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An aged Sire, in long blacke weedes yclad,
His feete all bare, his beard all hoarie

gray,

And by his belt his booke he hanging had; Sober he feemde, and very fagely fad; And to the ground his eyes were lowly bent, Simple in fhew, and voide of malice bad; And all the way he prayed, as he went, And often knockt his breft, as one that did

repent.

XXX.

He faire the Knight faluted, louting low,

tale, and after that raises two fpirits with an intent to deceive the Red-crofs Knight, feems to be copied from Ariofto, who introduces Angelica meeting with an hypocritical hermit who raifes a falfe fpirit with a defign to deceive Sacripant and Renaldo, and to exafperate them against Renaldo, &c. Orl. Fur. C. ii, St. 12.

"Che fcontrò un' eremita &c."

But Spenfer has greatly improved the hint. Archimago is again introduced after the fame manner, F. Q. i. vi. 34, and ii. i. 8. T. WARTON.

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XXX. 1. - Saluted, lowting low,] This feems to have been a proverbial expreffion. They were very low in their lowtings:" Ray. See Gloff. to G. Douglas's Virgil, V. Lout. This word is ufed in the fenfe of fervilely bowing often in Spenfer, and in Chaucer and Skelton. See alfo the old romantick tale of Sir Cauline, printed in Percy's Reliques of Anc. Poetry, vol. i. P. 2.

"Sir, quoth the dwarffe, and louted lowe,

"Behold that hend Soldain."

I must request the reader to obferve how finely Milton has transferred the hypocritical falutation of Archimago to Satan, Par. Loft. B. iii. 736. "Bowing low" to Uriel whom he had deceived. Again, Par. Reg. B. iv. 497.

"He added not; and Satan, bowing low

"His gray diffimulation, &c." TODD.

Who faire him quited, as that courteous was; And after afked him, if he did know Offtraunge adventures, which abroad did

pas.

"Ah! my dear fonne," quoth he, “how fhould, alas!

Silly old man, that lives in hidden cell, Bidding his beades all day for his trefpás, Tydings of warre and worldly trouble tell? With holy father fits not with fuch thinges to mell.

XXX. 2. Who faire him quited,] Requited, payed him back his falutations again, F. Q. v. vii. 17.

"Whom the faluting faire, faire refaluted was."

And Fairfax, Taff. B. xvii. 59.

"But when the wizard fage their first salutę

"Receiv'd, and quited had."

Ἐπεὶ δὲ ἡμᾶς τὰ ἐιωθότα ησπάσατο, καὶ τῶν ἀμοιβαιων ἔχνχεν. Heliod. Ethiop. L. 2. p. 127. UPTON.

XXX. 9. With holy father fits not] It fits not, 'tis not becoming. Il fied, it fits well, 'tis becoming. So we fay, it fits well on a perfon: The fame expreffion we have below, C. viii. St. 33.

"How ill it fits with that fame filver head

"In vain to mock."

And this phrafe, which is very frequent in our old english poets, whom Spenfer perpetually follows, is conftantly altered in all the editions excepting in the first quarto edition, into fits: a very obvious alteration to every corrector of the prefs, And let us fee how our old poets ufed this word. fol. xii.

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My fonne it fit well every wight

"To keep his worde in trouth upright."

Gower,

"It were an unfittende thynge," i. e. an unbecoming thing, fol. cli. So Chaucer, Merch. Tale. 733.

"And trewly it fitten well to be fo."

And Troil. and Creff. I. 12.

"For well fit it the foothe for to faine."

In the fame sense befits, which is rightly printed in the 1st and

XXXI.

"But if of daunger, which hereby doth dwell, And homebredd evil ye desire to heare,

Of a ftraunge man I can you tidings tell, That wafteth all this countrie farre and neare." "Of fuch," faide he, "I chiefly doe inquere; And shall thee well rewarde to fhew the place, In which that wicked wight his dayes doth

weare:

For to all knighthood it is foule difgrace, That fuch a curfed creature lives fo long a space."

