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temperance, juftice, chastity; and has one complete Book affigned to him, of which he is the hero. But befides thefe twelve knights, feverally exemplifying twelve moral virtues, the poet has conftituted one principal knight, or general hero, viz. PRINCE ARTHUR. This perfonage reprefents Magnificence; a virtue which is fuppofed to be the perfection of all the reft. He moreover affifts in every Book, and the end of his actions is to difcover and win GLORIANA, or Glory. In a word, in this character the poet profeffes to pourtray, "THE IMAGE OF A BRAVE KNIGHT PERFECTED IN THE TWELVE PRIVATE MORAL VIRTUES."

It is evident that our author in establishing one hero, who feeking and attaining one grand end, which is GLORIANA, fhould exemplify one grand character, or a brave Knight perfected in the twelve private moral virtues, copied the caft and conftruction of the ancient Epick. But, fenfible as he was of the importance and expediency of the unity of the hero and of his defign, he does not, in the mean time, feem convinced of the neceffity of that unity of action, by the means of which fuch a defign fhould be properly accomplished. At leaft, he has not followed the method practifed by Homer and Virgil, in conducting their refpective heroes to the propofed end.

It may be asked with great propriety, how does ARTHUR execute the grand, fimple, and ultimate defign, intended by the poet? It may be answered, with fome degree of plaufibility, that by lending his refpective affiftance to each of the twelve Knights, who patronize the twelve virtues, in his allotted defence of each, ARTHUR approaches still nearer and nearer to Glory, till at laft he gains a complete poffeffion. But furely to affift is not a fufficient fervice. This fecondary merit is inadequate to the

reward. The poet ought to have made this “bravé Knight" the leading adventurer. ARTHUR fhould have been the principal agent in vindicating the caufe of Holiness, Temperance, and the reft. If our hero had thus, in his own perfon, exerted himself in the protection of the twelve virtues, he might have been defervedly styled the perfect Pattern of all, and confequently would have fucceeded in the task affigned, the attainment of Glory. At prefent he is only a fubordinate or acceffory character. The difficulties and obftacles which we expect him to furmount, in order to accomplish his final achievement, are removed by others. It is not he who fubdues the dragon, in the firft Book, or quells the magician Bufirane, in the third. Thefe are the victories of St. George and of Britomart. On the whole, the twelve Knights do too much for ARTHUR to do any thing; or at least, so much as may be reasonably required from the promised plan of the poet. While we are attending to the defign of the hero of the book, we forget that of the hero of the poem. Dryden remarks, "We must do Spenfer that justice to obferve, that magnanimity [magnificence] which is the true character of Prince Arthur, fhines throughout the whole poem; and fuccours the reft when they are in diftrefs." If the magnanimity of Arthur did, in reality, thus fhine in every part of the poem with a fuperiour and steady luftre, our author would fairly ftand acquitted. At prefent it bursts forth but feldom, in obfcure and interrupted flashes. "To fuccour the reft when they are in distress," is, as I have hinted, a circumftance of too little importance in the character of this univerfal champion. It is a fervice to be performed in the caufe of the hero of the Epick Poem by fome

• Dedication to the Translation of Juvenal. T. WARTON.

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dependant or inferiour chief, the bufinefs of a Gyas or a Cloanthus.

On the whole, we may obferve, that Spenfer's adventures, feparately taken as the fubject of each fingle Book, have not always a mutual dependance upon each other, and confequently do not properly contribute to conftitute one legitimate poem. Hughes, not confidering this, has advanced a remark in commendation of Spenfer's critical conduct, which is indeed one of the moft blameable parts of it.

"If

we confider the firft Book as an entire work of itfelf, we shall find it to be no irregular contrivance. There is one principal action, which is completed in the twelfth Canto, and the feveral incidents are proper, as they tend either to obftruct or promote itf."

As the heroick poem is required to be one WHOLE, compounded of many various parts, relative and dependant, it is expedient that not one of those parts fhould be fo regularly contrived, and fo completely finished, as to become a WHOLE of itfelf. For the mind, being once fatisfied in arriving at the confummation of an orderly feries of events, acquiefces in that fatisfaction. Our attention and curiofity are in the midft diverted from purfuing, with due vigour, the final and general catastrophe. But while each part is left incomplete, if feparated from the reft, the mind ftill eager to gratify its expectations, is irrefiftibly and imperceptibly drawn from part to part, 'till it receives a full and ultimate fatisfaction from the accomplishment of one great event, which all thofe parts, following and illuftrating each other, contributed to produce.

Our author was probably aware, that by conftituting twelve several adventures for twelve feveral

f See before, p. xxv. TODD.

heroes, the want of a general connection would often appear. On this account, as I prefume, he fometimes refumes and finishes, in fome diftant Book, a tale formerly begun and left imperfect. But, ast numberless interruptions neceffarily intervene, this proceeding often occafions infinite perplexity to the reader. And it feems to be for the fame reason, that, after one of the twelve Knights has achieved the adventure of his proper Book, the poet introduces him, in the next Book, acting perhaps in an inferiour sphere, and degraded to fome lefs dangerous exploit. But this conduct is highly inartificial: for it deftroys that repofe which the mind feels after having accompanied a hero, through manifold ftruggles and various diftreffes, to fuccefs and victory. Befides, when we perceive him entering upon any lefs illuftrious attempt, our former admiration is in fome measure diminished. Having feen him complete fome memorable conqueft, we become interested in his honour, and are jealous concerning his future reputation. To attempt, and even to achieve, fome petty pofteriour enterprise, is to derogate from his dignity, and to fully the tranfcendant luftre of his former victories.

Spenfer perhaps would have embarraffed himself and the reader lefs, had he made every Book one entire detached poem of twelve Cantos, without any reference to the reft. Thus he would have written twelve different Books, in each of which he might have completed the pattern of a particular virtue in twelve Knights refpectively: at prefent he has remarkably failed, in endeavouring to reprefent all the virtues exemplified in one. The poet might either have eftablished TWELVE KNIGHTS without an ARTHUR, or an ARTHUR without TWELVE KNIGHTS. Upon fuppofition that Spenfer was refolved to characterife the twelve moral virtues, the

former plan perhaps would have been beft: the latter is defective as it neceffarily wants fimplicity. It is an action confifting of twelve actions, all equally great and unconnected between themselves, and not compounded of one uninterrupted and coherent chain of incidents, tending to the accomplishment of one defign.

I have before remarked, that Spenfer intended to express the character of a hero perfected in the twelve moral virtues, by representing him as affifting in the fervice of all, till at laft he becomes poffeffed of all. This plan, however injudicious, he certainly was obliged to obferve. But in the third Book, which is ftyled the Legend of Chastity, Prince Arthur does not fo much as lend his affiftance in the vindication of that virtue. He appears indeed; but not as an agent, or even an auxiliary, in the adventure of the Book.

Yet it must be confeffed, that there is fomething artificial in the poet's manner of varying from hiftorical precifion. This conduct is rationally illuftrated by himfelf. According to this plan, the reader would have been agreeably furprised in the laft Book, when he came to difcover that the feries of adventures, which he had juft feen completed, were undertaken at the command of the FAERIE QUEENE; and that the Knights had severally fet forward to the execution of them, from her annual birth-day festival. But Spenfer, in moft of the Books, has injudiciously foreftalled the first of these particulars; which certainly fhould have been concealed 'till the laft Book, not only that a needlefs repetition of the fame thing might be prevented, but that an opportunity might be fecured of ftriking the reader's mind with a circumstance new and unexpected.

Letter to Sir W. Raleigh. T. WARTON.

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