THE FIFTH BOOKE OF THE FAERIE QUEENE CONTAYNING THE LEGEND OF ARTEGALL OR OF JUSTICE. I... So oft as I with ftate of present time As that, through long continuance of his course, Me feemes the world is runne quite out of fquare From the first point of his appointed fourse; And being once amiffe growes daily wourfe and wourfe: II. For from the golden age, that firft was named, It's now at earft become a ftonie one; II. 2. at earft] That is, at length. So the quarto and first folio read. So Chaucer, edit. Urr. p. 104. "And then at erst amongis 'hem thei faye." And men themselves, the which at first were framed Of earthly mould, and form'd of flesh and bone, Are now transformed into hardeft ftone; Such as behind their backs (fo backward bred) Were throwne by Pyrrha and Deucalione : And if then those may any worse be red, They into that ere long will be degendered. Let none then blame me, if, in discipline! Of vertue and of civill ufes lore, I do not forme them to the common line Of prefent dayes which are corrupted fore; The fecond and third folios, Hughes, and the edition of 1751, read " as earft." CHURCH. Mr. Upton and Tonfon's edition in 1758 have alfo admitted the genuine reading "at earft." Mr. Upton, however, interprets at earft AS FORMERLY, and refers to F. Q. vi, iii. 39. "Full loth-am I, quoth he, as now at earst :" That is, as now as formerly. See alfo Tyrwhitt's Gloff. Chaucer, in V. Erft, where At erft is interpreted At first, &c. TODD. II. 9. degendered.] This is Spenfer's own word, which Mr. Upton thus illuftrates: "From gender comes gendered: So from degender DEGENDERED, degeneratus." The fecond and third folios, however, and Hughes, and Church, read degenered. And Mr. Mafon, the author of a Supplement to Dr. Johnfon's Dictionary, has cited this paffage to thow that Spenfer introduced the word degenered into our language. But Mr. Mafon did not attend either to the ori ginal edition or to the firft folio. The fuppofed emendation degenered is in conformity to the French participle degeneré. TODD. |