white Truth, he goes forth to fight against the Dragon, the 'old Serpent,' who has wrought man's ruin and holds him beleaguered, having blasted the land which ought to be a paradise.

But on his way he meets with abundant 'lets and hindrances.' No sooner is the light of heaven obscured by a passing storm, than the warrior and his guide lose their way in the wood of Error; but at last encountering Error herself, the Knight, with the aid of his heavenly armour, overcomes and destroys her. By this Spenser wished to indicate the doubts and dangers which beset the soul of him who has just embraced the truth of the Gospel-the 'variations of Protestantism,' in fact, and the risks, of private judgment. When this danger has been safely passed, we find the Knight a prey to what may be called 'a Roman Catholic reaction.' Any student of history will know how naturally this risk would suggest itself to a writer's mind at the end of the sixteenth century. Archimago, or Hypocrisy, with his friend and companion, Duessa, double-faced witch, false and frivolous, fair and foul, now encounter him; and he, whom Error could not overcome, falls a victim to flattery and dissimulation. The artifices of the Jesuits, which had met with so great success, and had already stopped the progress of the Reformation in most European countries, were felt in the form of underhand plots and deceits in England; and there can be no doubt that, it is at these that Spenser points. Duessa is the Roman Church herself. She is described as dressed in scarlet, riding on th monster of the Apocalypse, which all reformed England regarded as the Rome of the Papacy. The guile of the magician misleads the hero, till he thinks that truth is false, and falsehood true. This is the guiding-line to all his subsequent troubles. He gives way to self-indulgence, falls into pride, and though he overcomes the Paynim Unbelief, he presently grows enervated through the false comrade who has taken Truth's place; he lays aside his sacred armour, is captured by Orgoglio, Antichrist, proud giant, and is wellnigh cast away. At this point Una, who has gone through many troubles (so truth is tried) in the search after her Knight, meets with Prince Arthur, in whom we may

recognise that spiritual help which succours man in his worst straits, when he can no longer help himself. Arthur slays the giant, and delivers the Knight from his dungeon. After this spiritual deliverance, he falls into the gloomiest state of despondency, into the "Cave of Despair," and nearly ends his own life through consciousness of his failure and sinfulness. But Una saves him again, and carries him to the "House of Mercy," where after due spiritual discipline, all remnants of pride, all earthly tendencies, all stains contracted by his contact with the false one, are washed or burnt away; and after a glimpse of a better world, he comes forth pure and chastened, and restored to his spiritual health, wearing once more the heavenly armour. Thus prepared and equipped, he encounters the grim Dragon, at last destroys the last enemy, and triumphs gloriously. Thus has he overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with his betrothal to Una the book ends.

This is the allegory of the human soul, winning its way by God's help to heaven, and in the power of the Gospel overcoming every spiritual foe. Let us now turn to the lower, or more concrete side of the tale, and we shall find that under the personages of the story Spenser signified certain living men and women, who were to him typical of the characteristics that have been drawn out above.

The Red Cross Knight, St. George, is the pattern Englishman ; e cannot be called by any one name; nor is Una more than an abstract quality; but the Faery Queene is Queen Elizabeth, as Spenser takes no small pains to let us know; Duessa is Mary Queen of Scots, as we learn from a later Book; by the giant Orgoglio is probably intended Philip II, King of Spain; Prince Arthur is Lord Leicester 9. No doubt other names have their own meanings; but these are all as to which we can feel any certainty, and conjecture is useless. Indeed those characters whose inten

a Holinshed, iii. p. 1426, describes the following scene, at the reception of Lord Leicester, so as to leave no doubt on this point. "Over the entrance of the court gate was placed aloft upon a scaffold, as it had beene in a cloud or skie, Arthur of Britaine, whom they compared to the Earle."

tion we do know scarcely encourage us to search any further There is a sad incongruity between Lord Leicester and Princ Arthur which discourages any inquiry into the remaining per sonages. This personal side to allegory must be a failure, an in the sixteenth century was little more than a vehicle for flatter It adds something to the interest of the poem; nothing to excellence.

But not only in hidden meanings does the poet shew us th constructive and imaginative elements of his character, but in th manner and language in which he lays his thoughts before us Now Spenser lived in a world of romance; he had studied with delight the literature of chivalry and adventure, and was also livin in the midst of that courtly tendency towards the romanti which characterized the latter years of Elizabeth's reign. It wa one of the different reactions for which the period is noted. was a reaction from the severity of the Queen's earlier years, an from the more primitive simplicity of the first age of the Refor mation. Naturally, then, Spenser threw his tale into an ancie form suitable to what Bishop Hurd calls his "Gothick style He had an affinity for those older turns of expression, tho more curious inflexions, which give the Faery Queene at fir sight the appearance of having been written in an obsolete di lect. He chose the language which was dying out; and witho any intention of writing in old English, looked always backward never forwards, in his choice of words and phrases. Nor shou it be forgotten that he was protesting against the transition th taking the place of thought and feeling. But, escaping from o going on in language, and against the affectations which we form of Euphuism,' he fell into another; until his archaisms b came an affectation. Even to men of his own age his style seem to be too antique. Daniel (Sonnet cxi.) says of him

6

"Let others sing of knights and palladines

In aged accents and untimely words."

