perusing him with melody in the mind's ear, and with pictures of romantic beauty impressed on the imagination.

Succeeding generations have acknowledged the pathos and richness of his strains, and the new contour and enlarged dimensions of grace which he gave to English poetry. He is the poetical father of a Milton and a Thomson. Gray habitually read him when he wished to frame his thoughts for composition, and there are few eminent poets in the language who have not been essentially indebted to him.

"Hither, as to their fountain, other stars

Repair, and in their urns draw golden light.'" 1

The following testimony from Pope will confirm the remarks just cited:- "After my reading," said he, a canto of Spenser, two or three days ago, to an old lady, between seventy and eighty, she said that I had been showing her a collection of pictures. She said very right; and I know not how it is, but there is something in Spenser that pleases one as strongly in one's old age as it did in one's youth. I read the Faery Queen' when I was about twelve, with a vast deal of delight, and I think it gave me as much when Í read it over about a year or two ago."

2

Spenser accounted himself the poetical son of Chaucer; and, to do honour to his parentage, adopted a style and diction belonging to a previous stage of the language. He was, therefore, in his own times, taunted with "affecting the ancients," with his "Chaucerisms," and with his "new grafts of old withered words and exploded expressions." "One might imagine," says Mr. Campbell," the difference of Spenser's style from that of Shakspere's, whom he so shortly preceded, to indicate that his gothic subject and story made him lean towards words of the elder time. At all events, much of his expression is now become antiquated; though it is beautiful in its antiquity, and like the moss and ivy on some majestic building, covers the fabric of his language with romantic and venerable associations."4

VERSIFICATION.-The stanza employed by Spenser in the "Faerie Queene” was borrowed from the Italian; the poet, however, made it his own by the addition of an Alexandrine, or long

(1) Campbell. "Specimens," &c., Introduction, p. liv.

(2) "Literary History," &c., vol ii. p. 334.

(3) In the "Faerie Queene" (book iv. canto 2), Spenser speaks of Chaucer, as "Don Chaucer, well of English undefyled,

On fame's eternall beadroll worthie to be fyled."

(4) Campbell. "Specimens," &c., Introduction, p. lv.

line, which closes the whole with a majestic cadence. This style of versification-subsequently called the Spenserian-has been, notwithstanding its difficulty, adopted with much success by Thomson, in "The Castle of Indolence"-Beattie, in "The Minstrel"-and Byron, in "Childe Harold.”

EXTRACTS FROM THE FAERIE QUEENE.

UNA AND THE RED-CROSS KNIGHT.1

5

A GENTLE knight was pricking on the plaine,
Ycladd in mightie armes and silver shielde,
Wherein old dints of deepe woundes did remaine,
The cruel markes of many a bloody fielde;
Yet armes till that time did he never wield:
His angry steede did chide his foming bitt,
As much disdayning to the curbe to yield:

6

Full iolly knight he seemd, and faire did sitt,
As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt.

And on his brest a bloodie crosse he bore

The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore,
And dead, as living ever, him adored:

Upon his shield the like was also scored,

9

For soveraine hope, which in his helpe he had.
Right faithfull, true he was in deede and word;
But of his cheere 10 did seeme too solemne sad; 11
Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad.12

(1)Faerie Queene," book i. canto 1. This extract is the commencement of the poem. (2) Gentle knight-the Red-Cross knight, St. George, the tutelary Saint of England, who represents True Holiness. (3) Pricking-riding fast, or rather here, spurring his horse, but at the same time checking him to keep the pace of the lady upon her " palfrey slow." (4) Mightie armes, &c.-The armour of the Christian, described in Ephes. vi. 13-17, is here intended. (5) Dintsmarks. (6) Iolly-from the French joli-handsome. (7) Giusts-jousts or tilting matches. (8) Dead, as living ever-i.e. though dead, yet alive for evermore (see Rev. i. 18). (9) For soveraine, &c.-On account of the supreme hope, &c. (10) Cheere-countenance, appearance. (11) Sad-grave, not, (12) Ydrad-dreaded.

mournful.

Upon a great adventure he was bond,1
That greatest Gloriana2 to him gave

(That greatest glorious Queene of Faery lond),
To winne him worshippe, and her grace to have,
Which of all earthly things he most did crave:
And ever, as he rode, his hart did earne3
To prove his puissance in battell brave
Upon his foe, and his new force to learne
Upon his foe, a dragon horrible and stearne.

A lovely ladie? rode him faire beside,

Upon a lowly asse more white then snow;
Yet she much whiter; but the same did hide
Under a vele, that wimpled was full low;
And over all a blacke stole shee did throw,
As one that inly mournd; so was she sad,
And heavie sate upon her palfrey slow;
Seeméd in heart some hidden care she had;
And by her in a line a milke-white lambe she lad.

So

pure and innocent, as that same lambe,
She was in life and every vertuous lore;
And by descent from royall lynage 10 came
Of ancient kinges and queenes, that had of yore
Their scepters stretcht from east to westerne shore,
And all the world in their subjection held;
Till that infernal feend, with foule uprore,
Forwasted all their land, and them expeld;

Whom to avenge, she had this knight from far compeld.12

Behind her farre away a dwarfe did lag,
That lasie seemd, in being ever last,

Or weariéd with bearing of her bag

Of needments 13 at his backe. Thus as they past,
The day with cloudes was suddeine overcast,

(1) Bond-bound.

