"But Fame with golden wings aloft doth flie, "For not to have been dipt in Lethe lake, 431 "Therefore in this halfe happie I doo read 435 Good Melibæ, that hath a Poet got To fing his living praises being dead, Ver. 428. For not to have been dipt in Lethe lake, &c.] The lines are elegant; but the poet should have said “Stygian lake." JORTIN, Ver. 432. Which made the Eafterne Conquerour to crie, O fortunate yong-man, &c.] Alexander Achillem prædicabat felicem, quod tantum virtutis fuæ præconem inveniffet." Freinshemius, Suppl. in Q. Curtium, I. 4. JORTIN, Spenfer more probably drew this from Tully pro Archid: "Atque is [Alexander] tamen cùm in Sigeo ad Achillis tumulum adftitiffet, O fortunate, inquit, Adolefcens, qui tuæ virtutis Homerum præconem inveneris." T. WARTON. Ver. 436. Good Melibæ, that hath a Poet got,] Sir Francis Walfingham, who died Apr. 6. 1590, is Meliba. The Deferving never here to be forgot, In fpight of envie, that his deeds would spot: Since whofe decease, learning lies unregarded, And men of armes doo wander unrewarded. 441 "'Those two be those two great calamities, 445 "O griefe of griefes! O gall of all good heartes! To see that vertue fhould dispised bee 450 Of him, that first was raifde for vertuous parts, And now, broad fpreading like an aged tree, Lets none fhoot up that nigh him planted bee: O let the man, of whom the Mufe is fcorned, Nor alive nor dead be of the Muse adorned! 455 "O vile worlds truft! that with fuch vaine illufion Hath fo wife men bewitcht, and overkeft, Poet is Thomas Watson, who published his "Meliboeus, five Ecloga in Obitum Honoratiffimi viri Dom. Fr. Walfinghami, Equitis Aurati, &c. 4to. 1590." OLDYS. Ver. 440. Since whofe deceafe, &c.] See Spenfer's poem to him, before the Faerie Queene. OLDYS. Ver. 447. For he &c.] Lord Burleigh. See the Life of the Poet. This line is thus altered in the firft folio: "For fuch as now have moft the world at will, &c." And, in the next flanza the fingular him &c. is altered to the plural fuch &c. TODD. That they fee not the way of their confusion: 461 "And who fo els that fits in highest seate Let him behold the horror of my fall, 465 470 Thus having ended all her piteous plaint, Which when I miffed, having looked long, feeble heart, I felt fuch anguish wound my So inlie greeving in my groning breft, Being above my flender reafons reach; 486 At length, by demonftration me to teach, Before mine eies ftrange fights prefented were, Like tragicke Pageants feeming to appeare. 490 1. I SAW an Image, all of maffie gold, made The holie brethren falslie to have praid. 496 Ver. 490. Like tragicke Pageants &c.] Spenfer, as E. K. informs us, wrote a poem on these allegorical representations. See the Gloffe on June, Shep. Cal. Poffibly the following Emblems made a part of his labour on the fubject. They represent the overthrow of Empire, of the Works of Art, of Pleasure, of Strength, and of Beauty, befides their manifeft allufion to the hiftory of Sir Philip Sidney. Pageants were a fashionable exhibition in Spenfer's time. See the fecond vol. of this edition, pp. ci. cii. TODD.. Ver. 497. The holie brethren, &c.] See Daniel, iii. 15. &c, TODD. But th' Altare, on the which this Image ftaid, Was (O great pitie !) built of brickle clay, That fhortly the foundation decaid, 500 With fhowres of heaven and tempefts worne away; Then downe it fell, and low in ashes lay, II. Next unto this a statelie Towre appeared, 505 Built all of richest stone that might bee found, And nigh unto the Heavens in height upreared, But placed on a plot of fandie ground: Not that great Towre, which is fo much renownd For tongues confufion in Holie Writ, 510 King Ninus worke, might be compar'd to it. bruft. Ver. 499. 517 brickle] So the poet's own edition reads. The reft have altered it to brittle. But I concieve brickle to be the word intended by Spenfer. It occurs in Cotgrave's old Fr. Dict. "BRICKLE, full of brickes, fit for brickes, briqueux." TODD. |