Now cease your worke, and at your pleasure play;

Now ceafe your work, to-morrow is an holy day.

SUPPOSE we take a review of this Third Book; and, as from the fummit of a hill, caft our eye backward on the Fairy ground, which we have travelled over in company with Britomartis, the British heroine, and reprefentative of chaft affection. But remember that Spenfer never fets up for imitation any fuch character, either in men or women, as haters of matrimony: affection and love to one, and only to one, is the chaft affection, which he holds up to your view, and to your imitation. Such is Britomartis; who is in love with an unknown Hero, and yet not fo unknown, but her paffion is juftifiable: Such is the love between Sir Scudamore and Amoret: And who can but pity the diftreffed Florimel, for cafting her affections on one, who for a time difregards her?

What a variety of chaft females, and yet with different characters, has our poet brought together into Fairy land? Britomartis the heroine; the perfecuted Florimel; the two fifters Belphoebe and Amoret; Belphoebe nurtured by Diana in the perfection of maidenhead; and Amoret brought up by Venus in goodly womanhood, to be the enfample of true love. How miraculoufly, and yet fpecioufly, is the birth, nurture, and education of Amoret defcribed in the gardens of Adonis? our poet fhows himself as good a philofopher as poet, and as well acquainted with all kind of metaphysical lore, as with the romances of Charlemagne and Arthur. And that the beauty of chaft affection may the better be seen by its oppofite, we have introduced the wanton wife of old Malbecco, and the not very chaft Malecafta. To thefe may be added those characters, which though out of Nature's ordinary ways, yet are highly proper for a Fairy poem, as the giant and giantefs, the three fofters, and the Satyrs; all fit emblems of Luft.

If it be objected to the above remark, that Belphoebe is a character fet up for admiration; and that the envied all the unworthy world,

That dainty rofe the daughter of her mornB. iii. C. 5. St. 51. I anfwer, that every reader of Spenfer knows whom Belphoebe, in every circumstance of the allegory, reprefents; and if the envied all the world, 'twas because no one in the world was

yet found worthy of her: Have patience; our poet has found a magnificent hero worthy of Gloriana, or Belphoebe, or this his Fairy Queen, (for thefe names figure to us the fame perfon) and GLORY will be allied to MAGNIFICENCE, compleated in all the virtues.

As Homer often mentions his chief hero Achilles, to fhow that he has this unrelenting hero's refentment ftill in view; fo likewife does Spenfer keep ftill in view the magnificent Prince Arthur, who is in pursuit of Gloriana. [B. iii. C. 5. St. 2.] There are many hiftorical allufions in this book-the poet himself hints as much in many places: See the Introduct. St. iv, and v. That gracious fervaunt there mentioned, is his honoured friend Timias: we fhall fee hereafter the fatal effects of the wound which Luft inflicted on him in B. iii. C. 5. St. 20. Queen Elizabeth we may fee in mirrours more than one' even in Britomartis, though covertly; in Belphoebe more apparently. The whole iiid Canto relates to the English hiftory: Queen Elizabeth is as elegantly complemented by Spenfer, as Auguftus Cæfar was by Virgil, or Cardinal Hippolito by Ariofto: and though Britomartis is fhown her progeny by narration only, yet the poetry is fo animated, as to vie with the vith Eneid, or to rival the iiid Canto of Ariofto; where the heroes themselves, or their idols and images pafs in review. How nervous are the following verfes, where the fon of Arthegal and Britomartis is described?

Like as a lion, that in drowsy cave

Hath long time flept, himself lo shall be shake; And coming forth fhall Spread his banner brave Over the troubled fouth

Merlin, rapt in vifion, paints as prefent, though abfent, the heroical Malgo-'tis all as finely imagined, as expressed:

Behold the Man, and tell me, Britomart,
If ay more goodly creature thou didst fee;
How like a giant in each manly part,

Beares he himself with portly majefty

The pathos is very remarkable, where he defcribes the Britains haraffed and conquered by the Saxons,

Then woe, and woe, and everlasting woe. This is truly Spenferian both paffion and expreffion. Prefently after how poetically and prophetically are kingdoms reprefented by their arms and enfigns!

There fhall a Raven far from rifing funThere bull a Lion from the fea-born wood4 E 2

The

tinued allegory' fhould fometimes be confidered in a hiftorical, as well as in a moral view. And the various hiftorical allufions are

in the preface and in the notes accordingly pointed out: though the reader may poffibly imagine that in fome particulars I have refined too much.

But let us fee how this iiid book differs from the two former; for in difference, oppofition, and contraft, as well as in agreement, we muft look for what is beautiful. And here firft appears a woman-knight, armed with an inchanted fpeare, like another Pallas,

-which in her wrath o'erthrowes Heroes and hofts of men.

There is likewife a moft material difference from the two former books in this respect, namely, that the two feveral knights, of Holinefs and of Temperance fucceed in their adventures; but in this book, Sir Scudamore, who at the court of the Fairy Queen undertook to deliver Amoret from the cruel inchanter Bufirane, is forced to give over his attempt; when unexpectedly he is affifted by this emblem of chastity, Britomartis; who releases the fair captive from her cruel tormentor: and thus LOVE is no longer under the cruel vaffallage of LUST.

