Ludifque et bibis improba.

See Critical Obfervations on Shakespeare, pag. 307.

V.

difcovers her fex: let the reader likewife compare old Lidgates Canterbury Tale.

As the Stage of Thebes writ the manner how. Where Polemite and Tideus arrive at the porch

VI.

Malbecco he and Hellenore fhe bight, Unfitly yokt together in one teeme.] His name is derived from male and becco, a cukold or wittal: becco fignifies likewife a buck-goat, to which perhaps he alludes below, C. 10. St. 47.

And like a goat, emongst the goats did rufh. So cabron in Spanish fignifies both a he-goat and a cuckold. Her name is derived from Helena: and both were unfitly yok'd in one teeme, Sic vifum Veneri; cui placet impares Formas atque animos fub juga aenea

Savo mittere cum joco.

Hor. i. Od. xxxiii, The close of this ftanza and the following feems imitated from Ov. Am. L. iii. Eleg. iv. Dure vir, impofito tenerae cuftode puellae, Nil agis; ingenio quaeque tuenda fuo. Compare too Ovid. Art. Amat. L. iii 617. Tot licet obfervent (adfit modo certa voluntas) Quot fuerint Argo lumina, verba dabis.

VIII.

To keep us out in fcorn of his own will.] the conftruction is, to keep us out of his own will in fcorn; or we must point,

To keep us out in fcorn, of his own will. i. e. fcornfully and wilfully.

X. The good man felfe-] ò dixaderπórns. Matt. xxiv. 43. If the good man of the house had known, &c.

XI.

That this faire many-] If the reader takes any pleasure in feeing how one poet imitates, or rivals another, he may have an agreeable task in comparing this epifode, where this faire company, Satyrane, Paridell, Britomart, and the Squire of Dames, are excluded in a tempeftuous night from old Malbecco's caftle, with a like difafter in Ariofto, Orl. Fur. xxxii. 65. Where Bradamante (whom Britomart in many circumstances refembles) arriving at the caftle of Sir Triftan, (Che fi chiama la rocca di Triftano,) battles it with three knights, and afterwards,

night. Perhaps Lidgate wrote stace, as Chaucer writ before him. Is it worth the while to mention here that filly romance, named The Historie of Prince Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, which has the fame kind of adventure? fee part 2d B. i. C. 65. How Sir Triftram and Sir Dinadan came to a lodging where they must just with two knights.

XII.

And evermore the carle of courtefie accufed.] i. e. accufed him of the accufation of acting against the laws of courtefie. The expreffion feems elliptical; after the manner of the Latin idiom, wherein verbs of accufing govern a genitive cafe by an ellipfis of crimine, nomine, cavfu, judicio, &c. He uses the genitive cafe thus elliptically in other places, as just above,

For flatly he of entrance was refus'd. And St. 10.

And therefore them of patience gently praid. And St. 25.

Then they Melbecco prayd of courtefy. Unless the reader will think rather that of is a prepofition. Anglo S. op from, without. anò, ab. this may explain it all; accused him of courtesie, i. e. accused him to be without courtefie. of entrance was refufed, was hindred from entring. them of patience gently praid, prayed them gently to be patient. praid of courtesy, courteously befeeched.-Let the reader please himself.

pleafing, that 'tis no wonder to find it imitated. Taffo had it in view defcribing Armida, who hid, or vainly ftrove to hide her golden locks under a veil. See Gier. Lib. Canto iv. St. 29. The difcovery of Britomartis is exactly the fame with the difcovery of Bradamante, who taking off her helmet let her golden locks fall loofely on her fhoulders, and plainly showed both by her hair and by her beauteous face that she was a virgin-knight.

O come fuol fuor de la nube il fole
Scoprir la faccia limpida e ferena;
Cofil elmo levand:fi dal vifo

Niofirò la donna aprirsi il paradifo,

Ariofto, xxxii. 80.

With breathed flames like to a furnace redd,
Transfixed with her fpeare, downe tombled dedd
From top of Hemus, by him heaped hye)

Hath loofd her helmet from her lofty hedd.] Inftead of WOMAN-WIGHT, had I the authority of any book, I would have printed it, WOMANKNIGHT.-Like as BELLONA, this I have altered into Minerva, from the 2d quarto and folios. Horace calls Enceladus, Faculator audax: where he mentions the battles of the giants, and the prowess of Minerva, L. iii. Od. iv.Instead of

WHERE proud Encelade-I would read, as the conftruction requires,

WHEN proud Encelade

Again,

Transfixed with the fpeare

So the 2d quarto and folios: but I have printed it right in the context from the oldest quarto. XXVII.

