480 When thus ripe lies are to perfection sprung, Or wane and wax alternate like the moon. 485 Born by the trumpet's blast, and scatter'd through the sky. There, at one passage, oft you might survey, A lie and truth contending for the way; And long 'twas doubtful, both so closely pent, 490 Which first should issue through the narrow vent: At last agreed, together out they fly, Inseparable now, the truth and lie; The strict companions are for ever join'd, 495 And this or that unmix'd, no mortal e'er shall find, NOTES. Ver. 496. And this or that unmix'd,] The President Montesquieu observes (in his Grandeur of the Romans), that the rank or place which posterity bestows is subject, like all others, to the whim and caprice of fortune. Woolaston said, in his own epitaph, that he retired early from the world, propter iniqua hominum judicia. IMITATIONS. Ver. 489. There, at one passage, &c.] "And sometime I saw there at once, A lesing and a sad sooth saw That gonnen at adventure draw Out of a window forth to pace And no man, be he ever so wrothe, Shall have one of these two, but bothe," etc. P. While thus I stood, intent to see and hear, 'Tis true, said I, not void of hopes I came, 500 How vain that second life in others' breath, 505 Th' estate which wits inherit after death! 510 The great man's curse, without the gains, endure, But if the purchase cost so dear a price, As soothing Folly, or exalting Vice: Oh! if the Muse must flatter lawless sway, And follow still where fortune leads the way; 515 Or if no basis bear my rising name, 520 Then teach me, Heav'n! to scorn the guilty bays, Drive from my breast that wretched lust of praise; NOTES. Ver. 497. While thus I stood, &c.] The hint is taken from a passage in another part of the third book, but here more naturally made the conclusion, with the addition of a moral to the whole. In Chaucer he only answers, "he came to see the place;" and the book ends abruptly, with his being surprised at the sight of a Man of great Authority, and awakening in a fright. P. Unblemish'd let me live, or die unknown: Oh! grant an honest fame, or grant me none ! "THIS poem contains great strokes of Gothic imagination, yet bordering often on the most ideal and capricious extravagance. The poet, in a vision, sees a temple of glass; 'In which were more images Of gold stondinge in sundrie stages, Of golde work than I sawe evir.' "On the walls of this temple were engraved stories frem Virgil's Eneid and Ovid's epistles. "Leaving this temple, he sees an eagle with golden wings soaring near the sun. Faste by the sonne on hie As kennyng myght I with mine eie, Then I had any egle seen. It was of gold, and shone so bright, That nevir man sawe suche a sight,' &c. "The eagle descends, seizes the poet in his talons, and, mounting again, conveys him to the house of Fame; which is situated, like that of Ovid, between earth and sea. In their passage thither, they fly above the stars; which our author leaves with clouds, tempests, hail, and snow, far beneath him. This aerial journey is partly copied from Ovid's Phaeton in the chariot of the sun. But the poet apologizes for this extravagant fiction, and explains his meaning, by alleging the authority of Boethius ; who says, that contemplation may soar on the wings of philosophy above every element. He likewise recollects, in the midst of his course, the description of the heavens, given by Marcianus Capella, in his book De Nuptiis Philologie et Mercurii, and Alanus in his Anticlaudian. At his arrival in the confines of the house of Fame, he is alarmed with confused murmurs issuing from thence, like distant thunders or billows. This circumstance is also borrowed from Ovid's Temple. He is left by the eagle near the house, which is built of materials bright as polished glass, and stands on a rock of ice of excessive height, and almost inaccessible. All the southern side of this rock was covered with engravings of the names of famous men, which were perpe. tually melting away by the heat of the sun. The northern side of the rock was alike covered with names; but being here shaded from the warmth of the sun, the characters remained unmelted and uneffaced. The structure of the house is thus imagined: -Methoughtin by Sainct Gile, That all was of stone of berille, As flakis fallin in great snowis.' "In these lines, and in some others which occur hereafter, the poet perhaps alludes to the many new decorations in architecture, which began to prevail about his time, and gave rise to the florid Gothic style. There are instances of this in his other poems. In his Dreame, printed 1597: 'And of a sute were al the touris, Subtily carven aftir flouris, With many a smal turret hie.' "And in the description of the Palace of Pleasaunt Regarde, in the Assemblie of Ladies : Fairir is none, though it were for a king Devisid wel, and that in every thing; With fannis fresh, turning with everie winde. The chambris, and the palirs of a sorte, With bay windows, goodlie as may be thought: The galeries be al right wel ywrought.' "In Chaucer's life, by Anthony Hall, it is not mentioned that he was appointed clerk of the king's works in the palace of Westminster, in the royal manors of Shene, Kenington, Byfleet, and Clapton, and in the mews at Charing. Again, in 1380, of the works of St. George's chapel at Windsor, then ruinous. But to return: All manir of minstrelis, Both of weping and eke of game.' " That is, those who sung or recited adventures, either tragic or comic, which excited either compassion or laughter. They were accompanied with the most renowned harpers; among which were Orpheus, Arion, Chiron, and the Briton Glaskerion. Behind these were placed, "by many a thousand time twelve," players on various instruments of music. Among the trumpeters are named Joab, Virgil's Misenus, and Theodamus. About these pinnacles were also marshalled the most famous magicians, jugglers, witches, prophetesses, sorceresses, and professors of natural magic, which ever existed in ancient or modern times; such as Medea, Circe, Calliope, Hermes, Limotheus, and Simon Magus. At entering the hall he sees an infinite multitude of heralds; on the surcoats of whom were richly embroidered the armorial ensigns of the most redoubted champions that ever tourneyed in Africa, Europe, or Asia. The floor and roof of the hall were covered with thick plates of gold, studded with the costliest gems. At the upper end, on a lofty shrine, made with carbuncle, sate Fame; her figure is like those in Virgil and Ovid. Above her, as if sustained on her shoulders, sate Hercules and Alexander. From the throne to the gates of the hall ran a range of pillars, with respective inscriptions. On the first pillar, made of lead and iron, stood Josephus, the Jewish historian ("that of the Jewis gestis told"), with seven other writers on the same subject. On the second pillar, made of iron, and painted all over with the blood of tigers, stood Statius. On another, higher than the rest, stood Homer, Dares, Phrygius, Livy, Lollius, Guido of Columna, and Geoffry of Monmouth, writers of the Trojan story. On a pillar of "tinnid iron clere," stood Virgil; and next to him, on a pillar of copper, appeared Ovid. The figure of Lucan was placed on a pillar of iron, “ wroght full sternly,” accompanied with many Roman historians. On a pillar of sulphur stood Claudian, so symbolized, because he wrote of Pluto and Proserpine: 'That bare up all the fame of hell; Of Pluto and of Proserpine That queen is of the darke pine.' "The hall was filled with the writers of ancient tales and romances, whose subjects and names were too numerous to be re |