XIV.

With faire difport, and courting dalliaunce,
She intertainde her lover all the way:

But, when she faw the Knight his speare ad

vaunce,

Shee foone left off her mirth and wanton play, And bad her Knight addreffe him to the fray; His foe was nigh at hand. He, prickte with pride,

And hope to winne his Ladies hearte that day, Forth fpurred faft; adowne his courfers fide The red bloud trickling staind the way, as he did ride.

XV.

The Knight of the Redcroffe, when him he spide

illuftrations may be added Chaucer, Nonnes Pr. Prol. v. 907. edit. Urr.

"For fikerly, n'ere clinking of your belles, "That on your bridel hange on every fide." And the Romance of Roberte the Deuyll, Impr. by W. de Worde:

"All the fyelde gaue a greate lyght

"Of the gleyues that glyftred, the stedes trembled, "A wonder to heare the brydles that gyngled."

And the old Ballad of Thomas the Rhymer, printed in the elegant and judicious compilation entitled " Minstrelfy of the Scottish Border," 1802, vol. ii. p. 251, where a lady is described "riding down by the Eildon Tree:"

"Her fhirt was o' the grafs green silk,
"Her mantle o' the velvet fyne;

"At ilka tett of her horfe's mane,

66

Hang fifty filler belles and nine."

Spenfer, I should add, has decorated an elephant with fimilar trappings in his 8th Vision of the Worlds Vanitie:

"Soone after this, I faw an elephant

"Adorn'd with bells and boles gorgeously." TODD.

Spurring fo hote with rage difpiteous,

Gan fairely couch his fpeare, and towards ride:

Soone meete they both, both fell and furious, That, daunted with their forces hideous, Their fteeds doe stagger, and amazed stand ; And eke themselves, too rudely rigorous, Aftonied with the stroke of their owne hand, Doe backe rebutte, and each to other yealdeth land.

XVI.

As when two rams, ftird with ambitious pride, Fight for the rule of the rich-fleeced flocke, Their horned fronts fo fierce on either fide Doe meete, that, with the terror of the shocke Aftonied, both stand fenceleffe as a blocke, Forgetfull of the hanging victory:

XV. 2.

with rage difpiteous,] Unmerciful, adopted from Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. B. ii. 435.

"O cruil god of deth, difpiteous Marte." TODD. XVI. 1. As when two rams, ftird with ambitious pride,

Fight for the rule of the rich-fleeced flocke,
Their horned fronts fo fierce on either fide
Doe meete, that, with the terror of the shocke
Aftonied, both ftand fenceleffe as a blocke,

Forgetfull of the hanging victory:] This is the reading of the 2d quarto, ftand fenceleffe: and fo Spenfer corrected it among the faults efcaped in the print of the first edition. The rich-fleeced flock, I have printed as a com pounded word, fo the Greeks xpvoóμaños, &c. This kind of comparison with a little change we have again, F. Q. iv. iv. 18. And it feems to be imaged from the following poets, Apoll. Rhod. Argon. ii. 88. Virgil, En. xii. 715. Ovid, Met. ix. 46. Statius, Theb. vi. 864. UPTON.

So ftood these twaine, unmoved as a rocke, Both staring fierce, and holding idely The broken reliques of their former cruelty.

XVII.

The Sarazin, fore daunted with the buffe,
Snatcheth his fword, and fiercely to him flies;
Who well it wards, and quyteth cuff with
cuff:

Each others equall puiffaunce envíes,
And through their iron fides with cruellfpies
Does feeke to perce; repining courage yields
No foote to foe: the flashing fiër flies,

As from a forge, out of their burning shields; And ftreams of purple bloud new die the verdant fields.

