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And, as the old swain said, she can unlock
The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell,
If she be right invok'd in warbled song,

For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift
To aid a virgin, such as was herself,
In hard-besetting need; this will I try,
And add the pow'r of some adjuring verse.

SABRINA fair,

SONG.

Listen where thou art sitting

Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of lilies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair

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i. e. virgo virginem liberet. Vid. scholia in locum. Thyer.

857. In hard-besetting need;] It was at first, In honour'd virtue's cause; and this was altered in the Manuscript to In hard distressed need.

861. Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave.] Shakespeare, Hamlet, a. iv. s. 1.

855

860

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862. In twisted braids of lilies knitting

The loose train of thy amberdropping hair.]

We are to understand waterlilies, with which Drayton often braids the tresses of his waternymphs, in the Polyolbion. See Note on Arcades, v. 97. T. War

ton.

863. The loose train of thy There is a willow grows askant the amber-dropping hair.] We have

brook

That shews his hoar leaves in the

glassy stream.

T. Warton.

an amber cloud," above v. 333. And in L'Allegro," the sun is "robed in flames and amber

Listen for dear honour's sake,

Goddess of the silver lake,

Listen and save.

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And when Choaspes has an " amber stream." Par. Reg. b. iii. 288. But Choaspes was called the golden water. Amber, when applied to water, means a luminous clearness: when to hair, a bright yellow. Amber locks are given to the sun in Sylvester's Du Bartas more than once. And to Sabrina's daughters by Withers, Epithal. edit. 1622. See Note on Par. Reg. ii. 344. iii. 288. And Sams. Agon. v. 720. T. Warton.

865. --silver lake,] Par. Lost, vii. 437. Of the birds.

Others on silver lakes, and rivers, &c.
T. Warton.

867. Listen and appear to us &c.] Before these verses there is wrote in the Manuscript, to be said. The attendant Spirit first invoked Sabrina in warbled song ; and now he adds the power of some adjuring verse, both which he said he would try and in the reading of this adjuration by the sea-deities it will be curious to observe how the poet has

VOL. IV.

865

distinguished them by the epithets and attributes which are peculiarly assigned to each of them in the best classic authors. Great Oceanus, so in Hesiod Theog. 21. Quɛavov te μeyav. Nep

tune and his mace or trident are very well known, and th' earthshaking is the translation of that common Greek epithet voix, or sociales. Tethys, the wife of Oceanus, and mother of the Gods, may well be supposed to have a grave majestic pace;

Ωκεανον σε θεων γενεσιν, και μητέρα
Тиви. Hom. Iliad. xiv. 201.

and Hesiod calls her the venerable Tethys, worna Tnous. Theog. 368. By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look, and he had called him before ver. 835. aged Nereus; and so he is called in all the poets, as in Virgil, Georg. iv. 392. Grandavus Nereus. Hesiod assigns the reason, Theog. 233.

Νηρεα τ' αψευδια και αληθια γεινα το
Ποντος,

Πρεσβύτατον παιδων αυτας καλεουσι
ysgorta,

Ούνικα νημερτης τι
θεμιστίων

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Ληθεται, αλλα δίκαια και ηπια δήνεα οιδεν.

He may be called hoary too on another account; for as Servius remarks on Virgil, Georg. iv.

403. Fere omnes Dii marini senes sunt, albent enim eorum capita spumis aquarum. And the Carpathian wizard's hook, Proteus who had a cave at Carpathus,

I

By th' earth-shaking Neptune's mace,
And Tethys' grave majestic pace,

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870

and interpreter of Nereus, Orestes, ver. 363.

Ὁ ναυτίλοισι μαντις εξηγγειλε μου

Νηρέως προφητης Γλαυκος, αψευδής θεός. And Apollonius Rhodius gives him the same appellation, Argo

Est in Carpathio Neptuni gurgite naut. i. 1310. vates,

Cæruleus Proteus,

-novit namque omnia vates, Quæ sint, quæ fuerint, quæ mox ventura trahantur.

Quippe ita Neptuno visum est: immania cujus

Τοισιν δε Γλαυκος βρυχίης άλος εξεφαάνθη, Νηρήος θείοιο πολυφραδμων υποψη της. By Leucothea's lovely hands, and her son &c. Ino, flying from the rage of her husband Athamas,

Armenta, et turpes pascit sub gurgite who was furiously mad, threw

phocas.

