O litelle booke, who yafe thee hardynesse But o thyng wote I wele, go where thou go, To his hyenesse of suche benevolence, Beseche hym of his gracious noblesse Thee holde excusede of thyne innocence Of énditýng; and withe hertés mekenésse, If ony thyng thee passe of necligence, And that, for thy gode hert, he be no fo To thee that allé saiest of loves fervence,That knowethe He that no thyng is hidde fro! Amen. After this faithful strain of the music of peace addressed to the ears of a warrior-king, we may part from Thomas Occleve with praise of him written by an Elizabethan poet, William Browne, when quoting a story of his among eclogues for "The 7 Stay (from the destruction of men, God's handiwork), for reverence to God follow His grace and His benevolence. 8 Kithethe, make known. From First-English "cythan." 90 thing, one thing. 10 If it please his magnificence to act upon thy counsel (by cherishing peace and avoiding bloodshed), his prosperity shall witness to its worth. Shepherd's Pipe." When we of the nineteenth century have printed and read all that Occleve wrote, it will be time enough to consider whether the sixteenth century poet was too eloquent in Occleve's praise, thus sounded: Well I wot, the man that first Sung this lay, did quench his thirst In the Muses Helicon. Many times he hath been seen And where Flora spreads her treasure There are few such swains as he Nowadays for harmonie. And Occleve surely had his share of that which Shakespeare meant when he placed Lorenzo beside Jessica beneath the starry heavens, with his mind opened by love to the music of the universe. Such harmony is in immortal souls; But while this muddy vesture of decay It was in some such sense that the author of "Britannia's Pastorals" ascribed to Occleve commerce with the fairies. Such a plea for Peace as Occleve's, written in the days of Agincourt, is full of significance. The King of England wasted England out of vain ambition to be King of France. He sought by foreign war to occupy the factions that would otherwise breed war against himself at home, and was encouraged to attack France by the factions which then banded Frenchmen against Frenchmen, and made life a burden to the poor. When in the reign of Henry VI. the French wars of invasion closed in failure, our own discords broke loose, and the Civil Wars of York and Lancaster spread desolation. CHAPTER VII. SPENSER'S "FAERIE QUEENE." EDMUND SPENSER, in the year 1580, when he was about twenty-seven years old, had already written a part of his "Faerie Queene." On the 7th of April in that year his friend Gabriel Harvey had the MS. by him, and Spenser was asking for his "longexpected judgment" upon it. Harvey then wrote: "In good faith I had once again nigh forgotten your 'Faerie Queene;' howbeit by good chance I have now sent her home at the last, neither in better nor worse case than I found her. And must you of necessity have my judgment of her indeed? To be plain, I am void of all judgment if your nine comedies, whereunto, in the manner of Herodotus, you give the name of the Nine Muses, and, in one man's fantasy, not unworthily, come not nearer Ariosto's comedies, either for the fineness of plausible elocution, or the rareness of poetical invention, than that elvish Queene doth to his Orlando Furioso,' which, notwithstanding, you will needs seem to emulate, and hope to overgo, as you flatly professed yourself in one of your last letters. Besides that, you know it hath been the usual practice of the most exquisite and odd wits in all nations, and especially in Italy, rather to shew and advance themselves that way than any other; as, namely, those three notorious discoursing heads, Bibiena, Machiavel, and Aretine did (to let Bembo and Ariosto pass), with the great admiration and wonderment of the whole country, being indeed reputed matchable in all points, both for conceit of wit, and eloquent deciphering of matters, either with Aristophanes and Menander in Greek, or with Plautus and Terence in Latin, or with any other in any other tongue. But I will not stand greatly with you in your own matters. If so be the Faery Queen be fairer in your eye than the Nine Muses, and Hobgoblin run away with the garland from Apollo, mark what I say-and yet I will not say that I thought; but there is an end for this once, and fare you well, till God or some good angel put you in a better mind." We learn three things from this comment, which represents an accomplished ephemeral critic judging as usual by the agreement or disagreement of a writer with the forms that suit the fashion of his time. First, we learn that the writing of the "Faerie Queene," which remained by Spenser as the chief work of his life, and was not