The releasing of the prisoners is a ceremony constantly practised in romance, after the knight has killed the giant, and taken possession of his castle. It would be endless, and perhaps ridiculous, to point out all Spenser's allusions of this sort.

B. iv. c. x. Arg.

Scudamore doth his conquest tell
Of vertuous Amoret.

Scudamore is a name derived from Scudo, a shield, and Amore, love, Ital. because in this canto, s. 10. he wins the Shield of Love.

B. iv. c. x. s. XXXV.

Else would the waters overflow the lands,
And fire devour the air, and hell them quight.

I

suppose

he means, 66 Else the waters

would overflow the lands, and fire devour

the air, and hell would entirely devour both water and lands.”

But this is a most con

fused construction. Unless hell [hele] is to

cover.

B. iv. c. x. s. liii.

Scudamore, in the temple of Venus, is much in the same circumstances with Leander, in Musæus.

Tho shaking off all doubt, and shamefast feare,
Which ladies love I heard had never wonne
'Mongst men of worth, I to her stepped neare,
And by the lilly hand her labourd up to rear.

Saying it was to knight unseemly shame,

Upon a recluse virgin to lay hold;

That unto Venus' services was sold.

Scudamore replies,

To whom I thus: nay, but it fitteth best,
For Cupid's man with Venus mayd to hold;
For ill your goddesse services are drest
By virgins, and your sacrifices let to rest.

She

S. 54.

In the same manner Hero rebukes, and Le

ander answers.

Thus Hero:

Τι με δυσμορε παρθενον ελκεις ;

* * * * * *

**

Leander answers,

Κύπριδος ὡς ἱερεια μετερχεο Κυπριδος εργα
Δευρ' ιθι, μυσιπολευε γαμηλια θεσθλα θεαινης
Παρθενον εκ επεοικεν ὑποδρήσσειν Αφροδίτη,
Παρθενικαις ο Κυπρις φαινεται.

Veneris ut sacerdos exerce Veneris opera;
Huc ades, initiare nuptialibus legibus deæ ;
Virginem non decet administrare Veneri;
Virginibus Venus non gaudet.

B. iv. c. xi. s. xlvi.

Congealed little drops which do the morn adore.

Adore for adorn. Perhaps it is used in the same manner by Beaumont and Fletcher.

And those true tears, falling on your pure crystals, Should turn to armlets for great Queens to adore*.

In this instance it may, however, signify veneror, though there is a French verb, d'orer, to gild, from whence it might be formed, in both the passages. Milton uses adorn as a participle.

Made so adorn for thy delight +.

*Elder Brother, iv. 3.

+ Par. Lost. viii, 576.

66

Might not this participle be formed from Spenser's verb adore? Bishop Newton, among his many judicious criticisms on the Paradise Lost, gives a different explication. But upon the whole I am inclined to think, that Milton's ear was here imposed upon, orn being one of the terminations of participles as torn, shorn, &c. In the same manner, from the same cause, we find in our New Testament, lift for lifted, They lift [lifted] her up, &c." ft being a termination of many preter-imperfects; as bereft, left, &c. So also is ost, as embost, lost; whence we find inaccurately roast [or rost] meat, for roasted meat. We also find cast for casted*. See whether Milton's use of the word request, explained above †, might not also be partly explained upon this principle.

1

* No such word is in use: but the preter-imperfect of verbs in ast, ought to be so formed, as lasted.

Vol. ii. pag. 12.

1