remember, is in his defcription of the dragon, killed by the knight of the red crofs, in the laft Canto of his firft Book. The tail of this dragon, he tells you, wanted but very little of being three furlongs in length; the blood, that gufhes from his wound, is enough to drive a water-mill; and his roar, is like that of a hundred hungry lions, B. i. C. xi. ft. 11, 22, 37. The fourth clafs of faults in Spenfer's Allegories, confifts of fuch as arife from their not being well invented. The reader will eafily, I believe, allow me here, the three following poftulata. That, in introducing Allegories, one fhould confider whether the thing is fit to be represented as a perfon, or not. Secondly; that, if you choose to reprefent it as a human perfonage, it fhould not be reprefented with any thing inconfiftent with the human form or nature. And thirdly; that, when it is represented as a man, you should not make it perform any action, which no man in his fenfes would do. Spenser seems to have erred against the first of thefe maxims, in thofe lines in his description of the cave of Despair, B. iv. C. v. ft. 38. 66 They for nought would from their worke refraine, "Ne let his fpeeches come unto their eare: "And eke the breathfull bellowes blew amainė, "Like to the northren winde, that none could heare: "Those Pensiveness did move; and Sighes the bellows weare." Was a poet to say that fighs are "the bellows that blow up the fire of love," that would be only a metaphor: a poor one indeed; but not at all improper: but here they are realised, or rather metamorphofed into bellows; which I could never perfuade myself to think any way proper. Spenfer is perhaps guilty of the fame fort of fault, in making Gifts, or Munera, a woman, B. v. C. ii. ft. 9, 10, &c: though that may be only a mifnomer; for, if he had called her Bribery, one should not have the fame objection. But the groffeft instance in him of this kind, is in the ninth Canto of the Second Book, where he turns the human body into a caftle; the tongue, into the porter that keeps the gate; and the teeth, into two and thirty warders' dreffed in white: See 21 to the end of the canto. Spenfer feems to have erred against the fecond of these maxims, in reprefenting the rigid execution of the laws under the character of a man all made up of k drejed in white.] Mr. Warton, who alfo reprehends this defcription, relates that these warders are "clad in white;" but Mr. Spence and Mr. Warton are incorrect; for the poet's information is, that these warders were "all armed bright "In gliftring fteele.”—st. 26. This fubject is farther difcuffed in a fubfequent page. TODD. of a man all made up of iron;] It is doubtful whether this idea be wholly of Spenter's invention, or borrowed partly from the ancients; for they speak of one Talus, (or rather Talo,) a fevere law-giver in Crete. Τον ΤΑΛΩ, τον χαλκεν της Κρήτης Tepohon, Lucian, tom. i. p. 804. ed. Blaeu. They might call him "the brafen guardian of Crete," because he fecured them by his laws, affixed in the moft publick places, on plates of brafs; but whether they had any idea of this Talus, as a brafen man, I know not. SPENCE. The character of executing justice, attributed by the poet to Talus, is agreeable to that which he bears in ancient story; nor has Spenfer greatly varied from antiquity in the make of this wonderful man; for he is there faid to be formed of brass'; and, by our author, of iron. See Plato, in Minoe, Plat. Opp. vol. i. p. 230. ed. Serrau. Νομοφυλακι γαρ αυτώ [Ραδαμάνθω] ἐχρῆλο ὁ Μίνως κατα αςυ· τα δὲ καλα την αλλην Κρήτην τω ΤΑΛΩ. Ο γας ΤΑΛΩΣ τρις περίηει το ενιαύλα καλα τας κώμας, φυλατίων της νομές εν αύταις εν χαλκοις γραμματείοις έχων γεγραμμενες· ὅθεν ΧΑΛΚΟΥΣ εκληθη. As to the circumstance of Talus traverfing the isle of Crete, it exactly correfponds with what Spenfer fays afterwards of his iron man, who did the fame in lerne, F. Q. v. vii. 26. Plato has told us, that Talus was denominated brafen, on account of his iron, B. v. C. i. ft. 12; and Bribery, (or the lady Munera, before mentioned,) as a woman with carrying the laws about him, written in brafen tables; but Apollonius informs us, that he was actually made of brass, and invulnerable, Argon. L. iv. ver. 1645. Αλλ' ήτοι το μεν αλλο δέμας, και γυια, τελυκλο Apollonius likewife takes notice of his circuiting Crete three times a year, ib. ver. 1648. Τρις περι χαλκείοις Κρήτην ποσι δινευονία. Apollodorus will farther illuftrate this matter. « Ελευθερ αναχθεντες [Αργοναύται] κωλυονται Κρήτη προσίσχειν ὑπο ΤΑΛΩ ̇ τελον δι μεν το χαλκό γενες είναι λεγεσιν· οι δε ὑπο Ηφαιςε Μίνω δοθηναι· ὃς * ΚΑΛΚΟΥΣ ΑΝΗΡ· ὁι δε Ταυξον αυτον λεγουσιν. Είχε δε φλεβα μιαν απο αυχένος καταλείνεσαν αχρι σφυρων κατα δε το δέρμα της φλεβος ηλος διήρετο χαλκους. Ο & ΤΑΛΩΣ τρις έκατης ημερας την νησον πεβιτροχαζων ετηρει. Bibliothec. b. i. c. 26. This marvellous fwiftnefs of Talus is likewife referred to by our author, F. Q. v. i. 20. And is alluded to by Catullus, in his Ode to Camerius, where he tells him that he fhould not be able to purfue him, Car. lvi. " "Non Cuftos fi ego fingar ille Cretum." Orpheus, or rather Onomacritus, calls Talus, in his Argonauticks, v. 1348. Xxxxion Teriyana, "The brafen triple-giant." Χαλκείον τριγιγανία, The