among the faults efcaped in the print: and he ufes it again in B. iii. C. 1. St. 36. with her two crafty Spies fhe fecretly would fearch each dainty lim. Where fee the note. The meaning is, each envies the other's equal valour, and each does feek with cruell eyes, [Sortitus fortunam oculis] to pearce through the other's fides, which are armed with iron. He feems plainly to have He feems plainly to have Homer in view, where Achilles is defcribed brandishing his deadly dart against Hector, Φρονέων κακὸν Εκτορι δίω, Εισορόων χρόα καλὸν ὅπη ἔίξειε μάλιςα. -Partes rimatur apertas, Or his description of Aeneas shaking his mortal fpear, and marking out with cruel pies the deftined wound, Had not that charme from thee forwarned itt: But yet I warne thee-] Forwarned, cannot surely be the true reading: but forewarned may, which fignifies the fame as forewarded, i. e. warded it off, guarded it beforehand. Ibid. And glauncing downe his field, from blame him fairely bleft. i. e. The fhield [and 'tis well known what fhield he bears] preserved him, like some amulet or charm, which were carried about as bleffings and fecurities against harm and injury. The fame expreffion is in B. iv. C. 6. St. 13. XIX. And at his haughtie helmet making mark So hugely ftroke, that it the fteele did rive, And cleft his head.] I would delay the reader a moment to confider the construction; and to fee how learned our poet really is in fome paf fages, which would be loft to an ordinary reader. So just above, St. 18. Therewith upon his creft With rigor fo outrageous he smitt, That a large share it hewd out of the reft. The particle it, in both thefe places, is to be referred to the fubftantive included in the preceding verb. So hugely froke, that it, viz. the ftroke. So outrageous he fmitt, that it, viz. his fword, which he fmote with. Compare B. ii. C. 8. St. 38. B. 4. C. 6. St. 13. and B. v. C. 7. St. 33. The father of all poetry and poetical diction, has given great fanction to this. manner of expreffion, Ει δ' αγ ̓ ἐγὼν ἀντὸς ΔΙΚΑΣΩ, καὶ μ ̓ ἔτινα φημὶ "Aλor imλer Davaár IOEIA yag ras. 11. 579. Eia verò age ego ipfe dijudicabo; et me nullum puto Alium increpaturum Danaorum: rectum [viz. judicium] enim erit. The adjective a, in the latter part of the fentence, agrees with din tacitly fignified in xáow. and thus. Euβathius, υπακασέον ἡ δίκη, ἡ λεληθότως ἐνῖσα ἐν ῥήμati dixάow. Let me hence vindicate and explain a paffage in Ovid, Art. Amat. L. i. 285.. which has puzzled the commentators. Myrrha patrem, fed non quo filia debet, amavit. i. e. Sed non quo amore, &c. the fubftantive is to be supplied from the verb, in which it is included. Ibid. He tumbling downe ALIVE, With bloody mouth his mother earth did kifs, Greeting his grave: his grudging ghoft did strive—] See how unpoetical and without any idea or proper image this word ALIVE comes in juft after 'tis faid his head was clefte; confider likewise if 'twas away, or if 'twas faid, He immediately or straightway tumbling down, &c. how properly then the fentence would proceed: and thus he feems to me to have expreffed himself, with an old word 'tis true, which however he frequently ufes in this poem; but the printer or transcriber puzzled at first, or flightly cafting his eye on it, gave us instead of BILIVE, ALIVE, preserving at the fame time as many letters, as he well could preserve. He tumbling down BILIVE. With bloody mouth his mother earth did kisse. He seems to have Virgil in view, Aen. xi. 418. Procubuit moriens et humum femel ore momordit. So in the epithet grudging ghost, Vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata fub umbras. The laft line in the Æneid. Bestemmiando fuggi l'alma fdegnofa. The laft line but one in Orl. Furios.. And fortune falfe betraide me to thy powre, All the vile affections of the mind, all perturbed and literally according to the poets and myand horrid ideas are, by a very easy allegory, thologifts, offsprings of darknefs, or Erebus: Such for example are, the faithless, the joyless, the lawless or difobedient: and fuch are these three brethren, all born of one bad Sire: Sansfoy, the unfaithful; Sansjoy, the joyless; (for according to the apostle, Gal. v. 22. The fruits of the fpirit is love, joy, &c. and the gofpel is called glad tidings, &c.) Sanfloy, the lawlefs. [1 Tim. i. 9. The lawless and difobedient. Tit. i. 16. abominable and difobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.] Our knight unaffifted by Una is more than a match for the open violence of any This is a pathetical manner of correcting her- of these brethren, though he becomes an eafy felf, and frequently used. -- prey to hypocrify