MR. WARTON'S REMARKS ON SPENSER'S ALLEGORICAL CHARACTER. 1 IN reading the works of a poet who lived in a remote age, it is neceffary that we fhould look back upon the customs and manners which prevailed in that age. We fhould endeavour to place ourselves in the writer's fituation and circumstances. Hence we fhall become better enabled to difcover, how his turn of thinking, and manner of compofing, were influenced by familiar appearances and eftablifhed objects, which are utterly different from thofe with which we are at prefent furrounded. For want of this caution, too many readers view the knights and damfels, the tournaments and enchantments, of Spenfer, with modern eyes; never confidering that the encounters of chivalry subsisted in our author's age; that romances were then moft eagerly and univerfally ftudied; and that confequently Spenfer, from the fashion of the times, was induced to undertake a récital of chivalrous achievements, and to become, in fhort, a romantick Poet. 2 Spenfer, in this refpect, copied real manners, no lefs than Homer. A fenfible hiftorian obferves, that "Homer copied true natural manners, which, however rough and uncultivated, will always form an agreeable, and interefting picture: But the pencil of the English poet [Spenfer] was employed in drawing the affectations, and conceits, and foppe ries, of chivalry ." This, however, was nothing more than an imitation of real life; as much, at leaft, as the plain defcriptions in Homer, which correfponded to the fimplicity of manners then fubfifting in Greece. Spenfer, in the addrefs of the Shepheards Calender to Sir Philip Sidney, "couples his patron's learning with his fkill in chivalry; a topick of panegyrick, which would found very odd in a modern dedication, efpecially before a fett of paftorals. "To the noble and virtuous gentleman, moft worthy of all titles, both of Learning and Chivalrie, Mafter Philip Sydney." "Go, little booke; thyself prefent, "Of nobleneffe and chicalrie b " Nor is it fufficiently confidered, that a popular practice of Spenfer's age, contributed, in a confiderable degree, to make him an allegorical Poet.. We fhould remember, that, in this age, allegory was applied as the fubject and foundation of publick fhows and fpectacles, which were exhibited with a magnificence fuperiour to that of former times. The virtues and vices, diftinguifhed by their refpec-. tive emblematical types, were frequently perfonified, and reprefented by living actors. Thefe figures bore a chief part in furnishing what they called * Hume's Hift. of Engl. Tudor, vol. 2. 1759. p. 739. b Before the Shepherds Calendar: The GALLANTRIES of civilised chivalry, in particular, were never carried to a higher pitch than in the queen's Court of which, fays our author, defcribing the MANNERS of that court, in Colin Cloats come home again. Ne any there doth brace or valiant seeme, PAGEAUNTS; which were then the principal fpecies of entertainment, and were fhown, not only in private, or upon the ftage, but very often in the open streets for folemnifing publick occafions, or celebrating any grand event. As a proof of what is here mentioned, I refer the reader to Holinfhed's "Description of the SHEW OF MANHOOD AND DESERT, exhibited at Norwich, before queen Elizabeth; and more particularly to that hiftorian's account of a TURNEY performed by Fulke Grevile, the lords Arundell and Windfor, and Sir Philip Sidney, who are feigned to be the children of DESIRE, attempting to win the FORTRESS OF BEAUTY. In the compofition of the laft fpectacle, no small fhare of poetical invention appears. In the mean time, I do not deny that Spenfer was, in great meafure, tempted by the Orlando Fu Spenfer himself wrote a fett of PAGEAUNTS, which were defcriptions of these feigned representations. Cervantes, whofe aim was to expose the abuses of imagination, feems to have left us a burlesque on pageantries, which he probably confidered as an appendage of romance, partaking, in great measure, of the fame chimerical fpirit. This ridicule was perfectly confiftent with the general plan and purpose of his comick hiftory. See the mafque at Chamacho's wedding, where Cupid, Intereft, Poetry, and Liberality, are the perfonages. A caftle is reprefented, called the Cafile of Difcretion, which Cupid attacks with his arrows; but Intereft throws a purse at it, when it immediately falls to pieces, &c. D. Quixote, b. 2. ch. 3. But under due regulation, and proper contrivance, they were a beautiful and useful fpectacle. T. WARTON. d" And to keep that fhew companie, (but yet furre off) ftoode the SHEWE OF