All night the chiefs before their vessels lay,
And lost in sleep the labours of the day:
All but the king; with various thoughts oppressed
His country's cares lay rolling in his breast.
[402] The gossamer, which is spun in autumn by a species of spider that has the power of sailing in the air, was formerly supposed to be the product of sun-burnt dew. Thus Spenser speaks of
———The fine nets which oft we woven see
Of scorched dew.
[403] Milton of the wings of Raphael, Par. Lost, v. 283:
And colours dipped in heav'n;
Sky-tinctured grain.—Wakefield.
[404] The comets.
[405] "Did you ever," says Dennis, "hear before that the planets were rolled by the aerial kind?" and Pope writes on the margin "expressly otherwise." He states that the "ethereal" kind are described down to ver. 80, and that the "aerial kind" are the "less refined" beings who dwell "beneath the moon." Clearly the distinction had not occurred to him when he wrote the poem, for he calls both kinds "aerial" at ver. 76.
[406] In the first edition:
Hover, and catch the shooting stars by night.
Dryden's Flower and Leaf: