LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY OF TH LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 6=^ ARY OF TH ^^JC^P>^.. JJSv S^^ f 1 A\ = k mi = Millie oi^Hk) LIBRARY OF TRE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ffi mimi ALIFORNIA LIBRARY Of THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBI '=3 ^^- -i r i r oc Ni . > t WILEY & PUTNAM'S LIBRARY OF AMERICAN BOOKS. SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. WORKS ILLUSTRATIVE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, PUBLISHED IN THE LIBRARY OF CHOICE READING- I. IMAGINATION AND FANCY WITH MARKINGS OF THE BEST PASSAGES OF THE ENGLISH POETS, CRITICAL NOTICES, &C, BY LEIGH HUNT. II. AN ILLUSTRATIVE ESSAY ON WIT AND HUMOR, BY LEIGH HUNT. HI. CHARLES LAMB'S SPECIMENS OF OLD ENGLISH DRAMATISTS, WHO LIVED ABOUT THE TIME OF SHAKSPEARE. IV. LECTURES ON THE LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF ELIZABETH, BY WILLIAM HAZLITT. V. CHARACTERS OF SHAKSPEARE's PLAYS, BY WILLIAM HAZLITT. VI. LECTURES ON THE ENGLISH COMIC WRITERS, BY WILLIAM HAZLITT. VII. LECTURES ON THE ENGLISH POETS, WITH AN APPENDIX, BY WILLIAM HAZLITT. VIII. THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE : A SERIES OF CONTEMPORARY POR- TRAITS, BY WILLIAM HAZLITT. IX. basil Montagu's selections from south, taylor, barrow, FULLER, &C. X. professor wilson's genius and character of burns. XI. VIEWS AND REVIEWS IN AMERICAN HISTORY, LITERATURE AND FICTION, BY W. GILMORE SIMMS. XII. PAPERS ON LITERATURE AND ART, BY S. MARGARET FULLER. XIII. SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN, BY MRS. C. M. KIRKLAND. IN PRESS. XIV. PASSAGES FROM CHAUCER, WITH A LIFE OF THE POET. WILEY & PUTNAM, 161 Broadway. JYbv. 15, 1846. JSER FAERY QUEEN. BY MRS. C. Mi KIRKLAND. \ NEW YORK AND LONDON : WILEY AND PUTNAM V 1 Enteric according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by WILEY AND PUTNAM, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE It has become so much the practice to decry everything in the shape of " Selections," " Beauties," and " Extracts" from the standard authors, that it requires no small degree of courage to offer the public a work which shall come under either of the proscribed classes. But, with all proper deference for the high authorities who contemn such superficial acquaintance with the best writers, we might yet ask whether something provided it be good be not better than nothing ? Whether it be indeed wise to renounce all acquaintance with valuable works, because cir- cumstances forbid our studying them thoroughly ? Those who speak with such lofty contempt of any but complete acquaintance with their favorites, are (or should be) persons of elegant acquirements, abundant leisure and ample libraries. There are many people in the world, both young and old, who possess none of these advantages ; and we think such will not be wise to allow themselves to be per- suaded by their more fortunate advisers, to accept of nothing less than the whole. Scarcely more foolish wouM be the hungry man who should be induced to refuse a lunch by his neighbor who had already had an excellent dinner. PREFACE. Various inducements prompted the present attempt to ren- der accessible to American readers a part of the works of a great poet, whose splendid reputation, refined elegance, and high moral tone, entitle him to be studied by all who would become acquainted with English literature. There was rea- son to believe that to many intelligent persons Spenser was entirely unknown, except by name ; and that the antique spelling of the Faery Queen had proved an insuperable bar to such as had been enterprising enough to attempt exploring its mazes. These reasons, together with a general desire to instil a genuine love for the best poetry, which should induce the young to store their fresh memories with it, as a resource against the tedium which may be the portion of advanced age or of declining health, suggested the idea of selections \ from the Faery Queen. These have been made with especial reference both to subject matter and to poetical merit. Much of the allegory is too subtle and obscure to be made intelligible to the general reader. Some branches of the subject, with the mode in which they are necessarily treated, are better suited to the times of Elizabeth than to our own day. A wide choice was still left ; and I have endeavored to avail myself of the poet's abundance, as far as my own taste and the most careful ex- amination enabled me to do so. The first Book, considered by all critics to be the cream of the work, is given nearly entire, and extracts from the others will follow if the present attempt should be successful. The spelling has been modernized, wherever the rhythm or the rhyme was not materially injured by the change. Where this would have been the case, a few foot-notes have been added. No person who is sufficiently cultivated to PREFACE. relish the poem at all, will probably find any difficulty in this respect. I am particularly concerned to have it understood that in venturing to offer a work of this kind, I am actuated solely by a desire to see Spenser more read in this country, and not by the most remote idea that I could improve upon what has been done. It would require a poet to do justice to Spen- ser's character a poet as great as himself to do justice to his poetry. I have not even had access to the fountains of au- thority, but have been compelled to draw from second-hand sources ; and I pretend to offer nothing more than a popular view of the life and character of the master of chivalric romance, with a taste I hope an exciting one of his deli- cious verse. If the result should be as I hope, a further attempt will be made to place a modernized Faery Queen within the reach of all. The American edition of the com- plete works of Spenser will still be essential to every Ameri- can library of any pretension. C. M. K. f EDMUND SPENSER BORN ABOUT 1553 DIED, 1599. So few and so unsatisfactory are the materials which can be found for a Life of Spenser, that his admirers are obliged to con- tent themselves with such knowledge of his character as may be gathered from his works, his choice of companions or rather the characters of certain eminent persons who selected him as a companion and the slight data that ingenious antiquaries have been able to make out from occasional mention of him by those among whom he lived. Men of inferior merit are often found to be solicitous as to their fame to guard against being overlooked by their contemporaries to provide for immortality. Shakspeare and Spenser, and men of their order if such men there have been in the unconsciousness which distinguishes and exalts them, forget their claims to the reverence of posterity ; and while pour- ing out the riches which it is not possible for them to withhold, sink their own personality as a thing of no moment. They hope for fame indeed ; nay, they expect it. The divine gifts which enable them to deserve it have a prophetic power, and assure them of the result. But it is for their works they covet fame, not for themselves. The children of their souls are far dearer to them than their own existence ; and it is for their spiritual 2 SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. offspring that they desire the loving appreciation of the ages come. These are not the men who write memoirs of themseb They might attempt such things ; but with the account of ch hood and early youth seasons upon which the man looks b: with a fond feeling far removed from egotism the record wc ceaSe. The commencement of conscious existence, while the new being is " trailing clouds of glory" seeing a friend every new face, a pleasure in every new object has a pu and dignity in the mind's retrospections. It seems worth membering. But when ingenuous ardor has been chilled uncongenial association ; when mortification and disappoints have left their mark in the heart's most sensitive recesses ; w the treachery of friends, the cruel buffets of fortune, the crush sense of irrevocable error and immedicable sorrow, have brou^ by sad steps, the boy to manhood the man to middle age ; i not for the poet, surely not for a poet of Spenser's class, to exf the dread secret to the vulgar eye. All that he wills the w< should know of him, is thrown spontaneously, or rather inev bly, into his works ; if he draws his own picture, it is beca he cannot help it. He % will not anxiously consult the mir throw in flattering touches, and give the performance a gr frame to fit it for the eye of posterity. Nor can such a man expected to fill much space in contemporaneous records. P< are men of retirement men of few chosen friends, and those of the Boswellian genus ; and it is because they are such, that I are able to leave those enduring works which lead posterity search so eagerly for personal memorials of the authors. Who- were Spenser's friends ? By what order of men was sought ? The gallant, the gentle, the noble, the tender Sidn Astrophel, of whom it was said Ne spight itselfe, that all good things doth spill, Found aught in him that she could say was ill," SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. stands first upon the list.