And bound him fast; without his rod revers'd,
And backward mutters of dissevering power,
We cannot free the Lady that sits here

In stony fetters fix'd, and motionless :
Yet stay, be not disturb'd; now I bethink me,
Some other means I have which may be us❜d,

where the companions of Ulys.
ses are restored to their human
shapes. Metam. xiv. 300.

Percutimurque caput conversæ verbere virga,

Verbaque dicuntur dictis contraria

verbis.

This Sandys translates, "Her "wand reverst, &c." Transl. p. 462. edit. 1632. And in his very learned Notes he says, "As "Circe's rod, waved over their "heads from the right side to the "left, presents those false and "sinister persuasions to pleasure, "which so much deformes them: "so the reversion thereof, by dis

cipline and a view of their "owne deformitie, restores them "to their former beauties," p. 481. By backward mutters, the "verba dictis contraria verbis," we are to understand, that the charming words, or verses, at first used, were to be all repeated backwards, to destroy what had been done.

The most striking representation of the reversal of a charm that I remember, and Milton might here have partly had it in his eye, is in Spenser's description of the deliverance of Amoret, by Britomart, from the inchant ment of Busyrane, Faery Q. iii.

xii. 36.

And rising up, gan streight to overlooke

Those cursed leaves, his charmes back to reverse; &c.

820

The circumstance in the text, of the Brothers forgetting to seize and reverse the magician's rod, while by contrast it heightens the superior intelligence of the attendant Spirit, affords the opportunity of introducing the fiction of raising Sabrina; which, exclusive of its poetical ornaments, is recommended by a local propriety, and was peculiarly interesting to the audience, as the Severn is the famous river of the neighbourhood. T. Warton.

816. without his rod revers'd,] It was at first

without his art revers'd.

818. the Lady that sits here] In the Manuscript it was at first that remains, and is that

here sits.

821. Some other means I have which &c.] He had written at first There is another way that &c.

821. Doctor Johnson reprobates this long narration, as he styles it, about Sabrina; which, he says, "is of no use because it "is false, and therefore un"suitable to a good being." By the poetical reader, this fiction is considered as true. In common sense, the relator is not true: being, even of a good character, and why may not an imaginary deliver an imaginary tale? In poetry false narrations are often more useful than true. Something, and something preter

Which once of Melibous old I learnt,

The soothest shepherd that e'er pip'd on plains.
There is a gentle nymph not far from hence,

That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream,
Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure;

the river Sture; wherein Locrine shot with an arrow ends his life. But not so ends the fury of Guendolen, for Estrildis and her daughter Sabra she throws into a river; and to leave a monument of revenge, proclaims that the stream be thenceforth called after the damsel's name, which by length of time is changed now to Sabrina or Severn. This is the account given by Milton himself in the first book of his History of England: but here he takes a liberty very allowable to poets, (as Mr. Thyer expresses it,) and varies the original story of this event, in order to heighten the character introduce as the patroness and of Sabrina, whom he is about to

protector of chastity. See Spen-
ser's account of the same event,
in the Faery Queen, b. ii. cant.
10. st. 17, 18, 19.

But the sad virgin innocent of all,
Adown the rolling river she did pour,
Which of her name now Severn men
do call:

did fall.

826. Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure;] In the Manuscript it was at first a virgin goddess, then a virgin chaste, and at last a virgin pure. Locrine, king of the Britons, married Guendolen the daughter of Corineus, Duke of Cornwall: but in secret, for fear of Corineus, he loved Estrildis, a fair captive whom he had taken in a battle with Humber Such was the end that to disloyal love king of the Huns, and had by her a daughter equally fair, whose name was Sabra. But when once his fear was off by the death of Corineus, not content with secret enjoyment, divorcing Guendolen, he makes Estrildis now his queen. Guendolen all in rage departs into Cornwalland gathering an army of her father's friends and subjects, gives battle to her husband by

826. Sabrina's fabulous history may be seen in the Mirrour of Magistrates under the legend of the Lady Sabrine, in the sixth Song of Drayton's Polyolbion, the tenth canto and second book of Spenser's Faerie Queene, the third book of Albion's England, the first book of our author's History of England, in Hardyng's Chronicle, and in an old

Whilome she was the daughter of Locrine,
That had the sceptre from his father Brute.
She guiltless damsel flying the mad pursuit.
Of her enraged stepdame Guendolen,
Commended her fair innocence to the flood,
That stay'd her flight with his cross-flowing course.
The water nymphs that in the bottom play'd,
Held up their pearled wrists and took her in,

English Ballad on the subject. See note on Epitaph. Dam. v. 176. The part of the fable of Comus, which may be called the Disinchantment, is evidently founded on Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess. The moral of both dramas is the triumph of chastity. This in both is finally brought about by the same sort of machinery. Sabrina, a virgin and a king's daughter, was converted into a river-nymph, that her honour might be preserved inviolate. Still she preserves her maiden-gentleness; and every evening visits the cattle among her twilight meadows, to heal the mischiefs inflicted by elfish magic. For this she was praised by the shepherds.

