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that this is consistent throughout, is the very soul of the poem, source of its immortal life; and that the "particular' significations, which are frequent and various, are secondary senses lying only on the surface of the main design, with which they harmonise, and to which they gave a lively added interest in Spenser's time. They suggest living examples of great truths, and bind the teaching to the lives of men.

Faery means in the allegory Spiritual. A faery knight is a spiritual quality or virtue militant, serving the Faerie Queene, Gloriana, which means in the general allegory Glory in the highest sense, the Glory of God. Read out of allegory, therefore, "The Glory of God" is the name of Spenser's poem.

Again said Spenser, in this explanatory letter, "In the person of Prince Arthure I sette forth Magnificence in particular, which vertue, for that (according to Aristotle and the rest) it is the perfection of all the rest, and conteineth in it them all: therefore in the whole course I mention the deeds of Arthure applyable to that vertue, which I write of in that booke; but of the xii other vertues I make xii other knights the patrones, for the more variety of the history." Spenser's ethical system was bound up with his religion; he painted, therefore, in his separate knights, each single virtue of a man striving heavenward, but failing at some point, and needing aid of Divine grace. Aid came through Arthur, in whom all the virtues are contained, who is filled with a great desire towards the Faerie Queene--the Glory of God-and who above all represents, in the literal sense of the word, Magnificence, since, in one sense, he may be felt to indicate the place of the Mediator in the Christian system.

If we had had all twelve books of the poem, which was left only half finished, they would have been an allegory of man battling heavenward with all his faculties, through

trial and temptation. The other poem, in which Arthur was to be not Prince, but King, would have been an endeavour to represent through allegory an ideal citizenship of the Kingdom of Heaven. Because "The Faerie Queene" was published incomplete, Spenser told of what its readers could have found in the whole work so much as was necessary to direct their understanding to the well-head of the history, "that from thence gathering the whole intention of the conceit, ye may as in a handfull gripe at the discourse." He gave the clue into our hands, and then left us to find our own way through the poem upon which he spent the best thought of his life.

Ethical
Spirit.

Moral philosophy was divided into ethics, which dealt with the individual; and politics, which dealt with the community. Spenser's project was of two poems, applying each of these to his own sense of the relation between man and God. In Plato's " 'Republic" there were said to be four Cardinal Virtues Courage, Temperance, Justice, Wisdom. In the " Protagoras " Plato added to these Holiness (oσtórns ; the evoέßeia frequently mentioned as a virtue by the Socrates of Xenophon). Aristotle omitted this, distinctly separating Ethics from Religion. In Aristotle's Ethics the Virtues specified are Courage (åròpɛía); Temperance (σωφροσύνη); Liberality (ἐλευθεριότης); Magnificence (μεγαλοπрέжεια); Magnanimity (μɛyaλovxía); Laudable Ambition (φιλοτιμία); Mildness of a Regulated Temper (πραότης); Courtesy, or Regulated Conduct in Society (described, but unnamed); Regulation of Boastfulness, which includes avoiding of the affectation of humility, in fact, sincerity of manner (also without a specific name); Social Pliability of Wit, that is, the power of being, in the honest sense of the words, all things to all men (ɛvгρаπɛλía); Justice (dikatoσúvn). Modesty, Aristotle did not reckon among virtues, because he considered it to be rather a feeling

than a state. Having discussed these virtues in the third, fourth, and fifth books of his Ethics, Aristotle passed in the sixth book to the Intellectual Virtues, Philosophy and Wisdom, including Prudence (εvßovλía), Apprehension (σύνεσις), (γνώμη). (ouverts), and Considerateness (yvwun). His seventh book, upon Pleasure, included discussion of Incontinence and Intemperance, and his eighth and ninth books were upon Friendship. In this system there was a continuous analysis, without any attempt to make up some definite number of virtues.

