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Scotus or Aquinas." Pope speaks of Spenser with delight; "There is something in Spenser," says he, "that pleases one as strongly in one's old age as it did in one's youth. I read 'The Faerie Queene' when I was about twelve, with a vast deal of delight; and I think it gave me as much when I read it over a year or two ago." And Shakspeare has testified his admiration of Spenser in the sonnet in praise of Music and Poetry, printed in "The Passionate Pilgrim," if that sonnet be properly ascribed to him. "The Passionate Pilgrim" was published in 1599; but in the preceding year appeared a Collection of Poems by Richard Barnfield, amongst which this sonnet is found; and, as the publisher of the former has not been very scrupulous, in other instances, in appropriating to Shakspeare property which did not belong to him, there is some reason, from this circumstance, to doubt the propriety of ascribing it to him. It is, however, a pretty sonnet, and would not discredit even Shakspeare. It is deserving of remark, that the expression "dark conceit," which occurs in this sonnet, is also applied by Barnfield to Spenser, in another place.

"If music and sweet poetry agree,

As they must needs,· the sister and the brother,-
Then must the love be great 'twixt you and me,

Because thou lov'st the one and I the other.
Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch
Upon the lute doth ravish human sense;
Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such,

As, passing all conceit, needs no defence.

Thou lov'st to hear the sweet melodious sound

That Phoebus' lute (the Queen of Music) makes;

And I in deep delight am chiefly drown'd

When as himself to singing he betakes:

One God is God of both, (as poets feign;)

One knight loves both, and both in thee remain!"

Of these characters of Spenser, the most precise and appropriate is that of Milton. But although his genius was rather inclined to the grave than the gay, he was not deficient in the power of depicting the light and airy, the festive and the voluptuous. The accuracy of Dryden's expression, "that no man was ever born with a greater genius," cannot be admitted. Spenser is deficient in pathos. Notwithstanding "The Faerie Queene" abounds with

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situations susceptible of the greatest interest, he never succeeds in perfectly engaging our feelings. He is never intensely impassioned. This defect may in some measure be ascribed to the nature of the poem: occupied with a real and an allegorical nature, his attention was necessarily divided; being continually reminded of the propriety of a consistent delineation of allegorical character, he was probably restrained from abandoning himself to the tendencies of his heart. His great excellence is in the description of terror, affright, astonishment, and despair; and in the representation of these passions he sometimes approaches the sublime.

Although Spenser is one of the great names inscribed on the rolls of English poets, he has been much more talked of than read, and less talked of than he really deserves. The perusal of "The Faerie Queene" is confined to comparatively few persons.. That it is not resorted to by general readers is, we conceive, to be ascribed in a great measure to the antiquated diction in which it is written, and to the necessity of preserving the ancient orthography - a necessity which arises from the liberties the poet has taken, in changing the spelling of words, for the sake of rhymes. Hughes tried the experiment of reducing "The Faerie Queene" into modern orthography; the consequence of which is, that Spenser is made in his edition the author of many dissonant rhymes. In the opinion of Malone, however, "The Faerie Queene" is written in the language of the poet's age. From this opinion, as a general one, we are constrained to dissent; for although we are aware that whole stanzas may be produced from this poem, written in the diction then in use, yet a great portion of it is clothed in a more antiquated language, as we think will be evident on a comparison of "The Faerie Queene" with the productions of Daniel, Sidney, and other poets of that period. The language of Spenser's pastorals is cast in a still more ancient mould. The difficulty which the diction of "The Faerie Queene " presents, however, is more apparent than real, and will be overcome by the perusal of a few cantos; and when that difficulty is vanquished, and the gates of the temple are once unlocked, the slight effort which it costs will be amply repaid by the variety of its ornaments, and the beauty of the workmanship.

PHILIP MASTERMAN,

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS

ON

THE FAERIE QUEENE.

