to B. ii. St. 3.-The allegory is plain from Revel. xvii. 16. These shall hate the WHORE [Dueffa] and shall make her defolate, [make her Ay to the wilderness] and NAKED [fee above St. 45.] Thus we are come to an end of this beautifull allegory. See what pains the common enemy of mankind takes to feparate holinefs from truth: as foon as this point is gained, falfhood attaches herself to holiness; and no adventure fucceeds. Our chriftian knight stands amazed at the plucking of a bough, and feeing it ftream with blood; he ftands amazed, and performs nothing, for holinefs unaffifted with truth and reafon is foon loft in amazement and filly wonderment. He is then conducted to the palace of foolish pride, from which with difficulty efcaping, he fets himself down to reft at the lake of idleness, and drinks of thofe fluggish waters, by which he is rendered feeble; grows unmindful of his militant ftate here upon earth; lays afide his chriftian armour; and foon is reduced to a flavish and miferable condition. The Man of Sin, who has taken holiness captive, decks out falfhood with gold and pearls, and arays her in purple and fearlet. This is the Spiritual Babylon; the spiritual wickedness in high places. And who now fhall redeem holiness thus enthralled? for whom is the victory referved? for the British prince. As I confider this poem to be a moral allegory with hiftorical allufions, fo here methinks (in the leffer view and hiftorical allufion) he intends a complement to the Earl of Leicester and Sir W. Raleigh, both which fo eminently diftinguished themselves in the Proteftant caufe, and in pulling down the papal power in England. CA A I. N TO Goodly golden chayne, wherewith yfere The vertues linked are in lovely wize; And noble mindes of yore allyed were,-] This is the golden chain mentioned in Homer and Milton that joins heaven and earth: and as there is a fympathy between things of like nature in the natural world, fo in the mental and higher order of nature there is union of mind with mind: συγγενὲς πᾶν τὸ λογικόν. M. Anton . iii. 3. The first movir of the caufis above, IX. was known by in Fairy land is plain from St. 6. just below. But fairy knights often conceal'd their real names, and took feigned names: Good manners therefore made her ask, before fhe addreffed him. Una knew not whether Prince Arthur was his real or affumed name; nor does he in his answer resolve this doubt. Our poet (like the romance writers) gives his heroes various titles: St. George is known by the title of the red-croffe knight: Arthegal has the name of the falvage knight: Britomart Whan that he first made the FAIR CHAINE OF paffes for a man; and Una is called the errant LOVE, Grete was th' effect, and hie was his entent, Chaucer's Knight's Tale. 2990. Compare Boetius, Confol. Philofoph. L. ii. Met. ult. and Lib. iii. Met. 2. Compare likewife Chancer's Troil. and Cref. L. iii. v. 1750. where he plainly translates Boetius. And fee B. iv. C. 1o. St. 34, 35. damzell. In imitation of this cuftom and manner of romance heroes, Don Quixote took the title of Knight of the forrowful countenance, afterwards the Knight of the lions; herein following (as he fays himself) the practife of whenever it either ferved their turns or pleased Knights errants, who changed their names, their fancies. Don Quixote, Vol. II. B. i. C. 17. IV. Unto old Timon he me brought bylive; Old Timon, who in youthly yeares hath beene In warlike feates-] I have often obferved that Spenfer varies his names from hiftory, mythology, or romance, agreeable to his own scheme: and here, by faying that Arthur was nurtured by Timon, allegorically he means, that he was brought brought up in the ways of honour: for fo his tutor's name fignifies. In the romance hiftory of prince Arthur, L. i. C. 3. Uther Pendragon by the counsel of Merlin delivers the young prince to be nurtured by Sir Ector.-Unto old Timon he me brought-He agrees with the principal fubftantive in St. 3. viz. the certein fire from which I fprong, namely, Uter Pendragon.-the fary knight there mentioned, is according to Spenfer, Timon, according to the hiftorie of P. Arthur, Sir Ector.