Quod caret alternâ requie durabile non eft.

Your courteous tongue his prayses to compyle.
And in Colin Clouts come home again,
A filed tongue furnisht with termes of art.
'Tis a Gellicism, Avoir la langue bien afile.
And our old poets have it frequently.
For when he hath his tongue afiled
With soft speech and with lefyng.
Ne fo well can a man affile

His tongue, that fometime in jape

Gower, Fol. II.

But nought that wanteth reft can long aby.

So in his Shepherd's Calend. Ecl. IX.
Whatever thing lacketh changeable reft
Mought needs decay when it is at best.

Chaucer likewife had Ovid in his eye in the
Merch. Tale. 1378.

For every labour sometime mote have rest,
Or ellis long time may be not endure.

Ibid.

The funne, that measures heaven all day long,

Gower, Fol. L.

For wele he wiste whan that fong was fonge,

He must preche and well afile his tongue.

Chauc. Prol. 714.

This Pandarus gan newe his tongue afile.

Ch. Troil. & Cref. II. 1681.

Johnson calls Shakespeare's poems 'well torned and true-filed lines.' bene tornatos et limatos verfus. See Dr. Bentley's learned note on Horat. Art. Poet. v. 441. but don't be perfuaded by his fair-filed tongue to admit his correction. I ought not to forget that Faifax likewise uses this ex

He stord his mouth with speeches fmothly filde.

Again, VI. 73. with his filed tongue. And Dryden, in Cym. & Iphigen.

His mien be fashion'd and his tongue be fil'd.

XXXVI

The drouping night thus creepeth on them faft, And the fad bumor loading their eye-liddes, As messenger of Morpheus on them caft Sweet flombring deaw] Morpheus, according to the more modern poets, is the god of fleep, and fo characterized in Chaucer; whom our poet plainly had before him, as well as Ovid, when he wrote that beautiful description of Morpheus' house, which we shall presently fee. Notwithstanding Spenser is so fettered with rhyme, his verses are wonderfully picturesque; both the images and the expression corresponding each to the other. Milton seems to have imitated this paffage in Par. Loft. IV. 614.

Xx 2

And

Scimus enim et quicquid dici nofcique timetis,
Et turbare Hecaten; ni te Tymbraee vererer,
Et triplicis mundi fummum, QUEM SCIRE NEFAS-

TUM.

This line of Statius is very remarkable,

Et triplicis mundi fummum, quem fcire nefaftum.

One would think that he alluded to that tremendous, unutterable name, the four-lettered name: A name written that no man knew, Revel. xix. 12. A name, that rightly pronounced, would work all miracles: if you believe the Jews. The inchanter Ismeno in Taffo threatens the spirits with the dreaded name of Demogorgon; the whole passage of Tafsso is an imitation of Lucan, and Statius.

E sò con lingua anch' io di fangue lorda
Quel NOME proferir GRANDE e TEMUTO:
A cui nè Dite mai ritrorfa, ò forda,

Ne trafcurato in ubbidir fu Pluto.

Hence Milton, the dreaded name of Demogorgon : or from Spenser, St. 43.

And threatned unto him the dreaded name of Hecate. This tremendous deity is mentioned too below, B. i. C. 5. St. 22. and B. iv. C. 2. St. 47.-But let us return to Archimago, whom we find in his study consulting his magical books, from which choofing out few words most horrible, certain mystical words of inchantments, he framed verses and spells of them; and thus Tasso of the inchanter Ismeno, Canto xiii. 6. Mormorò potentiffime parole: or as Shakespeare learnedly and finely expresses it, muttering his unintelligible jargon. Carmen magicum volvit, Seneca in Oedip. Sufurramen magicum, Apul. Met. 1. -Obscurum verborum ambage novorum

6

Ter novies carmen magico demurmurat ore.

Ov. Met. xiv. 57

And through the world of waters wide and deepe, To Morpheus house doth bastily repaire. Amid the bowels of the earth full steepe And low, where dawning day doth never peepe His dwelling is; there Tethys his wed bed Doth ever wash, and Cynthia ftill doth Steepe In filver deaw his ever-drouping hed, Whiles fad Night over him her mantle black doth Spred.] Tis hardly poffible for a more picturesque description to come from a poet or a painter, than this whole magical scene. Archimago calls to his assistance two infernal spirits, one of which stays with him, the other is fent to the house of Morpheus, The god of fleep there hides his heavy head, And empty dreams on every leaf are spread.

Virg. vi. 396.

He [i. e. the spirit sent by Archimago] making
Speedy way through SPERSED AIR-

This same expression Fairfax has, xiii. 2.
Legions of devils by thousands thither come,
Such as in sparsed aire their biding make.
And the next verse Milton has borrowed,
And through the world of waters wide and deep-
The rising world of waters dark and deep.

1.

Par. Loft, iii. 2. With respect to Milton's imitation, and his change of one of the epithets, with the reason of it; I have spoken already in critical observations on Shakespeare. p. 267. and in a letter to Mr. West, concerning a new edit. of SpenserNext, this infernal imp arrives at the house of Morpheus: now here Spenfer acts as a Scholar

and

Ovid has tranflated this passage of Homer, in Met. xi. 592. and so has Valerius Flacc. iii. 398. and Statius, Theb. x. 84. And likewise Ariosto Canto xiv. St. 102. - The reader at his leifure may (if he pleases) compare these authors together. Let me add the dream of Chaucer, v. 136. pag. 405. Urry's edit.

