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golden hands, and filver feet, B. v. C. ii. ft. 10: and against the third, where he describes Defire, as holding coals of fire in his hands and blowing them up into a flame, B. iii. C. xii. ft. 91: which laft particular is fome degrees worfe than Ariofto's bringing in Difcord, in his Orlando Furiofo, with a flint and fteel, to ftrike fire in the face of Pride, C. xviii. ft. 34.

The fifth fort of faults is when the allegorical perfonages, though well invented, are not well marked out. There are many inftances of this in Spenfer, which are but too apt to put one in mind of the fancifulness and whims of 'Ripa and Ve

mythology, having a mythology of his own? Spenfer's Talus is no judge; therefore not a brafen man: but he is an executioner, an IRON man, imaging his unfeeling and rigid character. UPTON.

I

Ripa and Venius.] Ripa was the author of an Italian work, entitled Iconologia, which has been tranflated into English and fix other languages; and has been, it feems, thought a good model! Amongft his odd figures, Flattery is reprefented by a lady with a flute in her hand, and a ftag at her feet; because ftags are faid to love mufick fo, as to fuffer themselves to be taken if you play to them on a flute. Beauty, by a naked lady, with a globe and compaffes in her hand, and her head in a cloud; becaufe, the true idea of beauty is hard to be conceived.-Fraud, by a woman with two different faces and heads, with two hearts in one hand and a mask in the other, &c. &c. Thefe furely are inftances of improper and unnatural allegories; and I might be able perhaps to give ten times as many of the fame kind, was I to confult all the strange figures he has given us in this work,

Venius was the author of a work, confifting of several allegorical pictures taken from the works of Horace, and therefore called Horace's Emblems. He was a Dutch painter, and born at Leyden in 1556. He ftudied at Antwerp in the most flourishing times of that school, and was the famous Rubens's mafter. In fpite of all this, his patterns are almost as full of faults as Ripa's; though his faults are of a very different kind; Ripa's allegorical fancies being defective, moft commonly, as far-fetched and obfcure; whereas Venius's faults are generally

nius. Thus, in one Canto, Doubt is reprefented as walking with a "ftaff, that fhrinks under him, B. iii. C. xii. ft. 10; Hope, with an afpergoire, or the inftrument the Roman catholicks ufe for fprinkling finners with holy water, ib. ft. 13; Diffimulation, as twifting two clews of filk together, ib. ft. 14; Grief, with a pair of pincers, ib. ft. 16; and Pleafure, with an humble-bee in a phial, ib. ft. 18: and in another, (in the proceffion of the months and feafons,) February is introduced in a waggon, drawn by two fifhes, B. vii. C. ii. ft. 43; May, as riding on Caftor and Pollux, ib. ft. 34: June is mounted on a crab, ib. ft. 35; October, on a fcorpion, ib. ft. 39: and November comes in, on a Centaur, all in a fweat; becaufe, (as the poet obferves,) he had just been fatting his hogs, ib. ft. 40.

owing to his following his author in too literal and frivolous a manner. Thus, if Horace fays, "Mifce ftultitiam confiliis brevem," Venius takes brevis perfonally; and fo reprefents Folly as a little fhort child, of not above three or four years old. In the emblem, which anfwers Horace's "Rarò antecedentem fceleftum deferuit pede Pœna claudo," you have Punishment with a wooden leg; and, for "Pulvis et umbra fumus," a dark-burying vault, with duft fprinkled about the floor, and a fhadow wałking upright between two ranges of urns. For, "Virtus eft vitium fugere, & Sapientia prima ftultitia caruiffe," you fee feven or eight Vices pursuing Virtue, and Folly just at the heels of Wisdom, &c. &c. In his fingle figures we meet with Envy eating part of her own heart; Poverty diftinguished by a cabbage, because the lives upon herbs; Labour, carrying an ox's head on his back; and Fear with a hare standing upon his fhoulders, &c. SPENCE.

m with a staff, that shrinks under him,] The poet's words are, “And on a broken reed he still did stay

"His feeble fteps, which fhrunck when hard thereon he lay:" And he probably adopted the idea from the Affyrian's infulting emblem of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, II Kings xviii. 21. “Now, behold, thoụ trufteft upon the staff of this BRUISED REED, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: fo is Pharaoh, &c." TODD.

