O Phœbus! you, whose eye the world surveys,
Ne'er view'd a line like this, whose deathless praise,
In peace and war, shall fill the lips of fame;
Whose blooming honours shall endure the same,
(Or vain the light prophetic in my soul)

While Heaven, unchanging, whirls around the pole.
To blazon all their virtues would require
Not my weak lute, but that immortal lyre,

15

On which, the giants quell'd, you sung above
The grateful praises of eternal Jove!

20

O! should you here the wish'd-for aid impart,
And to the subject raise the sculptor's art;
Each noble image shall my fancy fill,
To challenge all my genius, all my skill;
Then what at first I may but roughly trace,
By slow degrees shall ripen into grace;
Till crown'd by you, I see with joyful eyes
Each labour'd form to full perfection rise.

But let the muse to him the story bend,

25

Whose breast, nor shield, nor cuirass could defend; 30 The treacherous Pinabel, who hop'd in vain

With murderous guile the damsel to have slain.

More ample spirit than hitherto was wont
Here needs me, while the famous ancestries
Of my most dreaded sovereign I recount,
By which all earthly princes she doth far surmount.

Again......

Argument worthy of Mconian quill,

Or rather worthy of great Phœbus' rote,
Whereon the ruins of great Ossa hill,

And triumph of Phlegræan Jove he wrote.

B. ii. C. x.

The traitor deem'd her in the cavern dead,
And, with a visage pale through guilty dread,
The place, polluted by his crime, forsook,
Then instant speeding back, his courser took :
That every action might his soul betray,
He with him bears the virgin's steed away.
But leave we him, who while his craft is shown
To seek another's fall, procures his own;
And turn to her, who nearly scap'd the doom,
In one sad hour to find her death and tomb.
Soon as the maid again from earth was rais'd,
With the hard shock and sudden fall amaz'd,
She enter'd boldly through the gate, which gave
An entrance to the second, larger cave.

The building, square within, and spacious made,
A stately temple to the sight display'd.
Magnificent the sumptuous pile appear'd,
On pillars fair of alabaster rear'd.

An altar in the midst; and kindled bright,
A lamp before, cast round a trembling light.

35

40

45

50

Soon as the damsel view'd, with pious mind,

This sacred place for holy rites design'd,
Devoutly on her knees the earth she press'd,

55

And to the king of Heaven her prayers address'd.

Meantime a sudden jarring sound was heard,
When from a narrow gate a dame appear'd,

Ver. 39. But leave we him,---] The story of Pinabello is continued, B. xx. ver. 803.

Ver. 58.---a dame appear'd,] Melissa, an enchantress; a character introduced by Ariosto, who, throughout the poem, interests herself in all the concerns of Rogero and Bradamant.

Ungirt, with feet unshod, with hair display'd,
Who, by her name address'd the warrior-maid.
And thus, O generous Bradamant! (she said)
Not without Heaven's appointment hither led,
Merlin foretold, that by a passage new

60

Thou shouldst, descending here, his relics view;
And hence I stay'd, to set before thy eyes

65*

The glorious fate predestin'd in the skies.
Behold this ancient cave, by Merlin wrought,
Merlin, in every art of magic taught:

Here with bewitching looks, and wiles prepar'd,
The lady of the lake his heart ensnar'd.

70

Ver. 67.---by Merlin wrought,] According to Jeffery of Monmouth, the famous magician Merlin was born at Kaermardin, i. e. Caermar. then, named by Ptolemy, Maridunum. Merlin's mother, who was a niece and daughter of the king of Demetia, (or South Wales) giving an account of her wonderful conception of her son, a philosopher explains it, that it was some demon, or incubus, "some guileful spright," partaking partly of the nature of man, partly of angels, and assuming a human shape, which begot Merlin; and this explains what Ariosto says, that Merlin was the son of a demon.

Di Merlin dico, del demonio siglio.

C. xxxiii.

Drayton, in his Polyolbion, song V. thus sings of Merlin, who was born at Caermarden:

Of Merlin and his skill what region doth not hear?
Who of a British nymph was gotten, whilst she play'd
With a seducing spirit........