We have in this book many of the heathen

The

deities introduced as Fairy beings; Cymoente or Cymodoce the Nereid; (for by both these names fhe is called) Proteus, Diana, Venus and Cupid.-But this is not peculiar to this book alone: nor the introducing of characters, which have power to controul the laws of Nature. We have heard of Merlin before, but here we vifit him in his own cave. Witch is a new character, for Dueffa and Acrafia are witches of another mould: go and fee her pelting habitation, C. 7. St. 6, 7. one would think the poet was painting fome poor hovel of a pitiful Irish wretch, whom the rude vulgar ftigmatized for a witch on account of her poverty and frowardness. The inchanted houfe of Brufirane is a new piece of machinery, and exceeds, in beauty of defcription, all the fictions of romance writers that I ever yet could meet with. The ftory of Bufirane is just hinted at in B. iii. C. 6. St. 53. to raife the expectation of the reader, and to keep up that kind of fufpenfe which is fo agreeable to Spenfer's perpetual method and manner. We have feen Braggadochio and Trompart before, which are comic characters, or characters of humour; fuch likewife are the Squire of Dames, and Malbecco.

The variety of adventures are remarkably adapted to the moral. Notwithstanding the diftreffes of all thefe faithful lovers, yet by conftancy and perfeverance they obtain their defired ends: but not altogether in this book; for the conftant Florimel is ftill left in dolefull durance; Amoret is delivered from the cruel Inchanter, but finds not her lover; Britomartis is ftill in purfuit of Arthegal: and thefufpence is kept up, that this book might conncct with the following, and that the various parts might be fo judiciously joined as to make O'N E Poem.

NOTES

more than in matter: and all the Stoicks looked up to Socrates as the father of true philofophy. I will venture to fay, Spenfer Jhould have written,

The which thofe Cynicke cenfours cannot well deny.

IV.

To fuch therefore-] I fing not to my Lord Treasurer, but to Queen Elizabeth.

V.

Do thou, dred infant, Venus dearling dove, From her high fpirit chafe imperious feare, And ufe of awfull majeflie remove.] The folio 1609 reads drad infant: he calls Cupid the dearling dove of Venus; defiring him to chafe from Q. Elizabeth imperious feare, i. e. all that which in her occafions fear. perhaps Fear fhould have been printed as a perfon: imperious Fear thus attending the throne of the Queen, resembles Feare that ufually attended on Mars. See Homer II. d. 440. x. 37. 6. 119.

Ibid.

From thy fweet-fmyling mother.] Adu y1hácar dulce ridens: he calls her in B. iv. C. 10. St. 47. Mother of laughter. hoppads Apeodirn, Hom. II. '. 424. Which our Waller elegantly tranflates, Laughter-loving dame: how much fuperior to the tranflation of Horace, Erycina RIDENS; but then he makes up for the defect in the following verfe,

Quam Iocus circumvolat et Cupido.

Ibid.

PHEN that of Amorets hart-binding chaine.] Sce B. iii. C. 12. St. 30, and St. 37. poet speaks in his own person, how he himself is affected in the meer relation: fo Ariofto, while he is relating the ftory of Angelica going to be devoured of the monster, turns to himself, Canto viii. 66.

Io no'l dirò, che fi il dolor mi muove.

II.

A perilous fight-] Spenfer loves to anticipate his tales, and to raife expectation and fufpenfe. This is cleared up in B. iv. C. 10. St. 7.

VI.

All is his jufly that all freely dealth] dealeth, deal'th, gives, diftributes.

XI.

Caft how to falve.-] Caft in her mind how to fave appearances.

XIII.

With that her gliftring helmet.]—Compare B. iii. C. 9. St. 20, &c. and fee the notes. Milton feems to have imitated this picturesque image,

iv. 304.

She, as a veil, down to the fender waist
Her unadorned golden tresses wore
Difbeveld; but in wanton ringlets wav'd,
As the vine curls her tendrils.

Eve's hair is compared to a veil, as a graceful covering; and to the curling tendrils of a vine, as waving in ringlets. Britomart's hair is Britomart's hair is compared to a filken veil, and to "thofe fiery meteors feen fometimes in the northern sky.

Like as the fhining skie in fummer's night What time the dayes with Scorching heat abound, Is CREASTED all with lines of firie light; That it prodigious feemes in common people's fight. Spenfer fays creafted, from the Latin criftatus, tufted, plumed, &c. in allufion to the hairy beames which thofe meteors fling out. See note

on B. iii. C. 1. St. 16. And hence I will explain and correct (from the Medicean copy) a paffage in Virgil, x. 270.

Ardet apex capiti, CRISTIS AC VERTICE flamma Funditur; et veftes umbo vomit aureus ignes: Non fecus ac liquidá fi quando nocte cometae Sanguinei lugubre rubent.

