to immortalize the Land of Faery, he met with every difficulty and difadvantage to obftruct his defign. The age would no longer bear the naked letter of thefe amufing stories; and the poet was fo fenfible of the misfortune, that we find him apologizing for it on a hundred occafions.

But apologies, in such circumstances, rarely do any good. Perhaps, they only ferved to betray the weakness of the poet's caufe, and to confirm the prejudices of his reader.

However, he did more than this. He gave an air of mystery to his fubject, and pretended that his ftories of knights and giants were but the cover to abudance of profound wisdom.

In fhort, to keep off the eyes of the prophane from prying too nearly into his fubject, he threw about it the mist of allegory: he moralized his fong: and the virtues and vices lay hid under his warriours and enchanters. A contrivance which he had learned indeed from his Italian masters: For Taffo had condefcended to allegorize his own work; and the commentators of Ariofto had even converted the extravagances of the Orlando Furiofo, into moral leffons P.

And this, it must be owned, was a fober attempt in comparison of fome projects that were made about the fame time to ferve the cause of the old, and now expiring, Romances. For it is to be obferved, that the idolizers of these romances did by them, what the votaries of Homer had done by him. As the times improved and would lefs bear his ftrange tales, they moralized what they could, and turned the reft into mysteries of natural fcience. And as this laft contrivance was principally defigned to cover the monftrous ftories of the Pagan Gods,,

See the note on Ariofto, p. lxiii. TODD.

fo it ferved the lovers of Romance to palliate the no lefs monftrous ftories of magick and enchantments.

The editor, or tranflator of the 24th book of Amadis de Gaule, printed at Lyons in 1577, has a preface explaining the whole fecret, which concludes with thefe words, "Voyla, Lecteur, le fruit, qui fe peut recueiller du fens mystique des Romans antiques par les efprits efleus, le commun peuple foy contentant de la fimple fleur de la lecture literale."

But to return to Spenfer; who, as we have feen, had no better way to take in his diftrefs, than to hide his faery fancies under the myftick cover of moral allegory. The only favourable circumftance that attended him (and this no doubt encouraged, if it did not produce, his untimely project,) was, that he was fomewhat befriended in thefe fictions, even when interpreted according to the Letter, by the romantick Spirit of his age; much countenanced, and for a time brought into fresh credit, by the romantick Elizabeth. Her inclination for the fancies of Chivalry is well known; and obfequious wits and courtiers would not be wanting to feed and flatter it. In fhort, tilts and tournaments were in vogue: The ARCADIA, and the FAERIE QUEENE, were written...

With thefe helps the new Spirit of Chivalry made a thift to fupport itself for a time, when reafon was but dawning, as we may fay, and just about to gain the afcendant over the portentous fpectres of the imagination. Its growing fplendour, in the end, put them all to flight, and allowed them no quarter even amongst the poets. So that Milton, as fond as we have feen he was of the Gothick fictions, durft only admit them on the bye, and in the way of fimile and illuftration only.

And this, no doubt, was the main reason of his relinquishing his long-projected defign of Prince Arthur, at laft, for that of the Paradife Loft; where, inftead of Giants and Magicians, he had Angels and Devils to fupply him with the marvellous, with greater probability... Yet, though he dropped the tales, he ftill kept to the allegories, of Spenfer. And even this liberty was thought too much, as appears from the cenfure paffed on his Sin and Death by the feverer criticks.

Thus at length the magick of the old romances was perfectly diffolved. They began with reflecting an image indeed of the feudal manners, but an image magnified and diftorted by unskilful defigners. Common fenfe being offended with these perverfions of truth and nature, (still accounted the more monftrous, as the ancient manners, they pretended to copy after, were now difufed, and of moft men forgotten,) the next step was to have recourfe to allegories. Under this difguife they walked the world a while; the excellence of the moral and the ingenuity of the contrivance making fome amends, and being accepted as a fort of apology, for the abfurdity of the literal ftory.

Under this form the Tales of Faery kept their ground, and even made their fortune at court; where they became, for two or three reigns, the ordinary entertainment of our princes. But reafon, in the end, (affifted however by party, and religious prejudices,) drove them off the fcene, and would endure these lying wonders, neither in their own proper fhape, nor as masked in figures.

Henceforth, the tafte of wit and poetry took a new turn And Fancy, that had wantoned it fo long in the world of fiction, was now constrained, against her will, to ally herfelf with ftrict Truth, if the would gain admittance into reasonable company,

What we have gotten by this revolution, it will be faid, is a great deal of good fenfe. What we have loft, is a world of fine fabling; the illufion of which is fo grateful to the charmed fpirit; that, in fpite of philofophy and fashion, Faery Spenfer ftill ranks highest among the Poets; I mean with all thofe who are either come of that house, or have any kindness for it. Earth-born criticks may blafpheme:

"But all the gods are ravish'd with delight

"Of his celeftial fong, and mufick's wondrous might." HURD.

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¶ ftill ranks higheft &c.] I fubfcribe, with gratitude, to this vindication of Spenter's rank. See alfo note (n) in p. clxxix. And fee Dr. Warton's moft happy definition of the poet's excellence, already cited in this volume, at the clofe of the Remarks on the Verfification. TopD.

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