Summer drouth, or singed air The beryl, and the golden ore; May thy lofty head be crown'd With many a tow'r and terrace round, 932. May thy billows roll ashore The beryl, and the golden ore.] This is reasonable as a wish. But surely jewels were out of place here, on the supposition that they were the natural productions of Sabrina's stream. So of the groves of myrrh and cinher banks. A wish more conformable to the real state of things would have been more pleasing, as less unnatural. But we must not too severely try poetry by truth and reality. See above at v. 834, 891. Warton. namon upon T. 934. May thy lofty head be With many a tow'r and terrace 930 935 So of the imperial palace of -Conspicuous far Turrets and terraces. Milton was impressed with this idea from his vicinity to Windsor castle. T. Warton. 936. And here and there thy banks upon &c.] We are all of us apt to grow fond of the authors, whom we particularly study; and therefore Mr. Seward generally prefers (for beauty and delicacy though not for pomp Faithful Shepherdess which Miland majesty) the passages in the ton has imitated to Milton's imitations of them: but here he himself is forced to allow, that this address to Sabrina is better than Amoret's to the God of the river upon a like occasion, and Fletcher has no other advantage but that of writing first, act iii. For thy kindness to me shown, NO Come, Lady, while Heav'n lends us grace, When the spawn on stones do lie, And here and there thy banks upon This votive address to Sabrina I know not which poet wrote first: but in Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, certainly written not after 1613, and printed in 1616, I find a similar vow, b. i. s. i. p. 28. Milton has some circumstances which are in Browne and not in Fletcher. -May first, Quoth Marine, swaines give lambes May all thy floud have seignorie name. May never evet, nor the toade, Be ever fresh! Let no man dare est smell; And let the dust upon thy strand From a close parallelism of thought and incident, it is clear that either Browne's pastoral imitates Fletcher's play, or the play the pastoral. Most of B. and Fletcher's plays appeared after 1616. But there is unluckily no date to the first edition of the Faithful Shepherdess. It is, however, mentioned in Davies's Scourge of Folly, 1611. As Milton is supposed to have taken some hints in Comus from Peel's Old Wives Tale, I may perhaps lengthen this note, by producing a passage from that writer's play, entitled The Love of King David and faire Bethsabe, &c. edit. 1599. 4to. May that sweet plaine that beares her pleasant weight Be still enamel'd with discouloured flowers; The precious fount beare sand of purest gold, And for the peble, let the silver streames That pierce earth's bowels to maintaine her force, Play upon rubies, saphires, chrysolites: The brims let be embrac'd with golden curles Of mosse. Let all the grasse that beautifies her bower Lest the sorcerer us entice With some other new device. Not a waste, or needless sound, 940 Till we come to holier ground; I shall be your faithful guide Will double all their mirth and cheer; But night sits monarch yet in the mid sky. 954 950 955 The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow town and the President's castle; then come in country dancers, after them the attendant Spirit, with the two Brothers and the Lady. SONG. SPIRIT. Back, Shepherds, back, enough your play, Till next sun-shine holiday; Here be without duck or nod Other trippings to be trod Of lighter toes, and such court guise 960. Here be without duck or nod] "Here are." By duck or nod, we are to understand the affectations of obeisance. So in K. Richard III. a. i. s. 3. 960 "ledge in dancing." And Drayton, Polyolb. s. vi. Those delicater dames so trippingly to tread. the Midsummer Night's Duck with French nods and apish Dream, Oberon orders his fairies courtesy. Again, in Lear, a. ii. s. 2. And Timon of Athens, "The And let the labouring bark climb T. Warton. Come and trip it as you go Where see the Notes. Compare are mine: every body will "affirm it, that hath anie know to dance after his ditty trippingly, a. ii. s. 5. But to trip seems to have been the proper pace of a fairy. As above, v. 118. Trip the pert faeries and the dapper And at a Vacation Exercise, v. 62. With the mincing Dryades On the lawns, and on the leas. 965 This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother. Noble Lord, and Lady bright, I have brought ye new delight, Their faith, their patience, and their truth, 964. With the mincing Dryades] So Drayton, of the Lancashire lasses, Polyolb. s. xxvii. vol. iii. p. 1183. 1970 Shepherds they weren of the best, And lived in lowly leas. Shakespeare, Tempest, act iv. s. 3. -Ye so mincingly that tread. Ceres, most bounteous Lady, thy Of wheat, rye, barley, fetches, oats, and pease. hence be understood. Now Shepherds lay their winter weeds away, And in neat jackets minsen on the plain. Jonson and Shakespeare use the word in the same sense. T. War ton. 964. Isa. iii. 16. The daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks, and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, or tripping nicely as in the margin of the Bible. Richard son. 965. -on the leas.] An old word for pastures or corn-fields. Spenser, Shepherd's Calendar, July. -her fallow leas The darnel, hemlock, and rank fu- 971. Their faith, their patience,] The title to this song in the Manuscript is only 2 Song: and here he had written at first patience, and then temperance, and then patience again; and this latter is the better, because of intemperance following. 973. With a crown of deathless praise,] At first he had written, To a crown of deathless bays. |