sented as walking with a staff, that shrinks under him, B. iii. C. xii. st. 10; Hope, with an aspergoire, or the instrument the Roman catholicks use for sprinkling sinners with holy water, ib. st. 13; Dissimulation, as twisting two clews of silk together, ib. st. 14; Grief, with a pair of pincers, ib. st. 16; and pleasure, with an humble-bee in a phial, ib. st. 18 and in another, (in the procession of the months and seasons,) February is introduced in a waggon, drawn by two fishes, B. vii. C. ii. st. 43; May, as riding on Castor and Pollux, ib. st. 34: June is mounted on a crab, ib. st. 35; October, on a scorpion, ib. st. 39 and November comes in, on a Cen

:

Venius was the author of a work, consisting of several alle. gorical pictures taken from the works of Horace, and therefore called Horace's Emblems. He was a Dutch painter, and born at Leyden in 1556. He studied at Antwerp in the most flourishing times of that school, and was the famous Rubens's master. In spite of all this, his patterns are almost as full of faults as Ripa's; though his faults are of a very different kind; Ripa'sallegorical fancies far-fetched and obscure defective, most commonly, as Whereas Venius's faults are generally owing to his following his author in too literal and frivolous a manner. Thus, if Horace says, Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem, Venius takes brevis personally; and so represents Folly as á little short child, of not above three or four years old.In the emblem, which answers Horace's Raro antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede Pœna claudo, you have pu nishment with a wooden leg; and, for Pulvis et umbra sumus,' a dark-burying vault, with dust sprinkled about the floor, and a shadow walking upright between two ranges of urns. For, Virtus est vitium fugere, & Sapientia prima stultitia caruisse, you see seven or eight Vices pursuing Vir tue, and Folly just at the heels of Wisdom, &c. &c. In his single figures we meet with Envy eating part of her own heart; Poverty distinguished by a cabbage, because she lives upon herbs; Labour, carrying an ox's head on his back; and Fear with a hare standing upon his shoulders, &c. SPENCE.

taur, all in a sweat; because, (as the poet observes,) he had just been fatting his hogs, ib. st. 40.

This might, full as well, have been ranged under my sixth and last class of faults in Spenser's Allegories; consisting of such instances as, I fear, can scarce be called by any softer naine, * than that of Ridiculous Imaginations. Such, I think, is that idea of Ignorance, in the first, Book, where he is made to move with the back. part of his head foremost, C. viii. st. 31; and that. of Danger, in the fourth, with Hatred, Murder, Treason, &c. in his back, C. x. st. 16,, 17, and 20. Such is the sorrowful lady, with a bottle for her tears, and a bag to put her repentance into; and both running out almost as fast as she puts them in, B. vi. C. viii. st. 24.: Such is the thought of a vast giant's shrinking into an empty form, like a bladder, B. i. C. viii. st. 24; the horses of Night foaming tar, B. i. C. v. st. 28; Sir Guyon putting a padlock on the tongue of Occasion, B. ii. C. iv. st. 12; and Remorse nipping St. George's heart, B. i. C. x.. st. 27..

Had Spenser formed his Allegories on the plan of the ancient poets and artists, as much as he. did from Ariosto and the Italian allegorists, he might have followed nature much more closely; and would not have wandered so often into such strange and inconsistent imaginations. I am apt

་·

to believe, that he considered the Orlando Furioso, in particular, as a poem wholly serious; though the author of it certainly wrote it partly in jest. There are several lines and passages in it, that must have been intended for burlesque; and they surely consider that poem in the truest light, who consider it as a work of a mixed na turė; as something between the professed gravity of Tasso, and the broad laugh of Berni and his followers. Perhaps Spenser's taking some things to be said seriously, which Ariosto meant for ridicule, may have led him now and then to say things that are ridiculous, where he meant to be very serious.

However that be, we may reasonably conclude, from so great failures as I have mentioned in so great a man, (whether they arise from his too much indulging the luxuriance of his own fancy, or from his copying after so irregular a

ar a pattern,) that it would be extremely: useful for our poets in general, to follow the plan of Allegory, as far as it is settled to their hands by the ancients; at least, till some modern may have invented and established some better plan for them to go upon; a thing, which I do not expect to see done in our days.

SPENCE.

70

MR. WARTON'S

REMARKS

ON THE

PLAN AND CONDUCT OF THE FAERIE

QUEENE.

WHEN the works of Homer and of Aristotle began to be restored and studied in Italy, when the genuine and uncorrupted sources of ancient poetry and ancient criticism were opened, and every species of literature at last emerged from the depths of Gothick ignorance and barbarity; it, might have been expected, that, instead of the romantick manner of poetical composition introduced and established by the Provencial bards, a new and more legitimate taste of writing would: have succeeded. With these advantages it was reasonable to conclude, that unnatural events, the machinations of imaginary beings, and adventures entertaining only as they were improbable, would have given place to justness of thought and design, and to that decorum which, nature dictated, and which the example and the precept of antiquity had authorised. But it was

a long time before such a change was effected. We find Ariosto, many years after the revival of

letters, rejecting truth for magick, and preferring the ridiculous and incoherent excursions of Boy-. ardo to the propriety and uniformity of the Gre cian and Roman models. Nor did the restoration, of ancient learning produce any effectual or immediate improvement in the state of criticism. Beni, one of the most celebrated criticks of the sixteenth century, was still so infatuated with a fondness for the old Provencial vein, that he. ventured to write a regular dissertation*, in which he compares Ariosto with Homer.

Trissino, who flourished a few years after, Ariosto, had taste and boldness enough to publishan epick poem‡, written in professed imitation of the Iliad. But this attempt met with little regard or applause for the reason on which its real merit was founded. It was rejected as an insipid and uninteresting performance, having few devils or enchantments to recommend it. To Trissino sueceeded Tasso, who, in his Gierusaleme Liberata, took the ancients for his guides; but was still too sensible of the popular prejudice in favour of ideal beings, and romantick adventures, to neglect or omit them entirely. He had studied, and acknowledged the beauties of classical purity. Yet

* Comparazione di T. Tasso con Omero e Virgilio, insieme ' con la difesa dell' Ariosto paragonato ad Omero, &c.' T. WARTON.

+ He died 1550. Ariosto 1535. T. WARTON. L'Italia Liberata di Goti, 1524. which the author would have introduced Rima of Dante, or the Ottava of Boccace.

It is in blank verse,. instead of the Terza T. WARTON.