When Arthur turned to the passionate brother for defence of Guyon in his hour of weakness, Cymochles asked, "What art thou, that mak’st thyself his daysman?" Then followed the victory of Arthur over the the two fierce Saracens ; and when Guyon awoke and knew his deliverer, he "to the Prince with bowing reverence due,

As to the Patron of his life, thus said;

'My Lord, my Liege, by whose most gracious aid

I live this day, and see my foes subdued,

What may suffice to be for meed repaid

Of so great Graces as ye have me showed
But to be ever bound-?""

Arthur gave kindly answer, and proceeded with Guyon on his way, "the while false Archimago and Atin fled apace."

The next canto-the ninth-represents Guyon's visit to the House of Temperance, answering to the Red Cross Knight's visit to the House of Holiness, and preparation for the crowning victory. The House of Temperance is the body described allegorically, with Alma, the soul, for its mistress.*

* The twenty-second stanza gives a general sketch of the building before particular details are dwelt upon. In that general sketch the head and legs are first suggested, the trunk then placed between them. Mystical proportions, which actually accord with proportions of the body, are suggested, and the stanza closes with admiration of the harmony of workmanship in all. The circular part is the head. The triangle is formed by the legs when parted. The last proportion imperfect, a triangle that needs to be completed by the ground; mortal; and feminine, because thence the continuance of the race. The first proportion, the circle, perfect; immortal, because the seat of intellect; masculine, because that sex was associated by men with intellectual power. Betwixt head and legs the trunk, with the arms hanging by its side, "a quadrate, was the base." A piece of tape will show that the proportion of a quadrate so formed is in a man of natural figure as seven to nine. "Nine was the circle set in heaven's place." The same piece of tape that reaches from the shoulders to the knuckles, as the arm hangs by the side forming the longer side of the quadrate, exactly measures the circle of the head, the most exalted part of the human frame, “the circle set in heaven's place." This explanation of a stanza which has been the subject of much waste erudition, was first given by me in the Athenæum for the twelfth of August, 1848, in a short paper signed only by initials. It will be seen that the

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The allegory of the body as the Castle of Temperance and home of the Soul is continued, until, at the end of the ninth canto, the guests are led into the chamber of Memory, inside the head, where Prince Arthur finds an old book of "Briton Moniments," and Guyon finds another book, Antiquity of Faerie Lond." Then follows, in the tenth canto, an ingenious record of the romance of old British history from Geoffrey of Monmouth, which, leading up to Prince Arthur, breaks off abruptly, so as to leave Arthur's origin still mystical. Then it passes to the roll of Elfin Emperors till the time of Gloriana, and folds a double allegory in the sequence, which may be read as shadowing Elizabeth's succession from the preceding English kings, and also the succession of a pure and reformed Christianity from preceding religions-heathen, Greek, and so forth-in the spiritual world.

Returning then to Guyon and Arthur in the Dwelling Place of Temperance-the human body—the eleventh canto represents the war of the affections that seeks to bring Alma, the soul, into captivity. Here again it is Prince Arthur who saves. And now the Knight of Temperance, well trained for the last conflict, proceeds alone to the achievement of his crowning adventure.

Over the dangerous waves, with the black Palmer for steersman, Guyon passes, avoiding the Gulf of Greediness, the Rock of Vile Reproach, Phædria's enticements, the quicksand of Unthriftyhead, with many perils more, until they reach the Bower of Bliss,

"When thus the Palmer: 'Now, sir, well avise;

For here the end of all our travel is:

Here wones Acrasia, whom we must surprise,

Else she will slip away, and all our drift despise.'

Then they heard melodies, with sound of falling waters and the song of birds, and saw where the Witch hung over a new lover

"The whiles some one did chaunt this lovely lay: Ah! see, whoso fayre thing doest faine to see,

reference to seven and nine takes away all doubt, if there could be any, as to the accuracy of the interpretation, which is only to be questioned by the learned upon the ground of its being ridiculously simple. It is not simpler than the necessary interpretation, in the following stanzas, of a moustache as the wandering vine, the nose as a fair portcullis, the tongue as a porter with a larum bell, the teeth as twice sixteen warders, and so forth. It is true that the simplicity of the right reading contrasts ludicrously with the load of erudition under which Sir Kenelm Digby buried the poor unoffending lines.

In springing flowre the image of thy day.
Ah! see the Virgin Rose, how sweetly shee
Doth first peepe foorth with bashfull modestee,
That fairer seemes the less ye see her may.
Lo! see soone after how more bold and free
Her baréd bosome she doth broad display;
Lo see soone after how she fades and falls away.

"So passeth, in the passing of a day,
Of mortall life the leafe, the bud, the flowre;
Ne more doth florish after first decay,

That earst was sought to deck both bed and bowre

Of many a lady, and many a Paramowre.

Gather therefore the Rose whilest yet is prime,

For soone comes age that will her pride deflowre;

Gather the Rose of love whilest yet is time,

Whilest loving thou mayst lovéd be with equall crime."

