Id. ib.

Thefeus. The pale companion is not for our pomp.]

I am apt to believe the author gave it, That pale companion; which has more force. And befides the moon, another pale companion was to be witness to the marriage pomp and folemnity, as Hippolita had faid juft before. The moon, &c. Anon.

Shakespeare calls the moon the pale companion of the night. Two gentlemen of Verona. Act iv. fc. ii. And again; first part of king Henry the Fourth. Act i. fc. iv.

Thef. Hippolita, I woo'd thee with my fword; and won thy love, doing thee injuries.]

Alluding to Thefeus's conquering the Amazons, and carrying away Hippolita (by others call'd Antiope. See Plutarch's life of Thefeus) their queen. Exprefs'd by Chaucer, Knight's Tale. 861, &c.

66

Whylome as oldè ftories tell in us,

There was a (a) Duke, that highte Thefeus, " Of

(a) Thefeus after the death of his father Egeus, (which happened in an extraordinary manner, according to Plutarch) was king of Athens, but turn'd it into a commonwealth which he divided into three diftinct ranks, of noblemen, husbandmen, and artificers, Plutarch ob

"Of Athens he was lord, and governour,
"And in his time foche a conquerour,
"That greter was there non under the fon :
"Full many a rich countrye had he wonn,
"What with his wifdome, and his chivalrie,
"He conquer'd all the reign of Feminie,
"That whilome was yclepid Scythia:
"And weddid the quene call'd Hypolita,
"And brought hir home with him to his
"countrie,

"With mikill glorie and folempnitie,
"And eke hir yongè fifter Emelie.
"And thus with victorie, and melodie,
"Let I this worthy duke to Athens ryde,
" And all his hoft in armis him befide.
"And certis if it nere to long to here,
"I would have tolde fully the manere,
"How wonning was the reign of Feminie,
By Thefeus, and by his chevalrie.

of Scythia,

"And of the grete bataile for the nones, "Betwixt Athenis and the Amazoneș, "And how befegit was Hyppolita, "The faire, yonge, hardie quene. "And of the fefte that was at their wedding, "And of the tempeft at their home-coming, "But al these thynges I mote as now forbere, "I have, God wot, a large felde to ere,

And

ferves from Ariftotle, that Thefeus was the firft, who, out of an inclination to popular government, parted with the regal power which he says, Homer alfo feems to witnefs in his catalogue of fhips, where he gives the name of people to the Athenians-only.

"And wekid ben the oxen in the plow. "The remnant of my tale is long inow.

To this story Butler humorously alludes, Hudibras, Part 3. Canto 3. 375, &c.

" "Tis plain you cannot now do worfe
"Than take this out-of-fafhion'd course,
"To hope by ftratagem to woo her,
"Or waging battle to fubdue her:

Though fome have done it in romances, "And bang'd them into amorous fancies, "As thofe who won the Amazons, "By wanton drubbing of their bones.

Sc. 2. Lyf. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends.] Choice of merit. Fol. edit. 1632.

Id. ib. Swift as a fhadow, fhort as any dream.] Man's life is compared to a fhadow and a dream, in feveral paffages of fcripture.

Id. ib. Brief as the lightning in a collied night.] In a black dark night. A black fox is call'd a col. foxe by Chaucer, Nonne's Prieft's Tale, 1330.

Act i. fc. iii. p. 101. Helen to Hermione..

Helen. Your eyes are load ftarres, &c,] A high compliment, and 'tis ufed as fuch by Chaucer, Skelton, Sir Philip Sidney, Spenfer, and others.

"Who seeth you now my right lode fterre." Troilus and Crefeide. Lib. 5. 232. "For love of Jovis my right lode fterre." See La Belle Dame Sans.

Ib. p. 1391.

Mercy. 257.

Skelton, poet laureat to king Henry VIII, calls Mrs. Margaret Tylney, lode sterre of light. Crownee of lawrell. Works, p. 40.

And in his boke of Philip Sparow. "Goodly maiftres Jane, "Sobre, demure Diane,

"Jane. This maiftres hight "The lode ftar of delight.

So Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia. p. 101. edit. 1674.

. Mopfa was the load ftarre of my life. And again, p. 165. fpeaking to princess Pamela:

66

"Be not (most excellent lady) you, that nature has made to be the load ftarr of "comfort, be not the rock of fhipwrack.

The expreffion used in the fame fenfe by Spenfer, Sonnet. 34.

My Helice the load ftar of my life.

And in the Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimis is mad again. Act 3. by Balthofar to Belimperia. Sir John Maundevile in his voiages and travailes, Chap. 17. fpeaking of Lemery, faith. "In that londe, as in many others bezonde,

no man may fee the fterre tranfmontane, "that is clept the sterre of the fee, that is un"mevable; and that is towards the northe "that we clepen the lode ferre. But men feene 66 an other sterre the contrarie to him, that is "towards the fouthe, that is clept antartyk;. "and right as the fchippemen takin avys here, "and govern 'hem by the lode fterre, right fo

"da

"do schipmen bezonde the parties, be the fterre "of the fouth, which terre appereth not to us. "And the fterre which is toward the northe, "which is clepen the ode fierre, ne appereth not to "hem.”

Spenfer likewife alludes to it, as a direction to failors. Fairy Queen. Book 3. Canto 4. 53. "Tho', when her ways he could no more “defcry,

"But to and fro at difadventure ftray'd, "Like as a fhip who lead ftar fuddenly, "Cover'd with clouds, her pilot hath difmay'd; "His wearifome purfuit perforce he ftay'd, "And from his lofty fteed difmounting low, “Did let him forage.

And in Virgil's Gnat. p. 1165. The load fterre is faid in the Glossary to Chaucer, to be the north ftarre, by which sailours fteer their courfe. And in that fenfe Chaucer refers to it, in his Ballade in praise of our ladie. 22. &c.

Ibid. Things bafe and vile.] Vilde as before, Fol. edit. 1632.

Sc. iv. You were beft to call them generally man by man, according to the fcrip.] Scrip was formerly used in the fame fenfe with script, and fignified a fcrip of paper, or any manner of writing. Called fcripe in Chaucer, Troilus and Crefeide. Lib. 2. 1130.

“But all her humble chere Gan for to chaungin; and faid fcripe nor bill,

"For