(2) Gloriana-Glory-the "Faery Queene."

(3) Earne -yearn. (4) Püissance (three syllables here)-power. (5) Learne-in its old sense-teach, show, manifest. (6) Dragon-this is intended to represent Error. (7) Lovely ladie-this is Una, or Truth, the representative of the one true church. (8) Wimpled-plaited or folded over. (9) Stole-a long robe or garment. (10) Lynage-lineage. (11) Forwasted-i. e. forth wasted, thoroughly laid waste. (12) Compeld from the Latin compellare, to addresscalled on. (13) Needments-necessaries.

S

And angry Iove1 an hideous storme of raine
Did poure into his lemans2 lap so fast,

That everie wight to shroud3 it did constrain;
And this faire couple eke to shroud themselves were fain.1
Enforst to seeke some covert nigh at hand,
A shadie grove not farr away they spide,
That promist ayde the tempest to withstand;
Whose loftie trees, yclad with sommers pride,
Did spred so broad, that heavens light did hide,
Not perceable with power of any starr;
And all within were pathes and alleies wide,
With footing worne, and leading inward farr:
Faire harbour that them seems; so in they entred ar.
And foorth they passe, with pleasure forward led,
Joying to heare the birdes sweete harmony,
Which therein shrouded from the tempest dred,
Seemed in their song to scorne the cruell sky.
Much can they praise the trees so straight and hy,
The sayling Pine, the Cedar proud and tall,
The vine-propp Elme,7 the Poplar never dry,
The builder Oake, sole king of forrests all,
The Aspine good for staves, the Cypresse funerall;
The Laurell, meed of mightie conquerours,
And poets sage; the Firre that weepeth still;
The Willow, worne of forlorne paramours,8
The Eugh, obedient to the benders will,

9

The Birch for shafts, the Sallow for the mill,
The Mirrhe sweete-bleeding 10 in the bitter wound,
The warlike" Beech, the Ash for nothing ill,
The fruitful Olive, and the Platane 12 round,

The carver Holme,13 the Maple seldom inward sound.

(1) Jove the air or atmosphere is frequently so named in the Classics. (2) Leman-from the Anglo-Saxon leof, loved, and man, one—a loved one, sweetheart. (3) Shroud-shelter. (4) Fain-glad. (5) Not perceable, &c. It was an ancient superstition," says Warton, "that stars had a malign influence on trees. Hence Milton, in 'Arcades:'

Under the shady roof

Of branching elm star-proof.""

(6) Much can they praise-i. e. much they praise. (7) Vine-propp Elme-i. e. the Elm that props up and supports the vine. (8) Forlorne paramours-forsaken lovers. (9) Eugh-yew. (10) Sweete-bleeding, &c.-In allusion to the healing virtues of myrrh. (11) Warlike Beech-war-chariots used to be made of beech. (12) Platane-the plane-tree. (13) Holme-the holm oak.

Led with delight, they thus beguile the way,
Untill the blustring storme is overblowne;
When, weening to returne, whence they did stray,
They cannot find that path, which first was showne,
But wander too and fro in waies unknowne,
Furthest from end then, when they neerest weene,
That makes them doubt their wits be not their own;
So many pathes, so many turnings seene,

That which of them to take in diverse doubt they been.

THE HOUSE OF SLEEP.2

HE, making speedy way through spersed ayre,
And through the world of waters wide and deepe,
To Morpheus house doth hastily repaire;
Amid the bowels of the earthe full steepe
And low, where dawning day doth never peepe,
His dwelling is; there Tethys his wet bed
Doth ever wash, and Cynthia still doth steepe
In silver deaw his ever-drouping hed,

Whiles sad Night over him her mantle black doth spred;

Whose double gates he findeth locked fast;

The one faire framed of burnisht yvory,
The other all with silver overcast;

And watchful dogges before them farre doe lye,
Watching to banish Care, their enimy,
Who oft is wont to trouble gentle Sleepe.
By them the sprite doth passe in quietly,

And unto Morpheus comes, whom drownéd deepe
In drowsie fit he findes; of nothing he takes keepe.

(1) Weening-imagining, thinking.

(2) "Faerie Queene," book i., canto 1. "What can be more solitary, more shut up in itself, than his description of the House of Sleep? It is as if the honey-dew of slumber' had settled on his pen in writing these lines."-Hazlitt. (3) He-a sprite sent on a mission by Archimago, or Fraud, the enchanter, (4) Spersed-dispersed. (5) Morpheus house-in the Classical writers Somnus, and not Morpheus, is the God of Sleep, the latter being one of the children of Somnus. (6) Tethys the mythological wife of the ocean; here put for the ocean itself. (7) The one faire, &c.-Homer and Virgil represent the gates of Sleep's palace as made of ivory and horn respectively, the former for false and the latter for true dreams.