His mother eke, more to augment his fpight, Now brought to him a flaming fyer-brond, "I hus all is eafy and proper, and Spenfer di agrees not with himself nor his brother poets, As Spenfer altered it into Nemus, fo I have followed his direction: for as to the editor of the fecond edition, he feems to me never to have feen Spenfer's corrections of the errors of the prefs. Our poet gives his proper names, in imitation of Chaucer and Gower, and the Italian poets, often both a new fpelling and a new termination; and this the reader may perpetually observe. Let him here however judge for himself. The fately tree dedicated to Jupiter, is the oak; and the fately tree dedicated to his fonne Alcides, (for fo the paffage is to be fupplied) is the Poplar. See Broukh. on Tibullus p. 82. Spenfer fuppofes that the Poplar was then first dedicated to Hercules, when he flew the lyon in Nemea. The reader at his leifure may confult what Servius and other commentators have obferved on Virg. Ecl. vii. 61. Populus Alcidae gratiffima. XXXIV So be them deceives, deceived in his deceipt.] So the two first editions in quarto: but the folios, So them deceives, deceived in his deceipt. He omitted, which is after Spenser's manner : if Spenfer wrote as the two most authentic editions read, we must thus scan the verse, So he them] deceives] decerv'd] in his] deceipt. Compare thefe xxxiii. and xxxiv. Stanzas with Taffo, xvi. 18, and 19. from whom they are translated. XXXIV. Up, up, thou womanish weake knight-] This Taffo I xvi. 33 Fairfax thus tranflates them, with Spenfer in his eye. What letharge hath in drowsiness uppend Womanish weak knight, is Homeric, Axides, O vere Phrygiae, neque enim Phryges. Virg. ix. 617. Or he expreffes Taffo, xvi. 32. Egregio campion d'una fanciulla. which Fairfax very well tranflates, A carpet champion for a wanton dame. A CANTO VI. I. Harder leffon to learne continence In ioyous pleafure then in grievous paine : For fweetneje doth allure the weaker fence Softrongly, that uneathes it can refraine From that which feeble nature covets faine": But griefe and wrath, that be her enemies And foes of life, fhe better can abstaine: Yet vertue vauntes in both her victories; And Guyon in them all shewes goodly mayfteries.] Let us ftay awhile to reflect on this obfervation, fo true of man and human nature. But frf let us fee the meaning," 'tis a harder leffon to "learn temperance in pleasure and profperity "than in pain and adverfity, &c." ·· But grief and wrath-fhe better can abstaine i. e. keep from; the prepofition being contained in the verb but as there is an easier and better reading in the 2d quarto and in the folios, viz. reftraine, this I chose therefore to follow. Yet vertue vaunts in both her victories. in both, rebus in arduis, non fecus in bonis. Compare B. v. C. 5. St. 38. I believe Spenfer had that truly philofophical sentiment in view, which Xenophon gives to Gobrias, Kug. waid Cic. 4. Δοκῖς δέ μοι, ὦ κῦρε, χαλεπώτερον εἶναι ἐν οἷον άνδρα τἀγαθὰ καλῶς φέροντα, ἢ τὰ κακά· τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἐβοὶν τοῖς πολλοις, τὰ δὲ σωφροσύνην τοις πᾶσιν ἐμποιῖι. Arbitror autem, Cyre, difficilius effe reperire bominem, qui res fecundas, quam qui adverfas recte ferat.. The fame obfervation we find in other writers. Ques B. i. C. 5. St. 28. Her ready way he makes. More swift then fwallow sberes the liquid sky, Per l'acqua il legno va con quella fretta, And the expreffion (as I formerly mentioned) praepofitâ. RADIT iter liquidum. Aen. v. 217. Phaedria here reprefents in perfon, the infolens Now fhaves with level wing the deep. MilLaetitia in Horace. III. Sometimes fhe laught, that nigh her breth was gone. ton ii. But we should not pass unnoticed this wonder Sometimes he laught, as merry as pope Jone.] So ful fhip of Phaedria, that fails without oars or fails. Old Homer is the father of poetical the first edition in quarto; the 2d, wonders, and romance writers are generally his imitators. This felf-moved, and wondrous ship of Phaedria, may be matched with the no lefs wondrous fhip of Alcinous : So fhalt thou inftant reach the realm assign'd In wondrous fhips SELF-MOVED, inftinct with mind No helm fecures their courfe, no pilot guides, Like man intelligent they plow the tides, Confcious of every coaft and every bay, That lies beneath the funs all-feeing ray: Though clouds and darkness veil th encumberd sky, Fearless thro' darkness and thro' clouds they fly: Though tempefts rage, though rolls the fwelling main, The feas may roll, the tempests rage in vain, -While careless they convey Promiscuous every guest to every bay. With refpect to the firft reading, I find it a proverbial expreffion and alluded to in an old play, called Damon and Pythias, pag. 270. in the collection of plays printed by Dodfley. As merie as pope John. Jack. That pope was a merrie fellow, of whom folke talk fo much. And this proverb is mentioned by Fox in his acts and monuments, pag. 178. ann. 979. who there gives us a fhort hiftory of this merry pope John XIII. if mirth confifts in following the pleasures of Venus, Bacchus and Ceres: As merry as pope John, a proverb.