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additions, by J. H. Lond. for R. Dexter, &c. 1599." 12mo. In a copy I have seen of this last edition, at the end are bound up, "Certaine worthye manufcript poems of great antiquitie, referved long in the studie of a Northfolke Gentleman, now first published by J. S. Lond. R. D. 1597." 12mo. The poems are, "The ftately Tragedy of Guifcard and Sifmond:" In two books, in the seven-lined ftanza. It is Dryden's story, and feems about the age of Henry VII. "The Northern Mother's. Bleffing, written nine yeares before the death of G. Chaucer." "The Way to Thrift."-They are dedicated to the worthiest poet Maister Ed. Spenfer. T. WARTON.

A few additions may be made to the preceding REMARKS ON SPENSER'S LANGUAGE AND VERSIFICATION.

Indeed it is proper to inform the reader that, in confequence of the poet's frequently converting words of one fyllable into two, words of two fyllables into three, &c. and in consequence alfo of his remarkable accentuation of words; the feveral words, fo employed, will be found thus diftinguished, armës, Safety, inchantement, infamous, proftráte, courage, &c. In pronunciations of this kind likewife, Spenfer follows his old mafter. See Tyrwhitt's Effay on the Language and Verfification of Chaucer, prefixed to the Canterb. Tales, 4to. edit. Oxford, 1798, p. 61. Nor will the reader omit to observe that Spenfer, like Chaucer and all our elder writers, ufes no apoftrophe in his genitive cafes. By elifions intended in the pronunciation, however, he fometimes reduces words of two fyllables into one, as iron, which must be read ir'n; and cruelly, which must be read cru'lly, &c. This practice has been abundantly imitated by Milton.

Alexander Gill, master of St. Paul's school, London, (under whom Milton was educated,) published in 1621 a treatise in quarto, entitled LOGONOMIA ANGLICA, quá Gentis fermo faciliùs addifcitur:" His numerous examples, under the various figures of Syntax, are principally drawn from the FAERIE QUEENE; and I am furprised that the work fhould have escaped the notice of the commentators, especially Mr. Upton, who delighted fo much in accommodating old English expreffions to learned rules and construction. Take an example or two from Mr. Gill's illustration of Figures in found: I muft previously observe, however, that the fpelling adopted by the critick would hardly be legible; as he was an advocate for a new English orthgraphy, formed partly in fubferviency to the pronunciation

of the words, intermixed alfo with Saxon letters, and diftinguished by other marks of his own invention. To enumerate all the forms, under which he has ingeniously placed paffages from Spenfer, the Antonomafia, the Metalepfis, the Onomatopeia, the Barbaralexis, &c. &c. would fill many pages, and might not, I fear, completely gratify the curiofity which these highfounding names excite. The following examples are from the Figures in found, cap. xxi. p. 108, &c.

"Exilevi, five Subiun&tio.

"Unam fi gemines vocem Subiun&tio fiet:

"His lady fad to fee his fore constraint,

"Cride out, Now, now, Sir Knight, fhew what ye bee."

« Conuerfio, Αντισροφή αι. Επιτροφή.

F. Q. i. i. 19.

"Pluria membra fono Conuerfio claudit eodem. "For truth is one, and right is euer one.

Η Επανάληψις.

Incipit & finit verbo Epanalepfis eodem:

F. Q. v. ii. 48.

"Bold was the chalenge, as himselfe was bold."

F. Q. iv. ii. 39.

The following is an example, taken from the critick's Figures of fentence, p. 128.

"Enávodos, Regreffio.

"Quum femel in toto totum proponis, et inde
"Diuidis in partes; REGRESSIo dicitur esse.
"All that pleafing is to living eare
"Was there conforted in one harmonee;

"Birdes, voices, inftruments, windes, waters, all agree.
"The ioyous birdes, shrouded in chearefull fhade,
"Their notes unto the voice attempred sweet;
"Th' angelicall foft trembling voyces made
"To th' inftruments divine respondence meet;
"The filver-founding inftruments did meet
"With the base murmure of the waters fall;
"The waters fall with difference difcreet,
"Now foft, now loud, unto the wind did call;
"The gentle warbling wind low answered to all.”
F. Q. ii. xii. 70.

