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II.

Helpe then, O holy virgin, chiefe of nyne,
Thy weaker novice to perform thy will;
Lay forth out of thine everlasting feryne
The antique rolles, which there lie hidden flill
Of farie knights and fayreft Tanaquill,
Whom that most noble Briton prince fo long
Sought through the world, and fuffered fo much ill.]
He invocates Calliope, chief of the nine Mufes;
or rather Clio, patronefs of heroick poefy,
whom he invocates, B. 3. C. 3. St. 4. as im-
mortalizing worthies in her volume of eternity.
Compare too B. iv. C. 2. St. 10.

Memor incipe, Clio,

Saecula te quoniam penes et digefta vetuftas.
Statius X. 630.
Which Muse he fuppofes in poffeffion of the an-
cient and authentick rolls, or volumes, which
contain the true records of Fairy knights and the
Fairy queen, whom the Briton prince (prince
Arthur) having feen in a vifion, is now feeking,
being fet forth on his adventures: fee B. 1.
C. 9. St. 14, 15. As this poem is wholly al-
legorical, with a mixture of hiftorical allufions,
in the perfon of prince Arthur is imaged Mag-
nificence: this virtue fhould mix in every other
virtue, as this hero mixes himself in the adven-
tures of the other knights. Spenfer in making
prince Arthur reprefent Magnificence has fol-
lowed our old poets.

Or of Caton the forefight and providence,
Conqueft of Charles, Artures magnificence.

Chaucer, pag. 550. Urry's edit.

All fplendid and magnificent inftitutions among the Britains were, by romance writers, afcribed to prince Arthur: and the order of the garter is faid to be nothing more, than the renewal of the knights of the round table. The great figure which the earl of Leicester made in the Low Countries, added to his being a favourite of Q.Elizabeth, made them call him Arthur of Britain: and this I learn from Holinfhed, pag. 1426, where he is giving an account of the various fhews and entertainments with which they received this magnificent peer, over the en"trance of the court-gate was placed aloft upon "a fcaffold, as if it had been in a cloud or fkie, "Arthur of Britaine, whom they compared to "the earl." This paffage is highly in point for my conjecture in making prince Arthur often covertly to allude to the earl of Leicester, and apparently fo where he is brought in to affift Belge and restore her to her right. B. 5. C. 11. But let us hear another poet.

His father called Uter Pendragon
A manly knight-

Curteys, large, and manly of difpenfe,
Myrrour called of lyberalite,
Hardy, fronge, and of great providence,
And of his knightly magnanimite
He drove Saxons out of his country.
Wrought by counfaile and by ordinaunce
Of prudent Marlyn, called his prophete:
And as I fynde, he let make a fete
Among his Britons, most famous and notable
Through all the worlde, called the rounde table,
Moft worthy knightes, proved of their hand,
Chofen out by Arthur, this order was begon

[He then mentions the ftatutes of this order; to relieve the oppreffed, to fight for holy church, Sc.]

His roial courte he dyd fo ordayne,
Through eche countre fo fer fpred out the light,
Who that ever came thither to complaine
By wronge oppreffed, and required of right,
In his defence he fulde fynde a knight
To bym affigned, finally to entende
By martiall doome his quarrel to defende
[After speaking of fome of his deeds, which are
taken from Jeffry of Monmouth, and the ro-
mance hiftories of prince Arthur, he mentions
the vulgar opinion of Arthur's living yet in
Fairy land, and his returning again to his king-
dom.]

This errour abideth yet among Brytons,
Which founded is upon the prophefye
Of old Marlyn, lyke their opinion,
He as a kyng is crowned in Fairye,
With fceptre and fworde and with his regalye
Shall refort as lorde and foveraine
Out of Fairy, and reigne in Britayne,
And repaire againe the round table,
By prophesy of Merlyn fet the date;
Among princes kyng incomparable,
His fete agayne to Carlion to tranflate:
The Parchas fufterne fpon fo bys fate.
His epitaphe recordeth fo certayne,

HERE LIETH KING ARTHUR THAT SHAL
RAIGNE AGAINE.

