T

long since dead, and with him the Titanic brood and Olympian circle of pagan deities. In this point of view, as offshoots of the Greek mythology, and in relation to their traditionary parents and predeorphan, while, as still representing the dark powers and primary forces known as fate, they might be appropriately styled "heirs of fixed destiny.' Ariel, in "The Tempest," it will be remembered, says explicitly, “I and my fellows are ministers of Fate."

crease both the musical flow and imaginative effect of his verse. The name Titania, as thus used, embodies rich and complex associations connected with the silver bow, the magic cup, and the triple crown. It may be said, indeed, to em-cessors, the fairies might well be called brace in one comprehensive symbol the whole female empire of mystery and night belonging to classical mythology. Diana, Latona, Hecate are all goddesses of night, queens of the shadowy world, ruling over its mystic elements and spectral powers. The common name thus awakens recollections of gleaming huntresses in dim and dewy woods, of dark rites and potent incantations under moonlit skies, of strange aërial voyages, and ghostly apparitions from the under-world. It was, therefore, of all possible names the one best fitted to designate the queen of the same shadowy empire, with its phantom troops and activities, in the northern mythology. And since Shakespeare, with prescient inspiration, selected it for this purpose, it has naturally come to represent the whole world of fairy beauty, elfin adventure, and goblin sport connected with lunar influences, with enchanted herbs, and muttered spells. The Titania of Shakespeare's fairy mythology may thus be regarded as the successor of Diana and other regents of the night belonging to the Greek pantheon. Shake speare himself appears to support this view in a line over which a good deal of critical ink has been shed. It occurs in the invocation to the fairies in the "Mer-inal, but sometimes employs it where ry Wives of Windsor."

Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,

Reverting to the name Titania, however, the important point to be noted is that Shakespeare clearly derived it from his study of Ovid in the original. It must have struck him in reading the text of the "Metamorphoses," as it is not to be found in the only translation which existed in his day. Golding, instead of transferring the term Titania, always translates it, in the case of Diana, by the phrase "Titan's daughter," and in the case of Circe by the line Of Circe, who by long descent of Titans'

stocke am borne.

-

Shakespeare could not, therefore have been indebted to Golding for the happy selection. On the other hand, in the next translation of the "Metamorphoses " by Sandys, first published ten years after Shakespeare's death, Titania is freely used. Sandys not only uniformly transfers the name where it occurs in the orig

Ovid does not. In Medea's grand invocations to the powers of night, for example, he translates "Luna" by "Titania."

You moonshine revellers, and shades of night, But this use of the name is undoubtedly
You orphan heirs of fixed destiny,
Attend your office, and your quality.

due to Shakespeare's original choice, and to the fact that through its employment The deities of the Greek mythology in the "Midsummer Night's Dream" it were instruments of destiny or fate, in had become a familiar English word. other words, of the ultimate powers of Dekker, indeed, had used it in Shakethe universe. In the current belief of the speare's lifetime as an established desigMiddle Ages, still firmly held in Shake- nation for the queen of the fairies. It is speare's day, the beings of the Northern clear, therefore, I think, that Shakespeare mythology were the representatives and not only studied the " Metamorphoses successors of the old Greek divinities. in the original, but that he read the difShakespeare indirectly favors this relation not only by the selection of the name Titania for the fairy queen, but in giving to Oberon the designation consecrated by Ovid to Pluto. "Umbrarum dominus," "umbrarum rex," are Ovid's phrases for the monarch of the lower world, and Oberon is by Shakespeare styled "king of shadows." But the great Pan was

ferent stories with a quick and open eye for any name, incident, or allusion that might be available for use in his own dramatic labors. The names, incidents, and allusions which he derived from his study of Ovid being, however, numerous, will require some space, and their detailed illustration must therefore be left over for a separate paper.

THOS. S. BAYNES.

From Macmillan's Magazine.

A LOST POEM BY EDMUND SPENSER.

