But Hall perhaps would have met with greater regard from his readers, had he not relinquished or ridiculed the fpecies of writing, however fantastic and extravagant, with which he found his age infected. I fuppofe Hall's Satires acquired as little fuccefs and applause, in the age of queen Elizabeth, as a poem written with the manners of the FAERIE QUEENE would gain in our own, MAHOUND, or Mahomet, feems to have been antiently a character on our ftage, when nothing was. fashionable but the legendary ftories of the Saracens. Thus Skelton; Like MAHOUND in a play, No man dare him withfaye Thus alfo Stowe. "And in a ftage-plaie the people know right well, that he which playeth the foudaine, &c." The fouldan of Syria being another faracen character, ufual on our stage. B. vi. c. vii, f. xlvii. Candle-light which dealt A doubtfull sense of things, not so well seen as felt, After this manner Milton, Pag. 158. edit. 1736. + Annals. 459. And G. g. 2 And through the PALBABLE OBSCURE find out But the phrase is founded on the following expreffion of fcripture: " And the lord faid unto Mofes, ftretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be "darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness "which may be FELT." It is rendered by the feptuagint, nλaplov ond*. The like expreffion occurs in Hobbes: To this PALPABLE DARKNESSE Į might add, the ambiguous obfcurity of expreffion "more than is perfectly conceived ‡.” B. vi. c. viii. f. xxi. All fitting careleffe on the fcarner's foole. We meet with fomething like this, in our old metrical verfion of the firft pfalm. Nor fate in fcorner's chair. B. vi. c, x. f. vi. And in their tops the foaring hawke did towre, This is faid in honour of hawking, which, as I before hinted, was a very fashionable and courtly diver *Par. Loft. b. 2. v. 406. † C. 10. v. 21. fion in Spenfer's time. And for the fame reason, and fomewhat after the fame manner, he particularifes the falcon, in the speech of the genius of Verulam. Where my high steeples whilome used to stand, B. xi. c. xii. f. xvii. A little maid, the which ye CHILDED tho. CHILDING is used in Chaucer for conceiving, viz. Unknowing hym, CHYLDING by miracle". Junius obferves, that in Wicliff's bible, we frequently find," And Eve CHILDED, &c." In Shakespeare CHILDED is used for begot. Ed. When that which makes me bend, makes the king bow; He CHILDED, as I father'd f. In Lydgate it is to bring forth, as before us. And in this while, with her eyen meke She CHYLDED hath . Ball. Lady, v. 133. + King Lear, act. 3. f. 5. LYFE of our Lady. R. Redman, 1531. 4to. chap. 27. The title of which is most extraordinary; “ How Joseph went to fetch a myd "wyfe to our Lady.” B. vi. c. xxiii. &c. His defcription of the BLATANT BEAST, under which is fhadowed Scandal or Calumny, attacking all ranks of life, and making havock in cities, courts, monafteries, and cottages, is exactly fimilar to this. paffage in the Lingua of Erafmus: " Circumferat quifque oculos fuos, per domos privatas, per collegia, per "mmafteria, per aulas principum, per civitates, per regna; et compendio difcet, quantam ubique pestem ingerat 66 "LINGUA CALUMNIATRIX B. vii. c. vii. f. x. That richer feems than any TAPESTRY, In the age of the poet, tapestry was the moft fashionable furniture of halls and ftate-rooms; as it was when Milton wrote his Comus, who mentions, tapestry as a circumstance of grandeur, Courtefie, Which oft is fooner found in lowly sheds, With fmoaky rafters, than in TAP'STRY HALLS As the general fashion of furnishing halls, and grand apartments, is at present entirely different from Bafiliæ, apud Froben. 1526. pag. 220. this this, the reader paffes over the expreffion, TAPES TRY-HALLS, without feeling any striking idea of the thing conveyed to him, because the object from whence it is drawn, does not at prefent commonly exift: and we may observe, from this paffage, how much of their force and propriety both expreffions and descriptions must neceffarily lofe, when the objects, or customs, or manners, to which they allude, are difufed, and forgotten. There is another reference to tapestry in Milton, which is not immediately felt and understood by a modern reader: Auditurque chelys SUSPENSA TAPETIA circum, In Hentznerus†, may be seen some curious defcriptions of rich tapestry in queen Elizabeth's palaces. Bacon, defcribing a cabinet, or closet, at the end of a gallery, which is to be furnished and finished in the moft delicate tafte, directs, that it be "daintily “ paved ‡, RICHLY HANGED, glazed with crystal"line glaffe, a rich cupola in the midft, and all * B. 1. El. 6. Itinerarium 1568. ut fupra. In this article they were extremely curious. In a description of the royal palace at Woodstock, written 1622, it it faid, "The pre"fence and privie chamber of this palace are paved with alabafter." Hiftory of Allchefer, added to Kennet's Paroch. Antiq. pag. 694. "other |