-But this proverb furely falls below the dignity of an epic poem, he therefore feems to me to have altered it himself, into Sometimes fhe laught, that nigh her breath was gone. 1 And though there are many liberties taken in V. It cut AWAY upon the yielding wave.] I fomewhat As Milton had the prophet Ezekel. i. 16. The Spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.Befides fhips, tripods, and chariots, we read of Gates, inftinct with spirit and fpontaneously moving fo the gates of heaven open fpontaReous, Hom. II. v. 749. and Milton, a perpetual imitator of Homer, has borrowed this fpecious miracle, the gate felf opened wide, v. 254. Heaven opened wide her ever during gates, viii. 205. So too Spenfer. B. ii. C. 7. St. 26. So foon as Mammon there arrived, the dore -They came unto an iron dore Ibid St. 31. Phaedria's bark moves fpontaneously, directed er steered by the turning of a pin.-Peter of Provence and the fair Magalona rode through the air on a wooden horfe, which was directed by the turning of a pin. See Don Quixote, Vol. i. B. iv. C. 22. and Vol. ii. B. iii. C. 8. C. 9. This illuftrates the story in Chaucer, where the king of Araby fent to Cambuscan a horse of brafs, which by turning of a pin, would travel wherever the rider pleafed.Compare this wonderful bark, with that mentioned in Taffo, xv. 3. where the knights go on board a ftrange vessel steered by a Fairy. Vider picciola nave, e in poppa quella, Che guidar gli dovea, fatal donzella. Ibid. The whiles with a love-lay fhe thus him fweetly charmed.] In the 2d edition in quarto 'tis printed a loud lay and fo in the folios, Chaucer ufes laves for fongs, Gall. lai. This love fong which the nymph fings is imitated from a fong fung to Rinaldo, who arriving at an inchanted island is lulled afleep. Compare Tasso. xiv. St. 62. &c. XV. Whiles nothing envious nature them forth throwes Out of her fruitful lap-] Nothing envious nature is a latinifm: as nature is nihil indiga, so she is nibil invida. Milton calls her, boon nature, iv. 242. Ibid. Yet no man to them can his careful paines compare.] Their beauty rivals all art: Not Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. XVI. The lilly lady of the flowring field-] Confider the lillies of the field.--This verfe is a fine example of Spenfer's favourite iteration of letters. So Shakespeare in King Henry VIII. calls the lilly, the mistress of the field. The whole allufion is manifeft, (See Matt. vi. 28.] and seems very elegantly brought in here, in this mock reprefentation of tranquillity, to fhew how the beft of fayings may be perverted to the worst of meanings. XVII. -That fwimming in the main Will die for thrift.] Not in the main fea, but in fome great river. The expreffion feems to have a kind of catachrefis. XX. For the fitt barke obaying to her mind-] So again, B. ii. C. 2. St. 35. Lo, now the heavens obey to me alone. And in the Legende of good women, ver. 90. Sydney's Arcadia, pag. 60. To whom the other fhould obey. See Dr. Bentley on Milton, i. 337. Yet to their general's voice they foon obeyd. Acts vii. 39. To whom our fathers would not obey. Rom. vi. 16. His fervants ye are, to whom ye obey. XXI. And paffe the bonds of modeft merimake.] So the Ift and 2d Edit. in quarto. But the Folios have bounds which is better. XXIII. The fea is wide and eafy for to ftray.] And easy to caule us to go astray. XXVI. And thewed ill.] Ill thewed, male moratus: with ill thews or manners. Chaucer's expreffion. XXVII. But marched to the Strond, their paffage to require.] So the first and fecond editions in quarto: but the Folios have it right, - there paffage to require. Just above, In flothful fleepe his molten hart to fteme, i. e. to exhale, to evaporate, his melted heart in flothful fleep. XXVIII. Loe, loe alreadie how the fowles in aire Doe flocke-1 Spenfer has plainly the fcripture in view, where the proud Philiftine speaks to David, Come to me and I will give thy flefh unto the fowles of the air, and to the beasts of the field, 1 Sam. xvii. 44. and perhaps too he used the very words, Loe, loe alreadie how the fowles of th' aireThis expreffion too is in other places, And thy carcafe fhall be meat unto all the fowles of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, Deut. xxviii. 26. αυτὺς δ ̓ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν, ΟΙΩΝΟΙΣΙ τε ΠΑΣΙ. Hom. II. á. 5. ; Wo worthe the faire gemme that is vertulesse; Wo worth that daie, that thou me bare on live. effe, fore, redigi, fieri, to be, to become. Belgis, the man. Ezek. 30. 2. wo worth the day. The werden, worden. woe worth the man, woe be to thought feems taken (as the author of the remarks has likewife obferved) from Tibullus, i. xi. I. Quis fuit horrendos primus qui protulit enfes ? Quam ferus et vere ferreus ille fuit! In thefe verfes of Tibullus, the reader may obferve a kind of jingling play upon the words, ferus, ferreus, which Spenter often uses. XXXIV. |