The whimp'ring girl, and hoarfer-screaming boy, The fcolding quean to louder notes doth rife, The very turn of thefe numbers, bears the clofeft refemblance with the following, which are of themselves a complete concert of the most delicious music. The joyous birds shrouded in chearful shade; These images, one would have thought, were peculiarly calculated to have struck the fancy of our young imitator with fo 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 stanza of POPE represents fome allegorical figures, of which his original was so fond. Hard by a fty, beneath a roof of thatch Cod, whiting, oyster, mackarel, sprat or plaice: tatters. But these perfonages of Obloquy, Slander, Envy and Malice, are not marked with any diftinct attributes, they are not those 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, says he, [History of England, pag. 738.] of which every one is conscious, is usually ascribed 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 ceased to be the mode is Spenfer's time. VOL. II. D Spenfer Spenfer has minutely drawn with fo 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 allegorist; which two artists resembled each other in many respects, but Spenfer had more grace, and was as warm a colourist. Among a multitude of objects delineated with the utmost force *, which we might select on * Whence it came to pass 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. Mafon, 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 thofe works; in which the story proceeds as it were by fnatches, and with continual interruptions? How was the good fenfe of those writers, fo converfant befides in the beft 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 muft 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 ie s'Ariftotele nascesse a questa età, et vedesse il vaghifimo poema on this occafion, let us ftop 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 shew the richness of his fancy, he has given us another picture of Jealousy, con ema 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 Tomaso Porcacchi. 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 so 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 Spenser," it is here that you display to us, that you make us feel the sure effects of genuine poetry, όταν άλεγης, ὑπ ένθεσιασμε και παθες βλεπειν δοκης, και ὑπ' όψιν τιθης Tois 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. I'L.. I Пeps v. Sea. 15. 5 IT |