WHO wou'd believe what strange bugbears
Mankind creates itself of fears,
That spring, like fern, that insect weed,
Equivocally, without seed?

Our poet now resumes his principal subject; and the reason why he is so full in the recapitulation of the last adventure of our Knight and Squire is, because we had lost sight of our heroes for the space of the longest canto in the whole poem. This respite might probably occasion forgetfulness in some readers, whose attention had been so long suspended; it was therefore necessary, that a repetition should be made of the dark adventure, and that it should be made clear and intelligible to

the reader.

(Mr. B.)

v. 3, 4. That spring, like fern, that insect weed,-Equivocally, without seed] Pliny affirms the same of two sorts of fern. (Hist. Nat. lib. 27, cap. 9.) Filicis duo genera nec florem habent, nec semen.

And have no possible foundation,

But merely in th' imagination?

And yet can do more dreadful feats
Than hags, with all their imps and teats;
Make more bewitch and haunt themselves,
Than all their nurseries of elves.

For fear does things so like a witch,

'Tis hard t' unriddle which is which;
Sets up communities of senses,

To chop and change intelligences;

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10

Shakespear seems to banter this opinion. (First Part of Henry IVth, act 2, vol. 3, p. 368.)

Gadshill, to the Chamberlain: "We steal as in a castle, cocksure; we have the receipt of fern seed-we walk invisible."

Ibid. He is like fern, that vile unuseful weed,

That springs equivocally without seed.

Butler's Genuine Remains, vol. 2. (ED.)

Dr. Derham (Physico-Theology, book 10, p. 410, 7th edit.) disproves this opinion. Filicem, reliquasque capillares herbas semine carere veteres plerique—prodidére: Quos etiam secuti sunt è recentioribus nonnulli, Dodonæus, &c.—Alii è contra, Bauhinus, &c. Filices, et congeneres, spermatophoras esse contendunt: Partim, quia historia creationis, Gen. ii. 12, &c. verissimam esse Autopsia convincit.

Fredericus Cæsius, he saith, was the first that discovered these seeds, by the help of a microscope; and since him Mr. W. C. (Will. Cole) hath more critically observed them. See more, p. 410, 414.

v. 8. Than hags, with all their imps and teats] Alluding to the vulgar opinion, that witches have their imps, or familiar spirits, that are employed in their diabolical practices, and suck private teats they have about them.

v. 10. Than all their nurseries of elves] A sneer upon the tales of fairies told to children in the nursery.

v. 15. As Rosicrucian virtuosos, &c.] The Rosicrucians were a sect that appeared in Germany, in the beginning of the seventeenth age. They are also called the Enlightened, Immortal, and Invisible; they are a very enthusiastical sort of men, and hold many wild and extravagant opinions. The Rosicrucian Philosophers held a millennium. Vid. Jo. Gerhardi Loc. Theologic. tom. 9, col. 331.

As Rosicrucian virtuosos,

Can see with ears, and hear with noses;
And when they neither see nor hear;
Have more than both supply'd by fear;
That makes 'em in the dark see visions,
And hag themselves with apparitions ;
And when their eyes discover least,
Discern the subtlest objects best:
Do things not contrary, alone,

To th' course of nature, but its own;
The courage of the bravest daunt,

And turn poltroons as valiant :

For men as resolute appear,

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20

25

With too much, as too little fear;

And when they're out of hopes of flying,
Will run away from death by dying:

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v. 15, 16. As Rosicrucian virtuosos-Can see with ears, and hear with noses] The Marquis of Worcester, in his Century of Inventions, has the following, among other notable discoveries: "How to write by the smell, the touch, or the taste, as distinctly and unconfusedly-yea, as readily, as by the sight." Sir Kenelm Digby tells a story of a Spanish nobleman, who "could hear by his eyes, and see words." (Treatise of the Nature of Bodies.) "They have built a philosophical hospital for the relief of those that are blind, deaf, and dumb, by establishing a community of the senses, whereby any one may supply the place of another in his absence, and do his business for him as well as that which is out of the way. This is an art to teach men to see with their ears, and hear with their eyes and noses; and it has been found true by experience and demonstration, if we may believe the history of the Spaniard, that could see words, and swallow music by holding the peg of a fiddle between his teeth; or him that could sing his part backward at first sight, which those that were near him might hear with their noses." Butler's Character of an Hermetic Philosopher, Genuine Remains,

vol. 2. (ED.)

Or turn again to stand it out,

And those they fled, like lions, rout.
This Hudibras had prov'd too true,
Who, by the furies, left perdue,
And haunted with detachments, sent
From Marshal Legion's regiment,
Was by a fiend, as counterfeit,
Reliev'd and rescued with a cheat;
When nothing but himself and fear,
Was both the imps and conjurer:
As, by the rules o' th' virtuosi,
It follows in due form of poesie.
Disguis'd in all the masks of night,
We left our champion on his flight,
At blindman's buff, to grope his way,
In equal fear of night and day :

Who took his dark and desp'rate course,
He knew no better than his horse;

And by an unknown devil led,

(He knew as little whither) fled.

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He never was in greater need,
Nor less capacity of speed;

v. 36. From Marshal Legion's regiment.] Alluding to Stephen Marshal's bellowing out treason from the pulpit, in order to recruit the army of the rebels. He was called The Geneva Bull.

Or roar, like Marshal, that Geneva Bull,

Hell and damnation a pulpit full.

Cleveland's Rebel Scot, Works, 1677, p. 49.

And Dr. Bruno Ryves (Mercurius Rusticus, p. 155,) calls him the Arch Flamen of the rebels. See a further account of him, Walker's History of Independency, part 1, p. 79, 80.

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335

Disabled, both in man and beast,
To fly and run away, his best;
To keep the enemy, and fear,
From equal falling on his rear.

And though with kicks and bangs he ply'd
The further, and the nearer side:

(As seamen ride with all their force,

And tug as if they row'd the horse;
And when the hackney sails most swift,
Believe they lag, or run-a-drift)

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60

So though he posted e'er so fast,
His fear was greater than his haste :

For fear, though fleeter than the wind,

65

Believes 'tis always left behind.
But when the morn began t' appear,

And shift t' another scene his fear,

v. 59, 60. As seamen ride with all their force,-And tug as if they row'd the horse] John Taylor, the Water Poet, (in his tract, entitled, A Navy of Land Ships, p. 87) banters the seamen as bad horsemen. He observes," that mariners are commonly the worst horsemen-as one of them being upon a tired hackney, his companious prayed him to ride faster, he said, he was becalmed. Another mounted upon a foundered jade, that stumbled three or four times headlong; the sailor imagined that his horse was too much laden a-head, or forward on, (as the sea phrase is) and therefore to ballast him, that he might go, or sail with an even keel, he alighted, and filled his jerkin sleeves full of stones, and tied them fast to his horse's crupper, supposing thereby to make his stern as deep laden as his head, to avoid stumbling."

v. 67. But when the morn began t'appear] I have before observed, that we may trace our heroes, morning and night. This particular is always essential in poetry, to avoid confusion, and disputes among the critics. How would they have calculated the number of days taken up in the Iliad, Eneid, and Paradise Lost, if the poets had not been careful to lead them into the momentous discovery? Mr. Butler is as clear in this point as any of them; for from the opening of these adventures, every