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He told of faintes and popes, and evermore He ftrowd an Ave-Mary after and before.

XXXVI.

The drouping night thus creepeth on them faft;

And the fad humor loading their eye-liddes, As meffenger of Morpheus, on them caft

And fol. 1.

"Ne fo well can a man affile

"His tongue, &c."

Chaucer, Prol. 714.

"For wele he wifte whan that fong was fonge,
"He must preche and well afile his tongue."

And Troil. and Creff: II. 1681.

"This Pandarus gan newe his tongue afile." UPTON. XXXVI. 1. The drouping night thus creepeth on them fast; And the fad humor loading their eye-liddes,

As meffenger of Morpheus, on them caft

Sweet flombring deaw,-] Morpheus, according to the more modern poets, is the god of fleep, and fo characterized in Chaucer; whom our poet plainly had before him, as well as Ovid, when he wrote that beautiful description of Morpheus' houfe, which we fhall presently fee. Notwithstanding Spenfer is fo fettered with rhyme, his verfes are wonderfully picturesque; both the images and the expreffion corresponding each to the other. Milton feems to have imitated this paffage in Par. Loft, B. iv. 614.

"And the timely dew of fleep,

"Now falling with soft slumbrous weight, inclines
"Our eye-lids."

In Il Penferofo he fays, "the dewy-feathered sleep." This meffenger of Morpheus pours his flumberous dew on their eyelids. Sic à pictoribus Somnus fimilatur ut liquidum fomnium ex cornu fuper dormientes videatur effundere," fays the Schol. on Statius, Theb. vi. 27. Compare Stat. Theb. ii. 144. Morpheus may here be fuppofed pouring his flumberous dew either from his horn, which he ufually carried with him, or to fprinkle it from off a bough, which he ufually bore dipt in the oblivious Lethe; fee Virgil, En. v. 854; or from his dewyfeathered wings he might fcatter his fweet flumbering dew. The imagination is left to fupply the deficiency. UPTON.

Sweet flombring deaw, the which to fleep them biddes.

Unto their lodgings then his gueftes he riddes: Where when all drownd in deadly fleepe he findes,

He to his ftudie goes; and there amiddes His magick bookes, and artes of fundrie kindes, He feeks out mighty charmes to trouble fleepy minds.

XXXVII.

Then choofing out few words most horrible, (Let none them read!) thereof did verfes frame;

With which, and other fpelles like terrible, He bad awake blacke Plutoes griefly dame; And curfed heven; and fpake reprochful

fhame

Of highest God, the Lord of life and light. A bold bad man! that dar'd to call by name

XXXVI. 6.. all drownd in deadly fleepe] Drowned in fleep, is an expreflion ufed by that poetical and elegant romance writer, who was ftudied by all the romance-writing poets. Επειδὴ μέσαι νύκτες ὕπνῳ τὴν πόλιν ἐβάπτιζον. Ethiopic. L. iv. C. 12. Spenfer feems fond of this image; fo below ft. 40. And fee F. Q.i. i. 53. And " Drownd in fleepie night," i. ii. 42. So likewife i. iii. 16, and elsewhere. See alfo Taffo, Gier. Lib. ix. 18.

"E s'anco integra foffe, hor tutta immersa
"In profonda quiete." UPTON.

XXXVII. 7. A bold bad man! that dar'd to call by name Great Gorgon, -] -] Dr. Jortin has cited many inftances, by which it. appears, that the ancients were moft fuperftitioufly fearful of uttering the name of Gorgon, or

Great Gorgon, prince of darknes and dead

night;

At which Cocytus quakes, and Styx is put to

flight.

XXXVIII.

And forth he cald out of deepe darknes dredd
Legions of fprights, the which, like litle flyes,
Fluttring about his ever-damned hedd,
Awaite whereto their fervice he applyes,
To aide his friendes, or fray his enimies:

Demogorgon. It may not be impertinent to remark, that they were no lefs afraid of calling the furies by their names. Electra, in Euripides, fays of the furies that tormented her brother, Oreft. v. 37.

ΟΝΟΜΑΖΕΙΝ γὰς αἰδῶμαι θεας
Εὐμενίδας, αἳ τόνδ' ἐξαμιλλῶναι φόβῳ.

And in another fcene Oreftes fays,

Εδοξ ̓ ἰδεῖν τρεῖς νυκτὶ προσφερεις κόρας.

Whom Menelaus answers,

Οἶδ ̓ ἂς ἐλεξας, ΟΝΟΜΑΣΑΙ δ ̓ ἐ βούλομαι.