-Let us hear our poet's own account in his letter to Sir W. R. Arthur was a long while under the education of Timon, to whom he was by Merlin delivered to be brought up, fo foone as he was borne of the lady Igrayne; during which time he saw in a vifion the Faery Queen, with whofe excellent beautie ravished, he refolved to feeke her out: and fo being by Merlin armed and by Timon throughly inftructed, he went to feek her ⚫ forth in Faery Land.' This does not entirely agree with Spenfer's account in the poem; where 'tis not Merlin that delivers him to be educated by old Timon, the fairy knight; but he, the fire from whom P. Arthur fprung. To reconcile Spenfer with himself, we must interpret--by Merlin delivered--delivered by the counfel of Merlin. See note on the Introd. B. i. St. 2.-Prince Arthur fays, Merlin had charge his difcipline to frame: This is according to the hiftory of P. Arthur, and Jeff. of Monmouth. And hence Ariofto fays, Canto xxiii. 9. That Arthur undertook no enterprize without the counfel of Merlin, Artur, ch' imprefa ancor fenza configlio Del profeta Merlin non fece mai. I It might here likewife be proper to mention that according to Jeffry of Monmouth B. viii. C. 19. and the hiftory of Prince Arthur, B. i. C. 1 and 2. Uther Pendragon was transformed, by the magician Merlin, into the fhape of Gorlois Duke of Cornwall, and thus enjoyed his wife, the fair Igerna, (or Igrayne, as Spenfer calls her and as fhe is called in the hiftory of Prince Arthur,) from whom was born Arthur.But this romance story (as most of them are borrowed from ancient fables) is the fable, with a little alteration, of Jupiter and Alcmena, Ibid. Enfample make of him your hapleffe joy,] viz. the red-croffe knight.-He adds, The fields, the floods, the heavens with one confent Did feeme to laugh AT me, and favour mine intent. Spenfer corrected it, to laugh on me-an expreffion much used, -TIBI RIDENT aequora ponti. Lucret. Heliodorus begins his romance with this poetical figure, Huiças apri diaythons. The father of all poetry uses it, αγέλασσε δὲ πᾶσα περὶ χθών. Η. ix. Spenfer B. ii. C. 6. St. 24. The fields did laugh, Pfalm lxv. 14. The vallies fhall ftand fo thick with corn that they shall laugh and fig. I hence thought that we fhould correct, B. i, That all the boufe did SWEAT with great aray- Under the foot of Rauran-] Rauran-vaur hill is should read, in Merionethfhire. VIII. -You fleeping sparkes awake,] Sopitos ignes. Virg. The very expreffion of Horace, L. iv. Od. 11. Y. 743. RIDET argento DOMUS. And And of Lucretius, L. ii. 27. Nec DOMUS argento fulget, auroque RENIDET. And of Catullus, Queis permulfa DOMUS jucundo RISIT odore. XV. And never vowd to reft-] So the first Edit. but rightly altered in the following, And never vow to reft, till her I fynd: i. e. And I vow never to reft, &c. there is a defigned confufion in the words, like that in Latin, Per ego te deos oro, Terent. Per ego has lacrymas, Virg. iv. 314. See above B. i. C. 5. St. 23. When two of three her nephews are fo fowle forlorne? i. e. when two of her three nephews, &c. XVII. Thine, 6 then faid the gentle red-crofle knight, Next to that ladies love, fhall be the place, O fayreft virgin, full of heavenly light,-] I think I never met with a happier confufion of diction, which the rhetoricians call ouygues, than this which we have now before us. The Sentence is defignedly embarraffed: for the red-croffe knight would not fay, directly, he loved Una better than the Fairy Queen: Q. Elizabeth would not pardon this: and he could not fay he loved the Fairy Queen better than Una: [Chriftian Truth] neither the allegory nor the addrefs would permit this. How then fhall we interpret? The conftruction is, Then the red-croffe knight faid, O Una, the next place to that ladies love fhall be thine--But the oiyxus allows the following and true fenfe, as the allegory required, The next place to thy love, O Una, fairest virgin, full of heavenly light, &c. fhall be that ladies love, the fairy queen.