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Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs
That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make,
Which she with precious vial'd liquors heals.
For which the shepherds at their festivals
Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays,
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream
Of pancies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.

Helping all urchin blasts, and
ill-luck signs
That the shrewd meddling elf

delights to make,] The virgin shepherdess Clorin, in Fletcher's pastoral play so frequently quoted, possesses the skill of Sabrina, act i. s. 1. p.

104.

Of all green wounds I knowe the remedies

In men or cattle; be they stung with snakes,

Or charm'd with powerful words of wicked art:

Or be they lovesick, &c.

These can I cure, such secret virtue lies

In herbs applied by a virgin's hand. T. Warton. 845. Helping all urchin blasts,] The urchin, or hedge-hog, from its solitariness, the ugliness of its appearance, and from a popular opinion that it sucked or poisoned the udders of cows, was adopted into the demonologic system and its shape was sometimes supposed to be assumed by mischievous elves. See the Tempest, act i. s. 2. act ii. s. 3. Macbeth, act iv. s. 1. And Titus Andronicus, at least corrected by Shakespeare, act ii. s. 2. There was a sort of subordinate or pastoral system of magic to which the urchin pro

perly belonged. T. Warton.

548

850

846. That the shrewd meddling elf &c.] That is Puck or Robin Goodfellow, whose character and qualifications are described in Shakespeare's Mids. N. Dream, act ii. Delights to make, at first he had written to leave; and in the Manuscript is the following

verse,

And often takes our cattle with strange pinches,

Which she with precious &c.

846. Shakespeare mentions a spirit, who "mildews the white "wheat, and hurts the poor crea"ture of the earth." K. Lear, act i. s. 4. And he calls Robin Goodfellow "a shrewd and knav"ish sprite." Mids. N. Dream, act ii. s. 1. T. Warton:

849.-in rustic lays,] Rightly altered from lively or lovely lays.

850. And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream] See B. and Fletcher's False One, act iii. s. 3.

With incense let us bless the brim, And as the wanton fishes swim, Let us gums and garlands fling, &c. T. Warton. 851. Of pancies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.] This line was at first,

Of pancies, and of bonny daffodils.

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And, as the old swain said, she can unlock
The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell,
If she be right invok'd in warbled song,

For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift
To aid a virgin, such as was herself,
In hard-besetting need; this will I try,
And add the pow'r of some adjuring verse.

SABRINA fair,

SONG.

Listen where thou art sitting

Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of lilies knitting

The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair;

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861. Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave.] Shakespeare, Hamlet, a. iv. s. 1.

855

860

861. Translucent, which I always thought to be first used by Milton, occurs in Brathwayte's Love's Labyrinth, Lond. 1615. 12mo. p. 29. Of the sun, "hea"ven's translucent eie." Pope perhaps had it from Milton, on his grotto.

Thou who shalt stop where Thames translucent wave.

T. Warton.

862. In twisted braids of lilies knitting

The loose train of thy amberdropping hair.]

We are to understand water

lilies, with which Drayton often braids the tresses of his waternymphs, in the Polyolbion. See Note on Arcades, v. 97. T. Warton.

863. The loose train of thy There is a willow grows askant the amber-dropping hair.] We have

brook

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an amber cloud," above v. 333.

And in L'Allegro, "the sun is

"robed in flames and amber

Listen for dear honour's sake,

Goddess of the silver lake,

Listen and save.

Listen and appear to us
In name of great Oceanus,

"light." v. 61. But liquid amber is a yellow pellucid gum. Sabrina's hair drops amber, because in the poet's idea, her stream was supposed to be transparent. As in Par. Lost, b. iii.

358.

And where the river of bliss through

midst of heaven

Rolls o'er Elysian floures her amber

stream.

And when Choaspes has an "amber stream." Par. Reg. b. iii. 288. But Choaspes was called the_golden water. Amber, when applied to water, means a luminous clearness: when to hair, a bright yellow. Amber locks are given to the sun in Sylvester's Du Bartas more than once. And to Sabrina's daughters by Withers, Epithal. edit. 1622. See Note on Par. Reg. ii. 344. iii. 288. And Sams. Agon. v. 720. T. Warton.

865. silver lake,] Par. Lost, vii. 437. Of the birds.

Others on silver lakes, and rivers, &c.
T. Warton.

867. Listen and appear to us &c.] Before these verses there is wrote in the Manuscript, to be said. The attendant Spirit first invoked Sabrina in warbled song; and now he adds the power of some adjuring verse, both which he said he would try and in the reading of this adjuration by the sea-deities it will be curious to observe how the poet has

VOL. IV.

865

distinguished them by the epithets and attributes which are peculiarly assigned to each of them in the best classic authors. Great Oceanus, so in Hesiod Theog. 21. Quɛavov te μɛyav. Neptune and his mace or trident are very well known, and th' earthshaking is the translation of that common Greek epithet ενοσίχθων, or evoriyalos. Tethys, the wife of Oceanus, and mother of the Gods, may well be supposed to have a grave majestic pace;

Ωκεανόν τε θεων γενεσιν, και μητέρα

Τηθυν. Hom. Iliad. xiv. 201. and Hesiod calls her the venerable Tethys, worvia Tnous. Theog. 368. By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, and he had called him before ver. 835. aged Nereus; and so he is called in all the poets, as in Virgil, Georg. iv. 392. Grandavus Nereus. Hesiod assigns the reason, Theog. 233.