finished when he died, was begun in his youth. It must have been in hand when he produced his first book, "The Shepherd's Calendar," in 1579, and the opening cantos of the first book may probably have been conceived, or even written, when the poet was not much older than two-and-twenty. They were written certainly not after the age of twenty-six. Next we learn that although Spenser, for the exercise of his wit and the amusement of his friends, wrote much according to what was then the usual practice of "exquisite and odd wits in all nations," and earned high credit from his friend Harvey for his conceit of wit in nine comedies, yet he was so thoroughly conscious of the defect of the style which, after 1579, acquired the name of Euphuism, and so resolved to utter his high imaginings in the simple English of the greatest of his predecessors, that he did not publish one of his nine comedies, or any other work written in Euphuistic style, but steadily pursued the path from which Gabriel Harvey warned him. He looked back to Chaucer as his great master, Tityrus, Who taught me homely, as I can, to make. Now dead he is, and lieth wrapt in lead, (O why should death on him such outrage show!) could utter the true music. Another thing that we learn from this bit of Gabriel Harvey's writing is that Spenser had boldly whispered to his friend that Ariosto's "Orlando" was a poem which he not only "must needs seem to emulate," but had "hope to overgo." Ludovico, son of Niccolo Ariosto, Governor of Reggio, was born on the 8th of September, 1474. He lost his father while, as a young man, he was vainly endeavouring to fasten to the study of the law. At twenty he became, as eldest son, the faithful and prudent guardian of his brothers and sisters. His genius as a poet was well known, and he obtained an uncongenial and grudging patron in the Cardinal Ippolito d'Este. Spanish romances had made their influence felt in Italy, where the Church influence had declined, and camp and court determined more powerfully the course of thought. Count Matteo Maria Boiardo, who had been governor of Reggio, and who died in 1494, had left a Charlemagne romance in verse, "Roland in Love" ("Orlando Innamorato"). He had told how two thousand two hundred and thirty guests were at the court of Charlemagne in Paris when Angelica, fair daughter of an Asiatic king, arrived with an attendance of Whatever four giants and her brother Argalia. knight Argalia might overthrow should become thrall to his sister; whatever knight might overthrow Argalia should have Angelica. All sought the combat; Charlemagne chose ten. Himself, though he was old, he included in the number, and Orlando was the tenth. But Argalia was only strong in an enchanted lance that struck down all it touched. Ferran, the second of the knights of Charlemagne, when down, refused to admit defeat, and challenged to continue combat with the sword. The brother and sister fled to the forest; Ferran 1 For an account of Euphuism see the volume in this Library illustrating" Shorter Works in English Prose," pages 43-49. pursued. Rinaldo and Orlando followed. Ferran overtook and slew Argalia. Rinaldo drank of a magic fountain by which love was changed into hatred for Angelica. Angelica saw Rinaldo asleep after she had been drinking of a fountain that turned hatred to love. He awoke and fled from her. She followed in vain pursuit, became weary, and slept. Orlando came upon her sleeping; Ferran came upon Orlando worshipping. Angelica was roused by the din of the two knights who were fighting for her, and fled again. Ferran then was called away to Spain. Orlando pursued Angelica, who had made her way home by magic art, and employed a magician who sought in vain to make Rinaldo hers; while Orlando, through many adventures not less wonderful than Rinaldo's, sought in vain to make Angelica his. Tremendous wars, enchantments of all kinds, giants, dragons, and the like, made life lively for all the persons of the story. A grand attack on Charlemagne by King Agramant caused Angelica to come with the patiently-hopeful Orlando to her dear Rinaldo's rescue. She drank by the way of the Fountain of Hate, and away went her love for Rinaldo; just at the time when Rinaldo happened to have drunk of the other fountain, and so fallen out of hate into love for her. He found her with his cousin Orlando, and challenged him to fight. Angelica ran away. Charlemagne came to decide the quarrel between his knights. He needed the services of both in war against the Moors. At that point Ariosto resolved to take up the story of Orlando, and after eleven years of the most assiduous and careful labour, he had, in the year 1515, forty cantos ready for the press. There