a better plan, and from whom he has only borrowed fome particular ornaments; yet it is but justice to say, that his plan is much more regular than that of Ariofto. In the Orlando Furiofo, we every where meet with an exuberant invention, joined with great liveliness and facility of description, yet debased by frequent mixtures of the comick genius, as well as many fhocking indecorums. Besides, in the huddle and diftraction of the adventures, we are for the moft part only amufed with extravagant stories, without being inftructed in any moral. On the other hand, Spenfer's fable, tho' often wild, is, as I have obferved, always emblematical: And this may very much excufe likewife that air of romance in which he has followed the Italian author. The perpetual ftories of Knights, Giants, Caftles, and Enchantments, and all that train of legendary adventures, would indeed appear very trifling, if Spenfer had not found a way to turn them all into allegory, or if a lefs masterly hand had filled up his draught. But it is furprizing to obferve how much the ftrength of the painting is fuperior to the defign. It ought to be confidered too, that at the time when our author wrote, the remains of the old Gothick chivalry were not quite abolished: It was not many years before, that the famous Earl of Surry, remarkable for his wit and poetry in the reign of King Henry the Eighth, took a romantick journey to Florence, the place of his miftrefs's birth, and published there a challenge against all nations in defence of her beauty. Jufts and turnaments were held in England in the time of Queen Elizabeth. Sir Philip Sidney tilted at one of these entertainments, which was made for the French ambaffador, when the treaty of marriage was on foot with the Duke of Anjou: And fome of our hiftorians have given us a very particular and formal account of preparations, by marking out lifts, and appointing judges, for a trial by combat, in the fame reign, which was to have decided the title to a confiderable eftate; and in which the whole ceremony was perfectly agreeable to the fabulous defcriptions in books of knight-errans try. try. This might render his ftory more familiar to his first readers; tho' Knights in armour, and Ladies errant are as antiquated figures to us, as the court of that time would appear, if we could fee them now in their ruffs and fardingales. There are two other objections to the plan of the Fairy Queen, which, I confefs, I am more at a loss to anfwer. I need not, I think, be fcrupulous in mentioning freely the defects of a poem, which, tho' it was never supposed to be perfect, has always been allowed to be admirable. The firft is, that the scene is laid in Fairy-Land, and the chief actors are Fairies. The reader may fee their imaginary race and history in the fecond book, at the end of the tenth canto : but if he is not prepared beforehand, he may expect to find them acting agreeably to the common ftories and traditions about fuch fancied Beings. Thus Shakespear, who has introduc'd them in his Midfummer-Night's Dream, has made them fpeak and act in a manner perfectly adapted to their fuppofed characters; but the Fairies in this poem are not diftinguished from other perfons. There is this misfortune, likewise attends the choice of fuch actors, that having been accustomed to conceive of them in a diminutive way, we find it difficult to raise our ideas, and to imagine a Fairy encountring with a monster or a giant. Homer has purfued a contrary method, and reprefented his heroes above the size and strength of ordinary men; and it is certain that the actions of the Iliad would have appear'd but ill-proportioned to the characters, if we were to have imagined them all performed by pigmies. But as the actors our author has chofen, are only fancied beings, he might poffibly think himself at liberty to give them what ftature, cuftoms and manners he pleafed. I will not fay he was in the right in this: but it is plain that by the literal fenfe of Fairy-Land, he only defigned an Utopia, an imaginary place; and by his Fairies, perfons of whom he might invent any action proper to human kind, without being reftrained, as he must have been, been, if he had chosen a real scene and historical characters. As for the myftical fenfe, it appears both by the work itself, and by the author's explanation of it, that his Fairy-Land is England, and his Fairy-Queen, Queen Elizabeth; at whofe command the adventure of every legend is fuppofed to be undertaken. The other objection is, that having chofen an hiftorical perfon, Prince Arthur, for his principal hero; who is no Fairy yet is mingled with them: he has not however represented any part of his hiftory. He appears here indeed only in his minority, and performs his exercifes in Fairy-Land, as a private gentleman; but we might at least have expected, that the fabulous accounts of him, and of his victories over the Saxons, fhould have been worked into fome beautiful vifion or prophecy and I cannot think Spenfer would wholly omit this, but am apt to believe he had done it in fome of the following books which were loft. In the moral introductions to every book, many of which have a great propriety and elegance, the author has followed the example of Ariofto. I will only beg leave to point out fome of the principal beauties in each book, which may yet more particularly difcover the genius of the author. If we confider the first book as an entire work of itself, we shall find it to be no irregular contrivance : There is one principal action, which is compleated in the twelfth canto; and the feveral incidents or episodes are proper, as they tend either to obftruct or promote it. The fame may be faid of fome other of the following books, tho' I think they are not fo regular as this. The author has fhewn judgment in making his Knight of the Red Cross, or St. George, no perfect character; without which, many of the incidents could not have been represented. The character of Una, or Truth, is very properly oppofed by thofe of Duca, or Falfhood, and Archimago, or Fraud. Spenfer's particular manner, Vide Letter to Sir W. Raleigh. VOL. I. b which which (if it may be allowed) I would call his painterlike genius, immediately fhews it felf in the figure of Error, who is drawn as a monfter, and that of Hypocryly, as a hermit. The defcription of the former of thefe, in the mixed fhape of a woman and a ferpent, furrounded with her offspring, and especially that circumstance of their creeping into her mouth on the fudden light which glanced upon them from the Knight's armour, incline one to think that our great Milton had it in his eye when he wrote his famous epifode of fin and death. The artifices of Archimago and Duessa, to feparate the Knight from Una, are well invented, and intermingled with beautiful strokes of poetry; particularly in that episode where the magician fends one of his fpirits to fetch a falfe dream from the houfe of Morpheus: Amid the bowels of the earth full steep And low, where dawning day does never peep, Mr. Rymer, as I remember, has, by way of comparifon, collected from most of the antient and modern pocts, the finest defcriptions of the night; among all which, he gives the preference to the English poets: This of Morpheus, or fleep, being a poetical fubject of the fame kind, might be fubjected to a like trial; and the reader may particularly compare it with that in the eleventh book of Ovid's Metamorphofes; to which, I believe, he will not think it inferior. The miraculous incident of a tree fhedding drops of blood, and a voice fpeaking from the trunk of it, is borrowed from that of Polidorus in the third book of Virgil's Aneis. Ariosto and Tafso have both copied the fame ftory, tho' in a different manner. It was impoffible that the modern poets, who have run fo much into the taste of romance, fhould let a fiction of this kind elcape their imitation. The adventures which befal Una, after fhe is forfaken by the Knight; her coming to the houfe of Abeffa, or Superftition; the confternation occafioned by that vifit; her To the Right noble and valorous, Sir Walter Raleigh, Knt. Lord Warden of the Stanneries, and her Majesty's Lieutenant of the County of Cornwal. SIR, K NOWING how doubtfully all allegories may be construed, and this book of mine, which I have entituled The Fairy Queen, being a conti nued allegory, or dark conceit; I have thought good, as well for avoiding of jealous opinions and mifconstructions, as alfo for your better light in reading thereof, (being fo by you commanded) to difcover unto you the general intention and meaning, which in the whole courfe thereof I have fashioned, without expreffing of any particular purpofes or by-accidents therein occafioned. The general end therefore of all the book, is to VOL. I. fashion |