IV.

A lovely Ladie rode him faire beside,

Upon a lowly affe more white then snow;
Yet fhe much whiter; but the fame did hide
Under a vele, that wimpled was full low;
And over all a blacke ftole fhee did throw:
As one that inly mournd, fo was the fad,
And heavie fate upon her palfrey flow;

Seemed in heart some hidden care she had; And by her in a line a milke-white lambe she lad.

So

V.

pure and innocent, as that fame lambe,
She was in life and every vertuous lore;
And by defcent from royall lynage came
Of ancient kinges and queenes, that had of yore

IV. 4. Under a vele, that wimpled was full low;] A veil plaited. But the veil and the wimple were two different articles in the drefs of a nun. Thus Lydgate, in defcribing the Abbeffe, in the Daunce of Macchabre:

"Your veile, your wimple paffing great riches." T. WARTON. The participle wimpled is ufed by Chaucer in his description of the Wife of Bath, 472.

66

Upon an ambler efily she fatte "All wimpled well :"

That is, fays the Gloffary, "covered, wrapped up in a wimple." See alfo Gloff. to G. Douglas's Virgil. UPTON.

IV. 5. She did throw:] All the editions here place a comma only, and a colon after mourn'd. But the adverb inly shows that the beginning of the fixth line belongs not at all to the circumftance of Una's drefs. CHURCH.

V. 1. So pure and innocent,] So I read, from the first quarto, with Upton, Church, and Tonfon's ed. 1758. Dr. Johnfon follows the fecond and several subsequent editions, "an innocent;" citing this paffage in his Dict. to illuftrate innocent as a substantive. But the original reading, as Mr. Upton obferves, is more fcriptural; and thus alfo Belphoebe is defcribed, F. Q. iii. vi. 3. "Pure and unfpotted." TODD.

Their fcepters ftretcht from east to westerne

fhore,

And all the world in their fubjection held; Till that infernal Feend with foule uprore Forwafted all their land, and them expeld; Whom to avenge, she had this Knight from far compeld.

VI.

Behind her farre away a Dwarfe did lag,
That lafie feemd, in being ever laft,
Or wearied with bearing of her bag

Of needments at his backe. Thus as they past,
The day with cloudes was fuddeine overcaft,
And angry Iove an hideous storme of raine
Did poure into his lemans lap fo faft,

That everie wight to fhrowd it did constrain ; And this faire couple eke to fhroud themselves were fain.

VII.

Enforft to feeke fome covert nigh at hand,
A fhadie grove not farr away they spide,
That promist ayde the tempeft to withstand;
Whose loftie trees, yclad with fommers pride,

VI. 7. Did poure into his lemans lap fo faft,] Lucret. i. 251. pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater Æther

66

"In gremium matris Terrai præcipitavit.'

And Virgil, Georg. ii. 325.

"Tum pater omnipotens fecundis imbribus Æther
"Conjugis in gremium lætæ defcendit." JORTIN.

VI. 9.

were fain.] Glad, used by

Chaucer, p. 139. edit. Urr. So, in Pf. lxxi. 21. "My lips

will be fain when I fing unto thee." CHURCH.

Did fpred fo broad, that heavens light did

hide,

Not perceable with power of any ftarr:

And all within were pathes and alleies wide, With footing worne, and leading inward farr: Faire harbour that them feems; fo in they entred ar.

VIII.

And foorth they paffe, with pleasure forward led, Ioying to heare the birdes sweete harmony, Which,therein shrouded from the tempeftdred,

VII. 5. Did Spred so broad, that heavens light did hide, Not perceable with power of any ftarr:] In Hughes's editions the first of these lines is printed, but without authority,

"Did spread fo broad, they heaven's light did hide." Inftances of they omitted, the reader may fee in F. Q. ii. xi. 1, i. xi. 9. "Not perceable with power of any starr," is literally almost from Statius, x. 85.

"Nulli penetrabilis aftro

"Lucus iners "" UPTON.

VII. 6. Not perceable with power of any starr:] It was an ancient fuperftition that stars had a malign influence on trees. Hence Milton, in Arcades,

"Under the fhady roof

"Of branching elm, star-proof."

And in the fame poem,

"And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue,
"Or what the cross dire-looking planet fmites."

Where dire-looking is drawn from the aftrological term, malign

afpect. T. WARTON.

VIII. 3.

from the tempeft dred,] i. e. from

the dreadful or dreaded tempeft. Chaucer ufes drad, and dred, for dreaded, feared. So our poet above, St. 2. ydrad; and below, St. 38.

