adventure of every Legend is fuppofed to be undertaken.

The other objection is, that, having chofen an hiftorical perfon, Prince Arthur, for his principal hero, who is no Fairy, yet is mingled with them, he has not, however, reprefented any part of his history: he appears here, indeed, only in his minority, and performs his exercifes in Fairy Land as a private gentleman; but we might at least have expected that the fabulous accounts of him, and of his victories over the Saxons, fhould have been worked into fome beautiful vifion or prophecy; and I cannot think Spenfer would wholly omit this, but am apt to believe he had done it in fome of the following Books which were loft'.

In the moral introductions to every Book, many of which have a great propriety and elegance, the Author has followed the example of Ariofto. I will only beg leave to point out fome of the principal beauties in each Book, which may yet more particularly discover the genius of the Author.

m If we confider the Firft Book as an entire work of itself, we shall find it to be no irregular contrivance there is one principal action, which is completed in Canto XII.; and the feveral incidents or episodes are proper, as they tend either to obftruct or promote it. The fame may be faid of fome other of the following Books, though I think they are not fo regular as this. The Author has fhown judge ment in making his Knight of the Red Crofs, or St. George, no perfect character, without which many

of the following Books which were loft.] I have, in the Life of the Poet, queftioned the opinion that any Books were loft. TODD.

m If we confider &c.] This is a mistake, which Mr. Warton has rectified in his differtation on the Plan and Conduct of the Faerie Queene. TODD.

*

of the incidents could not have been reprefented. The character of Una, or Truth, is very properly opposed by thofe of Dueffa, or Falfehood, and Archimago, or Fraud. Spenfer's particular manner, which (if it may be allowed) I would call his painterlike genius, immediately shows itself in the figure of Errour, who is drawn as a monfter, and that of Hypocrify as a hermit. The defcription of the former of these, in the mixed fhape of a woman and a ferpent, furrounded with her offspring, and efpecially that circumftance of their creeping into her mouth on the fudden light which glanced upon them from the Knight's armour, incline one to think that our great Milton had it in his eye when he wrote his famous episode of Sin and Death. The artifices of Archimago and Dueffa, to separate the Knight from Una, are well invented, and intermingled with beautiful strokes of poetry; particularly in that epifode where the magician fends one of his fpirits to fetch a falfe dream from the houfe of Morpheus:

n

"Amid the bowels of the earth full steep

"And low, where dawning day does never peep,
"His dwelling is.'

Mr. Rymer, as I remember, has, by way of comparifon, collected from moft of the ancient and modern poets the finest descriptions of the Night, among all which he gives the preference to the English poets this of Morpheus, or Sleep, being a poetical fubject of the fame kind, might be fubjected to a like trial; and the reader may particularly compare it with that in Book XI. of Ovid's Meta

n Milton had it in his eye when he wrote his famous epifode of Sin and Death.] Milton then had in his eye the difciple of Spenfer, rather than Spenfer himself. I have cited the paffage from P. Fletcher's Purple Island, in the note on Par, Loft, B. ii. 650. TODD..

morphofes, to which, I believe, he will not think it inferiour.

The miraculous incident of a tree fhedding drops of blood, and a voice speaking from the trunk of it, is borrowed from that of Polidorus, in Book III. of Virgil's Eneis. Ariofto and Taffo have both copied the fame ftory, though in a different manner. It was impoffible that the modern poets, who have run fo much into the taste of romance, fhould let a fiction of this kind escape their imitation.

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The adventures which befal Una, after the is forfaken by the Knight; her coming to the houfe of Abeffa, or Superftition; the confternation occafioned by that vifit; her reception among the favages; and her civilifing them; are all very fine emblems. The education of Satyrane, a young Satyr, is defcribed on this occafion with an agreeable wildnefs of fancy.

