XVII. -whofe mind did travell as with chylde.-] expreffed after Plato's manner. See note on B. i. C. 5. St. I. Ibid. Refolved to pursue his former gueft.] I believe he wrote, queft. The prince was in queft of the Fairy Queen. See B. i. C. 9. St. 15. XIX. And told at large how that fame errant knight, To weet fair Britomart, them late had foyled In open tourney; and by wrongful fight Both of their publicke prayfe had them defpoyled, And alfo of their private loves beguyled. The objection to this laft reading is, that these proud knights would not have owned that Britomart had foyled them in OPEN tourney, without adding at the fame time, and by wrongful fight, i. e. wrongfully had foyled them. Spenier is Thus many miles they two together wore] Teie do, a great preferver of the decorum of characters. XXIII. As when Dan Eolus in great difpleasure And all the world confound with WIDE uprore. To whom the prince thus goodly well replied, Certes Sir KNIGHT, ye jeemen much to blame thinks it fhould have been printed, To rip up wrong, that battell once HATH tried.] MeCertes Sir KNIGHTS ye feemen much to blame To rip up arong, that battil once have tried. The addrefs is to all: and 'tis against decorum to point out one in particular; becaufe blame diftributed falls the cafier on particulars. XXXVIII. Through many perils wenne, and many fortunes waide.] It may be doubted whether the meaning is, and through many fortunes WEIGHED, experienced, born. Or, WADED through, paffid with difficulty. XXXIX. That living thus, a wretch I and loving fo]-fo the old quarto. I corrected it therefore, That living thus (wretch !) I, and loving fo I neither can my love, ne yet my life forgo. Wretch, i. e. wretched as I am: I is for ay: fo used a thousand times in Shakespeare, Johnson, and our old poets. But I have the authority of the Folio of 1609 for the reading, which I have admitted into the context. Between the xxxix. and xl. ftanzas there fhould have been printed, as I think, feveral afterifks, as, * to fhow that feveral ftanzas are here omitted. For I am perfuaded myfelf, that Spenfer intended, with fome few alterations, to introduce those stanzas which were printed at the end of the Third Book, defcribing the happy meeting of Sir Scudamore and Amoret. Read over carefully, St. 17. you will there find fair Amoret under the protection of prince Arthur: and in St. 19, and 20, they are travelling together till they come at length where the troop of falfe friends were fkirmishing, till feeing Britomart and Scudamore, they turned their wrath on thofe two, St. 29. The prince at fome diftance with Amoret feeing this, pricketh forward, and TR That love with gall and hony doth abound.] How many poets might here be cited? Perhaps he means Plautus, Cistell. Act. i. Sc. i. 70. Gy. Amat haec mulier. Si. Eho! an amare occipere amarum eft obfecro? Gy. Namque ecaftor amor et melle et felle eft fecundiffimus: Guftu dat dulce, amarum ad fatietatem ufque oggerit. The elegant Sappho, with the prettieft compounded word imaginable, called love yλuxxgov, fweet-bitter, hony and gall: fweet gall, bitter honey [fee Haepheft. pag. 14. and Max. Tyr. differt. 24. pag. 29. edit. Lond.] fo in the poem attributed to Mufaeus, Ηδη γὰρ γλυκύπικρον ἐδέξατο κύρον ἐρώτων. Del. Triomph. d'Amor. Cap. iii. Dulce amarumque una nunc mifces mihi. Plaut. Pfeud. A&t i. Sc. i. τὸ λεγόμενον, πικρῷ γλυκὺ μεμιγμένον. Ut in proverbio dicitur, amaro dulce permixtum. Plato in Philebo. X. vowed a temple to Venus Genetrix and to this goddess (viz. VENERI GENETRICI) the matrons dedicated a Ceftos, as the following infcription fhows. DIVO. JVLIO OB. ILLIVS. INMVN. ET. MVN On which THIS field, of many fought in vaine, THE field of love] I would read emphatically and dexx. THIS field of love Ibid. Bleed the man that well can ufe HIS blifs. Whofe ever be the fhield, faire Amoret be HIS.] fo the Folios 1609. 