* Sidney loved his company, persuaded him to Penshurst with him, where Spenser wrote the " Shepheard's Calendar ;" introduced him to his uncle, the magnificent Leices- ter, and added yet a crowning honor to his spotless fame, by making the poet's fortunes his care, until the fatal wound at Zutphen deprived the age of an ornament, and Spenser of the rare consolation of a spirit worthy to claim kindred with his own. Spenser and Sidney ! We love to think of them together at Penshurst ; young men of five and twenty or so (for there was * Sidney seems to have enjoyed a reputation even at his own day, such as no other man of his age ever acquired, at least in sober England. Some have been disposed to question his right to the place he has ever held in the hearts of his countrymen, and of all who speak his language ; but Campbell well remarks, " Traits of character will distinguish great men, independent of their pens or their swords. The contemporaries of Sidney knew the man ; and foreigners, no less than his own countrymen, seem to have felt from his personal influence and conversation, a homage for him that could only be paid to a commanding intellect guiding the principles of a noble heart." We are tempted to give here a sonnet by Lord Chancel- lor Thurlow, in which Sidney and Spenser are coupled : ON A PICTURE OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY". " The man that looks, sweet Sidney, in thy face Beholding there love's truest majesty, And the soft image of departed grace, Shall fill his mind with magnanimity ; There may he read unfeigned humility : And golden pity, born of heavenly brood, Unsullied thoughts of immortality, And musing virtue, prodigal of blood ; Yes ! in this map of what is fair and good, This glorious index of a heavenly book ; Not seldom, as in youthful years he stood, Divinest Spenser would admiring look ; And framing thence high wit and pure desire, Imagined deeds that set the world on fire." SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. only a year or two's difference in their ages), full of the enthusi- asm which foreshadowed their future ; preux chevaliers both, though with a difference ; looking upon life as a theatre of honor- able enterprise and splendid achievement ; one in soul, though widely separated in fortune. What a field for Sidney's noble- ness ! and yet, perhaps, still more for that of Spenser ; for what requires so much undoubting and generous faith as the receiving of favors ? Accepting has fallen into disrepute, from the sus- picion which mortifying experience has taught us, that the giver may expect degrading compliances. But if our friend's soul is to us as our own, and we know the gift free, we may as well pre- tend to scrutinize or decline the bounty of Heaven, or to set up a barrier between the right hand and the left, as decline that which he would bestow upon us. We, in our day, regret that Spenser should have been in any degree dependent, even upon Sidney. We have an uneasy fear that his noble friend's power of bestow- ing what the poet so much needed for quietness of mind and golden leisure, may have derogated from the purity and dignity of their affection. But, setting aside the unerring instinct of one- ness between two minds of such tone, the high chivalric spirit of the time, with the deeply felt recognition of difference in rank, took from such dependence its meaner elements. To be the patron of elegant letters was the ambition, not the reluctant duty, of the great man of Spenser's day. Such patronage was the un- questioned resource of men of genius ; and the adulation which makes our modern cheeks tingle as we read, was evidently con- sidered only as an elegant way of proving the poet's claim to the favor he sought. Sidney repaid Spenser by praise of equal ex- travagance and similar tone. Raleigh saw the soul of Petrarch weep (envious tears of course), at sight of the Faery Queen. Shakspeare was " drown'd in-deep delight" at sound of Spenser's verse ; and one and all exhausted not only their mother tongue, but all the languages they could command, in heaping superlatives SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. upon Queen Elizabeth, who was the last to wish a purer taste to prevail. To refuse the most preposterous flattery when Queen Elizabeth expected it, would have been equivalent to hugging poverty for life; and if our sublime (theoretic) virtue is disgusted with the adulatory verses of Spenser to " great Gloriane," we may inquire how many of the first men of the time, the grave and the gay, the Burghleys as well as the Harringtons, he had to keep him in countenance. We may well suppose they could not look at each other without laughing on these occasions ; but even now it may be questioned whether there would be many poor and obscure people among -us^sf flattery were sure to be rewarded in current coin. Shakspeare and Spenser found it so ; and, needing money, they paid the price. Shakspeare, in the exquisite picture of the " fair vestal throned in the west," threw a veil of silver mist over the hard-featured spinster, through which, to all time, her red hair will seem golden, and her egotistic coquetry " maiden meditation, fancy-free." If Spenser called her a " goddesse hea- venly bright," and a " mirrour of all lovelinesse," perhaps he thought her such ; for he had a most creative imagination ; and " a lively sense of future favors" probably excited it to the utter- most. And he certainly left her his debtor in the end, since he identified her name with that of the Faery Queen. Raleigh was Spenser's next friend after Sidney, and we know of no other man of the time so worthy to succeed Astrophel in his affection. Raleigh had much of the high chivalric spirit which Spenser so worshipped ; his soul and his life were full of poetry j* * Sir Egerton Brydges speaks enthusiastically of Raleigh's poetical powers. " Do I pronounce Raleigh a poet ? Not, perhaps, in the judg- ment of a severe criticism. Raleigh, in his better days, was too much occupied in action to have cultivated all the powers of a poet, which re- quire solitude and a perpetual meditation, and a refinement of sensibility, such as intercourse with business and the world deadens. * * * We have no proof that Raleigh possessed the copious, vivid and creative powers SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. he was himself fit to be a hero of romance ; and he had a bro- therly, unenvying admiration for Spenser's genius, which must have been as delightful as it was honorable to both. He intro- duced Spenser to the Queen, and in such a sort, that she gave the poet a pension of fifty pounds, and the laureateship, though with- out its title. The " Shepheard of the Ocean" endeavored to per- suade Spenser to remain and try his fortune at court ; to bask as he did, in the smiles of high-born dames, and trust his fortunes to the ticklish chances of great men's favor. Spenser seems to have submitted for a time, and we may imagine the gentle poet, with his elegant taste, his delicacy, his high-soaring imagination, teem- ing even then with the magnificent conceptions which afterwards found birth in the Faery Queen, among the waiting crowd which swayed to and fro, like reeds in the wind, as Elizabeth turned her mighty regards on one side or the other, subject to the insolence of courtiers who had been taught to regard gorgeous apparel as the measure of dignity, and feeling, in all its bitterness, what he so well expressed in one of his satires " Whoever leaves sweet home, when mean* estate In safe