The fragments of earthen ware. Tile-fbard is a common word in many parts of the kingdom. Shakefpeare's SHARD-BORN beetle, means a beetle produced, or generated, among fuch fragments or broken pieces of refuse stuff; and is a fine ftroke of that poet's accurate observation of nature.

I

N reading the works of a poet who lived in a

remote age, it is neceffary that we should look back upon the customs and manners which prevailed in that age. We should endeavour to place ourselves in the writer's fituation and circumftances. Hence we shall become better enabled to discover, how his turn of thinking, and manner of compofing, were influenced by familiar appearances and established objects, which are utterly different from those with which we are at present furrounded. For want of this caution, too many readers view the knights and damfels, the tournaments and enchantments, of Spenser, with modern eyes; never confidering that the encounters of chivalry

fubfifted

fubfifted in our author's age; that romances were then most eagerly and univerfally ftudied; and that confequently Spenfer, from the fashion of the times, was induced to undertake a recital of chivalrous atchievements, and to become, in fhort, a ROMANTIC Poet.

Spenfer, in this refpect, copied real manners, no less than Homer. A fenfible hiftorian observes, that "Homer copied true natural manners, which, how"ever rough and unclutivated, will always form an "agreeable and interefting picture: But the pencil "of the english poet [Spenfer] was employed in

drawing the affectations, and conceits, and fop"peries of chivalry *." This however, was nothing more than an imitation of real life; as much, at least, as the plain descriptions in Homer, which corresponded to the fimplicity of manners then subsisting in Greece. Spenfer, in the address of the Shepherd's Kalendar, to Sir Philip Sydney, couples his patron's learning with his skill in chivalry; a topic of panegyric, which would found very odd in a modern dedication, efpecially before a fett of pastorals. "To the noble and "virtuous gentleman, moft worthy of all titles, both of "Learning and CHIVALRIE, Mafter Philip Sydney,"

* Hume's Hift. of Engl. TUDOR, vol. 2. 1759. P. 739.

Go

Go little booke; thyself present,
As child whofe parent is unkent,
To him that is the prefident

Of nobleneffe and CHIVALRIE *.

Nor is it fufficiently confidered, that a popular practice of Spenfer's age, contributed, in a confiderable degree, to make him an ALLEGORICAL Poet. We should remember, that in this age, allegory was applied as the subject and foundation of public fhews and fpectacles, which were exhibited with a magnificence fuperior to that of former times. The virtues and vices, diftinguished by their refpective emblematical types, were frequently perfonified, and reprefented by living actors. These figures bore a chief part in furnishing what they called PAGEAUNTS +;

* Before the Shepherd's Kalendar. The GALLANTRIES of civilifed chivalry, in particular, were never carried to a higher pitch than in the queen's Court of which, fays our author, describing the MANNERS of that court.

:

Ne any there doth brave or valiant feeme,
Unless that fome gay mistresse badge be weare.
Colin Clouts come bome.

+ Spenfer himself wrote a fett of PAGEAUNTS, which were defcriptions of these feigned representations.

Cervantes, whofe aim was to expose the abuses of imagination, seems to have left us a burlesque on pageantries, which he probably confidered as an appendage of romance, partaking, in great measure, of the fame chimerical spirit. This ridicule was perfectly confiftent with the general plan and purpose of his comic history. See the mafque at Chamacho's wedding, where Cupid, Intereft, Poetry, and Liberality, are the perfonVOL. II.

N

ages.

which were then the principal species of entertainment, and were fhewn, not only in private, or upon the stage, but very often in the open streets for folemnifing public occafions, or celebrating any grand event. As a proof of what is here mentioned, I refer the reader to Hollingfhed's* Description of the SHEW OF MANHOOD AND DESERT, exhibited at Norwich, before queen Elizabeth; and more particularly to that hiftorian's account of a TURNEY + performed by Fulke Grevile, the lords Arundell and Windsor, and Sir Philip Sydney, who are feigned to be the children of DESIRE, attempting to win the FORTRESS of BEAUTY. In the compofition of the last spectacle, no small share of poetical invention appears.

In the mean time, I do not deny that Spenfer was, in great measure, tempted by the Orlando Furiofo, to

ages. A castle is reprefented, called the Cafile of Difcretion, which Cupid attacks with his arrows; but Intereft throws a purse at it, when it immediately falls to pieces, &c. D. Quixote, b. 2. ch. 3. But under due regulation, and proper contrivance, they were a beautiful and useful fpectacle.

* "And to keep that fhew companie, (but yet furre off) stoode the "SHEWE OF MANHODE and DESART; as first to be prefented: and "that fhewe was as well furnished as the other: men all, faving one "boy called BEAUTIE, for which MANHOOD, FAVOUR, and DESART, "did ftrive, (or should have contended ;) but GOOD FORTUNE (as vic"tor of all conquefts) was to come in and overthrow MANHOOD, &c." Hollinfbed's Chron. v. 3. p. 1297.

† Exhibited before the queen at Westminster, ibid. p. 1317. et feq.

write an allegorical poem. Yet it muft ftill be acknowledged, that Spenser's peculiar mode of allegorifing feems to have been dictated by those spectacles, rather than by the fictions of Ariofto. In fact, Ariofto's fpecies of allegory does not so properly confift in imperfonating the virtues, vices, and affections of the mind, as in the adumbration of moral doctrine*, under the actions of men and women. Qn this plan Spenfer's allegories are fometimes formed: as in the first book, where the Red-croffe Knight or a TRUE CHRISTIAN, defeats the wiles of Archimago, or the DEVIL, &c. &c. These indeed are fictitious perfonages; but he proves himself a much more ingenious allegorist, where his imagination BODIES forth unfubstantial things, TURNS THEM TO SHAPE, and marks out the nature, powers, and effects, of that which is ideal and abstracted, by vifible and external fymbols; as in his delineations of FEAR, DESPAIR, FANCY,

*It is obferved by Plutarch, that "Allegory is that, in which one "thing is related and another understood." Thus Ariofto RELATES the adventures of Orlando, Rogero, Bradamante, &c. by which is UNDERSTOOD the conquest of the paffions, the importance of virtue, and other moral doctrines; on which account we may call the ORLANDO a MORAL poem; but can we call the FAIRY QUEEN, upon the whole, a MORAL POEM? is it not equally an HISTORICAL OF POLITICAL poem? For though it be, according to it's author's words, an ALLEGORY OF DARK CONCEIT, yet that which is couched or understood under this allegory is the hiftory, and intrigues, of queen Elizabeth's courtiers; which however are introduced with a Moral design.