game

The griefly wafferman, that 'makes his
The flying fhips with fwiftnes to purfew;
The horrible fea-fatyre, that doth fhew
His fearefull face in time of greatest storme;
Huge ziffius, whom mariners efchew

No leffe then rockes, as travellers informe; And greedy rofmarines with visages deforme :

XXV.

All these, and thoufand thoufands many more, And more deformed monfters thousand fold,

XXIV. 3. The griefly wafferman, &c.] Waffernix, dæmon aquaticus. Wacht. See Gefner, p. 439, &c." Eft inter beluas marinas bomo marinus, eft et Triton, &c." and p. 1000. "Tritonem Germani vocare poterant ein wafferman, ein sceman, i. e. aquatilem vel marinum hominem." UPTON.

XXIV. 5. The horrible fea-fatyre,] See Gefner, p. 1001. "Pan, vel Satyrus marinus." UPTON.

XXIV. 7. Huge ziffius.] Dr. Jortin fancies that the poet meant Xiphias, which, Mr. Church adds, is the Sword-fifh. But the huge Xiphias, fuppofing Spenfer to have intended this fpelling, is a very different fish from the common fword-fish, which is so named from a long blade of an horned substance proceeding from his upper jaw, with which he kills his prey. See the Catalogue of Oppian's Fishes, already cited. The huge Ziffius is thus defcribed, Olai Magni Epit. L. xxi. C. x. " Eft enim Xiphias animal nulli alteri fimile, nifi in aliqua proportione ceti. Caput habet horridum, ut bubo: os profundum valde, veluti barathrum immenfum, quo terret et fugat infpicientes: oculos horribiles, dorfum cuneatum, vel ad gladii formam elevatum, roftrum mucronatum. TODD.

XXIV. 9. And greedy rofmarines] The rofmarine is denominated alfo by Olaus Magnus the Norwegian mors. See 'Olai Magni Epit. L. xxi. C. xix. " Rofmari itaque hi pifces, five morf dicuntur, caput habentes bovinæ figuræ, hirfutam pellem, pilofque fpiffitudine veluti culmos vel calamos frumenti, late diffluentes. Dentibus fefe ad rupium cacumina ufque tanquam per fcalas elevant, ut rorulento dulcis aquæ gramine vescantur, &c." TODD.

With dreadfull noife and hollow rombling

rore

Came rushing, in the fomy waves enrold, Which feem'd to fly for feare them to behold:

Ne wonder, if thefe did the Knight appall; For all that here on earth we dreadfull hold, Be but as bugs to fearen babes withall, Compared to the creatures in the feas entráll.

XXVI.

"Feare nought," then faide the Palmer well aviz'd,

"For these fame monfters are not thefe in

deed,

But are into these feare full fhapes difguiz'd By that fame wicked Witch, to worke us dreed,

And draw from on this iourney to proceed." Tho, lifting up his vertuous staffe on hye,

He fmote the fea, which calmed was with speed,

And all that dreadfull armie faft gan flye Into great Tethys bofome, where they hidden lye.

XXV. 8. Be but as bugs to fearen babes] The like expreffion occurs in F. Q. iii. iv. 15. And in F. Q. ii. iii. 20, where fee the note. TODD.

XXVI. 4. By that fame wicked Witch,] Acrafia. CHURCH. XXVI. 5. And draw from on this iourney to proceed.] And to draw us from proceeding on this journey; a Grecifin, from to proceed, anò rỡ goßra. See alfo ft. 64. UPTON.

XXVII.

Quit from that danger forth their course they kept;

And as they went they heard a ruefull cry
Of one that wayld and pittifully wept,
That through the fea th' refounding plaints
did fly:

At laft they in an Island did efpy

A feemely Maiden, fitting by the shore, That with great forrow and fad agony Seemed fome great misfortune to deplore, And lowd to them for fuccour called evermore.

XXVIII.

