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defervedly ftyled the perfect Pattern of all, and consequently would have fucceeded in the task affigned, the attainment of Glory. At prefent he is only a subordinate or acceffory character. The difficulties and obstacles which we expect him to furmount, in order to accomplish his final atchievement, are removed by others. It is not he who fubdues the dragon, in the first book, or quells the magician Busirane, in the third. Thefe are the victories of St. George and of Britomart. On the whole, the twelve Knights do too much for ARTHUR to do any thing; or at least, so much as may be reasonably required from the promised plan of the poet. While we are attending to the defign of the hero of the book, we forget that of the hero of the poem. Dryden remarks, " We "muft do Spenfer that justice to obferve, that mag"nanimity [magnificence] which is the true character "of Prince Arthur, fhines throughout the whole ' poem; and fuccours the reft when they are in di"stress *." If the magnanimity of Arthur did, in reality, thus fhine in every part of the poem with a superior and steady luftre, our author would fairly stand acquitted. At present it bursts forth but seldom, in obfcure and interrupted flashes. "To fuccour the "reft when they are in diftrefs," is, as I have hinted,

* Dedication to the Tranflation of Juvenal.

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a circumftance of too little importance in the character of this universal champion. It is a fervice to be performed in the cause of the hero of the Epic Poem by fome dependent or inferior chief, the business of a Gyas or a Cloanthus.

On the whole, we may obferve, that Spenser's adventures, feparately taken as the fubject of each fingle book, have not always a mutual dependence upon each other, and confequently do not properly contribute to constitute one legitimate poem. Hughes not confidering this, has advanced a remark in commendation of Spenfer's critical conduct, which is indeed one of the moft blameable parts of it. "If we confider the first book as an "entire work of itself, we shall find it to be no irre"gular contrivance. There is one principal action, "which is completed in the twelfth canto, and the " feveral incidents are proper, as they tend either to « obftruct or promote it *."

As the heroic poem is required to be one WHOLE, compounded of many various parts, relative and dependent, it is expedient that not one of thofe parts fhould be fo regularly contrived, and fo completely finished, as to become a WHOLE of itself.

For the

* Remarks on the Fairy Queen. Hughes's Edit, of Spenser, vol. I.

mind, being once fatisfied in arriving at the confummation of an orderly feries of events, acquiefces in that fatisfaction. Our attention and curiofity are in the midst diverted from pursuing, with due vigour, the final and general catastrophe. But while each part is left incomplete, if feparated from the reft, the mind ftill eager to gratify its expectations, is irrefiftibly and imperceptibly drawn from part to part, 'till it receives a full and ultimate fatisfaction from the accomplishment of one great event, which all those parts, fol lowing and illustrating each other, contributed to produce.

Our author was probably aware, that by conftituting twelve several adventures for twelve several heroes, the want of a general connection would often appear. On this account, as I prefume, he sometimes refumes and finishes in fome diftant book, a tale formerly begun and left imperfect. But as numberless interruptions neceffarily intervene, this proceeding often occafions infinite perplexity to the reader. And it seems to be for the fame reason, that after one of the twelve Knights has atchieved the adventure of his proper book, the poet introduces him, in the next book, acting perhaps in an inferior sphere, and degraded to some lefs dangerous exploit. But this conduct is highly inartificial for it deftroys that repose which the mind

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feels after having accompanied a hero, through manifold ftruggles and various diftreffes, to fuccefs and victory. Befides, when we perceive him entering upon any lefs illuftrious attempt, our former admiration is in fome measure diminished. Having feen him complete fome memorable conqueft, we become interested in his honour, and are jealous concerning his future reputation. To attempt, and even to atchieve, some petty posterior enterprise, is to derogate from his dignity, and to fully the transcendent luftre of his former victories.

Spenfer perhaps would have embaraffed himself and the reader lefs, had he made every book one entire detached poem of twelve cantos, without any reference to the rest. Thus he would have written twelve different books, in each of which he might have completed the pattern of a particular virtue in twelve Knights respectively: at present he has remarkably failed, in endeavouring to represent all the virtues exemplified in one. The poet might either have established TWELVE KNIGHTS without an ARTHUR, or an ARTHUR without TWELVE KNIGHTS. Upon fuppofition that Spenfer was refolved to characterise the twelve moral virtues, the former plan perhaps would have been beft: the latter is defective as it neceffarily wants fimplicity. It is an action confifting of twelve actions, all equally great and uncon

nected

nected between themselves, and not compounded of one uninterrupted and coherent chain of incidents, tending to the accomplishment of one defign.

I have before remarked, that Spenfer intended to express the character of a hero perfected in the twelve moral virtues, by representing him as affifting in the service of all, till at last he becomes poffeffed of all. This plan, however injudicious, he certainly was obliged to obferve. But in the third book, which is ftyled the Legend of Chastity, Prince Arthur does not fo much as lend his affiftance in the vindication of that virtue. He appears indeed; but not as an agent, or even an auxiliary, in the adventure of the book.

Yet it must be confeffed, that there is something artificial in the poet's manner of varying from historical precifion. This conduct is rationally illuftrated by himself +. According to this plan, the reader would have been agreeably surprised in the last book, when he came to discover that the series of adventures, which he had just seen completed, were undertaken at the command of the FAIRY QUEEN; and that the Knights had feverally fet forward to the execution of them, from her annual birth-day festival. But Spenser, in most of the books, has injudiciously foreftalled the first of these particulars; which certainly should have + Letter to Sir W. Ralegh. C 2

been

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