Fayre Sir, I let you weee.-] If the reader will at his leifure compare this and the following stanza with what is faid of Clarinda in Taffo, ii. 39, 40. Of Camilla in Virgil, vii. 803. And of Afbyte in Silius, Ital. ii. 68. he may fee f me plain imitations. However unnatural fighting ladies and heroines appear in plain profe, yet they make no unpoetical figure, when fet off with a lively imagination: and yet old Homer admits no earthly females to mingle in battle among the Greeks and Trojans. VIII. Which to prove, I this voyage have begonne.] So the 1ft quarto with better accent, and more poetical, I think, than the 2d quarto and Folio's, which I to prove-The beginning with a trochee makes the accent fall ftronger on I.-In this stanza are two words, both spelt the fame, and yet different in fignification, which are made to rhyme to one another, according to the licence of the old poets, doe wonne, do dwell: may be wonne, i. e. acquired. The noble corage never weeneth ought Evil into the Mind of God, or man, For evil in no fhape or guize approaches the divine mind: fhould we not correct the context, and thus read? Evil into the mind of GODS, or man- Gods, for the angelical order is frequently used in fcripture and the correction is fo eafy, that I believe Milton thus intended it. XI. The loving mother that nine months did beare.Her tender babe.] Perhaps he had in view the following, A woman when he is in travail, hath her forrow-but as foon as he is delivered of the child, she remembreth no more the anguish; for joy that a man is born into the world, John xvi. 21. XII. However, Sir, ye fyle your tongue.-] See note on B. i. C. 1. St. 35. XIII. Let bee therefore my vengeance to diffwade.] Let bee, let alone; omit. Let be thy deep advise, B. ii. C. 3. C. 3. St. 16. So too B. ii. C. 6. St 28. Matth. -Let be, faid he, my prey, For pleafing words are like to magick art Illi autem ego obvius ibo etiamfi igni vi manûs fimilis Si igni vî manûs fimilis eft, animoque rutilo ferro. -ἅτε παρθένος ηϊθεός τε, Virgo juvenifque confabulantur inter fe. ὁ μὲν ἔμπεδον ἡντόχευεν, II. xxii. 127. That doth the charmed fnake in flomber lay.] See Frigidus in pratis contando rumpitur anguis. So much of adders wisdom I have learnt Ibid. Yet lift the fame efforce with faind gainfay: All which the red-crofle knight to point ared, ΤΕ δ ̓ ἐγὼ ἄντιος εἶμι, καὶ ἐν πυρὶ χεῖρα Γέοικεν, -alter quidem conflanter equos regebat, Virg. vii. 586. Thus the Son of God in Milton iii. 153. emphatically, and from fcripture language likewife, fee Gen. xviii. 25. That be from thee far, That far be from thee, Father. I will mention another paffage which Dr. Divifum imperium cum Jove Caefar kabet. But Obferve too here that elegant mixture of tenfes. In thefe verfes of Milton there is a ouyxvos, which Spenfer often ufes; The wary fiend pondering his voyage into this wild abyfs, &c. Inftances of this kind of repetition, with correction, are to be met with in B. i. C. 2. St. 44, 45. And B. i. C. 4. St. 8, 9. both which places I have taken notice of. I will here add fome other inftances, and the reader may fupply the reft if he chooses: 'tis obfervable that this repetition our poet often makes at the close of one Stanza and at the beginning of the other. And watch the noyous night, and wait for joyous day. The joyous day gan early to appeare, B. i. C. 11. St. 50, 51. So faire and fresh that lady fhewd herfelfe in fight: So faire and fresh, as fresheft flowre in May; B. i. C. 12. St. 21, 22. That the words might exactly correfpond, which is usual; perhaps our poet wrote the following verfes after this manner, Oft had he feene her faire, but ne'er so fairely dight. away. race, Thy name, o foveraine queene, thy realme and XVIII. As it in antique BOOKES is mentioned. -as we in RECORDS read) What bookes and records are thefe? These are the Bookes (mentioned in B. ii. C. 9. St. 40.) containing the antiquities of Fairy land: thefe are the antique rolles and volumes, Of Faerie knights and fayreft Tanaquill. Introduction, B. i. St. 2. See too B. iii. C. 3. St. 4. and B. iv. C. xi. St. 4. -Thofe ROLLES layd up in heaven above, And RECORDS of antiquitie― To which no wit of man may comen neare ; As Boyardo and Ariofto often refer to Archbifhop Turpin, to authenticate their wonderful tales; fo our poet refers to certain BOOKES, RECORDES OF ROLLES. Juft in the fame manner Cervantes in his Don Quixote (where we find perpetual allufions to Boyardo, Ariofto, and the romance writers) pleasantly endeavours to make his ftories authentic, by fathering them upon one Cid Hamet an Arabian historiographer. Ibid. In Deheubarth, that now South-wales is hight, What time king Ryence raign'd and dealed right,] In Deheubarth, i. e. Southwales: for when Wales was divided into three principalities, the countries of the Sileures and Dimetæ were called by the natives Deheubarth, and by the English South-wales.