for this perfecuted Queen in the perfecuted Florimel. See what I have remarked in a note on F. Q. iii. vii. 27, where I fuppofe the flight of Florimel imaged from the flight of the Queen of Scots: both of them took refuge in a fisherman's boat: and one was treated as cruelly by her falfe protector Proteus, as the other by those falfe friends to whom the fled for protection. There are feveral of these typical and historical allufions (as I faid above) pointed out in the notes, and if the reader, with proper knowledge of the hiftory of Queen Elizabeth's reign, delights in fuch myfterious researches, he may eafily, with these hints given, pursue them further. UPTON. DR. HURD'S REMARKS ON THE PLAN AND CONDUCT OF THE FAERIE QUEENE. SPENSER, though he had long been nourished with the fpirit and fubftance of Homer and Virgil, chofe the times of Chivalry for his Theme, and Fairy Land for the Scene of his fictions. He could have planned, no doubt, an heroick defign on the exact claffick model: Or, he might have trimmed between the Gothick and Claffick, as his contemporary Taffo did. But the charms of Fairy prevailed. And if any think he was feduced by Ariofto into his choice, they fhould confider that it could be only for the fake of his fubject; for the genius and character of these poets was widely different. Under this idea then of a Gothick, not claffical, Poem, the FAERIE QUEENE is to be read and criticifed. And, on thefe principles, it would not be difficult to unfold its merit in another way than has been hitherto attempted. I have taken the fancy, to try my hand on this curious fubject. When an architect examines a Gothick ftructure by Grecian rules, he finds nothing but deformity. But the Gothick architecture has its own rules, by which, when it comes to be examined, it is feen to to have its merit, as well as the Grecian. The queftion is not, which of the two is conducted in the fimpleft or trueft tafte: but, whether there be not fenfe and design in both, when fcrutinized by the laws on which each is projected. The fame obfervation holds of the two forts of poetry. Judge of the FAERIE QUEENE by the claffick models, and you are fhocked with its diforder confider it with an eye to its Gothick original, and you find it regular. The unity and fimplicity of the former are more complete: but the latter has that fort of unity and fimplicity, which refults from its nature. The FAERIE QUEENE then, as a Gothick poem, derives its method, as well as the other characters of its compofition, from the established modes and ideas of chivalry. It was ufual, in the days of knight-errantry, at the holding of any great feaft, for Knights to appear before the prince, who prefided at it, and claim the privilege of being fent on any adventure, to which the folemnity might give occafion. For it was fuppofed that, when fuch a throng of knights and barons bold, as Milton fpeaks of, were got together, the diftreffed would flock in from all quarters, as to a place where they knew they might find and claim redrets for all their grievances. This was the real practice, in the days of pure and ancient chivalry. And an image of this practice was afterwards kept up in the caftles of the great, on any extraordinary feftival or folemnity: of which, if an inftance be required, I refer to the defcription of a feaft made at Lifle, in 1453, in the Court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, for a crufade against the Turks: as it is given at large in the Memoirs of Matthieu de Conci, Olivier de la Marche, and Monftrelet. That feaft was held for twelve days: and each day was diftinguifhed by the claim and allowance of fome adventure. Now laying down this practice, as a foundation for the poet's defign, we fhall fee how properly the FAERIE QUEENE is conducted." I devife, fays the poet himself in his Letter to Sir W. Raleigh, that the Faerie Queene kept her annual feafte xii days, upon which xii feveral days the occafions of the xii feveral adventures hapened; which being undertaken by xii feveral knights, are in thefe xii books feverally handled." Here we have the poet delivering his own method, and the reafon of it. It arofe out of the order of his fubject. And would we defire a better reafon for his choice? Yes; it will be faid; a poet's method is not that of his fubject. I grant it, as to the order of time, in which the recital is made; for here, as Spenfer obferves, (and his own practice agrees to the rule,) lies the main difference between the poet hiftorical, and the hiftoriographer: The reafon of which is drawn from the nature of Epick compofition itself, and holds equally, let the fubject be what it will, and whatever the fyftem of manners be, on which it it is conducted. Gothick or Claffick makes no difference in this refpect. But the cafe is not the fame with regard to the general plan of a work, or what may be called the order of diftribution, which is and must be governed by the subject-matter itself. It was as requifite for the FAERIE QUEENE to confift of the adventures of twelve knights, as for the Odyffey to be confined to the adventures of one Hero: Juftice had otherwife not been done to his fubject. So that if we fay any thing against the poet's method, we muft fay that he fhould not have chofen this fubject. But this objection arifes from our claffick ideas of Unity, which have no place here; and are in every view foreign to the purpose, if the poet has found means to give his work, though confifting of many parts, the advantage of Unity. For in fome reafonable fenfe or other, it is agreed, every work of art muft be one, the very idea of a work requiring it. If it be asked then, what is this Unity of Spenfer's Poem? I fay, it confifts in the relation of its feveral adventures to one common original, the appointment of the Faerie Queene; and to one common end, the completion of the Faerie Queene's injunctions. The knights iffued forth on their adventures on the breaking up of this annual feaft; and the next annual feaft, we are to fuppofe, is to bring them together again from the achievement of their feveral charges. This, it is true, is not the claffick Unity, which confifts in the reprefentation of one entire action : but it is an Unity of another fort, an unity refulting from the respect which a number of related actions have to one common purpose. In other words, It is an unity of design, and not of action. This Gothick method of defign in poetry may be, in fome fort, illustrated by what is called the Gothick method of defign in Gardening. A wood or grove cut out into many feparate avenues or glades was amongst the moft favourite of the works of art, which our fathers attempted in the fpecies of cultivation. Thefe walks were diftinct from each other; had, each, their feveral deftination; and terminated on their own proper objects. Yet the` whole was brought together and confidered under one view by the relation which these various openings had, not to each other, but to their common and concurrent center. Some are, perhaps, agreed that this fort of gardening is not of fo true a taste as that which Kent and Nature have brought us acquainted with; where the fupreme art of the Defigner confifts in difpofing his ground and objects into an entire land/kip; and grouping them, if I may use the term, in fo eafy a manner, that the careless obferver, though he be taken with the symmetry of the whole, difcovers no art in the combination: "In lieto afpetto il bel giardin s'aperse, TASSO, C. XVI. S. ix. This, I fay, may be the trueft tafte in gardening, because the fimpleft: Yet there is a manifest regard to unity in the other method; which has had its admirers, as it may have again, and is certainly not without its defign and beauty. But to return to our poet. Thus far he drew from Gothick ideas; and thefe ideas, I think, would |