And ye high heavens, the temple of the gods, Pour out your blessing on us plenteously, That we may raise a large posterity Which from the earth, which they may long possess With lasting happiness, Up to your haughty palaces may mount; And, for the guerdon of their glorious merit, It is of course impossible to do justice to a great ode in a mere analysis, eked out with a few quotations. The poem is remarkable, not so much for originality in treatment of the subject, as for its copious and inexhaustible flow, for the alacrity with which Spenser catches up all his reminiscences of traditional poetry to adorn his beloved with them and magnify the real circumstances and homely details of a wedding which took place in a small seaport of Ireland, Cork or Youghal, on the 11th of June, 1594. Even in his most personal poems, where he expresses his feelings most directly—the Epithalamion and Amoretti -Spenser's genius for idealising his subject remains apparent. Though he sings the praises of his bride, he offers us the picture, not so much of a distinct and individual woman, as of the typical woman on the bridal day. His beloved is perfectly beautiful; none of the features of conventional beauty are wanting to her portrait -her complexion like a blend of lilies and roses, her CHAPTER V THE PICTORIAL ELEMENTS IN THE 66 FAIRY QUEEN," AND ITS CONNECTION WITH THE PICTURES, DUMBSHOWS, PAGEANTS AND MASQUES OF THE TIME. HOWEVER much alive we may be to the charm of the Amoretti or the splendour of the Epithalamion, we cannot forget that Spenser is above all the author of the Fairy Queen. And it is to this great poem, on which nearly twenty years of his life were spent, though little more than the fourth part of it was written when he died, that we must turn if we are to define his genius. The rest of his works are so many preludes or asides, with the mark of the occasional or temporary upon them. The fundamental characteristics of his poetry are to be looked for in his masterpiece. Picture Spenser as a born painter who never held a brush in his hand. Fate gave him birth in a country where the plastic arts were not to flourish until nearly two centuries later. Had he been born in Italy he might have been another Titian, a second Veronese. In Flanders, he would have anticipated Rubens or Rembrandt. As it was, Fortune made him a painter in verse, one of the most wonderful that ever lived. What could he see of the arts, what tapestries, pictures and sculptures? No more interesting question can be asked, though this aspect of his artistic development 96 THE PICTORIAL ELEMENTS 97 has perhaps been more neglected than any. His relations with the Earl of Leicester must have given him excellent opportunities, for Leicester was a distinguished patron of artists, and had filled his castles of Kenilworth and Wanstead, as well as his London residence, with all kinds of works. The catalogue of the pictures in his London house has been preserved for us, though the details do not allow us to say whether we have to do with originals or copies.1 We find in the list a number of portraits-Leicester himself and the queen, Mary Stuart, Philip of Spain, many lords and ladies, Philip Sidney, his sister the Countess of Pembroke, Lady Rich, famous as his Stella, etc. But there were also religious and allegorical or mythological subjects, Cupid and Venus, a woman asleep whom Cupid threatens with his dart, Diana bathing with her nymphs, Diana and Acteon; a portrait of Faith; an allegory of Occasion and Repentance, etc. But surely there were also engravings, and tapestries from Arras and Flanders, which would make other more famous pictures known, even to an untravelled Englishman. What Spenser saw can only be conjectured, but it is obvious that works of art were among the first things to spur his imagination, and play a large part in the composition of the Fairy Queen. The connection between painting and poetry did not, of course, begin with Spenser. It has always existed. "Ut pictura poesis," Horace had already said in the age of Augustus. Chaucer's verse is often closely allied 1 Notes and Queries, 3rd Series, II., pp. 201-2 and 224-5. to the art of his time. It is impossible to read his descriptions of the Pilgrims in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales without being constantly reminded of the primitive painters costumes, colours, emblems, gestures, everything denotes the parallelism. But there we have expressive likenesses. Chaucer endeavours to delineate individual characters. He does not aim at plastic beauty, at subtle effects of colouring, nor does he make use of chiaroscuro, or artificial grouping. He does not set and arrange his personages for the pleasure of the eye. He paints his portraits separately, one after another, and hangs them in a line, at random, along the wall. Nor has he the artist's delight in the colours of a beautiful face or the lines of a harmonious body. We must pass over two centuries, and come to Sidney's Arcadia or Spenser's Fairy Queen to see that delight suddenly blossoming out in English literature. And its source is not doubtful: we must seek it on the Continent, in Flanders, and above all in Italy, in Italian painting, in Italian poetry itself, so deeply imbued with the enveloping influence of the plastic arts. The earliest manifestations on English soil are to be looked for in Sidney's Arcadia. We know that Sidney had been in Italy and stayed in Venice, where he had his portrait painted by Veronese, and probably visited the aged Titian's studio. This prolonged continental tour instilled a passion for art which is abundantly manifested in his famous romance. His Arcadia is a treasure-house of pictorial effects. Sidney is at his best when he minutely describes stuffs, garments, jewels-their folds or changing hues. And he is no less skilful when depicting the |