The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser ... A new edition, with introductory observations on the Faerie Queene, and explanatory and glossarial notes: to which is prefixed, the account of the author's life, and criticism on his works, by J. Aikin

Preface

. It has been truly remarked, that "although Spenser is one of the great names inscribed on the roll of English Poets, he has been much more talked of than read, and less talked of than he really deserves." This is readily accounted for by the antiquated language in which his poems are written, causing them to be almost unintelligible to the general reader: to remedy this evil, and to render the beauties of the " Fairie Queene" more accessible, various editions have been published with notes and commentaries, and one attempt has been made to modernize the orthography, in which however much of the beauty of the original is lost and the rhyme frequently destroyed ; the price too of all PEEEACE. these editions has been such as to place them out of the reach of a large majority of readers. The latest edition of Spenser with notes, is that published in 1805, edited by Henry James Todd, in eight volumes octavo, but the merits of this edition are by no means commensurate with Spen ser's rank in English literature; there is much learned rubbish in it, and really difficult passages are frequently passed by in silence.

Sir Walter Scott, in the Edinburgh Review for October, 1805, forcibly points out its faults. He observes — " This edition is published cum notis variorum, so that instead of extracting from his predecessors' labours their spirit and essence, Mr. Todd has overlaid poor Spenser with the unselected mass of their commentaries, in addition to his own, and after all, we are much afraid the text is, in many instances, rather burdened than assisted. It is quite impossible that an ordinary reader can form a just judgment of the text which is absolutely borne down and overwhelmed by the dull, dubious, and contradictory commentaries of so many un congenial spirits; their regard for the author is expressed like the gratitude of the Gauls, who overwhelmed with their bucklers the virgin to PEEFACE. III whom they were indebted for the conquest of a city."

When it is recollected that the voluminous and expensive edition referred to has been heretofore the only one to be procured with notes (the earlier editions being out of print), the Editor trusts to be ac quitted of presumption in bringing forward another, modelled on a somewhat different plan to those of any of his predecessors. In pointing out the pe culiarities of the present edition, he would briefly state that it is chiefly intended for general use. The introductory observations upon the Faerie Queene, he trusts, will be found useful in enabling the reader to understand more fully the scope and design of the poem. The Notes have been made with a view of explaining every thing that required it in as few words as possible, and though the professed scholar may find little in it that is new, and a free use has been made of the researches of previous editors, yet considerable labour has been bestowed in extracting the es sence of lengthened annotations, and in endea vouring to arrive at the correct explanation of those passages on which commentators differ, while many of the notes are entirely original.

The ob- PEEFACE. solete and difficult words have been explained at the bottom of each page, which plan seems prefer able to that of putting them in a glossary by them selves, for the spirit of a fine passage is apt to evaporate while the reader is referring for the mean ing of a word either to another volume or to the end of the one he is reading. It has also been considered advisable to prefix to the present edition Dr. Aikin's Account of the Author's Life, and Criticism of his Works. In the performance of his task, which has formed the agreeable employment of such leisure hours as could be snatched from an engrossing profession, the Editor has felt a painful sense of his own in competency, and claims merit for little more than a most conscientious desire to be faithful to his trust, and to do justice to his author, though the amount of labour which it has required is more considerable than may be at first imagined, and will only be correctly estimated by such as have them selves undertaken a similar task.

His work has been, however, a labour of love, and has brought its own reward ; and he will have nothing to regret should he have succeeded in awakening and grati fying a taste for the poetry of Spenser. CONTENTS or VOL. I. Page Ax Account of the Authoe*s Life, and Cei- T1CISM OF HIS WOEKS. By JOHN AlKlN, M.D vii Inteoductoey Obseevations on the Faeeie Queene ...... xxxvii THE FAERIE QUEENE. A Letter of the Author's . . . . . 5 Verses addressed to the Author . . .11 Verses addressed by the Author to several Noblemen, &c. ....... 17

