B. i. c. vii. f.i. What earthly wit fo WARE. "Ware, fo prudent." This word puts me in mind of a correction, which Mr. Upton has made in Chaucer. Full fetife was her cloke, as I was WARE *. Mr. Upton despairs of fense here; and therefore proposes to read, Full fetife was her cloke as was iware. That is," As handfome as was worn by any woman.” But the expreffion, I was ware, occurs again in Chaucer. Betwixt an hulfere, and a wode bende As I was ware, I fawe where laie a man †. And, I prefume, fignifies, in both places, as I was AWARE, as I perceived; and we meeet with, was I ware, after this manner, Tho was I ware of pleasance anon right ‡. very frequently; which is the fame as, I WAS WARE, * Prol. 157. + Bl. Kn. 129. Speght's Ed. 2. fol. 234. B. i. c. vii. f. xxiv. The which these reliques fad prefent untɔ mine eye. That is, her knight's armor; which the dwarf brings to her. ft. 19. Of DESPAIRE. B. i. c. ix. f. 35. His raw-bone cheeks, through penurie and pine xxxvi. His garment nought but many ragged clouts, Sackville, who next to Spenfer, is the most full and expreffive painter of allegoric perfonages, defcribes his MISERIE after the fame manner. His face was leane, and fome deale pin'd away, And eke his hands confumed to the bone; But what his bodie was I cannot fay, For on his carkas rayment had he none, Save clouts and patches pieced one by one*. But the circumftance of the thorns is new, and strongly picturesque. * Induction. B. i. c. ix. f. xix. A box of diamond fure EMBOWD with gold, and gorgeous ornament. EMBOWD, i. e. " arched, arcuatus, bent like a BOW." A box having a vaulted cover of gold. Spenfer, in the Visions of the world's vanity, expreffes the curve of the moon by this word. Harrington, in his Orlando Furiofo, makes use of EMBOWD, to denote the concave appearance of the clouds in the sky. Ev'n as we fee the funne obfcurd fometime In the fame fenfe, fays Bacon, of Bow Windows, "For Imbowed Windows, I hold them of good use; "for they be prettie retiring places for conference +." Gascoigne in Focafta, a Tragedy, applies EMBOWD That is, vaulted with curious work: and Milton, The high, EMBOWED roof With antique pillars maffy-proof, To the full-voiced quire below *. Impreffions made in earliest youth, are ever afterwards moft fenfibly felt. Milton was probably first affected with, and often indulged the penfive pleasure which the awful folemnity of a gothic church conveys to the mind, and which is here fo feelingly described, while he was a school-boy at St. Paul's. The church was then in it's original gothic ftate, and one of the nobleft patterns of that kind of architecture. B. i. c. x. f. v. Humilta admits the red-croffe knight into the house of holineffe. They paffe in ftouping lowe; For ftraight and narrow was the path which he did fhowe. Drawn from our Saviour's difcourfe on the mount. "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which "leadeth unto life t." B. i. c. x. f. xxvii. And bitter PENANCE, with an iron whip, By to DISPLE, i. e. to difciple or difcipline, was formerly fignified the penitentiary whippings, practised among the monks, so that it is here applied with the greatest propriety. In Fox's Book of Martyrs there is an old wood-cut, in which the whipping of an heretic is represented; with this title, "The DISPLING of John Whitelock." DISPLING Friers was a common expreffion, as it is found in A Worlde of Wonders, 1608. Milton ufes it with allufion to the fame. 'fenfe. "Tis only the merry frier in Chaucer can "DISPLE them t." Difciplina in the spanish language, fignifies the fcourge which was used by penitents for these very purposes of religious flagellation. B. i. c. x. f. lxiv. Sith to thee is unknowne the cradle of thy broed. Thus again, Even from the cradle of his infancy. Thus alfo, G. Gascoigne to Lady Bridges. * Pag. 175. 5. I. 5. + Of Reformation in England, Birch's Edit, vol. 1. pag. 13. Lo |