would not be difficult to unfold its merit in another way than has been hitherto attempted.

I have taken the fancy, to try my hand on this curious subject.

When an architect examines a Gothick structure by Grecian rules, he finds nothing but deformity. But the Gothick architecture has its own rules, by which, when it comes to be examined, it is seen to have its merit, as well as the Grecian. The question is not, which of the two is conducted in the simplest or truest taste: but, whether there be not sense and design in both, when scrutinized by the laws on which each is projected.

The same observation holds of the two sorts of poetry. Judge of the FAERIE QUEENE by the classick models, and you are shocked with its disorder: consider it with an eye to its Gothick original, and you find it regular. The unity and simplicity of the former are more complete: but the latter has that sort of unity and simplicity, which results from its nature.

The FAERIE QUEENE then, as a Gothick poem, derives its method, as well as the other characters of its composition, from the established modes and ideas of chivalry.

It was usual, in the days of knight-errantry, at the holding of any great feast, for Knights to appear before the prince, who presided at it, and

claim the privilege of being sent on any adventure, to which the solemnity might give occasion. For it was supposed that, when such a throng of knights and barons bold, as Milton speaks of, were got together, the distressed would flock in from all quarters, as to a place where they knew they might find and claim redress for all their grievances.

This was the real practice, in the days of pure and ancient chivalry. And an image of this practice was afterwards kept up in the castles of the great, on any extraordinary festival or solemnity of which, if an instance be required, I refer to the description of a feast made at Lisle, in 1453, in the Court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, for a crusade against the Turks: as it is given at large in the Memoirs of Matthieu de Conci, Olivier de la Marche, and Monstrelet.

That feast was held for twelve days: and each day was distinguished by the claim and allowance of some adventure.

Now laying down this practice, as a foundation for the poet's design, we shall see how properly the FAERIE QUEENE is conducted.

I devise, says the poet himself in his Letter to Sir W. Raleigh, that the Faerie Queene kept her annual feaste xii days, upon which xii seve'ral days the occasions of the xii several adven "tures hapened; which being undertaken by xii

⚫ several knights, are in these xii books severally • handled.'

Here we have the poet delivering his own method, and the reason of it. the order of his subject. And a better reason for his choice?

It arose out of would we desire

Yes; it will be said; a poet's method is not that of his subject. I grant it, as to the order of time, in which the recital is made; for here, as Spenser observes, (and his own practice agrees to the rule,) lies the main difference between the poet historical, and the historiographer: the reason of which is drawn from the nature of Epick composition itself, and holds equally, let the subject be what it will, and whatever the system of manners be, on which it is conducted. Gothick or Classick makes no difference in this respect.

But the case is not the same with regard to the general plan of a work, or what may be called the order of distribution, which is and must be governed by the subject matter itself. It was as requisite for the FAERIE QUEENE, to consist of the adventures of twelve knights, as for the Odyssey to be confined to the adventures of one Hero justice had otherwise not been done to his subject.

So that if we say any thing against the poet's method, we must say that he should not nave chosen this subject. But this objection arises from our classick ideas of Unity, which have no

place here; and are in every view foreign to the purpose, if the poet has found means to give his work, though consisting of many parts, the advantage of Unity. For in some reasonable sense or other, it is agreed, every work of art must be one, the very idea of a work requiring it.

If it be asked then, what is this Unity of Spenser's Poem? I say, it consists in the relation of its several adventures to one common original, the appointment of the Faerie Queene; and to one common end, the completion of the Faerie Queene's injunctions. The knights issued forth on their adventures on the breaking up of this annual feast; and the next annual feast, we are to suppose, is to bring them together again from the achievement of their several charges.

This, it is true, is not the classick Unity, which consists in the representation of one entire action: but it is an Unity of another sort, an unity resulting from the respect which a number of related actions have to one common purpose. In other words, It is an unity of design, and not of action.

A

This Gothick method of design in poetry may be, in some sort, illustrated by what is called the Gothick method of design in Gardening. wood or grove cut out into many separate avenues or glades was amongst the most favourite of the works of art, which our fathers atterupted in the species of cultivation. These walks were

distinct from each other; had, each, their several destination; and terminated on their own proper objects. Yet the whole was brought together and considered under one view by the relation which these various openings had, not to each other, but to their common and concurrent center. Some are, perhaps, agreed that this sort of gardening is not of so true a taste as that which Kent and Nature have brought us acquainted with; where the supreme art of the Designer consists in disposing his ground and objects into an entire landscape; and grouping them, if I may use the term, in so easy a manner, that the careless observer, though he be taken with the symmetry of the whole, discovers no art in the combination:

In lieto aspetto il bel giardin s'aperse,
Acque stagnanti, mobili cristalli,
Fior vari, e varie piante, herbe diverse,
Apriche Collinette, ombrose valli,
Selve, espelunche in una vista offerse:

E quel, che'l bello, e'l caro accresce à l'opre,
L'Arte, che tutto fà, nulla si scopre.'

TASSO, C. XVI. S. ix.

This, I say, may be the truest taste in gardening, because the simplest yet there is a manifest regard to unity in the other method; which has had its admirers, as it may have again, and is certainly not without its design and beauty.