So they to fight; the whiles the royall Mayd Fledd farre away, of that proud Paynim fore afrayd.

XLVIII.

But that falfe Pilgrim, which that leasing told,
Being in deed old Archimage, did stay
In fecret fhadow all this to behold;
And much reioyced in their bloody fray:
But, when he faw the Damfell paffe away,
He left his ftond, and her purfewd apace,
In hope to bring her to her laft decay.

XLVII. 8. So they to fight ;] Mr. Church, here deviating from his ufual accuracy, reads "So they two fight;" and makes no mention of any variation in other editions. But the first edition reads, "So they to fight;" which, as Mr. Upton obferves, is brought down to the lowest profe in the fubfequent editions, "So they two fight." I muft exempt Tonfon's edition of 1758, however, from mistake; as it rightly follows the first edition, with Mr. Upton. The remark of Mr. Upton alfo is just that to, in compofition with verbs, is augmentative. He cites indeed the fame expreffion as in Spenfer from Lydgate's Wars of Troy, B. i. C. ii.

"Fyrfte he muft of very force and myght

"Unto oultrance with thefe bulles to-fight."

Mr. Tyrwhitt, in his Gloffary to Chaucer, has illustrated the force of words, thus augmented, in a variety of inftances. Thus, "The helmes they to-hewen and to-fhrede," i. e. hewe and cut to pieces. To-dashed," i. e. much bruised. fwinke," labour greatly, &c. TODD.

XLVIII. 1.

66

"To

that leafing] Lying. Ufed, as Mr. Upton obferves, in the translation of Pfal, iv. 2. "How long will ye blafpheme mine honour, and have fuch pleasure in vanity, and feek after leafing ?" And thus, in Pierce the Ploughmans Crede, edit. 1553. fign. B. iii. b.

"he cafteth the lawes

"Nought lowly but lordly, and lefynges lyeth."

.TODD.

But for to tell her lamentable cace,

And eke this battels end, will need another

place.

77

XLVIII. 8. But for to tell her lamentable cace,

And eke this battels end, will need another place.] The poet foon returns to Una, and her lamentable cafe; but no mention is made of Satyrane till F. Q. iii. vii. 28, where he attacks the monster that pursued Florimel. This is plainly an omiffion, if not a forgetfulness. Our poet in imitation of Boyardo, and Ariofto, often leaves his fubject very abruptly; and complicates it in fuch a manner, as feeming rather too perplexing to the reader, if he does not diligently attend to the breaking off of the story, and to the connexion of it again. But I cannot vindicate his thus entirely leaving the reader at a loss to guefs this battles end, when he tells us too that it will need another place. UPTON.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

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