-She can unlock

The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell,

If she be right invok'd in warbled song.

She protects virgins in distress. She is now solemnly called, to deliver a virgin imprisoned in the spell of a detestable sorcerer. She rises at the invocation, and leaving her car on an osiered rushy bank, hastens to help insnared chastity. She sprinkles on the breast of the captive maid, precious drops selected from her pure fountain. She touches thrice

830

the tip of the lady's finger and
thrice her ruby lip, with chaste
palms moist and cold; as also the
envenomed chair, smeared with
tenacious gums.
The charm is
dissolved: and the nymph de-
parts to the bower of Amphitrite.
But I am anticipating, by a ge-
neral exhibition, such particular
passages of Fletcher's play as
will hereafter be cited in their
proper places; and which, like
others already cited, will appear
to have been enriched by our
author with a variety of new al-
lusions, original fictions, and the
beauties of unborrowed poetry.
T. Warton.

829. She guiltless damsel] We prefer the reading of the Manuscript and the editions of 1637 and 1645: that of 1673 has The guiltless damsel &c. which is followed by some others.

831. -to the flood,] So he wrote at first, and then to the stream, and then to the flood again; and rightly, as stream is the last word of a verse a little before and a little after.

834. Held up their pearled wrists &c.] In the Manuscript these verses were thus at first,

Held up their white wrists to receive

her in, And bore her straight to aged Nereus' hall.

Bearing her strait to aged Nereus' hall,
Who piteous of her woes, rear'd her lank head,
And gave her to his daughters to imbathe
In nectar'd lavers strow'd with asphodil,
And through the porch and inlet of each sense
Dropt in ambrosial oils till she reviv'd,
And underwent a quick immortal change,
Made Goddess of the river; still she retains
Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve
Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,

834. Drayton gives the Severn pearls. He says of Sabrina, Polyolb. s. v. vol. ii. p. 752.

835

840

The process which follows, of dropping ambrosial oils "into "the porch and inlet of each -Where she meant to go "sense" of the drowned Sabrina, The path was strew'd with pearl. is originally from Homer, where He speaks also of "The pearly Patroclus with rosy ambrosial Venus anoints the dead body of "Conway's head," a neighbour-oil. Il. b. xxiii. 186. ing river. Ibid. s. ix. vol. iii. p. 827. And of the "precious ori"ent pearl that breedeth in her "sand." Ibid. s. x. vol. iii. p. 842. We shall see, that Milton afterwards gives gems to the Severn of a far brighter hue. T. Warton.

836. -piteous of her woes.] Under the same form, "Retch"lesse of their wrongs," that is, unpiteous, as in Drayton, Polyolb. s. vii. See supr. at v. 404. T. Warton.

837. And gave her to his daughters to imbathe In nectar'd lavers] This at least reminds us of Alcæus's epigram or epitaph on Homer, who died in the island of Io. The Nereids of the circumambient sea bathed his dead body with nectar. Antholog. lib. iii. p. 386. edit. Brod. Francof. 1600. fol.

ΝΕΚΤΑΡΙ δ' εναλιαι Νηρηΐδες εχρίσαντο,

Και νικον Ακταίη θηκαν ύπο σπιλάδι,

Ρόδοςντι δε χριεν ΕΛΑΙΩ

ΑΜΒΡΟΣΙΩΝ

See also Bion's Hyacinth. "Kgiv "I aμßeorin xai DEXTagi, &c." Idyll. ix. 3.

The word imbathe occurs in our author's Reformation, "Me"thinkes a sovereign and reviv"ing joy must needs rush into "the bosom of him that reads or hears; and the sweet odour "of the returning Gospel im"bathe his soul with the fragrance of heaven." Proseworks, vol. i. 2. What was enthusiasm in most of the puritanical writers, was poetry in Milton. T. Warton.

се

839. And through the porch and inlet of each sense] The same metaphor in Shakespeare, Hainlet, act i. sc. 8.

And in the porches of mine ears did pour &c.

844. Visits the herds along the twilight meadows,

Helping all urchin blasts, and ill-luck signs
That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make,
Which she with precious vial'd liquors heals.
For which the shepherds at their festivals
Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays,

And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream 850 Of pancies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.

perly belonged. T. Warton.

846. That the shrewd meddling elf &c.] That is Puck or Robin Goodfellow, whose character and qualifications are described in Shakespeare's Mids. N. Dream, act ii. Delights to make, at first he had written to leave; and in the Manuscript is the following