The whimp'ring girl, and hoarser-screaming boy, The fcolding quean to louder notes doth rife, The very turn of these numbers, bears the closest resemblance with the following, which are of themselves a complete concert of the most delicious mufic. The joyous birds shrouded in chearful shade, Thefe images, one would have thought, were peculiarly calculated to have ftruck the fancy of our young imitator with so much admiration, as not to have fuffered him to make a kind of travesty of them. *Book II. Canto 12. Stanza 71. The THE next ftanza of POPE reprefents fome allegorical figures, of which his original was fo fond. Hard by a fty, beneath a roof of thatch. Cod, whiting, oyfter, mackarel, fprat or plaice: With ENVY (fpitting cat) dread foe to peace; tatters. But these perfonages of Obloquy, Slander, Envy and Malice, are not marked with any diftinct attributes, they are not thofe living figures*, whofe attitudes and behaviour * Mr. Hume is of opinion, that the perufal of Spenfer becomes tedious to almost all his readers. "This effect, fays he, [Hiftory of England, pag. 738.] of which every one is confcious, is ufually afcribed to the change of manners; but manners have more changed fince Homer's age, and yet that poet remains ftill the favourite of every reader of taste and judgment. Homer copied true natural manners, which, however rough and uncultivated, will always form an agreeable and pleafing picture; but the pencil of the English poet was employed in drawing the affectations, and conceits, and fopperies of chivalry, which appear ridiculous as foon as they lofe the recommendation of the mode." But they had not ceafed to be the mode in Spenfer's time. VOL. II. D Spenfer Spenfer has minutely drawn with so much clearness and truth, that we behold them with our eyes, as plainly as we do on the cieling of the banquetting-house. For in truth the pencil of Spenfer is as powerful as that of Rubens, his brother allegorift; which two artists resembled each other in many refpects, but Spenfer had more grace, and was as warm a colourift. Among a multitude of objects delineated with the utmoft force * which we might select on *Whence it came to pafs that Spenfer did not give his poem the due fimplicity, coherence and unity of a legiti. mate Epopea, the reader may find in Mr. Hurd's entertaining letter to Mr. Mason, on the Marks of imitation, pag. 19, and in Obfervations on the Faery Queen, pag. 2, 3, 4. "How happened it, fays Mr. Hurd, that Sir Philip Sydney in his Arcadia, and afterwards Spenfer in his Faery Queen, obferved fo unnatural a conduct in those works; in which the ftory proceeds as it were by fnatches, and with continual interruptions? How was the good fenfe of those writers, fo converfant befides in the best models of antiquity, feduced into this prepofterous method? The answer, no doubt is, that they were copying the defign, or disorder rather of Ariofto, the favourite poet of that time." We must not try the charming fallies of Ariofto by the rigid rules of Ariftotle. There is a remarkable letter of Bernardo Taffo, the father of Torquato, in which is this paffage. "Ne fò io s'Ariftotele nafceffe a quefta età, et vedeffe il vaghiffimo poema on this occafion, let us stop a moment and take one attentive look at the allegorical figures that rife to our view in the following lines; By that way's fide there fate infernal Pain, And both did gnash their teeth, and both did threaten life. 22. But gnawing Jealoufie, out of their fight And trembling Feare still to and fro did flie, And Shame his ugly face did hide from living eye. To fhew the richness of his fancy, he has given us another picture of Jealousy, con poema dell' Ariofto, conofcendo la forza de l' ufo, et vedendo che tanto diletta, come l'esperienza ci dimonftra, mutaffe opinione, et confentiffe che fi poteffe far poema heroico di piu attione: Con la fua mirabil dottrina, et giudicio, dandogli nova norma, et prefcrivuendogli novi leggi." Lettere di XIII. Huomini Illuftri da Tomafo Porcacchi. * Book II. c. 7. 21. D 2 ceived ceived with equal ftrength in a fucceeding book *. Into that cave he creepes, and thenceforth there In dreary darkness, and continual feare Ne ever refts he in tranquillity, The roaring billows beat his bowre fo boisterously t. Here all is in life and motion; here we behold the true Poet or MAKER; this is creation; it is here, "might we cry out to Spenfer," it is here that you difplay to us, that you make us feel the fure effects of genuine poetry, όταν α λεγης, ὑπ ενθεσιασμε και παθες βλεπειν δοκής, και ὑπ' όψιν τιθης This axes. Longinus . * Lord Somers was paffionately fond of the Fairy Queen; it was his favourite work; in the last picture which he fate for to Sir Godfrey Kneller, he defired to be painted with a Spenfer in his hand. + Book iii. c. 11. I Пapur. Se&t. 15. IT |