Book I

The Legend of the Knight of the Red Ceosse, oe of Holinesse . . . .29 Canto 1 31 Canto II 51 Canto III 67 Canto IV contents VI Page Canto V ,01 Canto VI 121 Canto VII 139 Canto VIII 159 Canto IX ]77 Canto X 196 Canto XI 221 Canto XII 241

Book II

The Legend of Sie Guyon, oe of Tempeeaunce .....•• 257 Canto 1 260 Canto II 283 Canto III 301 Canto IV 319 Canto V 337 Canto VI AUTHOR'S LIFE, AND CRITICISM OF HIS WORKS. BY JOHN AIKIN, M.D. The early efforts in poetry of all nations are necessarily rude and imperfect. Many attempts must be made, before a barbarous language can be so disciplined into correctness of diction, and me lody of sound, as to afford a material which even genius itself can work into any thing truly excel lent. And when improvement has proceeded so far that lines and passages are to be found deserv ing of real admiration, these will long be of rare occurrence, like specks of gold in a matrix of brute earth. Productions of such a period, however in teresting they may be to the critical inquirer into the history of national literature, will give more disgust than pleasure to one who reads for amuse ment only, and who has already formed his taste upon the best models of different ages and coun tries.

It might be difficult to determine with whom of the English poets commences that degree of mas terly execution which is capable of satisfying a cultivated taste; but that Spenser is within this limit, will hardly be questioned by any one who has sufficiently familiarized himself with his writ ings to disregard the uncouthness of an antiquated diction. His name, too, by long possession, has ob tained a permanent rank among the major poets of the nation ; so that the student of Engbsh verse cannot, even through regard to his reputation, safely remain unacquainted with the works of one who fills such a space in the history of his art. As the undoubted head of a peculiar class of writers, Spenser, too, claims the notice of literary curiosity; for no adequate idea can be formed of the extent to which personification and allegory may be carried, without a perusal of the Faerie Queene.

WOEKS IX Few of the eminent English writers are less known by authentic biographical records than Spenser ; and it is necessary to be contented with such a defective and partly dubious account of him as can be derived from a few traditionary notices, and from circumstances incidentally alluded to in his works. Edmund Spenser was born in London, about the year 1553, probably of obscure parentage, since he has given us no information on that point, though he has taken care to record that he derives his name from " an house of ancient fame," meaning the noble family of Spensers of Althorp. It does not appear, however, that he ever claimed kindred with that house, or was acknowledged by it. He was entered as a sizer (the lowest order of students) at Pembroke-hall, Cambridge, in the year 1569. From this date may with probability be inferred that of his birth, which has been strangely misrepresented in the inscription on his tomb.

Supposing him, when he entered at the University, to have been sixteen, the usual academical age, at that period, he must have been born about the year 1553. He took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in X 1572-3, and that of Master in 1576, in which year he was an unsuccessful competitor for a fellowship. Mortification for this disappointment probably drove him from college ;* and we find that he took up his residence for some time in the North, but in what quality we do not learn. Here, an incident of importance in a poet's life occurred, that of his falling in love. His mistress, whom he has commemorated iinder the name of Rosalinde, after leading him through the usual vicissitudes of a love-adventure, finally deserted him. Nothing could be more natural, than that such a circumstance should, in a mind addicted to the Muses, produce pastoral poetry ; accordingly he wrote his " Shepherd's Calendar," a part of which is devoted to amorous complaint, and of which the general strain is serious and pensive.

This he published in 1579, dedicated, under the humble signature of Lnnierito, to Mr., afterwards Sir Philip, Sidney. To the acquaintance of this celebrated person he was * Later biographers doubt the correctness of this alle gation, and tbe terms in which he celebrates his Alma Mater, in his account of the Ouze, would lead us to suppose that be had not experienced such a severe mortification as this would have been. [Ed.] WORKS. XI introduced by a friend named Gabriel Har vey; and as this was previously to his pub lication of his Shepherd's Calendar, part of which he even composed at Penshurst, it seems fully to refute a romantic tale concerning his first introduction to Sidney. This story relates, that Spenser one morning repaired to Leicester-house, an entire stranger, and provided with no other re commendation than the ninth canto of the first book of the a Faerie Queene," in which is con tained the fine allegory of Despair.

