Talus: though imaged from him. He was a judge; this is an executioner. He was faid to have been a brazen man; imaging the laws which were engraven in brazen tables. -Nec verba minacia fixo AERE legebantur.Ov. Met. 1. 91. Thefe laws he is faid to have carried about with him, when he went his circuit in Crete [INS Keńτng regimoλos, Cretae circuitor, Lucian Philopfeud.] and partly from his feverity, and partly from the tables of brafs which he carried about with him, he was called a brazen man, * xxxxix, fays Plato in Minos. But how properly does Spenfer depart from ancient mytho logy, having a mythology of his own? Spenfer's Talus is no judge; therefore not a brazen man but he is an executioner, an IRON man, imaging his unfeeling and rigid character. XIV. A forie fight-] See note on B. i. C. 6. St. 38. XV. Ah! Woe is me, and well away, quoth hee, Burfling forth teares like fprings out of a banke.] See well away in the Gloffary. The other verfe, Burfing forth teares like fprings out of a banke, is tranflated from Homer, who represents Agamemnon, Il. ix. 14. And Patroclus, Il. xvi. 3. pouring forth tears like fprings bursting from a rock, ὥσε κρήνη μελάνυδρος, Η τε κάτ ̓ ἀιγίλιπος πέτρης διαφορὸν χέοι ὕδωρο That I might drinke the cup wherof the dranke, This expreffion is not only in the fcriptures, (Matt. xxvi. 39, If. li. 17. Pfalm lxxv. 8.) for Plautus ufes it, Cafin. Act. v. fc. 2. Ut fenex hoc eodem poculo, quo ego bibi, biberet. XXVIII. And with it beare the burden of defame-] In the hiftory of prince Arthur, Chap. cxviii. a knight is doomed to carry the head of a lady, whom he had unjustly flain. C A NT O II. II. viz. the omiffion of He, She, Who, &c. I am AND to his memory, &c.] I have printed it apt to believe however that Spenfer wrote As, from the Folio, 1609. III. For this was Dony, Florimel's owne dwarf, The fortune of her life long time did feare.] Dony is contracted from Adonio, or Adonis, a knight's name in Orl. Fur. Canto xliii. The conftruction is, whom (viz. Dony, her dwarf) he having loft, as ye have heard whyleare, viz. in B. iii. C. v. St. 3. And HE (viz. the dwarf) finding in the way Florimel's 's fcattered fearfe, (viz. the scarfe which fell from her as fhe fled from the Fofter, in B. iii. C. 1. St. 15. and B. iii. C. 4. St. 45, &c.) did fear a long time the fortune of her life. Spenfer gives no hint at all of Florimel's lofing her fcarfe, as he does of her lofing her girdle, which Sir Satyrane found. The omiffion of thefe little circumftances makes it often difficult to unravel his meaning: let me add likewise another difficulty mentioned already, And finding in the way her scattred fearfe. the repeated twice feems the printer's usual blunder. Ibid. And afkt him where and when her bridale cheare.] Epulum nuptiale, lapos. John ii, i. Obferve pre anfwer and correfpond in the rhime. fently after ad for add, that the letters might VI. Thereto he hath a groome of evil guize, Whofe fcalp is bare, that bandage doth bewray.] A groom of evil guize; hence called Guizor, one of Dolon's fons, fee below, Canto vi. St. 33. Spenfer perpetually alludes to the names of the perfons whom he introduces: he adds, Whofe fcalp is bare, that bondage doth bewray. The Germans and Franks, with most of the northern nations, thought wearing the hair long a fign of freedom: the contrary bewrayed bondage. This explains Claudian's epithet, L. i. de Laud. Stiliconis. -Crinigero flaventes vertice reges. So the quarto and Folios 1609. 1611. 