By scaly Triton's winding shell, he was Neptune's trumpeter, and was scaly, as all these sorts of creatures are, squamis modo hispido corpore, etiam qua humanam effigiem habent, as Pliny says, lib. ix. sect. 4. and his winding shell is thus described by Ovid, Met. i. 333.

herself from the top of a rock into the sea, with her son Melicerta in her arms; but Neptune at the intercession of Venus changed them into sea-deities, and gave them new names, Leucothea to her, and to him Palabeing Leucothea or the white mon. Ovid, Met. iv. 538. She Goddess may well be supposed to have lovely hands, which I

Cæruleum Tritona vocat, conchaque presume the poet mentioned in

sonaci

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And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell, he was an excellent fisher or diver, and so was feigned to be a sea-god: and Aristotle writes, that in Delos he prophesied to the Gods, Αριστοτέλης εν τη Δηλίων πολιτεία, εν Δήλῳ κατοικήσαντα μετα των Νηρηίδων τοις θεοις μαντευεσθαι: and Nicander says, that Apollo himself learned the art of prediction from Glaucus, Nixogos sy πρωτῳ Αιτωλικων την μαντικην Φησιν Απολλωνα ύπο Γλαύκου διδαχθήναι, as they are cited by Athenæus, lib. vii. cap. 12. Aud Euripides calls him the seamen's prophet

opposition to Thetis' feet afterwards: and her son rules the strands, having the command of the ports, and therefore being called in Latin Portumnus, as the mother was Matuta, the Goddess of the early morning. Ovid, Fast. vi. 545.

Leucothee Graiis, Matuta vocabere nostris, &c.

By Thetis tinsel slipper'd feet, this the poet meant as a paraphrase of the word agyugoα or silver-footed, the epithet by which she is usually distinguished in Homer: and the Sirens are introduced here, as being seanymphs, and singing upon the coast. Parthenope and Ligea were two of the Sirens; and for this

By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,

And the Carpathian wizard's hook,
By scaly Triton's winding shell,
And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell,
By Leucothea's lovely hands,
And her son that rules the strands,
By Thetis' tinsel-slipper'd feet,
And the songs of Sirens sweet,
By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,
And fair Ligea's golden comb,

reason, I suppose the four verses
relating to them are scratched
in the Manuscript. Parthenope's
tomb was at Naples, which was
therefore called Parthenope; Par-
thenope à tumulo Sirenis appellata.
Plin. lib. iii. sect. 9. Silius Ital.
xii. 33.

Sirenum dedit una suum et memorabile nomen

875

880

877. By Thetis' tinsel slipper'd feet.] W. Browne has "silver"footed Thetis," Brit. Past. b. ii. p. 35.

Perhaps for the first time in English poetry. Silverbuskined Nymphs are in Arcades, v. 33. T. Warton.

878. And the songs of Syrens sweet.] Sandys says, that the fabulous melody of the Syrens

Parthenope muris Acheloïas, æquore has a topographical allusion.

cujus Regnavere diu cantusLigea was another of the Sirens, and is also the name of a sea

nymph mentioned by Virgil, Georg. iv. 336. and the poet draws her in the attitude, in which mermaids are usually represented. Ovid of Salmacis, Met. iv. 310.

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"For Archippus tells of a cer"taine bay, contracted within "winding streights and broken of the windes and beating of "cliffes, which by the singing "the billowes, report a delight"full harmony, alluring those "who sail by to approach: when "forthwith, throwne against the "rocks by the waves, and swal"lowed in violent eddyes, &c." Sandys's Ovid's Metam. b. v. p. 197. edit. 1637. Spenser has exactly described the seat and allegory of the Sirens in the same manner. F. Q. ii. xii. 30.

And now they nigh approached to

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Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks,
Sleeking her soft alluring locks,
By all the nymphs that nightly dance
Upon thy streams with wily glance,

Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head
From thy coral-paven bed,

And bridle in thy headlong wave,

Till thou our summons answer'd have.

Listen and save.

Sabrina rises, attended by water-nymphs, and sings.

By the rushy-fringed bank,

Where

grows

the willow and the osier dank,

comb, &c.] One of the employ-
ments of the Nymph Salmacis in
Ovid is to comb her hair. But
that fiction is here heightened
with the brilliancy of romance.
Ligea's comb is of gold, and she
sits on diamond rocks. These
were new allurements for the
unwary. G.Fletcher has "maine
"rocks of diamound." Christ's
Victorie, p. i. st. 61. edit. 1610.
See Note on El. iii. 49. Ligea
is celebrated for her singing in
Polyolb. s. xx. vol. iii. 1043.

Then Ligea which maintaines the
birds harmonious layes,
Which sing on river banks amongst
the slender sprayes.

T. Warton.

886. From thy coral-paven bed.] Drayton of Sabrina's robe, Polyolb. s. v. vol. iii. p. 153.

Whose skirts were to the knees with coral fring❜d below.

And we have pearl-paved in Drayton, ibid. s. xxx. "This "clear pearl-paved Irt." Again, "Where every pearl-paved ford."

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885

890

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889. Listen and save.] The repetition of the prayer, vér, 866. and 889. in the invocation of Sabrina is similar to that of Eschylus's Chorus in the invocation of Darius's shade. Persæ, ver, 666. and 674.

Βασκε πατερ ακακι Δαρείαν, οι

Thyer.

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