But, with remembraunce of Name, your gracious (Wherewith that courtly garlond most ye grace And deck the world,) adorne thefe verfes bafe: (For thereunto doth need a golden quill And filver leaves, them rightly to devife ;) But to make humble prefent of good will: Which, whenas timely meanes it purchase may, In ampler wise itselfe will forth display. E. S. *To all the gratious and beautifull Ladies in the Court. THE Chian Peincter, when he was requir'd trew Of Beauties Queene, the worlds fole wonderment,) *Henry Lok thus clofes his collection of Sonnets, fubjoined to his Ecclefiaftes paraphrafed, 1597, with an addrefs To the Honorable Ladies and Gentlewomen, attendants in the Court; and another to his friends in general. TODD. To fharpe my fence with fundry Beauties vew, And fteale from each some part of ornament. If all the world to feeke I overwent, A fairer crew yet no where could I fee Then that brave Court doth to mine eie prefent ; That the world's pride feemes gathered there to bee. Of each a part I stole by cunning thefte : Forgive it me, faire Dames, fith leffe ye have not lefte. E. S. Ver. 7. To sharpe my fence &c.] Hence perhaps Milton's expreffion, "Sharpen'd his vifual ray," Par. L. B. iii. 620. TODD.. THE FIRST BOOK OF THE FAERIE QUEENE CONTAYNING THE LEGEND OF THE KNIGHT OF THE RED CROSSE, OR OF HOLINESSE. LO! I, the man whofe Mufe whylome did maske, I. 1. Lo! I, the man &c.] Spenfer opens his poem, and addreffes his reader, after the manner of Virgil; if those are Virgil's verfes prefixed to the Æneid: He feems to have thought them (if not genuine) yet deferving his imitation; and of the fame opinion feems Milton, who thus begins his Paradife Regained. I know not whether it be worth mentioning, that the learned Sandys, who translated the first book of Virgil, plainly imitates our poet, "Lo I, who whilom foftly-warbling plaid "On oaten reeds It might be more worth our while to pay fome regard to our poet's expreffions. He fays, Am now enforft,-Who enforst him? The Mufe, whofe facred raptures and dictates he must neceffarily follow, deos xai natexóμevos, as Plato in Io expresses it? or his friend Sir Philip Sidney, whofe request was a command and an enforcement? One of Sir Philip Sidney's learning and character could easily prevail on fo free a genius as Spenfer's, to try his talents in Epick poetry, and to celebrate either directly, or in fome covert manner, their renowmed queen, and her no lefs renowmed courtiers: and to this gentle enforcement allude the verses prefixed to the Faerie Queene by his friend W. L. "So Spenfer was by Sidney's fpeaches wonne "To blaze her fame Having thus changed his oaten pipe for the trumpet's fterner ftrain, he purposes to fing of "knights and ladies gentle deeds.” This is expreffed after Ariofto, Canto 1. St. 1. "Le donne, i cavalier, l'arme, gli amori, "Le cortefie, l'audaci imprefe, io canto." VOL. II. B UPTON. As time her taught, in lowly fhepheards weeds, And fing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds; Whose praises having slept in filence long, Me, all too meane, the facred Muse areeds To blazon broade emongst her learned throng: Fierce warres and faithful loves fhall moralize. my fong. II. Help then, O holy virgin, chiefe of nyne, I. 2. in lowly fhepheards weeds;] Spenfer, about the age of 26, published his Shepheards Calender in 4to. 1579; eleven years before the first publication of the Faerie Queene. CHURCH. I. 9. Shall moralize my fong.] Mr. Warton has obferved that, by the word moralize, Spenfer declares his defign of writing an allegorical poem, as if he had faid; "though my fubject confift of fierce warres and faithful loves, yet under these shall be couched moral doctrine, and the precepts of virtue;" and that the poet styles his Faerie Queene a morall lay in his Colin Clouts come home again, v. 86. Perhaps Spenfer adopted the expreffion from the old poets. Thus in The Maydens Croffe rewe, bl. 1. 4to. Imp. by Rob. Wyer, without date, ftanza the first: II. 1. "Janus Byfrons, amyddes January, "With his frofty berde, and thycke loches rore, Right than I thought, how longe me before, "My mayster Lydgate dyd applye him fore "Fables to fayne vnto moralyte, "To fhew the euyll theyr iniquyte." TODD. chiefe of nyne,] This invocation is addreffed to Clio. So, in vii. vii. 1, "Thou greater Mufe." See too F. Q. iii. iii. 4, and vii. vi. 37. CHURCH. Compare alfo F. Q. iv. ii. 10, and Statius, Theb. x. 630. "Memor incipe, Clio, "Sæcula te quoniam penes, et digesta vetuftas." UPTON. Thy weaker novice to perform thy will; That I muft rue his undeferved wrong: O, helpe thou my weake wit, and sharpen my dull tong! III. And thou, most dreaded impe of highest Iove, Come, both; and with you bring triumphant II. 3. thine everlasting fcryne] An escritore, dek, from the Latin fcrinium. "Scryn, a jhrine; anciently a cheft or cofer:" Verftegan. UPTON. II. 7. and fuffered fo much ill,] The poet hould have faid "and FOR WHOM he suffered fo much ill." T. WARTON. III. 5. Lay now thy deadly heben bowe apart,] Tibullus, addreffing himself to Cupid, ii. i. 81. "Sancte, veni dapibus feftis; fed pone fagittas, JORTIN. III. 7. Come, both; and with you bring &c.] This formulary |