So both to batteill fierce arraunged arre;
In which his harder fortune was to fall
Under my fpeare; fuch is the dye of warre.
His Lady, left as a prise martiall,

Did yield her comely perfon to be at my call.

XXXVII.

"So doubly lov'd of Ladies unlike faire, Th' one feeming fuch, the other fuch indeede, One day in doubt I caft for to compare Whether in beauties glorie did exceede ; A rofy girlond was the victors meede. Both feemde to win, and both feemde won to bee;

So hard the difcord was to be agreede. - Fræliffa was as faire, as faire mote bee, And ever false Dueffa feemde as faire as shee. XXXVIII.

"The wicked Witch, now seeing all this while
The doubtfull ballaunce equally to sway,
What not by right, fhe caft to win by guile;
And, by her hellish science, raisd ftreight way
A foggy mist that overcaft the day,

And a dull blast that breathing on her face
Dimmed her former beauties fhining ray,

"Sterre of the morowe graye,

"The bloffome on the spraye,

"The fresheste flowre of Maye." TODD..

XXXVI. 7.

66

fuch is the dye of warre.] So F. Q. ii. v. 13. For th' equall die of warr he well did know." Alza belli communis. Euròs Ervaλos, communis Mars. Hom. I. 309. Schol. κοινὴ ἡ τὸ πολέμω τύχη, UPTON.

And with foule ugly forme did her difgrace: Then was the fayre alone, when none was faire

in place.

"Then cride the out,

XXXIX.

Fye, fye, deformed wight, • Whose borrowed beautie now appeareth plaine

To have before bewitched all mens fight: O leave her foone, or let her foone be flaine!'

Her loathly visage viewing with disdajne, Eftfoones I thought her fuch as fhe me told, And would have kild her; but with faigned paine

The falfe Witch did my wrathfull hand with

hold:

So left her, where fhe now is turnd to treën

mould.

XL.

"Thensforth I tooke Dueffa for my Dame, And in the Witch unweeting ioyd long

in

time;

Ne ever wift, but that she was the fame :

XXXVIII. 9. Then was fhe] Mr. Church reads Thens; correcting the paffage, as he fays, from the Errata annexed to the first edition. It is true, that in the Errata Then, which occurs p. 30. of that edition, is twice directed to be read Thens: but these corrections, as the context will prove, are evidently intended for ft. xl. line 1, and ft. xli. 4; both which are mifprinted Then forth. I follow, therefore, all the later editions, which here read Then.

TODD.

Till on a day (that day is everie Prime, When witches wont do penance for their crime,)

I chaunft to fee her in her proper hew,

XL. 4.

Till on a day (that day is everie Prime,

When witches wont do penance for their crime,)

I chaunft to fee her in her proper hew,] This vulgar notion of the annual penance of witches may be illuftrated from Bodinus, from whom Scot has the following translation in the difcovery of witchcraft, pag. 90. "In Livonia yearly, about the end of December, a certain knave or devil warneth all the witches in the country to come to a certain place: if they fail, the devil cometh and whippeth them with an iron rod, fo as the print of his lashes remain upon their bodies for ever. The captain leadeth the way through a great poole of water; many millions of witches fwim after; they are no fooner paffed through the water, but they are all transformed into wolves, and fly upon and devour both men, women, and cattle; after twelve days they return through the same water, and fo receive human shape again."

The reader at his leisure may confult the story of the beautiful youth Ziliante and the witch Morgana (fifter of Alcina) in Boyardo's Orlando Innamorato, L. 2. C. 12. and C. 13. In Ariofto, the fairy Manto, who gave name to Mantua, fays the fairies were changed every feventh day into fnakes, Orl. Fur. C. xliii. 98. And Milton, having mentioned the change of the devils into ferpents, adds their " annual humbling," Par. Loft, B. x. 576.

This vulgar notion seems to have taken its first rise, from the ftories told of the periodical punishments, as well as of the refpites, of the infernal fpirits. Compare Milton, Par. Loft, B. ii. 597. The chriftian poet Prudentius mentions refpites and renewals again of punishments. Or it might have taken its rife from the revolutions of the foul, from its purgatorial state to human life, and back again in endless revolutions: an Egyptian doctrine; mentioned in Plato's Phado, and finely introduced in Virgil's 6th Eneid; and by our poet in his Episode of the gardens of Adonis. UPTON.

Ibid. that day is everie Prime,] Morning: conftantly fo ufed by Spenfer. The fenfe here is, “Till one morning, &c." CHURCH.

Prime is used by Spenfer in different fignifications; here,

Bathing her felfe in origane and thyme:

A filthy foule old woman I did vew,

That ever to have toucht her I did deadly rew.

XLI.

"Her neather partes misshapen, monftruous,
Were hidd in water, that I could not fee;
But they did feeme more foule and hideous,
Then womans fhape man would beleeve to bee,
Thensforth from her most beaftly companie
I gan refraine, in minde to flipp away,
Soone as appeard fafe opportunitie:
For danger great, if not affurd decay,
I faw before mine eyes, if I were knowne to ftray.

for the spring, or beginning of the year; or, it may mean the prime of the moon, at the first appearing of the new moon, called the Prime: and this explanation has reference to Hecate, who is the fame as the moon, and prefides over witch · craft. UPTON.

XL. 7. Bathing her felfe in origane and thyme :] For this filthy foule old woman," in the more minute description which the poet gives of her, F. Q. i. viii. 47, is defcribed with "a fcabby fkin;" and origane, or bastard marjoram, is more especially mentioned as a cure for fuch unfeemly disorders: "Organie healeth fcabs, itchings, and fcuruineffe, being fed in bathes." Gerarde's Herball, fol. 1597. p. 542. Thyme is deemed. of fimilar virtue with organie, in Langham's Garden of Health, 2d ed. 1633; p. 455. TODD..

XLI. 1. Her neather partes misshapen, monftruous,

Were hidd in water, that I could not fee;] So Fraud, of which Dueffa is a type, is imaged by Dante fwimming in the river Styx, and concealing its mishapen, monftrous, neather parts. Compare this likewife with F. Q. i. viii. 46, where the fcarlet whore is stript of her falfe ornaments. See likewise the odious picture of Alcina, when Ruggiero views her, i. e. false pleasure, with the eye of reason, Orl. Fur. C. vii. UPTON. XLI. 9. if I were knowne to ftray.]. I thought it should have been, if I were knowne to stay. But no books

-

XLII.

"The divelifh hag, by chaunges of my cheare, Perceiv'd my thought; and, drownd in fleepię

night,

With wicked herbes and oyntments did befmeare

My body, all through charmes and magicke might,

That all

my fenfes were bereaved quight: Then brought the me into this desert waste, And by my wretched lovers fide me pight; Where now enclosd in wooden wals full fafte, Banifht from living wights, our wearie daies we wafte."

XLIII.

"But how long time," faid then the Elfin Knight,

"Are you in this misformed hous to dwell?" "We may not chaunge," quoth he, “this evill plight,

Till we be bathed in a living Well:

That is the terme prefcribed by the fpell." "O how," fayd he, "mote I that Well out find,

read fo. We may interpret then," if I were known to her to intend to stray." So, F. Q. ii. vi. 23.

"The fea is wide and easy for to firay,"

i. e. to caufe men to ftray. UPTON.

!

XLII. 4. My body, all &c.] All the editions point thus ::

"My body all,

But fee F. Q. i. v. 53. CHURCH.

"