Having obtained admission to Sidney, and presented his pa per, that lover and judge of poetry was so struck with a particular stanza, that he immediately or dered fifty pounds to be given to the author, and proceeding to the next stanza, he raised his gift to a hundred pounds ; which sum he doubled on reading a third, and commanded his steward to pay instantly, lest he should be induced by a further delay to give away his whole estate. Sir Philip was a character of uncommon and romantic generosity ; but such a rate of estimating verse was not at all conformable to the spirit of the times. Indeed, the story would scarcely suit any b AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOE'S XIFE, patron upon record but a Roman emperor or a Saracen caliph. It is not to be doubted, however, that Sidney was a warm and liberal friend to Spenser.

He caused him to quit his rural retreat, and try his fortune at court; and by his means Spenser was made known to the Earl of Leicester, and finally to Queen Elizabeth. The bounty of his sovereign lady (who probably received more learned adoration at a cheaper rate than any crowned head besides) is more credible in its mea sure than that ascribed to Sidney. She is said, upon his presenting some poems to her, to have ordered him a gratuity of a hundred pounds ; which sum appeared so extravagant a reward for a rhymer, to the Lord-treasurer Burghley, that he deferred the payment, till he received a repetition of the order from his mistress, not without some chiding for the delay. Either this circumstance, or Spenser's attachment to persons disliked by the Treasurer, rendered this potent minister a lasting enemy to the poor poet, who in several parts of his works alludes to this misfortune, which he is thought imprudently to have aggravated by some WOEKS.

XIII satirical inuendoes.* The Earl of Leicester's friendship, however, produced some valuable fruits. In 1579 he sent Spenser upon some commission to France ; and it was probably through this no bleman's recommendation, that he was appointed secretary to Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton, when he went as lord-deputy to Ireland in 1580. In this situation Spenser displayed those talents for business, which many examples show to be very com patible with a genius for elegant literature. He wrote a " Discourse on the State of Ireland," con taining many judicious observations on the schemes of policy proper for that country. His services to the crown were rewarded with a grant of 3028 acres in the county of Cork, out of the vast for feited property of the Earl of Desmond :— an am ple possession, upon an insecure tenure ; like all those which different rebellions have conveyed from Irish to English proprietors, and which have been usually bestowed with a profuseness propor tional to the celerity with which they were acquired. * Sir Walter Scott observes, it is supposed that some political passages in his poems, and particularly a warm eulogium on Archbishop Grendal, drew down on our author the wrath of the great Burghley. [Ed.] AUTHOE's LIFE, XIV Spenser's residence was the castle of Kilcolman near Doneraile, one of the Earl of Desmond's seats.

Here he describes himself in the style of pastoral poetry, as keeping his sheep, " under the foot of Mole, that mountain Hore," and frequent ing "the cooly shade of green Alders by the Mulla's shore ;" — names which have in some mea sure been rendered classical by his Muse. It was here that he first received a visit from that splen did character, Sir Walter Raleigh, then a captain under Lord Grey. In his pastoral fiction, Spenser gives Raleigh the title of the Shepherd of the Ocean, and highly extols his courtesy and elegant accomplishments. Raleigh proved his friendship by some court services which he rendered the poet; indeed Spenser says, that he "first en hanced to him the grace of his queen." Perhaps he was instrumental in procuring from the crown a confirmation of Spenser's grant of land, which he obtained in 1586.

They went together to England, where it seems our poet wished to obtain a settle ment, rather than to continue in a country, which, whatever might be its rural charms, was little bet ter than barbarous in point of society and civiliza- W0EKS. XV tion. It might be during his attendance on the court in this visit, that he was made fully sensible of the chagrins and mortifications which he has so forcibly described in the following lines of his " Mother Hubberd's Tale :" " Full little knowest thou that hast not try'd, WThat hell it is in suing long to byde ; To lose good days that might be better spent, To waste long nights in pensive discontent ; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow, To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow ; To have thy prince's grace, yet want her peers', To have thy asking, yet wait many years ; To fret thy soul -with crosses and -with cares, To eat thy heart with comfortless despairs ; To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run, To spend, to give, to want, to he undone."

