And deck the world,) adorne these verses base :
Not that these few lines can in them comprise
Those glorious ornaments of hevenly grace,
Wherewith ye triumph over feeble eyes
And in fubdued harts do tyranyfe;

(For thereunto doth need a golden quill And filver leaves, them rightly to devife ;) But to make humble prefent of good will: Which, whenas timely meanes it purchase may, In ampler wife itfelfe will forth display.

E. S.

* To all the gratious and beautifull Ladies in the

Court.

THE Chian Peincter, when he was requir'd
To pourtraict Venus in her perfect hew;
To make his worke more abfolute, defir'd
Of all the faireft Maides to have the vew.
Much more me needs, (to draw the femblant

• Henry Lok thus clofes his collection of Sonnets, fubjoined to his Ecclefiaftes paruphrased, 1597, with an address To the Honorable Ladies and Gentlewomen, attendants in the Court; and another to his friends in general. TODD.

To fharpe my fence with fundry Beauties

vew,

And steale from each some part of ornament. If all the world to feeke I overwent,

A fairer crew yet no where could I fee

Then that brave Court doth to mine eie

A

prefent ;

That the world's pride feemes gathered there

to bee.

Of each a part I ftole by cunning thefte:

Forgive it me, faire Dames, fith leffe yel

not lefte.

ye have

Ver. 7. To sharpe my fence &c.] Hence perhaps Milton's expreffion, "Sharpen'd his vifual ray," Par. L. B. iii. 620.

TODD.

1

10

THE FIRST BOOK OF

THE FAERIE QUEENE

CONTAYNING

THE LEGEND OF THE KNIGHT OF THE RED CROSSE, OR OF HOLINESSE.

LO! I, the man whofe Mufe whylome did

maike,

'i

I. 1. Lo! I, the man &c.] Spénfer opens his poem, and addreffes his reader, after the manner of Virgil; if thofe are Virgil's verfes prefixed to the Æneid: He feems to have thought them (if not genuine) yet deferving his imitation; and of the fame opinion feems Milton, who thus begins his Paradife Regained. I know not whether it be worth mentioning, that the learned Sandys, who tranflated the first book of Virgil, plainly imitates our poet,

"Lo I, who whilom foftly-warbling plaid

"On baten reeds

It might be more worth our while to pay fome regard to our poet's expreffions. He fays, Am now enforft,-Who enforst him? The Mufe, whofe facred raptures and dictates he must neceffarily follow, eos xai xatexóμeros, as Plato in Io expreffes it? or his friend Sir Philip Sidney, whofe request was a command and an enforcement? One of Sir Philip Sidney's learning and character could easily prevail on fo free a genius as Spenfer's, to try his talents in Epick poetry, and to celebrate either directly, or in fome covert manner, their renowmed queen,

and her no lefs renowmed courtiers: and to this gentle enforcement allude the verfes prefixed to the Faerie Queene by his friend W. L.

"So Spenfer was by Sidney's fpeaches wonne

"To blaze her fame

Having thus changed his oaten pipe for the trumpet's fterner ftrain, he purposes to fing of "knights and ladies gentle deeds." This is expreffed after Ariofto, Canto 1. St. 1.

"Le donne, i cavalier, l' arme, gli amori,

"Le cortefie, l'audaci imprefe, io canto." UPTON. VOL. II.

B

As time her taught, in lowly fhepheards weeds,
Am now enforst, a farre unfitter taske,
For trumpets fterne to chaunge mine oaten
reeds,

And fing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds; Whofe praises having flept in filence long, Me, all too meane, the facred Mufe areeds To blazon broade emongst her learned throng: Fierce warres and faithful loves fhall moralize my fong.

II.

Help then, O holy virgin, chiefe of nyne,

I. 2: in lowly fhepheards weeds,] Spenfer, about the age of 26, published his Shepheards Calender in 4to. 1579;. eleven years before the firft publication of the Faerie Queene. CHURCH.

I. 9. Shall moralize my fong.] Mr. Warton has obferved that, by the word moralize, Spenfer declares his design of writing an allegorical poem, as if he had faid; "though my fubject confift of fierce warres and faithful loves, yet under thefe fhall be couched moral doctrine, and the precepts of virtue;" and that the poet ftyles his Faerie Queene a morall lay in his Colin Clouts come home again, v. 86.

Perhaps Spenfer adopted the expreffion from the old poets. Thus in The Maydens Croffe rewe, bl. 1. 4to. Imp. by Rob., Wyer, without date, ftanza the firft:

II. 1.

"Janus Byfrons, amyddes January,

"With his frosty berde, and thycke loches rore,

"Began the colde calendas of February.

"Right than I thought, how longe me before,

"My mayfter Lydgate dyd applye him fore

"Fables to fayne vnto moralyte,

"To fhew the euyll theyr iniquyte." Tonp.

chiefe of nyne,] This invocation is addreffed to Clio. So, in vii. vii. 1, "Thou greater Mufe." See too F. Q. iii. iii. 4, and vii. vi. 37. CHURCH.

Compare alfo F. Q. iv. ii. 10, and Statius, Theb. x. 630.

"Memor incipe, Clio,

"Sæcula te quoniam penes, et digefta vetuftas." UPTON.

Thy weaker novice to perform thy will
Lay forth out of thine everlafting foryne
The antique rolles, which there lye hidden ftill,
Of Faerie Knights, and fayreft Tanaquill
Whom that moft noble Briton Prince fo long
Sought through the world, and fuffered fo
much ill,

That I muft rue his undeferved wrong: O, helpe thou my weake wit, and sharpen my dull tong!

III.

And thou, moft dreaded impe of highest Iove,
Faire Venus fonne, that with thy cruell dart
At that good Knight fo cunningly didft rove,
That glorious fire it kindled in his hart;
Lay now thy deadly heben bowe apart,
And, with thy mother mylde, come to mine
ayde;

Come, both; and with you bring triumphant

Mart,

II. 3.

thine everlasting fcryne] An escritore,

desk, from the Latin fcrinium. "Scryn, a fhrine; anciently a cheft or cofer:" Verftegan. UPTON.

II. 7. and fuffered fo much ill,] The poet fhould have faid "and FOR WHOм he suffered fo much ill."

T. WARTON." III. 5. Lay now thy deadly heben bowe apart,] Tibullus, ad、 dreffing himself to Cupid, ii. i. 81.

"Sancte, veni dapibus feftis; fed pone fagittas,
"Et procul ardentes hinc procul abde faces."

JORTIN.

III. 7. Come, both; and with you bring &c.] This formulary