And fat with me on Neptune's yellow fands, Would imitate; and fail upon the land, Which he with pretty and with fwimming gate FOLLOWING (her womb then rich with my young fquire) : Following what? fhe did not follow the fhip, whofe motion the imitated for that failed on the water, the on the land. If by following, we are to understand imitating, it will be a mere pleonafm-imitating would imitate. From the poet's defcription of the actions, it plainly appears we should read: FOLLYING Would imitate; i. e. wantoning in fport and gaiety. Thus the old English writers- "and they beleeven FOLYLY and fally"fays fir J. Maundeville, from and in the fenfe of folâtrer, to play the wanton. This exactly agrees to the action defcribed full often has he goffip'd by my fide-and-when we have laugh'd to fee. WARBURTON. The foregoing note is very ingenious, but fince follying is a word of which I know not any example, and the Fairy's favourrite might, without much licentioufnefs of language, be faid to follow a fhip that failed in the direction of the coaft; I think there is no fufficient reafon for adopting it. The coinage of new words is a violent remedy, not to be used but in the last neceffity, JOHNSON. Perhaps the parenthesis fhould begin fooner; as I think Mr. Kenrick obferves: (Following her womb, then rich with my young 'fquire,) So, in Trulla's combat with Hudibras : She prefs'd fo home, "That he retired, and follow'd's bum." And Dryden fays of his Spanish Friar, "his great belly walks in ftate before him, and his gouty legs come limping after it." FARMER. Ob. Ob. How long within this wood intend you ftay? Queen. Perchance, till after Thefeus' wedding-day, If you will patiently dance in our round, And fee our moon-light revels, go with us; If not, fhun me, and I will fpare your haunts. Ob. Give me that boy, and I will go with thee. Queen. Not for thy fairy kingdom.-Fairies, away: We fhall chide down-right, if I longer stay. Exeunt Queen, and her train. Ob. Well, go thy way: thou fhalt not from this grove, 'Till I torment thee for this injury. My gentle Puck, come hither: Thou remember'ft * Thou remember t Since once I fat upon a promontory, Since The first thing obfervable on these words is, that this action of the mermaid is laid in the fame time and place with Cupid's attack upon the veftal. By the veftal every one knows is meant queen Elizabeth. It is very natural and reafonable then to think that the mermaid ftands for fome eminent perfonage of her time. And if fo, the allegorical covering, in which there is a mixture of fatire and panegyric, will lead us to conclude, that this person was one of whom it had been inconvenient for the author to speak openly, either in praife or difpraife. All this agrees with Mary queen of Scots, and with no other. Q. Elizabeth could not bear to hear her commended; and her fucceffor would not forgive her fatyrift. But the poet has fo well marked out every distinguished circumftance of her life and character in this beautiful allegory, as will leave no room to doubt about his fecret meaning. She is called a mermaid, 1. to denote her reign over a kingdom fituate in the fea, and 2. her beauty, and intemperate luft: 66 ·Ut turpiter atrum "Definat in pifcem mulier formofa fupernè." for as Elizabeth for her chastity is called a veftal, this unfortunate lady on a contrary account is called a mermaid. 3. An ancient ftory may be fuppofed to be here alluded to. The emperor Julian tells us, Epiftle 41. that the Sirens (which, with all the modern poets, are mermaids) contended for precedency with the Mufes, who overcoming them took away their wings. The quarrels be tween Since once I fat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, tween Mary and Elizabeth had the fame caufe, and the fame iffue. -on a dolphin's back,] This evidently marks out that diftinguishing circumftance of Mary's fortune, her marriage with the dauphin of France, fon of Henry II. Uttering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath,] This alludes to her great abilities of genius and learning, which rendered her the most accomplished princefs of her age. The French writers tell us, that, while the was in that court, the pronounced a Latin oration in the great hall of the Louvre, with fo much grace and eloquence, as filled the whole court with admiration. That the rude fea grew civil at her fong ;] By the rude fea is meant Scotland encircled with the ocean; which rofe up in arms against the regent, while fhe was in France. But her return home prefently quieted thofe diforders: and had not her strange ill conduct afterwards more violently inflamed them, fhe might have paffed her whole life in peace. There is the greater juftness and beauty in this image, as the vulgar opinion is, that the mermaid always fings in forms: And certain ftars hot madly