To the Lord GREY of WILTON. Moft noble Lord the pillor of my life, And Patrone of my Mufes pupillage, Through whofe large bountie poured on me rife, In the first season of my feeble age, 1 I now doe live, bound yours by vaffalage: Sith nothing ever may redeeme, nor reave Of all the reft, that I am tyde t' account: In favadge foyle, far from Parnasso mount, And roughly wrought in an unlearned Loome: The which youchfafe dear Lord your favorable doome.* Spenser now married; and in his Irish retire ment, finished three more books of the "Fairy Queen," befides feveral other poems. But his quiet was foon to end. After the death of the Earl of Defmond in 1593, the Earl of Tyrone broke out into a fresh rebellion. On this occafion Spenter became not a little anxious for his own fettlement at Kilcolman; and in 1596, wrote a plan for reducing the kingdom, under the title of "A View of the State of Ireland." *Edit. 159, quarto, p. 603, 604. In In 1596, the fourth, fifth and fixth Books of the "Fairy Queen" were published at London in 4to: and he is fuppofed to have come to England himself at that time. However he was in Ireland again 1597; and there it feems he died, amid the defolations of the Rebellion, which was now raging, as appears from the following curious anecdote in Drummond, who has left us the heads of a converfation between himself and Ben Jonfon. "Ben Jonson told "me that Spenfer's goods were robbed by the "Irish in Defmond's rebellion; his houfe and 66 a little child of his burnt; and he and his wife nearly escaped; that he refufed twenty pieces fent him by the Earl of Effex, and gave this anfwer to the perfon who brought "them, that he was fure he had no time to fpend them." Camden informs us, that Spenfer was in Ireland when the rebellion broke out under Tyrone in 1598, but that being plundered of his fortune, he was obliged to return into England, where he died, that fame, or the next year. Camden adds, that he was buried in the Abbey of Westminster, with due folemnities, at the expence of the Earl of Effex. If Drummond's account be true, it 66 *Works, fol. p 224. "Heads of a converfation between the famous poet Ben. Jonson and William Drummond of Hawthornden, January 1619." is moft probable that the Earl, whose benefaction came too late to be of any ufe, ordered his body to be conveyed into England, where it was interred, as Camden relates. It must be owned that Jonfon's account, in Drummond, is very circumftantial; and that it is probable, Jonfon was curious enough to collect authentic information, on fo interefting a fubject, At least his profeffion and connections better qualified him to come at the truth. Perhaps he was one of the poets who held up* Spenfer's pall.+ Hugolin Spenfer, a great-grandfon, is faid to have been reftored by the Court of Claims, in the reign of Charles II, to fo much of the lands as could be found to have belonged to the poet.+ "When the works of Homer and Aristotle" (fays the moft excellent of our critics on English Poetry§) "began to be restored and ftudied in Italy, when the genuine and uncorrupted fources of ancient poetry and ancient criticism were opened, and every fpecies of literature at laft emerged from the depths of Poetis funus ducentibus. Camd. Ann. Eliz. p. 4. pag. 729. Lugd. Bat. This account is extracted from T. Warton's Obferv. on the F. Queen, II. p. 251, 252. ‡ His Life, before the edition of 1679. Biogra. Brit. VI. p. 3813. § In his Obfervations on the Fairy Queen, duod. 2 edit. Lond. 1762. gothic gothic ignorance and barbarity; it might have been expected, that inftead of the romantic manner of poetical compofition introduced and established by the Provencial bards, a new and more legitimate tafte of writing would have fucceeded. With these advantages it was reafonable to conclude, that unnatural events, the machinations of imaginary beings, and adventures entertaining only as they were improbable, would have given place to juftness of thought and defign, and to that decorum which nature dictated, and which the example and the precept of antiquity had authorized. But it was a long time before fuch a change was effected. We find Ariofto, many years after the revival of letters, rejecting truth for magic, and preferring the ridiculous and incoherent excursions of Boyardo, to the propriety and uniformity of the Grecian and Roman models. Nor did the restoration of ancient learning produce any effectual or immediate improvement in the ftate of criticism. Beni, one of the most celebrated critics of the fixteenth century, was ftill fo infatuated with a fondness for the old Provencial vein that he ventured to write a regular differfertation, in which he compares Ariofto with. Homer. "Triffino, who flourished a few years after Ariofto, had tafte and boldnefs enough to pub lish an epic poem, written in profeffed imitation of the Iliad. But this attempt met with little regard or applaufe, for the reafon on which its. real merit was founded. It was rejected as an infipid and uninteresting performance, having few Devils or enchantments to recommend it. To Triffino fucceeded Taffo, who in his Gierufaleme Liberata, took the ancients for his guides; but was still too fenfible of the popular prejudice in favour of ideal beings, and romantic adventures, to neglect or omit them entirely. He had studied and acknowledged the beauties of claffical purity. Yet he still kept his first and favourite acquaintance, the old Provencial poets, in his eye. Like his own Rinaldo, who after he had gazed on the diamond shield of Truth, and with feeming refolution, was actually departing from Armida and her enchanted gardens, could not help looking back upon them with fome remains of fondnefs. Nor did Taffo's poem, though compofed, in fome measure, on a regular plan, give its Author, among the Italians at least, any greater fhare of esteem and reputation on that account. Ariofto, with all his extravagancies, was ftill preferred. The fuperiority of the Orlando Furiofo was at length established by a formal decree of the academicians della Crusca, who, amongst other literary debates, held a fo lemn |