Upon the groundwork of this treatise of Aristotle's there had been built the classification of the virtues which was commonly received in Spenser's time. They were of three kinds—I., Intellectual; II., Moral; III., Theological. The Intellectual Virtues were-Intellectual Knowledge, producing Art; Wisdom, producing Prudence. The Moral Virtues were— 1, Prudence, Mother of All; 2, Justice; 3, Courage; 4, Temperance. These were the four Cardinal Virtues. Then came, 5, Courtesy; 6, Liberality; 7, Magnificence ; 8, Magnanimity; 9, Philotimia (Laudable Ambition); 10, Truth; 11, Friendship; 12, Eutrapelia (Social Pliability of Wit). The Theological virtues were these three--Faith, Hope, and Charity.

In Spenser's "Faerie Queene" there is no slavish following of this or any system. He plans his work as a poet. His theme is religious.

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The Faerie Queene, Gloriana, stands for the Glory of God. A Faerie Knight is a spiritual power, and "faerie ” means throughout "spiritual." He begins, therefore, with Religion; and as Una, the type of Truth, is associated with Religion, whenever the Red Cross Knight, St. George, who represents the Christian Warrior or Christian England battling for the Faith, is not misled into superstition, it may be said that Truth, which had a place among the twelve Moral Virtues, is represented here.

From the First Book, of Religion-the full man's first requisite, a pure mind-Spenser passed in the Second Book to Temperance, the corresponding need of a pure body and restraint upon all forms of earthly desire. Of Temperance Sir Guyon is the knight.

Next Spenser went on to Love, the first great bond of life and strongest of all powers that aid in the battle heavenward. To this he gave two books with their matter very closely interwoven, the subject being thus divided: Book the Third, Love seeking marriage, Chastity, of which Britomart is representative; Book the Fourth, Love in all other human forms, Friendship, of which the knights are Cambel and Triamond.

But Love needs to be joined to Justice, the second great bond of society, and due companion of Love. It is to Artegall, the knight of Justice, that Britomart seeks to be joined. The Fifth Book, therefore, was of Justice.

Then followed in the Sixth Book and in the Seventh, of which the subject is known from a fragment, the diffused counterparts of Love and Justice that temper the relations of life even among strangers, Courtesy and Constancy. As Love must be joined to Justice, Justice to Love, so Courtesy, that bids us yield our own opinions and desires, on all but points of duty, to the comfort even of a stranger, must be joined to Constancy, that keeps the mind firm as a rock where duty is concerned. But even then, Courtesy adds its grace to Constancy. So Spenser utters the strictest doom of Justice through the lips of Mercilla, who is a type of Mercy.

It is not possible to guess what would have been the theme of the next four books, had they been written. The twelfth, Spenser has told us, would have knitted all the allegories into one at the Court of Gloriana. One virtue in the old technical list was Magnificence. Spenser said that he assigned this to Arthur; and as Arthur distinctly

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represents the bearer of the grace of God, without which man by his own deeds cannot attain, there can be no question of the fitness of the attribute of greatness to that which is done by help of Divine grace for man.

In every book there is a fixed place—the eighth cantofor this intervention, which, from Spenser's religious point of view, was the height of the argument. "Ne let," he

says

"Ne let the man ascribe it to his skill

That thorough Grace hath gainéd victory.

If any strength we have, it is to ill:

But all the good is God's, both power and eke will."

The only one of the six books in which Arthur does not intervene in the eighth canto is that of Chastity; for Spenser held the doctrine, afterwards expressed by Milton, that no evil thing has power over true virginity. But the close union of the third and fourth books is for setting forth one virtue in many forms; and the usual intervention in the eighth canto of the fourth book makes the very characteristic exception in the case of Britomart no interruption to the plan of the whole poem.

Outward
Form.

The form of a romance of chivalry was in its own day the most popular that could have been selected. Spenser not only followed Spanish romances and Ariosto's Orlando," but adapted himself to the humour of his time, as illustrated by the "Famous Historie of the Seven Champions of Christendome," a pious romance of saintly knights and fair ladies, dragons and chivalrous adventures, told in Euphuistic style, of which the first part, which Spenser had read, appeared probably about the middle of Elizabeth's reign, the second part certainly in 1597. Richard Johnson, whose name is associated with this book, and who finished re-editing it in the year of Shakespeare's death, was not its author.