fashion a gentleman, or noble perfon, in vertuous and gentle difcipline. Which for that I conceived fhould be moft plaulable and pleafing, being coloured with an hiftorical fiction, the which the most part of men delight to read; rather for variety of matter, than for profit of the enfample: I chofe the hiftory of King Arthur as most fit for the excellency of his perfon; being made famous by many mens former works, and alfo furtheft from the danger of envy and fufpicion of present time: In which I have followed all the antique Poets historical. First, Homer, who in the perfons of Agamemnon and Ulyffes, hath enlampled a good governor and a vertuous man; the one in his Ilias, the other in his Odyfeis; Then Virgil, whofe like intention was to do in the perfon of Eneas: After him, Ariosto comprised them both in his Orlando: And lately, Tafo diffevered them again, and formed both parts in two perfons; namely, that part which they, in philofophy, call Ethice, or vertues of a private man, coloured in his Rinaldo; the other named Politice, in his Godfredo. By enfample of which excellent Poets, I labour to pourtraict in Arthur, before he was King, the image of a brave knight, perfected in the twelve private moral virtues, as Ariftotle hath devifed; the which is the purpofe of thefe first twelve books which, if I find to be well accepted, I may be, perhaps, encouraged to frame the other part of politick vertues in his perfon, after that he came to be King.

To fome, I know this method will feem difpleafant; which had rather have good difcipline delivered plainly in way of precepts, or fermoned at large, as they ufe, than thus cloudly enwraped in allegorical devices. But fuch, me feem, fhould be fatisfyed with the ufe of these days, feeing all things accounted by their fhows, and nothing efteemed of, that is not delightful and pleafing to common fenfe, for this caufe is Xenophon pretered before Plato; for that the one, in the exquifite depth of his judgment, formed a commonwealth, fuch as it

fhould

her reception among the favages; and her civilizing them, are all very fine emblems. The education of Satyrane, a young fatyr, is defcribed on this occafion with an agreeable wildnefs of fancy.

But there is one episode in this book, which I cannot but particularly admire; I mean that in the fifthcanto, ftanza 22, where Dueffa the witch feeks the affiftance of Night, to convey the body of the wounded Pagan to be cured by Efculapius in the regions below. The author here rifes above himfelf, and is got into a track of imitating the antients, different from the greateft part of his of his poem. The fpeech in which Dueffa addreffes Night, is wonderfully great, and ftained with that impious flattery, which is the character of Falfhood, who is the speaker:

O thou most antient grandmother of all,

More old than Jove, whom thou at first didst breed,
Or that great houfe of Gods celeftial,
Which was't begot in Demogorgons hall,

And faw'ft the fecrets of the world unmade!

As Duella came away haftily on this expedition, and forgot to put off the fhape of truth, which fhe had affumed a little before, Night does not know her: This circumstance, and the discovery afterwards, when she owns her for her daughter, are finely emblematical. The images of Horror are raised in a very masterly manner; Night takes the witch into her chariot; and being arrived where the body lay, they alight.

And all the while fhe ftood upon the ground,
The wakeful dogs did never cease to bay,
As giving warning of th'unusual sound
With which her iron wheels did them affray,
And her dark griefly look them much difmay.
The meffenger of death, the ghaftly Owl,
With dreary fhrieks did also her bewray,
And hungry Wolves continually did howl
At her abhorred face, fo filthy and fo foul.

They fteal away the body, and carry it down thro' the cave Avernus, to the realms of Pluto. What ftrength of painting is there in the following lines!

-On every fide them ftood

The trembling ghosts, with fad amazed mood
Chattring their iron teeth, and staring wide
With ftony eyes; and all the hellish brood
Of Fiends infernal flock'd on every fide

To gaze on earthly wight, that with the Night durft ride.

Longinus commending a defcription in Euripides of Phaeton's journey thro' the heavens, in which the turnings and windings are marked out in a very lively manner, fays, That the foul of the Poet feems to mount the chariot with him, and to fhare all his dangers. The reader will find himself in a like manner transported throughout this whole epifode; which fhews that it has in it the force and fpirit of the moft fublime poetry.

