My raging smart, ne ought my flame relent,
But rather doth my helpeleffe griefe augment;
For they, how ever shamefull and unkinde,°
Yet did poffeffe their horrible intent:

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
Can have no ende nor hope of my defire,
But feed on fhadowes whiles I die for food,
And like a fhadow wexe, whiles with entire
Affection I doe languish and expire.
I, fonder then Cephisus foolish chyld,
Who, having vewed in a fountaine shere¶
His face, was with the love thereof beguyld;
I, fonder, love a fhade, the body far exyld."

45.

Nought like," (quoth fhee)" for that fame wretched boy
Was of him felfe the ydle Paramoure,

Both love and lover, without hope of joy,
For which he faded to a watry flowre:
But better fortune thine, and better howre,
Which lov'ft the fhadow of a warlike knight;
No shadow but a body hath in powre:
That body, wherefoever that it light,

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
The growing evill, ere it ftrength have gott,
And thee abandond wholy do poffeffe,
Against it strongly strive, and yield thee nott
Til thou in open fielde adowne be fmott:
But if the paffion mayfter thy fraile might,
So that needs love or death must bee thy lott,
Then, I avow to thee, by wrong or right

To compas thy defire, and find that loved knight."

47.

Her chearefull words much cheard the feeble spright
Of the ficke virgin, that her downe she layd
In her warme bed to fleepe, if that she might;
And the old-woman carefully displayd
The clothes about her round with busy ayd;
So that at laft a litle creeping fleepe
Surprifd her fence: Shee, therewith well apayd,
The dronken lamp down in the oyl did steepe,
And fett her by to watch, and fett her by to weepe.
48.

Earely, the morrow next, before that day

r

His joyous face did to the world revele,
They both uprofe and tooke their ready way
Unto the Church, their praiers to appele
With great devotion, and with little zele:
For the faire Damzel from the holy herfe1

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
Into her former fitt; for why no powres
Nor guidaunce of herselfe in her did dwell:
But th' aged Nourfe, her calling to her bowre,
Had gathered Rew, and Savine, and the flowre
Of Camphora, and Calamint, and Dill;
All which fhe in a earthen Pot did poure,

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,
Them trebly breaded in a threefold lace,

And round about the Pots mouth bound the thread;
And, after having whispered a space

Certein fad words with hollow voice and bace,
Shee to the virgin fayd, thrife fayd fhe itt;
"Come, daughter, come; come, fpit upon my face;
Spitt thrise upon me, thrise upon me spitt;

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,
She turned her contrary to the Sunne;
Thrife she her turnd contrary, and returnd
All contrary; for fhe the right did shunne;
And ever what she did was ftreight undonne.
So thought the to undoe her daughter's love;
But love, that is in gentle brest begonne,

No ydle charmes fo lightly may remove:
That well can witnesse who by tryall it does prove.
52.

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,
That, through long languour and hart-burning brame,"
She shortly like a pyned ghost became

Which long hath waited by the Stygian ftrond.
That when old Glauce faw, for feare least blame
Of her miscarriage fhould in her be fond,

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
The ftate of Arthegall;
And fhews the famous Progeny,
Which from them fpringen fhall.

I.

WOST facred fyre, that burneft mightily
In living brefts, ykindled first above
Emongst th' eternall spheres and lamping

sky,

And thence pourd into men,

call Love!

which men

Not that fame, which doth base affections move
In brutish mindes, and filthy luft inflame,
But that sweete fit that doth true beautie love,
And chofeth vertue for his dearest Dame,

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,
And stirredft up th' Heroes high intents,

Which the late world admyres for wondrous moniments.