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MR. SPENCE'S

DISSERTATION

ON THE

DEFECTS OF SPENSER'S ALLEGORY*.

THE faults of Spenfer, in relation to his Machinery or Allegories, feem to me to be all reducible to three general heads. They arife either from the poet's mixing the fables of Heathenifin with the truths of Christianity; or from his mifreprefenting the Allegories of the ancients; or from fomething that is wrong in the Allegories of his own invention. As to the two former, I fhall not have much to fay; but fhall beg leave to be a little more diffufe, as to the third.

The strongest inftance I can recollect of the first kind, his mixing Chriftianity and Heathenifm together, is in that short view, which he gives of the infernal regions, in the feventh Canto of the fecond Book. The particular part I mean, is where he fpeaks of Jupiter and Tantalus, and of Pontius Pilate and our Saviour, almoft in the fame breath.

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The inftances of Spenfer's mifreprefenting the ftories, and allegorical perfonages, of the ancients,

* From his Polymetis, edit. 1747. p. 302, &c. TODD. a where he speaks, &c.] If any fhould be offended to find Pontius Pilate, and Tantalus, in the fame place of punishment, I think it might be faid, by way of apology, that wicked men will fuffer hereafter in fome state or place of punishment, proportionable to their crimes; and that the poet, who describes fuch a place, is at liberty to fend thither what wicked perfons foever he pleases, provided he acts according to poetical decorum. UPTON.

are not uncommon in this poem. Thus, in a former view of hell, he speaks of Efculapius as in eternal torments, B. i. C. v. ft. 40 to 43. In another place, he introduces a company of Satyrs, to fave a Lady from a rape (B. i. C. vi. ft. 6 to 19); though their diftinguishing character was luft: and makes Sylvanus the god or governour of the Satyrs, (B. i. C. vi. ft. 15.) a dignity which the ancients never speak of for him; no more than of the ivy-girdle, which he gives him, round his waift, B. i. C. vi. ft. 14. It is with the fame fort of liberty, as I take it, that he defcribes the day, or morning, as having purple hair, B. i. C. v. ft. 10; the Sirens, as halffith, B. ii. C. xii. ft. 31; and Bacchus, as fat, B. iii. C. i. ft. 51: that he speaks of Clio, as Apollo's wife, B. i. C. xi. ft. 5; and of Cupid as brother to the Graces, B. ii. C. viii. ft. 6: and that he reprefents Orion, in one place, as flying from

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See Mr. Upton's note on F. Q. ii.

the Sirens, as half-fish ;] See also Dr. Jortin's obfervation, and Mr. Upton's vindication of the poet, in the notes on F. Q. ii. xii. 30. TODD.

d and Bacchus, as fat;] This is a mifreprefentation, very common among the modern artists; and from them, I suppose, has ftolen into the works of our poets. It is not only to be proved from our fign-pofts: for fome tolerable ftatuaries, and fome very good painters, even in Italy, have given into it. SPENCE.

Fat is a proper epithet for Bacchus; becaufe drinking makes people fat-bellied: hence he is called TAETPON by Charon in Ariftophanes, Bar. v. 202. He is likewife pictured plump and fat in Gorlæus, Gemm. 205. Which gem Cafaubon has printed and illustrated in his treatife, De Satyrica Poefi. UPTON.

e of Clio, as Apollo's wife;] Mr. Spence has mistaken the meaning of the poet. Clio is here reprefented as the DAUGHTER, not the wife, of Phoebus and his aged bride, i. e. MnemoSyne, or Memory. See alfo the notes on F. Q. i. xi. 5. TODD.

f us flying from a fnake,] The poet means that the fun was almost beginning to rife, and that Orion was setting: Orion

a fnake, in the heavens, B. ii. C. ii. ft. 46; and, in another, as a water-god, and one of the attendants of Neptune. The latter is in Spenfer's account of the marriage of the Thames and Medway; in which he has greatly increafed Neptune's court; and added feveral deities as attendants to that god; which were never regarded as fuch by any of the ancients, B. iv. C. xi. ft. 15.

