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This fayd, with gushing teares eftfoones fhe plyes the one

and other,

Till both did fhew themselves at length Sonnes worthy fuch a

Mother:

And with thofe hands, thofe altred hands, that lately threatned

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NOT E S.

VOLUME I.

Page 2.

Wring her white hands, &c.

Thus Johnfon. Yet Vane could tell what ills from Beauty spring;
And Sedley curs'd the form that pleas'd the King.
Vanity of Hum. Wish.

See likewife page 67, where Rofamond has the fame reflection.

Page 4. Thefe lines of Fletcher are a paraphrase, or rather translation from Boethius. The whole defcription is forcible: fome of the circumftances perhaps are heightened too much; but it is the fault of this writer' to indulge himself in every aggravation that Poetry allows, and to stretch his prerogative of " quidlibet audendi" to the utmost. This subject, versified in a very inferior style, occurs in his Poetical Mifcellanies, p. 79, subjoined to the P. Inland.-For the effects of mufic on the Infernal Regions it may be almost impertinent to refer the reader to the ftory of Orpheus, 4 Georg. Virgil; and the very masterly introduction of it by Pope in his Ode on St. Cecilia's Day. The fame effect is reprefented by Horace as produced by the harps of Sappho and Alcæus, 2 Lib. 13 Od. 33. See alfo his Ode to Mercury, 3 Lib. 11 Od. 15. &c. See likewife Milton's P. Loft, 2 B. 546. 355

Page 6. This defcription was immediately taken from Spenser's Bower of Blifs, F. Queen. 11 B. 12 Canto; upon ideal Paradifes of the kind, the best Poets in almost all ages and nations have lavished their defcriptive powers. Homer has his Gardens of Alcinous, and Virgil his Elyfium, Ariofto his Ifland of Alcina, and Taffo his Garden of Armida, Camoens his Garden of Venus, Marino his Gardens of Adonis, and lastly, Du Bartas and

K 3

Milton

Milton their Gardens of Eden.

Those who wifh for minute and deferimi

native information on this fubject, are referred to Mickle's Differtation. See Lufiad, page 424.

Yet ftately portance, &C.

Thus Milton of Eve,

She Delia's felf

Page 7.

Page 8.

B 9. P. L. 389.

Comus, 297.

In gait furpafs'd, and Goddefs-like deport.
There port was more than human, as they stood.

The inner portch feem'd entrance to intice.

See Spenfer, St. LIII. LIV. 11 B. 12 Cant. Which fellified the roofe with painted colour.

A word in ufe amongst the Poets of that day. Drayton has it in his Legend of Matilda:

By him who strives to fellify her name.

Again in Drummond :

With roses here fhe ftellifyed the ground.

Son. 41.

Jetting Jacks. The word jetting feldom occurs applied to a perfon; it feems here to imply that restless and unfettled ftate peculiar to idleness. It is used by Quarles, describing the Haggard: he says, that the

Jets oft from perch to perch

Emb. 3 B.

Sylvefter in his tranflation of Du. Bartas, has borrowed many of Niccol's lines from this description, which he has printed with very flight alterations, and amongst other expreffions he applies this to Vice. It will be fufficient to refer to the passage, see Fol. Edit. 1641. Lond. p. 101. Jacks is a common expreffion denoting contempt with our older writers. Thus in the Mirror for Magiftrates we meet with

No golden churle, no elbow-vanting Jacke. We still say contemptuously, " a Jack in Office."

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P. 56.5.

A very expreffive epithet; it is used by Dyer in his truly claffical Poem, the Fleece, to denote the tremulous and fluctuating motion of the waves:

Till, rifing o'er the flickering wave, the Cape
Of Finesterre, &c.

4 B.

The concluding circumftances of this Piece are literally taken from Spenfer, whofe exquifite lines will not it is hoped, be confidered as unneceifary

here.

Eftfoors

Eftfoons they heard a most melodious found
Of all that mote delight a dainty ear,
Such as at once might not on living ground,
Save in this Paradife, be heard elsewhere:
Right hard it was for wight which did it hear,
To read what manner mufick that mote be;
For all that pleafing is to living ear,

Was there conforted in one harmony,

Birds, voices, inftruments, winds, waters, all agree.

The joyous birds, fhrouded in chearful shade,
Their notes unto the voice attemp'red sweet;
Th' angelical foft-trembling voices made
To th' inftruments divine refpondence meet:
The filver-founding inftruments did meet
With the base murmur of the waters fall:
The waters fall with difference discreet,
Now foft, now loud, unto the wind did call :
The gentle-warbling wind low answered to all.

LXX. LXXI.

P. 10. In the edition of Chrift's Victory, together with the Purple Ifland, in 1783, many unwarrantable liberties are taken with the text, nor is the least apology for the proceeding offered, or even the circumstance itself mentioned. In almost every page injuries are done to the fenfe, where improvements were intended. The republication feems to have originated from a Letter of Harvey's (fee Let. LI. 2 vol.), and to have been executed upon the ridiculous plan he there propofes. Now it is the indifpenfable duty of every Editor of an ancient poet, to exhibit the spelling of his author in the exact state in which he found it, (unless indeed in fuch words as are evidently mistakes of the prefs,) in order that the reader may trace the progress of orthography, together with that of Poetry. Where this practice is not observed, a republication is not merely imperfect but dangerous, as it leads to an infinity of mistakes, and can answer no poffible end but that of multiplying the number of our books without adding to the fources of our information. Whoever therefore takes up the edition alluded to for the purposes of enjoying the poetry, making an extract, or a reference, can never be fafe as to the authenticity of a fingle ftanza. A neat republication of all Giles and Phineas Fletcher's Poetry from the old editions faithfully reprinted, is much wanted.

Elenging joyfull day.

G. Fletcher has a fimilar term in the fame Poem. C 1. 41 Stan.

As when the cheerfull funne elamping wide.

It is in vain to fearch for either of thefe expreffions in the Modern Edition, as they are there thus altered:

As when the cheerfull fun, light spreading wide.

K 4

37 St. C. 1. Mod. Ed.

Keeping

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