1617. And hence will appear the meaning of Ovid. 1679. But in Hughes, Faft. i. 645 -paffos Germania crines Porrigit aufpiciis, dux venerande, tuis. XIV. —So much is more than just I trow. And look how much it doth overflow or faile thereof, fo much, I trow, I think, is more than juft. See B. iii. C. 5. St. 5. But to trow He faw no way but clofe with him in haft] but to feems right: to trow is the fame as to wit ; close in with him. XVI. So ought each knight, that ufe of perill has, In fwimming be expert.] Swimming was always efteemed the neceffary qualification of a foldier. Hence Horace by way of reproach says, Cur timet flavum Tiberim tangere? Lib. i. Od. 8. And by way of praise, Nec quifquam citus aequè XVIII. With bright cryfair in his cruell hand] cruell means here determined not to fpare him. XXVI. And eke her feete, thofe feete of filver trye] i. e. tried or refined filver: fo the quarto and Folios, a letter is omitted for the rhime, fee note on B. iv. C. 11. St. 46. Hughes' edition has thofe feet of filver dye. But the true meaning is tried filver, as in Pf. xii. 6. lxvi. 10. XXVII. And burning all to ashes pourd it down the brooke] Arthegall feized on all the gold and filver, and burning it to afhes he poured it down the brooke. This is not accurate: for burning will not reduce gold and filver to afhes: he might have reduced it to duft or powder by grinding it, and then fling it into the stream, And grinding all to dust be powr'd it downe the brooke. delicet. XXXV. For at the firft they all created were vi In goodly measure-] Wifd. xi. 20. Thou haft ordered all things in measure and number and weight. So in Deut. ix. 21. (which paffage the author XXXIII. LIV. Horat. As when a faulcon bath with nimble flight Like foolish flies.—] See note on B. i. C. 1. St. 23. elegant and Virgilian mixture of tenfes, taken Ibid. notice of in a note on B. i. C. iii. St. 41. As when a faulcon bath flowne In fdeignfull wize-] i. e. difdainfully: fo it The trembling foule doe hide themselves— should have been printed. They close their trembling troop, and all attend Theod. and Honoria. Thus has Arthegal finished three adventures. The firft is an inftance of his fagacity in diftributive justice and imitated from the wellknown, and first decifion of King Solomon. The 2d, of his love of publick justice, in punishing a Sarazin, who demanded toll of paffengers. The 3d, of his punishing an impudent accufer, and a pretending amender of God's works a modern geometrician and conceited metaphysician. CANT O II. bore. which there did refort from every fille Of lords and ladies infinite great flore, Ne any knight was abfent that brave courage Compare this with the Orl. Innam. L. ii. C. 20. St. 60. and Orl. Fur. xvii. 82. Tilts and tournaments are of the very effence of Romance writings; and poets who copy from them abound in these kind of defcriptions. And now they doe with. captive bands bim bind-] In this tournament though they ufed cutting fwords, yet there was no killing; and the fign of being conquered was being taken captive. So in Chaucer's defcription of the royal lifts and tournament, wherein Palemon and Arcite brought each their hundred knights, the compact was there should he no stabbing, And be that is at mifchief, fhall be take, And not be flayn, but be brought in to a flake. Knight's Tale. 2553. And presently after Palemon is taken captive as Marinell, And by the force of twenty is he take Unyoldin, and ydrawin to the stake. Compare B. iv. C. 4. St. 18. and see the note. XIV. And did fhew his field, III. Which bore the funne brode blazed in a golden field,] By blazing in heraldry is meant the difplaying a coat of arms in its proper colours and metals; and 'tis a fault in blazoning to lay colour upon colour, or metal upon metal. Our poet therefore, if governed by heralds, fhould have rather written, Which bore the funne brode blazed in an azure field. So the arms of Serpentino are blazoned at the tournaments of Charles the Great, Per infegna portava il Cavaliero Orl. Innam. L. i. C. 2. St. 37 Whether the poet on purpofe falfely blazoned his fhield, as he was a falfe and recreant knight, I leave to the reader's confideration. XV. Quale rofae fulgent inter fua lilia mixtae. Ovid. Amor. L. ii. Eleg. 5. XXV. As when the daughter of Thaumantes faire.