This might, full as well, have been ranged under my fixth and laft clafs of faults in Spenfer's Allegories; confifting of such inftances as, I fear, can fcarce be called by any fofter name, than that of Ridiculous Imaginations. Such, I think, is that " idea of ignorance, in the firft Book, where he is made to move with the back part of his head foremoft, C. viii. ft. 31; and that of Danger, in the fourth, with Hatred, Murder, Treafon, &c. in his back, C. x. ft. 16, 17, and 20. Such is the forrowful lady, with a bottle for her tears, and a bag to put her repentance into; and both running out almost as faft as fhe puts them in, B. vi. C. viii. ft. 24. Such is the thought of a vaft giant's fhrinking into an empty form, like a bladder, B. i. C. viii. ft. 24; the horses of Night foaming tar, B. i. C. v. ft. 28; Sir Guyon putting a padlock on the tongue of Occafion, B. ii. C. iv. ft. 12; and Remorfe nipping St. George's heart, B. i. C. x. ft. 27.

Had Spenfer formed his Allegories on the plan of the ancient poets and artists, as much as he did from Ariofto and the Italian allegorifts, he might have followed nature much more clofely; and would not have wandered fo often into fuch strange and inconfiftent imaginations. I am apt to believe, that he confidered the Orlando Furiofo, in particular, as a poem wholly ferious; though the author of it certainly wrote it partly in jeft. There are

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n that idea of Ignorance, &c.] The perfonifications of Ignorance, and of Pride, are admired by Mr. Upton. Ignorance feems, in some respect, to be copied from Dante. See the note on F. Q. i. viii. 31. And a man inflated, puffed up, or blown up, is a common expreffion for a proud man. Colo 18. "Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." And, as Mr. Upton adds, Rev. xvii. 8. Ongior, à Lides, ñv, nai in 151, which, tranflated in the words of Spenfer, is, that monftrous mass, which thou faweft, was, and now nothing of it is left. See F. Q. i. viii. 24. TODD.

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feveral lines and paffages in it, that must have been intended for burlefque; and they furely confider that poem in the trueft light, who confider it as a work of a mixed nature; as fomething between the profeffed gravity of Taffo, and the broad laugh of Berni and his followers. Perhaps Spenfer's taking fome things to be faid feriously, which Ariofto meant for ridicule, may have led him now and then to fay things that are ridiculous, where he meant to be very ferious.

However that be, we may reafonably conclude, from fo great failures as I have mentioned in fo great a man, (whether they arife from his too much indulging the luxuriance of his own fancy, or from his copying after fo irregular a pattern,) that it would be extremely ufeful for our poets in general, to follow the plan of Allegory, as far as it is fettled to their hands by the ancients; at leaft, till fome modern may have invented and established some better plan for them to go upon; a thing, which I do not expect to fee done in our days. SPENCE.

MR. WARTON'S

REMARKS

ON THE

PLAN AND CONDUCT OF THE FAERIE QUEENE.

WHEN the works of Homer and of Ariftotle began to be restored and studied in Italy, when the genuine and uncorrupted fources of ancient poetry and ancient criticism were opened, and every species of literature at laft emerged from the depths of Go

thick ignorance and barbarity; it might have been expected, that, instead of the romantick manner of poetical compofition introduced and established by the Provencial bards, a new and more legitimate taste of writing would have fucceeded. With these advantages it was reafonable to conclude, that unnatural events, the machinations of imaginary beings, and adventures entertaining only as they were improbable, would have given place to juftnefs of thought and defign, and to that decorum which nature dictated, and which the example and the precept of antiquity had authorifed. But it was a long time before fuch a change was effected. We find Ariofto, many years after the revival of letters, rejecting truth for magick, and preferring the ridiculous and incoherent excurfions of Boyardo to the propriety and uniformity of the Grecian and Roman models. Nor did the restoration of ancient learning produce any effectual or immediate improvement in the state of criticifm. Beni, one of the most celebrated criticks of the fixteenth century, was ftill fo infatuated with a fondness for the old Provencial vein, that he ventured to write a regular differtation, in which he compares Ariofto with Homer.

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Comparazione di T. Taffo con Omero e Virgilio, infieme con la difefa dell' Ariofto paragonato ad Omero, &c." T. WARTON. Mr. Warton appears not to have known the following work, which exhibits a proof of ftill greater infatuation in the cause of Ariofto. "Della Nuova Poefia overo delle Difefe del Furiofo, Dialogo. Del Signor Giofeppe Malatefta. Nel qual non pur fi risponde alle oggettioni, che fi muouono contra quefto Poema; & fi moftra, che egli è compofto fecondo i veri, & piu legitimi precetti Poetici; mà fi fà toccar con mano, che d'artificio, & di eccellenza fupera l'opere maggiori di VERGILIO, & di HOMERO; &c." Printed at Verona, in 1589, 12mo. The author, in the dedication of this work to the

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