reign of King Arthur, a circumstance by which the transcendant happiness of that golden age was originally represented in its legendary chronicles. Thus Chaucer In the old dayis of the King Arthure, Hence too we find, that Spenser followed the established tradition, in supposing his Fairy Queen † to exist in the age of Arthur. * Wife of Bath's Tale, ver. 857. Urry's edit. fol. It appears from John Marston's satires, entitled the Scourge of Villainie, three book of satyres, and printed in the year 1598, that our author's Faerie Queene occasioned many publications in which fairies were the principal actors, viz. Go buy some ballad of the Faery King. In Lectores. And in another place, In Chaucer's Rime of Sir Thopas, mentioned above, the knight, like Spenser's Arthur, goes in search of a Fairy Queen. ---- At length some wonted sleepe doth crowne His new-falne lids; dreames, straight tenne pound to one Out-steps some Faery with quick motion, And tells him wonders of some flowrie vale Awakes, straite rubs his eyes, and prints his tale. B. 3. sat. 6. And I have seen a romance, which seems to have been written soon after Spenser's poem, entitled, The Red-Rose Knight, where the knight, after the example of Prince Arthur, goes in search of the Fairy Queen. The satires above-mentioned contained many welldrawn characters, and several good strokes of satirical genius, but are not upon the whole,so finished and classical as Bishop Hall's, the first part of which were published about a year before these. Among other passages the following struck me, as being a good deal in the strain of the beginning of Milton's L' Allegro Sleepe, grim reproof; my jocund muse doth sing An Elf-Quene well I love, I wis, All othir womin I forsake ; And to an Elf-Quene I may take By dale and eke by doune. And sullen frowns; come sporting merriment, B. 3. sat. 10. From these satires we may learn also how popular a play Romeo and Juliet was in those days. He is speaking to a wit of the town. Luscus, what's playd to day? - faith now I know Ibid. Langbaine (Dram. Poets, pag. 351.) informs us, that these satires, now forgotten, rendered Marston more eminent than his dramatic poetry. Two years after these, viz. 1600, another collection of Satires appeared, written by W. Rowlands, which are by no means contemptible. These are entitled, The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-vaine. So that Bishop Hall was not without some followers in this species of poetry which he had newly revived. Into his saddle he clombe anone, And pricked over style and stone An Elf-Quene to espie, Till he so long had ridden and gone, The countre of Fairie. He then meets a terrible giant, who threatens him with destruction for entering that country, and tells him— Here wonnith the Quene of Fairie, The Child said, also mote I the Wan I have mine armoure*. In Chaucer it appears that Fairy-land, and Fairies, were sometimes used for hell, and its ideal inhabitants. Thus in the Marchant's Tale. Pluto that is king of Fayrie. * V. 3299, et seq. Urry's edit. ut supr. Again, Proserpine and all her Fayrie. In the same, And I, quoth the Quene, [Proserpine] am of Fayrie. In the Knight's Tale, when the brazen horse was brought into Cambuscan's hall, It was of Fayrie, as the people deem'd*. That is," the people thought this wonderful horse was the work of the devil, and made in hell. And in the romance of the Seven Champions, Prosperpine is called the Fairy Queen, and said " To sit crowned amongst her Fayries t." In Harsenet's Declaration ‡, Mercury is called "Prince of the Fairies." * V. 221. + Part. 1. ch. xvi. Of Popish Imposture, &c. 1602. pag. 57. ch. xii. |