Mr. Upton reads,

Him angry

Him angry, fays Mr. Upton, means the Paynim, who is faid to be enraged above,

Pardon the error of enraged wight.

S. 41.

But because the Paymin is angry, does it neceffarily follow, that the elfin knight should not be so too? He certainly has reafon to be enraged and angry after that infult, which provokes him to throw down his gauntlet, as a challenge. It is surely wrong to alter the text, when there is neither neceffity to require, nor authority to support, the correction.

B. i. c. v. f. v.

On th❜other fide in all mens open view
Dueffa placed is, and on a tree

Sans foy his fhield is hang'd with bloody hew,
Both those the lawrell garlands to the victor dew.

Mr. Upton thus reads the laft line,

Both thofe AND TH' lawrel garlands to the victor due.

But furely Dueffa, and Sans foy his fhield, are the laurel garlands, that is, the rewards to be given to the conqueror. Laurel garlands are metaphorically

ufed

ufed, and put in appofition with Dueffa, and Sans foy his fhield. It may be urged, as another objection to Mr. Upton's alteration, that Spenser never cuts off the vowel in THE before a confonant; upon which account I would reject Hughes's reading of the following line.

The Nemean foreft 'till th' Amphitryonide.

That editor reads,

TH'Nemæan

7.7.36.

Indeed there was no neceffity of this elifion, unless Spenfer had written Nemaean; for NEMAAN, with a dipthong, is plainly misprinted for Nemean. NEMEUS Occurs often.

NEMEA Occurs in Statius. "NEMEES frondentis Alumnus t." This place was fometimes called Nos,

*En. 8. 295. + Adv. Sym. 1. 1.

Sylv. Lib. 1. 3. v. 6.

and

and fometimes Νεμεαιος, but never Νεμαιος. But if Spenfer had really by mistake written Nemaan, he would not have scrupled to have made the second syllable, though a dipthong, fhort; for he frequently violates the accents of proper names, &c.

In another place he writes it thus,

Into the great Nemean lyons grove. 5. 1. 6. Introd.

B. ii. c. v. f. xxii.

A flaming fier-brond,

Which the in Stygian lake, AYE BURNING bright,

Had kindled.

Mr. Upton, upon fuppofition that we refer aye burning to Fier-brond, does not approve of reading ayeburning, but y-burning. He is unwilling to join ay (or y) burning to Stygian lake; for fays he, the lake of brimftone burned not bright, but only served to make darkness vifible. I allow, that Milton's idea of this lake was, that it ferved to make darkness visible*. But might not Spenfer's idea of the Stygian lake be different from Milton's?

The poet has given us the fame image and allegory in another place.

#Par, Loft. b. 1. ver. 63.

Firebrand

Firebrand of hell, firft tind in Phlegethon

By thousand furies.

B. iii. c. ii. f. iii.

4. 2. I.

But ah! my rhymes too rude and rugged are,
When in fo high an object they do lighte,
And striving fit to MAKE, I feare do MARRE.

Mr. Upton remarks, that MAKE, in this paffage fignifies to verify, пOIEIN, verfus facere. But there is reafon to think, that make is here oppofed to marre, in the same sense as it is in the following lines.

Likewife unequal were her handes twaine,
That one did reach the other pusht away,

That one did make, the other mard again. 4. 1. 29.

Make and Marr were thus ufed together, as it were proverbially, in our author's age. Thus Harrington, in his Ariofto,

In vaine I feeke my duke's love to expound,
The more I feeke to make, the more I mard *.

Yes, anfwer'd Guidon, be I made or mard ↑.

Ten years would hardly make that he would marr ‡.

Thus alfo G. Tuberville, To the Countess of Warwick,

Should make or marre as fhe faw caufe.

And in thefe lines from an old tranflation of Ovid, quoted by the author of the Arte of English Poefie. Medea of her children.

Was I not able to make them I pray you tell,
And am I not able to marre them as well * ?

Again, in an old bombaft play ridiculed by Shakefpeare," And make and marre the foolish fates +." But it is needless to multiply examples; nor do I believe that the phrase is now quite obfolete in converfation.

The meaning therefore of the lines before us is, My verses are quite unpolished for fo fublime a fub"ject, so that I spoil or destroy, instead of producing "or executing any thing great or perfect."

In the paftoral JUNE, make is manifestly used in the fenfe verfify; and for this we have moreover the testimony of E. K.

The god of fhepheards Tityrus is dead,
Who taught me homely as I can to make.

Again, in Colin Clouts come home again.

Befides her peerlesse skill in MAKING well,
And all the ornaments of wondrous wit.

* B. 3. c. 19. VOLL. II.

+ Midn. Dr. S,
M

A, 4.

That