fhould be; but the other, in the perfon of Cyrus and the Perfians fashioned a government, fuch as might best be: So much more profitable and gracious is doctrine by enfample, than by rule. So have I laboured to do, in the perfon of Arthur; whom, I conceive, after his long education by Timon (to whom he was, by Merlin, delivered to be brought up, fo foon as he was born of the Lady Igrayne) to have feen, in a dream or vifion, the Fairy Queen with whofe excellent beauty ravished, he awaking, refolved to feek her out: And fo being by Merlin armed and by Timon thoroughly inftructed, he went to feek her forth in Fairy-land. In that Fairy Queen, I mean glory in my general intention; but in my particular, I conceive, the moft excellent and glorious perfon of our fovereign, the Queen, and her Kingdom in Fairy-land. And yet in fome places elfe, I do otherwise fhadow her. For confidering the beareth two perfons, the one of a moft royal Queen or Emprefs the other of a most virtuous and beautiful Lady; this latter part, in fome places, I do exprefs in Belphabe; fashioning her name according to your own excellent conceit of Cymbia; Phabe and Cynthia being both names of Diana. So in the person of Prince Arthur, I fet forth Magnificence in particular: which vertue, for that (according to Aristotle, and the reft) it is the perfection of all the reft, and containeth in it them all; therefore in the whole course, I mention the deeds of Arthur applicable to that vertue, which Iwrite of in that book. But of the twelve other vertues, I make twelve other Knights the patrons, for the more variety of the hiftory: Of which thefe three books contain three. The firft, of the Knight of the Red-cross; in whom I exprefs Holinefs; The fecond, of Sir Guyon; in whom I fet forth Temperance: The third of Britomartis, a Lady Knight; in whom I picture Chastity. But becaufe the beginning of the whole work feemeth abrupt, and as depending upon other antecedents, it needs that ye know the occafion of these three Knights feveral adventures. For the method of a Poet hiftorical, is not fuch of an hiftorio grapher. For an Hiftoriograper difcourfeth of affairs orderly as they were done, accounting as well the times as the actions; but a Poet thrufteth into the middeft, even where it moft concerneth him; and there recourfing to the things forepaft, and devining of things to come, maketh a pleafing analysis of all. The beginning. therefore of my hiftory, if it were to be told by an Hiftoriographer, fhould be the twelfth book, which is the laft, where I devife, that the Fairy-Queen kept her annual feast twelve days: Upon which twelve feveral days the occafions of the twelve feveral adventures happened; which being undertaken by twelve feveral Knights are in thefe twelve books feverally handled and difcourfed. The firft was this; in the beginning of the feaft, there prefented himself a tall clownish young Man; who falling before the Queen of Fairys, defired a boon (as the manner then was) which, during the feaft, fhe might not refuse which was, that he might have the atchievement of any adventure, which, during that feast fhould happen. That being granted, he rested himself on the floor, unfit, through his rufticity, for a better place. Soon after entred a fair Lady in mourning weeds, riding on a white afs, with a dwarf behind her, leading a warlike fteed, that bore the armour of a Knight, and his fpear in the dwarf's hand, fhe falling before the Queen of Fairys, complained, that her father and mother, an ancient King and Queen, had been by an huge dragon, many years, fhut up in a brazen caftle; who thence fuffred them not to iffue: and therefore befought the Fairy Queen to affign her fome one of her Knights to take on him that exploit. Presently that clownish perfon upftarting, defired that adventure: whereat the Queen much wondering, and the Lady much gain-faying, yet he earneftly importuned his defire. In the end, the Lady told him, unless that armour which the brought, would ferve him (that is the armour of a chriftian man, Specified by St. Paul, Ephef. v.) that he could not fuc ceed I shall shorten my remarks on the following books; yet the beauties in them rife fo thick, that I must not pass them by without mentioning fome. The second legend is framed on the vertue of Temperance, which gives the author opportunity to lay out in defcription all the most luxurious images of pleasure, riches and riot which are opposed to it, and