assurance, without strife or hate, Finds all things needful for contentment meek, And will to court for shadows vain to seek, Or hope to gain, himself will a daw try :f That curse, God send unto mine enemy ! He had noble countenance enough, for his friends were the of Spenser ; nor is it probable that any cultivation would have brought forth fruit equally rich. But even in the careless fragments now presented to the reader (in Raleigh's collected poems), I think we can perceive some traits of attraction which, perhaps, even Spenser wanted. If less diversi- fied than that gifted bard, he would, I think, have been sometimes more forcible and sublime His images would have been more gigantic, his re- flections more daring." * Mean middling. t Try, for prove. SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. lights of the court, and he had abundant examples of genius wait- ing even then for the favor of its inferiors ; yet all his writings bear witness to his detestation of the position in which he found himself at court, where, in spite of his gentleness, the all-power- full and vindictive Burghley had become, for some trifling offence, his determined enemy even so far, say some, as the withholding or preventing the payment of the pension with which the Queen had honored him. Spenser seems to have made desperate efforts to propitiate the hard old lord, but in vain ; and he left the court in disgust, flying back to' his Irish estate, by the so ft- flowing Mulla, where the Muses visited him more freely, and where Raleigh loved to meet them in his company. The poet vented his vexation and disappointment in those oft-quoted lines : "Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried, What hell it is, in suing long to bide : To lose good days, that might be better spent ; To waste long nights in pensive discontent ; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow ; To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow ; To have thy prince's grace, yet want her peer's ; To have thy asking, yet wait many years ; To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares ; To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs ; To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run ; To spend, to give, to want, to be undone. Unhappy wight, born to disastrous end, That doth his life in so long tendance spend !" Another of Spenser's intimate friends was Gabriel Harvey, one of the learned men of the time, though too much of. a pedant to admire the Faery Queen. This acquaintance was made at college, where Spenser began to give promise of his after years, by an unusual devotion to study, and a scrupulous morality of conduct such as ever after honorably distinguished him. Some poems which appeared about that time have been ascribed to SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. him, from their almost identical resemblance to his after works. Though this is the only testimony of his claim to them, we can easily believe such a mind to have been, even thus early, full of the god, and unable to repress sparkles of the inward fire which was destined to blaze forth so gloriously in his maturity. Gabriel Harvey seems to have been ever his firm friend ; and we have reason to rejoice that Spenser's love for the learned doctor did not induce him to listen to his criticisms. Harvey, who is cruelly ridiculed as a pretentious poetaster by Nash and others, boasted of having introduced hexameters into English poetry; and as the Faery Queen was not written in hexameters, he naturally thought it but a lumbering affair, and attempted to discourage Spenser from going on with it. He preferred the " Nine Comedies," which the world seems to have let die, perhaps willingly. We know not whether Sir John Harrington, the witty godson of Queen Elizabeth, ought to be ranked among the intimate friends of Spenser ; but there is every reason to believe that the transla- tor of Ariosto must have been among his chosen companions. Literary men, in those comparatively early times, were evidently united by a strong bond, independent of all outward circumstan- ces. The numerous collections of poems contributed by differ- ent hands, and emanating from persons of every rank in life, show that a brotherhood in taste and genius was willingly con- fessed by those whom fortune had honored with her high places. The " Mirrour for Magistrates," the " Paradise of daynty Devi- ces," the " Gorgeous gallery of Gallant Inventions," the " Hande- ful of pleasant Delights," and many other collections, are the works of authors of noble and ignoble name indiscriminately ; and this is justly considered a striking feature of the time, and a proof of the high estimation in which letters were held in the learned and gallant court of the maiden queen. We would also consider it a charming proof of the ennobling power of literature, which was able thus to set aside outward distinctions at a period SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. when these distinctions had a value never yet surpassed. Men like Sidney, Raleigh, and Southampton, lived two distinct and separate lives one in court and camp, the other in the bowers of the Muses ; and however they may have valued the honors gained in the more earthly course, they prided themselves far higher on those which they were able to win when poets and philosophers were their only competitors. Harrington was one of this fraternity, and of a kindred tone with Spenser, as we may well judge by his selection of an Italian poet who had so evidently been one of the inspirers of the bard of Faery. We have some- thing more than conjecture on this point too ; for when the " Art of English Poetry " was attracting much attention, and exciting many conjectures as to its authorship, Spenser having been named among those to whom it was ascribed, the fact that Sir John Harrington had censured the book, was considered proof that Spenser did not write it which plainly implies warm per- sonal friendship on the part of so sharp a critic as Harrington. We are the more willing to set Sir John's name in the list of Spenser's friends, since he was evidently honest as well as witty, and as good a man as so good a courtier could be ; while his passion for literature made him the proper companion of him who wrote the " Tears of the Muses," and other complaints of the too sparing honor paid, even at that day, to these inspiring deities. Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, whose favorite titles of honor were " servant to Queen Elizabeth, counsellor to King James, and friend to Sir Philip Sidney " a climax that gives us a key to his character, was of about the same age with Spenser and Sidney ; and as he was a poet and a man of learning and worth, we may safely rank him among Spenser's friends, especially as he was a noted Maecenas of that day. He it was who wrote home to England the beautiful incident of Sidney's relinquishing the cup of water to the dying soldier, and who said of Sidney that " his wit and understanding heat upon his heart, to make himself 2* 10 SPNSER>ND THE FAERY QUEEN. and others, not in word or opinion, but in life and action, good and great." Leicester, the man whom Sidney dared not defend, was rather the patron than the friend of Spenser. There could have been no congeniality between them, but Leicester chose to complete the circle of his boundless magnificence by becoming the foster, father of this great " babe of Fame." He had taste enough to appreciate Spenser, and he invited him into his house, for the purpose, it is supposed, of employing him to illustrate the genea- logy of the noble house of Dudley. The poet, poor, and hoping for better things, appears to have set himself about this work in earnest, and to have prided himself not a little upon the able per- formance of it. It was in Latin, but whether in prose or verse is uncertain. Upon the completion of the Stemmata Dudleiana, Leicester procured, for Spenser the post of secretary to Lord Grey de Wilton, then Irish Viceroy ; and the result showed that though " of imagination all compact," business was not " the contradiction of his fate." Upon Lord Grey's recal, not without loud blame for certain severities against the Irish rebels, his secretary wrote a vindication of his conduct, as keen, as inde- pendent, and as convincing, as he could have expected from the most subservient and interested official. This bold defence of a man under a cloud, at a time when clouds were very apt to bring thunder, has a characteristic nobleness in it. It was worthy of him who chose the personification of magnanimity for his hero. Another friend of Spenser, always mentioned by him in his letters v to Harvey and others as E. K., has been supposed, on slight grounds, to be a certain Edward Kerke ; but with greater reason these initials are considered a sobriquet of the poet himself, who could, under this disguise, communicate to the public many things requisite for the full understanding of his poetry, which he could not have openly stated in his own name ; while it permitted him to leave whatever he chose, unexplained or indistinctly de- SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. 