Spenser: SelectionsClarendon Press, 1923 - 208 pages |
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Page v
... in learning and the main interest in their own neo - Latin literature was imitation . To write prose like Cicero's , verse like Virgil's , was the ideal that animated them ; Greece and Rome had produced the great Introduction.
... in learning and the main interest in their own neo - Latin literature was imitation . To write prose like Cicero's , verse like Virgil's , was the ideal that animated them ; Greece and Rome had produced the great Introduction.
Page vii
... verse and language , and still more labour in the acquisition of the technical skill required to exploit that medium . Spenser could feel that Chaucer had a master's control over language and metre , but the language was not Spenser's ...
... verse and language , and still more labour in the acquisition of the technical skill required to exploit that medium . Spenser could feel that Chaucer had a master's control over language and metre , but the language was not Spenser's ...
Page xii
... verse and style are unmistakably his own . Only a powerfully poetic mind could assimilate the learning which had defeated Ronsard and combine it with the romance which had misled Ariosto , and though the fusion is not always complete ...
... verse and style are unmistakably his own . Only a powerfully poetic mind could assimilate the learning which had defeated Ronsard and combine it with the romance which had misled Ariosto , and though the fusion is not always complete ...
Page 8
... verse , nor the high raised tone of Milton's ; but it is the per- fection of melting harmony , dissolving the soul in pleasure , or holding it captive in the chains of suspense . Spenser was the poet of our waking dreams ; and he has ...
... verse , nor the high raised tone of Milton's ; but it is the per- fection of melting harmony , dissolving the soul in pleasure , or holding it captive in the chains of suspense . Spenser was the poet of our waking dreams ; and he has ...
Page 10
... verse , very clearly distinguish- able from the deeper and more inwoven harmonies of Shakspeare and Milton . This stanza is a good instance of what I mean : - Yet she , most faithfull ladie , all this while Forsaken , wofull , solitarie ...
... verse , very clearly distinguish- able from the deeper and more inwoven harmonies of Shakspeare and Milton . This stanza is a good instance of what I mean : - Yet she , most faithfull ladie , all this while Forsaken , wofull , solitarie ...
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Common terms and phrases
againe allegory answer appeare armes backe beare beauty Book bring called Canto Colin daughter dead deare death delight doth downe earth English excellent eyes face Faerie Queene faire fall fayre feare fell fresh gentle goodly grace ground hand happie hart hath head heard heare heaven heavenly himselfe honour king knight Lady land late learned leave lesse light living looke matter meane mind mote Muses nature never noble notes nought passe person pipe poetry Poets Prince rest ring sayd seeme selfe shepheard sight sing song soone sore soule sound Spenser sweet tell thee theyr things thou thought tree unto verse vertue Virgil whiles wide wings wont woods worthy wound
Popular passages
Page 3 - Eftsoones they heard a most melodious sound, Of all that mote delight a daintie eare, Such as attonce might not on living ground, Save in this Paradise, be heard elsewhere : Right hard it was for wight which did it...
Page 27 - I can tell the particular little chance that filled my head first with such chimes of verse, as have never since left ringing there: for I remember, when I began to read, and to take some pleasure in it, there was wont to lie in my mother's parlour (I know not by what accident, for she herself never in her life read any book but of devotion...
Page 100 - And foorth they passe, with pleasure forward led, Joying to heare the birdes sweete harmony, Which, therein shrouded from the tempest dred, .Seemd in their song to scorne the cruell sky. Much can they praise the trees so straight and hy, The sayling Pine...
Page 72 - One day I wrote her name upon the strand; But came the waves, and washed it away: Again, I wrote it with a second hand; But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. Vain man, said she, that dost in vain assay A mortal thing so to immortalize; For I myself shall like to this decay, And eke my name be wiped out likewise.
Page 24 - If music and sweet poetry agree, As they must needs, the sister and the brother, Then must the love be great "twixt thee 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...
Page 179 - Queene, had bene by an huge dragon many years shut up in a brasen castle, who thence suffred them not to yssew : and therefore besought the Faery Queene to assygne her some one of her knights to take on him that exployt. Presently that clownish person, upstarting, desired that adventure : whereat the Queene much wondering, and the Lady much gainesaying, yet he earnestly importuned his desire.
Page 12 - Upon the top of all his loftie crest, A bounch of heares discolourd diversly, With sprincled pearle and gold full richly drest, Did shake. and seemd to daunce for jollity, Like to an almond tree ymounted hye On top of greene Selinis all alone, With blossoms brave bedecked daintily ; Whose tender locks do tremble every one At everie little breath that under heaven is blowne.
Page 170 - All in greene leaves, as he a Player were ; • Yet in his time, he wrought as well as playd, That by his plough-yrons mote right well appeare...
Page 157 - Doe eate the earth, it is no more at all; Ne is the earth the lesse, or loseth ought, For whatsoever from one place doth fall Is with the tide unto another brought : For there is nothing lost, that may be found if sought.
Page 176 - 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.