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That shind, like twinkling stars, with stones most pretious rare:

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1 Redounding-flowing.

A goodly Knight.-This is Prince Arthur, in whose faultless excellence Spenser is supposed to have represented his illustrious friend, Sir Philip Sidney, whose beautiful character and splendid accomplishments kindled a warmth of admiration among his contemporaries, of which we find it difficult to conceive in our colder and more prosaic age.

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Shapt like a Ladies head, exceeding shone,
Like Hesperus emongst the lesser lights,
And strove for to amaze the weaker sights:
Thereby his mortall blade full comely hong
In yvory sheath, ycarv'd with curious slights,
Whose hilts were burnisht gold; and handle strong
Of mother perle; and buckled with a golden tong.

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His haughtie helmet, horrid all with gold,
Both glorious brightnesse and great terrour bredd:
For all the crest a dragon did enfold
With greedie pawes, and over all did spredd
His golden winges; his dreadfull hideous hedd,
Close couched on the bever, seemd to throw
From flaming mouth bright sparckles fiery redd,
That suddeine horrour to faint hartes did show;
And scaly tayle was stretcht adowne his back full low.

XXXII.

Upon the top of all his loftie crest,

A bounch of heares discolourd diversly,

With sprincled pearle and gold full richly drest,
Did shake, and seemd to daunce for iollity;

Like to an almond tree ymounted hye

On top of greene Selinis2 all alone,

With blossoms brave bedecked daintily;

Whose tender locks do tremble every one

At everie little breath, that under heaven is blowne.

Book 1. Canto VII.

DESCRIPTION OF BELPHEBE.

XXI.

Eftsoone3 there stepped foorth

A goodly Ladie1 clad in hunters weed,

That seemd to be a woman of great worth,

And by her stately portance borne of heavenly birth.

XXII.

Her face so faire, as flesh it seemed not,
But hevenly pourtraict of bright angels hew,
Cleare as the skye, withouten blame or blot,
Through goodly mixture of complexions dew;
And in her cheekes the vermeill red did shew
Like roses in a bed of lillies shed,

The which ambrosiall odours from them threw,

1 Slights-devices.

2 Greene Selinis.-Selinis is evidently the name of some hill or mountain, which I do not find in
any book of reference within reach. Upton, strangely enough, supposes it to be Selinus, a city in
Cilicia, to which he applies an epithet, "Palmosa," applied by Virgil to another city of the same name
in Sicily. After this double blunder, he remarks, with amusing simplicity, "The simile of the almond-
tree is exceeding elegant, and much after the cast of that admired image in Homer," &c. Todd copies
the whole without comment.-Hillard.
8 Eftsoone-immediately.

♦ A goodly Ladie, &c.In the beautiful and elaborate portrait of Belphæbe, Spenser has drawn a
nattered likeness of Queen Elizabeth.
6 Portance-demeanor.

And gazers sence with double pleasure fed, Hable to heale the sicke and to revive the ded.

XXIII.

In her faire eyes two living lamps did flame,
Kindled above at th' Hevenly Makers light,
And darted fyrie beames out of the same,
So passing persant,' and so wondrous bright,
That quite bereavd the rash beholders sight;
In them the blinded god his lustful fyre
To kindle oft assayd, but had no might;
For, with dredd maiestie and awfull yre

She broke his wanton darts, and quenched bace desyre.

XXIV.

Her yvoire forhead, full of bountie brave,
Like a broad table did itselfe dispred,
For Love his loftie triumphes to engrave,
And write the battailes of his great godhed:

All good and honour might therein be red;

For there their dwelling was. And, when she spake,
Sweete wordes, like dropping honny, she did shed;
And twixt the perles and rubins2 softly brake
A silver sound, that heavenly musicke seed to make.

XXV.

Upon her eyelids many Graces sate,
Under the shadow of her even browes,
Working belgardes3 and amorous retrate;4
And everie one her with a grace endowes,

And everie one with meekenesse to her bowes:

So glorious mirrhour of celestiall grace,

And soveraine moniment of mortall vowes,

How shall frayle pen descrive her heavenly face,
For feare, through want of skill, her beauty to disgrace!

XXVI.

So faire, and thousand thousand times more faire,

She seemd, when she presented was to sight;

And was yclad, for heat of scorching aire,
All in a silken camus lilly whight,

Purfled upon with many a folded plight,7
Which all above besprinckled was throughout
With golden aygulets, that glistred bright
Like twinckling starres; and all the skirt about
Was hemd with golden fringe.

Xxx.

Her yellow lockes, crisped like golden wyre,
About her shoulders weren loosely shed,

And, when the winde emongst them did inspyre,10
They waved like a penon wyde dispred.

