That doest ennoble with immortall name The warlike worthies, from antiquitye, In thy great volume of Eternitye; Begin, O Clio, and recount from hence My glorious Soveraines goodly Auncestrye, Till that by dew degrees, and long protenfe, Thou have it laftly brought unto her Excellence. V. Full many wayes within her troubled mind Old Glaucè caft to cure this Ladies griefe ; Full many wayes fhe fought, but none could find, Nor herbes, nor charmes, nor counsel that is chiefe And choiceft med'cine for fick harts reliefe: Forthy great care she tooke, and greater feare, Leaft that it should her turne to fowle repriefe And fore reproch, whenfo her father deare Should of his dearest daughters hard misfortune heare. VI. At last she her avifde, that he which made IV. 8. long protenfe,] So the firft edition reads; but other editions, pretence. The first edition is right: protenfe, a protendo, from ftretching and drawing out. "Cujus protendere famam," Claudian. De Laud. Stil. 1. 36. The Italians have protendere, protefo, protenfione. UPTON. Mr. Church agrees with Mr. Upton in regard to the etymology of the original word. All the reft read pretence. TODD. VI. 1. avifde,] Bethought. See F. Q. iii. ii. 22. iii. xii. 28. The folios read, advis'd. CHURCH. Tonfon's edition in 1758 corruptly alfo reads advis'd. TODD, That Mirrhour, wherein the ficke Damofell And by what means his love might beft be For, though beyond the Africk Ismaël Or th' Indian Peru he were, the thought Him forth through infinite endevour to have fought. VII. Forthwith themselves difguifing both in ftraunge And base attyre, that none might them bewray, To Maridunum, that is now by chaunge way: There the wife Merlin whylome wont (they fay) To make his wonne, low underneath the ground, In a deepe delve, farre from the vew of day, That of no living wight he mote be found, Whenfo he counfeld with his fprights encompast round. VI. 4. To weet, the learned Merlin,] He is called in Ariofto, C. xxvi. 39. "Il favio incantator Britanno." UPTON. VI. 7. the Africk Ifmaël,] The Ifraelites or Agarens, called afterwards Saracens, conquered a great part of Africa: hence he fays "the Africk Ifmael." UPTON. VIII. And, if thou ever happen that fame way From the swift Barry, tombling downe apace any cace To enter into that fame balefull bowre, For feare the cruell feendes fhould thee unwares devowre: IX. But standing high aloft low lay thine eare, And there fuch ghaftly noyse of yron chaines And brafen caudrons thou fhalt rombling heare, Which thousand sprights with long enduring paines Doe toffe, that it will ftonn thy feeble braines; VIII. 6. Emongst the woody hilles of Dyneuowre:] The principal feat of the princes of South-Wales was Dynefar, or Dynevor castle, near Caermarthen, who from thence were called the kings of Dynevor. See Drayton's Polyolb. S. 5. IX. 1. But ftanding high aloft low lay thine eare, UPTON, And there fuch ghastly noyfe &c.] This story Spenfer borrowed from Giraldus Cambrenfis, who, during his progress through Wales in the twelfth century, picked it up among other romantick traditious propagated by the British bards. See Girald. Cambrens. Itin. Cambr. i. c. 6. Holinth. Hift. i. 129. And Camden's Brit. p. 734. Drayton has this fiction, which he relates fomewhat differently, Polyolb. L. iv. p. 62. edit. 1613. Hence Bacon's wall of brafs about England. T. WARTON. And oftentimes great grones, and grievous ftownds, When too huge toile and labour them conftraines; And oftentimes loud ftrokes and ringing fowndes From under that deepe rock moft horribly re bowndes. X. The cause, fome fay, is this: A litle whyle XI. In the meane time through that false Ladies traine He was surprifd, and buried under beare, Ne ever to his worke returnd againe : Nath'leffe thofe feends may not their work So greatly his commandëment they feare, For Merlin had in magick more infight XII. For he by wordes could call out of the sky Both funne and moone, and make them him obay; The land to fea, and fea to maineland dry, Whenfo him lift his enimies to fray: XII. 1. For he by wordes could call out of the sky the custom of claffical magicians. Epod. v. 45. "Quæ fidera excantata voce Theffala, See alfo Virgil, Ecl. viii. 69. "Carmina vel cœlo poffunt deducere lunam." Shakspeare's Profpero is infinitely to be admired beyond all the forcerers of antiquity: "I have be-dimm'd "The noon-tide fun, call'd forth the mutinous winds, "Set roaring war, &c." This rough magick, as the poet afterwards calls it, highly interefts the fancy. TODD. XII. 6. And hofles of men of meanest things could frame,] Like Aftolfo, who turned ftones into horfes, and trees into thips, Orl. Fur. C. xxxviii. 33, and C. xxxix, 26. UPTON. |