Spenser returned to Ireland ; and if the leisure of an involuntary retreat was the cause of his writ ing the Faerie Queene, we must rejoice at the dis appointment of his wishes, which detached him from the obscure group of placemen and cour tiers. Of that poem it appears from the author's letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, that the whole plan was formed, and three books were written, in the beginning of 1589. These were published, with a dedication to Queen Elizabeth, in 1590; and it AUTHOR'S LIFE, XVI can scarcely be doubted, that in a learned and poetical age they would excite much notice and ad miration. The author, indeed, did not leave them solely to their own merits ; for he introduced them with complimentary sonnets to several persons of quality, among whom he did not think it prudent to omit Lord Burghley.

Yet in his address to that minister, he shows how little he could depend upon him as a friend to poetry — to his " idle rimes, the labour of lost time and wit unstay'd ;" and he only humbly presumes that their " deeper sense" may obtain his approbation. The Queen rewarded him for his poetry and compliments by a pension of £50 per annum, granted in February 1591, and he, thenceforth, may be considered as her laureate, though the title was not formally given him. It was not till his fortieth year that he repaired the loss of his Rosalinde, by a marriage with " a country lass of low degree," but who had a stock of charms sufficient to inspire the happy lover with matter for a very poetical and rapturous epithala mium. It is to be supposed that with such a partner his life passed more agreeably in his rural AND CRITICISM OF HIS WOEKS.

XVII banishment, and that he ceased to regret that court, the disquiets of which he had so acutely felt. In 1596 he published a new edition of the Faerie Queene, with the addition of three more books, which only half completed his design. If the tra ditionary story be true, that the remaining six books were lost by a servant who had the charge of bringing them over to England, the event may be reckoned among the most afflictive that could happen to a poet, and would probably be felt by him as severely as his subsequent misfortune of the plunder of his house, and the destruction of his whole property, in the rebellion of Tyrone. He himself was driven for refuge to England, where he soon after died, in 159S, probably a victim to grief and despondence. He was interred in West minster Abbey, near the remains of his poetical father Chaucer, and at the charge of the noble minded, though imprudent and unfortunate, Earl of Essex.

Several of his brother poets attended his obsequies, and threw into his grave copies of verses to his honour. Nothing is known of his family or posterity, further than that one of his descendants came over from Ireland in King WU liam's reign, as a claimant of his estate. AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOE'S LIFE, Of the manners, conversation, and private character of Spenser, we have no information from contemporaries; our conclusions must therefore be only drawn from his writings, and the few known events of his life. To the intimate friend of Sidney and Raleigh, especially of the former, it is reasonable to attribute virtue as well as genius. His works breathe a fervent spirit of piety and mo rality ; and it would be difficult to conceive of any thing base or dissolute in conduct, in conjunction with the dignity of sentiment which is uniformly supported in the productions of his Muse.

A querulous disposition, however, occasionally breaks forth ; nor does he seem to have been contented under a fortune more affluent than usually falls to the lot of a poet. He paid considerable court to the great, but without that extravagance of adula tion which was not uncommon even among the eminent persons of that age. He possessed friends as well as patrons, and his death was lamented as a public loss to the literature of his country. We are now to speak of Spenser in his poetical capacity. Fraught with the stores of ancient learn ing and of the school-philosophy of his time, and conversant with the poets of Italy, and the tales of AND CEITICISM OF HIS WORKS. XIX popular romance, he came fully prepared for the execution of any plan of poetical invention, which his genius, modelled by the taste of the age, might suggest ; and he found his native language sufficiently cultivated to serve as a vehicle of poetical conceptions of any class.