MANHODE AND DESART; as first to be prefented and that shewe was as well furnished as the other: men all, faving one boy called Beautie, for which Manhood, Favour, and Defart, did strive (or fhould have contended;) but Good Fortune (as victor of all conquefts) was to come in and overthrow Manhood, &c." Vol. 3. p. 1297. T. WARTON. • Exhibited before the queen at Westminster, ibid. p. 1317. et feq. T. WARTON. riofo, to write an allegorical poem. Yet it muft ftill be acknowledged, that Spenfer's peculiar mode of allegorifing feems to have been dictated by thofe fpectacles, rather than by the fictions of Ariofto. In fact, Ariofto's fpecies of allegory does not fo properly confift in imperfonating the virtues, vices, and affections of the mind, as in the adumbration of moral doctrine, under the actions of men and women. On this plan Spenfer's allegories are fometimes formed: as in the firft Book, where the Redcroffe Knight, or a TRUE CHRISTIAN, defeats the wiles of Archimago, or the DEVIL, &c. &c. Thefe indeed are fictitious perfonages; but he proves himself a much more ingenious allegorift, where his imagination bodies forth unfubftantial things, turns them to fhape, and marks out the nature, powers, and effects, of that which is ideal and abftracted, by visible and external fymbols; as in his delineations of Fear, Defpair, Fancy, Envy, and the like. Ariofto gives us but few fymbolical beings of this fort; for a picturefque invention was by no means his talent: while thofe few, which we find in his poem, are feldom drawn with that characteristical fullness, and fignificant expreffion, so striking in the fantastick portraits of Spenfer. And, that Spenfer painted thefe figures in fo diftinct and animated a f It is obferved by Plutarch, that "Allegory is that, in which one thing is related and another understood." Thus Ariofto relates the adventures of Orlando, Rogero, Bradamante, &c. by which is understood the conqueft of the paffions, the importance of virtue, and other moral doctrines; on which account we may call the ORLANDO a moral poem; but can we call the FAERIE QUEENE, upon the whole, a moral poem? is it not equally an hiftorical or political poem? For though it be, according to it's author's words, an allegory or dark conceit, yet that which is couched or understood under this allegory is the hiftory, and intrigues, of queen Elizabeth's courtiers; which however are introduced with a moral defign, T. WARTON. style, may we not partly account for it from this caufe; That he had been long habituated to the fight of these emblematical perfonages, vifibly decorated with their proper attributes, and actually endued with speech, motion, and life? As a more convincing argument in favour of this hypothefis, I fhall remark, that Spenfer exprefsly denominates his moft exquifite groupe of allegorical figures, THE MASKE OF CUPID. Thus, without the Make of Cupid.] Spenfer appears to have been somewhat indebted, in this defcription, to a contemporary writer. See Barnabe Riche's Travailes and Adventures of Don Simonides, 1584, bl. 1. 4to. Part the First. "The walles were hanged with tapestrie furnished with orient colours, throughly beauti*fied with pearle and stone, wherein was worthely wrought THE TRIUMPHES OF CUPIDE with the hole Captaines and Seruitours of his retinewe; Sufpition, Admirall; Teatoufe, Captaine Genérall; Lookes, Cannon-fhot; Defire, Maifter Gunner; the principal Soldiours, foolish Louers, &c." I think it probable that he might also have been influenced, in the introduction of the paffions perfonified, by a MORAL COMEDY or MASK, in which the fpeakers are Hope, Defire, Jealoufy, Reafon, Difcretion, Perfidy, Violence, Envy, Love himself, &c. and in which the scenery likewife is curioufly fymbolical; written in Italian, and published in 1524, viz. "Comedia Nuova del magnifico et celeberrimo poeta Signor Marchefe dal Carretto, intitulata TEMPIO D'AMORE." 12mo. Venet. 1524. This allegorical drama concludes with a canzonet, in which the following quatrain is five times repeated as THE MORAL: 66 Sempre ognuno de fperare "Fin che lalma hal corpo unita "Che Fortuna mentre e in uita "In un punto el puo faluare." With Spenfer's MASKE OF CUPID, the ENCHANTED CHAMBER, I muft add, is connected: See the Argument to F. Q. iii. xii. "The Mafke of Cupid, and th' enchaun ted Chamber are difplayed." And here, I think, we may trace the poet in the wide field of romance. See the French Amadis de Gaule, edit. Lyon, 1575. 12mo. Liv. viii. Chap. lvi. "Comme aucuns autres Cheualiers efprouuerent l'auanture du chateau des fecrets.-After the |