And if I would know in what fenfe he uses fome epithets, I confider what poet has used the like: "And often blame the too importune fate. B. I. C. 12. ft. 16. Thus Ovid. Met. X, 634. Nec mibi conjugium fata importuna negarent. Under this article too I include all allufions to Latin cuftoms and manners: fuch as, "Therewith they gan to hurtlen greedily, "And clafb their fhields, and shake their fwords on hy. B. I. C. 4. ft. 40. And clash their fhields, i. e. by ftriking their fwords or fpears against their shields; a custom frequent among the Romans; hence Virgil speaking of Turnus, Aen. VIII, 3. Utque acres concuffit equos, utque IMPULIT ARMA, Milton had in his mind Spenfer's words, in allufion to this custom, "And fierce with grasped arms "Claff'd on their founding fhields the din of war, Hurling defiance toward the vault of heav'n. Inftead of Hurtlen fome of the editions, (and you may be certain if there is a worse reading, to meet with it in Hughes) read Hurlen: but Spenfer follows Chaucer, "And he him burtlith with his borse adown. Knight's Tale, y. 2618. Wickliff ufes it very frequent in his verfion of the Teftament, He burtlith bim down. Mark IX, 18. In our verfion, He teareth, or dafbeth him. Vulg. allidit illum. Thei birtliden the Schip. A&. XXVII, 41. Vulg. impegerunt. In our verfion, They ran the ship aground. It comes from the Germ. Hurten, trudere, impellere. Gall. beurter. Ital. Urtare. Fairfax in his elegant tranflation of Tasso, VI, 41. Tallo, "Together burtled both their fteeds. L'uno e l'altro cavallo in guifa URTOSSE. Shakespeare in Julius Cæfar A&. II. "The noise of battles burtled in the air. I think I think I have faid enough to fet aside such authorities as Mr. Hughes, or his prior editors. But be pleased to obferve here in this imitation of Spenfer's verses by Milton, that expreffion, "Hurling defiance And this he borrowed from his no lefs favourite author, "DEFIANCE, traitors, HURL we in your teeth. Julius Caefar, A&t. V. And be pleased to obferve likewise, what has been more fully noticed elsewhere, that Milton in his imitations fcarcely ever confines himself to the beauties or expreffions of one author, but enriches his diction with the fpoils of many, and herce furpaffes any one. And all this is as fair in a poet, as 'tis honourable in the conqueror to deck himself in the spoils of the conquered. III, Italianifms: whether phrafes as, Abbaffare la lancia, to abase the fpeare: or words, as Ritratto, Pavone, &c. or literal translations, as X "Yet making many a bord and many a bay. "Befide the loffe of fo much loos and fame. B. 6. c. 12. ft. 1. B. 6. c. 12. ft. 12. This is altered in the Folio of 1611. into, So much praise and fame. And I believe by the poet's direction: for the quibble is too bad; fcarce any fo bad in Milton, Shakespeare or Homer, tho' they all affected such quibbling wit sometimes. "Which the accepts with thanks and goodly gree. B. I. C. 5. ft. 16. Accipe gratè, grato. Ital. Grado. Gall. Gre. And thus Male grato animo. Ital. Malgrado. Gall. Malgre. Paugre. XI sus mot alter in to 2 Thus Thus is easily discovered its etymology and meaning: and if I fhould dwell fomewhat long on this word, 'twill be owing to the Remarks on Spenser, where the learned author has with equal ingenuity and modefty examined fome paffages in our poet, where this expreffion is ufed. But I will cite the very words: and if every commentator would act thus ingenuously and candidly, letters would be on a much better footing, than at present they seem to be. "BOOK II. CANTO V. 12. "With that he cry'd, Mercy, do me not die, "Ne deem thy force by fortune's doom unjust, "That hath (mauger her fpight) thus low me laid in duft. "A friend of mine thinks it might be : "Ne deem thy force, but fortune's doom unjust, "That bath "Deem it not to be thy force, but the unjuft doom of fortune, that hath "overthrown me. Do not ascribe it to thy ftrength, but to unjust fortune. Spenfer here fays: Mauger ber fpight. And again, III. V. 7. "But froward fortune and too *froward night "Perhaps he ufes mauger in these places, as an imprecation, Curfe on it. Thefe "are propofed as uncertain conjectures. In III. IV. 15. and in other places he "ufes mauger in the common way, mauger thee, in fpight of thee: but again "he ufes it in a different way, IV. IV. 40." So far our learned author. Now the word, as above criticized, will eafily determine us to fix its feeming volatile fignification: for 'tis ufed either as an adverb, or an imprecation with fupplying the verb: a prepofition, or a substantive. I. As an adverb, MALGRE, ingratiis, invite, malè