Lydgate, Traged. of Bochas, B. viii. C. 25. To omit at prefent citations from The Hiftorie of prince Arthur, a well known, and a very filly romance, I fhall transcribe the following from Paulus Jovius in his defcription of Britaine: Hic eft ille Arthurus ab ingentis animi magnitudine per omnes gentes poetarum praeconio celebratus, qui rotundae menfae proceres ab heroicâ virtute lectiffimos in amicitiam auguftiffimis devotos legibus confecravit.

Cuftoditur

Cuftoditur religiosè adhuc ea menfa admirandae virtu-
tis teftimonio memorabilis, oftentaturque claris hofpiti-
bus, uti nuper Carolo Caefari apud Vintorniam urbem,
fed exefis multa carie circa margines procerum nomini-
bus, quae dum ab imperitis inflictâ majeftati vetuftatis
injuria infulfo judicio reponerentur, pene effectum eft ut,
veluti fufpecta fide, magnam partem dignitatis amiferit.
Sed Arthuro fua laus & confecrata literis aeternitas ma-
net, vel ipfo etiam valde rudi ad operofum fepulcrum
elogio, quod divinante poeta infcriptum, & Laconica
brevitate perjucundum, appofuimus, ut non Glafconiae
tantum, ubi ille tumulatus, fed ubique terrarum di-
vini regis merito legeretur,

HIC JACET ARTHURUS REX QUONDAM, REX-
QUE FUTURUS.

Ne let His fayreft CYNTHIA [viz. of Sir. W.R.]
refuse
In mirrours more then one herfelfe to fee;
But either GLORIANA let her chufe,
Or in BELPHOEBE fashioned to bee:
In th' one her rule, in th' other her rare chastitee
Perhaps there is no occafion to add that our
poet, in imitation of his great mafters Homer
and Virgil, intends to raife pity for his hero
when he tells you, How he wandered through the
world feeking the fayreft Tanaquill, and hence fuf-
fered fo much ill: The former of Ulyffes, ês μaña
πολλὰ πλάγχθη, qui valde multum erravit-Πολλά
Söz' iv wórcy máder äñysa.

Die mibi, Mufa, virum, qui per maria afpera longes

The other of Æneas,

Multum ille et terris jactatus et alto-
Multa quoque et bello paffus.

This explains the following verfes in Jofephus Pertulit errores, captae poft tempora Troja.
Ifcanus, de Bell. Trojan. III. 472.
Sic Britonum ridenda fides et credulus error
Arturum expectant, expectabuntque perenne.
Though I have been somewhat long in my cita-
tions, yet they are fuch as the reader fhould be
acquainted with; as they fhew him that prince
Arthur was a proper fubject for a Fairy poem:
and in his time Britain itself was Fairy land, as
teftifies our old bard,

In the old dayis of the king Arthure,
Of which the Bretons fpekin in grete honour,
All was this lond fulfillid of fayry:
The elf-quene with her jolly cumpany
Daunfid full oft in many a green mede.

Ch. Wife of B. tale, p. 82. Having brought my reader acquainted with prince Arthur, whofe ftory is told by the prince himself, as far forth as he knows of the matter, in B. i. C. 9. St. 3, &c. and who allegorically reprefents Magnificence; 'tis proper he fhould be acquainted likewife with the Fairy queen, viz. Tanaquill, Gloriana, Belphoebe; for by all these names the is called, and reprefents true glory; which our hero is in purfuit of. Tanaquill was the name of a Roman dame of high fpirit, and wife of Tarquinius Prifcus; by this name he chooses fometimes to call his Fairy queen, and makes her the daughter of Oberon, the mighty king of Fairy land. See B. ii. C. 6. St. 76. Oberon, in the hiftorical allufion, is K. Henry VIII. Gloriana is her allegorical name, as the reprefents true glory; Belphoebe, as fhe is a virgin, fo named from Diana, the goddess of chastity, who is called Phoebe. Her name is expreffed, as he fays, in his letter, according to Sir W. Raleigh's own conceit of Cynthia; to which he alludes in his introduction to his third book, St. 5.

One thing however more I would put the reader in mind of before I clofe this long note; which is, that the poem does not open with prince Arthur, who is feeking the Fairy queen, but with St. George, the red-croffe knight, who is coming from the court of the Fairy queen in pursuit of his queft. The Briton prince does not enter the fcene of action, till his presence and help is wanted: See then with what magnificence this magnificent prince is introduced, B. i. C. 7. St. 29, &c.

