of poetry; particularly in that episode where the magician sends one of his spirits to fetch a false dream from the house of Morpheus:

•Amid the bowels of the earth full steep

And low, where dawning day does never peep, • His dwelling is.'

Mr. Rymer, as I remember, has, by way of comparison, collected from most of the ancient and modern poets the finest descriptions of the "Night, among all which he gives the preference to the English poets: this of Morpheus, or Sleep, being a poetical subject of the same kind,. might be subjected to a like trial; and the reader may particularly compare it with that in Book XI. of Ovid's Metamorphoses, to which, I believe, he will not think it inferiour.

The miraculous incident of a tree shedding drops of blood, and a voice speaking from the trunk of it, is borrowed from that of Polidorus, in Book III. of Virgil's Encis. Ariosto and Tasso have both copied the same story, though in a different manner It was impossible that the modern poets, who have run so much into the taste of romance, should let a fiction of this kind escape their imitation.

The adventures which befal Una, after she is forsaken by the Knight; her coming to the house of Abessa, or Superstition; the conster

nation occasioned by that visit; her reception among the savages; and her civilising them; are all very fine emblems. The education of Satyrane, a young Satyr, is described on this occasion with an agreeable wildness of fancy.

But there is one episode in this Book which I cannot but particularly admire; I mean that in Canto V., where Duessa the witch seeks the assistance of Night, to convey the body of the wounded Pagan to be cured by Esculapius in the regions below. The Author here rises above himself, and is got into a track of imitating the Ancients, different from the greatest part of his Poem. The speech in which Duessa addresses Night is wonderfully great, and stained with that impious flattery which is the character of Falsehood, who is the speaker:

O thou, most auncient grandmother of all, 'Moreoldthan love, whom thou at first didst breede, Or that great house of gods cælestiall;

Which wast begot in Demogorgon's hall,
And sawst the secrets of the world unmade!'

As Duessa came away hastily on this expedition, and forgot to put off the shape of Truth, which she had assumed a little before, Night does not know her: this circumstance, and the discovery afterwards, when she owns her for her daughter, are finely emblematical. The images of Horrour are raised in a very masterly manner; Night

takes the witch into her chariot, and being arrived where the body lay, they alight.

And, all the while she stood upon the ground, The wakefull dogs did never cease to bay; 'As giving warning of th' unwonted sound, With which her yron wheeles did them affray, And her darke griesly looke them much dismay. The messenger of death, the ghastly owle, With drery shriekes did also her bewray; And hungry wolves continually did howle 'At her abhorred face, so filthy and so fowle,'

They steal away the body, and carry it down, through the cave Avernus, to the realms of Pluto. What strength of painting is there in the following lines!

On every side them stood

The trembling ghosts, with sad amazed mood, Chattring their iron teeth, and staring wide With stonie eies; and all the hellish brood • Of feends infernall flockt on every side, To gaze on erthly wight, that with the Night durst ride.'

Longinus, commending a description in Euripides of Phaeton's journey through the heavens, in - which the turnings and windings are marked out in a very lively manner, says, That the soul of the poet seems to mount the chariot with him, and to share all his dangers. The reader will find himself in a like manner transported

t

throughout this whole episode, which shows that it has in it the force and spirit of the most subTime poetry.

The first appearance of Prince Arthur, in this 、Book, is represented to great advantage, and gives occasion to a very finished description of a martial figure. How sprightly is that image and simile in the following lines!

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 seemed to daunce for iollity;
Like to an almond tree ymounted hye

On top of greene Selinis all alone,

With blossoms brave bedecked daintily;

• Whose tender lockes do tremble every one At everie little breath, that under heaven is blowne.'

I must not omit mentioning the House of Pride, and that of Holiness, which are beautiful Allegories in different parts of this Book. In the former of these there is a minute circumstance which is very artificial; for the reader may observe, that the six counsellors which attend Pride in her progress, and ride on the beasts which draw her chariot, are placed in that order in which the Vices they represent naturally produce and follow each other. In the dungeon among the captives of Pride, the poet has represented Nebuchadnezzar, Crœsus, Antiochus, Alexander, and several other eminent persons, in cir

cumstances of the utmost ignominy.

*The

moral is truly noble; for upon the sight of so -many illustrious slaves, the Knight hastens from the place, and makes his escape,

The description of Despair in Canto IX. is that which is said to have been taken notice of by Sir Philip Sidney: but I think the speech of Despair, in which the distempered reasonings that are apt to agitate the heart of a man aban-doned to this passion are so pathetically represented, is much superiour to the description.

Among the Allegories in Canto X. it is impossible not to distinguish that venerable figure of Contemplation, in his hermitage on the top of a bill, represented as an old man almost wasted away in study:

• With snowy lockes adowne his shoulders shed, 'As hoary frost with spangles doth attire

The mossy braunches of an oke halfe ded.'

The Knight and his companion inquire of him,

"Is not from hence the way that leadeth right To that most glorious house that glistreth bright With burning starres and ever-living fire?"

This is extremely noble, as well as the old man's

* The moral is truly noble, &c.] I agree with Mr. Hughes; but I think Spenser was very injudicious in placing Scipio among them, which ever of the Scipios he meant. I take it for granted that he meant Scipio Africanus, JORTIN.