But there is one epifode in this Book which I cannot but particularly admire; I mean that in Canto V. where Dueffa the witch feeks the affiftance of Night to convey the body of the wounded Pagan to be cured by Afculapius in the regions below. The Author here rifes above himself, and is got into a track of imitating the Ancients, different from the greateft part of his Poem. The fpeech in which Dueffa addreffes Night is wonderfully great, and stained with that impious flattery which is the character of Falfehood, who is the fpeaker:

"O thou, moft auncient grandmother of all, "More old than Iove, whom thou at first didst breede, "Or that great houfe of gods cæleftiall; "Which waft begot in Demogorgon's hall, “And fawst the fecrets of the world unmade !”

As Dueffa came away haftily on this expedition, and forgot to put off the thape of Truth, which the had affumed a little before, Night does not know her: this circumftance, and the difcovery afterwards,

when the owns her for her daughter, are finely emblematical. The images of Horrour are raised in a very masterly manner; Night takes the witch into her chariot, and being arrived where the body lay, they alight.

"And, all the while fhe stood upon the ground,
"The wakefull dogs did never cease to bay;
"As giving warning of th' unwonted found,
"With which her yron wheeles did them affray,
"And her darke griefly looke them much difmay.
"The meffenger of death, the ghaftly owle,
"With drery fhriekes did also her bewray;
"And hungry wolves continually did howle
"At her abhorred face, fo filthy and fo fowle."

They steal away the body, and carry it down through the cave Avernus, to the realms of Pluto. What ftrength of painting is there in the following lines! "On every fide them stood

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"The trembling ghofts, with fad amazed mood,
Chattring their iron teeth, and staring wide
"With ftonie eies; and all the hellish brood
"Of feends infernall flockt on every fide,

"To gaze on erthly wight, that with the Night durft ride." Longinus, commending a defcription in Euripides of Phaeton's journey through the heavens, in which the turnings and windings are marked out in a very lively manner, fays, That the foul of the poet feems to mount the chariot with him, and to fhare all his dangers. The reader will find himself in a like manner transported throughout this whole episode, which shows that it has in it the force and spirit of the most fublime poetry.

The firft appearance of Prince Arthur, in this Book, is reprefented to great advantage, and gives occafion to a very finished defcription of a martial figure. How fprightly is that image and fimile in the following lines!

Upon the top of all his loftie crest,

"A bounch of heares difcolourd diverfly,

"With sprincled pearle and gold full richly dreft,
"Did fhake, and feemned to daunce for iollity;
"Like to an almond tree ymounted hye
"On top of greene Selinis all alone,

"With bloffoms brave bedecked daintily;
"Whose tender lockes do tremble every one
"At everie little breath, that under heaven is blowne."

I must not omit mentioning the House of Pride, and that of Holinefs, which are beautiful Allegories in different parts of this Book. In the former of these there is a minute circumftance which is very artificial; for the reader may observe, that the fix counsellors which attend Pride in her progrefs, and ride on the beafts which draw her chariot, are placed in that order in which the Vices they reprefent naturally produce and follow each other. In the dungeon among the captives of Pride, the poet has reprefented Nebuchadnezzar, Crofus, Antiochus, Alexander, and feveral other eminent perfons, in circumftances of the utmost ignominy. The moral is truly noble; for upon the fight of fo many illuftrious flaves, the Knight haftens from the place, and makes his escape.

The defcription of Despair in Canto IX. is that which is faid to have been taken notice of by Sir Philip Sidney: but I think the fpeech of Defpair, in which the diftempered reafonings that are apt to agitate the heart of a man abandoned to this paffion are fo pathetically reprefented, is much fuperiour to the description.

Among the Allegories in Canto X. it is impoffible not to diftinguish that venerable figure of Con

• The moral is truly noble, &c.] I agree with Mr. Hughes; but I think Spenfer was very injudicious in placing Scipio among them, which ever of the Scipios he meant. I take it for granted that he meant Scipio Africanus. JORTIN.