III.

At that good knight fo cunningly didft rove.] See this
verfe explained in the Gloffary in Rove. Pre-
fently after,

Come both, and with you bring triumphant Mart.
So the Italians, Marte, Mars the god of war:
and fo too our old poets.

Thou proud defpifer of inconftant Marte.

Fairfax, in his translation of Taffo, ii. 89. Nought was forgett the infortune of Mart.

Ch. Knightes tale, 2023.

For aye of Mart doubtous is the eure.

Lydgate of the Troj. Warr. B. ii. Come both, Venus and Cupid, in loves and gentle jollities arraid, and bring with you triumphant Mars. Nothing can be more proper or elegant, than this invocation in a moral and allegorical poem: and yet what fo contrary as Love and War, Mars and Venus? but yet are things fo conftituted, that from the union of contrarieties, from this harmonious difcord and friendly enmity; from the predominancy of beauty, form,

union,

union, &c. over contrariety and difcord; from the power of VENUS over MARS;-the higheft harmony and beauty arifes. We must look beyond the letter, to judge of the fpirit of Spenfer. And as the invocation is elegant, fo 'tis elegantly expreffed. Longinus has fhewn how images from being great and terrible may be refined into the pretty and elegant. What images can be more fublime than the following in fcripture, where God fpeaks to Job, Deck thyfelf now with majefly and excellency, array thyfelf with glory and beauty, Job xl. 10. And where the Pfalmift thus expreffes himself, O Lord my God, thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Among all the inftances of the fublime given by Longinus scarce any have equal fublimity and terrour. But our poet [ἀντὶ φοβερῶ καὶ δεινῶ τὸ αυτὸ grapupor imóinor] thus refines away all their terγλαφυρὸν ἐπόιησεν] rour, and in their ftead gives us thefe pretty images, Come both in loves and gentle jollities arrayd. By way of contraft to this note, fee note on B. 1. C. 11. St. 8. where 'tis fhewn how he has heightened pretty images into the terrible: arrì γλαφυρᾶ τὸ αυτὸ φοβερὸν καὶ δεινὸν ἐπόνησεν.

IV.

Shed thy faire beames into mine feeble eyne,
And raife my thoughtes too humble and too vile,
To thinke of that true glorious type of thine,
The argument of mine afflicted file:
The which to heare vouchsafe, Ŏ deareft dread, awhile.
Thus these verses are printed in the rft edition.
But mine and eyne is a jingle hardly fufferable in
the fame verfe; which I have altered upon the
authorities of the 2d Edition and Fol. 1609.
1611. 1617. Mine feeble eyne, seems Spenfer's
first reading; for the old poets ufe myne and thyne
as well before confonants as vowels; but altered
afterwards, because the jingle plainly offends
the ear. The pointing of them I have kept,
though perhaps we may read,

And raife my thoughts, too humble and too vile
To think of that true glorious type of thine.

i. e. too low of themselves to think of thy truly glorious type, the Fairy queen: [obferve the poet himself points out the allegorical and hiftorical allufion:] by this ftopping the infinitive mood is governed of the adjectives; by the other, of the verb raife. Afflicted file, means low and jejune, Ital. Stilo afflitto. He calls Q Eliz. the argument of his file: fo in other paffages and in B. 3. C. 4. St. 3.

As thee, O queen, the matter of my fong. which feems exprcffed after Dante. Parad. Canto I.

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The fame expreffion we meet with below, B. 1. C. 6. St. 2. Una his dear dread, i. e. one whom he reverenced. And B. 3. C. 2. St. 30. ab my dearest dredd! where he tranflates Virg. Ciris, v. 224. O nobis facrum caput. Our elegant Prior, who often uses Spenfer's expreffions, addreffes queen Ann in the words which Spenfer addreffed Q. Elizabeth,

To thee, our dearest dread, to thee our fofter king.
Milton B. I. 406, ufes dread for deity.
Next Chemos th' obfcene dread of Moab's fons,
i. e. the obfcene god of the Moabites. So in
Samfon Agonistes,

Chanting their idol, and preferring
Before our living dread, who dwells
In Silo, his bright fanctuary.