"And forth he cald out of deep darkness dred." Again, iii. viii. 83.

"Herselfe not faved yet from daunger dred."

Seemd in their fong to scorne the cruell sky. Much can they praise the trees fo straight

and hy,

And in feveral other paffages: which I the rather mention, because some editors take dred for a fubftantive, and print it the tempeft's dred. But the two old quartos of the best authority give it as I have printed it. UPTON.

VIII. 5. Much can they praife] The reader will find this expreffion very often, Much can they praise-i. e. Much they praifed. It is often used thus in Chaucer, and much oftener in G. Douglass, the translator of Virgil. The Greeks and Latins have exactly the fame idiom. UPTON.

Ibid. Much can they praise the trees &c.] Ovid, Seneca, Lucan, Statius, and Claudian, have all left us a description of trees; but Spenfer, in this before us, feems more immediately to have had his favourite Chaucer in his eye; he has, however, much improved upon the brevity and fimplicity of our ancient bard. See the Affemb. of Fowles, v. 176.

"The bilder oke, and eke the hardie asfhe,

"The piller elme, the coffir unto caraine,

"The boxe pipe-tree, the holme to whippis lasshe,
"The failing firre, the cipres death to plaine,
"The shooter ewe, the afpe for fhaftis plaine,
"The olive of peace, and eke the dronken vine
"The victor palme, the laurer to divine."

In Chaucer's Complaint of the Blacke Knight, we meet with another description of trees, from which Spenfer feems also to have drawn one or two circumstances.

"The mirre also that wepith ever' of kinde

"The cedris hie, as upright as a line."

Spenfer, perhaps, in having given us this minute and particular enumeration of various trees, has incurred a fmaller fhare of cenfure than fome of the Roman authors mentioned above. In fome of them, indeed, fuch a defcription will be found fuperfluous and impertinent; but, upon this occafion, it is highly confiftent, and, indeed, expedient, that the poet should dwell, for fome time, on the beauty of this grove, in describing its variety of trees, as that circumftance tends to draw the Redcrofs Knight and his companion farther and farther into the fhade, 'till at length they are imperceptibly invited to the cave of Error, which stood in the thickest part of it: in fhort, this defcription is fo far from being puerile, or ill-placed, that it ferves to improve, and help out, the allegory. But notwith

The fayling pine; the cedar proud and tall; The vine-propp elme; the poplar never dry; The builder oake, fole king of forrests all; The afpine good for ftaves; the cypreffe funerall;

IX.

The laurell, meed of mightie conquerours
And poets fage; the firre that weepeth still;
The willow, worne of forlorne paramours;
The eugh, obedient to the benders will;

ftanding this may be affirmed, in commendation of Spenfer, yet I am apt to think, that the impropriety of introducing fuch a description, would not have appeared a fufficient reafon to our poet, why he fhould not have admitted it; for his judgement was fo greatly overwhelmed by his imagination, that he could never neglect the opportunity of a good description, whenever it prefented itself. T. WARTON.

VIII. 7. The vine-propp elme ;] i. e. the elm that props up and fupports the vine. Claud. de Rapt. Prof. ii. 111.

"hîc pampinus induit ulmos." UPTON.

IX. 1. The laurell, meed &c.] Statius, Achil. i. 15.
"Cui geminæ florent vatumque ducumque

"Certatim laurus." UPTON.

IX. 3. The willow, worne of forlorne paramours ;] This circumstance is the subject of feveral old English ballads. See Percy's Reliques of Anc. Poetry, vol. i. B. ii. S. viii, and vol. iii. B. i. S. ix. I will add a ftanza from another, little known, which occurs in The Mufes Gardin for Delights, 1610. An aged lover addreffes a forfaken one :

"Thy wearing willow doth imply,

"That thou art happier far than I;

"For once thou wert where thou wouldft be,
"Though now thou wear'ft the willow tree.
"O willow, willow, &c." TODD.

IX. 4: The eugh, obedient to the bender's will;] Virg. Georg. "Ituræos taxi torquentur in arcus."-Chaucer,

ii. 448. in the Affemble of Foules, v. 18. p. 415, Urry's edit. has "the fhortir ewe," which is an error for fhootir: As he fays builder oake, i. e. the oak good for building; fo the fhootir ewe. i. e. the yewtree good to make bows for shooting: and thus Fairfax, in his elegant tranflation of Taffo, iii. 76, "The fhewter eugh." UPTON.