My sliding chariot stays,

Thick set with agate, and the azure sheen
Of turkis blue, and emerald green,

That in the channel strays;

As in Milton, Sabrina is raised to perform an office of solemnity, so in Drayton she appears in a sort of judicial capacity, to de

Through the meadows do they glide, cide some of the claims and

Through the force, and through the wile
Of unblest inchanter vile.

SABRINA.

Shepherd, 'tis my office best

To help insnared chastity:
Brightest Lady, look on me;
Thus I sprinkle on thy breast
Drops that from my fountain
I have kept of precious cure,

pure

-Where she doth walke,

905

910

Scarse she doth the primerose head
Depresse, or tender stalke
Of blew-veind violetts,
Whereon her foot she sets.

T. Warton. 910. Brightest Lady,] It was at first Virtuous Lady.

cure,] If the reading be right, 913. I have kept of precious the meaning must be, some drops of a very healing power. But I think it would do good to the verse, as well as the language, to throw out the c and read ure, i. e. use. The word is found in

Thrice upon thy finger's tip,

Thrice upon thy rubied lip;

Next this marble venom'd seat,

Smear'd with gums of glutinous heat,

I touch with chaste palms moist and cold:
Now the spell hath lost his hold;

915

a. i. s. i. p. 135. and p. 109. a. iii.
8. i. p. 150, 151. a. iv. s. i. p. 161.
where Clorin the shepherdess
heals the wounded shepherd A-
lexis.

Hold him gently, till I fling
Water of a virtuous spring
On his temples: turn him twice, &c.
T. Warton.

918. I touch with chaste palms ·
moist and cold:

Now the spell hath lost his hold.]
So the virgin Clorin appears with
Alexis reviving, a. v. s. i. p. 177,
178.

Now your thoughts are almost pure,
And your wound begins to cure.—
With spotless hand, on spotless breast,
I put these herbs, to give thee rest.
I must add the disappearance of
the river god, a. iii. s. i. p. 155.
Fairest virgin, now adieu!
I must make my waters fly,
Lest they leave their channels dry;
And beasts that come unto the spring
Miss their morning's watering;
Which I would not: for of late
All the neighbour people sate
On my banks, and from the fold
Two white lambs of three weeks old
Offered to my deity:

For which this year they shall be free
From raging floods, that as they pass
Leave their gravel in the grass:
Nor shall their meads be overflown
When their grass is newly mown.

Here the river god resembles
Sabrina in that part of her cha-
racter, which consists in protect-
ing the cattle and pastures. And
for these services she is also

And I must haste ere morning hour

To wait in Amphitrite's bow'r.

Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat.

Poyolb. s. v. vol. ii. p. 752. And we have " Amphitrite's bower," ibid. s. xxviii. vol. iii. p. 1193. See also Spenser of Cymoent, F. Q. iii. iv. 43.

Deepe in the bottom of the sea her bowre.

Again, iii. viii. 37. Of Proteus.

His bowre is in the bottom of the maine.

T. Warton.

921. To wait in Amphitrite's bow'r.] He had written at first, To wait on Amphitrite in her bow'r. 923. Sprung of old Anchises' line,] For Locrine was the son of Brutus, who was the son of Silvius, he of Ascanius, and Ascanius of Æneas, a Trojan prince, son of Anchises. See Milton's History of England, book i.

920

925

924. May thy brimmed waves &c.] I should rather think brined, i. e. made salt by the mixture of sea-water. Brimmed may indeed signify waves that rise to the brim or margin of the shore but it is a strange word. Warburton.

Dr. Warburton had not remarked the frequent and familiar use of brim for bank in our old poets. See above at v. 119. And brimming stream" ascertains the old reading. P. L. iv. 336. T. Warton.

At first he had written crystal, but altered it, that word occurring again within a few verses.

927. That tumble down the snowy hills:] It was at first, That tumble down from snowy hills.

927. The poet adverts to the known natural properties of the river. The torrents from the Welch mountains sometimes raise the Severn on a sudden to a prodigious height. But at the same time they fill her molten crystal with mud. Her stream, of itself clear, is then discoloured and muddy. Here is an echo to a

Summer drouth, or singed air
Never scorch thy tresses fair,
Nor wet October's torrent flood
Thy molten crystal fill with mud;
May thy billows roll ashore
The beryl, and the golden ore;
May thy lofty head be crown'd

With many a tow'r and terrace round,
And here and there thy banks upon
With groves of myrrh, and cinnamon.

932. May thy billows roll ashore The beryl, and the golden ore.] This is reasonable as a wish. But surely jewels were out of place here, on the supposition that they were the natural productions of Sabrina's stream. So of the groves of myrrh and cinnamon upon her banks. A wish more conformable to the real state of things would have been more pleasing, as less unnatural. But we must not too severely try poetry by truth and reality. See above at v. 834, 891. T. Warton.

934. May thy lofty head be crown'd

With

many a low'r and terrace round.]

930

935

So of the imperial palace of
Rome, P. R. iv. 54.

-Conspicuous far

Turrets and terraces.

Milton was impressed with this idea from his vicinity to Windsor castle. T. Warton.

936. And here and there thy banks upon &c.] We are all of us apt to grow fond of the authors, whom we particularly study; and therefore Mr. Seand delicacy though not for pomp ward generally prefers (for beauty Faithful Shepherdess which Miland majesty) the passages in the ton has imitated to Milton's imitations of them: but here he himself is forced to allow, that this address to Sabrina is better than Amoret's to the God of the river upon a like occasion, and Fletcher has no other advantage but that of writing first, act iii.

For thy kindness to me shown,
Never from thy banks be blown
Any tree, with windy force,
Cross thy streams, to stop thy course:
May no beast that comes to drink,
With his horns cast down thy brink;
May none that for thy fish do look,
Cut thy banks to dam thy brook;
Barefoot may no neighbour wade
In thy cool streams wife nor maid,