In the fame manner Fear is used in fcripture. Gen. xxxi. 42. Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Ifrael. i. e. the God whom Ifrael fears. And v. 53. And Faceb fware by the Fear of his father Ifaac. Again, Ifai. viii. 12, 13. Neither fear ye their Fear nor be afraid: fanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your DREAD. St. Peter plainly alludes to this paffage of Ifaiah, and is hence to be interpreted, Be not afraid of their terrour, [rather Fear or Dread] neither be troubled, but fanctify the Lord, &c. 1 Pet. iii. 14. Ovid fpeaking of Styx, the dread of the gods, has the fame kind of expreffion, Met. iii. 291.

-Timor et deus ille deorum.

The length of this note and full explanation of this expreffion, may guard others from falling into the mistake of the writer of the notes on the tranflation of Homer's Odyff. X. 406. Where Telemachus fwears by the woes of Ulyffes: "It is obfervable that Telemachus

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fwears by the forrows of his father: an ex"preffion in my judgment very noble, and at the fame time full of filial tenderness. This was an ancient cuftom among the Orientals, as appears from an oath not unlike it in Ge"nefis xxxi. 53. And Jacob fware by the fear of "his father Ifaac."

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I.

GENTLE knight was pricking on the plaine.] The poet haftens into the midst of things, and defcribes the red-croffe knight, St. George, the tutelary faint of England (whofe name and lineage is more particularly mentioned below, B.i. C. 10. St. 65.) already entered on his adventure, being fent by the Fairy Queen at the request of Una, a king's daughter, to flay a monftrous dragon, which according to the legend, harraffed her father's kingdom.That expreffion pricking on the plaine, the reader may fee explained in the Gloffary: it means always riding in career by pricking or fpurring the horfe: but I must acknowledge this interpretation carries with it no fmall inaccuracies; for the lady, who attends upon a flow ass, rides him fair befide. Shall we apologize for our poet as for painters, who ufually draw their knights in full career, notwithftanding any fubfequent improprieties? or fhall we look for another explanation? fhall we fay that pricking on the plaine means no more than riding on the plain, without any reference to the manner, whether flow or faft? or rather fhall we

affign fome other meaning to the paffage, as it
ftands here? Pricking then may fuggeft the fame
idea in our knight's action, as that of the horfe-
man recorded by Varius in Macrobius, L. vi. 2.
where the verses are not altogether printed ac-
cording to the following reading of them:
Quem non ille finit lentae moderator babenae
Qua velit ire, fed angufto prius orbe coërcens
Infultare docet campis, fingitque morando.

What adds fome degree of plaufibility to this no-
tion is, that the knight is defcribed curbing in
his horfe at the fame time that he thus pricks
along, to which curb the generous animal un-
willingly fubmits,

His angry feede did chide his foming bitt,
As much difdayning to the curbe to yield.
In this fenfe then (which more litterally fuits
with the fober lady and her flow beaft) pricking
on the plaine means here the knight's spurring his
horse to bring him to order, to teach him proudly
to pace on the plain,

Infultare fola, et grellus glomerare fuperbos.
Ibid.

Virg. G..iii. 117. Upon his Shield the like was alfo fcor'd.] Fairfax in his most elegant tranflation of Taffo, xvii. 58. has the fame expreffion,

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Right, faithfull, true

And that it should not be red,
Right-faithfull, true he was

Right, i. e. one whofe heart was right before
God and man. Pfal. li. 40. Acts viii. 21. or
right is the fame as righteous; and right and faith-
ful are joined as in Rom. iv. 13. the promife
was through the righteoufness of faith. So faithful and
true. Revel. xix. 11. He was called faithful and
true: which words Spenfer plainly had in his
eye. The reader will remember what perfon
our knight bears; and in him hereafter he will
fee the highest of all characters fhadowed.

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Cicero, Judex triftis et integer. fo Seneca, Hippol.
v. 452.

Laetitia juvenem, frons decet triftis fenem.
Shakespeare ufes fad for ftill, fober, &c. Silence
fad. [Theob. edit. vol. i. pag. 128.] And
Milton, vi. 540. Sad refolution, i.e. fober, fedate.
Both which paffages, before misunderstood, I
cited and explained in Critical Obfervations on
Shakespeare. From the above cited passage of
Terence, we may find likewife the true inter
pretation of Milton's epithet, iv. 293. Sancti-
tude fevere.
II.

