Is checkt and changed from his nature trew, By others oppofition or obliquid view.

LV.

"Besides, the fundry motions of your fpheares,
So fundry waies and fashions as clerkes faine,
Some in fhort space, and fome in longer yeares;
What is the fame but Alteration plaine?
Onely the starrie skie doth ftill remaine :
Yet do the ftarres and fignes therein ftill

move,

And even itself is mov'd, as wizards faine: But all that moveth doth Mutation love: Therefore both you and them to Me I fubiect

prove.

LVI.

"Then fince within this wide great Universe Nothing doth firme and permanent appeare, But all things toft and turned by transverse; What then should let, but I aloft fhould reare My trophee, and from all the triumph beare? Now iudge then, O thou greatest Goddeffe

And unto me addoom that is my dew;

That is, the Rule of all; all being rul'd by You."

LVII.

So having ended, filence long enfewed;
Ne Nature to or fro fpake for a space,
But with firme eyes affixt the ground still
viewed.

Meane while all creatures, looking in her face,
Expecting th' end of this fo doubtfull cafe,
Did hang in long fufpence what would enfew,
To whether fide fhould fall the foveraigne

place:

At length fhe, looking up with chearefull view, The filence brake, and gave her doome in speeches few:

LVIII.

"I well confider all that ye have fayd;

And find that all things ftedfaftnes doe hate
And changed be; yet, being rightly wayd,
They are not changed from their first estate;
But by their change their being doe dilate;
And, turning to themselves at length againe,
Doe worke their owne perfection fo by fate:
Then over them Change doth not rule and
raigne ;

But they raigne over Change, and doe their
ftates maintaine.

LVII. 4.

looking in her face,] How

are we to reconcile this affertion with what is faid of Nature

in ftanzas 5 and 6? The whole of this ftanza, however, is remarkably grand and impreffive, TODD.

LIX.

"Cease therefore, Daughter, further to afpire,
And thee content thus to be rul'd by Me:
For thy decay thou feekft by thy defire:
But time shall come that all shall changed bee,
And from thenceforth none no more change
fhall fee!"

So was the Titanefs put downe and whift,
And love confirm'd in his imperiall fee.

Then was that whole affembly quite difmift, And Natures felfe did vanish, whither no man wift.

LIX. 4. But time fhall come that all shall changed bee, &c.] "We shall all be changed-this mortal muft put on immortality →Death is swallowed up in victory," 1. Corinth. xv. 51.

66

UPTON. LIX. 6. whift,] Silenced. In Stanyhurst's Virgil, as Mr. Warton has noticed, Intentique ora tenebant," is tranflated, "They whifted all." See alfo Marlowe and Nafh's Dido, 1594.

"The ayre is cleere, and Southerne windes are whift." Whence perhaps Milton, Ode Nat. ver. 64.

"The winds, with wonder whift,

46

Smoothly the waters kift." TODD.

4

THE VIIIth CANTO, UNPERFITE.

I,

WHEN I bethinke me on that speech whyleare Of Mutability, and well it way;

Me feemes, that though the all unworthy were Of the heav'ns rule; yet, very footh to fay, In all things else she bears the greatest sway; Which makes me loath this ftate of life fa tickle,

And love of things fo vaine to caft away; Whofe flowring pride, fo fading and so fickle, Short Time fhall foon cut down with his confuming fickle!

II.

Then gin I thinke on that which Nature fayd, Of that fame time when no more change

fhall be,

But stedfast rest of all things, firmely stayd

I. 6. life fo tickle,] Uncertain, See alfo F. Q, vi. iii. 5. Thus Chaucer, Mill. T. edit, Tyrwhitt, v. 3428.

"The world is now ful tikel fikerly." And B. Riche, in My Ladies Looking-Glasse, 4to. 1616, p. 62, "This worldly wealth I fee is but a tickle commoditie."

TODD.

I. 7. -fo vaine to caft away;] The fecond and third folios, Hughes's fecond edition, and Tonfon's edition in 1758, read, "and cast away." TODD.

Upon the pillours of Eternity,

That is contrayr to Mutabilitie:

For all that moveth doth in change delight:
But thenceforth all shall reft eternally

With Him that is the God of Sabaoth hight: O! that great Sabaoth God, grant me that Sabbaths fight *!

II. 8.

that is the God of Sabaoth hight:] So the fecond and third folios read. The firft folio, Hughes, and the edition of 1751, Sabbaoth. The meaning is, Who is called the God of Hofts or Armies. See James v. 4. "And the cries of them which have escaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, CHURCH.

II. 9. that Sabbaths fight!] The folios read" that Sabaoths fight;" Hughes and the edition of 1751, "that Sabbaoths fight." Sabbath fignifies rest. "That

Sabbaths fight" is the rest eternal spoken of in the feventh line. The poet meant to fay-O! Thou, that art the God of Hofts, grant me the enjoyment of that rest eternal! And I make no doubt he wrote and pointed as I have given it. CHURCH.

Mr. Upton is of a fimilar opinion in regard to the text, and notices the inaccuracies of former editions. Tonfon's edition of 1758 has not observed the distinction between Sabaoth and Sabbath. TODD.

* By what means this unfinished Canto, and the two preceding Cantos, were preferved; the first editor of them has left no particulars. They are ufually termed the Seventh Book of the Poem. The fragment exhibits a very fine fpecimen of Spenfer's fublime invention. TODD.