Mutability only fhall be at laft entirely destroyed, and the time fhall come in which Change fhall be

no more.

I have not yet faid any thing concerning Spenfer's Verfification, in which, though he is not always equal to himself, it may be affirmed that he is fuperiour to all his cotemporaries, and even to thofe that followed him for fome time, except Fairfax, the applauded tranflator of Taffo. In this he commendably ftudied the Italians, and must be allowed to have been a great improver of our English numbers: before his time mufick feems to have been fo much a ftranger to our poetry, that, excepting the Earl of Surry's Lyricks, we have very few examples of verfes that had any tolerable cadence. in Chaucer there is fo little of this, that many of his lines are not even reftrained to a certain number of fyllables. Inftances of this loofe verfe are likewife to be found in our Author, but it is only in fuch places where he has purpofely imitated Chaucer, as in the Second Eclogue, and fome others. This great defect of harmony put the Wits in Queen Elizabeth's reign upon a defign of totally changing our numbers, not only by banihing rhyme, but by new-moulding our language into the feet and meafures of the Latin poetry. Sir Philip Sidney was at the head of this project, and has accordingly given us fome Hexameter and Pentameter verfes in his Arcadia: but the experiment foon failed; and though our Author, by fome paffages in his Letters to Mr. Harvey, feems not to have difapproved it, yet it does not appear, by

a concerning Spenfer's Verfification,] This fubject is more copioufly difcuffed in Mr. Warton's differtation on the poet's Stanza, Verfification, and Language; and in the notes fubjoined to that differtation. TODD.

those poems of his which are preserved, that he gave it any authority by his example '.

As to the Stanza in which the Faerie Queene is written, though the Author cannot be commended for his choice of it, yet it is much more harmonious in its kind than the heroick veríe of that age: it is almoft the fame with what the Italians call their Ottave Rime, which is ufed both by Ariofto and Taffo, but improved by Spenfer, with the addition of a line more in the clofe, of the length of our Alexandrines. The defect of it in long or narrative poems is apparent: the fame meafure, clofed always by a full ftop, in the fame place, by which every ftanza is made as it were a diftinct paragraph, grows tirefome by continual repetition, and frequently breaks the fenfe, when it ought to be carried on without interruption. With this exception the reader will, however, find it harmonious, full of well-founding epithets, and of fuch elegant turns on the thought and words, that Dryden' himfelf owns he learned thefe graces of verfe chiefly from our Author, and does not fcruple to fay, that, "in this particular, only Virgil furpaffed him among the Romans, and only Mr. Waller among the English." HUGHES.

that he gave it any authority by his example.] He wrote, however, An Elegie in Trimeter Iambicks, entitled Love's Embaffic, unknown to Hughes, and not printed in any edition of Spenfer's Works before the prefent. TODD.

s Dedication to Juvenal. HUGHES.

MR. SPENCE'S

DISSERTATION

ON THE

DEFECTS OF SPENSER'S ALLEGORY*.

THE faults of Spenfer, in relation to his Machinery or Allegories, feem to me to be all reducible to three general heads. They arife either from the poet's mixing the fables of Heathenifm with the truths of Chriftianity; or from his mifreprefenting the Allegories of the ancients; or from fomething that is wrong in the Allegories of his own invention. As to the two former, I fhall not have much to fay; but fhall beg leave to be a little more diffufe, as to the third.

The strongest inftance I can recollect of the firft kind, his mixing Chriftianity and Heathenifm together, is in that short view, which he gives of the infernal regions, in the feventh Canto of the fecond Book. The particular part I mean, is where he fpeaks of Jupiter and Tantalus, and of Pontius Pilate and our Saviour, almoft in the fame breath.