1 Persant-plercing.

2 Rubins-rubles.

3 Belgardes-sweet looks.

4 Retrate-picture.

5 Camus-thin dress. • Purfled-embroidered. 7 Plight-plait. 8 Aygulets-tagged points. The yellow locks of Queen Elizabeth enter largely into the descriptions of beauty by the poets of her reign.

10 Inspyre-breathe.

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And low behinde her backe were scattered:
And, whether art it were or heedlesse hap,
As through the flouring forrest rash she filed,
In her rude heares sweet flowres themselves did lap,'
And flourishing fresh leaves and blossomes did enwrap.
Book II. Canto III

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And is there care in heaven? And is there love

In heavenly spirits to these creatures bace,
That may compassion of their evils move?

There is-else much more wretched were the cace

Of men then beasts: But O! th' exceeding grace
Of Highest God that loves his creatures so,
And all his workes with mercy doth embrace,
That blessed Angels he sends to and fro,
To serve to wicked man, to serve his wicked foe!

II.

How oft do they their silver bowers leave
To come to succour us that succour want!
How oft do they with golden pineons cleave
The flitting skyes, like flying pursuivant,
Against fowle feendes to ayd us militant!
They for us fight, they watch and dewly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us plant;
And all for love and nothing for reward:

O, why should Hevenly God to men have such regard!

Book II. Canto VIII.

THE SEASONS.

XXVIII.

So forth issew'd the Seasons of the yeare:
First, lusty Spring all dight3 in leaves of flowres
That freshly budded and new bloosmes did beare,
In which a thousand birds had built their bowres,
That sweetly sung to call forth paramours;
And in his hand a iavelin he did beare,

And on his head (as fit for warlike stoures1)

A guilt engraven morion® he did weare;

That as some did him love, so others did him feare.

XXIX.

Then came the iolly Sommer, being dight
In a thin silken cassock colored greene,
That was unlyned all, to be more light:
And on his head a girlond well beseene

He wore, from which, as he had chauffed been,
The sweat did drop; and in his hand he bore

A bowe and shaftes, as he in forrest greene

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Had hunted late the libbard' or the bore,

And now would bathe his limbes with labor heated sore.

XXX.

Then came the Autumne all in yellow clad,

As though he ioyed in his plentious store,

Laden with fruits that made him laugh, full glad
That he had banisht hunger, which to-fore

Had by the belly oft him pinched sore:
Upon his head a wreath, that was enrold

With ears of corne of every sort, he bore;
And in his hand a sickle he did holde,

To reape the ripened fruits the which the earth had yold.2

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The chief prose work of Spenser is his "View of the State of Ireland." It gives an excellent account of the customs, manners, and national character of the Irish, and there is no contemporary piece of prose to compare with it in purity. From it we have room to select the following short extract, only

upon

8 Nose.

4 Retort.

5 Old age.

1 Leopard. 2 Yielded. 6 Wield, move. 7 "I have just finished 'The Faerie Queen.' I never parted from a long poem with so much regret. He is a poet of a most musical ear-of a tender heart-of a peculiarly soft, rich, fertile, and flowery fancy. His verse always flows with ease and nature, most abundantly and sweetly; his diffusion is not only pardonable, but agreeable. Grandeur and energy are not his characteristic qualities. He seems to me a most genuine poet, and to be justly placed after Shakspeare and Milton, and above all other English poets.”—Sir James Mackintosh.

"Spenser excels in the two qualities in which Chaucer is most deficient-invention and fancy. The invention shown in his allegorical personages is endless, as the fancy shown in his description of them is gorgeous and delightful. He is the poet of romance. He describes things as in a splendid and voluptuous dream."-Hazlitt.

"His command of imagery is wide, easy, and luxuriant. He threw the soul of harmony into ou verse, and made it more warmly, tenderly, and magnificently descriptive than it ever was before, or, with a few exceptions, than it ever has been since. It must certainly be owned that in description he exhibits nothing of the brief strokes and robust power which characterize the very greatest poets; but we shall nowhere find more airy and expansive images of visionary things, a sweeter tone of sentiment, or a finer flush in the colors of language, than in this Rubens of English poetry."-Campbell's Specimena, i. 125.

The best, or variorum edition of Spenser, (so called because it has all the notes of the various commentators,) is that of Todd, 8 vols. 8vo. London, 1805. Read-an article on Spenser's Minor Poems in Retrospective Review, xii. 142: also, Edinburgh Review, xxiv.: also, a brilliant series of papers on the Faerie Queene, in Blackwood's Magazine, 1834 and 1835, by Professor Wilson: also, "Ohservations on the Faerie Queene," by Thomas Warton.

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