II. Helpe then, O holy virgin, chiefe of nyne, Memor incipe, Clio, Saecula te quoniam penes et digefta vetuftas. Or of Caton the forefight and providence, 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 Curteys, large, and manly of difpenfe, [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, This errour abideth yet among Brytons, HERE LIETH KING ARTHUR THAT SHAL 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- HIC JACET ARTHURUS REX QUONDAM, REX- Ne let His fayreft CYNTHIA [viz. of Sir. W.R.] Die mibi, Mufa, virum, qui per maria afpera longes The other of Æneas, Multum ille et terris jactatus et alto- This explains the following verfes in Jofephus Pertulit errores, captae poft tempora Troja. In the old dayis of the king Arthure, 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 Come both, and with you bring triumphant Mart. 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 thoughts, too humble and too vile 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. 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. Chanting their idol, and preferring 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 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." CANTO CAN 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 What adds fome degree of plaufibility to this no- His angry feede did chide his foming bitt, Infultare fola, et grellus glomerare fuperbos. 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, Right, faithfull, true And that it should not be red, Right, i. e. one whofe heart was right before Cicero, Judex triftis et integer. fo Seneca, Hippol. Laetitia juvenem, frons decet triftis fenem. Upon a great adventure he was bond, 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 To guide them in all truth; and alfo arm 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 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 If our poet thought proper he might have faid, Now, faide the lady, draweth toward night. B.i. C. 9. St. 38. For knight to leave his lady were greet shame, i.e. And it were better to dye. prophet |