The fearefull fhepheard, often there aghaft, Under them never fat, ne wont there found His mery oaten pipe; but fhund th' unlucky ground.

XXIX.

But this good Knight, foone as he them can spie,
For the coole fhade him thither haftly got:
For golden Phoebus, now ymounted hie,
From fiery wheeles of his faire chariot
Hurled his beame fo fcorching cruell hot,
That living creature mote it not abide;
And his new Lady it endured not.

There they alight, in hope themselves to hide From the fierce heat, and reft their weary limbs a tide.

XXX.

Faire-feemely pleasaunce each to other makes, With goodly purpofes, there as they fit;

XXVIII. 7. The fearefull fhepheard, often there aghaft,

Under them never fat,-] "Monftrat Sylva nefas " "Non Dryadum placet umbra choris, &c." Stat. Theb. ii. 519. See alfo Lucan's defcription of the facred forest of Marseilles, L. iii. 402. Whence Taffo has imaged his inchanted foreft, defcribed in C. xiii.

XXIX. 3.

UPTON.

now ymounted hie,] The poet himself corrects this place among the errata of the first edition. Yet all the fubfequent editions retain the errour that mounted, till thofe of 1751 in quarto, of Church and Upton in 1758, and of Tonfon's edition in 1758. TODD.

XXX. 2. With goodly purposes,] Difcourfes. Fr. propos. Spenfer frequently ufes purpofe for converfation. See F. Q. iii. viii. 14. So Chaucer, p. 284. edit. Urr.

"Crefeide unto that purpose naught answerde."

CHURCH.

And in his falfed fancy he her takes
To be the faireft wight, that lived yit;
Which to expreffe, he bends his gentle wit ;
And, thinking of those braunches

frame

greene to

A girlond for her dainty forehead fit,

He pluckt a bough; out of whofe rifte there

came

Smal drops of gory bloud, that trickled down

the fame.

"Nella fua

"And with vaine

XXX. 3. And in his falfed fancy he her takes] fantafia falfáta." Again, F. Q. iii. i. 47. thoughts her falfed fancy vex." UPTON.

See alfo Watfon's Sonnets &c. entitled Hecatompathia, &c. and dated, in the Stationers Books, 1581. "With a falfed forrie jeft." Son. 32. TODD.

1

66

But

XXX. 8. He pluckt a bough; out of whofe rifte there came Smal drops of gory bloud, that trickled down the fame.] I believe that the reader need not be put in mind, that this wonderful tale (fo well adapted to the genius of romance) is taken from Virgil; where Æneas plucking a bough of myrtle fees from the rift drops of blood trickling down &c. were I to render into Latin verfe the following (0 Spare with guilty hands to teare my tender fides in this rough rynd embard ;) this from Ovid. Met. ii. 362. might very easily be borrowed, Parce precor; noftrum laniatur in arbore corpus.” "Tis no wonder that Ariosto (who is an allegorical and a moral writer, as well as a romance writer,) fhould copy this tale from Virgil. Ruggiero having tied his winged horfe to a myrtle tree, the ghoft, which was therein lodged by enchantment, fpeaks to him, and tells him he was formerly a knight, but by the witchcraft of Alcina he was transformed into a tree; and that others were changed into various beafts and other forms the true image of the man being loft through fenfuality, Orl. Fur. C. vi. Other poets might be mentioned who tell the fame kind of stories. See Ovid. Met. viii. 761. Taffo, C. xiii. 41. Compare Dante Inferno, C. xiii. The fame kind of allufion we meet with in Shakspeare, where

XXXI.

Therewith a piteous yelling voice was heard, Crying, "O fpare with guilty hands to teare My tender fides in this rough rynd embard; But fly, ah! fly far hence away, for feare Leaft to you hap, that happened to me heare, And to this wretched Lady, my deare love; O too deare love, love bought with death too deare!"

Aftond he stood, and up his heare did hove; And with that fuddein horror could no member

move,

XXXII,

At laft whenas the dreadfull paffion

Was overpast, and manhood well awake;
Yet mufing at the ftraunge occafion,

And doubting much his fence, he thus bespake;

“ What voice of damned ghost from Limbo lake,

Profpero tells Ariel that he found him confined by the witch Sycorax,

"Into a cloven pine; within which rift

"Imprifon'd, thou didst painfully remain
"A dozen years." UPTON,

XXXI, 8. Aftond he stood, and up his heare did hove;

And with that fuddein horror could no member move.] Ern de rapwx, aftond he stood: Milton, Par, Loft, B. ix. 890. "aftonied food," 'Oplàr dè tpixes "sav, and up his heare did hove, Hom, Il., 359. So Eneas, meeting with the same adventure, relates of himself, "Obftupui, fteterantque come," Virg En, iii, 48, So in Taffo, xiii, 41, "Tutto fi raccapriccia.'

UPTON,

Or guilefull spright wandring in empty aire, (Both which fraile men doe oftentimes miftake,)

Sends to my doubtful eares thefe fpeaches rare, And ruefull plaints, me bidding guiltleffe blood

to spare ?"

XXXIII.

Then, groning deep; quoth he,

"Nor damned ghoft,"

"Nor guileful sprite, to thee these words doth fpeake;

But once a man Fradubio, now a tree; Wretched man, wretched tree! whofe nature weake

A cruell Witch, her curfed will to wreake, Hath thus transformd, and plast in open plaines,

Where Boreas doth blow full bitter bleake, And fcorching funne does dry my fecret vaines;

For though a tree I feeme, yet cold and heat me paines."

66

XXXIV.

Say on, Fradubio, then, or man or tree,”
Quoth then the Knight; "by whose mischiév-

ous arts

XXXII. 9. And ruefull plaints,] This is the reading of the fecond quarto. In the first, the paffage is thus misprinted; "And tuefull plants." TODD.

Art thou misfhaped thus, as now I fee?
He oft finds med'cine who his griefe imparts;
But double griefs afflict concealing harts;
As raging flames who ftriveth to fuppreffe."
“The author. then," faid he, "of all my
fmarts,

Is one Dueffa, a falfe forcereffe,

That many errant Knights hath broght to wretchedneffe.

"In prime of youthly yeares, when corage hott
The fire of love and ioy of chevalree
First kindled in my breft, it was my lott
To love this gentle Lady, whome ye fee
Now not a Lady, but a feeming tree;
With whome as once I rode accompanyde,
Me chaunced of a Knight encountred bee,
That had a like faire Lady by his fyde;
Lyke a faire Lady, but did fowle Dueffa hyde;

XXXVI.

"Whofe forged beauty he did take in hand
All other Dames to have exceded farre;
I in defence of mine did likewife ftand,
Mine, that did then fhine as the morning ftarre.

XXXVI. 4. that did then shine as the morning ftarre.] Such are the celebrated beauties in Romance. See again, F. Q. i. xii. 21. Thus, in The Hift. of Palmendos, Ch. xxii. "Now fhined faire Francelina brighter then the morning ftar." Skelton is no lefs gallant in his address "To maistres Ifabell Pennell," Poems edit. 1736. p. 41.