XVII. 5. And through their iron fides with cruell fpies
Does feeke to perce; repining courage yields

No foote to foe: the flashing fier flies,

As from a forge, out of their burning fhields;

And ftreams of purple bloud new die the verdant fields.] The 1ft and 2d quarto editions read cruelties; and likewife the folios, excepting that they read, "new die," inftead of

new dies" in the quartos. Cruell Spies is the poet's own correction among the faults efcaped in the print: and he ufes it again, F. Q. iii. i. 36, "with her two crafty Spies the fecretly would fearch each dainty lim." Where fee the note. The meaning is, each envies the other's equal valour, and each does feek with cruell eyes, (fortitus fortunam oculis,) to pierce through the other's fides, which are armed with iron. He feems plainly to have Homer in view, where Achilles is defcribed brandishing his deadly dart againft Hector, Il. x. 320. Or Virgil's expreffion, En. xi. 748. Or his defcription of Æneas fhaking his mortal spear, and marking out with cruel Spies the destined wound, Æn. xii. 919. See alfo Ariosto, Orl. Fur. C. xlvi. 118. Repining courage, is virtus indignata; illi indignantes. UPTON.

XVIII.

"Curfe on that Croffe," quoth then the Sarazin, "That keeps thy body from the bitter fitt; Dead long ygoe, I wote, thou haddest bin, Had not that charme from thee forwarned itt: But yet I warne thee now affured fitt, And hide thy head." Therewith upon creft

With rigor fo outrageous he fmitt,

his

That a large share it hewd out of the rest, And glauncing downe his fhield from blame him fairly bleft.

XIX.

Who, thereat wondrous wroth, the fleeping spark Of native vertue gan eftfoones revive;

And, at his haughty helmet making mark,

XVIII. 8.

a large fhare it hewd] The fubftantive Share is here used in the sense of the Saxon verb share, to cut or divide. Compare F. Q. v. i. 10. of Arthegall's fword, which, "wherefoever it did light, it throughly fhar'd." See alfo Milton, Par. Loft, B. vi. 326. So that the fenfe here is, "That it hew'd a flice out of his helmet." Share, from the fame verb, is still used for the blade of the plough. TODD. XVIII. 9. - from blame him fairly bleft.] That is, acquitted him of having given but an indifferent blow. CHURCH.

Rather, preferved, or kept him from danger. So, in The Ant and the Nightingale, 1604. 8vo. of the nightingale :

"This poore mufitian fitting all alone,

"On a greene hawthorne, from the thunder bleft,
"Carolls in varied notes her antique mone,

Keeping a sharpned brier against her breft."

See alfo F. Q. iv. vi. 13.

XIX. 3.

TODD.

at his haughty helmet] Paraphrafed by Milton, Par. Loft, B. vi. 191. "The proud crest of Satan." See alfo F. Q. i. vii. 31, ii. v. 12. Topp

So hugely ftroke, that it the steele did rive,
And cleft his head: He, tumbling downe alive,
With bloudy mouth his mother earth did kis,
Greeting his grave: his grudging
his grudging ghoft did

ftrive

With the fraile flesh; at laft it flitted is, Whether the foules doe fly of men, that live amis.

XIX. 5.

He, tumbling downe alive,
With bloudy mouth his mother earth did kis,

Greeting his grave:] Mr. Upton would alter alive, to bilive, i. e. immediately: For, fays he, did he tumble down alive after his head was cleft afunder? Without entering into an anatomical difquifition concerning the poffibility of living after fuch a blow; we may remark, that the poet himself intimates to us, that he fell down alive, and did not die till after his fall, in these lines,

"his grudging ghost did strive

"With the fraile flesh; at last it flitted is.”

Mr. Upton would enforce and confirm the juftness of his correction, by remarking, that the poet, in these verses, copied from Virgil,

"Procubuit moriens, & humum femel ore momordit :" Where the word moriens doth not imply, that the man, who fell down, was dead. I must confess that alive is fuperfluous, but Spenfer has run into many other fuperfluities on account of the frequency of his rhyme. Mr. Upton propofes likewife to write earth with an initial capital, fuppofing it a perfon; however, we had, perhaps, better fuppofe it a thing: for, if we understand it to be a person, what an abfurd mixture arifes ?

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"his mother Earth did kifs,

Greeting his grave.

"

be

Grave cannot be referred to Earth as a perfon, but it may to earth as a thing. However, it must be confeffed, that this is fuch an abfurd mixture as Spenfer was very likely to have fallen into; and we have numberlefs inftances of this fault, in his account of the rivers which attended the marriage of Thames and Medway, F. Q. iv. xi. Where god and river (that is, perfon and thing,) are often indifcriminately put, the one for the other. T. WARTON.