The inftances of Spenfer's mifrepresenting the ftories, and allegorical perfonages, of the ancients,

* From his Polymetis, edit. 1747. p. 302, &c. TODD. a where he speaks, &c.] If any should be offended to find Pontius Pilate, and Tantalus, in the fame place of punishment, I think it might be faid, by way of apology, that wicked men will fuffer hereafter in fome state or place of punishment, proportionable to their crimes; and that the poet, who describes fuch a place, is at liberty to fend thither what wicked perfons foever he pleases, provided he acts according to poetical decorum. UPTON.

are not uncommon in this poem. Thus, in a former view of hell, he fpeaks of Efculapius as in eternal torments, B. i. C. v. ft. 40 to 43. In another place, he introduces a company of Satyrs, to fave a Lady from a rape (B. i. C. vi. ft. 6 to 19); though their diftinguishing character was luft: and makes Sylvanus the god or governour of the Satyrs, (B. i. C. vi. ft. 15.) a dignity which the ancients never fpeak of for him; no more than of the ivy-girdle, which he gives him, round his waift, B. i. C. vi. ft. 14. It is with the fame fort of liberty, as I take it, that he describes the day, or morning, as having purple hair, B. i. C. v. ft. 10; the Sirens, as halffifh, B. ii. C. xii. ft. 31; and Bacchus, as fat, B. iii. C. i. ft. 51: that he speaks of Clio, as Apollo's wife, B. i. C. xi. ft. 5; and of Cupid as brother to the Graces, B. ii. C. viii. ft. 6: and that he represents Orion, in one place, as flying from

d

с

f

b

bas having purple hair,] See Mr. Upton's note on F. Q. ii. iii. 1. TODD.

the Sirens, as half-fifh ;] See alfo Dr. Jortin's obfervation, and Mr. Upton's vindication of the poet, in the notes on F. Q. ii. xii. 30. TODD.

d and Bacchus, as fat;] This is a mifreprefentation, very common among the modern artists; and from them, I suppose, has ftolen into the works of our poets. It is not only to be proved from our fign-pofts: for fome tolerable ftatuaries, and fome very good painters, even in Italy, have given into it. SPENCE.

Fat is a proper epithet for Bacchus; because drinking makes people fat-bellied: hence he is called гAETPON by Charon in Ariftophanes, Bar. v. 202. He is likewife pictured plump and fat in Gorlaus, Gemm. 205. Which gem Cafaubon has printed and illuftrated in his treatife, De Satyrica Poef. UPTON.

e

of Clio, as Apollo's wife;] Mr. Spence has mistaken the meaning of the poet. Clio is here reprefented as the DAUGHTER, not the wife, of Phoebus and his aged bride, i. e. Mnemofyne, or Memory. See alfo the notes on F. Q. i. xi. 5. TODD.

f as flying from a Jnake,] The poet means that the fun was almoft beginning to rife, and that Orion was fetting: Orion

a fnake, in the heavens, B. ii. C. ii. ft. 46; and, in another, as a water-god, and one of the attendants of Neptune. The latter is in Spenfer's account of the marriage of the Thames and Medway; in which he has greatly increased Neptune's court; and added feveral deities as attendants to that god; which were never regarded as fuch by any of the ancients, B. iv. C. xi. ft. 15.

This may be fufficient to show, that, where Spenfer does introduce the Allegories of the ancient poets, he does not always follow them fo exactly as he might; and in the Allegories which are purely of his own invention, though his invention is one of the richest and most beautiful that perhaps ever was, I am forry to fay, that he does not only fall very fhort of that fimplicity and propriety which is fo remarkable in the works of the ancients; but runs now and then into thoughts, that are quite unworthy fo great a genius. I fhall mark out fome of thefe faults, that appear even through all his beauties; and which may, perhaps, look quite grofs, when they are thus taken from them, and laid together by themselves: but if they should prejudice a reader at all against fo fine a writer; let him read almoft any one of his entire Cantos, and it will reconcile him to him again. The reafon of my producing thefe inftances, is only to fhow what faults the greatest Allegorift may commit; whilft the manner of allegorffing is left upon fo unfixed and irregular a footing as it was in his time, and is ftill among us.

The firft fort of fault I fhall mention, from fuch Allegories of Spenfer as are purely of his own invention, is there being fometimes too complicated,

flying from the fnake, alludes to his figure and pofition on the fphere or globe. UPTON.