11 clared. When we consider the many meanings that have been supposed to be hidden under the allegory of the Faery Queen, it seems probable enough that Spenser would resort to some plan of the kind for explaining what he desired the world should un- derstand, while he kept the esoteric meaning to himself and a few chosen friends. The commendations bestowed by E. K. upon the new poet, " uncouth and unkissed, unknown to most men, and regarded but of a few," do indeed tell somewhat against this supposition ; but we must excuse him if, in endeavoring to make friends for his work, fondly prized, yet of such " darke conceit" that he might well fear ordinary readers would be discouraged from threading its mazes, he ventured beyond the bounds of his natural modesty, under the protection of an incognito. At least this view seems liable to as few objections as that which supposes one intimate friend and one only, to have been mentioned through- out Spenser's correspondence, by his initials alone. The idea is, however, considered inadmissible by some critics, and one has ascribed the commentaries of E. K. to Gabriel Harvey, not with- out much plausibility. As to his birth, Spenser was a Londoner, and 1553 is conjec- tured to have been the year which brought into the world him who is called the " Sunrise," as Chaucer had been denominated the " Day-starre," of English poetry. Spenser's claims cannot be appreciated unless we bear in mind that no poet of decided merit had appeared in England for nearly two hundred years. The " Vision of Piers Ploughman" is a work of spirit and origi- nality ; Lydgate, Hawes, Surrey, Sackville, and Sidney, not to mention names of lesser note, had produced melodious verses in great abundance. Sir Philip Sidney's Euphuistic prose-poem, the Arcadia, excited much attention in its day, and remains a wonder of misdirected genius even now ; yet all these might fall into oblivion without sensibly impoverishing English literature. Chaucer, and after him Spenser, are the only names, anterior to 12 SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. Shakspeare, which we still continue to place among all that ranks highest in the productions of genius. Their works form an inte- gral part of our mental possessions, the precious treasure of both hemispheres. They were the worthy precursors of Shakspeare and Milton, and must be considered as every way deserving of the studious acquaintance of all who speak the language whose power and richness they demonstrated. Edmund Spenser claimed kindred with the noble houses of Marlborough and Spenser ; and however coldly that proud stock may have viewed his pretensions during his life, before time had sealed his fame, its descendants would now doubtless count the honor more than reciprocated if the relationship could be proved. Indeed it is supposed that even in the haughty court of the Amazonian Queen, a sovereign to whom no man spoke without kneeling a lesson no doubt well practised elsewhere by those who were obliged to submit to it in the presence the poet was allowed to claim " some private bands of affinity" with the Lady Strange, the daughter of Sir John Spenser, of Althorp, to whom he had dedicated his " Tears of the Muses." It was for the same lady, born under a happy star, that Milton long afterwards wrote his " Arcades," which was per- formed at Harefield Place by her grandchildren. And it was for the son of her second husband, Lord Brackley, afterwards Earl of Bridgewater, that the Comus was written. One is almost dis- posed to envy the high birth which can command or persuade genius after this fashion. The dedication to Lady Strange is dated 1591 ; Comus in 1634 ; the Arcades perhaps a little later. Spenser took his degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts at Cambridge, in 1573 and 1576 ; and two or three years after- wards we find him domesticated with Sidney, to whom he was introduced by Gabriel Harvey ; and then with Leicester, to whose notice he had been brought by his noble friend. In 1579 he seems to have been on the point of seeking his further fortune abroad, under the patronage of the Earl of Leicester ; and wrote SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. 13 valedictories to his friends, in which he bewails his hard fate in being thus obliged to pursue in distant lands the fortune he could not attain at home. But this trial was probably spared him, as he makes no allusion to having visited foreign countries, and we find him again writing from London to Harvey, only a few months after his round of farewells. Perhaps it was for the sake of the Irish secretaryship that Leicester retained him ; in which case we could almost regret that the journey to the Continent had not taken place. Yet the appointment looked like the making of the poet's fortune ; and it was not long in leading to still further advancement. In March, 1581, he was made Clerk to the Irish Court of Chancery ; and in the same year received a highly profitable grant from the Queen, of a piece of property in the county of Wexford the Abbey of Enniscorthy with the at- tached castle and manor, still in possession of the Earls of Ports- mouth. In 1586, a further grant of 3028 acres of land, in the county of Cork, made the poet comparatively rich, and fixed his residence in Ireland, in consequence of certain conditions at- tached to the grant. This was the last favor he received through means of the beloved Sidney, who died of his wounds in October of that year, and was honored with a regal funeral at the ex- pense of the Queen, and a far more enduring memorial in the heart of his country. Kilcolman Castle, at which the poet was now to reside, was situated on an elevation, on the north side of a fine lake, in the midst of an extensive plain, whose horizon was made picturesque by distant mountains. The views about this spot hallowed by the birth of the Faery Queen are still charming, though less richly wooded than they must have been in Spenser's time. The river Mulla, celebrated in his deathless verse, flowed close beside the dwelling ; and here Spenser delighted to wander, in the con- genial society of the romantic Raleigh, drinking in the sweet influences of the scene. Retired leisure, profound tranquillity, 14 SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. prospects which might have warmed into life an imagination less powerful than his, and the encouraging praise of one who was himself no stepson of the muse, contributed to enhance the beauty and glory of Spenser's conceptions, and to bring to perfect deve- lopment that splendid procession of images, which, under less happy circumstances, might have been forced into fragments, or perverted into the mere concetti so fashionable at the time. The "tears and th.3 smiles " of the soft climate of Ireland ; the deli- cious green of her woods and fields ; the far-famed clearness of her romantic lakes, are all mirrored in the poet's " lond of faerie ;" and they will receive no higher honor till the end of time. The three first books were published in 1590, and it was at that time, when a highly accomplished age was taken by surprise on the appearance of the new light, that Raleigh would fain have persuaded Spenser to make the most of the sunshine of royal and courtly favor. His confidence in his own power with the Sove- reign was then at its height ; and he thought his gay cloak would serve to smoothe his friend's path as well as his own. But after trying " the hell in suing long to bide," the poet wisely preferred his rural seclusion to the servility and foppery of Elizabeth's court. We may conceive his sentiments to have been such as those prettily expressed by one of his contemporaries Robert Greene one who shone until he was eclipsed by far greater lights : " Sweet are the thoughts that savor of content, The quiet mind is richer than a crown ; Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent ; The poor estate scorns Fortune's angry frown ; - Such sweet content, such mind, such sleep, such bliss, Beggars enjoy when princes oft do miss. " The homely house that harbors quiet rest, The cottage that affords nor pride nor care, The mean that 'grees with country music best, The sweet consort of mirth and music's fare, SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. 