So having ended, filence long enfewed, But with firme eyes affixt the ground ftill viewed. I well confider all that ye bave fayd, And find that all things ftedfaftnes doe hate But they raigne over Change, and doe their states maintaine. LIX. Ceafe therefore, daughter, further to alpire, WH The VIII. CANTO, unperfite. I. HEN I bethinke me on that speech whyleare Me feems that though the all unworthy were In all things elfe the bears the greatest sway: Whose flowring pride, fo fading and fo fickle, Short Time shall foon cut down with his confuming fickle. II. Then gin I thinke on that which Nature fayd, Of that fame time when no more change fhall be, But stedfast rest of all things, firmely stayd Upon the pillours of eternity, That is contrayr to Mutabilitie : For all that moveth doth in change delight: But thenceforth all shall reft eternally With him that is the God of fabbaoth hight: O that great fabbaoth God, grant me that fabaoths fight! ΟΝ ΤΗΕ FIRST BOOK of the FAIRY QUEEN. Containing the Legend of the Knight of the Red Crofte, or of Holineffe. L I. OI the man, whofe Mufe whylome did maske, As time her taught, in lowly fhepheards weeds, Am now enforft a farre unfitter taske, For trumpets fterne to chaunge mine oaten reeds, And fing of knights and ladies gentle deeds.] Spenfer opens his poem, and addreffes his reader after the manner of Virgil; if those are Virgil's verses prefixed to the Æneid: He feems to have thought them (if not genuine) yet deserving his imitation; and of the fame opinion feems Milton, who thus begins his Paradise Regained, I who ere while the happy garden fung, By one man's disobedience loft, now fing Recover'd Paradife. I know not whether it be worth mentioning, that the learned Sandys, who tranflated the first book of Virgil, plainly imitates our poet, Lo 1, who whilom foftly-warbling plaid On oaten reeds It might be more worth our while to pay fome regard to our poet's expreffions. He fays, Am now enforft,-Who enforft him? The Mufe, whofe facred raptures and dictates he must neceffarily follow, deos xai natexóuevos, as Plato in Io expreffes it? or his friend Sir Philip Sydney, whofe request was a command and an enforcement? One of Sir Philip Sydney's learning and character could easily prevail on fo free a genius as Spenfer's, to try his talents in Epick poetry, and to celebrate either directly, or in fome covert manner, their renowmed queen, and her no lefs renowmed courtiers: and to this gentle enforcement allude the verses prefixed to the Fairy queen by his friend W. L. So Spenfer was by Sidney's fpeaches wonne Having thus changed his oaten pipe for the trumpet's fterner ftrain, he purposes to fing of knights and ladies gentle deeds. This is expreffed after Ariofto, Canto 1. St. 1. Le donne, i cavalier, l'arme, gli amori, "Ladies, adventurous knights, fierce arms, and ❝ loves, "Their courteous deeds, and bold exploits I Whofe praises having slept in filence long, fong.] Whofe praifes, &c. to blazon abroad the facred Mufe adjudges, declares, fixes on me, [See these words explained in the Gloffary] altogether too mean for fo arduous a fubject-He adds, Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize my fong. Hor. A. P. 319. Recte morata fabula is the the fame as what Longinus, S. IX. calls κωμωδία ΗΘΟΛΟΓΟΥΜΕΝΗ. Two of our modern poets have borrowed this phrafe from Spenfer; Mr. Prior, in his Ode to the Queen, where he is fpeaking of Horace, High as their trumpets tune his lyre he ftrung, And with his prince's arms be moraliz'd his fong. And Mr. Pope, (if not from Prior) in his epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, where he is fpeaking of himfelf, But stoop'd to truth and moraliz’d his fang. |