Vezzofi augelli, infra le verdi fronde,
Temprano a prova lafcivette note;
Mormora l'aura, e fa le foglie e l'onde
Garrir, che variamente ella percote.
Quando taccion gli augelli, alto risponde ;
Quando cantan gli augei, piu lieve fcote.

Sia cafo o d'arte, bor accompagna, ed bora
Alterna i verfi lor la mufica ora.

Spenfer has two ftanza's on this thought; the last of which only is an imitation of Taffo, but with finer turns of the verfe: which are fo artificial, that he seems to make the mufick he defcribes.

Eftfoons they heard a moft delicious found
Of all that mote delight a dainty ear;
Such as at once might not on living ground,
Save in this paradife be heard elsewhere:
Right hard it was for wight which did it hear,
To read what manner mufick that mote be,
For all that pleasing is to living ear

Was there conforted in one harmony;

Birds, voices, inftruments, winds, waters, all agree.

The joyous birds, fhrouded in chearful fhade,
Their notes unto the voice attempred sweet;
Th' angelical, foft trembling voices made
To th' inftruments divine refpondence meet;
The filver-founding inftruments did meet
With the bafe murmur of the water's fall;
The water's fall, with difference difcreet,
Now foft, now loud, unto the wind did call;
The gentle warbling wind low answered to all.

Sir Guyon and the Palmer, refcuing the youth who was held captive by Acrafia in this delightful mansion, resembles that of the two warriors recovering Rinaldo from the charms of Armido in the Italian poem.

In

ceed in that enterprife: which being forthwith put upon him, with due furnitures thereunto, he feemed the goodliest man in all that company, and was well liked of the Lady. And eftfoons taking on him Knighthood, and mounting on that ftrange courfer, he went forth with her on that adventure; where beginneth the first book, viz.

A gentle Knight was pricking on the Plain, &c.

The fecond day there came in a Palmer, bearing an infant, with bloody hands; whofe parents he complained, to have been flain by an enchantrefs, called Acrafia; and therefore craved of the Fairy Queen, to appoint him fome Knight to perform that adventure: which being affigned to Sir Guyon, he prefently went forth with that fame Palmer. Which is the beginning of the fecond book, and the whole fubject thereof. The third day there came in a groom, who complained before the Fairy Queen, that a vile enchanter, called Bufirane, had in hand a moft fair Lady, called Amoretta; whom he kept in most grievous torment, because she would not yield him the pleasure of her body. Whereupon Sir Scudamour, the Lover of that Lady, prefently took on him that adventure. But being unable to perform it, by reafon of the hard enchantments, after long forrow, in the end met with Britomartis, who fuccoured him, and refcued his Love.

But by occafion hereof, many other adventures are intermedied, but rather as accidents, than intendments: As, the love of Britomart, the overthrow of Marinell, the mifery of Florimell, the virtuoufnefs of Belphabe, the lafcivioufnefs of Helienora, and many the like.

Thus much, Sir I have briefly over-run, to direct your understanding to the Well-head of the hiftory; that from thence gathering the whole intention of the con

ceit

ceit, ye may, as in a handful, gripe all the difcourfe which otherwife may haply feem tedious and confufed. So humbly craving the continuance of your honourable favour towards me, and the eternal establishment of your happiness, I humbly take leave.

23 January, 1589.

Your most humbly affectionate,

Edmund Spenfer.

In the third book, the character of Britomartis, a lady errant, who is the heroine, and performs the chief adventure, resembles Ariofto's Bradamante, and Taffo's Clorinda; as they are all copies of the Camilla in Virgil.

Among the chief beauties in this book, we may reckon that episode in which Britomartis goes to the cave of Merlin, and is entertained with a prophetical account of her future marriage and offspring. This thought is remotely taken from Virgil, but more immediately from Ariofto; who has reprefented Bradamante on the like occafion making a vifit to the tomb of Merlin; which he is forced for that purpose to suppose to be in Gaul: where fhe fees in like manner, in a vifion, the heroes and captains who were to be her defcendents.

The ftory of Marinel, and that of the birth of Belphabe and Amoret, in which the manner of Ovid is well imitated, are very amufing. That complaint against Night, at the end of the fourth canto,

Night, thou foul mother of annoyance fad,
Sifter of heavy death, and nurfe of
woe, &c.

tho' it were only confidered as detached from the rest, might be efteemed a very fine piece of poetry. But there is nothing more entertaining in this whole book, than the prospect of the gardens of Adonis, which is varyed from the Bower of Blifs in the former book, by an agreeable mixture of philofophical fable. The figure of time walking in this garden, fpoiling the beauty of it, and cutting down the flowers, is a very fine and fignificant allegory.

I cannot fo much commend the ftory of the Squire of Dames, and the intrigue between Paridel and Hellenore: Thefe paffages favour too much of the coarse and comick mixtures in Ariofto. But that Image of Jealousy, at the end of the tenth canto, grown to a favage, throwing himself into a cave, and lying there without ever fhutting one eye, under a craggy clift juft threatning to

fall

fall, is strongly conceived, and very poetical. There is likewife a great variety of fancy in drawing up and diftinguishing, by their proper emblems, the vifionary perfons in the mafque of Cupid, which is one of the chief embellishments of this book.

In the ftory of Cambel and Canace, in the fourth book, the author has taken the rife of his invention from the Squire's Tale in Chaucer, the greatest part of which was loft. The battle of Cambel with the three brethren, and the fudden parting of it by that beautiful machine of the appearance of Concord; who by a touch of her wand charms down the fury of the warriors, and converts them into friends, is one of the most shining paffages in this legend. We may add to this the fiction concerning the girdle of Florimel, which is a good allegory; as also the description of Atè or Difcord: That of Care, working like a fmith, and living amidst the perpetual noife of hammers; and especially the temple of Venus, which is adorned with a great variety of fancy. The prayer of a lover in this temple, which begins,

Great Venus, Queen of beauty and of

grace,

is taken from Lucretius's invocation of the fame Goddefs in the beginning of his poem, and may be reckoned one of the moft elegant tranflations in our language, The continuation of the fable of Marinel, tho' not fo ftrictly to the fubject of this legend, gives occafion to the poet to introduce that admirable episode of the Marriage of the Thames and the Medway; with the train of the fea-gods, Nymphs, and Rivers, and efpecially thofe of England and Ireland, that were prefent at the ceremony: all which are described with a fuprizing variety, and with very agreeable mixtures of Geography; among which Spenfer has not forgot to mention his Mulla, the river which ran thro' his own grounds.

Befides the general morals and allegories in the Fairy Queen, there are fome parallel paffages and characters, which, as I have faid, were defigned to allude to particular

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