15 Obscured life sets down a type of bliss ; A mind content both crown and kingdom is." Or we might borrow a stanza from Lodge, a poet born only- three years after Spenser, and who had the honor of suggesting to Shakspeare the plot of "As You Like It." " Time hath been that I have longed (Foolish I, to like of folly), To converse where honor thronged, To my pleasures linked wholly : Now I see, and, seeing, sorrow That the day consum'd, returns not ; Who dare trust upon to-morrow, When nor time nor life sojourns not ?" He left behind the frowns of Burghley, the ensnaring influence of Leicester, and the eternal round of emblematic pageants which must have seemed to the poet a horrible travestie or mockery of his own cherished dreams and returned to his shades, not lonely, for there bloomed and smiled his own lovely and beloved Elizabeth, whom he calls, in his seventy-fourth Sonnet, " My love, my life's last ornament, By whom my spirit out of dust was rais'd," . and ^iom he enrolled as a fourth Grace, long after, in the poem which was to secure immortality for both : " So far as doth the daughter of the day All other lesser lights in light excel ; So far doth she in beautiful array Above all other lasses bear the bell ; Nor less in virtue that beseems her well Doth she exceed the rest of all her race ; For which the graces, that here wont to dwell, Have for more honor brought her to this place, And graced her so much to be another grace. 16 SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. Another grace she well deserves to be, In whom so many graces gathered are, Excelling much the mean of her degree ; Divine resemblance, beauty sovereign rare, Firm chastity, that spite not blemish dare ! All which she with such courtesy doth grace, That all her peers cannot with her compare." This fair Elizabeth was not the poet's first love, though she was his best. He, like Romeo, had had a Rosaline, or Rosalind, who proved either false or cruel, but who was, nevertheless, the oc- casion of some exquisite poetry. He extolled her charms, com- plained of her coldness, and bewailed her falsehood, in such strains as make us not sorry that poets can love and be disappointed like other men. We imbibe from his verses an unfavorable idea of the beauteous Rosalind ; yet it is scarcely fair to accept without reservation all that a poet may be tempted to say in such a case. The power of saying it well may be the principal reason for saying it at all. At any rate the lady is at disadvantage, since she cannot expect to make her defence as attractive as the accusation. All we can knew with certainty is, that Spenser failed in obtaining the object which first awakened his heart a fate in which he was not without abundance of that companionship which misery is said to love. We are, however, consoled by believing that his next attachment was more happy, whether more wisely placed or not ; and that this happier love does not seem to have lacked true poetic elements, npr the rnarried life of the gentle poet the charm which springs from respect as a heightener of affection. The " Epithalamion," which he wrote on his own marriage, is among his most exquisite productions. It has been considered the most beautiful nuptial song in the language ; and "classic Hallam " calls it " a strain redolent of a bridegroom's joy, and of a poet's fancy." We wish we could tell our youthful readers that this bridal song was written when the poet was five-and-twenty ; we SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. 17 fear they will frown to be reminded that, at the time of his mar- l'iage, Spenser had seen eight lustres, as we learn from his six- tieth sonnet : " Since the winged god his planet clear Began in me to move, one year is spent : The which doth longer unto me appear Than all those forty which my life out- went Then, by that count, which lovers' books invent, The sphere of Cupid forty years contains, Which I have wasted in long languishment, That seem'd the longer for my greater pains." But poets are always young ; and all that made the love of Spenser precious above that of other men was now in the per- fection of triumph. He had been recognized by his country ; hailed by her best minds as an equal, if not a superior; rewarded by his sovereign with a liberality which we, who have become accustomed to see literature judged worthy of the highest honors, can scarcely appreciate ; and with his power still at its height, and about to accomplish further developments, his character for virtue and kindness unsurpassed, and his subjection to the tender passion unsparingly demonstrated, she must have been an ano- maly among women who would have inquired into the baptismal register before she consented to share the heart, and abide by the fortunes of " Britain's Orpheus." We have reason to believe that all the virtuous Elizabeth found cause to regret in this mar- riage was the shortness of its duration. / Three books of the poem which will make Spenser's name co- eval with the language, were published in 1590, with the title of " The Faery Queen, disposed into twelve bookes, fashioning XII. morall vertues," and it was said to be intended to represent those virtues as each having " a knight to be the patron (example) and defender of the same, in whose actions, feats of arms and chivalry, the operation of that virtue whereof he is the protector, are to be 18 SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. expressed ; and the vices and unruly appetites that oppose them- selves against the same to be beaten down and overcome."/ This splendid opening, which Spenser never surpassed or even equalled, introduced to a learned and romantic court by the acknowledged guides of literary taste, took at once its indisputable rank among the poetry of England. Spenser's star shot to the zenith, and scarcely paled its fires when Shakspeare's followed it. " The Faery Queen," says Hallam, " became at once the delight of every accomplished gentleman, the model of every poet, the solace of every scholar." The author, not unconscious of merit, but unspoiled by applause, returned to his castle in fairy-haunted Ireland, and encouraged anew the poetic impulse. " The XII. morall vertues " still stimulated his imagination ; but he turned aside to honor the memory and lament the loss of Sidney. The collection of elegiac poems denominated " Astrophel," bespeak a true mourning, though expressed in the quaint and formal taste of the day. Such verses as this, however, belong to the nature of all ages : " Was never eye did see that face, Was never ear did hear that tongue, Was never mind did mind his grace, That ever thought the travel long ; But eyes and ears, and every thought Were with his sweet perfections caught," "Daphnaida," an Elegy on the daughter of Henry, Lord Howard, appeared in 1591, in which year also, Ponsonby, the bookseller of the Faery Queen, published a collection of minor pieces, all that he could find of Spenser's, to catch the breeze of public favor and Astrophel, and " Colin Clout's come Home Again " an account of the poet's visit to England, given under feigned names appeared in 1595. In the latter year appeared also the " Amoretti," or Sonnets, inspired by the fortunate Elizabeth, who is thus described in one of them : SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. 