-] i. e. As when the fair daughter of Thaumas, viz. Iris. Thaumantias Iris. She is a wonderful phaenomenon; as the poet, in allufion to her father's name, fays juft after, That all men wonder at her colours pride. I confulted all the editions to fee if any of them had Thaumante. Spenfer, like our old poets, uses proper names in the oblique cafes. XXXI. Who all that piteous ftorie-] Guyon tells them the ftory of the woful couple, viz. Mordant and Amavia, related in B. ii. C. I. and their bloody babe, Ibid. St. 40. during which adventure his steed was ftoln, B. ii. C. 2. St. 11.In the last verse of this Stanza, And rather had to lose-et mallet perdere. So B. iii. C. 10. St. 13. that rather had to die, quae mallet mori. XXXIII. Whereof to make due tryal-] Compare this and the following Stanza with Ariofto, i. 74, 75. Thefe kind of tales told of the great fagacity of horfes, and the love which they bear their mafters, have more than poetical warrant for their truth; for hiftorians relate the fame of the horfes of Alexander and of Julius Cæfar. Ibid. Him by the bright embroidered hedfall tooke] See XXXVII. But Talus by the backe.---] I believe that in dcfcribing Braggadochio, Spenfer had his eye on the coward Martano, in Ariofto, who runs away at the tournament, Canto xvii. 90. he fteals the horfe and arms of Grifon, xvii. 110, and is punished, xviii. 93.-Cowards in the lifts were proclaimed falfe and perjured, their armour was taken from them, beginning from the heels upwards, and then ignominioufly flung piece by piece over the barriours: they were likewife dragged out of the lifts, and punifhed as the judges decreed. XXXIX. Now when thefe counterfeits were thus uncafed.] The Fox, firft author of that treachery, He did uncafe, and then abroad let fly. B. Johnfon has this expreffion in his Volponc, Act. v. The Fox fhall here uncafe. XL. Fit for fuch ladies and fuch lovely knights.] This verfe is by no means to be altered. Spenfer knew his readers would apply it to the ladies, though he places his epithet at fuch a distance from them. And indeed 'tis his perpetual manner thus to fport with his epithet, and to difjoin it from its proper fubftantive. We have taken notice of this in many of our notes already; particularly on B. iv. C. 8. St. 16. VOL. II. 4 K CANTO And though my land he firft did winne away, And then my love (though now it little skill) Yet my good lucke he shall not likewife pray.] Though he did firft get my land, and then my love, (though now it little skill) though now it Skilleth little, i. e. little fignifies: yet he fhall not likewife prey upon, make a prey of, my good luck. XVI. And then you fhall.] And then ye, &c. So was their difcord by this doome appeafed, proper for each to have; and his intent was to put the two brothers upon an equal footing. XXVI. Sir Turpine.] So the old quarto. But the Folio 1609, Terpine; as below, St. 28. XXVIII. Right true: but faulty men use oftentimes XXIX. -And many done be dead.] i. e. and caufed many to be dead. Anglo-Sax. Don, to caufe. XXXI. Firft fhe doth them, &c.] See an account in Petitus de Amazon: C. 23. how they mifufed the men. Confult likewife Apollonius Rhodius of their cruel nature: and compare Ariofto (who was well acquainted with all ancient literature) of the laws and policy of the Amazons, Canto xix. 57, &c. XXXV. A goodly city-] The city of the Amazons was named Themifcyra, near the river Thermodon. Though we are now in Fairy land, yet our poet does not altogether lofe fight of history. XXXVI. And like a fort of bees in clusters fwarmed] in clufters, Bergudór, in modum racemi, Hom. II. 6 89. He does not fay, And like a fwarm of bees-But like a fort of bees. So he fays a fort of sheep, for a flock: below, St. 44, a fort of merchants, a company: B. vi. C. 11. St. 9. a fort of dogs, a pack: B. vi. C. 11. St. 17, a fort of steers, a herd: B. vii. C. 6. St. 28. a fort of Shepherds, a 9. St. 5. company, B. vi. C. XXXVII. -and teeth did grin.] For grind, fee note on B. iv. C. 11. St. 46. Dentibus_infrendens. Et graviter frendens. CANTO |