Aurelius Ambrofius, began to raise disturbances, and infeft his dominions. This is the historical period of time, which Spenfer has chofen, F. Q. iii. iii. 52. "Ye fee that good King Uther now doth make "Befide Cayr Verolame—' Could any epick poet defire a better hiftorical foundation to build his poem on? Hear likewise what he himself fays on this fubject, "I chofe the history of King Arthur, as moft fit for the excellency of his perfon, being made famous by many mens former works, and alfo furtheft from the danger of envy and fufpicion of prefent time." I much question if Virgil's Eneid is grounded on facts fo well fupported. Befide a poet is a maker; nor does he compofe a poem for the fake of any one hero, but rather he makes a hero for the fake of his poem and if he follows fame, whether from the more authentick relation of old chronicles, or from the legendary tales of old romances, yet ftill he is at liberty to add, or to diminish: in fhort, to fpeak out, he is at liberty to lie, as much as he pleafes, provided his lies are confiftent, and he makes his tale hang well together. b Prince Arthur faw in a vifion, and feeing fell in love with, the Faerie Queene; just about the time that the held her annual feftival, when her knights had their various adventures affigned them. From either of these periods an hiftorian might begin his. b Our poet follows Geoffry of Monmouth, the British historian; and the old Romance entitled, The Hiftory of Prince Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, or La Morte d'Arthure, as entitled at the end, and fo cited by Afcham in his School-Mafter, pag. 87. who mentions it as a favourite author in his time. UPTON. narration; but a poet muft begin from neither: becaufe 'tis his province to carry you at once into the scene of action; and to complicate and perplex his ftory, in order to fhow his art in unravelling it. The poet therefore might have opened his poem either with Prince Arthur now actually fet out on his queft, or with one of the knights fent from the Court of the Faerie Queene: by which means the reader is introduced into the midst of things; taking it for granted, that he either knows, or fome way or other will know, all that preceded. 'Tis from the latter of these periods, namely from one of the Faery knights, who is already rode forth on his adventure, that Spenfer opens his Poem; and he keeps you in fufpenfe concerning his chief hero, Prince Arthur, 'till 'tis proper to introduce him with fuitable pomp and magnificence. Homer fings the anger of Achilles and its fatal confequences to the Grecians: nor can it be fairly objected to the unity of the Iliad, that, when Achilles is removed from the fcene of action, you fcarcely hear him mentioned in feveral books: one being taken up with the exploits of Agamemnon, another with Diomed, another again with the fucceffes of Hector. For his extenfive plan required his different heroes to be shown in their different characters and attitudes. What therefore What therefore you allow to the old Grecian, be not fo ungracious as to deny to your own countryman. Again, 'tis obfervable that Homer's poem, though he fings the anger of Achilles, is not called the Achilleid, but the Iliad; because the action was at Troy. So Spenfer does not call his Poem by the name of his chief hero; but because his chief hero fought for the Faerie Queene in Fairy Land, and therein performed his various adventures, therefore he entitles his Poem The Faerie Queene. Hence it appears k VOL. II. that the adventures of Prince Arthur are neceffarily connected with the adventures of the knights of Fairy Land. This young Prince has been kept hitherto in defigned ignorance of what relates to his family and real dignity: his education, under old Timon and the magician Merlin, was to prepare him for future glory; but as yet his virtues have not been called forth into action. The poet therefore by bringing you acquainted with fome of the heroes of Fairy Land, at the fame time that he is bringing you acquainted with his chief hero, acts agreeably to his extenfive plan, without deftroying the unity of the action. The only fear is, left the underplots, and the feemingly adfcititious members, fhould grow too large for the body of the entire action: 'tis requifite therefore that the feveral incidental intrigues fhould be unravelled, as we proceed in getting nearer and nearer to the main plot; and that we at length gain an uninterrupted view at once of the whole. And herein I cannot help admiring the refemblance between the ancient father of poets, and Spenfer; who, clearing the way by the folution of intermediate plots and incidents, brings you nearer to his capital piece; and then fhows his hero at large and, when Achilles once enters the field, the other Greeks are loft in his fplendour, as the ftars at the rifing of the fun. So when Prince Arthur had been perfected in heroick and moral virtues, and his fame thoroughly known and recognized in Fairy Land; Him we should have seen not only diffolving the enchantment of the witch Dueffa, (an adventure too hard for the fingle prowefs of St. George,) but likewise binding in adamantine chains, or delivering over to utter perdition, that old wifard Archimago, the common enemy of Fairy Knights, whom no chains as yet could hold in fhort, Him fhould we have feen eclipfing all the other heroes, and in the end accompanied with the Fairy Knights making his folemn entry into the prefence of Gloriana, the Faerie Queene: and thus his merits would have entitled him to that Glory, which by Magnificence, or Magnanimity, the perfection of all the reft of the Virtues, he justly had acquired. It seems, by fome hints given us by the poet, that he intended likewife an Heroick Poem, whofe title was to be King Arthur; and the chief subject of the poem, the wars of the King and Queen of Fairy Land, (now governed by Arthur and Gloriana,) against the Paynim King: the chief Captains employed were to be thofe Fairy Knights, whom already he had brought us acquainted with: and the hiftorical allufions undoubtedly would point, in the allegorical view, at the wars that Queen Elizabeth waged with the King of Spain; as the Fairy Knights would typically reprefent her warlike Courtiers. This feems plain from what St. George fays to Una's parents, in F. Q. i. xii: 18: "I bownden am ftreight after this emprize"Backe to retourne to that great Faery Queene, "And her to serve fixe yeares in warlike wize "Gainst that proud Paynim King that works her teene." And plainer still from what the poet fays in his own perfon, in F. Q. i. xi. 7. "Fayre goddeffe,. lay that furious fitt afyde, "Till I of warres and bloody Mars doe fing; "And Bryton fieldes with Sarazin blood bedyde, "Twixt that great Faery Queen and Paynim King.” Dryden tells us, in his preface to the translation of Juvenal, that he had fome thoughts of making choice for the fubject of an heroick poem, King Arthur's conquefts over the Saxons: And, hinting at the fame defign in the preface to his Fables, fays, 4 "That it was not for this noble knight [meaning Sir R. Blackmore] that he drew the plan of an Epick poem on King Arthur.". Milton likewife had the fame intention, as he intimates in a Latin poem to Manfus: "Si quando indigenas revocabo in carmina reges, "Aut dicam invictæ fociali fœdere menfæ 66 66 Magnanimos heroas; et, O modo fpiritus adfit, We have shown that the action of the Faerie Queene is uniform, great, and important; but 'tis required that the fable fhould be probable. A ftory will have probability, if it hangs well together, and is confiftent: And, provided the tales are fpecioufly told, the probability of them will not be destroyed, though they are tales of wifards or witches, monftrous men and monftrous women; for who, but downright mifcreants, queftion wonderful tales? and do you imagine that Homer, Virgil, Spenfer, and Milton, ever thought of writing an epick poem for unbelievers and infidels? But if, after all, the reader cannot with unfufpecting credulity fwallow all these marvellous tales; what fhould hinder the poet, but want of art, from fo contriving his fable, that more might be meant, than meets the eye or ear? cannot he fay one thing in proper numbers and harmony, and yet fecretly intend fomething elfe, or (to use a Greek expreffion) cannot he make the fable allegorical? Thus Forms and Perfons might be introduced, thadowing forth, and emblematically reprefenting, the myfteries of phyfical and moral fciences: Virtue and Truth may appear in their original ideas and lovely forms; and even Vice might be decked out in fome kind of drefs, refembling Beauty and Truth; left, if feen without |