Thus Spenser,......

And sooth men say he was not the son
Of mortal sire, or other living wight,
But wond'rously begotten and begun,
By false illusion of a guileful spright
On a fair lady......

Fairy Queen, B. iii. C. iii.

His sepulchre is here, whose womb contains
The deathless spirit, and decay'd remains:
To this he by her blandishments was led,
And what receiv'd alive, detains him dead.

It is said that Merlin intended to build a wall of brass round Maridunum; and so says Drayton, Polyolbion, song IV.

How Merlin by his skill and magic's wond'rous might
From Ireland hither brought the Stonendge in a night;

And for Caermarden's sake would fain have brought to pass
About it to have built a wall of solid brass;

And set his fiends to work upon the mighty frame;
Some to the anvil; some that still enforc'd the flame;
But whilst it was in hand, by loving of an elf

(For all his wond'rous skill) was cozen'd by himself.
For walking with his fay, her to the rock he brought
In which he oft before his necromancies wrought,
And going in thereat his magics to have shown,
She stopt the cavern's mouth with an inchanted stone:
Whose cunning strongly crost, amaz'd whilst he did stand,
She captive him convey'd into the fairy land.

Then how the lab'ring spirits to rocks by fetters bound,

With bellows rumbling groans, and hammers thund'ring sound,

A fearful horrid din still in the earth do keep,

Their master to awake; suppos'd by them to sleep;

As at their work how still the grieved spirits repine,
Tormented in the fire, and tired in the mine.

Spenser again,

............A little while,
Before that Merlin dy'd, he did intend
A brazen wall in compass to compile
About Caermarthen, and did it commend
Unto his sprights to bring to perfect end;
During which time the lady of the lake,
Whom long he lov'd, for him in haste did send,
Who therefore forc'd his workmen to forsake,
Them bound till his return, their labour not to slake.

In the mean time by that false lady's train,
He was surpriz'd and bury'd under bier,
Ne ever to his work return'd again, &c.

B. iii. C. iii.

His living soul must with his corse repose,

Till the last trump the fatal angel blows:
Then shall the just award his deeds requite,
With sin polluted, or with virtue white.

75

This lady of the lake appears to have been a fairy or nymph, with whom Merlin was enamoured: the story of her deceiving him is thus related in the romance called Morte Arthur, or the life and death of prince Arthur, printed by Caxton in 1485.

"The lady of the lake and Merlin departed; and by the way, as they went, Merlin shewed to her many wonders, and came into Cornwaile: And alwaies laid about the lady for to have her favour; and she was ever passing weary of him, and fain would have been delivered of him; for she was afraid of him, because he was a divells sonne, and she could not put him away by no means. And so, upon a time it hapned that Merlin shewed to her a roche (rock) whereas a great wonder, and wrought by inchantment, which went under a stone, so by her craft and working she made Merlin to go under that stone, to let him wit of the marvailes there. But she wrought so there for him, that he never came out, for all the craft that he could doe."

B. i. C. lx.

But in the life of Merlin, this adventure is related with circumstances nearer the account given by our author.

"Merlin's mother having secretly conceived by a demon, was, after her delivery, condemned to be put to death, for breach of chastity; but her son, an infant, defended, and set his mother at liberty. Merlin, being grown up, went to the court of Uther Pendragon, where he established the famous round table, wrought many wonderful works, and uttered a number of prophesies; here he fell in love with the lady of the lake, whom he used to call the white serpent; before his death he erected a tomb, in the forest of Nortes, capable to hold him and his mistress; and having shewed it her, he taught her a charin that would close the stone, so that it could never be opened. The lady, who secretly hated him, began one day to caress him exceedingly, and at last made him go into the tomb, in order to try whether it was large enough: Merlin, being entered, she closed the stone upon him, where he died: his spirit being likewise confined by the force of the spell, continued from time to time to speak, and to give answers to such questions as were put to him."