Νηρεα τ' αψευδεα και αληθεα γείνατο
Ποντος,
Πρεσβύτατον παιδων αυτας καλεουσι
γεροντα,

και ήπιος, ουδε

Ούνεκα νημερτης σε
θεμιστεων
Ληθεται, αλλα δικαια και ηπια δήνεα
οιδεν.

He may be called hoary too on another account; for as Servius remarks on Virgil, Georg. iv. 403. Fere omnes Dii marini senes sunt, albent enim eorum capita spumis aquarum. And the Carpathian wizard's hook, Proteus who had a cave at Carpathus,

I

By th' earth-shaking Neptune's mace,
And Tethys' grave majestic pace,

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870

and interpreter of Nereus, Orestes, ver. 363.

Ὁ ναυτιλοισι μαντις εξηγγειλε μοι

Νηρέως προφητης Γλαυκος, αψευδης θεος.

And Apollonius Rhodius gives him the same appellation, Argo

Est in Carpathio Neptuni gurgite naut. i. 1310. vates,

Cæruleus Proteus,

-novit namque omnia vates, Quæ sint, quæ fuerint, quæ mox ventura trahantur.

Quippe ita Neptuno visum est: immania cujus

Armenta, et turpes pascit sub gurgite

phocas.

By scaly Triton's winding shell,
he was Neptune's trumpeter, and
was scaly, as all these sorts of
creatures are, squamis modo his-
pido corpore, etiam humanam
qua
effigiem habent, as Pliny says,
lib. ix. sect. 4. and his winding
shell is thus described by Ovid,
Met. i. 333.

Τοισιν δε Γλαυκος βρυχης άλος εξεφαάνθη, Νηρήος θείοιο πολυφραδμων ὑποφητης. By Leucothea's lovely hands, and her son &c. Ino, flying from the rage of her husband Athamas, who was furiously mad, threw herself from the top of a rock into the sea, with her son Melicerta in her arms; but Neptune at the intercession of Venus changed them into sea-deities, and them new names, Leugave cothea to her, and to him Palamon. Ovid, Met. iv. 538. She being Leucothea or the white Goddess may well be supposed to have lovely hands, which I

Cæruleum Tritona vocat, conchaque presume the poet mentioned in

sonaci

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And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell, he was an excellent fisher or diver, and so was feigned to be a sea-god: and Aristotle writes, that in Delos he prophesied to the Gods, Αριστοτελης δ' εν τη Δηλιων πολιτεία, εν Δηλῳ κατοίκησαντα μετα των Νηρηίδων τοις θεοις μαντευεσθα:: and Nicander says, that Apollo himself learned the art of prediction from Glaucus, Nixavdeos E Νίκανδρος εν πρώτῳ Αιτωλικων την μαντικήν φησιν Απολλωνα ὑπο Γλαυκου διδαχθήναι, as they are cited by Athenæus, lib. vii. cap. 12. And Euripides calls him the seamen's prophet

opposition to Thetis' feet afterwards: and her son rules the strands, having the command of the ports, and therefore being called in Latin Portumnus, as the mother was Matuta, the Goddess of the early morning. Ovid, Fast. vi. 545.

Leucotheë Graiis, Matuta vocabere
nostris, &c.

By Thetis tinsel slipper'd feet,
this the poet meant as a para-
phrase of the word agyugo
or silver-footed, the epithet by
which she is usually distinguished
in Homer: and the Sirens are
introduced here, as being sea-
nymphs, and singing upon the
coast. Parthenope and Ligea were
two of the Sirens; and for this

By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,

And the Carpathian wizard's hook,
By scaly Triton's winding shell,
And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell,
By Leucothea's lovely hands,
And her son that rules the strands,
By Thetis' tinsel-slipper'd feet,
And the songs of Sirens sweet,
By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,
And fair Ligea's golden comb,
reason, I suppose the four verses
relating to them are scratched
in the Manuscript. Parthenope's
tomb was at Naples, which was
therefore called Parthenope; Par-
thenope à tumulo Sirenis appellata.
Plin. lib. iii. sect. 9. Silius Ital.
xii. 33.

Sirenum dedit una suum et memo-
rabile nomen

875

880

877. By Thetis' tinsel slipper'd feet.] W. Browne has "silver"footed Thetis," Brit. Past. b. ii. p. 35. Perhaps for the first time in English poetry. Silverbuskined Nymphs are in Arcades, v. 33. T. Warton.

878. And the songs of Syrens sweet.] Sandys says, that the fabulous melody of the Syrens

Parthenope muris Acheloïas, æquore has a topographical allusion.

cujus

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"For Archippus tells of a cerwinding streights and broken "taine bay, contracted within "cliffes, which by the singing "of the windes and beating of "the billowes, report a delight"full harmony, alluring those "who sail by to approach: when "forthwith, throwne against the "rocks by the waves, and swal"lowed in violent eddyes, &c.” Sandys's Ovid's Metam. b. v. p. 197. edit. 1637. Spenser has exactly described the seat and allegory of the Sirens in the same manner. F. Q. ii. xii. 30.

And now they nigh approached to the sted

Whereas those mermayds dwelt: it was a still

And calmy Bay, on th' one side sheltered, &c.

880. And fair Ligea's golden

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