The following is t

The darkfome cave they ent
That curfed man, low fitting
Mufing full fadly in his fulle
His greafy locks, long grow
Difordered hung about his fr
And hid his face; through w
Look'd deadly dull, and ftar
His raw-bone checks thro' F
Were fhrunk into his jaws,

His garments nought, but m
With thorns together pinn'd
The which his naked fides 1
And him befide, there lay u
A dreary corfe, whofe life a
All wallowed in his own, ye
That from his wound yet we
In which a rufty knife faft fix
And made an open paffage f

It would perhaps be an i difmifs his Life without a f great work of his which has the foremost of our poets, and vated and fublime a genius, is his allegorical poem of the

ne ages in which proviin a moft.remarkable giving to the world the people formerly barbaGothic ignorance, after uperftition, learning and the days of the renown5 then that liberty began 1aving hook off the reprefumed to think for To remarkable as this, feems no wonder that ed with those immorearning, who all conous. This astonishnmiffioned from above, ignorance under which t to carry poetry almost write a panegyric on Receffary, as the ator whoever has any rible, or tender, may Ication in Shakespear: ite for drollery and vas almoft boundless, ry part of writing. I after of Shakespear in the

Which when he knew, and felt our feeble hearts
Embofs'd with bale, and bitter-biting grief,
Which love had launced with his deadly darts,
With wounding words, and terms of foul reprief,
He plucked from us all hope of due relief;
That erft us held in love of ling`ring life;
Then hopeless, heartlefs, 'gan the cunning thief
Perfuade us die, to fint all further ftrife:
To me he lent this rope, to him a rusty knife.

The following is the picture.

The darkfome cave they enter, where they find,
That curfed man, low fitting on the ground,
Mufing full fadly in his fullen mind;

His greafy locks, long growing and unbound,
Difordered hung about his fhoulders round,
And hid his face; through which his hollow eyne,
Lock'd deadly dull, and stared as aftound;
His raw-bone checks thro' penury and pine,
Were thrunk into his jaws, as he did never dine.

His garments nought, but many ragged clouts,
With thorns together pinn'd and patched was,
The which his naked fides he wrapt abouts;
And him befide, there lay upon the grafs
A dreary corfe, whofe life away did pass,
All wallowed in his own, yet luke-warm blood,
That from his wound yet welled fresh alas;
In which a rufty knife faft fixed stood,

And made an open paffage for the gushing flood.

It would perhaps be an injury to Spenfer to difmifs his Life without a few remarks on that great work of his which has placed him among the foremost of our poets, and difcovered fo elevated and fublime a genius. The work I mean is his allegorical poem of the Fairy Queen.

Sir

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Sir William Temple in his effay on poetry, fays, "that the religion of the Gentiles had been woven "into the contexture of all the ancient poetry with "an agreeable mixture, which made the moderns "affect to give that of chriftianity a place alfo in "their poems; but the true religion was not found! "to become fictitious fo well as the falfe one had "done, and all their attempts of this kind feemed " rather to debafe religion than heighten poetry." Spenfer endeavoured to fupply this with morality, "and to make inftruction, instead of story the subject of an epic poem. His execution was excel"lent, and his flights of fancy very noble and high. "But his defign was poor; and his moral lay fo "bare, that it loft the effect. It is true, the pill 66 was gilded, but fo thin that the colour and the "tafte were easily discovered." Mr. Rymer afferts, "that Spenfer may be reckoned the first of our he"roic poets. He had a large fpirit, a fharp judg"ment, and a genius for heroic poetry, perhaps "above any that ever wrote fince Virgil, but our "misfortune is, he wanted a true idea, and loft him-' "felf by following. a unfaithful guide. Tho' be"fides Homer and Virgil he had read Taffo, yet "he rather fuffered himself to be misled by Ariofto, "with whom blindly rambling on marvels and ad"ventures, he makes no confcience of probability; "all is fanciful and chimerical, without any uni"formity, or without any foundation in truth; in "a word his poem is perfect Fairy-Land." Thus far Sir Williain Temple, and Mr. Rymer; let us now attend to the opinion of a greater name. Mr. Dryden in his dedication of Juvenal, thus proceeds: "The English have only to boast of Spenfer and "Milton in heroic poetry, who neither of them "wanted either genius or learning to have been "perfect poets, and yet both of them are liable to "many cenfures; for there is no uniformity in "the defign of Spenfer he aims at the accomplishment

F 4

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"plishment of no one action; be raises up a hero for every one of his adventures, and endows "each of them with fome particular moral vir"tue, which renders them all equal, without sub"ordination or preference: Every one is valiant "in his own legend; only we must do him the "juftice to obferve, that magnanimity, which is

the character of prince Arthur, fhines through"out the whole poem, and fuccours the reft when they are in diftrefs. The original of every

knight was then living in the court of Queen "Elizabeth; and he attributed to each of them "that virtue which he thought was moft confpicuous in them; an ingenious piece of flattery, "tho' it turned not much to his account. Had "he lived to finish his poem in the remaining

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legends, it had certainly been more of a piece; "but could not have been perfect because the "model was not true. But prince Arthur, or "his chief patron Sir Philip Sidney, dying before

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him, deprived the poet both of means and fpi"rit to accomplish his defign. For the reft, his "obfolete language, and ill choice of his ftanza, "are faults both of the fecond magnitude; for "notwithstanding the firft, he is still intelligible, "at leaft after a little practice, and for the laft "he is more to be admired, that labouring under "fuch difadvantages, his verfes are fo numerous, "fo various, and fo harmonious, that only Vir"gil, whom he has profeffedly imitated, has fur

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paffed him among the Romans, and only Wal"ler among the English.". Mr. Hughes in his effay on allegorical poetry prefixed to Spenfer's works, tells us, that this poem is conceived, wrought up, and coloured with stronger fancy, and difcovers more the particular genius of Spenfer, than any of his other writings; and having obferved that Spenfer in a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh calls it, a continued allegory, or dark conceit, he gives us

fome