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Spenfer has minutely drawn with so much clearness and truth, that we behold them with our eyes, as plainly as we do on the cieling of the banquetting-house. For in truth the pencil of Spenfer is as powerful as that of Rubens, his brother allegorift; which two artifts resembled each other in many refpects, but Spenfer had more grace, and was as warm a colourift. Among a multitude of objects delineated with the utmost force *, which we might select

on

* Whence it came to pafs that Spenfer did not give his poem the due fimplicity, coherence and unity of a legiti mate Epopea, the reader may find in Mr. Hurd's entertaining letter to Mr. Mafon, on the Marks of imitation, pag. 19, and in Observations on the Faery Queen, pag. 2, 3, 4. "How happened it, says Mr. Hurd, that Sir Philip Sydney in his Arcadia, and afterwards Spenser in his Faery Queen, obferved fo unnatural a conduct in those works; in which the ftory proceeds as it were by fnatches, and with continual interruptions? How was the good fenfe of those writers, fo converfant befides in the best models of antiquity, feduced into this prepofterous method? The answer, no doubt is, that they were copying the defign, or disorder rather of Arioflo, the favourite poet of that time." We muft not try the charming fallies of Ariofto by the rigid rules of Ariftotle.

There is a remarkable letter of Bernardo Taffo, the father of Torquato, in which is this paffage. "Ne fò io s'Ariftotele nafceffe a quefta età, et vedeffe il vaghiffimo

poema

on this occafion, let us ftop a moment and take one attentive look at the allegorical figures that rife to our view in the following lines ;

By that way's fide there fate infernal Pain,
And faft befide him fat tumultuous Strife;
The one, in hand an iron whip did strain,
The other brandifhed a bloody knife,

And both did gnash their teeth, and both did threaten life *.

22.

But gnawing Jealoufie, out of their fight
Sitting alone his bitter lips did bite;

And trembling Feare ftill to and fro did flie,
And found no place where fafe he shroud him might.
Lamenting Sorrow did in darkneffe lie,

And Shame his ugly face did hide from living eye.

To fhew the richness of his fancy, he has given us another picture of Jealousy, con

poema dell' Ariosto, conofcendo la forza de l' ufo, et vedendo che tanto diletta, come l'esperienza ci dimonftra, mutaffe opinione, et confentiffe che fi poteffe far poema heroico di piu attione: Con la fua mirabil dottrina, et giudicio, dandogli nova norma, et prescrivuendogli novi leggi."

Lettere di XIII. Huomini Illuftri da Tomafo Porcacchi. In Venetia, 1584. Libro XVII. pag. 422.

*Book II. c. 7. 21.

D 2

ceived

ceived with equal strength in a fucceeding

book *.

Into that cave he creepes, and thenceforth there
Refolv'd to build his baleful manfion

In dreary darknefs, and continual feare
Of that rock's fall; which ever and anon
Threats with huge ruin him to fall upon,
That he dare never fleep, but that one eye
Still ope he keeps for that occafion;

Ne ever refts he in tranquillity,

The roaring billows beat his bowre so boisterously +.

Here all is in life and motion; here we behold the true Poet or MAKER; this is creation; it is here, cc might we cry out to Spenfer," it is here that you display to us, that you make us feel the fure effects of genuine poetry, όταν & λεγης, ὑπ ενθεσιασμε å και παθες βλεπειν δοκης, και ὑπ' ὄψιν τιθης Longinus .

τοις ακ88σιν.

* Lord Somers was paffionately fond of the Fairy Queen; it was his favourite work; in the last picture which he fate for to Sir Godfrey Kneller, he defired to be painted with a Spenfer in his hand.

† Book iii. c. 11.

I Пep ur. Sec. 15.

IT

IT has been fafhionable of late to imitate Spenfer, but the likeness of most of these copies, hath confifted rather in using a few of his ancient expreffions, than in catching his real manner. Some however have been executed with happiness, and with attention to that fimplicity, that tenderness of fentiment, and thofe little touches of nature, that conftitute Spenfer's character. I have a peculiar pleafure in mentioning two of them*, The SCHOOL-MISTRESS, by Mr. Shenstone, and the EDUCATION of ACHILLES, by Mr. Bedingfield †. To these must be added that exquifite piece of wild and romantic imagery, Thomson's Castle of Indolence; the first canto of which in particular, is marvellously pleasing, and the ftanzas have a greater flow and freedom than his blank-verse.

* Dodfley's Mifcellanies, Vol. I. pag. 247, and Vol. III. pag. 119.

† And also Dr. Beattie's charming Minstrel.

D 3

POPE

POPE

has imitated WALLER in the third place, and has done it with elegance, especially in the verses on a fan of his own defign, for he defigned with dexterity and tafte. The application of the ftory of Cephalus and Procris is as ingenious as Waller's Phoebus and Daphne. Waller

abounds, perhaps to excefs, in allufions to mythology and the ancient claffics. The French, as may be imagined, complain that he is too learned for the ladies. The following twelve lines contain three allufions, delicate indeed, but fome may deem them to be too far-fetched, too much crouded, and not obvious to the Lady to whom they were addreffed, on her finging a fong of his compofing..

Chloris, yourself you fo excell,

When you vouchsafe to breathe my thought,
That like a spirit with this fpell

Of my own teaching I am caught.

*Speaking of his imitations, POPE faid to Mr. Spence, "I had once a defign of giving a taste of all the Greek poets; I would have tranflated a hymn of Homer, an ode of Pindar, an idyllium of Theocritus, &c. fo that I would have exhibited a general view of their poefie, throughout its different ages."

That

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