confequently makes it one of the most poetical books of this whole work. Sir Guyon is the hero, and the poet has given him fobriety in the habit of a Palmer, for his guide and counsellor; as Homer has fuppofed Minerva or Wifdom in the shape of Mentor to attend Telemachus in his travels, when he is feeking out his father Ulyffes. That fhining defcription of Belphabe, as a huntress, like Venus in Virgil appearing to her fon Æneas, is defigned as a compliment on Queen Elizabeth, and is therefore wrought up with the most finished beauty. Her fpeech in praife of that true glory, which is only attained by labour and ftudy, is not only extremely proper to the fubject of this book, but admirable, if we confider it as the fenfe of that Princefs, and as a short character of fo active and glorious a reign; Abroad in arms, at home in ftudious kind, In woods, in waves, in wars fhe wont to dwell, Unto her happy manfion attain: Before her gate high God did sweat ordain, Such paffages as these kindle in the mind a generous emulation, and are an honour to the art of poetry, which ought always to recommend worthy fentiments. The b 4 reader. reader may fee in the fixth canto a character quite oppofite to this, in that of Idleness; who draws Sir Guyon for a while from his guide, and lays him afleep in her ifland. Her fong with which fhe charms him into a flumber, Behold, O man! that toilfome pains doft take, The flowres, the fields, and all that pleasant grows; is very artfully adapted to the occafion; and is a contraft to that speech of Belphabe, I have just quoted. The episode of Mammon, who in the Palmer's ab fence leads Sir Guyon into his cave, and tempts him with a furvey of his riches, very properly diversifies the entertainment in this book; and gives occafion to a noble fpeech against riches, and the mifchievous effects of them. I have, in the difcourfe on allegory, taken notice of the fiends and spectres, which are placed in crouds at the entrance to this place. The author fupposes the house of riches to lie almoft contiguous to hell; and the guard he fets upon it, expreffes a very just moral. Before the door fate felf-confuming Care. Day and night keeping wary watch and ward. The light which is let into this place, Such as a lamp, whofe life doth fade away; The fmoakinefs of it, and the flaves of Mammon working at an hundred furnaces, are all defcribed in the most lively manner: As their fudden looking at Sir Guyon is a circumftance very naturally reprefented. The walks thro' which Mammon afterwards leads the Knight, are agreeably varied. The description of Ambition, and of the garden garden of Proferpine, are good allegories; and Sir Guyon's falling into a fwoon on his coming into the open air, gives occafion to a fine machine of the appearance of an heavenly spirit in the next canto; by whofe affiftance he is restored to the Palmer. I cannot think the Poet fo fuccessful in his defcription of the houfe of Temperance; in which the allegory. seems to be debased by a mixture of too many low images, as Diet, Concoction, Digeftion, and the like; which are represented as perfons. But the allegorical description of Memory, which follows foon after, is very good. The ninth canto, in which the author has made an abridgment of the old British hiftory, is a very amufing digreffion; but might have been more artfully introduced. Homer or Virgil would not have fuffered the action of the poem to stand still whilft the hero had been reading over a book; but would have put the history in the mouth of fome proper perfon to relate it. But I have already faid, that this work is not to be examined by the ftrict rules of epic poetry. The laft canto of this fecond book being defigned to fhew the utmoft tryal of the vertue of Temperance, abounds with the most pleasurable ideas and reprefentations which the fancy of the poet could affemble together; but from the fifty-eighth ftanza to the end, it is for the most part copied, and many whole ftanza's tranflated, from the famous epifode of Armida in Taffo. The reader may obferve, that the Italian genius for luxury appears very much in the defcriptions of the garden, the fountain, and the nymphs; which however are finely amplified and improved by our English poet. I fhall give but one inftance in the following celebrated ftanza; which, to gratify the curiofity of those who may be willing to compare the copy with the original, I fhall fet down in Italian. Vezxofi |