Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

The wakefull dogs did never ceafe to bay;"
As giving warning of th' unwonted found,
With which her yron wheeles did them affray,
And her dark griefly looke them much difmay :"
The meffenger of death, the ghaftly owle,
With drery skriekes did also her bewray;
And hungry wolves continually did howle
At her abhorred face, fo filthy and fo fowle.

31.

Thence turning backe in filence fofte they stole,
And brought the heavy corfe with easy pace
To yawning gulfe of deepe Avernus hole.
By that fame hole an entraunce, darke and bace,
With smoake and fulphur hiding all the place,
Descends to hell: there creature never paft,
That backe retourned without heavenly grace;

But dreadfull Furies, which their chaines have brast, And damned sprights fent forth to make ill men aghast.

32.

By that fame way the direfull dames doe drive
Their mournefull charett, fild with rusty blood,
And downe to Plutoes house are come bilive :

The wakefull dogs did never cease to bay.] This alludes to an old fuperftitious belief, that dogs are quick-fighted, and quick-fcented, at the approach of gods or goddeffes. See Hom. "Odyff.” w'. 162.

UPTON.

And her darke griefly looke them much difmay.] Did is to be understood before" them," and we have it in the previous line, " did them affray." Church urges that "difmay" is here used for difmayd, and cites two paffages, one from the F. Q. iii. x. 54; and the other from Spenfer's "Daphnaida," which he thinks fupports his view; but the fact is that in both inftances "difmay" is a fubftantive, not a verb; and "eyes" in the one cafe and "looks" in the other are, when properly printed, the Saxon genitive ;-" and ftaring eyes' difmay "-" and difmal looks' difmay." C.

S

are come bilive.] "Bilive," or belive, is quickly. Chaucer has it blive; and there is perhaps fome connection between blive and blithe, one meaning quickly, and the other sprightly. Nevertheless, the etymology of the firft is ufually given as from be and live, and of the fecond from be and lithe. C.

Which paffing through, on every fide them stood
The trembling ghofts with fad amazed mood,
Chattring their iron teeth, and staring wide
With ftony eies; and all the hellish brood
Of feends infernall flockt on every fide,

To gaze on erthly wight that with the Night durft ride. 33.

They pas the bitter waves of Acheron,

Where many foules fit wailing woefully,
And come to fiery flood of Phlegeton,
Whereas the damned ghofts in torments fry,
And with sharp fhrilling shriekes doe bootleffe cry,
Curfing high Jove, the which them thither fent.
The house of endleffe paine is built thereby,
In which ten thousand forts of punishment
The curfed creatures doe eternally torment.
34.

Before the threshold dreadfull Cerberus
His three deformed heads did lay along,
Curled with thousand adders venemous;
And lilled forth his bloody flaming tong:
At them he gan to reare his briftles ftrong,
And felly gnarre, untill Dayes enemy

Did him appease; then downe his taile he hong,
And fuffered them to paffen quietly;

For fhe in hell and heaven had power equally.'

35.

There was Ixion turned on a wheele,

For daring tempt the Queene of heaven to fin;
And Sifyphus an huge round ftone did reele

bad power equally.] Upton makes it a doubt how Night appeased Cerberus, and cites Virgil and Dante, which really have no other application than as they relate to descents into hell. The only paffage of real fimilarity is that produced by Jortin, in reference to this line:— "Hecaten cæloque Ereboque potentem." Æn. vi. 247. C.

Against an hill, ne might from labour lin; There thrifty Tantalus hong by the chin; And Tityus fed a vultur on his maw; Typhoeus joynts were stretched on a gin; Thefeus condemnd to endlesse flouth by law; And fifty fifters water in leke veffels" draw.

36.

They all, beholding worldly wights in place,

Leave off their worke, unmindfull of their smart,
To gaze on them; who forth by them doe pace,
Till they be come unto the furthest part;
Where was a Cave ywrought by wondrous art,
Deepe, darke, uneafy, dolefull, comfortleffe,
In which fad Aefculapius far apart

Emprifond was in chaines remedileffe;
For that Hippolytus rent corfe he did redreffe.

37.