gratè: The Paffage is thus to be read and pointed, "But froward fortune, and too forward night i. e. did fpight to me much against my will. Again thus read, B. 3. C. 5. ft. 7. * Froward and Forward are very eafily corrupted: As freward is here corrupted, fo is forward frouari in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, pag. 411. Mr. Warburton's edition. Instead of Forward, it should have been Froward: which is particularly Catharine's character. "And for exceeding griefe which inly grew, B. VI. C. 4. ft. 40. Daugre invite, much against his will he threw himself, &c. for in the next line he explains his own meaning, For fell defpight. II. As an imprecation, fupplying the verb after the adverb; as maugre her fpight, male vortat, male fit illi cum fua malevolentia, MALE GRATE fit-Thus let us point the place, and read THY with an emphasis, "With that he cride, Mercy! doe me not die, "Ne deeme thy force, by fortunes doome unjust "That hath (maugre her spight) thus lowe me laid in dust. i. e. impute it not entirely, meerly to thy force, that hath by the unjust doom of fortune (curse on her spight) thus laid me low in duft. III. As a prepofition governing an accusative case, as "I meane not thee intreat "To paffe; but maugre thee will pass or die. B. 3. C. 4. ft. 13. t. 15. Maugre thee, in fpight of thee, against thy will; " without leave afk'd of thee" as Milton paraphrafes it, "Through them I mean to pass, "That be affur'd, without leave afk'd of thee. Par. Loft. B. II. y. 684. I rather choose to conftrue it as a prepofition, than as an elliptical expreflion: for as above 'tis ufed adverbially, fo here 'tis ufed as a prepofition: and this is agreeable to the genius of languages. Let me explain a difficult paffage in Chaucer, "That gifte nought to praifin is "That a man gevith malgre his. Rom. of Rofe. 2385. Le Romant de la Rofe, y. 2291. "That of his chaffare maugre bis *.5933 Que Que malgre foy à tant n'en ayt *. 11380. Chaucer fhould have faid malgre him, himself: but the rime would not permit him, so that his stands for himself: and this is a ufual liberty which the old poets took, and sometimes Spenfer too has taken, viz. of risking a little falfe grammar rather than risk a false rime.Ice Pup. Notes to Sad Shepherd. 68.1783. IV. As a fubftantive. "Should I therefore conne him maugre? Ne luy en dois malgré fçavoir, Ne je luy en fçauray jà voir. *.4559. *.-4262. i. e. bear him any ill will; take it ill: as we fay, to con one thanks, after the Greek idiom XAPIN OIAA. I will now take one latin word, which answers to this english word, which I have been examining, and fhew it in the fame fignifications. Adverfus, a, um, oppofite. Adverfum, adv. Adverfum, præp. Adverfum, i. n. Adverfa, orum. pl. n. THERE are many, I know, who having little or no education themselves, look on all rudiments of learning as mean and contemptible; and they would leap at once into the midst of science. But let fuch, if they ever think, know that all sciences whether in morals, or mathematicks, or grammar, or mufick, &c. depend on principles firft firmly fettled and known; and that one link broken, or bound tranfgreffed, uncertainty and ignorance enfues. And I have great authority for faying, That he who defpifes small things fall fall by great. BUT to return- I have twice at least cited The Court of Love, as written by Chaucer, but accidentally turning over the new edition of Cave's Hiftory of the Ecclefiaftical writers, I there met with a little Hiftory of Chaucer, drawn up by a learned archbishop of Canterbury, who tells me I am miftaken in thinking The Court of Love was written by Chaucer. "Sunt qui Cantabrigiæ etiam literis illum "incubuiffe volunt; teftimonio ex Amoris Aulâ defumpto innixi. Verum libellu "iftu Chauceri non effe nos infra adnotabimus." And presently after "AMORIS "AULA, quæ quidem Chaucero abjudicanda videtur. In prooemio enim author rudi"tatem fuam excufans, ait neque Tullii flofculos nec Virgilii poefia [poemata] nec Gal"fridi (quo nomine Chauceru defignari paru eft dubium) artem à fe expectanda effe." Now if there was no other Jeffry in the world but Jeffry Chaucer, his Grace's criticism would have fome weight: but with all fubmiflion, this Jeffry mentioned in the Court of Love was Jeffry Vinefaufe, or as he is called in Latin Galfridus de Vino Salvo. "The blofomes fresh of Tullius gardein foote, "Ne craft of GALFRIDE may not here fojourne. If this poem is not Chaucer's, by a parity of reasoning and learning, He did not write the Houfe of Fame: for there, viz. . 382. mention is made of an Englishe |