Gibbelines in Italy; or to another race of fairies, called Goblins, and commonly joined with Elfes. His friend and commentator, E. K. remarks*, that our Elfes and Goblins were derived from the two parties Guelfes and Gibbelines. This etymology I by no means approve. The mention of it however may serve to illuftrate Spenfer's meaning in this paffage. Elfinan perhaps is king Lud, who founded London, or Cleopolis.

In which the fairest FAERIE queene doth dwell. i. 10. 58. Elfant built her palace Panthea, probably Windforcaftle. The bridge of glass may mean London-bridge. But these images of the golden wall, the crystal tower, &c. feem to be all adopted from romance. At least, they all flow from a mind strongly tinctured with romantic ideas. In the latter part of this genealogy, he has manifeftly adumbrated some of our english princes. Elficleos is king Henry VII. whofe eldest fon, prince. Arthur, died, at fixteen years of age, in Ludlowcaftle; and whofe youngest fon Oberon, that is Henry VIII. fucceeded to the crown, marrying his brother Arthur's widow, the princefs Katharine. This Spenfer particularly specifies in thefe verses :

Whofe emptie place, the mightie Oberon
Doubly fupplide, in SPOUSALL and DOMINION.

2. 10. 75.

And that the fame of this king was very recent in our author's age, is obvious.

It is remarkable that Spenfer fays nothing of Edward VI. and queen Mary, who reigned between Henry VIII. and queen Elizabeth; but that he paffes immediately from Oberon to Tanaquil, or GLORIANA, i. e. Elizabeth, who was excluded from her fucceffion by those two intermediate reigns. There is much addrefs and art in the poet's manner of making this omiffion.

He dying left the fairest Tanaquill,

Him to fucceed therein by his laft will;
Fairer and nobler liveth none this howre,
Ne like in grace, ne like in learned skill.

ibid.

As to the Fairy QUEEN, confidered apart from the race of fairies, the notion of fuch an imaginary perfonage was very common. Chaucer, in his Rime of Sir Thopas, mentions her, together with a fairy land: and Shakespeare, the poet of popular superstition, has introduced her in the Midfummer-night's Dream. She

was

was fuppofed to have held her court in the higheft magnificence, in the reign of king Arthur; a circumftance, by which the transcendent happiness of that golden age, was originally represented in it's legendary chronicles. Thus Chaucer:

In the old dayis of the king Arthure,
Of which the britons speken great honour;
All was this lond fulfillid of fayry:
The ELF-QUENE, with her jolly company,
Daunfid full oft in many a grene mede :
This was the old opinion, as I rede*.

Hence too we find, that Spenfer followed the eftablished tradition, in supposing his Fairy Queen † to exift in the age of Arthur.

* Wife of Bath's Tale, ver. 857. Urry's edit. fol.

In

It appears from John Marfton's fatires, entitled the SCOURGE of VILLANIE, three bookes of fatyres, and printed in the year 1598, that our Author's FAERIE QUEENE occafioned many publications in which fairies were the principal actors, viz.

Go buy fome ballad of the FAERY KING.

And in another place.

At length fome wonted fleepe doth crowne

In Lectores.

His new-falne lids; dreames, ftraight tenne pound to one
Out-steps fome FAERY with quick motion,

And tells him wonders of fome flowrie vale

Awakes, ftraite rubs his eyes, and prints his tale. B. 3. fat. 6.

In Chaucer's Rime of Sir Thopas, mentioned above, the knight, like Spenfer's Arthur, goes in fearch of a Fairy Queen.

And I have seen a romance, which feems to have been written foon after Spenser's poem, entitled, The RED-ROSE KNIGHT; where the knight, after the example of prince Arthur, goes in fearch of the FAIRY QUEEN.

The fatires above-mentioned contain many well-drawn characters, and several good strokes of fatirical genius, but are not upon the whole fo finished and claffical as bishop Hall's, the first part of which were published about a year before thefe, Among other paffages 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 mufe doth fing
In other keyes to nimble fingering;
Dull fprighted melancholy leave my braine,
To hell, Cimmerian night! in lively vaine
I ftrive to paint; then hence all darke intent,
And fullen frowns; come sporting merriment,
Cheeke-dimpling laughter, &c.

B. 3. fat. 10.

From these fatires we may learn also how popular a play Romeo and Juliet was in those days. He is speaking to a wit of the town.

Lufcus, what's playd to day? - - - faith now I know
I fett thy lips abroach, from whence doth flow
Nought but pure JULIET AND ROMEO.

Ibid.

Langbaine (Dram. Poets pag. 351.) informs us, that these fatireş, now forgotten, rendered Marston more eminent than his dramatic poetry. Two years after these, viz. 1600, another collection of fatires 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 fome followers in the fpecies of poetry which he had newly revived,

An

An ELF-QUENE well I love, I wis,
For in this world no woman is,
Worthy to be my make;

All othir womin I forfake,

And to an ELF-QUENE I me take
By dale and eke by doune.
Into his faddle he clombe anone,
And pricked over style and stone
An ELF-QUENE to espie,

Till he fo long had ridden and gone,

That he fonde in a privie wone,

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,
With harpe, and pipe, and fimphonie,
Within this place and boure ;

The Child faid, alfo mote I the
To morrow woll I metin The

Whan I have mine armoure*.

In Chaucer it appears that Fairy-land, and Fairies, were fometimes used for hell, and it's ideal inhabitants. Thus in the Marchant's Tale.

* V. 3299, et feq. Urry's edit, ut fupr.

Pluto