41.

Ne may this homely verfe, of many meanest,
Hope to escape his venemous despite,

More than my former writs, all were they cleanest P
From blamefull blot, and free from all that wite
With which fome wicked tongues did it backebite,
And bring into a mighty Peres displeasure,
That never fo deferved to endite.

Therefore do you, my rimes, keep better measure, And feeke to please; that now is counted wifemens threasure.

• More than my former writs.] What were thefe "former writs, that brought him into a mighty Peer's difpleafure ?" Doubtlefs his Paftorals, in which he fo feverely reflects on Bifhop Aylmer in particular; fcarcely hiding his fatire under the tranfparent covering of an anagram; and this "mighty peer" means the Lord Treasurer Burleigh. There is nothing in "Mother Hubberd's Tale" that could give any just offence; for the fatire is there general. But his encomiums on Archbishop Grindal, and his several reflections on Bishop Aylmer, could not but give very just reasons for the Lord Treasurer to be offended. UPTON.

P all were they cleaneft.] All old copies have uniformly cleareft, but the rhyme requires "cleaneft," and fo Todd, after Hughes, printed. This ftanza is carelessly given in the 4to. 1596, and as the u in tongues" is turned in the next line but one, we may feel confident that cleareft ought to be "cleaneft." The word "wite," in the next line, of course means blame; and Spenfer, as we have seen, employs it both as a verb and as a fubftantive: fee vol. i. p. 61; vol. ii. PP. 309, 422; vol. iii. p. 83; this vol. p. 81, &c. C.

FINIS.

WHICH, BOTH FOR FORME AND MATTER, APPEARE TO BE PARCELL
OF SOME FOLLOWING BOOKE OF

THE FAERIE

UNDER THE

QUEENE,

CANTO VI.

Proud Change (not pleafd in mortall things
beneath the Moone to raigne)
Pretends, as well of Gods as Men,

to be the Soveraine.

feele,

I.

HAT man that fees the ever-whirling wheele

Of Change, the which all mortall things

doth fway,

But that thereby doth find, and plainly

HOW MUTABILITY in them doth play

a Never before imprinted.] Thefe words are found in the folio 1611, although what immediately follows had firft come out in the folio 1609.

Her cruell fports to many mens decay?
Which that to all may better yet appeare,
I will rehearse that whylome I heard say,
How she at first her felfe began to reare

Gainst all the Gods, and th' empire fought from them to

beare.

2.

But first, here falleth fitteft to unfold
Her antique race and linage ancient,
As I have found it regiftred of old
In Faery Land mongst records permanent.
She was, to weet, a daughter by descent
Of those old Titans that did whylome strive
With Saturnes fonne for heavens regiment;
Whom though high Jove of kingdome did deprive,
Yet many of their stemme long after did furvive:

3.

And many of them afterwards obtain'd

Great power of Jove, and high authority:
As Hecaté, in whofe almighty hand
He plac't all rule and principality,
To be by her difpofed diverfly

To Gods and men, as she them lift divide;
And drad Bellona, that doth found on hie

The imprint at the end of the Two Cantos of "Mutabilitie" is the fame in 1611 as in 1609; but in the date over the woodcut of the ftar there is a fingular printer's error, viz. "16012," which ought in fact to be 1611. The types of the editions of 1609 and 1611 are flightly different, fo that the poem had been newly set up.

She was, to weet, &c.] Spenfer here makes Hecate the daughter of the Titans. Authors differ about the parentage of Hecate. Onomacritus calls her, "Argon." v. 975, Tapraporais Exary. The Titans were indeed thrown into Tartarus; but it could not be concluded from thence that the Titans were Hecate's parents, although this, I prefume, is the best argument our author could have offered for his genealogy. In this stanza Bellona is likewise feigned to be the offspring of the Titans, but Bellona was the fifter of Mars, who was fon of Jupiter and Juno; or, as Ovid reports, of Juno alone. T. WARTON.

Warres and allarums unto Nations wide,

That makes both heaven and earth to tremble at her pride.

4.

So likewife did this Titaneffe afpire

Rule and dominion to her felfe to gaine;
That as a Goddeffe men might her admire,
And heavenly honours yield, as to them twaine:
And first, on earth fhe fought it to obtaine;
Where she such proofe and sad examples shewed
Of her great power, to many ones great paine,
That not men onely (whom she foone subdewed)
But eke all other creatures her bad dooings rewed.

5.

For fhe the face of earthly things fo changed,
That all which Nature had establisht first
In good eftate, and in meet order ranged,
She did pervert, and all their ftatutes burft:
And all the worlds faire frame (which none yet durft
Of Gods or men to alter or mifguide)

She alter'd quite; and made them all accurst
That God had bleft, and did at first provide

In that still happy ftate for ever to abide.

6.

Ne fhee the lawes of Nature onely brake,

But eke of Justice, and of Policie ;

And wrong of right, and bad of good did make,

And death for life exchanged foolishlie:

Since which all living wights have learn'd to die,

And all this world is woxen daily worse.

O pittious worke of MUTABILITie,

By which we all are subject to that curse,

And death, in ftead of life, have fucked from our Nurse!

7.

And now, when all the earth she thus had brought

To her beheft, and thralled to her might,

She gan to caft in her ambitious thought

T' attempt the empire of the heavens hight,
And Jove himselfe to shoulder from his right.
And first, she paft the region of the ayre
And of the fire, whose substance thin and slight
Made no resistance, ne could her contraire,
But ready paffage to her pleasure did prepaire.

8.

Thence to the Circle of the Moone fhe clambe,

Where Cynthia raignes in everlasting glory,
To whose bright fhining palace ftraight she came,
All fairely deckt with heavens goodly story;
Whose filver gates (by which there fate an hory
Old aged Sire, with hower-glaffe in hand,
Hight Tyme,) fhe entred, were he liefe or fory;
Ne ftaide till she the highest stage had fcand,d
Where Cynthia did fit, that never still did stand.

9.

Her fitting on an Ivory throne shee found,

Drawne of two steeds, th' one black, the other white, Environd with tenne thousand starres around,

That duly her attended day and night;

And by her fide there ran her Page, that hight Vefper, whom we the Evening-starre intend; That with his Torche, ftill twinkling like twylight, Her lightened all the way where she should wend, And joy to weary wandring travailers did lend:

с

ene could her contraire.] Fr. contrarier, to contrarie, croffe, thwarte, &c. Cotgrave, in V. TODD.

d the highest stage had fcand.] Climbed up to. Lat. fcandere. CHURCH. We might very well accept "fcand" in the general sense of examined; and fcandere is unquestionably the etymology of the verb to Scan. Upton fuggefted fiege for "ftage;" but the change is not only in no way required, but would be pofitively injurious in reference to the verb "scand:" no emendation of the kind is hinted at in Drayton's copy of the folio 1611. C.