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There is a gentle nymph not far from hence b,
That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream,
Sabrina is her name, a virgin pure;

Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine,
That had the sceptre from his father Brute.
The guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit
Of her enraged stepdame Guendolen,
Commended her fair innocence to the flood,
That staid her flight with his cross-flowing course.
The water-nymphs, that in the bottom play'd,
Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in,
Bearing her straight to aged Nereus' hall;
Who, piteous of her woes, rear'd her lank head,
And gave her to his daughters to imbathe c
In nectar'd laversa, strew'd with asphodel;
And through the porch and inlet of each sense
Dropp'd in ambrosial oils, till she revived,
And underwent a quick immortal change,
Made goddess of the river: still she retains
Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve
Visits the herds along the twilight meadows 8,
Helping all urchin blasts 1, and ill-luck signs

b There is a gentle nymph not far from hence, &c.

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The part of the fable of "Comus," which may be called the disenchantment, is evidently founded on Fletcher's "Faithful Shepherdess." The moral of both dramas is the triumph of chastity. This in both is finely brought about by the same sort of machinery.-T. WARTON.

e Imbathe.

The word "imbathe" occurs in our author's "Reformation :"-"Methinks a sovran and reviving joy must needs rush into the bosom of him that reads or hears; and the sweet odour of the returning gospel im bathe his soul with the fragrance of Heaven." What was enthusiasm in most of the puritanical writers, was poetry in Milton.-T. WArton.

d In nectar'd lavers.

This, at least, reminds us of Alcæus's epigram or epitaph on Homer, who died in the island of Io. The Nereids of the circumambient sea bathed his dead body with nectar. The process which follows, of dropping ambrosial oils "into the porch and inlet of each sense of the drowned Sabrina, is originally from Homer, where Venus anoints the dead body of Patroclus with rosy ambrosial oil. Il. xxiii. 186.-T. Warton.

• And through the porch.

The same metaphor in "Hamlet,” a. i. s. 8.

And in the porches of mine ear did pour
The leperous distilment.-NEWTON.

f And underwent a quick immortal change.

So in the "Tempest," a. i. s. 2.

Nothing of him that doth fade,

But doth suffer a sea-change.-STEEVENS.

B Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, &c.

The virgin shepherdess Clorin, in Fletcher's pastoral play, so frequently quoted, possesses the skill of Sabrina, a. i. s. 1.-T. WARTON.

h Helping all urchin blasts.

The urchin, or hedge-hog, from its solitariness, the ugliness of its appearance, and from a popular opinion that it sucked or poisoned the udders of cows, was adopted into the demonologic system; and its shape was sometimes supposed to be assumed by mischievous elves. Hence it was one of the plagues of Caliban in the "Tempest," a. ii. s. 2.

That the shrewd meddling elfe delights to make,
Which she with precious vial'd liquours heals:
For which the shepherds at their festivals
Carol her goodness loud in rustick lays,

And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream i
Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils:
And, as the old swain said, she can unlock
The clasping charm, and thaw the numming spell,
If she be right invoked 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 power of some adjuring verse.

Sabrina fair,

SONG.

Listen where thou art sitting

Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave,

In twisted braids of lilies 1 knitting

The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair":
Listen for dear honour's sake,

Goddess of the silver lake;

Listen, and save!

His spirits hear me,

And yet I needs must curse: but they'll not pinch,

Fright me with urchin-shows, pitch me in the mire, &c.-T. WARTON,

And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream.

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Beaumont and Fletcher exhibit a passage immediately to the purport of the text, "False One," a. iii. s. 3.

With incense let us bless the brim ;

And as the wanton fishes swim,

Let us gums and garlands fling, &c.-T. WARTON.

1 She can unlock

The clasping charm, and thaw the numming spell.

This notion of the wisdom or skill of Sabrina, is in Drayton, "Polyolb." s. v. vol. ii. p. 753.-T. WARTON.

To aid a virgin, such as was herself.

Alluding perhaps to the Danaids' invocation of Pallas, wherein they use the same argument, Eschyl. "Supp." v. 155.-THYER.

1 In twisted braids of lilies.

We are to understand water-lilies, with which Drayton often braids the tresses of his water-nymphs, in the "Polyolbion."-T. WARTON.

The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair.