IN "The Faerie Queene," we have but a portion of the author's original plan, according to which the poem was to have been completed in twelve books; and, though there is a tradition that it was actually finished, and that the manuscript of the last six books was lost by the carelessness of the person to whom it was intrusted to bring to England, yet the story rests on no sufficient foundation, and is in itself highly improbable. It is much more likely that the sorrows and misfortunes, which clouded the last three years of the poet's life, deprived him of both the will and the power to engage in poetical composition. He has himself sketched the outline which he intended to fill up, in his prefatory letter addressed to Sir Walter Raleigha composition which no one can read without a sigh of regret that so noble a design had not been executed in its whole extent. The portion which we have, beautiful as it is, labors under peculiar disadvantages, since it was the author's intention to bring all his characters back again to the court of the fairy queen, in the Twelfth Book, at the expiration of a year from the period at which they are supposed to have left it; and this book would have contained the introductory and explanatory matter, which, as he himself observes, should have been stated first in a formal history. In this book, all the separate threads of the story were to have been brought together, and the necessary unity given to the whole poem, Had all

the poem been written except the last book, it would still have been incomplete, in the same manner as an arch would be, which contained every stone except the key-stone.

The First Book is entitled the Legend of Holiness, represented in the person of the red-cross knight, or St. George, the tutelary saint of England, through whom the poet was enabled to address at once the patriotic and religious sympathies of his countrymen. To him the fairy queen had assigned the adventure of subduing the dragon by which the kingdom of Una's father was laid waste, and his person endangered. Una herself had gone to the court of the fairy queen to solicit a champion, and, at the commencement of the book, is represented as accompanying the knight upon his expedition. By Holiness is meant spiritual or religious excellence in general; and the various adventures of the knight are emblematic of the struggles and trials by which the religious principle reaches its full stature and mature strength; of the dangers to which it is exposed, and the temptations by which it is assailed. In this point of view we are to regard the knight's contest with Error and her monstrous brood; his successful battle with Sansfoy, or Unbelief; his victory over Sansjoy, or Indifference; his adventures in the House of Pride; his defeat by Orgoglio, &c. In the purity and innocence of Una, we readily recognize the emblem of Truth. Her own nature is one of spotless excellence, and the misfortunes which she endures are never brought about by any misconduct, or even mistake, of her own. But the red-cross knight is not without the human element of imperfection. Whenever he encounters the principles of evil in their true shape, as the paynim knights, Sansfoy and Sansjoy, he prevails in the contest; but when they are veiled with a form of goodness, as in Archimago and Duessa, he becomes their dupe and victim. Archimago, or Arch Magician, is Hypocrisy, or the evil principle, antagonist to goodness generally. He wins the confidence of the knight in the disguise of a reverend hermit, and, by the help of Duessa, or Deceit, separates him from Truth. He becomes a courtier in the House of Pride, and, enervated by self-indulgence, falls an easy prey to the attack of Orgoglio.

Much of this book is susceptible of a theological interpreta

tion. Kirkrapine, in the Third Canto, is, as his name denotes, a spoiler of churches. He is the favored paramour of Abessa, or Ignorance; and Corceca, or Superstition, is too blind to discern his real character. Orgoglio (c. VII.) seems to represent a proud and oppressive hierarchy; and Duessa, in the Eighth Canto, is presented to us with the trappings and appendages with which Protestant zeal has been accustomed to delineate the Romish church. The wasting captivity which the knight endures in the castle of Orgoglio, is, perhaps, emblematic of the violence done to the principles of primitive Christianity by their combination with worldly power and splendor; with the intrigues of ambitious churchmen, and the self-indulgent habits of purple abbots. This form of explanation is sanctioned by the high authority of Sir Walter Scott, who, indeed, views the whole book as susceptible of an ecclesiastical sense. The following passage is contained in a review by him of Todd's Spenser, in the Edinburgh Review for October, 1805:-"The red-cross knight, in the obvious and general interpretation, signifies Holiness, or the perfection of the spiritual man in religion; but, in the political and particular sense, the adventures of St. George bear a peculiar and obvious, though not a uniform, reference to the history of the Church of England, as established by Queen Elizabeth. Thus we find the orthodox church, in its earlier history, surmounting the heresies of the Arians and many others; as the red-cross knight, while animated by the voice of Una, or Truth, destroys the monster Error and her brood. Again, he defeats Sansfoy, but falls into the snares of Duessa, the leman of the vanquished knight. Thus the church, in the reign of Constantine, triumphed over paganism, but was polluted by error in consequence of its accession to temporal sovereignty. Hence its purity was affected by those vices which are described as inhabiting the House of Pride; and, becoming altogether relaxed in discipline, the church was compelled to submit to the domination of the pope. These events are distinctly figured out in the imprisonment of the red-cross knight in the castle of Orgoglio, and in Duessa's assuming the trappings and seven-headed palfrey of the whore of Babylon. Here the poet also seems to have shadowed

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