19 ' Fair is my love, when her fair golden hairs With the loose wind ye waving chance to mark ; Fair, when the rose in her red cheeks appears ; Or in her eyes the fire of love does spark ; Fair, when her breast, like a rich laden bark With precious merchandize she forth doth lay ; Fair, when that cloud of pride, which oft doth dark Her goodly light, with smiles she drives away ; But fairest she, when so she doth display The gate with pearls and rubies richly dight ; Through which her words so wise do make their way, To bear the message of her gentle spright; The rest be works of Nature's wonderment ; But this the work of heart's astonishment " In 1596, were published the fourth, fifth, and sixth books of the Faery Queen, with a reprint of the first three. Six books, then, comprise all that we have of the legends of the twelve moral virtues and their knights ; if we except the two imperfect cantos of " Mutabilitie," which are considered a fragment of the lost " Legend of Constancie." Some ascribe this imperfect condition of the great poem, as compared with the original design, to an accident which occurred in the course of Spenser's hasty return to England in 1598, on occasion of the breaking out of troubles in Ireland. The estate granted him by the crown, formed part of the forfeited posses- sions of the Earls of Desmond. The titular heir of that family headed a body of insurgents who attempted to expel the English from Ireland, and Kilcolman castle naturally became a point of attack. Spenser and his family fled ; and such was the haste and disorder of this unhappy flight from a home of peace and love, that one of the poet's children is reported to have been left behind, and burned in the house, which was fired by the insur- gents. Some have believed that the remaining six books of the Faery Queen were lost in the confusion of wretchedness ; but 20 SPENSER AND ThE FAERY QUEEN this idea is not sanctioned by the best authorities, who consider it more probable that the work never was completed by its author. Judging by the time occupied in the composition of the first six books, the period allowed is quite too short for the completion of six more. The fourth, fifth, and sixth books are confessedly inferior to the original three ; and it is thence concluded that the poet found the subject, as planned, too heavy for him ; and wisely forbore to attempt the entire development of an allegory which, judging by what we have, would have stretched out almost to the " crack of doom,"* wearying the reader in propor- tion as it overtasked the writer. j- Spenser, with all his dignified sense of power, was a modest man, not likely to overrate his own ability ; and with taste equal to the strength of his imagination, he was as little likely to be blind to the falling off observable in the poem. He would naturally note the period when labor began to take the place of impulse ; and, the Queen being his first great effort, he would not probably overrate his creations, as did Milton, when self-esteem had been fed to the uttermost by the transcendant merit of the work on which he had expended the flower of his strength. These, and other considerations, added to the entire lack of testimony as to the existence of more of the poem than we now possess, are deemed conclusive as to its having been completed beyond the sixth book. A few sad words will now conclude this unsatisfactory account of the third name in English literature. The disastrous flight from Ireland, the poverty which ensued upon the loss of the Irish property, and, above all, the death of the child by so dreadful * One Canto of the Faery Queen is as long as some books of the Iliad or iEneid ; one Book therefore, consisting of twelve cantos, is as large as an ordinary epic. f Sir John Stradling says, however, that part of Spenser's MSS. were burnt, and the " Legend of Constancie" was actually published in 1G09, as a part of those which had been saved. SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. 21 an accident, would seem to have been too much for the sensitive heart of the poet, Some have imagined him as suffering the extreme of destitution after his return to London, but this seems impossible. Where was Gabriel Harvey ? Where Raleigh, who, though grasping, was generous too ? And Essex who gave him a splendid funeral, and appeared at it himself as a mourner ? Spenser must have lived at least a year in London, and these and other friends must have been acquainted with his condition. His pension, of fifty pounds was larger than it seems to us now, and he had done nothing to forfeit the favor of the queen, but much to glorify her reign. We will not, therefore, adopt the painful suggestion that Spenser's fate resembled that of so many poets, in the penurious misery of its close. There is no hint of his having been accused of prodigality ; his life was character- ized by a high and pure morality, and no student of his charac- ter and works can doubt that as a husband and father the poet gave way to the man. We choose, therefore, the more tolerable belief that his " poverty " was only such as contrasted with the comfort and abundance of his beloved home ; his misery the loss of that home, and the sight of the dear ones on whose account he had chiefly prized it. Yet we fear his premature death must be ascribed to the wrench from so much that he loved, the in- terruption of his darling occupations, and the sense that the world was to be begun anew for the support of those so dear to him, acting upon a heart too finely strung to endure the rude blasts of fortune. So says the concurrent voice of authority and tradition, and we must receive the truth, mournful as it is. To one who was born and lived a poet, in the highest and most comprehensive sense of the term, we must not look for stoical or even practical philosophy. He died, not as " a shock of corn fully ripe," but like the rich grain storm-blasted. His remains were laid in Westmin- ster Abbey, and near those of " Father Chaucer," it is said at 22 SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. his own request. Poets bore the pall that covered him, and threw into the grave tributary verses with the pens that wrote them. The noble Essex appeared as chief mourner, and we love his memory for the comely act. England's best and fairest wept for the romantic poet. He was not unappreciated during his life ; but at his death he was ranked among the true-born sons of heaven. Thirty years after his death, Anne, Countess of Dorset, erected a monument to his memory. Queen Elizabeth is said to have ordered one, but some envious soul not Burghley, for he died a year before the poet intercepted the intended benignity. Browne, in " Britannia's Pastorals," ascribes the failure to " curst avarice " of some " factor " employed by the Queen, and tells us the tribute was to have been " A pyramis, whose head, like winged fame, Should pierce the clouds, yea, seem the stars to kiss ;" and he curses bitterly the wretch who " robbed our Colin of his monument." The countess's monument was defaced during the civil wars, and restored to its present condition, at the expense of Pembroke College, in 1778. The inscription, which was at first in Latin, calls Spenser "facile princeps " of the poets of his time. The English one which replaced this when the tablet was restored, declares that his divine spirit needs no other wit- ness than the works which he left behind him ; an opinion in which we of this age heartily concur, believing that no poet ever left more evident testimony of his love for virtue and re- ligion, and his desire that all men should be persuaded to be " holy, and just, and true," as the best and only means of happi- ness. It has been well said of Milton, who owned Spenser for a master in art, that his " genius had angelic wings, and fed on manna," and we may say as much of Spenser, however he may SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. 