I BID.

There creature never past,

That back returned without heavenly grace.
Virgil. Æn. VI. 128.

Sed revocare gradum, fuperafque evadere ad auras,
Hoc opus, bic labor eft. Pauci quos æquus amavit
Jupiter, aut ardens evexit ad æthera virtus,
Dis geniti potuere.

STANZ. XXXIV.

Before the threshold, dreadful Cerberus
His three deformed heads did lay along,
Curled with thousand adders venemous.
And lilled forth his bloody flaming tongue :
At them he 'gan to rear his bristles strong,
And felly gnarre, until Day's enemy

Did him appease; then down his taile he hong,
And fuffer'd them to paffen quietly:

For she in hell and heaven had power equally.

From Virgil, Æn. VI. 417.

Cerberus hæc ingens latratu regna trifauci
Perfonat adverfo recubans inmanis in antro.
Cui vates, horrere videns jam colla colubris,
Melle foporatam et medicatis frugibus offam
Objicit. Ille fame rabida tria guttura pandens
G 4

Corripit

Corripit objectam, atque inmania terga refolvit
Fufus bumi, totoque ingens extenditur antro.

The last line is alfo taken from Virgil, Æn. VI. 247,
Hecaten cæloque ereboque potentem.

According to Hefiod, Cerberus was very civil to all who came in, but would not let them go out again. oy. 770.

Hippolytus a jolly huntsman was,

That wont in chariot chace the foaming boar. They did not ufe to go a hunting in chariots.

STAN Z. XXXVIII.

Speaking of the death of Hippolytus:

From furging gulf two monfters freight were brought,

With dread whereof his chafing steeds aghaft Both chariot fwift and huntsman overcaft, &c.

The ancient authors who relate this ftory, fay that it was one monfter, not two, that Neptune fent against Hippolytus. So fay Euripides, Ovid, Seneca Trag. Hyginus, Servius, Plutarch De Fortuna Rom. pag. 314. and others. It is not unlikely that our Poet had Virgil in view, En. VII. 780.

8

Juvenem

Juvenem monftris pavidi effudere marinis.

If Spenfer took his two monfters from this paffage, he had not fufficient authority for it. Monftra in Virgil may mean, first, a noise like thunder, and then a very high fea, which landed a monster; all which monftra frightened the horses of Hippolytus. Or Virgil might ufe monftris for monftro, as he has elsewhere. Natalis Comes, and Lloyd in his Dictionary, fay, that the horfes of Hippolytus were frightened, not by one monster, but by the Phoca. They produce no authorities for it; and I fufpect that they had none to produce.

His cruel step-dame seeing what was done,
Her wicked days with wretched knife did end ;
In death avowing th' innocence of her fon.
Which hearing, his rafh fire began to rend
His hair, and hafty tongue that did offend :
Who gathering up the relicks of his smart
By Dian's means, who was Hippolyt's friend,
Them brought to Æfculape, that by his art
Did heal them all again, and joyned every part.

Such wondrous science in man's wit to reign
When Jove aviz'd, that could the dead revive,
And Fates expired could renew again;
Of endless life he might him not deprive,

But

But unto hell did thruft him down alive,
With flashing thunderbold ywounded fore:
Where long remaining, he did always ftrive
Himself with falves to health for to restore,
And flake the heavenly fire, that raged evermore.
From Virgil, Æn. VII. 765.

Namq; ferunt fama Hippolytum, poftquam arte noverca
Occiderit, patriafque explerit fanguine pænas,

Turbatis diftratus equis, ad fidera rurfus

Etherea et fuperas cæli veniffe fub auras,
Pæoniis revocatum herbis, et amore Diana.
Tum pater omnipotens, aliquem indignatus ab umbris
Mortalem infernis ad lumina furgere vitæ,
Ipfe repertorem medicine talis et artis

Fulmine Phabigenam Stygias detrufit ad undas.

What Spenfer fays of Æfculapius endeavouring to heal his wounds, is his own, I believe, and is finely imagined. He fays Phædra killed herself with wretched knife. In Seneca's Hippolytus, Phædra ftabs herself with a fword. The more common opinion is that the hanged herself. Obferve this expreffion,

began to rend

His hair, and hafty tongue.

Did he rend his tongue? No; but the paffage muft be supplied thus, or in fome fuch manner-began to rend his hair, and (to blame, to curfe) his tongue, &c.

If

If any one cenfure this expreffion of Spenfer's, he must condemn all the ancients, in whofe writings this fort of ellipfis is frequent. See Davies on Cicero De Nat. Deor. I. 17. on the Epitome of Lactantius, p. 199. and the Commentators on St. Paul to Timothy, I. iv. 3.

There was that great proud king of Babylon, &c. See Daniel iii.

I BID.

And proud Antiochus, the which advaunc'd His curfed hand 'gainst God, and on his altars daunc'd.

From Maccabees i. I.

STANZ.

XLVIII.

And them long time before great Nimrod was,
Who first the world with fword and fire warraid;
And after him, old Ninus far did pass

In princely pomp, of all the world obey'd.
There also was that mighty Monarch laid
Low under all,

We are to understand by this, that Nimrod and
Ninus were there, as well as Crofus, Antiochus, &c.
But it is carelessly exprefs'd.

STANZ.