"After them doth Hymen hie as fast, _Clothed in sable_ and a saffron robe."
"Saw you not a lady come this way on a sable horse _studded with stars_ of white?"
Beaumont and Fletcher's _Philaster_, Act iv.
"A sweet _vermilian tincture_ stained The bride's fair cheek."
Quarles' _Argalus and Parthenia_, p. 118. ed. 1647.
"The fortunate who bathe in floods of joys."
E. of Sterline's _Works_, p. 251. ed. 1637.
The Country Life, Herrick's _Hesperides_, p. 269.
On l. 853. (G.) Compare this line of Drayton in his _Baron's Warrs_:--
"Of gloomy magicks and benumbing charms."
"Through whose _translucent_ sides much light is born."
Ph. Fletcher's _Pur. Island_, C. 5. St. 31. p. 54.
"All hundred nymphs, that in his rivers dwell, About him flock, with water-lilies crowned."
Ph. Fletcher's _Poet. Miscell._, p 67. ed. 1633.
On l. 863. (G.) The use of Ambergris, mentioned in Warton's note, appears from Drayton, v. ii. p. 483.:--
"Eat capons cooked at fifteen crowns apiece, With their fat bellies stuft with ambergrise."
"The wealth of Tarsus nor the _rocks of pearl_, _That pave the court of Neptune_, can weigh down That virtue."
Beaumont and Fletcher's _Philaster_, Act iv.
"Beset at th' end with emeralds and turches."
Lingua iv. 4. _Old Plays_, v. 5. p. 202. ed. 1780.
On l. 924. (M.) Mr. Warton says this votive address was suggested by that of Amoret in the _Faithful Shepherdess_; but observes that "the form and subject, rather than the imagery, is copied." In the following maledictory address from Ph. Fletcher's 2nd eclogue, st. 23., the imagery is precisely similar to Milton's, the good and evil being made to consist in the fulness or decrease of the water, the clearness or muddiness of the stream, and the nature of the plants flowing on its banks:--
"But thou, proud Chame, which thus hast wrought me spite, Some greater river drown thy hatefull name; Let never myrtle on thy banks delight; But willows pale, the leads of spite and blame, Crown thy ungratefull shores with scorn and shame: { 150} Let dirt and mud thy lazie waters seize, Thy weeds still grow, thy waters still decrease; Nor let thy wretched love to Gripus ever cease."
See also the "Masque," in Beaumont and Fletcher's _Maid's Tragedy_, Act I. vol. i. p. 17. edit. 1750.