from their spheres To hear the fea-maid's mufick.] Thus concludes the description, with that remarkable circumftance of this unhappy lady's fate, the destruction fhe brought upon feve ral of the English nobility, whom the drew in to fupport her caufe. This, in the boldeft expreffion of the fublime, the poet images by certain ftars fhooting madly from their spheres: By which he meant. the earls of Northumberland and Weftmorland, who fell in her quarrel; and principally the great duke of Norfolk, whose projected marriage with her was attended with fuch fatal confequences, Here again the reader may obferve a peculiar juftnefs in the imagery. The vulgar opinion being that the mermaid allured. men to deftruction by her fongs. To which opinion Shakespeare alludes in his Comedy of Errors: "O train me not, fweet mermaid, with thy note, To drown me in thy fifter's flood of tears. On the whole, it is the nobleft and jufteft allegory that was ever written. The laying it in fairy land, and out of nature, is in the character of the fpeaker. And on thefe occafions Shakespeare always excels himself. He is born away by the magic of his enthufiafm, and hurries his reader along with him into these ancient regions of poetry, by that power of verfe, which we may well fancy to be like what: "Olim Fauni Vatefque cancbant. WARBURTON." Utter Uttering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath, And certain ftars fhot madly from their spheres, Puck. I remember, Ob. That very time I faw, (but thou could'st not) Flying between the cold moon and the earth, 3 Cupid all arm'd a certain aim he took 3 Cupid all arm'd: J Surely, this prefents us with a very unclaffical image. Where do we read or fee, in ancient books, or monuments, Cupid armed more than with his bow and arrow; and with these we for ever fee him armed. And these are all the arms he had occafion for in this present action; a more illustrious one than any, his friends, the clafficks, ever brought him upon. The change I make is fo fmall, but the beauty of the thought fo great, which this alteration carries with it, that, I think, we are hot to hefitate upon it. For what an addition is this to the compliment made upon this virgin queen's celibacy, that it alarmed, the power of love? as if his empire was in danger, when this imperial votrefs had declared herself for a fingle life: so powerful would her great example be in the world. - Queen Elizabeth could not but be pleased with our author's addrefs upon this head.. WARBURTON. All armed, does not fignify dreffed in panoply, but only enforces the word armed, as we might fay all booted. I am afraid that the general fenfe of alarmed, by which it is used for put into fear or care by whatever caufe, is later than our authour. JOHNSON. So, in Greene's Never too Late, 1616: "Or where proud Cupid fate all arm'd with fire." So, in Lord Surrey's tranflation of the 4th book of the Eneid; "All utterly I could not feem forfaken." Again, in K. Richard III: "His horfe is flain, and all on foot he fights." Shakespeare's compliment to queen Elizabeth has no fmall degree of propriety and elegance to boast of. The fame can hardly be faid of the following with which the tragedy of Soliman and Perfeda, 1599, concludes. Death is the fpeaker, and vows he will fpare none but facred Cynthia's friend, "Whom Death did fear before her life began: "Whofe life is heav'n's delight, and Cynthia's friend." If incenfe was thrown in cart loads on the altar, this propitious deity was not difgufted by the fmoke of it. STEEVENS. At At a fair veftal, throned by the weft 4; In maiden meditation, fancy-free. Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower,— Before, milk-white; now purple with love's wound,- Fetch At a fair veftal, throned by the weft;] It was no uncommon thing to introduce a compliment to queen Elizabeth in the body of a play. So, again in Tancred and Sigifmunda, 1592: "There lives a virgin, one without compare, Cantant. STEEVENS. • And maidens call it, love-in-idleness.] This is as fine a metamorphofis as any in Ovid: With a much better moral, intimating that irregular love has only power when people are idle, or not well employed. WARBURTON. I believe the fingular beauty of this metamorphofis to have been quite accidental, as the poet is of another opinion, in the Taming the Shrew, act I. fc. iv. "But fee, while idly I ftood looking on, "I found th' effect of love in idleness; And Lucentio's was furely a regular and honeft paffion. It is fcarce' "When paffions are let loose without a bridle, STEEVENS. The flower or violet, commonly called panfies, or heart's-eafe, is named love in idleness in Warwickshire, and in Lyte's Herbal. There is a reafon why Shakespeare fays it is, " now purple with love's wound," because one or two of its petals are of a purple colour. ToLLET. |