LV.

At fight thereof fhe was with terror queld,] i. e. religious awe. Our poet is antique in his expreffions.

--Multofque metu fervata per annos.

Virg. vii. 60. i. e. With terror; with religious awe; T do δαιμονία.

Atque metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum,

Subjecit pedibus

e. All religious terrors.

Ibid.

Whom when I faw with amiable grace

To laugh at me, and favour my pretence,] So the
quarto; but I corrected from the folio of 1609.
To laugh on me,-

The image fmiles on Scudamore; intimating
fhe favoured his pretences. 'Tis frequently
mentioned by hiftorians as well as poets, that
the idols by fome mark or other favoured or
refused the
of their votaries.
prayers

Virg. G. ii. 490: Vifa dea eft moviffe fuas (et moverat) aras;
Et templi patuere fores-
Ov. Met. ix. 780.

Homer II. 488. Virg. G. ii. 43. n. vi. 625. Taffo ix. 92.

XI.

-with her own filver haire.] Silver is pecu liar to the goddeffes of the feas and rivers; gold, to the nymphs of the fky or earth: the former from analogy of the tranfparent and filver ftreams, have not only filver hair, but filver feet, fo Homer of Thetis, Il. & 538. Αργυρόπεζα Θέτις, argenteos pedes habens Thetis. Milton in his Mafk, as I formerly mentioned in critical obfervations on Shakespeare, had this epithet in view,

By Thetis tinfel-flipper'd feet.
Spenfer more literally tranflates Homer's epi-
thet juft below St. 47, fpeaking of the river
Medua,

Under the which her feet appeared plaine
Her filver feet.

XIII.

Phorcys the father of that fatal brood

By whom thofe old heroes wonne fuch fame.] Phorcus was father of the Graeae, the Gorgons, the Dragon of the Hefperides, &c. and the old heroes, who won fuch fame from the connew Medufa, Hercules who flew the Dragon queft of that fatal brood, were Perfeus who of the Hefperides, Ulyffes who put out the eye Phorcus, &c. Compare this catalogue with the of Polyphemus, fon of Thoofa, daughter of fong of the fea nymphs in praise of Neptune in Drayton's Polyolb. Song xx. pag. 14. 15.

Ibid.

And tragicke Inoes fonne, the which became
A god of feas through his mad mothers blame,
Now hight Palemon, and is faylers frend.] Palae-
mon was the fon of Athamas and Ino, he was
called Melicerta, but took this new name

So the elegant Parnel complimenting Mr. Pope (Palaemon) according to the rites of deificaon his Windfor Foreft,

Ovid himfelf might wish to fing the dame,
Ibom Windfor Foreft fees a gliding fiream
On filver feet.

Silver refined is pure and bright, and by an
eafy metaphor, applied to fountains and rivu-

lets,

Fons erat illimis nitidis argenteus undis.

a gentle flud

tion, when his mad mother finging him and herself into the fea were deified. But how was the mother to blame? For Juno made Athamas, the father of Palaemon, mad; in his mad fits he murdered one of his children, and the other, together with the mother, forced down a precipice into the fea, where both were drowned,

and both became deities of the fea. See B. v. C. 8. St. 47. and Ov. Faft. v. 541. Met. iv. Ov. Met. iii. 407. 541. Athamas the mad father: fo Ov. Faft. vi. 489. Hinc agitur furiis Athamas. And Met. iv. 511. Aeolides furibundus. The poor frightened mother diftracted by her husband's cruelties, was not to be BLAMED but pitied. Huc venit infanis natum complexa lacertis Et fecum è celfo mittit in alta jugo.

His filver waves did foftly tumble down.
B. vi. C. ro. St. 7.

XII.
First the fea-gods, which to themselves do clame
The poure to RULE the billowes, and the waves

to TAME.] To rule the billowes, and to tame the waves, is the fame thing: I believe here is a 'falfe print, and that our poet wrote, as the oppofition requires,

The poure to RAISE the billoaves, and the waves

to TAME.

Spenfer is claffical in his expreffions.
Quo non arbiter Adriae

Major, TOLLERE feu PONERE vult freta.
Hor. L. i. Od. 3.

Et MULCERE dedit fluctus, et TOLLERE vento.
Virg. Æn. i. 70.
Ημὲν ΠΑΤΕΜΕΝΑΙ, ΕΔ' ΟΡΝΥΜΕΝ ὃν κ ̓ ἐθέλησι.
Hom. Od. 22.

So above, St. II.
That rules the feas, and makes them RISE or FALL.
And below, St. 52.

To RULE his tides, and furges to UP-RERE,

Óv. Faft. vi. 497.

Tum denique concita mater,
Seu dolor boc fecit, feu fparfi caufa veneni,
Exululat, paffifque fugit male-fana capillis.
Ov. Met. iv. 520.

However none of the books have the reading,
which I looked for,

The which became

A god of feas through his mad fathers blame. Tragick Ino, as Horace flebilis Ino. The other verse,

Now hight Palaemon, and is faylers friend.
feems better thus, if we had the authority of
books,

Now hight Palaemon and the faylers friend.
Ibid.