1611. 1617. 1679. But the old quarto from which I print, has plainly But with my fpeare upon the field did rap]. Obferve here a custom, net ufed in all tilts and tourneys, but yet often mentioned in Romance writers. A fhield was hanged up, on which the adventurous knights rap'd with fpear or fword in token of challenge or defiance. See Sidney's Arcad. pag. 57. and 60. The fame cuftom is alluded to in B. v. C. 11. St. 22. Three times as in defiance, there he ftroke, Therein refembling Fanus auncient, Which hath in charge the ingate of the year.] which hath, fo the quarto and Folio of 1609. But the Folios 1611, 1617, which had. Praefideo foribus coli: Ovid. Faft. i. 125. And the poet thus addreffes him, ibid. 65. Jane biceps, anni tacitè labentis origo. 1 The Myld Titus and Gefippus without pryde.] The reader will know nothing of these two friends, unless he turns to Boccace Nov. viii. Tenth Day. The argument of which novel is, that Gifippus became poor, and thought himfelf defpifed by his old friend Titus; hence growing weary of life, he gave out he was a murderer. But Titus, knowing him, and 'defiring to fave the life of his friend, charged ' himself with the murder; which the very murderer feeing, as then he ftood among the multitude, confeffed the deed. By which means all three were faved: and Titus gave his fifter in marriage to Gifippus, with the 'moft part of his goods and inheritance.' These two friends are mentioned in pag. 257. of fongs and fonnets by the earl of Surrey. 6 O friendship flower of flowers, O lively fprite of lyfe, Ofacred bond of blisful peace, the falworth flanche of strife. Scipio with Lelius didft thou conjoyne in care, At home, in warres, for weale and wo, with equal faith to fare. GISIPPUS eke with TYTE, Damon with Pythias; And with Menethus fonne Achill by thee combyned was. Ibid. Damon and Pythias whom death could not fever.] These friends are well known from moderns as well as ancients. See Kufter's notes on Jamblicus' life of Pythagoras, cap. 33. Valerius Tufc. Difput. pag. 349. Maximus. L. iv. C. 7. Cicero de Offic. and XXXIII. That fhe them forced hand to joyne in hand.] He alludes to the doctrines inculcated by the ancient philofopers, viz. that univerfal concord is eftablished by particular difagreements and oppofite principles. Tota hujus mundi concordia ex difcordibus conftat. Senec. Quaeft. Nat. L. vii. Č. 27. So Heraclitus according to Arift. Ethic. L. viii. C. τὸ ἀντίξεν συμφέρον, καὶ ἐκ τῶν διαφερόντων καλ is deporíar. See Empedocles in Diog. Laert. vol. i. pag. 538. And the author Περὶ κόσμο. ἴσως δὲ τῶν ἐναντίων ή φύσις γλίκεται, κ. λ, XXXIV. Concord fhe cleeped was-] Obferve the fufpence kept up from Stanza 31. 4 H But But therein fate an amiable dame, to Stanza xxxiv. Concord fhe cleeped was— By her the heaven is in his courfe contained, And fire devoure the ayre, and HELL them quight;] Perhaps HELE, i. e. and cover them (viz. the land and air) quite. to hele, or heile, is to cover over; to unhele, to uncover: hence comes the word Hellier, a tiler of a houfe: a word well known in the weft of England. Anglo-S. heJan, tegere. Germ. HELEN. P. P. Fol. xxx. And al the houfes bene hiled, i. e. covered in. Phaer thus tranflates Virgil, ii. 472. Sub terra quem bruma tegebat, That lurking long hath under ground in winter cold ben HILD. Spenser ufes unhele, to uncover or discover, in For all the priests were damzels in foft linnen dight.] Here are two things obfervable: the priests of Venus were damzells, and they were dressed in linen. So Hero, in the poem afcribed to Mufæus, was a prieftefs of Venus, ver. 30. See how Leander addreffes