Below we have the fame fuperftition concerning Hecate; for which it would be difficult, perhaps, to bring any ancient teftimony, ft. 43. Either that her name was feared in general, or that Morpheus was particularly afraid of uttering, or of hearing, it. Our author, with great ftrength of fancy, has feigned fuch a circumftance as this of Merlin. "The fiends do quake, when any him to them does name," F. Q. iii. iii. 11. Though perhaps this is not more expreffive of Merlin's diabolical power than what Olaus Magnus mentions of that of a Swedish enchanter, viz. That he could blunt the edge of the weapons of his enemies only by looking at them; and that he could make hell a light place. T. WARTON.

XXXVIII. 2. Legions of Sprights, the which, like litle flyes,] So, in the old French Morality, entitled The Affumption, 1527. "Ung grand tas de dyables plus drus "Que moucherons en l'air volans."

Fairfax adopts the phrafe of Spenfer, B. xiii. 11.

.66

Legions of devils by thousands thither come." See alfo Milton's Comus, v. 604, Par. Reg. B. iv. 629. TODD.

Of thofe he chofe out two, the falsest twoo, And fitteft for to forge true-feeming lyes; The one of them he gave a meffage too, The other by himselfe staide other worke to doo.

XXXIX.

He, making speedy way through spersed ayre, And through the world of waters wide and deepe,

To Morpheus houfe doth haftily repaire. Amid the bowels of the earth full steepe, And low, where dawning day doth never peepe,

XXXIX. 1.

through fperfed ayre,] The word Sperfed, or fparfed, for difperfed, scattered, often occurs in our old writers. Thus, in A Remedy for Sedition, 4to. bl. 1. 1536. "They began properly to Sparfe pretye rumours in the North, that no man fhulde eate whyte breade, no man eate pygge, goofe, or capon, without he agreed before with the kynge." Sign. F. i. Again, in Thirteen most pleafaunt and delectable Questions, entituled a difport &c. by I. Boccace, and englished by H. G. 12mo. 1587. "Much more also had the vertue of the Sperfed licours wrought." Quest. iiij. Spenfer ufes the word again, F. Q. v. iii. 37, i. v. 48; and Fairfax has adopted, from him, "Sparfed aire,” B. xiii. 2. TODD. XXXIX. 3. To Morpheus houfe doth hastily repaire. Amid the bowels of the earth full steepe,

And low, where dawning day doth never peepe, His dwelling is ; &c.] 'Tis hardly poffible for a more picturesque defcription to come from a poet or a painter, than this whole magical scene. Archimago calls to his affiftance two infernal fpirits, one of which stays with him, the other is fent to the houfe of Morpheus. Now here Spenfer acts as a scholar and a poet fhould act; which is to fee what others have said on the same subject, and then to imitate what best suits his fubject.-When Juno wanted to lull the thunderer

His dwelling is; there Tethys his wet bed
Doth ever wash, and Cynthia ftill doth steepe
In filver deaw his ever-drouping hed,

Whiles fad Night over him her mantle black doth fpred.

XL.

Whofe double gates he findeth locked faft;
The one faire fram'd of burnifht yvory,
The other all with filver overcaft;

to repofe, and to withdraw him from affifting the Trojans, fhe is thus described, Il. xiv. 264.

"She speeds to Lemnos o'er the rowling deep,

"And feeks the cave of Death's half brother, Sleep.
"Sweet pleafing Sleep (Saturnia thus began)

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"Who spread'ft thy empire o'er each God and man.' As Spenfer had no intent to characterize the Lemnians as fluggards, he places the house of Morpheus amid the bowels of the earth. In the Odyffey, Homer places the region of dreams at the ends of the earth, among the Cimmerians, Od. λ. 13, &c. Ovid has tranflated this paffage of Homer, in Met. xi. 592; and fo has Valerius Flac. iii. 398; and Statius, Theb. x. 84. And likewife Ariofto, Canto xiv. ft. 102.-The reader at his leifure may (if he pleases) compare these authors together. See also the dream of Chaucer, v. 136. p. 105. ed. Urr. And the house of fame, v. 70. p. 458. ed. Urr. UPTON.

XXXIX. 6. There Tethys his wet bed] In fome editions 'tis printed Thetis. Tethys was the wife of Oceanus, and is ufed for the ocean; Thetis was a Nereid or fea-nymph. But the blunder and confufion is frequently made, and Thetis is printed for Tethys, often in Spenfer, and often in other poets: and this very blunder runs through Drayton's Polyolbion. UPTON.

XL. 2. The one faire fram'd of burnifht yvory,

"Hear my

The other all with filver overcaft ;] dream," (fays Socrates in Plato's Charmides) "whether it comes from the gate of horn, or from the gate of ivory:" i. e. whether true or falfe. The poets fuppofe two gates of Sleep, the one of horn, from which true dreams proceed; the other of ivory, which fends forth falfe dreams. Hom. Odyff. r′ 562. Virg. Æn. vi. 894. But Spenfer very judiciously varies from

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