was a second edition in 1516, and a third in 1521, greatly improved. These were printed at Ferrara. In 1526 there was a fourth edition at Milan, there were two more at Venice, with another, still of forty cantos, in 1530; but Ariosto wrote six cantos more before his death in 1533. His patron, the Cardinal, when he presented the first copy of his poem, looked at it slightingly, and asked Ariosto where he had collected all those fooleries. Pope Leo X., when the poet looked to him for aid, had kissed him on each cheek, but given him only that lip-service. The finest poet not of Italy only, but of Europe, in the days of our Henry VIII., was left to poverty, until the death of his unworthy patron the Cardinal brought Ariosto, at the close of his life, into kindlier relations with the Duke Alfonso of Modena. But although the greatest poet of his time, and healthily intent upon the careful polish of his work, Ariosto was born to a time in Italy that did not favour earnestness of thought and word. He wrote the best of Charlemagne romances; yet the grace of its tales of chivalry and enchantment, marked everywhere with the touch of a true artist, was a grace worn with an air of playful half-mockery. The poet put none of his deeper life, or of the deeper life of Europe in his time, into his work. Spenser felt this, and knew the difference between a poem that is only a masterpiece of art and a poem using the same forms, but planned to express through them the deepest convictions and the highest aspirations of a living soul or of a striving people, when he whispered to his friend Gabriel Harvey that he "hoped to overgo the masterpiece that he must needs seem to emulate. It may be added that when Gabriel Harvey was criticising what he had seen of the "Faerie Queene" in 1580, Torquato Tasso was overwhelmed with afflictions. In the following year, 1581, he was in a lunatic asylum, when his "Gerusalemme Liberata" was published. There were six editions of it in that year, and Spenser afterwards, fastening upon it with enjoyment, showed his delight in it by letting its influence upon him appear as he proceeded with the shaping of the "Faerie Queene." Spenser's age was about thirty-seven when he published, in the year 1590, the first three books of the "Faerie Queene," with this introductory letter: LORD WARDEIN OF THE STANNERYES, AND HER MAIESTIES LIEFETENAUNT OF THE COUNTY OF CORNEWAYLL. SIR, Knowing how doubtfully all Allegories may be construed, and this booke of mine, which I have entituled the Faery Queene, being a continued Allegory, or darke conceit, I haue thought good, as well for avoyding of gealous opinions and misconstructions, as also for your better light in reading thereof, (being so by you commanded,) to discover unto you the general intention and meaning, which in the whole course thereof I have fashioned, without expressing of any particular purposes, or by accidents, therein occasioned. The generall end therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline: Which for that I conceived shoulde be most plausible and pleasing, being coloured with an historicall fiction, the which the most part of men delight to read, rather for variety of matter then for profite of the ensample, I chose the historye of King Arthure, as most fitte for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many mens former workes, and also furthest from the daunger of envy, and suspition of present time. In which I have followed all the antique Poets historicall; first Homere, who in the Persons of Agamemnon and Ulysses hath ensampled a good governour and a vertuous man, the one in his Ilias, the other in his Odysseis: then Virgil, whose like intention was to doe in the person of Aeneas: after him Ariosto comprised them both in his Orlando: and lately Tasso dissevered them againe, and formed both parts in two persons, namely that part which they in Philosophy call Ethice, or vertues of a private man, coloured in his Rinaldo; the other named Politice in his Godfredo. By ensample of which excellente Poets, I labour to pourtraict in Arthure, before he was king, the image of a brave knight, perfected in the twelve private morall vertues, as Aristotle hath devised; the which is the purpose of these first twelve bookes: which if I finde to be well accepted, I may be perhaps encoraged to frame the other part of polliticke vertues in his person, after that hee came to be king. To some, I know, this Methode will seeme displeasaunt, which had rather have good discipline delivered plainly in way of precepts, or sermoned at large, as they use, then thus clowdily enwrapped in Allegoricall devises. But such, me seeme, should be satisfide with the use of these dayes, seeing |