Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks,
Sleeking her soft alluring locks,
By all the nymphs that nightly dance
Upon thy streams with wily glance,
Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head
From thy coral-paven bed,

And bridle in thy headlong wave,

Till thou our summons answer'd have.

Listen and save.

Sabrina rises, attended by water-nymphs, and sings.

By the rushy-fringed bank,

Where

grows

the willow and the osier dank,

comb, &c.] One of the employ-
ments of the Nymph Salmacis in
Ovid is to comb her hair. But
that fiction is here heightened
with the brilliancy of romance.
Ligea's comb is of gold, and she
sits on diamond rocks. These
were new allurements for the
unwary. G. Fletcher has "maine
"rocks of diamound." Christ's
Victorie, p. i. st. 61. edit. 1610.
See Note on El. iii. 49. Ligea
is celebrated for her singing in
Polyolb. s. xx. vol. iii. 1043.

Then Ligea which maintaines the
birds harmonious layes,
Which sing on river banks amongst
the slender sprayes.

T. Warton.

886. From thy coral-paven bed.] Drayton of Sabrina's robe, Polyolb. s. v. vol. iii. p. 153.

Whose skirts were to the knees with coral fring'd below. And we have pearl-paved in Drayton, ibid. s. xxx. "This "clear pearl-paved Irt." Again, "Where every pearl-paved ford."

885

890

Mus. Elys. Nymph., Shakespeare has simply "paved fountain." Mids. N. Dr. a. ii. s. 2. In Marlowe, quoted in England's Parnassus, 1600. p. 480. " pebble"paved channell." T. Warton.

889. Listen and save.] The repetition of the prayer, ver. 866. and 889. in the invocation of Sabrina is similar to that of Eschylus's Chorus in the invocation of Darius's shade. Persæ, ver. 666. and 674.

Βασκε πατερ ακακε Δαρειαν, οι

Thyer.

My sliding chariot stays,

Thick set with agate, and the azure sheen
Of turkis blue, and emerald green,

That in the channel strays;

890. By the rushy-fringed bank,
Where grows the willow and
the osier dank, &c.]
This is somewhat in imitation of
the River-God in the Faithful
Shepherdess, act 3.

I am this fountain's God; below
My waters to a river grow,

And 'twixt two banks with osiers set,
That only prosper in the wet,

895

ton's Sabrina. And the celebrity of Drayton's poem at that time better authorized such a fiction. Polyolb. s. v. vol. ii. p. 752.

Now Sabrine, as a queen miraculously fair,

Is absolutely plac'd in her imperial chair

Of crystal richly wrought, that gloriously did shine, &c.

Then comes a wasteful luxuriance It is embossed with of fancy. the figures of all the Nymphs that had been wooed by Neptune, all his numerous progeny, all the nations over which he had ruled, and the forms of all the fish in the ocean. Milton is more temperate. But he rather unsuitably supposes all the gems, with which he decorates her car, to be found in the bottom of her

stream.

As in Milton, Sabrina is raised to perform an office of solemnity, so in Drayton she appears in a sort of judicial capacity, to de

Through the meadows do they glide, cide some of the claims and

Wheeling still on every side,
Sometimes winding round about,
To find the even'st channel out, &c.
892. My sliding chariot stays;
Thick, set with agate, and the

azure sheen,

privileges of the river Lundy, which she does in a long and learned speech. See also s. viii. vol. iii. p. 795. Where again she turns pedant, and gives a laboured history of the ancient British kings. In Milton, she rises, "attended by water"nymphs," and in Drayton her car is surrounded by a group of the deities of her neighbouring rivers. T. Warton.

895. That in the channelstrays;] In the Manuscript it was at first, That my rich wheels inlays.

L

N

Thrice upon thy finger's tip,

Thrice upon thy rubied lip;

Next this marble venom'd seat,

Smear'd with gums of glutinous heat,

I touch with chaste palms moist and cold:
Now the spell hath lost his hold;

Chaucer, Spenser, and many a. i. s. i. p. 135. and p. 109. a. iii.

And I must haste ere morning hour

To wait in Amphitrite's bow'r.

Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat.

SPIRIT.

Virgin, daughter of Locrine
Sprung of old Anchises' line,
May thy brimmed waves for this
Their full tribute never miss
From a thousand petty rills,
That tumble down the snowy hills;

thanked by the shepherds, v. 844.
supr. T. Warton.

921. To wait in Amphitrite's bow'r.] Drayton's Sabrina is arrayed in

-A watchet weed, with many a curious wave,

Which as a princely gift great Amphitrite gave.

920

925

924. May thy brimmed waves &c.] I should rather think brined, i. e. made salt by the mixture of sea-water. Brimmed may indeed signify waves that rise to the brim or margin of the shore but it is a strange word. Warburton.

Dr. Warburton had not remarked the frequent and familiar

use of brim for bank in our old poets. See above at v. 119. And brimming stream" ascertains the old reading. P. L. iv. 336. T. Warton.

At first he had written crystal, but altered it, that word occurring again within a few verses.

927. That tumble down the snowy hills:] It was at first, That tumble down from snowy hills.

927. The poet adverts to the known natural properties of the river. The torrents from the Welch mountains sometimes raise the Severn on a sudden to a prodigious height. But at the same time they fill her molten crystal with mud. Her stream, of itself clear, is then discoloured and muddy. Here is an echo to a