But he himfelfe-] Aurès, the mafter of the houfe. See Cafaub. Theophraft. cap. ii. and the Index to Arrian, in V. Autós. Compare, B. iii. C. 10. St. 49. That it was HE

Ibid.

-So did he feede his fill.] Pafcit amore

Ovid. Met. xiv. 767.

This fimile in Ovid is fo very picturefque and

culas. Lucret.

XVIII,

Me fpecta nutufque meos, vultumque loquacem.
Ov. Am i. iv. 17.
XXX.

Now Bacchus fruit out of the filver plate
He on the table dafht, as overthrowne,
Or of the fruitfull liquor overflowne,
And by the dauncing bubbles did divine,
Or therein write to lett his love be showne,
Which well the redd out of the learned line;
(A facrament prophane in mystery of wine)] The
Earl of Weftmorland's noted character for
making love to all women, is ftrongly drawn
in the ftanza juft above: Spenfer has fol-
lowed common report and hiftory in this his
Sir Paridel throughout. But let us not omit
to explain what may appear intricate. Now
Bacchus fruit-these verses hint at (but not de-
fcribe with exactnefs) the fport, which the
ancients had to guefs at their miftrefs's love,
called Cottabus. Paridel behaves to Hellenore,
just as his ancestor Paris did to Helena, and
makes love in the fame manner,

Illa quoque adpofitâ quæ nunc facis, improbe, menfà,
Quamvis experiar diffimulare, noto.
Cum modo me fpectas oculis, lafcive, protervis,
Quos vix inflantes lumina noflra ferunt.
Et mudo fufpiras, modo pocula proxima nobis
Sumis; quaque bibi, tu quoque parte bibis.
Ah! quoties digitis, quoties ego tecta notavi
Signa fupercilio pene loquente dari !-
Orte quoque in menfæ legi fub nomine noftro,
Quod deducta mero litera fecit AMO.

Ovid. Epift. xvii. ver. 75. What he fays in the last verse, A facrament prophane in mystery of wine, is thus to be explained; wine being used in a facred ceremony, as an outward fign or fymbol containing a divine mystery; Sir Paridel here abufes wine prophanely, as a fign or fymbol of his unlawful love. Compare Ov. L. ii.

that has red Chaucer knows that 'tis borrowed from him: but whence came the proverb? that every one does not know. Fools ufed formerly to carry apes on their fhoulders; and to put the ape upon a man was a phraso equivalent to make a fool of him.

This curfed chanon put in his hood an ape.

Ürry's edit. pag. 128. 1509.

XXXII.

Now when of meets and drinks they had their fill.]
See note on B. i. C. 12. St. 15. What he
fays prefently after, of all well eyde, is from
Virgil, ii. 1. Intentique ora tenebant.
XXXV.

Which they far off beheld from Trojan toures,
And faw the fieldes of fair Scamander frowne
With carcafes of noble warricures,

Whofe fruitleffe lives were under furrow fowne, And Xanthus fandy bankes with blood all over flowne.] ladies beheld the battles from the towers of 'Tis well known from Homer, that the Trojan Trov; and 'tis as well known from Homer that Scamander and Xanthus are only different names for the fame river. The two famous rivers of Troy were Scamander and Simois; fo that it might probably be owing to fome blotted copy that Xanthus in the last verse is printed inftead of Simois,

And Simois' fandy bankes with blood all overflowne.

-crudeli marte receptus.

So Euryalus entertains Rhætus, as he arofe from his skulking place,

Pectore in adverfo totum cui comminus enfem Condidit affurgenti, et multâ morte RECEPIT. Virg. ix. 347.

i. e. and amply entertain'd him with death: dirâ recepit hofpitalitate.

But Calidore in th' entry clofe did fland,
And entertaining them with courage flout,
Still flew the formoft, that came first to hand.
B. vi. C. 11. St. 46.

Οσα τὸν δύσηνον ἐμὸν Θρηνῶ Πατέρ ̓ ὃν κατὰ μὲν βάρβαρον διαν Φόινιος Αρης ἐκ ΕΞΕΙΝΙΣΕ. Quantopere miferum meum luges Patrem, quem in barbara terrâ Non Mars cruento excepit hofpitio. Sophoc. Electr. ver. 94. Spenfer has this kind of expreffion frequently and Sir Philip Sidney has it likewife in his Arcadia.

Ibid.