XXXII.

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"Far hence," quoth he, " in waftfull wilderneffe His dwelling is, by which no living wight May ever paffe, but thorough great diftreffe.' "Now," faide the Ladie, "draweth toward night;

And well I wote, that of your later fight Ye all forwearied be; for what fo ftrong, But, wanting reft, will also want of might?

2d quarto editions, but ignorantly altered in the fubfequent editions, F. Q. ii. vii. 10. "Me ill befits that in der-doing. armes " i. e. It ill becomes me; it fits ill upon me: This is changed into befits. And for my own part I make no doubt but Spenfer did not write, as 'tis now printed in all the editions, F. Q. vi. ii. 24.

"That fure he ween'd him born of noble blood, "With whom thofe graces did fo goodly fit." But that he wrote fit. And I would read alfo, in F. Q. v. v. 10, not fitting as printed in all the editions, but

"With pightfull fpeaches fitting with her well."

UPTON.

The funne, that measures heaven all day long, At night doth baite his fteedes the ocean waves

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emong.

XXXIII.

"Then with the funne take, Sir, your timely rest, And with new day new worke at once begin : Untroubled night, they fay,gives counfell best. Right well, Sir Knight, ye have advised bin," Quoth then that aged man; "the way to win Is wifely to advise: now day is spent ; Therefore with me ye may take up your In For this fame night." The Knight was well

content:

So with that godly Father to his home they

went.

XXXIV.

A litle lowly hermitage it was,

Downe in a dale, hard by a forefts fide,
Far from refort of people, that did pas
In traveill to and froe: a litle wyde
There was an holy chappell edifyde,

XXXIII. 3. Untroubled night, they fay, gives counfell beft.] Gall. "La nuit donne counfeil." Ital. "La notte è madre di penfieri." Gr. 'Er wunti Bean. Hence we bid people to take counsel of their pillow. UPTON.

XXXIV. 5.

an holy chappel edifyde,] Built.

Again, in his Virgil's Gnat, ft. 83.

"A little mount, of green turfs edifide."

So, in The Historie of Frier Rush, bl. 1. 4to. Lond. 1626, which thus begins: "There was fometime beyond the fea edified and founded a certain house and cloister of religious men." in the Romance of Palmerin of England, P. i. Ch. 1. "Through

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And,

Wherein the Hermite dewly wont to fay His holy things each morne and eventyde: Thereby a christall streame did gently play, Which from a facred fountaine welled forth alway.

XXXV.

Arrived there, the litle houfe they fill,

Ne looke for entertainement, where none was; Reft is their feaft, and all thinges at their will: The nobleft mind the beft contentment has. With faire discourse the evening fo they pas; For that olde man of pleafing wordes had ftore,

And well could file his tongue, as fmooth as glas:

this groue ranne a faire and cleare riuer, wherein he perceived the resemblance of a gallant and curious castle, as strongly fortified, as rarely edified." TODD.

XXXIV. 9. from a facred fountaine] So facri fontes frequently occur in the ancient poets. They are called divini in fome infcriptions: Ariftophanes, Nub. 282.

Καὶ ποταμῶν ζαθέων κελαδήματα.

Heads of rivers and fountains had temples and altars erected to them, and other divine honours paid to them. See Gruter, Infcript. No. 94, 1072. Fabretti, p. 432. Spon. Misc. Erud. Ant. p. 31. Cicero, de Nat. Deor. iii. 20, and Davies there, &c. JORTIN.

XXXV. 7. And well could file his tongue,] This expreffion we often find both in our poet, and in those old poets whom he imitated. So again, F. Q. ii. i. 3. "his fayre-filed tongue." And fee iii. ii. 12. And Colin Clouts come home again;

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A filed tongue furnisht with termes of art." 'Tis a Gallicifm, "Avoir la langue bien afilè." And our old poets have it frequently: Gower, fol. ii.

"For when he hath his tongue afiled
"With foft fpeech and with lefyng."

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