This may be fufficient to thow, that, where Spenfer does introduce the Allegories of the ancient poets, he does not always follow them fo exactly as he might; and in the Allegories which are purely of his own invention, though his invention is one of the richest and most beautiful that perhaps ever was, I am forry to fay, that he does not only fall very fhort of that fimplicity and propriety which is fo remarkable in the works of the ancients; but runs now and then into thoughts, that are quite unworthy fo great a genius. I fhall mark out fome of thefe faults, that appear even through all his beauties; and which may, perhaps, look quite grofs, when they are thus taken from them, and laid together by themfelves: but if they should prejudice a reader at all against fo fine a writer; let him read almost any one of his entire Cantos, and it will reconcile him to him again. The reafon of my producing thefe inftances, is only to fhow what faults the greatest Allegorift may commit; whilft the manner of allegorifing is left upon fo unfixed and irregular a footing as it was in his time, and is ftill

among us.

The firft fort of fault I fhall mention, from fuch Allegories of Spenfer as are purely of his own invention, is there being fometimes too complicated,

flying from the fnake, alludes to his figure and pofition on the fphere or globe. UPTON.

or over-done. Such for example are his reprefentations of Scandal, Difcord, and Pride.

Scandal is, what Spenfer calls, the Blatant Beaft: and indeed he has made a very strange beast of him. He fays, that his mouth was as wide as a peck, B. vi. Č. xii. ft. 26: and that he had a thoufand tongues in it; of dogs, cats, bears, tygers, men, and ferpents, B. vi. C. xii. ft. 28.

There is a duplicity in his figure of Difcord, which is carried on fo far as to be quite prepofterous. He makes her hear double, and look two different ways; he fplits her tongue, and even her heart, in two: and makes her act contrarily with her two hands; and walk forward with one foot, and backward with the other, at the fame time, B. iv. C. i. ft. 29.

There is a great deal of apparatus in Spenter's manner of introducing Pride, in a perfonal character and she has fo many different things and attributes about her, that was this fhow to be reprefented, (in the manner of our old Pageants,) they would rather fet one a gueffing what they meant themselves, than ferve to point out who the principal figure fhould be. She makes her appearance, exalted in a high chariot, drawn by fix different creatures: every one of them carrying a

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& every one of them carrying a Vice, as a poftilion, on his back; and all drove on by Satan as charioteer,] Ridiculous as this reprefentation must be thought, it was perhaps no uncommon method of delineating the fervant of fin. In the religious állegories, or emblematical books, of the poet's time, I think it not improbable that such a picture might exift. I have now before me, The Chriftian Pilgrime in his Spirituall Conflict and Conqueft, printed at Paris or rather at Douay, in 1652, in 12mo. It is embellished with engravings; and, at the beginning of the work, "The animal, carnal, and fenfual man" is defcribed (as "he who gives up the raynes of his Reafon to the intire conduct of Senfuality, and puts his foul into the devil's power,) by the following engraved emblem: The globe of the earth is

Vice, as a poftilion, on his back; and all drove on by Satan, as charioteer, B. i. C. iv. ft. 18, &c. The fix Vices are Idlenefs, on an afs; Gluttony, on a hog; Lechery, on a goat; Avarice, on a camel laden with gold; Envy, eating a toad, and riding on a wolf; and Wrath, with a fire-brand in his hand, riding on a lion. The account of each of these particular Vices in Spenfer, is admirable: the chief fault I find with it is, that it is too complex a way of characterifing Pride in general; and may poffibly be as improper in fome few refpects, as it is redundant in others.

There is another particular in fome of Spenfer's Allegories which I cannot but look upon as faulty, though it is not near fo great a fault as the former. What I mean is his affixing fuch filthy ideas to fome of his perfonages, or characters, that it half turns one's ftomach to read his account of them. Such, for example, is the defcription of Errour, in the very firft Canto of the poem; of which we may very well fay, in the poet's own words, on a like occafion, B. v. C. xi. ft. 31.

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"Such loathly matter were small luft to speak, or think."

The third fault in the Allegories of Spenfer's own invention is, that they are fometimes ftretched to fuch a degree, that they appear extravagant rather than great; and that he is fometimes fo minute, in pointing out every particular of its vaftnefs to you, that the object is in danger of becoming ridiculous, inftead of being admirable. This is not common in Spenfer the ftrongeft inftance of the few I can

placed in a fplendid chariot, of which the devil is the charioteer, driving furiously a pair of the Spenferian stud, a hog and a goat. TODD.

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Such, for example, is the defcription of Errour,] See Dr. Jortin's and Mr. Upton's notes on F. Q. i. i. 20. TODD.

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