Mr. Upton produces the expression of sheres the liquid sky, as one of Spenser's La w tinisms, from radit iter liquidum; and adds, that Milton has likewise used the same Latin metaphor; I suppose the passage hinted at by Mr. Upton, is, where Satan Shaves with level wings the deep*. But shave and shear are perhaps as different as rado and tondeo. And tondet iter liquidum would, I believe, be hardly allowed as synonymous to radit iter liquidum. My opinion is, therefore, that Spenser here intended no metaphor, but that he used shere for share, to cut or divide, as he has manifestly in this instance. Cymocles sword on Guyons shield yglaunst 2. 6. 31. *Paradise Lost, b. ii. v. 34. "cut away nigh one quarter." And in the following instances, for the reason above assigned, we ought to interpret sheare [shere] to cut, or divide. In Colin Clout it is literally used for divided. • Paradise Lost, b. vi. ver. 326. First into manie partes his streame he shar❜d. In the Ruins of Rome, for cut. So soone as fates their vital thread had shorne. And in Skelton. In time of harvest men their corne shere”. So in Gower. And manie [herbs] with a knife she shereth †. Hence share is used substantively, in the same sense, A large share it hew'd out of the rest. 1.2. 18. Hence too, shard, aliquid divisum, exsectum, as in potshard, Ps. ii. v. 9. and our author, 6. 1. 37. The fragments of earthen ware. * Pag. 121. ed. ut supr. + Confessio Amantis, lib. v. fol. 105. edit. Berthelette, 1554. fol. Tile-shard is a common word in many parts of the kingdom. Shakespeare's shard-born beetle, means a beetle produced, or generated, among such fragments or broken pieces of refuse stuff; and is a fine stroke of that poet's accurate observation of nature. SECT. X. Of Spenser's Allegorical Character. IN reading the works of a poet who lived in a remote age, it is necessary that we should look back upon the customs and manners which prevailed in that age. We should endeavour to place ourselves in the writer's situation and circumstances. Hence we shall become better enabled to discover how his turn of thinking, and manner of composing, were influenced by familiar appearances and established objects, which are utterly different from those with which we are at present surrounded. For want of this caution, too many readers view the knights |