Beside a

grounded on facts so well supported. poet is a maker; nor does he compose a poem for the sake of any one hero, but rather he makes a hero for the sake of his poem: and if he follews fame, whether from the more authentic relation of old chronicles, or from the legendary tales of old romances, yet still he is at liberty to add, or to diminish: in short, to speak out, he is at liberty to lie, as much as he pleases, provided his lies are consistent, and he makes his tale hang well together.

Prince Arthur saw in a vision, and seeing fell in love with, the Faerie Queene; just about the time that she held her annual festival, when her knights had their various adventures assigned them. From either of these periods an historian might begin his narration; but a poet must begin from neither because 'tis his province to carry you at once into the scene of action; and to complicate and perplex his story, in order to show his art in unravelling it. The poet therefore might have opened his poem either with Prince Arthur now actually set out on his quest, or with one of the knights sent from the Court of the Faerie Queene: by which means the

*Our poet follows Geoffry of Monmouth, the British historian; and the old Romance entitled, The History of Prince Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, or La Morte d'Arthure, as entitled at the end, and so cited by Ascham in his School-Master, pag. 87. who mentions it as a favourite author in his time. UPTON.

reader is introduced into the midst of things; taking it for granted, that he either knows, or some way or other will know, all that preceded. 'Tis from the latter of these periods, namely from one of the Faery knights, who is already rode forth on his adventure, that Spenser opens his Poem; and he keeps you in suspense concerning his chief hero, Prince Arthur, till 'tis proper to introduce him with suitable pomp and magnifi

cence.

Homer sings the anger of Achilles and its fatal consequences to the Grecians: nor can it be fairly objected to the unity of the Iliad, that, when Achilles is removed from the scene of action, you scarcely hear him mentioned in several books: one being taken up with the exploits of Agamem→ non, another with Diomed, another again with the successes of Hector. For his extensive plan required his different heroes to be shown in their different characters and attitudes. What therefore you allow to the old Grecian, be not so ungracious as to deny to your own countryman.

Again, 'tis observable that Homer's poem, though he sings the anger of Achilles, is not called the Achilleid, but the Iliad; because the action was at Troy. So Spenser does not call his Poem by the name of his chief hero: but because his chief hero sought for the Faerie Queene in Fairy Land, and therein performed his various adventures, therefore he entitles his Poem The

Faerie Queene. Hence it appears that the adventures of Prince Arthur are necessarily connected with the adventures of the knights of Fairy Land. This young Prince has been kept hitherto in designed ignorance of what relates to his family and real dignity: his education, under old Timon and the magician Merlin, was to prepare him for future glory; but as yet his virtues have not been called forth into action. The poet therefore by bringing you acquainted with some of the heroes of Fairy Land, at the same time that he is bringing you acquainted with his chief hero, acts agreeably to his extensive plan, without destroying the unity of the action. The only fear is, lest the underplots, and the seemingly adscititious members, should grow too large for the body of the entire action: 'tis requisite therefore that the several incidental intrigues should be unravelled, as we proceed in getting nearer and nearer to the main plot; and that we at length gain an uninterrupted view at once of the whole. And herein I cannot help admiring the resemblance between the ancient father of poets, and Spenser; who, clearing the way by the solution of intermediate plots and incidents, brings you nearer to his capital piece; and then shows his hero at large : and, when Achilles once enters the field, the other Greeks are fost in his splendour, as the stars at the rising of the sun, So when Prince Arthur had been perfected in heroick and moral

virtues, and his fame thoroughly known and recognized in Fairy Land; Him we should have seen not only dissolving the enchantment of the witch Duessa, (an adventure too hard for the single prowess of St. George,) but likewise binding in adamantine chains, or delivering over to utter perdition, that old wisard Archimago, the common enemy of Fairy Knights, whom no chains as yet could hold: in short, Him should we have seen eclipsing all the other heroes, and in the end accompanied with the Fairy Knights making his solemn entry into the presence of Gloriana, the Faerie Queene: and thus his merits would have entitled him to that Glory, which by Magnificence, or Magnanimity, the perfection of all the rest of the Virtues, he justly had acquired.

It seems, by some hints given us by the poet, that he intended likewise an Heroick Poem, whose title was to be King Arthur; and the chief subject of the poem, the wars of the King and Queen of Fairy Land, (now governed by Arthur and Gloriana,) against the Paynim King: the chief Captains employed were to be those Fairy Knights, whom already he had brought us acquainted with and the historical allusions undoubtedly would point, in the allegorical view, at the wars that Queen Elizabeth waged with the King of Spain; as the Fairy Knights would ty pically represent her warlike Courtiers, This

seems plain from what St. George says to Una's parents, in F. Q. i. xii. 18.

I bownden am streight after this emprizeBacke to retourne to that great Faery Queene, C And her to serve sixe yeares in warlike wize • Gainst that proud Paynim King that works her

teene.

And plainer still from what the poet says in his own person, in F. Q. i. xi. 7.

Fayre goddesse, lay that furious fitt asyde, • Till I of warres and bloody Mars doe sing; 'And Bryton fieldes with Sarazin blood bedyde, •Twixt that great Faery Queen and Paynim King.'

Dryden tells us, in his preface to the translation of Juvenal, that he had some thoughts of making choice for the subject of an heroick poem, King Arthur's conquests over the Saxons: And, hinting at the same design in the preface to his Fables, says, That it was not for this noble knight [meaning Sir R. Blackmore] that he drew the plan of an Epick poem on King Arthur.' Milton likewise had the same intention, as he intimates in a Latin poem to Mansus :

'Si quando indigenas revocabo in carmina reges, 'Arturumque etiam sub terris bella moventem; Aut dicam invictæ sociali fœdere mense

Magnanimos heroas; et, O modo spiritus adsit, Frangam Saxonicas Britonum sub Marte pha langes.'