The revival of letters had not as yet produced in Europe the revival of that pure and natural taste which distinguished the best periods of Greece and Rome. A passion for marvellous adventure, carried to the limits of the absurd and burlesque, and a disposition to veil truth under the disguise of allegory, characterized the writers who were the favourites of the day. Spenser did not possess that rare elevation of ge nius which places a man above the level of the age ; but he had the richness of invention, and the warmth of feeling, which present the manner of the age in its happiest form. His first perform ance, however, did not indicate a marked superi ority over the contemporary poets of his country. The Shepherd's Calendar is a series of pas torals, formed upon no uniform plan, but in general lowered down to that rustic standard which is sup posed appropriate to this species of composition. c AUTHOE'S LIFE, XX The gradation of rural scenery according to the changes of the year, which the title of the piece would lead the reader to expect, forms but a small, and by no means a striking, part of the design, which is rather moral than descriptive.

The shep herd's character is borrowed chiefly for the purpose of giving grave lectures on the conduct of life ; of panegyrizing a sovereign, or lamenting a lost friend : it is even made the allegorical vehicle of reflections concerning the state of religion. Spen ser, at this period, seems to have joined that party which was most zealous for ecclesiastical reform, and which viewed with the greatest displeasure the corruptions introduced by the worldly pomp and dominion of popery. How adverse such topics are to the simplicity and amenity of genuine pas toral, needs not now be pointed out. It seems generally agreed, that the description of the grand and beautiful objects of nature, with well selected scenes of rural life, real, but not coarse, constitute the only proper materials of pastoral poetry.

To these Spenser has made small additions; and, there fore, the Shepherd's Calendar, though it obtained the applause of Sidney, and seems immediately to have given its author a rank among the esteemed AND CEITICISM OF HIS WORKS. XXI poets of the time, would probably, in the progres sion of critical taste, have been consigned to oblivion, had it not been borne up by the fame of the Faerie Queene. It is not, however, void of passages marked with the writer's peculiar strength and liveliness of painting. The description of the aged oak, in the moral fable of February, may be pointed out as an instance of this kind ; as well as the whole fable of the Kid and Wolf, under May. The rustic and antiquated language of the greater part of these pieces was, doubtless, intended to correspond with the character annexed to pastoral poetry ; but its simplicity is often carried to rude ness and vulgarity.

The alliteration, which is also meant as a character of antiquity, will scarcely please a modern ear. The Faerie Queene, the inseparable companion of Spenser's fame, is one of the most singular poems extant in any language ; and from the un finished state in which we possess it, we should probably have found it impossible to form a clear conception of the author's plan in writing it, had he not, in a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, prefixed to the publication of the first three books, given its general argument. We there learn, that AUTHOR'S LIFE, XXII his leading purpose — a truly noble one — was to train a person of rank in " vertuous and gentle discipline," by exhibiting a perfect example of the twelve private moral virtues, as they are enumerated by Aristotle. This is done in " a continued allegory or dark conceit," rendered more dark than the usual obscurity of allegorical fiction by an extraordinary involution of the plot.

The general hero, or image of perfect excellence, is the British prince Arthur, so renowned in legendary history ; yet each several book has its particular hero, whose adventures allegorically display the exercise of that virtue which is the proper subject of the book. In order, therefore, to preserve the unity of the whole, Prince Arthur is occasionally introduced as an auxiliary of these allegorical knights in their most dangerous adventures. The quality peculiarly attributed to him is Magnificence, which, in modern language, would perhaps rather be termed Magnanimity, or Greatness of Soul, as being the sum and perfection of all the other virtues. He is enamoured in a vision with the beauty of the Faerie Queene and comes to seek her in Faerie Land; and this is the grand fable of the piece.