Hippolytus a jolly huntsman was,

That wont in charett chace the foming bore:
He all his Peeres in beauty did furpas;
But Ladies love as loffe of time forbore:
His wanton stepdame loved him the more;
But, when she saw her offred sweets refufd,
Her love fhe turnd to hate, and him before
His father fierce of treafon falfe accufd,
And with her gealous termes his open eares abufd:
38.

Who, all in rage, his Sea-god fyre befought

Some curfed vengeaunce on his fonne to caft.
From furging gulf two Monsters ftreight were brought;
With dread whereof his chacing steedes aghaft*

"And fifty fifters water in leke vessels.] That is, leaky; corrected from the errata of the first edition, which reads lete. See F. Q. vi. viii. 24. CHURCH. The fol. 1611 prints it leake. C.

bis chacing freedes aghaft.] A queftion was raised by Upton whe

Both charett swifte and huntsman overcast:
His goodly corps, on ragged cliffs yrent,
Was quite difmembred, and his members chast
Scattered on every mountaine as he went,
That of Hippolytus was lefte no moniment.

39.

His cruell step-dame, seeing what was donne,
Her wicked daies with wretched knife did end,
In death avowing th' innocence of her fonne.
Which hearing, his rash fyre began to rend
His heare, and hafty tong that did offend:
Tho, gathering up the reliques of his smart,
By Dianes meanes, who was Hippolyts frend,
Them brought to Aefculape, that by his art
Did heale them all againe, and joyned every part.

40.

Such wondrous fcience in mans witt to rain

When Jove avizd, that could the dead revive,
And fates expired could renew again,
Of endleffe life he might him not deprive,
But unto hell did thrust him downe alive,
With flashing thunderbolt ywounded fore:
Where, long remaining, he did alwaies strive
Himfelfe with falves to health for to reftore,'
And flake the heavenly fire that raged evermore.

[ocr errors]

ther "chacing" ought not to be chafing; as if "chacing" had been fpelt in the 4to. 1590 chafing: it became chafing afterwards, but the original spelling is "chacing." If it had been chafing, there might have been a doubt whether the long and ƒ had not been confounded by the old printer, as in "Timon of Athens," A. i. Sc. 1, where in all the folios "chafes" is misprinted chases: the corrected fol. 1632 makes it pretty certain that the poet's word there was "chafes," and not chases. In this case, "chacing" not having been spelt with an s, but with a c, no fuch difficulty can really arise. C.

y Himfelfe with falves to health for to restore.] Jortin makes an odd. blunder here, obferving, " what Spenser says of Æfculapius endeavouring to heal the wounds of Hippolytus, is his own, I believe, and is finely

41.

There auncient Night arriving did alight

From her nigh weary wayne, and in her armes
To Aesculapius brought the wounded knight:
Whome having softly difaraid of armes,
Tho gan to him discover all his harmes,
Befeeching him with prayer and with praise,
If either falves, or oyles, or herbes, or charmes,
A fordonne wight from dore of death mote raise,
He would at her request prolong her nephews daies.

42.

"Ah Dame," (qd. he,) " thou temptest me in vaine
To dare the thing, which daily yet I rew;

And the old cause of my continued paine
With like attempt to like end to renew.
Is not enough, that, thrust from heaven dew,
Here endlesse penaunce for one fault I pay,
But that redoubled crime with vengeaunce new
Thou biddeft me to eeke? Can Night defray

The wrath of thundring Jove, that rules both night and day?"

43.

"Not fo," (qd. fhe ;) "but, fith that heavens king
From hope of heaven hath thee excluded quight,
Why fearest thou, that canst not hope for thing;2
And feareft not that more thee hurten might,

imagined." Spenser does not say that Æfculapius endeavoured to heal the wounds of Hippolytus; but that at the inftance of Diana he "did heale them all againe :" it was his own injuries, inflicted by Jove's thunderbolt, that Æfculapius endeavoured to heal. Todd and others have, nevertheless, quoted Jortin's note, as if it were really a correct piece of criticifm. C.

[ocr errors]

Why feareft thou, that canst not hope for thing.] That is, why fhouldst thou fear, who haft nothing to hope for? Milton has borrowed this fentiment, and has judiciously put it into the mouth of Satan," Par. Loft," B. iv. 108.

"Then farewell, hope; and with hope farewell, fear!" CHURCH.

« AnteriorContinuar »