-Thou, Chriftian Truth, I will love firft; my prince I will love next. Our knights do not part without mutual prefents; and this is agreeable to Homer: Diomed and Glaucus, Ajax and Hector, part not without gifts, though engaged in different interefts. Prince Arthur gave a boxe of diamond fure, Embowd with gold Wherein were closd few drops of liquor pure, Of diamond fure, i. e. true and without flaw: embowed with gold, i. e. arched, or fashioned like an arch in gold. Ital. Archegiato. In this box were inclosed few drops of liquor of wondrous worth, That any wound could heale incontinent. That the red-croffe knight had occafion for fuch a prefent may be feen by turning to B. i. C. 5. St. 45. See likewife B. i. C. 7. St. 31. This pretious liquour is mentioned in B. iv. C. 8. St. 20. And these kind of enchanted balfoms and liquours are frequently to be met with in_romance-writers: in imitation of these, Don Quixote endeavours to get the balfam of Fierabras, which cures all wounds. See Don Quix. B. ii. C. 2. and B. iii. C. 3. The Christian knight gives Prince Arthur the New Teftament; and he too (if, with hiftorical allufion, the Earl of Leicester is fhadowed in this allegorical poem) had need of fuch a prefent, or his character is belied. XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV. little, and to fee the order in which the advenAn armed knight] 'Tis worth while to paufe a tures follow each other. Our Chriftian hero cannot but be confcious of his mifbehaviour, in having fuffered his reafon to have been deluded by phantoms and vain apparitions; in suspecting the ever-faithful Una; and in following the fcarlet whore. How naturally after this is the adventure of Despair?-Defperatio is defined by Cicero, Tufc. Difput. iv. 8. Aegritudo fine ullá rerum exfpectatione meliorum. In the allegorical picture of Cebes Aduμía is a female and fifter of Οδυρμος. Oduemos. But the Defpair here pictured is that of a carnal man, lacking the spirit of Chrift, and having before his eyes the fentence of • God's predeftination; and a most dangerous downfall, being thruft by the devil into defperation. Whether Spenfer took the hint (for great wits take hints from lefler things oftentimes) from the hiftory of Q. Cordelia, K. Lear's daughter, related in the Mirrour of Magiftrates; where Defpair appears to Cordelia and advises her to put an end to her wretched Fff life; life, I cannot myself determine; but this I am certain of, he has nobly improved upon an indifferent poem. 'Tis impoffible that any reader fhould be infenfible of the following defcription the images are fo mafterly pointed out by the poet, that you see them as you read them. Still as he fled his eye was backward caft As if his feare ftill followed him behind. Feare may be supposed as a perfon and joined to him as his companion; if fo, it should be printed with a capital letter. TIMOR, et Minae Scandunt eodem quo dominus; neque Decedit aeratâ triremi, et Poft equitem fedet atra CURA. Hor. L. iii. Od. 1. Vide et Lib. ii. Od. 16. His head was unarmed, and his hair ftood an end with fright. Nigh as he drew, they might perceive his head To be unarm'd, AND CURL'D uncombed heares How could his hair be upftaring ftiff AND CURL'D? these words, AND CURL'D, might eafily be printed for UN CURL'D: Nigh as he drew, they might perceive his head his teeth chattering, his colour fled, is very agreeable to Dolon's fituation: Βαμβάνων, ἄραβος δὲ διὰ σόμα γίνετ ̓ ὀδόντων, Ille autem conftitit trepidavitque crepitans dentibus, fridor utique per os fiebat dentium, pallidus præ timore. Il. x. 374. Obferve the breaks and pauses in these verfes of Homer; the very measure seems frightened. Mr. Pope has thus tranflated them, against the trembling wood The wretch flood propp'd, and quiver'd as he flood; But in Spenfer, the artful combination and force of the words, nay the very letters, all together, make fuch a picture, that had I a Raphael's pencil, this ftory, with this point of time, I would endeavour to reprefent, with the dwelling of Despair feen at a proper diftance. Mr. Kent's picture is fcarce worth looking at or mentioning. He answered nought at all but adding new What I faid above of Homer's verses is true of We have these two words, thus joined, in B. iv. these, that the pauses, and breaks, and confuC. 7. St. 40. Uncomb'd, uncurl'd.