To flame the gates, and hearing them to call For fire in earnest, ran with fearfull speed, And, to them calling from the castle wall, Befought them humbly him to beare withall, As ignorant of fervants bad abufe

And flacke attendaunce unto ftraungers call. The Knights were willing all things to excufe, Though nought belev'd, and entraunce late did not refufe.

XIX.

They beene ybrought into a comely bowre, And fervd of all things that mote needfull bee; Yet fecretly their hofte did on them lowre, And welcomde more for feare then charitee; But they diffembled what they did not fee, And welcomed themfelves. Each gan undight Their garments wett, and weary armour free,

XVIII. 2.

and hearing them to call

For fire in earneft,] How were they, in fo wet a night, to procure fire? and to whom did they call for it? Surely not to Malbecco's fervants. The poet has informed us of no other habitation in the neighbourhood of this caftle.

TODD.

XIX. 5. But &c.] I fhould think they diffembled what they did fee, or what they would not fee. JORTIN.

To diffemble is to pretend that not to be which is indeed, (fo, he ufes the word F. Q. iii. i. 50.) and our poet had fpoken properly, if he had faid they diffembled what they did fee: But to diffemble fignifies alfo to take no notice of. And I should fuppofe that Spenfer here ufes it in this latter fenfe, which is equally proper. What they did not fee, was Malbecco's hofpitality; that they diffembled, or, took no notice of; but welcomed themfelves; that is, they behaved with the fame ease and cheerfulness as if they had been welcome. CHURCH.

To dry themselves by Vulcanes flaming light, And eke their lately bruzed parts to bring in plight.

XX.

And eke that straunger Knight emongst the rest
Was for like need enforft to difaray:
Tho, whenas vailed was her lofty creft,
Her golden locks, that were in tramells gay
Upbounden, did themselves adowne difplay

XX. 3. Tho, whenas vailed] All the editions thus read, except Hughes, who gives veiled. Either fpelling alters the fenfe. It should be either valed, or when avaled, that is, pulled off, laid down. So Drayton ufes vale for stoop: "To vale unto their pride," Polyolb. p. 195. CHURCH. XX. 4. Her golden lockes, that were in tramels gay Upbounden, did themfelves adowne difplay,

1021.

And raught unto her heeles.] So Chaucer, Rom. R.

"Her treffes yellow, and long ftraughten,
"Unto her heeles downe they raughten."

And in the fame poem, 1218.

"Her haire downe to her heeles went."

Our author again expreffes himself in the fame manner, fpeaking of a robe, F. Q. v. v. 2.

"When the lift, it raught

"Down to her lowest heele."

Alfo, in F. Q. iv. i. 13.

"Her golden lockes that were upbound

"Still in a knott, unto her heeles downe traced."

This mention of golden hair puts me in mind of a correction which Mr. Upton has made in the following verfe of Chaucer, Affemble of Fowles, v. 267.

"Her gilded heris with a golden thread

"Iboundin were."

Mr. Upton fuppofes that here is a transposition occafioned by the transcriber's hafte, and that we should apply gilded to threde, and goldin to heris, viz.

"Her goldin heris with a gilded threde

Ibounden were.'

And raught unto her heeles; like funny beames,

That in a cloud their light did long time stay, Their vapour vaded, fhewe their golden gleames,

And through the perfant aire fhoote forth their azure ftreames.

The alteration appears at first fight to be very juft; but it is perhaps unneceffary, if we confider, that gilte, or gilded, is often used by Chaucer, and applied to hair.

Thus, Leg. of Good Women, v. 230.

"His GILT here was ycrounid with a fon.”

And in the fame poem, v. 249.

"Hide Abfolon thy GILTE treffis clere."

We have here gilded hair, ib. v. 390.

"Difchevilid with her bright GILDID here."

XX. 6.
Met. xiv. 767.

T. WARTON.

like funny beames &c.] Ovid,

"talifque adparuit illi,

"Qualis ubi oppofitas nitidiffima folis imago

"Evicit nubes, nullâque obftante reluxit."

