My raging smart, ne ought my flame relent, Short end of forrowes they therby did finde; So was their fortune good, though wicked were their minde. 44. "But wicked fortune mine, though minde be good,P 45. Nought like," (quoth fhee)" for that fame wretched boy Both love and lover, without hope of joy, May learned be by cyphers, or by Magicke might. reads " though mine be good." CHURCH. xi. 7: 9 in a fountain fhere.] "Shere" is tranfparent. Again, F. Q. iii. "She at last came to a fountaine fheare." Again, F. Q. iv. vi. "Pactolus with his waters here," which feems copied from Golding's "Ovid," 4to. 1587, Met. iv: 20: "The water was fo pure and heere." TODD. 46. "But if thou may with reafon yet repreffe To compas thy defire, and find that loved knight." 47. Her chearefull words much cheard the feeble spright Earely, the morrow next, before that day r His joyous face did to the world revele, Her love-ficke hart to other thoughts did fteale; from the holy berfe.] "From the holy berfe" is, I fuppofe, the fame as if he had faid, " from the holy herfal," which is used afterwards, F. Q. iii. xi. 18: "Sad herfal of his heavy stresse." So that boly berfe is here, the rehearsal of the prayers in the churchservice, at which Britomart is now defcribed as prefent. Herfe occurs in the Pastoral of November, as the burden of Colin's fong, "O heavie berfe," and, "O happie herfe," where E. K. interprets berfe," The folemne Obfequie in Funerals." T. WARTON. And that old Dame faid many an idle verse, Out of her daughters hart fond fancies to reverse. 49. Retourned home, the royall Infant fell And to the brim with Colt wood did it fill, And many drops of milk and blood through it did fpill. 50. Then, taking thrise three heares from off her head, And round about the Pots mouth bound the thread; Certein fad words with hollow voice and bace, Th' uneven nomber for this bufines is most fitt.” S for why no powre.] It has been ufual to print " for why" with a mark of interrogation after it; but wrongly, fince it merely means becaufe: Britomart fell into her former condition because he had no power to control herself. C. ↑ Th' uneven nomber for this bufines is moft fitt.] I cannot help citing a paffage from Petronius, which illuftrates these foolish and fuperftitious ceremonies :-" Illa de finu licium protulit varii coloris filis intortum, cervicemque vinxit meam : mox turbatum fputo pulverem medio fuftulit digito, frontemque repugnantis fignavit: hoc peracto carmine, ter me juffit exfpuere, terque lapillos conjicere in finum, quos ipfa præcantatos purpura involverat," &c. This filly cuftom of fpitting they ufed in order to avert what was odious or ill ominous. See the fcholiaft on Theoc. Idyll. vi. 39: Tpis eis èμòv ETTUσa xómov. Spenfer happily expreffes come thrice, and Jpit upon me, thrice. Yet he fhould not have faid face, but bofom: these wicked rhymes, however, must plead his excufe. UPTON. 51. That fayd, her rownd about she from her turnd, No ydle charmes fo lightly may remove: Ne ought it mote the noble Mayd avayle, Ne flake the fury of her cruell flame, But that shee ftill did waste, and still did wayle, Which long hath waited by the Stygian ftrond. She wift not how t'amend, nor how it to withftond. " and bart-burning brame.] Mr. Upton has here converted, in his Gloffary, brame into a substantive, which he interprets vexation; but I conceive, with Mr. Church, that brame is the adjective breem or breme, (which the rhyme has here altered,) and which Spenfer ufes, F. Q vii. vii. 40, for severe or sharp, as alfo in his "Shep. Cal." Feb. [vol. i. P. 23]. TODD. E. K. vol. i. p. 32, interprets, “breme," chill, bitter, but it also means violent, outrageous; and we have no doubt that Church and Todd were right in taking it as an epithet applied to "heart-burning." There is no fuch fubftantive as "brame or breme in English: the substantive is breemness. C. CANTO III. Merlin bewrayes to Britomart I. WOST facred fyre, that burneft mightily sky, And thence pourd into men, call Love! which men Not that fame, which doth base affections move Whence spring all noble deedes and never dying fame: 2. Well did Antiquity a God thee deeme, That over mortall mindes haft fo great might, To order them as beft to thee doth feeme, And all their actions to direct aright: The fatall purpose of divine forefight Thou doeft effect in deftined defcents, Through deepe impreffion of thy fecret might, Which the late world admyres for wondrous moniments. |