Criflis ac vertice, is the fame as vertice criftato; by the fame figure as, aterâ libamus et auro, is ufed for pateris aureis. I formerly obferved that though the fcene of action lies in Fairy land, we must often transfer our thoughts to English ground; and confider the various occurrences which happened in Queen Eliz. reign, as alluded to, and fhadowed in this poem. If we turn to Cambden, anno 1574, he will tell us, that the clouds flamed with fire in the month of November, ftreaming from the north towards the fouth; and the next night the heavens feemed to burn, the flames arifing from the 'horizon round about, and meeting in the

vertical point.' This prodigy our poct brought into a fimile: fo he has likewife brought into a fimile the comet or blazing ftar mentioned by Cambden, anno 1582, in B. iii. C. 1. St. 16. 'Tis very happy in a poet, whofe fubject is univerfal and philofophical, fometimes if he can become particular and hiftorical.

XIV.j

Some that BELLONA in that warlike wife

To them appear'd-] I have no authority here to change Bellona into Minerva, as I had when I made the alteration in B. iii. C. 9. St. 22. where see the note. Spenfer diftinguishes between Minerva the goddess of war and wifdom, and Bellona the Fury and companion of Mars. See B. vii. C. 6. St. 3. But here perhaps our poet had Ariofto in view, xxvi. 24. who compares the woman-knight Marfifa to Bellona.

Stimato egli avria lei forfe BELLONA.

XVI.

-yet never met with none.] i. e. never met with no one, fo the old quarto edition. The Folio's, with one. Our old poets use two negatives often to deny more ftrongly. See critical obfervations on Shakespeare. pag. 352. 353. XVIII.

The one of them the false Duessa-] This lady

of

of doubleness and deceit is no new acquaintance: fhe will appear hereafter in a particular character; but at prefent we muft confider her in the general character of fraud. Her companion Ate is mentioned in Homer, with a kind of play on the word, such as you'll find frequently in Spenfer.

• Ατη πάλας ἀᾶται. II. 91. This Demon, having difturbed the Immortals, Jupiter flung fheer over the battlements of heaven, and sent her to disturb mortals.

XXI.

And all within the riven walls.-] This defcription feems imaged from the temple of Mars in Statius, Theb. vii. 40, &c. And from the fame temple defcribed in Chaucer's Knight's Tale. XXII.

Of Alexander, and his princes FIVE Which bar'd to them the Spoiles that he had got alive. 1 Maccabees, i. 7, 8. So Alexander reigned twelve years, and then died, and his fervants bare rule every one in his place, and after his death they all put crowns upon themselves, fe did their fons after them many years, and evils were multiplied in the earth. Authors do not agree how the vaft empires of Alexander the Great after his death were di

་

vided; nor particularly amongft whom. Dr. Prideaux, in his Connection of the Hiftory of the old and new Teftament, vol. i. pag. 410. tells us, that the governments of the empire being divided among the chief commanders of the army, all went to take poffeffion of them, leaving Perdiccas at Babylon, to take care of • Aridaeus. For fome time they contented ⚫ themselves with the name of governors, but at length took that of kings. As soon as they • were fettled in their provinces, they all fell to leaguing and making war against each other, 'till thereby they were, after fome years, all destroyed to FOUR; thefe were Caffander, Lyfi⚫ machus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus; and they di⚫vided the whole empire between them. And hereby the prophecies of Daniel were exactly fulfilled, which foretold that the great horn • of the Macedonian empire, that is Alexander, being broken off, there fhould arife FOUR other horns, that is FOUR kings of the fame nation, who should divide his empire between them.' To thofe FOUR mentioned above, perhaps Spenfer added Antigonus, which make up his number FIVE.

Through mischievous debate and deadly feood.] So fpelt that the letters might accord in the rhime. in Hughes, deadly feud. Ibid.

For fe at first was borne of hellish brood.-] Ate was originally in heaven, but flung from thence by Jupiter: fo Homer tells the ftory. But Ate being the fame as Difcord, and Difcord being of hellifh brood, Spenfer takes what mythology he likes beft; or fometimes varies from all, as his fubject or fancy leads him. XXX.

And that great golden chaine quite to divide, With which it bleffed concord hath together tide.) This golden chaine, which holds together all things, is taken from Homer: but fee abovethe note on B. i. C. 9. St. 1, and below on B. iv. C. ro. St. 35.

XXXIV.

The HOT-SPURRE youth..-] So the famous young Piercy, fon of the Earl of Northumberland, this faying as plain as the genius of this kind of was called in the reign of Henry IV. Is not poetry admits, that by Blandamour, I covertly mean in the hiftorical allufion, the unfortunate Earl of Northumberland? This I mentioned

formerly, and am still of the fame opinion.

XXXIX.

To be Sir Scudamour, by that he bore The god of love, with wings difplayed wide.] Hence he is named Scudamour from bearing in hist fhield the god of love; as Spenfer himself explains it: fcudo del amore.

This was the fhield of Alcibiades: fo Plutarch in his life, His field, which was richly gilded, had not the usual enfigns that the Athenians bore; but a Cupid with a thunderbolt in his hand. See note on B. iii. C. 11. St. 7.

XL.