— The hair of the head is faid to stand upstaring fiff in a fright, ogni pelo arriccioffe, Arioft. Orl. Fur. i. 29. Ogai di reixes rar, Hom. II. w. 359. Steteruntque comae, Virg. iii. 48. If curled were blotted out, the verse would not be the worse, and his uncombed heares Upftaring fliff. fion, describe the very frightened man. He adds, -as one that had afpyde Infernal Furies with their chains untyde. Eumenidum veluti demens videt agmina Pentheus. If the old read-Thus Oreftes in his disturbed imagination fees Virg. iv. 469. the infernal Furies, But I think I have given an easy folution of the difficulty; nor is the omiffion of the connective particle without its elegance. If the old reading is preserved, fomething like the following interpretation may be offered, and his hair ufually curled, but now uncomb'd upflaring fiff. But is not this making any thing from any thing ? we leave it however with our reader. The red-croffe knight having ftopt him and fpoken to him, He answered not at all-Vox faucibus haeret, Virg. iii. 48. I think fuch a picture of a defponding, terrifyed poor creature, in the utmost agonies of fright and despair, was never drawn fo lively by any poet or painter, Homer's picture of Dolon, ftanding aftonifhed, Ω μήτης ἱκετέυω σὲ μὴ ἐπίσειέ μοι Eurip. Oreft. ver. 255. Spenfer makes the fame obfervation, B. ii. C. 5. St. 37. B. ii. C. 8. St. 46: and in other paffages. The frightened or disturbed imagination forms to itself horrid appearances; fees Furies and phantoms, like Pentheus and Oreftes; or dreadful apparitions, like Æneas, Virg. ii. Apparent Apparent dirae facies-or like Nero, Saepe confeffus exagitari fe mat nå fpecie, verberibus Furiarum, ac taedis ardentibus. Suetonius Nerone, C. 34. XXV. For Gods deare love, Sir knight, doe me not stay: For loe! he comes faft after me.] This Speech, with the frequent repetitions, plainly shows a hurried and difturbed mind-The fame obfervation might have been made on St.28. where with many pauses and circumlocutions this disturbed knight describes Despair: he is frightened and in horrour at the very name of him-that villain-that curfed wight-a man of hell-God from him me bleffe!-from whom I juft efcaped-that calls himself Despair. A poet muft have a lively feeling of all thefe images before he can make them fo perfpicuously pass before our very eyes. But indeed no one had ever such a power of raifing vifions and images, as Spenfer. XXVI. and had not greater grace Me reft from it, bad bene partaker of the place.] Our poet, for the fake of rime, with which he is fo fettered, that he can hardly disengage himself oftentimes, takes all the licence that falfe fpelling, various languages, various figures and modes of fpeech, will allow. And here, as locus, which is Latin for place, means fometimes, case, state, condition: and 'tis good Latin to fay, particeps loci et criminis: So he might think this authority fufficient for faying, Partaker of the place, INFERIS. D. DEAP. Q C. VIBIVS. ADVLESCENS XXXI. How may a man, faid he, with idle speech Ibid. His fubtile tong like dropping honny mealt'h Τῶ καὶ ἀπὸ γλώσσης μέλλος γλυκίων ῥίεν ἀνδή. Homer Il. á. 249. i. e. partaker of the fame condition and crime. Cicero de Senectute. Ex ejus linguâ [Neftoris] melle dulcior fluebat oratio. XXIX. bitter-biting grief,] Thus perhaps it should have been printed; and not as two words, bitter and byting griefe, dopológos' Dupodanýs. i. e. heart-byting, heart-gnawing. So in B. i. C. 12. St. 29. Thefe bitter byting wordes; where the fame alteration might be offered. XXX. Cominciò pofcia, e di fua bocca ufcieno XXXIII. Taffo. ii. 61. Far underneath a craggy clift yplight That wofull lover loathing longer light.] Thus Dido reads ypight. He feems to have his eye on is described in Virgil, iv. 450. Tum verò infelix fatis exterrita Dido Mortem orat; taedet caeli convexa tueri. And thus the wofull lovers in the fhades below, who killed themselves, lucem perofi, loathing light, iv. 435. There is an epitaph in Gruter, p. cxiv. upon a young man like Sir Tirwin, hopeleffe and hartleffe, who killed himself through defpaire; and which the reader may not perhaps be difpleafed to fee. Virgil, vi. 434. Proxima deinde tenent maefti loca, qui fibi latum Spenfer's pen conveys his images ftronger than me |