But while the Faerie Queene represents Glory in the general intention, she is also, in the particular meaning, a type of Queen Elizabeth, whose domi nion is the Faerie Land. Arthur, then, wooes Glory in his proper person ; and the time of the fable is represented to be that of the real com mencement of his history, part of which is here copied from Geoffrey of Monmouth. But Queen Elizabeth, or Gloriana, is likewise identified by circumstances in her real history ; and the great persons in her court are frequently alluded to in the characters of the fairy or allegorical knights. And as if all this confusion were not sufficient to perplex the reader, Spenser has thought proper to reserve till the twelfth or last book, the develope ment of the occasion which puts all his knights in motion ,* and which, it seems, was to be an annual feast kept by the Faerie Queene for twelve days ; on each of which, in conformity to the manners of chivalry, some distressed damsel, orphan, or other sufferer under injustice and oppression, appears as a suitor for aid, and receives from the Queen a champion.

The reason given by the poet for de laying this piece of information is, that he might imitate his epic predecessors, in breaking at once into the action, without the formality of an histori- Xxiv cal introduction. But to suffer the whole action to elapse before the reader is made properly ac quainted with the actors, and the cause in which they are engaged, is surely a violent sacrifice to a principle, the justness of which, even in a much more sober application, may be questioned. On commencing the Faerie Queene, it is now impos sible, without consulting the author's prefatory epistle, to conceive that it is to have any other object than the adventures of the Red-cross knight; or to form any notion concerning the title of the poem, and the connexion this imaginary Queen is to have with its persons and events.

From this view of the plan of Spenser's great poem, it will probably appear that its merit con sists rather in affording a boundless field for the range of fancy, than in that concentration of the interest upon some one important point, which is the essential character of the genuine epic. Were each book, indeed, to be regarded as a separate and complete piece, having its own distinct hero, this effect might be said to be in some measure produced ; but such was not the author's intention, since he avowedly aims at connecting the whole by the means of his general hero, Prince Arthur. But this personage, who seldom appears but as a subordinate and auxiliary character, and in some of the books absolutely performs nothing, can only in the theory of the poem be regarded as serving this purpose ; in the practice, he is found to excite little either of curiosity or interest.

Relinquishing, therefore, any further consideration of plan and design, we shall proceed to consider Spenser's character as an allegorical painter, in the detached figures and groups which strike the eye in ranging through his gallery of pictures. In fact, detached beauties are what the mind principally dwells upon even in the most regular compositions ; and after the first perusal, Orlando Furioso and the Æneid are alike recurred to for their sine passages alone. The ground-work of all Spenser's fictions is the system of chivalry, as displayed in the romances of the time, and in the principal productions of Ita lian poetry. Knights wandering in the search of adventures, distressed ladies, giants, Saracens, sa vages, dragons, enchantments, forests, and castles, were the materials with which these creations of the fancy were fabricated.

Some of them professed to be histories, or real narrations ; but in many " more was meant than met the ear," and moral or metaphysical ideas were darkly presented under the garb of visible beings. So meritorious was thought this alliance of a secret meaning with an obvious one, that Tasso, after he had formed a no ble epic poem on the basis of true history, and indeed with an uncommon attention to reality in manners and characters, thought it advisable to add a key to the whole, by which it was turned into a theological allegory. Fortunately this appears to have been a mere afterthought, which had no influence upon the plan and conduct of the poem. Ariosto, on the other hand, who is generally a simple narrator of adventures, given as real, how ever extravagant, occasionally intermixed fictions of pure allegory.

But Spenser is throughout alle gorical in his design, except as far as he meant to interweave the legendary tales of ancient British history, on account of their connexion with his human hero, Prince Arthur. All his other heroes are Virtues personified by knights-errant; and this uniformity of fiction would have produced a tiresome sameness in the action, had not the poet possessed that uncommon fertility of invention and force of description which are his characteristics. In all the records of poetry, no author can proba- WORKS. XXVII bly be found who approaches him in the facility with which he embodies abstract ideas, and con verts them into actors in his fable. It is true, he found in the extensive regions of romance a vast variety of forms ready to assume the moral cha racters most appropriated to their natures ; nor was he very nice in the choice of these beings, or very careful to preserve consistency in their figures or employment.