Great Brontes and Aftreus that did fhame
Himself with inceft of his kin unkend.] Brontes

was the fon of Neptune, and one of the Cy the writer of the notes on Homer's Odyffey, clopes. Aftraeus (as Leo Byzantius tells the Book ix. If Polypheme had really this ftory) unknowingly unkind, defiled his fifter quality of running upon the waves, he might Alcippe, and afterwards for grief drowned him- have deftroyed Ulyffes without throwing felf. See Natales Comes, L. ii. C. 8. 'Tis to this mountain : but Apollonius is unbe obferved that tyrants, oppreflors, robbers,doubtedly guilty of an abfurdity, and one &c. and those who were too bad to be imagined 6 might rather believe that he would fink the the fons of men, were faid to be born of the earth at every step, than run upon the waocean. Ferociffimos, et immanes, et alienos ab omniters with fuch lightness as not to wet his feet.' humanitate, tanquam è marigenitos, Neptuni filios This latter note-writer copyed Cowley's misdixerunt. Aul. Gellius. To thefe let there be takes and this is no unufual thing, as I could added heroes of unknown birth and founders of fhow in many inftances: but this inftance now kingdoms; and who can doubt but Neptune's before me comes in fo very pertinent, that I fons were numberlefs? See Natales Comes, could not well pass it over unnoticed. Lib. ii. C. 8. Boccace, Hyginus, Apollodorus, &c. who will inform the reader more particularly, if he wants to know any thing of thefe perfons here mentioned.

XIV.

XIV.

And fad Afopus-] Thefe epithets fhould be peculiar and proper; and if the reader will turn to the mythological writers, fuch as Apollodorus, Hyginus, &c. or Boccace, Natales Comes, &c. he will find, perhaps Spenfer's reafons for characterizing these river-gods, giants, founders of kingdoms, &c. He calls him fad Afopus becaufe Jupiter carried away, and deflowered his daughter Aegina (fee B. iii. C. 11. St. 35.) and when he endeavoured to regain her, Jupiter ftruck him with thunder. See the fcholiaft of Apollonius, i. 117. and Callimachus, in Del. v. 78.

And faire Euphoemus that upon them go'th
As on the ground-] Euphemus was the fon of
Neptune, and one of the Argonauts: he was
fo wonderfully fwift as to run upon the wa-
ters without wetting his feet. Hygin. Fab. xiv.
Pindar mentions him and the fcho-
liaft. I have been the more particular on
this wight, to take notice of a pleafant mif-
take, occafioned by a falfe reading in Apollo-
nius Rhodius, which however is rectified in the
notes. Polyphemus the fon of Elatus was in
the Argonautick expedition, Ioλúnuos Esharing,
i. 40. Not Polyphemus the one-eyed monster,
but that gentle Polyphemus, whofe acquaint-ya.
ance Neftor boafts of, and calls him, arrídeov
Пoλú¶nμov, Il. á. 264. After Apollonius has
mentioned Polyphemus, he comes in order to
Euphemus, who left Taenarus to join this
noble crew,

Τάιναρον αυτ ̓ ἐπὶ τοῖσι λιπὼν Ευφημος ἵκανε.
But instead of "Eunos, the copyer having in
his mind Пopos, mentioned in verfe 40. re-
peats his name over again. The editor of A-
pollonius faw this, and has corrected the
blunder both in his verfion and notes. But
Cowley carelessly reading this paffage of Apol-
lonius, wonders at this hyperbolical account
of fuch a monfter as Polyphemus, whom
as Polyphemus, whom
one would believe fhould rather fink the
earth at every tread, than run over the fea
with dry feet. See his notes on the third
Book of Davideis.

Κέινος ἀνὴς καὶ πόντε ἐπὶ γλαυκοῖο θέεσκεν *Ονόματος, ἐδὲ τοὺς βάπλιν πόδας, ἀλλ ̓ ὅσον "ακροις Ίχνεσι τεγγόμενος διερῇ πεφόρητο κελευθώ. These verses Cowley cites and applies them to the monster Polypheme: fo does likewife the

XV.

Ancient Ogyges-] This is learnedly expreffed; things ancient were called Ogygia. Hefychius, gxaĩa.

For Albion

XVI.

Out of his Albion did on dry-foot pas] Britain
was faid originally to have been joined to Gaul.
Albion was a fon of Neptune, and contended
with Hercules: this ftory is mentioned by
Pomponius Mela, and Diodorus Siculus. But
the story here alluded to is taken from British
Chroniclers (liars of a fecond rate) The reader
may fee it in Holinfhed's history of England,
B. i. C. 3.
XVII.

But what do I their names feeke to reherse
Which all the world-

-and in small compaffe hild. ] Hild, from Anglo-S. helen, to cover: or from hill, to pour out. See note on B. iv. C. 10. St. 35. in small compafs bild, i. e. contain'd, cover'd, or pourd out in a fmall compafs. I believe he had in view a paffage of Hefiod, who after mentioning the progeny of Neptune, and the names of the rivers, adds,

Old Tethys-] See Homer Il. . 201. and He- Like as the mother of the gods---] Compare Lu