Where thou thyself doft air: The queen o' the sky, Enter CERES. CER. Hail, many-colour'd meffenger, that ne'er Doft disobey the wife of Jupiter; that particularly fuited his purpose. He who has confounded the cuftoms of different ages and nations, might easily confound the produce of the seasons. That his documents de Re Ruftica were more exact, is equally improbable. He regarded objects of Agriculture, &c. in the grofs, and little thought, when he meant to bestow fome ornamental epithet on the banks appropriated to a Goddess, that a future critic would with him to fay their brims were filthily mixed or mingled, confounded or Shuffled together; bedirted, begrimed, and befmeared. Mr. Henley, however, has not yet proved the existence of the derivative which he labours to introduce as an English word; nor will the lovers of elegant description with him much fuccefs in his attempt. Unconvinced, therefore, by his ftrictures, I fhall not exclude a border of flowers to make room for the graces of the spade, or what Mr. Pope, in his Dunciad, has ftyled "the majefty of mud." STEEVENS. 2 and thy broom groves,] Broom, in this place, fignifies the Spartium fcoparium, of which brooms are frequently made. Near Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire it grows high enough to conceal the tallest cattle as they país through it; and in places where it is cultivated still higher a circumftance that had escaped my notice, till I was told of it by Profeffor Martyn, whose name I am particularly happy to infert among those of other friends who have honoured and improved this work by their various communications. STEEVENS. : 3 Being lafs-lorn;] Lafs-lorn is forfaken of his mistress. So, Spenfer : STEEVENS. "Who after that he had fair Una lorn." 4thy pole-clipt vineyard;] To clip is to twine round or embrace. The poles are clipped or embraced by the vines. Vineyard is here ufed as a trifyllable. STEEVENS. Who, with thy faffron wings, upon my flowers On the blefs'd lovers. CER. Tell me, heavenly bow, IRIS. Of her fociety Be not afraid; I met her deity Cutting the clouds towards Paphos; and her fon Dove-drawn with her: here thought they to have done Some wanton charm upon this man and maid, 5 My bolky acres, &c.] Bosky is woody. fields divided from each other by hedge-rows. Latin for wood. Bofquet, Fr. So, Milton: Bofky acres are "And every bosky bourn from fide to fide." Again, in K. Edward I. 1599: "Hale him from hence, and in this bosky wood Bury his corps." STEEVENS. 6 to this fhort-grafs'd green?] The old copy reads fhortgras'd green. Short-graz'd green means grazed fo as to be short. The correction was made by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS. Her waspish-headed fon has broke his arrows, Swears he will shoot no more, but play with spar rows, And be a boy right out. CER. Highest queen of state," Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait. Enter JUNO. JUN. How does my bounteous fifter? Go with me, To bless this twain, that they may profperous be, And honour'd in their iffue. SONG. JUNO. Honour, riches, marriage-blessing, Highest queen of fiate, Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait.] Mr. Whalley thinks this paffage a remarkable inftance of Shakspeare's knowledge of ancient poetic ftory; and that the hint was furnished by the Divum incedo Regina of Virgil. John Taylor, the water-poet, declares, that he never learned his Accidence, and that Latin and French were to him Heathen Greek; yet, by the help of Mr. Whalley's argument, I will prove him a learned man, in fpite of every thing he may say to the contrary for thus he makes a gallant addrefs his lady; "Moft ineftimable magazine of beauty! in whom the port and majefty of Juno, the wifdom of Jove's brain-bred girle, and the feature of Cytherea, have their domestical habitation." FARMER. So, in The Arraignement of Paris, 1584: "Firft ftatelie Juno, with her porte and grace." Chapman alfo, in his version of the fecond Iliad, fpeaking of Juno, calls her— "the goddeffe of eftate." STEEVENS. CER. Earth's increafe, and foifon plenty, FER. This is a most majestic vision, and 8 Earth's increase, and foifon plenty, &c.] All the editions, that I have ever feen, concur in placing this whole fonnet to Juno; but very abfurdly, in my opinion. I believe every accurate reader, who is acquainted with poetical hiftory, and the diftinct offices of these two goddeffes, and who then seriously reads over our author's lines, will agree with me, that Ceres's name ought to have been placed where I have now prefixed it. THEOBALD. And is not in the old copy. It was added by the editor of the fecond folio. Earth's increafe, is the produce of the earth. The expreflion is fcriptural: "Then fhall the earth bring forth her increafe, and God, even our God, fhall give us his blefling." PSALM lxvii. MALONE. This is one among a multitude of emendations which Mr. Malone acknowledges to have been introduced by the editor of the fecond folio; and yet, in contradiction to himself in his Prolegomena, he depreciates the second edition, as of no importance or value. FENTON. 9 foifon plenty ;] i. e. plenty to the utmost abundance; foifon fignifying plenty. See p. 66. STEEVENS. 1 Harmonious charmingly:] Mr. Edwards would read: "Harmonious charming lay." For though (fays he) the benediction is fung by two goddeffes, it is yet but one lay or hymn. I believe, however, this paffage appears as it was written by the poet, who, for the fake of the verfe, made the words change places. We might read (transferring the latt fyllable of the second word to the end of the firft) " Harmoniously charming." Ferdinand has already praised this aerial Mafque as an object of fight; and may not improperly or inelegantly fubjoin, that the So rare a wonder'd father, and a wife, Make this place Paradise. PRO. [JUNO and CERES whisper, and fend IRIS on employment. Sweet now, filence; Juno and Ceres whisper seriously; There's fomething else to do: hufh, and be mute, Or else our spell is marr'd. IRIS. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the wan- With your fedg'd crowns, and ever-harmless looks, charm of found was added to that of vifible grandeur. Both Juno and Ceres are fuppofed to fing their parts. STEEVENS. A fimilar inverfion occurs in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "But miserable most to live unlov'd." MALONE. a wonder'd father,] i. e. a father able to perform or produce fuch wonders. STEEVENS. 3 —wand'ring brooks,] The modern editors read-winding brooks. The old copy-windring. I fuppofe we should readwand'ring, as it is here printed. STEEVENS. Leave your crifp channels,] Crifp, i. e. curling, winding, Lat. crifpus. So, Henry IV. Part I. A& I. fc. iv. Hotspur, fpeaking of the river Severn: "And hid his crifped head in the hollow bank." Crifp, however, may allude to the little wave or curl (as it is commonly called) that the gentleft wind occafions on the furface of waters. STEEVENS. |