A writer, fubfequent to Gill, has concifely and very properly noticed a peculiarity fometimes obfervable in Spenfer's verfification, "His making the end of one verfe to be the frequent beginning of the other (befides the art of the Trope) was the labour and delight of Mr. Edmund Spencer, whom Sir Walt. Raleigh and Sir Kenelm Digby were used to call the English

Virgil." Preface to the Reader, in The Chaft and Loft Lovers, &c. Digested into three poems, by Will. Bofworth, Gent. 1651, 8vo. Lond. About twenty years after, a work was published, entitled "Anglie Speculum Morale: The Moral State of England, &c, 8vo. Lond. 1670." In which, the confideration of the poetry of this country forms a chapter, p. 65. &c. The remarks on Spenfer's imagery and LANGUAGE may here be properly introduced, as they ferve to fhow the eftimation in which the moral poet was held at that period: "The Bards and Chroniclers, in the Ifles of Britain and Ireland, have been in former times even ador'd for the ballads in which they extoll'd the deeds of their forefathers; and fince the ages have been refined, doubtlefs, England hath produced thofe, who in this way have equall'd most of the Ancients, and exceeded all the Moderns. CHAUCER rofe like the morning ftarr of Wit, out of those black mifts of ignorance; fince him, SPENCER MAY DESERVEDLY CHALLENGE THE CROWN; for though he may seem blameable in not obferving decorum in fome places enough, and in too much (in the whole) countenancing Knight-errantry; yet the eafie fimilitudes, the natural pourtraicts, the fo refined and fublimated fancies, with which he hath bestudded every Canto of his fubject, will eafily reach him the guerdon: and though fome may object to him that his language is harsh and antiquated; yet his defign was noble; to fhew us that our language was expreffive enough of our own fentiments; and to upbraid thofe who have indenizon'd fuch numbers of forreign words.": Compare this with E. K.'s criticism, before cited, p. cxxxv.

Refpecting the Alexandrine verfe, which clofes every stanza with greater dignity than an heroick line, and which Dryden profeffedly used in imitation of Spenser; it must be remarked that Spenfer was not the inventor of this fonorous termination, as Mr. Upton feems to have imagined. For I find, in Puttenham's Arte of English Poefie, 1580, p. 60, that "Sir Thos. Wiat the elder was the first who used the Alexandrine verfe in the English tongue."

It remains only to call the reader's attention to the beautiful conftruction of Spenfer's numbers, and to the forcible expreffion of his ideas, in the happy defcription of the poet given by that judicious critick, the late Dr. Jofeph Warton: "The characteristicks of this fweet and allegorical poet are not only ftrong and circumftantial imagery, but tender and pathetick feeling, a moft melodious flow of verfification, and a certain pleafing melancholy in his fentiments, the conftant companion of an elegant tafte, that cafts a delicacy and grace over all his compofitions." TODD.

MR. UPTON'S

REMARKS

ON THE

ACTION AND HISTORY OF THE FAERIE QUEENE.

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IT is not my intention to enter into a particular criticifm of any of our poet's writings, excepting the FAERIE QUEENE; which poem feems to have been hitherto very little understood; notwithstanding he has opened, in a great measure, his defign and plan in a letter to his honoured friend Sir Walter Raleigh. How readily has every one acquiefced in Dryden's opinion? "That the action of this Poem is not one; that there is no uniformity of defign; and that he aims at the accomplishment of no action." See his dedications of the tranflation of Virgil's Æneid, and of the translation of Juvenal. It might have been expected that Hughes, who printed Spenfer's works, fhould not have joined fo freely in the fame cenfure and yet he tells us, 66 that the feveral Books appear rather like so many several poems, than one entire fable: each of them having its peculiar knight, and being independant of the reft."

Juft in the fame manner did the criticks and commentators formerly abufe old Homer; his Iliad, they faid, was nothing elfe, but a parcel of loofe fongs and rhapfodies concerning the Trojan war, which he fung at feftivals; and thefe loofe ballads were firft collected, and stitched, as it were, together by Pififtratus; being parts without any coherence, or relation to a whole, and unity of defign.

As this fubject requires a particular confideration; I defire the reader will attend to the following vindication of Homer and Spenfer, as they have both fallen under one common cenfure.

2

In every poem there ought to be fimplicity and unity; and in the epick poem the unity of the action fhould never be violated by introducing any ill-joined or heterogeneous parts. This effential rule Spenfer feems to me strictly to have followed: for what story can well be fhorter, or more fimple, than the fubject of his poem?A British Prince fees in a vifion the Faerie Queene; he falls in love, and goes in fearch after this unknown fair; and at length finds her. This fable has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning is, the British Prince faw in a vifion the Faerie Queene, and fell in love with her: the middle, his fearch after her, with the adventures that he underwent: the end, his finding whom he fought.

But here our curiofity is raised, and we want a more circumftantial information of many things. Who is this British Prince ? what adventures did he undergo? who was the Faerie Queene? where, when, and how, did he find her? Thus many queftions arife, that require many folutions.

The action of this Poem has not only fimplicity and unity, but it is great and important. The hero is no less than the British Prince, Prince Arthur: (who knows not Prince Arthur)? The time when this hero commenced his adventures, is marked very exactly. In the reign of Uther Pendragon, father of Prince Arthur, Octa the fon of Hengift, and his kinfinan Eofa, thinking themfelves not bound by the treaties which they had made with

* ftrictly to have followed;] See, however, Dr. Hurd's Remarks on the Gothick fyftem of this poem, and his fuccessful objections to Mr. Upton's affertion, p. clx. TODD.

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