ing to the thinges forepaste, and divining of thinges to come, maketh a pleasing Analysis of all," it is clear that he does FROM the well-known letters which not mean to bind himself by any very passed between Edmund Spenser and stringent obligations. He gives a sketch Gabriel Harvey "touching the Earth- of his general plan rather as an indication quake in Aprill last and our English re- of the frame of mind in which he wishes fourmed Versifying" we learn that the what he has written to be read, than as a first draught of "The Faerie Queene "definite promise as to what he will write and most likely some of the initial cantos, in future. This preliminary vindication were in existence at least as early as 1579. of his right to begin where he pleases The first three books, however, were not and how he pleases is, indeed, something published till 1589, and the second three, more than an assertion of the poet's prewhich make up all now extant of the poem scriptive privileges. It is a plea on behalf as a consecutive work, not till 1596. The of the peculiarities of Spenser's own inedition of this latter year, which is the dividual genius. His conception of an second edition of the first three books epos is essentially different from that of and the first edition of the last three, other epic writers. Homer gives us a contains the whole of the poem printed helmet of antique gold embossed with during the poet's lifetime. Spenser him- shapes of gods and men, but the form self seems to have remained in London and outline of the helmet is his first care. for the express purpose of seeing it Spenser gives us a queenly necklace of through the press, and the volume repre- pearls, strung on a silken thread. The sents the final form in which the author thread is hidden: the worth of the work gave his great work to the world. To lies in the quantity and quality of the the previous instalment of three books pearls. But whatever may have been had been annexed a letter from the author Spenser's wishes and intentions when he to Sir Walter Raleigh, expounding his published his first three books in 1590, whole intention in the course of this he was no longer of the same mind when worke," his "whole intention" being "to he published his six books in 1596. The pourtraict in Arthure before he was king letter to Sir Walter Raleigh containing the image of a brave knight perfected in the manifesto of his design is altogether the twelve private morall vertues as Aris- suppressed. There is no hint throughout totle hath devised; the which is the pur- the volume that the author considered his pose of these first twelve bookes: which work unfinished, or had any intention of if I finde to be well accepted, I may be adding to it.* The poem is committed to perhaps encoraged to frame the other the world as ended if not consummated, part of politicke vertues in his person and a careful survey of the internal eviafter that hee came to be king." Then, dence discloses no promise of any conafter explaining that the method of a templated completion. Had Spenser real'poet historical" differs from that of the ly meant to finish "The Faerie Queene historiographer, he proceeds: on the scheme he originally sketched out, it would be very difficult to account for such an omission, an omission which, as Spenser superintended the production of the volume, cannot well have been other than intentional. It is true that there is no attempt to round the various parts of the poem into a connected whole. Such a task would have been impossible. This "Faerie Queene" is not a cathedral of Beauvais, where the colossal choir among its disproportionate surroundings records the fate of over-sanguine ambitions: it is

66

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"The beginning therefore of my history, if it were to be told by an historiographer, should be the twelfth booke, which is the last; where I devise that the Faery Queene kept the annuall feaste XII dayes; uppon which XII severall dayes, the occasions of the XII severall adventures hapned, which, being undertaken by XII several knights, are in these XII books severally handled and discoursed." Whether these passages are to be understood as implying a definite intention on Spenser's part at the time to complete even "these XII books," may well be a matter of question. When in the same letter he asserts the distinction between the poet and the historian in so marked a manner, and declares that "a Poet thrusteth into the middest, even where it most concerneth him, and there recours

* Unless, indeed, we except the half-line [F. Q. VI. 5, ii. 91"When time shall be to tell the same," to which Mr. Hales has drawn attention. The utmost, however, that this passage renders probable, for it proves nothing, is that at the time it was written Spenser intended to recount the antecedents of the "salvage man," a very different thing to completing "The Faerie Queene."

rather one of Hausmann's boulevards, | doubtedly by Spenser, which it might be which comes to an end at a street-corner, possible to palm off as a part of "The not because it could not be continued in Faerie Queene" supposed to be irreexactly the same style for any number coverably lost, he would hardly scruple to of leagues further, but simply because it suppress any telltale introductory verse is not wanted. And, in fact, Spenser or verses it might have possessed in MS., must have felt that the world wanted no with a view to rendering his new book more "Faerie Queene." In 1579 the more irresistibly tempting to the British conception of the poem was an inspira- public. But however this may be, there tion. In 1596 its continuation would can be no doubt on the mind of any carehave been an anachronism. The work is ful reader that these two cantos have no the first great outcome of a literary revo- real connection whatever with "The Faelution which had already culminated. rie Queen." They form, in fact, a comWhen "The Faerie Queene was complete and highly finished poem, with a menced, Sidney had not yet written his distinct beginning, middle, and end of its "Arcadia." When the six books were own, and, though similar in form to "The published, Shakespeare had produced "Hamlet."

Faerie Queene," utterly different from it in matter and in aim. The suggested title, as a title of any book of "The Faerie Queene," is simply out of the question. It is by no means clear what Spenser considered "the twelve private morall vertues as Aristotle hath devised;" but, at all events, (6 constancie is not among them as distinguished from fortitude. This, however, is simply an editorial blunder, though it is one into which no editor could have fallen had the cantos really formed part of "The Faerie Queene." Lengthy and fantastic as are some of Spenser's digressions, there is no single canto, much less two consecutive cantos, of "The Faerie Queene," entirely destitute, as these cantos are, of any reference to the business or to any one character of the poem. Here is no knight nor damsel, prince nor archimage, no sight nor sound of the Arthurian faery-land; only gods, and Titans, and personified phenomena of the universe holding high palaver in the celestial spaces. But a brief analysis of the poem itself will most clearly show its absolute independence of "The Faerie Queene."