circumftance of Talus's iron flail is added from our author's imagination. T. WARTON. Justice is attended with power fufficient to execute her righteous doom. The moral is apparent; and the moral should lead us to understand the fable; which yet feems to me to have been misunderstood. Who is ignorant of the hiftory of Talus, mentioned by Plato, Apollonius Rhodius, &c. and by almost all the mythologists? But Spenfer's Talus is not the Cretan Talus; though imaged from him. He was a judge; this is an executioner. He was faid to have been a brajen man'; imaging the laws which were engraven in brafen tables. "Nec verba minacia fixo "Ere legebantur." Ov. Met. i. 91. These laws he is faid to have carried about with him, when he went his circuit in Crete, and partly from his feverity, and partly from the tables of brass which he carried about with him, he was called a brafen man, ev xarxes éxλnon, says Plato in Minos. But how properly does Spenfer depart from ancient golden hands, and filver feet, B. v. C. ii. ft. 10: and against the third, where he defcribes Defire, as holding coals of fire in his hands and blowing them up into a flame, B. iii. C. xii. ft. 91: which laft particular is fome degrees worse than Ariofto's bringing in Difcord, in his Orlando Furiofo, with a flint and steel, to strike fire in the face of Pride, C. xviii. ft. 34. The fifth fort of faults is when the allegorical perfonages, though well invented, are not well marked out. There are many inftances of this in Spenfer, which are but too apt to put one in mind of the fancifulness and whims of Ripa and Ve 1 mythology, having a mythology of his own? Spenser's Talus is no judge; therefore not a brafen man: but he is an executioner, an IRON man, imaging his unfeeling and rigid character. UPTON. Ripa and Venius.] Ripa was the author of an Italian work, entitled Iconologia, which has been translated into English and fix other languages; and has been, it feems, thought a good model! Amongst his odd figures, Flattery is reprefented by a lady with a flute in her hand, and a ftag at her feet; because ftags are faid to love mufick fo, as to fuffer themselves to be taken if you play to them on a flute. Beauty, by a naked lady, with a globe and compaffes in her hand, and her head in a cloud; because, the true idea of beauty is hard to be conceived.-Fraud, by a woman with two different faces and heads, with two hearts in one hand and a mask in the other, &c. &c. Thefe surely are instances of improper and unnatural allegories; and I might be able perhaps to give ten times as many of the fame kind, was I to confult all the strange figures he has given us in this work. Venius was the author of a work, confifting of several allegorical 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 ftudied at Antwerp in the most flourishing times of that school, and was the famous Rubens's mafter. 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's allegorical fancies being defective, most commonly, as far-fetched and obfcure; whereas Venius's faults are generally nius. Thus, in one Canto, Doubt is reprefented as walking with a "ftaff, that fhrinks under him, B. iii. C. xii. ft. 10; Hope, with an afpergoire, or the inftrument the Roman catholicks ufe for fprinkling finners with holy water, ib. ft. 13; Diffimulation, as twifting two clews of filk together, ib. ft. 14; Grief, with a pair of pincers, ib. ft. 16; and Pleafure, with an humble-bee in a phial, ib. ft. 18: and in another, (in the proceffion of the months and feafons,) February is introduced in a waggon, drawn by two fifhes, B. vii. C. ii. ft. 43; May, as riding on Caftor and Pollux, ib. ft. 34: June is mounted on a crab, ib. ft. 35; October, on a fcorpion, ib. ft. 39: and November comes in, on a Centaur, all in a fweat; because, (as the poet obferves,) he had juft been fatting his hogs, ib. ft. 40. owing to his following his author in too literal and frivolous a manner. Thus, if Horace fays, "Mifce ftultitiam confiliis brevem," Venius takes brevis perfonally; and fo reprefents Folly as a little fhort child, of not above three or four years old: In the emblem, which anfwers Horace's "Rarò antecedentem fceleftum deferuit pede Pœna claudo," you have Punishment with a wooden leg; and, for "Pulvis et umbra fumus,” a dark-burying vault, with duft fprinkled about the floor, and a fhadow walking upright between two ranges of urns.-For, "Virtus eft vitium fugere, & Sapientia prima ftultitia caruiffe," you see seven or eight Vices purfuing Virtue, and Folly just at the heels of Wisdom, &c. &c. In his fingle figures we meet with Envy eating part of her own heart; Poverty diftinguished by a cabbage, because he lives upon herbs; Labour, carrying an ox's head on his back; and Fear with a hare standing upon his fhoulders, &c. SPENCE. with a staff, that shrinks under him,] The poet's words are, "And on a broken reed he still did stay "His feeble steps, which fhrunck when hard thereon he lay:" And he probably adopted the idea from the Affyrian's infulting emblem of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, II Kings xviii. 21. "Now, behold, thou trufteft upon the staff of this BRUISED REED, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: fo is Pharaoh, &c." TODD. |