A little later, Ben Jonson declares that "Spenser writ no language In the eighteenth century the classical writers could scarce They looked in vain for the wi

endure the uncouth forms.

urt

Pr

-e,.

atte

to

in

and powder of their own time. Warton feels it to be a great drawback to the poem. Hughes published an edition much modernized: but it was reserved for 'A Person of Quality' to publish a Spenser redivivus,' in which he succeeds in freeing the poet entirely from what he calls 'the Saxon dialect.' To the ingenious activity of such persons we probably owe the indifference to Spenser which has since prevailed.

us A few examples will suffice to shew the sort of archaism to be met with in the Faery Queene. In constructions, we may Dre mention the use of the impersonal verb without the usual pronoun before it :-"sits not"='it sits not,' "seemed" = 'it seemed,' and the like, occur very frequently:-or again, the use of the na double negative, "ne can no man:"- -or "should" for 'would It have,' as "should beare" for would have borne.' As to forms among parts of verbs the p. p. troden = trodden, woxen, p. p. of

d.

Ref

ncit

the

or inflexions, we may notice rs, ydrad = dreaded, ycladd = clad, 'to wax ;' the pret. lad=led; wot, pret. of 'to weet;' raft of 'to reave' to bereave; can = gan = began; raught = reached; brast styl burst. Again we find bene, been, for the modern 'are;' mote= might; and a variety of similar forms. Trenchand, glitterand, are pres. participles. There are also old plurals of nouns, as fone =foes, eyne or eyen eyes. For ancient words, now obsolete, though not perhaps lost from the language in Spenser's time, the Glossary at the end of this volume may be consulted.

tb

e d

the

var

hot

th

we

s b

m

=

It would be an interesting task to trace the gradual assimilation of French words into our language; and the Faery Queene provides a large number of instances of transition. Thus in ed. 1590 we have 'ferse,' in 1596 'fierce;' 'perse,' 'persaunt' are nearer the French origin than 'pierce,' 'piercing;' 'richesse,' 'noblesse,' 'humblesse,' are words not yet digested by our language; 'renverst,' 'esloyne,' 'covetise,' 'pourtrahed,' 'journall' (for 'daily'), are all French forms; 'insupportable,' 'envý,' 'spirituall.' 'the tigré cruél,' are all in pronunciation nearer age the French than the English. The language had thrown open its doors, and these are some of the guests not yet naturalized. While on this subject we must not omit to notice the Latinisms,

cel

wi

b

and imitations of the Italian, which meet us in every page.

It was impossible that a writer of such keen sympathies as Spenser should avoid the influences of those books which he regarded as his models. The more marked instances will be pointed out in the Notes.

Another characteristic which tends to give an archaic feeling to the poem, is the use of alliteration, of which Spenser was particularly fond. It is a great feature of Early English poetry, as we see, for example, in the Vision of Piers Ploughman, or in the alliterative poems of the fourteenth century.

We cannot leave this part of the subject without noticing the Spenserian stanza. It is said to be a modification of the 'ottava rime' of Ariosto. But although this may be partly true, the long nine-lined stanza, ending with an Alexandrine, has an entirely independent character. Ariosto's verse runs rapidly on, answering to the lively style of the poet, and his quick transitions: but Spenser's stanza, with occasional weaknesses, arising from its greater length, has a melody, dignity, and weight, which suit his manner of handling his subject and the gravity of his mind. It may be fairly said to be all his own, and to have been accepted at his hands by poets ever since. How many English poets of name have written, often written their best, in the Spenserian stanza!

We have mentioned Ariosto; it is time we took brief notice of the sources whence Spenser drew the materials which he worked up into the Faery Queene. Homer and Virgil, whose influence can often be seen in the turn of expression and in the illustrations employed, we will pass over. From Chaucer he drew largely; though, as has been said, Chaucer painted persons, Spenser qualities. Still we see the influence of the Father of English poetry, which Spenser himself willingly acknowledged, in every part of his writings. He was also well read in the old romances. We can trace the Morte d'Arthur in the description of Prince Arthur; the twelve Knights of the Faery Queene are modelled after the Seven Champions of Christendom; and from Sir Bevis of Hampton he has drawn a great part of his