Which Guyon hearing, ftreight his Palmer bad
To ftere the bote towards that dolefull Mayd,
That he might know and ease her forrow fad:
Who, him avizing better, to him fayd;
"Faire Sir, be not displeasd if disobayd:
For ill it were to hearken to her cry;
For the is inly nothing ill apayd;
But onely womanish fine forgery,

XXVII. 4. That through the fea th' refounding &c.] Every edition, except both the poet's own, read "That through the fea refounding &c." Spenfer's two editions read "the refounding &c." Mr. Upton therefore, in his note, agrees to the elifion which I have admitted; and adds that, though he had followed the firft folio in rejecting the, he questioned its authority in this place, and wished that he had printed it other wife. TODD.

XXVIII. 7. For fhe is inly nothing ill apayd ;] So Chaucer, in the Merchants Tale:

I pray you that you be not ill apaid:" That is, diffutisfied., UPTON.

Your ftubborne hart t'affect with fraile infir

mity:

XXIX.

hath inclind

"To which when she your courage
Through foolish pitty, then her guilefull bayt
She will embofome deeper in your mind,
And for ruine at the laft awayt."

your

The Knight was ruled, and the Boteman ftrayt

Held on his courfe with ftayed ftedfastneffe, Ne ever fhroncke, ne ever fought to bayt His tyred armes for toylefome wearinesse ; But with his oares did fweepe the watry wilder

neffe.

XXX.

And now they nigh approched to the sted Whereas thofe Mermayds dwelt: It was a ftill

And calmy bay, on th' one fide fheltered
With the brode fhadow of an hoarie hill;
On th' other fide an high rocke toured still,
That twixt them both a pleafaunt port they
made,

And did like an halfe theatre fulfill:

XXIX. 7.

ne ever fought to bayt

His tyred armes] To bayt here fignifies to reft, So Milton ufes the word, Par. L. B. xii. 1. And Mr. Richardfon obferves, in a note on that paffage, that a hawk is faid to bate when he stoops in the midft of his flight. Bate, Fr. batre, s'abatre, to ftoop. CHURCH..

XXX. 7. And did like an halfe theatre fulfill:] That is,

There thofe five Sifters had continuall trade, And ufd to bath themselves in that deceiptfull fhade.

XXXI.

They were faire Ladies, till they fondly ftriv'd With th' Heliconian Maides for maystery; Of whom they over-comen were depriv'd

And did fulfill, or compleat, the whole, like to an amphitheatre. This is taken from the famous bay of Naples, described by Virgil, Æn. i. 163. imitated by Taffo, C. xv. 42. Fulfill is not to be altered, but explained. Job xxxix. 2. "Canft thou number the months that they fulfill?" i. e. compleat. UPTON.

XXXI. 1. They were faire Ladies, &c.] It is plain by this and by what follows, that Spenfer defigned here to defcribe the Mermaids as Sirens. He has done it contrary to mythology: for the Sirens were not part women and part fishes, as Spenfer and other moderns have imagined, but part women and part birds. They were the daughters of one of the Mufes, as fome relate. We learn from the emperor Julian that they contended with the Muses, but that the Mufes overcame them, took their wings away, and adorned themselves with them as with trophies, and in token of their victory, Epift. xli. JORTIN.

By the Sirens are imaged fenfual pleafures; hence Spenfer makes their number five: but the poets and mythologists as to their number vary. I refer the curious reader to the Schol. on Hom. Od. . ver. 39; to Hyginus in Præfat. Ex Acheloo et Melpomene Sirenes, &c. and Fab. cxli; to Natalis Comes, Lib. vii. Cap. xiii; and to Barnes, Eurip. Helen. ver. 166. But fhould you ask, why did not Spenfer follow rather the ancient poets and mythologifts, than the moderns in making them Mermaids? My answer is, Spenfer has a mythology of his own: nor would he leave his brethren the romance-writers, where merely authority is to be put against authority. Boccace has given a fanction to this defcription, Geneal. Deorum, Lib. vii. Cap. 20. Let me add our old poets, as Gower, Fol. x. 2, and Chaucer, Rom. of the Rofe, ver. 680. Voffius has followed it too, Sirenes dicebantur tria marina monstra, quorum unumquodque, ut Horatii verbis utar, Definit in pifcem mulier formofa fuperne." See Voffius, Etymolog. in V. Sirenes.

66

UPTON.