23 differ in tone from the sterner poet. With imagination and fancy almost boundless, his reverence for goodness, not heathen but Christian goodness, reigns paramount ; and his verse per- forms the highest office of poetry that of making virtue attract- ive, by showing that it is truly its own exceeding great reward. In person, Spenser was small and delicate, and in his dress precise, as became a man of taste. His face, well known from several portraits, has all the sweetness and delicacy that we re- quire as accordant with the tone of his poetry. The mild, almond- shaped eye, brow slightly elevated, the mouth compressed just enough to suggest the idea that there was felt some need of pa- tience, give an impression of dreamy repose not without pensive- ness. The forehead is lofty, but less expanded than that of Shakspeare or Milton ; and the whole countenance indicative more of an exalted tone than of great force of character. This aspect is in accordance with the fact that Spenser enjoyed a uni- versal good-will scarcely compatible with any decided strength of determination, or pursuit of objects in which other men might be competitors. This good- will is abundantly proved in many ways ; but chiefly by a complete exemption from satire, although the most unbridled satire was the fashion of the day, and Spen- ser's most intimate friend, Gabriel Harvey, was pursued even to premature grey hairs by the malice of Nash. Considering the praise that was lavished upon Spenser by the best judges of the times, who compared him with Homer, and indeed went to the most extravagant lengths in contriving modes of encomium, we must ascribe the total silence of the tongue of satire, which dared even to attack Shakspeare himself, to a peculiar gentleness in Spenser's nature which softened all men's hearts towards him. " With what measure ye mete it shall be measured unto you again." ( As to the exalted moral character and tendency of the writings of Spenser, there has been but one voice from his own day to the 24 SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. present. Milton calls him " Our sage, serious Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas," and this sentiment has been echoed, in some form or other, by all who have given an opinion on the subject. Equally uniform has been the testimony to the dazzling splendor of Spenser's genius, which, for originality and grandeur of conception, has been placed by the first critics in the same rank with that of Homer, Dante and Shakspeare. Homer created a mythology, but his gods, like his men, were " of the earth, earthy." Dante showed new worlds of horror and of light, but tyrannical or vindictive human passions reigned paramount in both, too often leaving im- pressions of disgust rather than pleasure. The tone of Spenser's poetry is unworldly, abstracted, contemplative, in the highest degree ; conversant ever with high themes, however lowly and simple the images used to illustrate them ; touching the deepest strings of the universal heart, to bring out such sweet and tender music as is to be found only there ; making plain the things which belong unto our peace, by the light of no " common day." His_grace an d delicacy may be called superhuman, so completely do they seem to belong to a sphere above ours. The creative poetic faculty so abounded in him, that his successors in art have gone to him as to a fountain. Cowley and Drydcn delighted to acknowledge their obligations to him, and hosts of inferior poets have imitated him without acknowledgment. He is peculiarly the poet of poets, as Charles Lamb called him, and who better qualified than Lamb to characterize " Faerie Spenser ?" Leigh Hunt, another enthusiast in the art of arts, says, " Spen- ser's great characteristic is poetic luxury. If you go to him for a story, you will be disappointed ; if for a style classical or con- cise, the point is conceded ; /ff for pathos, you must weep for per- sonages half real and too beautiful ; if for mirth, you must laugh out of good breeding, and because it pleaseth the great seques- tered man to be facetious. But if you love poetry well enough to SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. 25 enjoy it for its own sake, let no evil reports of its < allegory ' deter you from his acquaintance, for great will be your loss. His allegory itself is but one part allegory and nine parts beauty and enjoyment ; sometimes an excess of flesh and blood. * * He is more luxurious than Ariosto or Tasso, more haunted with the presence of beauty. His wholesale poetical belief, mixing up all creeds and mythologies, but with less violence, resembles that of Dante and Boccacio ; and it gives the compound^ the better warrant in the more agreeable impression. * ^ Spenser is the farthest removed from the ordinary cares and haunts of the world of all the poets that ever wrote, except, perhaps, Ovid ; and this, which is the reason why mere men of business and the world do not like him, constitutes his most bewitching charm with the poetical. * * * When yoff* are 'o'er informed' with thought and passion in Shakspeare; when Milton's mighty grandeurs oppress you, or are found mixed with painful absurdities ; or when the world is vex- atious and tiresome, and you have had enough of your own vanities or struggles in it, or when f house and land' themselves are ' gone and spent,' and your riches must lie in the regions of the ' unknown,' then Spenser is * most excellent.' Take him, in short, for what he is, whether greater or less than his fellows, the poetical faculty is abundantly and beautifully predominant in him above every other, though he had passion and thought, and plenty of ethics, and was as learned a man as Ben Jonson, per- haps as Milton himself."* We might quote corresponding tes- timony to any amount, for the language has been exhausted in praising Spenser. Yet he is comparatively little read. These almost idolatrous encomiums proceed mostly from men who are themselves largely endowed with " the vision and the faculty divine," which they so Hunt's " Imagination and Fancy." 3 26 SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. reverence in him. Common readers of modern poetry know little of Spenser, and seek to know no* further. There is a n r ion of difficulty or obscurity connected with the idea of the Faery Queen, which deters many from attempting to read it. This arises first, and principally, from the antique words and capricious or obsolete spelling, and next from the allegory, the very name of which alarms the indolent and superficial reader. The great length of the poem is undoubtedly another bugbear ; but the want of a perfectly continuous plan, which forms an objection with the critics, should here serve to relieve the fears of the reader, since each Book of the Faery Queen is complete within itself, and there can- not, therefore, be even the shadow of a compulsion to read at a sitting some thirty or forty thousand lines. j^ The air of difficulty given to Spenser's poetry by the antique spelling, with the introduction of some words which were - con- sidered somewhat affected even in the poet's own day, is a still more potent barrier to a large class of readers. The committing to memory of some two dozen words would scatter this cloud entirely, as one resolute blow with the sword of Orlando did away with all the terrible phantoms of the enchanted forest ; so trifling in reality, is that which seems at first glance so formidable. It is, perhaps, a little remarkable that Spenser should have been an exception to the general plan of modernizing all the spelling of his timer;. Shakspeare would have presented nearly as many difficulties^ if his editors had felt the same delicacy ; and the English of James's time would have left the Scriptures almost a sealed book to ordinary readers, if succeeding editions had not conformed to the spelling of their day. The immense number of Spenser's rhymes may probably account for a reluctance to new- model his orthography, since in any case many words must necessarily be left unchanged. Perhaps, however, a still more operative reason has been the stress which the poet, or his friends for him, laid upon this very feature of his poem. The solemnity SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. 