XLV.

Ne did he spare (fo cruell was the Elfe)
His owne deare mother, (ah! why should
he fo!)

Ne did he spare fometime to pricke himselfe,
That he might taste the fweet confuming woe,
Which he had wrought to many others moe.
But, to declare the mournfull tragedyes
And spoiles wherewith he all the ground did
ftrow,

More eath to number with how many eyes High heven beholdes fad lovers nightly thee

veryes.

XLVI.

Kings, queenes, lords, ladies, knights, and dam

fels gent,

Were heap'd together with the vulgar fort,
And mingled with the raskall rablement,
Without refpect of perfon or of port,

XLV. 8. More eath to number with how many eyes High heven beholdes fad lovers nightly theeveryes.] The expreffions are pretty and elegant, but borrowed. The theeveryes of lovers, furtivos amores, Catull. p. 17. edit. Voff. "Aut quàm fidera multa, cum tacet nox,

Furtivos hominum VIDENT amores."

Ariofto, C. xiv. 99.

"Et per quanti occhi il ciel le furtive opre
"De gli amatori à mezza notte scopre."

See alfo Taffo, C. xii. 22. And Milton, Par. L. B. v. 44.

UPTON.

port,] Port is carriage,

XLVI. 4. afpect. Fr. port. It is fo ufed by Chaucer; and by Harrison, fpeaking of the lord mayor of London, Defcript. of Eng.

To fhew Dan Cupids powre and great effórt: And round about a border was entrayld Of broken bowes and arrowes fhivered fhort; And a long bloody river through them rayld, So lively, and fo like, that living fence it fayld.

XLVII.

And at the upper end of that faire rowme
There was an altar built of pretious stone
Of paffing valew and of great renowme,
On which there ftood an image all alone
Of maffy gold, which with his owne light
fhone;

And winges it had with fondry colours dight,
More fondry colours then the proud pavone

Holinfh. Chron. p. 168. "Of a fubject there is no publick officer, of anie citie in Europe, that may compare in PORT and countenance with him, during the time of his office."

T. WARTON. XLVI. 6. entrayld] Wrought as in knot-work, intermingled. Ital. intralciato. Fr. entrelaffe. See F. Q. ii. iii. 27, ii. v. 29, &c. UPTON.

XLVI. 9.

that living fence it fayld.] That is, it cheated by its perfect refemblance. So fallere and decipere are used by the Latin poets. UPTON.

XLVII. 6. And winges it had with fondry colours dight, &c.] Cupid's wings of fundry colours perhaps are expreffed from Petrarch's Trionfo d' Amore:

"Sopra gli homeri havea fol due grand' ali

"Di color mille-"

So Euripides gives Cupid the fame epithet, oxiλórepos, Hippol. ver. 1270. UPTON.

XLVII. 7. More fondry colours then the proud pavone
Beares &c.] Taffo, C. xvi. 24.

"Nè 'l fuperbo pavon sì vago in moftro
"Spiega la pompa de l' occhiute piume:
"Nè 'l Iride sì bella indora, e inoftra
"Il curvo grembo, e rugiadofo al lume."

Beares in his boafted fan, or Iris bright, When her discolourd bow fhe fpreds through heven bright.

XLVIII.

Blyndfold he was; and in his cruell fift

A mortall bow and arrowes keene did hold,
With which he fhot at randon when him lift,
Some headed with fad lead, fome with pure
gold;

(Ah! man, beware how thou those dartes
behold!)

A wounded dragon under him did ly,

Whofe hideous tayle his lefte foot did enfold,
And with a fhaft was shot through either eye,

See alfo Spenfer's Muiopotmos, and Claudian, De Rapt. Proferp. ii. 97. UPTON. XLVII. 8.

or Iris bright

When her difcolour'd bow fhe fpreds through heven bright.] It will be allowed me, that Spenfer never wrote " Iris bright, heven bright;" for here the printer has erred his usual errour of repeating the fame word. A very eafy reading oc"through heven's hight." UPTON.

curs;

As our poet frequently ufes heven's hight, I am of opinion that his own copy here gave "through heven's hight;" which expreffion is more fuitable to the phænomenon of the rainbow. CHURCH.

XLVIII. 1. Blyndfold he was; &c.] Compare Chaucer in the Knightes Tale, 1957.

"And Venus ftatue, glorious to fee,

"Was makid [read, nakid] fletynge in the large See-
"Beforne her stood her fonne Cupido :

Upon his thouldris wingis had he two,

"And blynd he was, as it is often feene:

"And bow he bare and arrowes bright and keenę."

See also Rom. of the Rose, 918, likewife the Assemble of Foules, ver. 211, &c. UPTON.

That no man forth might draw, ne no man

remedye.

XLIX.

And underneath his feet was written thus,
Unto the Victor of the gods this bee:
And all the people in that ample hous
Did to that image bowe their humble knee,
And oft committed fowle idolatree.
That wondrous fight faire Britomart amazd,
Ne feeing could her wonder fatisfie,
But ever more and more upon it gazd,
The whiles the paffing brightnes her fraile
fences dazd.

L.

Tho, as the backward caft her bufie eye
To search each fecrete of that goodly fted,
Over the dore thus written she did spye,
Bee bold: She oft and oft it over-red,
Yet could not find what fence it figured:
But whatfo were therein or writ or ment,
She was no whit thereby discouraged

XLIX. 2. Unto the Victor of the gods this bee.] In this infcription Cupid is called Victor of the gods. Thus Euripides in Andromeda, TYPANNOE OENN. And Övid, Epift. iv. 12.

Regnat, et in dominos jus habet ille deos."

The Love that Plato characterizes with the titles of METAΣ ΘΕΟΣ, ΠΡΩΤΙΣΤΟΣ ΘΕΩΝ, is of a more philofophical nature than this vulgar Love, whom Spenfer is now painting to us. But this Vulgar Love reigns univerfal victor, and thus he is emblematically figured, viz. fstanding on a globe, in Gorlaus's Gemms, 568, 569. And in Spanheim's Treatife of Coins, p. 228, Cupid rides on a dolphin, with a flower in his hand, alluding to his power over land and feas. UPTON.

From profecuting of her first intent,

But forward with bold fteps into the next roome

went.

LI.

Much fayrer then the former was that roome,
And richlier, by many partes, arayd;
For not with arras made in painefull loome,
But with pure gold it all was overlayd,
Wrought with wilde antickes which their
follies playd

In the rich metall, as they living were:

A thousand monftrous formes therein were made,

Such as falfe Love doth oft upon him weare; For Love in thousand monftrous formes doth

oft appeare.

LII.

And, all about, the gliftring walles were hong With warlike fpoiles and with victorious

prayes

Of mightie conquerours and captaines strong,
Which were whilóme captíved in their dayes
To cruell Love, and wrought their owne
decayes:

Their fwerds and speres were broke, and hau-
berques rent,

LI. 5.

antickes] Buffoons, who, in the old English farces, appeared with a blacked face and a patch-work habit. See the commentators on Shakspeare's Much Ado about Nothing, A. iii. S. i. TODD.