Up to the present time, however, the opinion that Spenser intended to complete "The Faerie Queene has almost universally prevailed, and it has been corroborated by evidence which at first sight would seem to be conclusive. In 1609, ten years after Spenser's death, appeared the first collected edition of his works in folio. In this volume, for the first time, is printed the very striking and significant poem which in this and all subsequent editions follows on at the end of "The Faerie Queene under the heading: "Two cantos of Mutabilitie: which both for forme and matter, appeare to be parcell of some following booke of the Faerie Queene, under the legend of constancie." The editor, if indeed the volume had any other editor than Matthew Lownes the printer, prints the poem accordingly as if it were the sixth and seventh cantos of some lost book of "The Faerie Queene," with a fragment of an eighth. Now supposing the editor to have been simply an honest blunderer, the palpable inference from this heading is that in some way or other he had be- Mutability, then, or Change for Spencome possessed of this poem, and finding ser uses both names indifferently—is a it written in the same metre and style as daughter of the Titans, who aspires to "The Faerie Queene" had come to the gain rule and dominion as a goddess. conclusion that it probably formed part of She first manifests her power on earth by that poem; and thereupon, arbitrarily, if destroying old order, cursing those who not allegorically, placed his sixes and were created blessed, and breaking all sevens at the head of the cantos. The laws of nature, justice and policy. Havvery phrase, “appeare to be," is abso- ing thus brought all things on earth into lutely conclusive against his having any subjection to her tyranny, she next atauthoritative information on the subject. tempts the empire of heaven. She climbs If, however, it is justifiable to hint a through the regions of the air and fire to doubt as to Matthew Lownes, or whoever the circle of the moon, and endeavors to the real culprit may have been, being hurl the moon-goddess from her throne. quite so scrupulously conscientious as all Cynthia withstands her, and the Titaness of Spenser's later editors, it may be sur- raises her golden wand to strike her. An mised that if he were fortunate enough eclipse darkens the world, and the gods by any means to "acquire" a poem un-in terror fly to the palace of Jove to im

brother.

Then weigh, O soveraigne Goddesse, by what right

plore succor. Jove thereon despatches | Seeking for Right, which I of thee entreat, Mercury to the circle of the moon to sum- Who right to all dost deale indifferently, mon the intruding Titaness before his Damning all wrong and tortious injurie own tribunal. She replies defiantly that Which any of thy creatures do to other, she cares nought for the messenger nor Sith of them all thou art the equall mother, Oppressing them with power unequally, the sender of the message, but seeks do- And knittest each to each as brother unto minion over all the gods. The gods assemble, and while they are discussing the situation, Mutability suddenly appears before them to assert her claims in person. Jove, undismayed, commands her to speak. "I am a daughter," she answers, "by the mother's side of Earth, the child of Chaos; but by the father's side of Titan, whose sons thou hast wrongfully defrauded of the rule of heaven, which is their birthright." Jove seizes his burning levin-brand to strike the blasphemous usurper,

But when he looked on her lovely face,
In which faire beames of beauty did appeare
That could the greatest wrath soone turne to
grace,

Such sway doth beauty even in heaven beare,
He staid his hand;

and tells her "in milder wise," that it is
granted to none to challenge the title of
the gods. The Titaness refuses to ac-
cept Jove's decision, but appeals from him
to the great father of gods and men, the
god of nature. The time and place are
appointed for the hearing of the appeal;
the place-evidently out of celestial con-
sideration for the poet-reporter- being
Arlo Hill, near Kilcolman Castle, Done-
raile, County Cork, Munster, Ireland.
Here is interposed a long topographical
allegory to account for the presence of
thieves and wolves in that part of the
world, interesting mainly as fixing the
date of the poem certainly later than the
beginning of 1592, and probably later than
the return of Spenser to Ireland in 1597.
With this digression the first canto ends.
The second tells us how the gods and all
other creatures assemble on Arlo Hill.

Then forth issewed, great goddess, great dame
Nature,

With goodly port and gracious majesty,
Being far greater and more tall of stature
Than any of the gods or powers on hie;
Yet certes by her face and physnomy
Whether she man or woman inly were,
That could not any creature well descry;
For with a veile that wimpled everywhere
Her head and face was hid that mote to none

appeare.

Mutability pleads her cause, and she pleads well:

To thee, O greatest Goddesse, onely great,
An humble suppliant, loe, I lowely fly,

These gods do claime the world's whole sov-
erainty,

And that is onely dew unto thy might
Arrogate to themselves ambitiously:
As for the gods' owne principality,
Which Jove usurps unjustly, that to be
My heritage Jove's selfe cannot denie,
Deriv'd by dew descent as is well knowen to
From my great grandsire Titan unto mee

thee.

Yet mauger Jove and all his gods beside
I do possesse the world's most regiment,
As if ye please it into parts divide,
And every part's inholders to convent,
Shall to your eyes appeare incontinent.

Earth, water, air, fire are all, she asserts, subject to change, and consequently her own by right. When she has thus opened her case, she calls as witnesses to substantiate her claim the four seasons of the year, the months, day and night, the hours, then life, and lastly death.

When these were past, thus gan the Titanesse : "Lo, mighty mother, now be judge, and say Whether in all thy creatures more or lesse CHANGE doth not raign and bear the greatest sway?

The appellant's case concluded, Jove,
the respondent, makes reply. True it is,
he admits, that all things are changed by
time. But who is it, he asks,
That Time himselfe doth move, and still com-
pell

To keepe his course? Is not that namely wee
Which poure that vertue from our heavenly

cell