and fraud and pride. I have -Filium unicum adolefcentulum B. ii. C. 1. St. 50. Verolam I was, (what bootes it that I was?) Ruines of Time. Ifabella fon io; che figlia fui Caro eri à la mia donna. Ah! perche mia Tafso xix. 40. Virg. ii. 324. There was (o feldom bleffed word of Was!) Sydn. Arcad. p. 83. In Theffalia there was (well may I fay there was) a prince (no, no prince,) whom bondage wholly poffeffed, &c.) Sydn. Arcad. p. 83. So Muretus in his Epigram on Raphael. With love long time did languifh as the fricken bind.] XXV. Who, whiles he livde, was called proud Sansfoy-] XXVI. In this fad plight, friendlesse, unfortunate, He in great paffion all this while did dwell.] Dwell Now milerable I Fidessa FELL, i. e. In this fad plight, friendleffe, unfortunate, I the now mijerable Fideffa fell, &c. Spenfer always avoids the fault, if he well can, but fometimes he finds it impracticable. XXVII. So dainty, they say, maketh derth.] Quae rara Chara. Proverb. XXVIII. The fearfull Shepheard, often there aghaft, Theb. XXX. Into a cloven pine; within which rift Imprifon'd, thou didst painfully remain A dozen years. XXXI. Aftond he flood, and up his heare did hove, And with that fuddein borror could no member move.] s de raça, affond he stood: Milt. ix. 890. aftonied food. Ορθὰν δὲ τρίχες ἔσαν, and up his heare did hove. Hom. II. . 359. So Æneas, meeting with the fame adventure, relates of himself, Obftupui, fteterantque comae. Virg. iii. 48. So in Taffo, xiii. 41. Tutto fi raccapriccia. XXXII. Both which fraile men do oftentimes mistake.] Both And in his falfed fancy be her takes-] Nella fua which, viz. the ghoft from Limbo, and the fantafia falfáta. And with vaine thoughts her falfed fancy vex. Ibid. He pluckt a bough; out of whofe rifte there came Small drops of gory bloud, that trickled down the fame.] I believe that the reader need not be put in mind, that this wonderful tale (fo well adapted to the genius of romance) is taken from Virgil; where Æneas plucking a bough of myrtle fees from the rifte drops of blood trickling down. Therewith a piteous voice was heard-O fpare to pollute thy pious hands with bloodBut fly this guilty, avaritious fhore, Warn'd by th' unhappy fate of Polydore ! But were I to render into Latin verfe the following of Spenfer (0 Spare with guilty hands to teare my tender fides in this rough rynd embard) this from Óvid. Met. ii. 362. might very easily be borrowed, Parce precor; noftrum laniatur in arbore corpus. 'Tis no wonder that Ariosto (who is an allegorical and a moral writer, as well as a romance writer,) fhould copy this tale from Virgil. Ruggiero having tied his winged horse to a myrtle tree, the ghoft, which was therein lodged by enchantment, speaks to him, and tells him he was formerly a knight, but by the witchcraft of Alcina he was transformed into a tree; and that others were changed into various beafts and other forms: the true image of the man being loft through fenfuality: Orlando Fur: Canto VI. Other poets might be mentioned who tell the fame kind of ftories. See Ovid. Met. viii. 761. Taffo, Canto xiii. 41. Compare Dante Inferno, Canto xiii. The fame kind of allufion we meet with in Shakefpeare, where Profpero tells Ariel that he found him confined by the witch Sycorax, guileful aery fpirit, doe oftentimes cause fraile men to mistake; or, do mislead them; and cause wrongful imaginations. So B. iii. C. 2. St. 13Whereas no living creature he mistook. i. e. he wrongfully imagined. XXXIV. Say on, Fradubio, THEN, or man or tree, me to have written THEN but once: 'twas the printer's roving eye methinks that occafion'd the idle repetition: the verfe runs off very well without THEN in the first line. Say on, Fradubio, or man, or tree, He oft finds med cine, who his griefe imparts ; The fame fentiment he has, B. i. C. 7. St. 40. 15. Milton, Sams. Agonist. Οργῆςνοσέσης ἐισὶν ἰατρὸν λόγοι. Horat. Epift. i. I. 33. Εισὶν δ' ἐπῳδὰν καὶ λόγοι θελκτήριοι. The author then, faid he, of all my fmarts, Is one Duelfa, a falfe SORCERESSE, That many errant knights bath broght to wretchednefs.] This is exactly agreeable to the account of the fcarlet whore, who is a SORCERESSE. Revel. xviii. by her SORCERIES were all nations deceived, and in her was found the blood of prophets and of faints: [that many errant knights hath broght to wretchedneffe:] the woman [Dueffa] was drunken with the blood of the faints, and with the blood of the martyrs, Revel. xvii. 6. compare Revel. xviii. 