The wakefull dogs did never ceafe to bay;" 31. Thence turning backe in filence fofte they stole, 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 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 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, Before the threshold dreadfull Cerberus Did him appease; then downe his taile he hong, 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; 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, Emprifond was in chaines remedileffe; 37. Hippolytus a jolly huntsman was, That wont in charett chace the foming bore: Who, all in rage, his Sea-god fyre befought Some curfed vengeaunce on his fonne to caft. "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: 39. His cruell step-dame, seeing what was donne, 40. Such wondrous fcience in mans witt to rain When Jove avizd, that could the dead revive, 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 42. "Ah Dame," (qd. he,) " thou temptest me in vaine And the old cause of my continued paine The wrath of thundring Jove, that rules both night and day?" 43. "Not fo," (qd. fhe ;) "but, fith that heavens king 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. 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. |