His dronken corfe he scarfe upholden can: In fhape and life more like a monster then a man. XXIII. Unfit he was for any wordly thing, And eke unhable once to stirre or go; And a dry dropfie through his flesh did flow, XXIV. And next to him rode luftfull Lechery XXIII. 7. And a dry dropfe through his flesh did flow,] How can a dropfy flow, fays Mr. Upton, if it be dry? He proposes to remove this contradiction by reading "dire dropfy," thedirus hydrops" of Horace. But it is plain that dry dropfe is the fpecies of the dropfy fo called, the dry dropfy or tympanites; which Spenfer has inaccurately confounded with the other species of the dropfy, and which may not improperly be faid to flow through the flesh; not confidering the inconfiftency of making a dry thing flow. As to Mr. Upton's correction dire, I cannot perceive how dire could be easily mistaken by the compofitors for dry. Mr. Upton might, with equal propriety, have objected to the following words, F. Q. ii. i. 49. "And with dry drops congealed in her eye." By the way, it will be difficult alfo to determine what Spenfer means by congealed, which occurs again in the fame fenfe, and on the fame occafion, F. Q. iii. v. 29. "In whofe faire eye "The crystal humour stood congealed round :" But upon fuppofition that the tears were actually frozen in her eye, we should think dry a very odd epithet for ice. To return: By dry dropfe may not the poet also mean, a dropfe which is the cause of thirst? T. WARTON. XXIV. 1. Lechery] After Glotonie cometh Lecherie, Upon a bearded gote, whofe rugged heare, appeare; eye: Unfeemely man to please faire Ladies Yet he of Ladies oft was loved deare, When fairer faces were bid ftanden by: O who does know the bent of womens fantasy! XXV. In a greene gowne he clothed was full faire, for these two finnes ben fo nigh cofins, that oft time thei wol nat depart." Chaucer, in the Parfon's Tale, p. 207.-Spenfer is beholden to our old bard for part of this picture: He is rough and black-and in a greene gowne. So, in the Court of Love, v. 1058. "And there befide, within a bay windowe, "Stood one in grene ful large of bredth aud length, "His name was Luft." UPTON. XXV. 4. Full of vaine follies and new-fangleneffe:] Vaine follies and new-fanglenesse allude to the innovators in dress and manners who abounded in Elifabeth's time, and continued fome time after, as appears by Milton's allusion to them, in his Vacation Exercise, written in 1627: "Not thofe new-fangled toys, and trimming flight Thefe fantafticks follow the fashion-mongers in Barnabie Rich's Faults and Nothing but Faults, 4to. Lond. 1606. See p. 7, where the Fantasticke is thus defcribed: "I beleeue hee hath robd a lackanapes of his iefture; marke but his countenance; fee how hee mops, and how he mowes, and how he ftraines his lookes. All the Apes that have beene in the Parrish Garden For he was falfe, and fraught with fickleneffe; And learned had to love with fecret lookes; And well could daunce; and fing with ruefulneffe ; And fortunes tell; and read in loving bookes: And thousand other waies, to bait his fleshly hookes. XXVI. Inconftant man, that loved all he faw, If from their loyall loves he might them move: Such one was Lechery, the third of all this traine. these twentie yeares, would not come nigh him for all maner of complements." In the Coblers Prophecie, printed in 1594, Niceness is Venus's maide, and Newfangle is her man: This is in the allegorical manner of Spenfer. TODD. XXV. 7. and fing with ruefulnesse;] This was an accomplishment in the amorifts of elder days; to fing melancholy ditties; fuch as might excite ruth or compaffion. Reuthfull is ufed for lamentable by G. Douglas. See Gloff. to. Douglas's Virgil. And fo Spenfer, in the Shep. Cal. Aug. v. "And tune your pipes as ruthfull as ye may." Shakspeare illuftrates the text before us, in As you like it, A. ii. S. vii. "And then the lover, "Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad XXVII. And greedy Avarice by him did ride, And right and wrong ylike in equall ballaunce waide. XXVIII. His life was nigh unto deaths dore yplafte; And thred-bare cote, and cobled fhoes, hee ware; Ne scarse good morfell all his life did taste; But both from backe and belly ftill did spare, To fill his bags, and richeffe to compare : Yet childe ne kinfman living had he none To leave them to; but thorough daily care XXVII. 1. Avarice] Thus defcribed in Pierce Plowman, fol. xxiii. "And than came Covetis, can I him not difcrive," "Wyth two blered eyen A more full defcription the reader may fee in the Romaunt of the Rofe, v. 180. where is described both Covetife and Avarice. -That expreffion, "Whofe plenty made him poor," is from Ovid, Met. iii. 466. "Inopem me copia fecit." UPTON. richeffe to compare :] Procure. XXVIII. 5. Lat. Comparure divitias. JORTIN. To get, and nightly feare to lofe his owne, He led a wretched life, unto himselfe unknowne. XXIX. Moft wretched wight, whom nothing might fuffise; Whofe greedy luft did lacke in greatest store; Who had enough, yett wished ever more; Such one was Avarice, the fourth of this faire XXIX. 6. A vile difeafe:] A vile difeafe of the mind this, viz. Covetousness: and, befides that, a grievous gout &c. All the editions, by placing a comma only after difeafe, confound the disease of the mind with that of the body. CHURCH. XXX. 1. Envy] Chaucer, in the Rom. of the Rofe, after characterising Avarice, defcribes Envy that never laughes, "But if the either fawe or herde "Some grete mischaunce Ovid fays very prettily, according to his ufual elegance, of this female hag; for in Latin the word is feminine; Met. ii. 796. *Víxque tenet lacrymas; quia nil lacrymabile cernit." Spenfer has given his verfe the fame Ovidian turn, |