3. and Jeremiah li. 7. "yearly, about the end of December, a certain "knave or devil warneth all the witches in the country to come to a certain place: if they "fail, the devil cometh and whippeth them "with an iron rod, fo as the print of his "lashes remain upon their bodies for ever. "The captain leadeth the way through a great poole of water; many millions of "witches fwim after; they are no fooner passed "through the water, but they are all trans"formed into wolves, and fly upon and devour "both men, women and cattle, after twelve "days they return through the fame water, "and fo receive human shape again." ftory of the beautiful youth Ziliante and the The reader at his leifure may confult the witch Morgana (fifter of Alcina) in Boyardo Orlando Innamorato. L. 2. C. 12. and C. 13. Mantua [Virg. x. 199.] fays the fairies were In Ariofto, the fairy Manto who gave name to changed every seventh day into fnakes. Ch' ogni fettimo giorno ognuna è certa, Orl. Fur. xliii. 98. And Milton (x. 572.) having mentioned the change of the Devils into ferpents, adds And worn with famine, long, and ceafless bifs; This vulgar notion seems to have taken its first rife, from the ftories told of the periodical pu nifhments, as well as of the refpites, of the inchriftian poet Prudentius mentions refpites and fernal fpirits. Compare Milton ii. 597. The renewals again of punishments. Or it might have taken its rife from the revolutions of the foul, from its purgatorial state to human life, and back again in endless revolutions: an Egyptian doctrine; mention'd in Plato's Phaedo, and finely introduced in Virgil's 6th Eneid; and by our poet in his Episode of the gardens of Adonis. XLI. Ruggiero views her [i. e. falfe pleafure] with For danger great, if not affur'd decay But no books read fo. We may interpret then, Virgil, viii. 657. i. e. and were now endeavouring to poffefs themselves of the Capitol. well. John iv. 10. he would have given thee LIVING water. Jerem. ii. 13. they have forfaken me the fountain of living waters. And he jhewed me a pure river of water of life. Revel. xxii. 1. In the fcripture language refreshing streams and living that time and the fates, fatisfied with their puwaters mean the grace of God.-Fradubio fays, tures, to former kynd.-Our knight is unaffifted nishment, shall restore them to their former nawith Una, and muft leave the adventure unperformed. This reftoration to their former natures of Fradubio and Fraelissa, would have been compleated in fome of the fubfequent books had fuch kind of metamorphofis and restoration are the poet lived to have finished his poem: and to be found frequently, not in Ovid only, but in romance writers. So Aftolfo was transformed B. ii. C. 6. St. 23. into a myrtle by the witch Alcina, and restored by the fage Meliffa. And in the romance called the Seven Champions; St. Dennis of France recovered a daughter of the king of Theffaly, who by inchantment had been changed into a mulberry tree.-The transformed Fradubio means one who dwells in doubt and wavering, and who wants faith, fra dubbio: Fraeliffa, is one of a weak and frail nature, fralezza. And who are so perpetually liable to fraud and imposture, as those of frail and wavering minds? XLIV. The fea is wide and eafy for to ftray. i. e. to cause men to stray. XLIII. But how long time, faid then the elfin knight Are you in this misformed boufe to dwell. We may not change, quoth he, this evil plight, Till we be bathed in a living WELL.O how, Jayd he, mote I that WELL out-find, That may restore you to your wonted WELL? Time and fuffifed fates to former kynd Shall us reftore, none else from hence may us unbynd.] Misformed houfe: In compofition mis gives the word to which 'tis prefixed an ill fignification, of defect, or errour, &c. See Somner in Mir and Wachter, Glofs: German. Prolegom. Sect. v. And Hickes Gram. Anglo-S. pag. 69. 'Tis proper to mention this for once, and the reader will eafily apply it hereafter. In this Stanza you have two words, which though fpelt the fame, yet are very different in fignification, your wonted well, i. e. your ufual welfare, and right ftate. Anglo-S. pela, profperitas. Germ. weil. Spelt in Chaucer, wele: but here fpelt well, that the letters might correfpond in the rhyme.They could not change their evil plight, till baptifed with the water of regeneration, and became new creatures: living water, is the fpirit and grace of God: till we be bathed in a LIVING When all this fpeech the living tree had spent.] Per- XLV. And paind himself with bufie CARE--]I believe he wrote bufie CURE, following Chaucer and Lidafter-at length all paffed fear, i. e. all fear being gate. See note on B. i. C. 6. St. 21.-presently paft and over. We hear no more of the chriftian knight and his scarlet whore, till the ivth Canto. VOL. II. Z z CANTO |