Go bet, quoth Juno to Morpheus,
Thou knowst him wel, the god of flepe
This messenger toke leve and wente
Upon his way and nevre he stente,
Tyl he came to the darke valey-

Whose double gates he findeth locked fast, The one faire fram'd of burnisht yvory, The other all with filver overcast.] Hear my dream (says Socrates in Plato's Charmides) whether it comes from the gate of horn, or from the gate of ivory: i. e. whether true or false. The poets suppose two gates of Sleep, the one of horn, from which true dreams proceed; the other of ivory, which fends forth false dreams. [Hom. Odyss. τ' 562. Virg. vi. 894] But Spencer very judicioufly varies from these poets; for he supposes the wicked Archimago not to have access to truth in any shape; much less to those dreams, which may be said to come from the throne of Jupiter; but to those only, which fill the imagination with vain and distracting images. The gates of horn may be imagined to fend forth true dreams, from its transparency and fimplicity; the gates of ivory, filver, &c. from its gaudy appearance, to fend fallacious dreams. I find interpreters extremely puzzled to find a reason why Virgil makes Anchises dismiss his son and and the Sibyl through the ivory gate: it is (they say) undoing all he has done before, and giving the lye to the prediction of Anchises: quite otherwise, I think: 'tis only faying that the truth is a little embellish'd with the gaudy fictions of poetry. An hiftorian might find his hero through the gates of horn: a poet must

Urry's edit.]

Ibid.

Of fwarming bees, did cast him in a fwowne.] Spenfer does not confine himself to the imitation of any one poet, but gathers the flowers of many. Thus Chaucer expresses himself in his description of the house of Morpheus the God of flepe, as he names him:

Save that there werein a fewe welles
Came running fro the clyffes adowne
That made a dedly slepinge fowne.

Observe here Sorune, which is Spenser's word: though altered in some editions. Ital. Suono. Lat. Sonus.

Ibid.

-but careless Quiet lies.] QUIET, as a perfon: and thus it should have been printed in Ovid. Met. xi. 602. Muta Quies habitat. Spenser's epithet is much prettier. Thus Statius in the fame description, Theb. x. 89.

Limen opaca Quies, et pigra Oblivia fervant.

Secura quies, is Virgil's epithet. Quies, was worshipped as a goddess, and had her temple near

was to bring a reproach upon chriftianity: that the way of TRUTH might be evil spoken of. 2 Peter ii. 2. See Shend in the Gloflary: 'tis a word frequently used by Spenser: though the first time the printer faw it he blundered; perhaps the word above (as usual) caught his eye. The fame blunder was made in Shakespeare, viz. fent for fhent: See Critical Observations on Shakespeare, page 193. Methinks the allegory, as well as the propriety and rhyme, all lead us to this easy correction.

XLIV.

Comincia un grido orribile e diverso.

Bern. Orl. Inn. L. 1. C. 4. St. 66.

The great enemy and impoftor intended to difgrace chriftianity: to delude was the means; the end was to disgrace: how should he disgrace Una? by sullying her character. How lead the knight into disgrace? by feparating him from truth. The allegory therefore points out the emendation. The rhyme too points out the emendation; for these jingling terminations (if poffible) should not confift of words spelt alike: and Spencer always endeavours to avoid it, but his fetters often stick too close. The words likewise are embarrassed and may have, as they now stand, different meanings affigned, ex. gr. falfe dreame that may delude the sent or scent of the fleeper: or, of the fleepers. But the correction is obvious with a little attention to the allegory and to Spenser's manner of rhyming,

a

A fit falfe dreame, that can delude the fleepers SHEN'T, i. e. brought into disgrace. The sleepers were Una and the knight, whom he wanted to delude and to disgrace: the intention of this enemy

L. 1. C. 6. St. 74.

XLV.

And fram'd of liquid ayre her tender parts] This visionary phantom deck'd out like Una, seems imaged from Homer, Virgil, and Taffo.

That weaker fence--Should rather have been thus, That th' weaker fence it would have ravisht quight. The weaker fence, as opposed to the fenfe of reason and understanding: but this particle and others he often omits, as the reader will fee

hereafter, much to the detriment and perfpicuity of the sentence.

Αυτὰς ὁ ἔιδωλον τευξ ̓ ἀργυρότοξος Απόλλων,
Αυτῷ τ' Αινέια ἵκελον κὶ τεύχεσι τόιον.
Iliad. v. 409.
Ειδωλον ποιησε, δέμας δηϊκλο γυναικί. Od. iv. 796.
Tum dea nube cavâ tenuem fine viribus umbram
In faciem Aeneae (visu mirabile monstrum)
Dardanijs ornat telis, &c.
Questi di cava nube ombra leggiera
(Mirabil mostro) in forma d' buom compo fe.

XLVI.

Aen. x. 636.

Gierus. Lib. vii. 99.

And that new creature born without her dew] i. e. born without those due and proper qualities of a real woman: for real the was not, but as Homer calls the like airy phantom, Ειδωλον, and Virgil tenuis umbra: and as our poet calls her