27 with which the subject is treated affects one somewhat as did Shak ^eare's curse, on whoever might move his bones, those whose curiosity would else have violated the grave without scruple. E. K., who spoke for Spenser, to say the least, treats the subject thus : " To speak of the words, I grant they be something hard, and of most men unused ; yet both English, and also used of most excellent authors and most famous poets. * * * * For though, among other faults, it specially be objected of Valla against Livy, and of others against Sallust, that with over much study they affect antiquity, as coveting thereby credence and honor of elder years, yet I am of opinion, and eke the best learned are of the like, that those ancient solemn words are a great ornament both in the one and in the other ; the one laboring to set forth in his work an eternal image of antiquity, and the other carefully discoursing matters of gravity and importance. For, if my memory fail not, Tully, in that book wherein he endeavoreth to set forth the pattern of a perfect orator, saith that ofttimes an ancient word maketh the style seem grave, and, as it were, reverend, no otherwise than we honor and reverence gery hairs for a certain religious regard which we have of old age. Yet neither everywhere must old words be stuffed in, nor the common dialect and manner of speak- ing be so corrupted thereby, that, as in old buildings, it seem disorderly and ruinous. But, all as in most exquisite pictures, they use to blaze and portrait not only the dainty lineaments of beauty, but also round about it to shadow the rude thickets and craggy cliffs ; that, by the baseness of such parts, more excel- lency may accrue to the principal. For oftentimes we find our- selves, I know not how, singularly delighted with the show of such natural rudeness, and take great pleasure in that disorderly order ; even so do those rough and harsh terms enlumine and make more clearly to appear the brightness of brave and glorious words ; so ofttimes a discord in music, maketh a comely concor- dance." 23 SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. - Whether the author of the laborious essay, of which we have here given but a part, was Gabriel Harvey, or Spenser himself, or some person who is destined to remain unknown, these were certainly the sentiments of the poet. He was an amateur in language. He studied it artistically, with a view to the perfect- ing of his poetry, as a painter acquaints himself with the mode of preparing his colors, that he may use them to better advan- tage. Our only apology for venturing to touch what is thus hal- lowed, is the desire for a more general appreciation of the author. Words that are " like apples of gold in pictures of silver," must not remain enclosed in a curious ancient casket, inaccessible without a key. The riches of Spenser belong now to all who speak the English tongue, and we are induced to offer a peep, by the hope that our readers will be seized with a miser's eagerness to possess themselves of the whole. As to the allegory, it is indeed of such intricacy that even the learned in criticism have failed to find a competent clue to its mazes. But the peculiar merits of the poem have, in truth, little or nothing to do with the allegory. If we might offer a little practical advice, it would be to read the Faery Queen first with- out any of those attempts at explanation which are apt to chill one's natural pleasure ; to become thoroughly familiar with the poetry, as such ; and afterwards to seek a new form of enjoy- ment in research and ingenious conjecture, for which a wide field of verification is open in the mass of writings of authors of^ the time, and mountains of commentary piled up since. Everybody has heard Hazlitt's saying about the Faery Queen, that "some persons look at the allegory as if they thought it would bite them as a child looks at a painted dragon, and thinks it will strangle him in its shining folds. This is very idle. If they do not meddle with the allegory, the allegory will not meddle with them. Without minding it, the whole is as plain as a pike-staff." This is as true as it is plain-spoken ; yet, for the benefit of those SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. 29 who may still doubt, we must endeavor to give a slight sketch of the plan of the Faery Queen. In the first place, the scene of the poem is independent of all ( time and space. The poet creates, not only his characters, but the very ground they stand on. He has nothing to do with either History or Geography ; ijjc whole world of imagination is his theatre of action.* So absolute is his power, and so comprehen- sive his skill, that he takes his readers with him, and makes them creators too. They must see with his mind's eye, and imbibe some touch of h is spirit, before they are capable of aceompany- ing him ; but when once the relation is established, he carries them away irresistibly, like a true enchanter. y The Red Cross Knight is presented in the poem as " Holiness," or the perfection of the spiritual man in religion. He is accom- panied and excited to good deeds by JJna or Truths-one of the loveliest of all poetic creations whose voice encourages him to the extirpation of Error, a hideous monster with brood innumera- ble. He defeats " Sansfoy," or Faithless, yet falls for a time into the snares of Duessa Deceit or Doubleness. He is betrayed into the castle of Orgoglio, or Pride (Orgueil, Fr.). Archimago or Hypocrisy, the enchanter, is the instrument of Deceit, and does her bidding. Arthur, or Magnanimity, the knight by whose lofty and disinterested daring the Red Cross Knight is liberated, is the personification of the spirit and essence of pure chivalry, whose duty it was to redress all wrongs whatsoever, without fee or reward, save the proud consciousness of high desert. Glo- riana, who is often mentioned throughout the poem, is the Glory sought by every true knight, and she is also, flatteringly, made to stand as the representative of Queen Elizabeth, whom Spenser condescended to propitiate by adulations/Spenser says, in his letter to Raleigh, speaking of the " dark conceit " of the Faery Queen, " I devise that the Faery Queen kept her annual feast * Coleridge. 30 SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. twelve days ; upon which twelve several days the occasions of the twelve several adventures happened ; which, being under- taken by twelve several knights, are in these twelve books handled and discoursed."* Thus, of the three first books, the first contains the adventures of the Red Cross Knight, or Holi- ness ; the second, those of Sir Guyon, the representative of Temperance ; the third, of Britomartis, a lady-knight a sort of British Clorinda or Bradamante in whom is pictured stern and saintly Chastity. These three books all critics agree in con- sidering the most exquisite of the whole. They have an unsur- passable delicacy and grace an Arcadian elegance and simplicity, almost unmatched in the language indeed hardly approached by any author but Shakspeare. They will scarce bear the least abridgment, upon any principle of selection. The first book, in particular, we have felt constrained to give nearly unbroken. It affords aesthetic study for a life-time, if we contemplate it a la Schlegel. Raphael, and Claude, and a host of their glorious brethren, might have exhausted their genius worthily in drawing from it.f Sermons innumerable might be preached from its heavenly texts ; rules of life to satisfy the most rigid moralist enrich its every page. If it be treason for goodness to show itself unlovely, it is, on the other hand, transcendently worthy to show that true loveliness consists in goodness. The abstract idea of Truth will be ever more attractive to one who has learned to contemplate it under the divine figure of Una ; Holi- * " The Faery Queen/' says Prof. Wilson, " is to be considered as a gothic, not a classical poem. As a gothic poem, it derives its method, as well as the other characters of its composition, from the established modes and ideas of chivalry. Now, in the days of knight-errantry, at great annual feasts, throngs of knights and barons bold assembled, and thence sallied forth to succor the distressed the noblest of all characters being that of deliverers. Such feasts were held for twelve days." f See " A Gallery of Pictures from Spenser," in Hunt's " Imagination and Fancy." SPENSER AND THE FAERY QUEEN. 31 ness seems within hope when we see it not incompatible with some touch of kindred human weakness in the Red Cross Knight. " Will was his guide, and grief led him astray " and again, he was "too simple and too true," like other children of light, and so not always proof against the wiles of the wicked. And " Oftentimes he quak'd, and fainted oftentimes," even as we, " frail, feeble, fleshly wights," are sure to do, let our hope be ever so strongly placed. The sweetest, most devoted, most child-like spirit of love and gratitude to Heaven was never more unostentatiously inculcated, and unconsciously exhibited, than in the general tone as well as many distinct passages of this delicious poem. Take a specimen or two, even though we should give them again in their place in our selections :