteration of form and fashion: hence as he obferves, L. ix. S. i. τῶν ὅλων ἐσία ευπειθής και ευπρεπής, Univerfi materia eft prompta obfequi ac fingenti parere. See likewife L. vii. S. 23. where he fays, that the Univerfal Nature forms and fashions things from the universal Matter, which from its ductility and eafy impreffions, he compares to wax. So Ovid, Met. xv. rerumque novatrix Ex aliis alias reparat Natura figuras. XL. And their great mother Venus-] Mother of forms, form perfonified. Venus was named Пarain, the universal caufe: and Genetrix: See note on B. iv. C. 10. St. 5. Whence has the world its name in Greek and Latin, but from its beauty? ở xó ouos, Mundus. What ftrikes our eye, but form? Venus is then all in all. But Time is the common troubler of things in this beautiful Gardin. Be it fo. Since we know that change, and alteration, renew the world, and keep it perpetually beautiful, young, and new. XLII. There is continuall fpring, and harveft there Continuall, both meeting at one tyme: For both the boughes doe laughing blossoms beare, And with fresh colours decke the wanton pryme, And eke attonce the HEAVY trees they clyme,] Laughing blossoms, is from Virgil, Ecl. iv. 20. Mixtaque ridenti colocafia fundet acantho. The 1ft quarto has heavenly trees: the 2d and Folios, heavy, which feems much the better reading.-Perpetual Spring makes no small part of the defcriptions of the paradifaical ftate, of the fortunate iflands, Elyfian fields, gardens of the HefperiVOL. II. XLIII. And all about grew every fort of flowre, Foolish Narciffe, that likes the watry fhore; Sad Amaranthus, in whose purple gore To whom fweet poets verfe hath given endlesse date. Me feemes I fee Amintas wretched fate, In the two oldeft Editions, the broken verfe, And dearest love-is wanting: but here inferted from the Folio of 1609.-Whoever had the care of that Edition, met with fome additions and alterations, which could come from no other hand but Spenfer's. Hyacinthus, he calls, Phoebus' paramoure and dearest love; this the Latins would exprefs by Deliciae Phoebi: the Greeks by, Te maidiná. He fays, Foolish Narciffe, because he fell in love with his own face. what is the meaning of Sad Amaranthus, made a flowre but late-in whofe purple gore, me feems I fee Amintas wretched fate-Who is Amyntas? not a woman: not to be written, Aminta's wretched name of a fhepherd in Virgil: and he means fate, as fome Editions read: for Amintas is the here I fhould think the renowmed Arcadian fhepherd Aftrophel, The fairest flowre in field that ever grew. But See Spenfer's Paftoral Elegy on Sir Ph. Sidn. unfortunately killed abroad., To whom fweet poets verfe hath given endless date, 4 B For |