her, ver. 141, &c. juft in the fame manner, as Sir Scudamore addrefles Amoret, in St. 54. We have several ancient infcriptions which mention priesteffes of Venus. Gruter, p. 318. How can they all in this fo narrow verse SONTIAE SACERDOTI. VENERIS EX. TESTAMENTO. FAVSTAE. VERISSIMAE. &c. So likewife the infcription explained by Patinus, in honour of Ulpia Marcellina. chief prieftefs of the celeftial Venus: ΟΥΛΠΙΑ ΜΑΡΚΕΛΛΕΙΝΑ ΟΥΛ-Θ APXIEPEIA ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗΣ ΟΥΡΑΝΙΑΣ i. e. Ulpia Marcellina, Ulpiae filia, facerdos fumma Spenfer fays they were in foft linnen dight: for as Neu fuge linigerae Memphitica templa juvencae. XXXIX. Right in the midft the goddesse felfe did ftand] The image of the deity was placed in the middle of the temple, as the most honourable, and the moft confpicuous place. IN MEDIO mihi Caefar erit, templumque tenebit. Virg. G. iii. 16. XL. But covered with a flender veile afore;] Venus velatâ fpecie. Plin. Nat. Hift. L. xxxvi. C. 5. The Ægyptian Ifis was the Grecian Venus: and Plutarch tells us in his Ifis and Ofiris, that on the base of the ftatue of Minerva at Sais (whom likewife they looked on to be the fame, as Ifis) was ingraven this infcription, I am every thing that was, is, and shall be: and my veil no mortal yet has uncovered. It feems to me that Spenfer had this infcription, and this myfterious goddefs Ifis, in view; who allegorically reprefented the frft matter ; τὸ τῆς φύσεως θῆλυ, the feminine of nature: Tinn wardens, the nurse of all things, and receiver of all forms. See Plutarch's Ifis and Ofiris. XLI. But for, they fay, he hath both kinds in one, Nam mihi quam dederit DUPLEX Amathufia cu ram. Duplex, i. e. of both kinds, both male and female; as Spenfer tranflates it. See Meurfius' Cyprus, Lib. i. C. 8. and Voffius on the above cited paffage of Catullus. Or perhaps he had Macrobius in view, who commenting on that well known verfe of Virgil, Defcendo ac ducente deo-and on the verfe of the poet Calvus, Pollentemque deum Venerem-adds, Signum etiam ejus [Veneris] eft Cypri barbatum, corpore et vefte muliebri, cum fceptro ac ftaturâ virili; et putant • eandem MAREM AC FEMINAM effe.' [In tranfcribing this paffage of Macrobius, I have made fome little alteration, for my Edition reads, barbatum corpore, fed vefte muliebri cum fceptro, &c. Venus in this double capacity, as male and female, was named Ερμαφρόδιτος. Ανδρογύνος. See Hefych. in Appódros, with the notes of the late Editor. Hence Spenfer below, in St. 47. calls Venus, Great God of men and women. The following infcription feems an address to Ifis or Venus, in this double nature. SIVE. DEO SIVE. DEAE C. TER. DEXTER EX. VOTO XLII. And all about her necke and shoulders flew Sive tu mavis, Erycina ridens, XLIV. Great Venus, queene of beautie-] Dryden in the Knightes Tale, tranflated from Chaucer (where Palamon makes his prayer to Venus) had certainly in his eye this whole paffage of Spenfer now before us, as well as thofe well known verfes of Lucretius. Compare Berni, Orl. Innam. L. ii. C. 1. St. 2, 3. Firft doe the merry birds, thy prety pages, Lucret. i. 12. Pricked is Chaucer's word, who perhaps had Lucretius too in view, And fmale foulis makin melodye- Prolog. ver. 11. Pricketh them in their corage, i. e. in their hearts: perculfae, feu, percuffae corda. Their leavy cages, frundiferas domos, Lucret. i. 19.-their kindly rages, i. e. their natural luft. rage verbum eft obfcenum apud Chaucerum noftrum; unde tagerie. XLVI. Then doe the falvage beafts-] Inde ferae pecudes, Omne adeo genus in terris hominumque ferarumque In generation feeke to quench their inward fire. Generatim, i. e. per fingula genera: narà vò idios ixáse yéros. Not as Spenfer fays, in generation: ἑκάσε γένος. 4 H 2 but |