-King Ryence of Wales is very often mentioned in the History of Prince Arthur. Ibid. The great magitian Merlin had deviz'd, By his deepe fcience and bell-dreaded might, A looking-glaffe-] The poet juft hints at this ftory above, C. 1. St. 8. where he tells us Britomart had left her country, Britain, to seek Arthegall in Faery land, Whofe image fhee had feene in Venus looking-glas. Meaning thofe talifmanick or magical looking glaffes, which had virtue in them to discover at any distance either perfons, or fecrets, or things to come. This art in Greek was called Karonpoμartia a divination by mirrours. A mirrour of like fort is mentioned in the Squires Tale in Chaucer. But perhaps our poet had his eye more particularly on the Episode in the Lufiad, by Luis de Camoens, Canto x. where Vafco de Gama is fhewn a globe, representing the univerfal frame or fabrick of the world, in which he faw future kingdoms and future events. XX. But who does wonder, that has red the towre, Yet when his love was falfe he with a peaze it brake.] Great Ptolomae, fo the old quartos and folios : in Hughes, Great Ptolemy: 'tis not improbable that Spenfer gave it Great Ptolomee: meaning perhaps Ptolomy Philadelphus. The ftrange story ftory here told, Spenfer perhaps had from the travellers in Q. Elizabeth's reign: and this will appear from Sandys' account of the prefent ftate of Alexandria,Of antiquities there are few ' remainders, only an hieroglyphicall obelifk of Theban marble, as hard well-nigh as Porphyr, but of a deeper red and fpeckled alike, 'called Pharos Needle, ftanding where once ftood the palace of Alexander; and another lying by, and like it, half buried in rubbige. Without the walls on the fouth-weft fide of the city [Alexandria] on a little hill stands a columne of the fame, all of stone, 86 palmes high, and 36 in compaffe, the palme confifting ' of 9 inches and a quarter, according to the measure of Genoa, as meafured for Zigal Baffa by a Genoese; fet upon a fquare cube, and which is to be wondered at, not halfe fo large as the foot of the pillar; called by the • Arabians Hemadeflaeor, which is the column of the Arabians. They tell a fable, how that ' one of the Ptolomies erected the fame in the 6 <furtheft extent of the haven, to defend the city 'from navall incurfions, having placed A MAGICALL GLASSE OF STEELE on the top, of • vertue (if uncovered) to fet on fire fuch fhips as failed by: but fubverted by enemies, the glaffe loft that power, who in this place re-erected the column: but by the western 'Chriftians it is called the pillar of Pompey; and is faid to have been reared by Cæfar as a ' memorial of his Pompeyan victory.' Let me add likewise the following account, which I have transcribed from A defcription of Africa by John Leo, a More, tranflated by John Pory. Six miles weftward of Alexandria, among certaine ancient buildings, ftandeth a pillar of a won'derfull height and thickneffe, which the Ara'bians call Hemadaan, that is to fay, the pil'lar of trees of this pillar there is a fable reported that Ptolomey one of the kings of Alexandria built it upon an extreme point of land, ftretching from the haven; whereby to the end he might defend the city from the invafion of foreign enemies, and make it invincible, he placed a certaine fteel-glaffe upon 'the top thereof, by the hidden vertue of which glaffe as many fhips as paffed by, while the glafs was uncovered, fhould immediately be fet on fire; but the faid glaffe being broken by the Mahumetans, the fecret virtue thereof ⚫ vanished, and the great pillar whereon it stood ' was removed out of the place. But this is a moft ridiculous narration and fit only for 'babes to give credit unto.' The fame kind of ftory is told of Hercules, that he erected pillars at cape Finifter, on the top of which he I XXV. His creft was covered with a couchant hound] I for- I fee his fleeves purfiled at the hand Ch. Prol. to the Canterb. Tales. One night when he was toft with fuch unrest, Quam fimul Ogygii Phoenicis filia Carme Corripit extemplo feffam languore puellam ; Ah my dearest dread, O nobis facrum caput. See note on Introd. to B. i. St. 4. For not of nought theje fuddein ghaftly feares- i. e. for 'tis not for nothing, &c. Non tibi nequidquam→ Ibid. Like an buge Aetn' of deepe engulfed gryefe.] 'Tis a proverbial expreffion. Aetna malorum. Onus Aetna gravius. Ayios montes, Aetnae omnes, afperi Athomes. And her faire dewy eyes-] Virg. ver. 253. Ah nurfe, what needeth thee to eke my payne! Illa autem, quid nunc me, inquit, nutricula torques? Virg. Cir. ver. 257• prefently after, That blinded god, which hath ye blindly fmit, perhaps the printer miftook the abbreviation; and he fhould have printed it thee XXXVI. But mine is not, quoth fhe, like other wound.] So the first edition, but other editions, others: Non ego confueto mortalibus uror amore. But reither god of love, nor god of Skye Can doe, faid fhe that which cannot be done.] God of Skye, Zeus &gános, Jupiter aethereus. He cannot doe impoffibilities and contradictions. XXXVII. For No, no ufuall fire, no ufuall rage Yt is, o nurse, which on my life doth feed.] It is not improbable but the poet gave it, For KNOW, no ufuall fire, &c. vodi, Scito, profectò, &c. Nam nemo illorum quifquam, fcito, ad te venit. Terent. Hec. Act. 1. Sc. I. Upon fecond thoughts however 1 imagined it might be defended from the like repetition in Latin authors. Non, non, fic futurum eft, non poteft Terent. Phorm. Act. 2, Non, non, hoc tibi, falfe, fic abibit. Catull. Carm. 14. And |
