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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
So ftraungely vewed her ftraunge lovers fhade,
To weet, the learned Merlin, well could tell
Under what coaft of heaven the Man did
dwell,

And by what means his love might beft be
wrought:

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
Of name Cayr-Merdin cald, they tooke their

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
To traveill, go to fee that dreadful place:
It is an hideous hollow cave (they fay)
Under a rock that lyes a litle space

From the swift Barry, tombling downe apace
Emongst the woody hilles of Dyneuowre:
But dare thou not, I charge, in

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
Before that Merlin dyde, he did intend
A brafen wall in compas to compyle
About Cairmardin, and did it commend
Unto these sprights to bring to perfect end:
During which worke the Lady of the Lake,
Whom long he lov'd, for him in haft did fend;
Who, thereby forft his workemen to forfake,
Them bownd, till his retourne, their labour not
to flake.

XI.

In the meane time through that false Ladies

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He was surprifd, and buried under beare,

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So greatly his commandëment they feare,
But there doe toyle and traveile day and
night,
Untill that brafen wall they up doe reare:

For Merlin had in magick more infight
Then ever him before or after living wight:

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,
And darkfom night he eke could turne to day;
Huge hoftes of men he could alone dismay,
And hoftes of men of meaneft thinges could
frame,

Whenfo him lift his enimies to fray:

XII. 1. For he by wordes could call out of the sky
Both funne and moone, &c.] This is agreeable to
So Horace's Cauidia,

the custom of claffical magicians.

Epod. v. 45.

"Quæ fidera excantata voce Theffala,
"Lunamque cœlo deripit."

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,
"And 'twixt the green fea and the azur'd vault

"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.

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