Wedlocke contract in blood, and eke in blood Accomplished, that many deare complaind: The rivall flaine, the viclour (through the flood Efcaped hardly) hardly praise his wedlock good.] He alludes to the threats of Juno; that the wedlocke between Æneas and Lavinia, fhould be contracted in the blood of the Trojans and Rutilians; which Rutilians Spenfer calls the land folke.

felf, without much breadth, all along the lake near which it was founded: like the town of

Rochefter in Kent, fituated on the Medway; length without breadth. Afcanius removed to Longa Alba about thirty years after the building of Lavinium. XLIV. And Troy againe out of her duft was reard To fitt in fecond feat OF foveraine king

Of all the world under her governing.] The conftruction is hard howfoever you peint it: I fhould rather think that the ufual errour has

got poffeffion, and that we should read,
To fitt in fecond feat OF foveraine king,
AND all the world under her governing.
He adds,

But a third kingdom yet is to arise,
According to the answer given to Brutus by
Diana,
Infula in Oceano eft-

Hanc pete, namque tibi fedes erit illa perennis,
Haec fiet natis altera Troja tuis.

The fecond Troy was Rome; the third, Troynovant, built by Brutus in Britain, according to Jeffry of Monmouth, whom our poet follows in this historical narration.

XLVII.

Sanguine Trojano et Rutulo dotabere, Virgo.
Virg. vii. 318.
The rival flain, means Turnus. The victour
Æneas. Through the flood,

Escaped hardly, hardly praifd his wedlock good.

This alludes to what happened to Æneas after the death of Turnus. Some fay that Aneas was drowned, being pushed into the river Numicus by Mczentius king of the Tyrrheni, and thus was fulfilled the curfe of Dido,

Sed cadat ante diem, mediaque inhumatus arena. Virg. iv. 620. The reader may confult Servius and other commentators, who give different accounts of neas after his settlement in Italy: Spenfer varies from all.

XLIII.

Ibid.

LII.

Upon

HE morrow next, fo foone as Phoebus lamp
Bewrayed had the world with early light,

And fresh Aurora had the fhady damp

Out of the goodly heven amoved quight,] This is tranflated from Virg. iv. 6.

Poftera Phoebea luftrabat lampade terras,
Humentemque Aurora polo dimoverat umbram.

III.

But patience perforce] See B. ii. C. 3. St. 3. The whole proverb is, Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog. The poet cites but half; for half

is more than the whole. The fame kind of partial citation, of what was well known, we may fee in Shakefpeare, Hamlet, Act. iii. Haml. Ay but while the grafs grows-the proverb is fomething mufly.

VI.

-commune bord] communi merfa.

VIII.

Ibid.

X.

To take with his new love,] So the 1ft Edit. the 2d and Folios, To take to

IX.

Who well perceived all, and all indewd.] She per-
ceiv'd it all and indewed it all. What is the
meaning of and indewd all? Is it from the Latin
induere, to put on? And fhe put it all on her,
and made it fit eafy on her mind. Or is it a
metaphor from Falconry? The Hawk is faid
not well to indue, when the does not digeft her
food well: from in, an intentive particle, and
dawen to concoct. So Hellenore faw it all, in-
dewed it all, fwallowed it and digefted it all. I
leave the reader these two explanations, or any
other he fhall think fit, from these hints given,
to make for himself.
XII.

As Hellene, when fhe faw aloft appeare
The Trojane flames, and reach to hevens hight,
Did clap her hands, and joyed at that doleful fight.]

Brawls, ballads, virelayes, and verses vaine.

Then would they caft away their pipes, and holding hand in hand daunce as it were in a braule, by the onely cadence of their voyces.' Sidn. Arcad. pag. 72. Braule. Dance où plufieurs dancent en rond, fe tenant par la main. Richelet. BRAWL, genus faltationis primâ fpecie confulum: ab Arm. brella confundere. Junius. 'Tis used in the paffage before us for a fong to be fung in dancing the braule. VIRELAYES de virer, i. e. gyrare; et de lay. C'est à dire, un lay qui vire.VIRLAIS. Autretaille de Rondeaux doubles, qui le nomment fimples Virlais; parce que gens Lais les mettent en leurs chanfons rurales. See Menage.

concerning Helen's conduct and behavior at the fiege of Troy. Menelaus (in Homer, Od. iv.) plainly fays the endeavoured by her artifice to ruin the Greeks, infpired by fome evil daemon. Virgil calls her the common peft of Troy and Greece, and as defervedly odious to both, makes her hide herself, and fly to the altars for refuge. En. ii. 571. And (n. vi. 511.) introduces Deiphobus relating how Helen betrayed him to her husband, and giving a fignal to the Greeks.

Flammam media ipfa tenebat Ingentem, et fumma Danuos ex arce vocabat. Our poet adds that the rejoiced to fee Troy in flames, as if through female petulancy, he loved mifchief for milchief's fake.