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been concealed 'till the laft book, not only that a needless repetition of the fame thing might be prevented, but that an opportunity might be fecured of striking the reader's mind with a circumftance new and unexpected.

But notwithstanding the plan and conduct of Spenfer, in the poem before us, is highly exceptionable, yet we may venture to pronounce, that the scholar has more merit than his master in this respect; and that the FAIRY QUEEN is not fo confused and irregular as the Orlando Furiofo. There is indeed no general unity which prevails in the former: but, if we confider every book, or adventure, as a separate poem, we shall meet with so many distinct, however imperfect, unities, by which an attentive reader is lefs bewildered, than in the maze of indigestion and incoherence, of which the latter totally confifts, where we seek in vain either for partial or univerfal integrity.

-Cum nec pes nec caput uni

Reddatur Forma*.

Ariosto has his admirers, and moft deservedly. Yet every claffical, every reasonable critic must acknowledge, that the poet's conception in celebrating the MADNESS, or, in other words, defcribing the irra

*HOR. ART. POET. v. 8.

tional acts, of a hero, implies extravagance and abfurdity. Orlando does not make his appearance till the eighth book, where he is placed in a situation not perfectly heroic. He is discovered to us in bed, defiring to fleep. His ultimate defign is to find Angelica. but his pursuit of her is broken off in the thirtieth book; after which there are fixteen books, in none of which Angelica has the least share. Other heroes are likewise engaged in the fame purfuit. After reading the first stanza, we are inclined to think, that the fubject of the poem is the expedition of the Moors into France, under the emperor Agramante, to fight against Charlemagne; but this business is the most infignificant and inconfiderable part of it. Many of the heroes perform exploits equal, if not fuperior, to those of Orlando; particularly Ruggiero, who clofes the poem with a grand and important atchievement, the conqueft and death of Rodomont. But this event is not the completion of a story carried on, principally and perpetually, through the work.

This fpirited Italian paffes from one incident to another, and from region, to region with fuch incredible expedition and rapidity, that one would think he was mounted upon his winged fteed Ippogrifo. Within the compass of ten stanzas, he is in England and the Hefperides, in the earth and the moon. He begins the

history

history of a knight in Europe, and fuddenly breaks it off to refume the unfinished catastrophe of another in Afia. The reader's imagination is distracted, and his attention harraffed, amidst the. multiplicity of tales, in the relation of which the poet is at the same inftant equally engaged. To remedy this inconvenience, the compaffionate expofitors have affixed, in fome of the editions, marginal hints, informing the bewildered reader in what book and stanza the poet intends to recommence an interrupted epifode. This expedient reminds us of the aukward artifice practifed by the first painters. However, it has proved the means of giving Ariofto's admirers a clear comprehension of his stories, which otherwise they could not have obtained, without much difficulty. This poet is feldom read a fecond time in order; that is, by paffing from the first canto to the second, and from the fecond to the reft in fucceffion by thus persuing, without any regard to the proper course of the books and ftanzas, the different tales, which though all somewhere finished, yet are at present so mutually complicated, that the incidents of one are perpetually clashing with those of another. The judicious Abbe du Bos obferves happily enough, that" Homer is a geometrician in com66 parison of Ariofto." His miscellaneous contents cannot be better expressed than by the two first verses of his exordium.

Le

Le Donni, i Cavallier, l'Arme, gli Amori,
Le Cortegie, le' audaci Imprese, io canto *.

But it is abfurd to think of judging either Ariosto or Spenfer by precepts which they did not attend to. We who live in the days of writing by rule, are apt to try every compofition by those laws which we have been taught to think the fole criterion of excellence. Critical tafte is universally diffused, and we require the fame order and defign which every modern performance is expected to have, in poems where they never were regarded or intended. Spenfer, and the fame may be faid of Ariofto, did not live in an age of planning. His poetry is the careless exuberance of a warm imagination and a strong sensibility. It was his business to engage the fancy, and to intereft the attention by bold and striking images †, in the formation, and the difpofition of which, little labour or art was applied. The various and the marvellous were the chief fources of delight. Hence we find our author ranfacking alike the regions of reality and romance, of

* Orl. Fur. c. 1. f. 1.

† Montesquieu has partly characterised Spenser, in the judgement he has paffed upon the English poets, which is not true with regard to all of them. "Leurs poetes auroient plus fouvent cette rudeffe originale de "l'invention, qu' une certaine delicateffe que donne le gout on y "trouveroit quelque chofe qui approcheroit plu de la force de M. Ange, "" que de la grace du Raphael." L'Esprit du Loix. liv. 19. chap. 27. The French critics are too apt to form their general notions of English poetry, from our fondness for Shakespeare.

truth

truth and fiction, to find the proper decorations and furniture for his fairy ftructure. Born in fuch an age, Spenfer wrote rapidly from his own feelings, which at the fame time were naturally noble. Exactness in his poem, would have been like the cornice which a painter introduced in the grotto of Calypfo. Spenfer's beauties are like the flowers in Paradise.

-Which not nice Art

In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon
Pour'd forth profufe, on hill, and dale, and plain;
Both where the morning fun firft warmly fmote
The open field, or where the unpierc'd shade
Imbrown'd the noon-tide bowers *.-

If the FAIRY QUEEN be deftitute of that arrangement and œconomy which epic feverity requires, yet we scarcely regret the loss of these while their place is fo amply fupplied, by fomething which more powerfully attracts us: fomething, which engages the affections the feelings of the heart, rather than the cold approbation of the head. If there be any poem, whose graces please, because they are fituated beyond the reach of art, and where the force and faculties of creative imagination delight, because they are unasfifted and unrestrained by those of deliberate judgment, it is this. In reading Spenfer if the critic is not fatisfied, yet the reader is transported.

*Parad. Loft, b. iv. v. 241.

SECT.

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