This fimile in Ovid is so very picturefque and pleafing, that it is no wonder to find it imitated. Taffo had it in view describing Armida, who hid, or vainly strove to hide, her golden locks under a veil. C. iv. 29. The discovery of Britomartis is exactly the fame with the difcovery of Bradamante, who taking off her helmet let her golden locks fall loosely on her fhoulders, and plainly fhowed both by her hair and by her beauteous face that he was a virgin-knight, Ariofto, C. xxxii. 80. Compare the fimile in F. Q. iii. i. 43. UPTON. XX. 8. Their vapour vaded,] So all the editions: Quære: "The vapour vaded." That is, the vapour being dispers'd. CHURCH.

XX. 9. And through the perfant aire] That is, And piercing through the air. The Gloffaries to the editions of Hughes and of 1751 fay, Perfant is ufed for pierced. CHURCH.

Perfant is piercing; and is fo ufed by Chaucer, from the Fr. See Rom. R. 2089. UPTON.

XXI.

Shee alfo dofte her heavy haberieon,
Which the faire feature of her limbs did hyde;
And her well-plighted frock, which the did won
To tucke about her fhort when he did ryde,
Shee low let fall, that flowd from her lanck

fyde

Downe to her foot with careleffe modeftee. Then of them all fhe plainly was espyde To be a woman-wight, unwist to bee, The fairest woman-wight that ever eie did fee.

XXII.

Like as Bellona (being late returnd

XXI. 3.

her well-plighted frock,] Her well-folded

frock. So, in Chaucer's Court of Love, v. 1441. "And with a trewlove, plited many a folde,

"She fmote me through the very heart, &c."".

Compare alfo Milton's Hift. of Eng. B. ii." She [Boadicea] wore a plighted garment of divers colours." TODD.

Ibid.

She did won] She used, woN

for wont the last letter is dropt for the rhyme's fake.

CHURCH.

XXI. 8. a woman-wight,] Inftead of womanwight," if I had the authority of any book, I would have printed it, "woman-knight." UPTON.

Mr. Upton's obfervation is fupported by the first line of ft. 47. "Ah! faireft LADY-knight." TODD.

XXII. 1.

Bellona] The fecond and all the later editions read Minerva. It is generally agreed that Pallas, Bellona, and Minerva, are one and the fame perfon. So Chaucer, p. 430. ed. Urr.

"O thou fiers God of armis Mars the rede

With The [Thee] Bellona, Pallas full of grace,

"Be prefent

So in the Shep. Cal. October.

"With queint Bellona in her equipage."

"

Where our poet's friend E. K. puts this interpretation upon

From flaughter of the giaunts conquered;
Where proud Encelade, whofe wide nofethrils

burnd

With breathed flames like to a furnace redd, Transfixed with her fpeare downe tombled dedd

From top of Hemus by him heaped hye ;) Hath loofd her helmet from her lofty hedd, And her Gorgonian fhield gins to untye From her lefte arme, to reft in glorious victorye.

XXIII.

Which whenas they beheld, they smitten were With great amazement of fo wondrous fight; And each on other, and they all on her, Stood gazing; as if fuddein great affright Had them furprizd: At laft avifing right

the name,

"Bellona, the goddess of Battel, that is Pallas.” Bellona or Pallas are names properly used when that goddess is spoken of as prefiding in War: And Minerva is more fuitably applied when the prefides over Arts &c. CHURCH. XXII. 3. whofe wide nofethrils burnd] This mode of spelling noftrils continued long after the time of Spenfer; as the following quotation (which I have cited for the benefit of phyfiognomifts!) will prove: "Little nofe-thrils are attributed to thofe that are of a fervile cowardly spirit:" From The Court of Curiofitie, &c. To which is also added a Treatife of Phyfiognomy, tranflated from the French of Marck de Vulfon, &c. by I. G. Gent. Lond. 8vo. 1669, p. 175. Again, "The hair of a man's nofe-thrils being harsh, denotes the man to be of a fettled and refolute temper." Ibid.

TODD.

XXII. 5. with her Speare] So the first edition reads, which thofe of 1751, Church, Upton, and Tonfon's in 1758, follow. The reft read, "with the fpeare." TODD.