Upon a great adventure he was bond,
THAT greatest Gloriana to him gave;
THAT greatest glorious queene of faery lond.] Our
poet has authority for faying bond and lond; fo
the Anglo-S. bond, bound; lond, land. But often
without any other authority than the usual li

3

cence

cence of our old poets he makes his spelling fubmit to his rhymes.-THAT greatest Gloriana. So the first and fecond quarto editions, and the folio 1609. But the folios 1611, 1617, 1679, of little authority, read, WHICH greatest Gloriana. -Presently after,

-And his NEw force to learne,

Coloff. iii. 10.

i, e. That force newly given him, when he put
on his Chriftian panoply. [See Spenfer's letter
to Sir W. R.] Add likewife, that having thus
put on the whole armour of God, [Ephef. vi. 11.]
he put on likewife the new man.
2 Corinth. v. 17. Galat. vi. 15. It is necessary
that the reader thould turn to the fixth chapter
of the apostle to the Ephefians; and fuppofing
him to have red that chapter, it may seem un-
neceffary to add a reason why thefe arms, the
arms of every christian man, are named in the
first stanza, and in Canto viii. St. 19. Mightie
arms and filver fhield: and equally unneceflary
perhaps it may appear to fay what thofe old dints
of deep wounds were which still did remain: however,
leaft the reader fhould forget, let us hear St.
Paul why these arms are termed MIGHTY,
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
MIGHTY through God to the pulling down ftrong
holds. 2 Corinth. x. 4. These arms too are
Mighty, because they who put them on are able
to ftand against the wiles of the devil, Ephef. vi. 11.
The filver fhield is the field of faith, Ephef. vi. 16.
Silver tried and refined emblematically repre-
fents justifying faith, which purifies the heart,
Acts xv. 9. If it be asked, what those old dints
are, which fill did remain the marks of many a bloody
field: I anfwer, thofe old dints have been made
by the fiery darts of the wicked: and this pa-
noply has been worn by every chriftian man in
every age; according to the promise of Chrift to
his followers;

To guide them in all truth; and alfo arm
With Spiritual armour, able to refift
Satan's affaults, and quench his fiery darts.

Milton, xii. 490.

These too were the arms which Michael wore when he routed the great dragon ; that dragon figuratively which our knight is going to attack, Revel. xii. 9. And in these very arms Milton dreffes the Meffiah, vi. 760..

He, in celeftial panoplie all arm'd
Of radiant Urim, work divinely wrought,
Afended.

IV.

Seemed in heart fome hidden care fhe had.] In fome treatifes formerly printed, I took notice of the frequent omiffions of, it, to, he, they, &c. which feem not altogether fo agreeable to our language; though to be vindicated perhaps from other languages. This verse I brought as an inftance of it being omitted. How jejune in Latin does often id, eum, ejus, &c. appear? and who can bear in the polite Horace,

L. iii. Od. II.

-quamvis furiale centum Muniant angues caput ejus, atque Spiritus teter. And what was to Spenfer likewife no small authority, the Italians omit often this particle. "It feemeth," pare. "It is a strange cafe,"

è

un cafo ftrano. è ben ditto," it is well faid." Milton, a great imitator of our poet, has the fame omiffion, v. 310.

-What glorious fhape
Comes this way moving; feems another morn
Ris'n on mid-noon.

If our poet thought proper he might have faid,
It seem'd in heart fome hidden care she had..
So below, St. 32.

Now, faide the lady, draweth toward night.
When he might have written,
Now, faide the lady,' it draweth toward night.
Many other inftances might be added,
Is then unjust to each his dew to give?

B.i. C. 9. St. 38.

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For knight to leave his lady were greet shame,
That faithful is; and better were to dy.
B. iii. C. 1. St. 25.

i.e. And it were better to dye.
There is no occafion to multiply examples,.
though it may be neceffary perhaps to refresh
the reader's memory. Let us then turn to our
allegory. This lovely lady here described is
Una, in whom is fhadowed. Chriftian truth,
in the UNITY of the faith, Ephef. iv. 13. Com-
pare too v, 3, 4. She rides on an affe, the em-
blem of humility; and is attended by a lamb,
the emblem of innocence. Befides, in a higher
and more myftical fenfe it may allude to the

prophet

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