That song was sung by Armida to Rinaldo in the gardens where he lay, with his force cancelled, drawn from duty by her charms. The two stanzas were translated from the fourteenth and fifteenth stanzas of the sixteenth canto of the Gerusalemme Liberata, and Spenser used other recollections of Tasso's gardens of Armida in description of the gardens of Acrasia. Recognition of such borrowing was part of the reader's pleasure, when all who were cultivated read Italian. The young man, Verdant, whom this singing lulled, lay with his warlike arms hung on a tree. Sir Guyon and the Palmer, drawing near suddenly, threw over the pair

"A subtile net, which only for that same

The skilful Palmer formerly did frame;
So held them under fast, the whiles the rest
Fled all away for fear of fouler shame."

Escape was impossible for Acrasia, who was tied in chains of adamant, while Verdant was released and counselled.

But all those pleasant bowers of ignoble ease Guyon broke down, and burnt the banquet-houses, razed the buildings to the ground. As Guyon and the Palmer led away Acrasia they were attacked by furious wild beasts. These were, said the Palmer,

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'Whylome her lovers, which her lustes did feed, Now turnéd into figures hideous,

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Streight way he with his vertuous staffe them strooke,
And streight of beast̃es they comely men became ;

Yet being men they did unmanly looke,

And staréd ghastly; some for inward shame,

And some for wrathe to see their captive Dame :
But one above the rest in speciall

That had an hog beene late, hight Grylle by name,
Repynéd greatly, and did him miscall

That had from hoggish forme him brought to naturall.

"Saide Guyon: 'See the mind of beastly man, That hath so soone forget the excellence

Of his creation, when he life began,

Now that he chooseth with vile difference

To be a beast, and lacke intelligence!'

To whom the Palmer thus: The donghill kinde
Delightes in filth and fowle incontinence ;

Let Gryll be Gryll, and have his hoggish minde;

But let us hence depart whilest wether serves and winde.'”

The Third Book.

The Third and Fourth Books of "The Faerie Queene" have for their theme Love in all its forms: Love seeking Marriage in the third book, the Legend of Britomartis, or of Chastity; Love in all other forms, as Friendship, in the fourth book, the Legend of Cambel and Triamond.

In the first canto of the Third Book, Britomart, its heroine, is met by Guyon and Prince Arthur, as they travel on from the House of Temperance. Guyon had sent Acrasia strongly guarded to the Faerie Queene. Against Britomart in knight's armour Guyon tilted and was laid on the ground a spear's length behind his crupper. The Palmer stayed his wrath at the unwonted fall.

"Thus reconcilement was between them knitt, Through goodly temperaunce and affection chaste;

And either vowd with all their power and witt
To let not other's honour be defaste

Of friend or foe, who ever it embaste;
Ne armes to beare against the other's syde:
In which accord the Prince was also plaste,
And with that golden chaine of concord tyde.
So goodly all agreed they forth yfere did ryde."

Then there rushed by them on a milk-white palfrey a goodly lady, Florimell-who represents the complete charm of womanhood-pursued by a grisly Forester, a type of lust. The Prince and Guyon at once followed the Lady; and Timias, Prince Arthur's page, followed the Forester. Britomart waited a while for them, and as they did not return, rode on her way, with her own aged squire, who was her nurse, the companion of her adventure.

When Britomart had passed out of the wood, she came to a fair castle where there were six knights in a fierce battle against one before the gates. The castle was the Castle Joyous, wherein dwelt Malecasta, the Lady of Delight, who required of all stranger knights that they should serve her thenceforth, and if they had another love forego her or prove her, in conflict, fairer than Malecasta. The six servants of the Lady of Delight were beating on the Red Cross Knight, who declared himself true to the Errant Damosel, to Una. Four of them fell before the all-prevailing spear of Britomart, the other two submitted, and all entered the Castle Joyous, where everything ministered to sensual delight, and Malecasta, ignorant of the sex of Britomart, became vainly enamoured. At night Britomart and the Red Cross Knight, who joined her foot to foot and side to side, fought their way out of the toils of shamelessness, and in the early morning took their steeds and went forth upon their journey.

As they travelled on together, in the second canto, Britomart heard from the Red Cross Knight the praises of Sir Artegall, the Knight of Justice (who is the hero of the Fifth Book). The name of Britomartis was that of a Cretan nymph who leapt into the sea to escape shame, and was a name given sometimes also to Diana. Natalis Comes makes her a nymph caught in the nets while hunting, who obtained release by vowing a shrine to Diana. Spenser makes his Britomart a British maid who had desired to see in a magic mirror of Merlin's the image of the knight to whom her life was to be linked.

The image she saw was that of Artegall, the Knight of Justice. Then sprang in the heart of Love the desire to be joined to Justice; Britomart yearned to be joined to Artegall. In the third canto is told