THE RED-CROSS KNIGHT.

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first of these is Holiness, expressed in the person of the RedCross knight; the second, Sir Guyon, is Temperance; the third, Britomartis, a 'lady knight,' is Charity.

Such is the plan of the opening of this magnificent poem. It belongs to a far higher class than those works that may loosely be considered to compose the 'Literature of Society.' These few remarks are not, therefore, offered as any analysis of the poem, but as merely to complete the 'biographical sketch of one best known to us as its author. One or two extracts will recall to those well acquainted with the Faery Queen'-and they can scarcely know it too well-some of its most captivating passages; and they may be sufficient to show to those who have the misfortune not to be intimate with this great mind, the quality and structure of his verse. Arthur, in his habiliments of war, is thus portrayed :

'Upon the top of all his crest

A bunch of pairs, discolour'd diversely,

With sprinkl'd pearl and gold full richly drest,
Did shake, and seem'd to dance for jollity;

Like to an almond tree ymounted high,

On top of green Selinis all alone,

With blossoms brave bedecked daintily,

Whose tender locks do tremble every one;

At every little blast that under heaven is blown.'

Exquisite, indeed, is the description of Diana and her nymphs:

'After late chace of their embrued game

Sitting beside a fountain in a row,

Some of them washing with the liquid dew'

their dainty limbs. The description of a garden is one of the most delicious passages in the 'Faery Queen,' though many other parts have far greater force and sublimity. We need only instance the Red-Cross knight in the Cave of Despair, tempted to commit suicide; and Una, snatching the blade from his hand. Let us look, however, on a pleasanter picture in the garden :

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THE EPITHALAMIUM.'

⚫ Eftsoones they heard a most delicious sound
Of all that mote delight a dainty ear;
Such as at once might not on living ground
Save in this paradise, be heard elsewhere:
Right hard it was for wight which did it hear,
To read what manner music that mote be,
For all that pleasing is to living ear
Was there consorted in one harmony-
Birds, voices, instruments, winds, waters, all agree.

'The joyous birds, shrouded in cheerful shade,
Their notes unto the voice attemper'd sweet;
Th' angelical, soft trembling voices made,
To th' instruments divine respondence meet;
The silver sounding instruments did meet
With the base murmurs of the waters fall:
The waters fall, with difference discreet,

Now soft, now loud, unto the winds did call :
The gentle warbling wind now answered to all.'

Of all Spenser's minor poems the 'Epithalamium' is the most beautiful. We do not include in this judgment his 'Hymne of Heavenly Love,' a serious and devotional poem full of the noblest thoughts. But the 'Epithalamium' is the impassioned lay of a heart that had found its home at last, in the love of a wife destined to participate in Spenser's sorrows, and to be immortalized by his love.

His description of her can here only be given in part :—

'Lo where she comes along with portly pace,
Like Phoebe from her chamber in the East
Arising, forth to run her mightie race,
Clad all in white, that seems a virgin best,
So well it her beseems, that ye would weene
Some angel she had been.

'Her long, loose, yellow locks, like golden wire,

- Sprinkled with pearle, and perling floweres atweene,
Doe like a golden mantle her attire,

And beeing crowned with a garland greene,
Seeme like some mayden queene.

'Her modest eyes abashed to beholde
So many gazers, as on her do stare,
Upon the lowly ground affixed are:

SPENSER'S FOUR HYMNS.

Ne dare she lift her countenance too bold,
But blush to heare her prayses sung so loud,
So farre from being proud.

Nathlesse doe ye still loud her prayses sing,

That all the wood may answer, and your echo ring.'

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After particularizing her personal charms, the lover says:

'But if ye saw that which no eyes can see,
The inward beautie of her lively spright,
Garnisht with heavenly gifts of high degree,
Much more then would ye wonder at that sight,
And stand astonisht like to those which red

Medusa's mazeful head.

There dwels sweet love and constant chastitie,
Unspotted faith and comely womanhood,
Regard of honour and mild modestie;
There vertue raines as queen in royal throne
And giveth laws alone.

The which the base affections doe obey,

And yield their services unto her will,
Ne thought of thing uncomely ever may
Thereto approach to tempt her mind to ill,

Had ye once seene these her celestial treasures,
And unrevealed pleasures,

Then would ye wonder, and her praises sing,

That all the woods should answer, and your echo ring.'

Spenser's 'Four Hymnes' were designated-the first ‘In honour of Love;' the second, 'In honour of Beauty;' the third, 'An Hymn of Heavenly Love;' the fourth, ‘An Hymn of Heavenly Beauty.' Of these, the two first, he says, were composed 'in the greener times of his youth.' Finding, when love and, probably, sorrow had purified his own heart, that the same too much pleased those of like age and disposition, who do rather suck out poyson to their strong passion than hony to their honest delight,' he endeavoured to do what every conscientious man would desire to do under similar circumstances;-he endeavoured to call in the same.' Finding, however, that too many copies were published for this to be effected, he wrote, 'by way of retractation,' his two

134

SPENSER'S FOUR HYMNS.

last hymns of Heavenly and Celestial love and beauty, and dedicated them to Margaret, Countess of Cumberland, and to Mary, Countess of Warwick:- Unto you, honorable sisters,' he thus addresses them, as to the most excellent and true ornaments of all true love and beautie.'

These four hymns are well worthy of the perusal of all lovers of poetry; the two last more especially; and these honourable sisters might justly be proud of the compliment paid to their true love and beautie.'

CHAPTER VII.

ENGLAND DISTINGUISHED FOR LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF JAMES I. - LILLIE

;

THE GRAMMARIAN HIS EUPHUES. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, CALLED THE
DARLING OF HIS TIME;' HIS 'ARCADIA AND OTHER POEMS. HORACE WAL-
POLE'S OPINION OF SIDNEY.-ANECDOTE OF HIS READING THE 'FAERY QUEEN.'
SIR WALTER RALEGH; HIS WORKS -ABRAHAM COWLEY; HIS LIFE,
CHARACTER, AND WRITINGS; HIS OPINION OF THE 'FAERY QUEEN.'- POPE'S
TRIBUTE TO HIM. OTHER WRITERS. -- -DENHAM'S VERSES.
DR. DONNE AND JAMES I.

-

ANECDOTE OF