The first appearance of prince Arthur in this book is reprefented to great advantage, and gives occafion to a very finished defcription of a martial figure. fprightly is that image and fimile in the following lines!

Upon the top of all his lofty crest

A bunch of hairs, difcolour'd diverfly

With sprinkled pearl, and gold full richly dreft,
Did fhake, and seem'd to dance for jollity,

Like to an almond-tree y mounted high

On top of green Selinis all alone,

With bloffoms brave bedecked daintily;
Whofe tender locks do tremble every one

At every little blaft that under heav'n is blown.

How

I must not omit mentioning the house of Pride, and that of Holiness, which are beautiful allegories in different parts of this book. In the former of thefe there is a minute circumftance which is very artificial; for the

reader

reader may observe, that the fix counsellors which attend Pride in her progrefs, and ride on the beasts which draw her chariot, are placed in that order in which the vices they reprefent, naturally produce and follow each other. In the dungeon among the captives of Pride, the poet has reprefented Nebuchadnezzar, Crafus, Antiochus, Alexander, and several other eminent perfons, in circumftances of the utmoft ignominy. The moral is truly noble; for upon the fight of fo many illuftrious flaves, the Knight haftens from the place, and makes his escape.

The defcription of Despair in the ninth canto, is that which is faid to have been taken notice of by Sir Philip Sidney. But I think the fpeech of Despair, in which the diftempered reasonings, that are apt to agitate the heart of a man abandoned to this paffion, are fo pathetically represented, is much fuperior to the defcription.

Among the allegories in the tenth canto, it is impoffible not to diftinguish that venerable figure of Contemplation, in his hermitage on the top of a hill, reprefented as an old man almost wafted away in ftudy:

With fnowy locks adown his fhoulders spread,
As hoary froft with fpangles doth attire
The moffy branches of an oak half dead.

The Knight and his companion enquire of him:

Is not from hence the way that leadeth right
To that most glorious houfe that gliftereth bright
With burning ftars, and ever-living fire?

This is extremely noble, as well as the old man's fhewing him from the top of the hill, the heavenly Jerufalem; which was proper to animate the hero against the combat, in which he is presently after engaged: His fuccefs in that combat, and his marrying Una, are a very juft conclufion of this book, and of its chief allegory.

It would be eafy to point out many. instances, befides those I have mentioned, of the beauties of this book; yet these few will give the reader a taste of that poetical Spirit and genius for allegory, which every where shine in this author. It would be endless to take notice of the more minute beauties of his epithets, his figures, and his fimiles, which occur in almost every page. I fhall only mention one or two as a fpecimen. That image of Strength, in ftriking a club into the ground, which is illuftrated by the following fimile, is very great.

As when almighty Jove, in wrathful mood
To wreak the guilt of mortal fins is bent,
Hurls forth his thundring dart with deadly feud,
Enroll'd in flames and fmouldring dreariment,
Thro' riven clouds and molten firmament
The fierce three-forked engine making way,
Both lofty tow'rs and highest trees hath rent,
And all that might his angry paffage stay,

And fhooting in the earth, cafts up a mount of clay.
His boiftrous club fo bury'd in the ground,
He could not rearen up again, &c.

As also that of a giant's fall,

That down he tumbled as an aged tree,
High growing on the top of rocky clift;

Whofe heart-strings with keen steel nigh hewen be:
The mighty trunk, half rent with ragged rift,
Doth roll adown the rocks, and fall with fearful drift.

Thefe are fuch paffages as we may imagine our excellent Milton to have ftudied in this author. And here by the way it is remarkable, that as Spenfer abounds with fuch thoughts as are truly fublime, fo he is almost every where free from the mixture of little conceits, and that low affectation of wit which fo much infected both our verfe and profe afterwards; and from which scarce any writer of his own time, befides himself, was free.

I