""""the sun is

We have "an amber cloud" above, v. 333. And, in "L'Allegro,' robed in flames and amber light," v. 61. But liquid amber is a yellow pellucid gum. Sabrina's hair drops amber, because in the poet's idea, her stream was supposed to be transparent; as the river of bliss in "Paradise Lost," b. iii. 358; and Choaspes has an amber stream,' ," "Paradise Regained," b. iii. 288. But Choaspes was called the "golden water." Amber, when applied to water, means a luminous clearness; when to hair, bright yellow.-T. WARTON.

A curious passage in Nash's "Terrors of the Night," 1594, will minutely illustrate the "amber-dropping hair" of Sabrina : Nash is describing a "troupe of naked virgins, Their hair they ware loose vnrowled about their shoulders, whose dangling amber trammels, reaching downe beneath their knees, seemed to drop baulme on their delicious bodies."-TODD.

Listen, and appear to us,

In name of great Oceanus ";

By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace o,
And Tethys' grave majestick pace;
By hoary Nereus' wrinkled look,
And the Carpathian wizard's hook;
By scaly Triton's winding shell P,
And old soothsaying Glaucus' spell;
By Leucothea's lovely hands,
And her son that rules the strands;
By Thetis' tinsel-slipper'd feet 9,
And the songs of sirens sweet";
By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,
And fair Ligea's golden comb,

. In name of great Oceanus.

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It will be curious to observe how the poet has distinguished the sea-deities by the epithets and attributes which are assigned to each of them in the best classic authors; "Great Oceanus," as in Hesiod, "Theog." 20. 'кeavóv te péyav.—NEWTON.

• By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace, &c.

Tethys the

a grave maMilton had

Neptune is usually called "earth-shaking," in "Il." xii. 27. xx. 13. wife of Oceanus, and mother of the gods, may well be supposed to have " jestick pace:" Hesiod calls her "the venerable Tethys," "Theog." 368. before called Nereus, at v. 835, "aged," as in Virgil, "Georg." iv. 392, "grandævus Nereus:" he may be called "hoary" too upon another account :-"Fere omnes Dii marini senes sunt, albent enim eorum capita spumis aquarum." Servius, in "Georg." iv. 403- "The Carpathian wizard" is Proteus, who had a cave at Carpathus, an island in the Mediterranean, and was a wizard or prophet, as also Neptune's shepherd; and as such bore a hook. See Virgil, "Georg." iv. 387.-NEWTON. And Ovid, "Met.” xi. 249 :-"Carpathius vates."—Todd.

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P Triton's winding shell, &c.

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Triton was Neptune's trumpeter, and was scaly," as all these sorts of creatures are: -"squamis modo hispido corpore, etiam qua humanam effigiem habent." Plin. lib. ix. sect. iv. His "winding shell" is particularly described in Ovid, "Met." i. 333. Glaucus was an excellent fisher or diver, and so was feigned to be a sea-god. Aristotle writes that he prophesied to the gods, and Nicandor says that Apollo himself learnt the art of prediction from Glaucus. See "Athenæus," lib. vii. cap. 12. And Euripides, "Orest.” 363, calls him the seaman's prophet, and interpreter of Nereus; and Apollon. Rhodius, Argonaut." 1310, gives him the same appellation. Ino, flying from the rage of her husband Athamas, who was furiously mad, threw herself from the top of a rock into the sea, with her son Melicerta in her arms. Neptune, at the intercession of Venus, changed them into sea-deities, and gave them new names; Leucothea to her, and to him Palæmon. See Ovid, "Met." iv. 538. She, being Leucothea, or the white goddess, may well be supposed to have "lovely hands," which I presume the poet mentions in opposition to Thetis' feet and her son "rules the strands," having the command of the ports, and therefore called in Latin Portumnus. See Ovid, "Fast." vi. 545.-NEWTON.

Tinsel-slipper'd feet.

The poet meant this as a paraphrase of "silver-footed," the usual epithet of Thetis in Homer.-NEWTON. Sirens sweet, &c.

The sirens are introduced here, as being sea-nymphs, and singing upon the coast. NEWTON.

Parthenope and Ligea were two of the sirens. Parthenope's tomb was at Naples, which was therefore called Parthenope. Plin. lib. iii. sect. ix. Silius Ital. xii. 83. Ligea is also the name of a sea-nymph in Virgil, "Georg." iv. 336; and the poet draws her in the attitude in which mermaids are represented. See Ovid, "Met." iv. 310, of Salmacis.-NEWTON.

One of the employments of the nymph Salmacis in Ovid, is to comb her hair; but that

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