The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-02-18 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Els °pre praium cogntucere.

PICA.

We will now give to our readers an extract from
Dr. Aikin's composition ; and observe, that the nar-
rowness of our limits alone Foram .us from pro-
dueing a larger specimen of his critical remarks.
" Of the menoers, ctoeversat.: .n, and private cha-
rafter of Spenser, we have no information from
contemporaries ; our conclusions must therefore ree
only drawn from his writings, and the few known
events of his life. To the intimate friend of Sid-
ney and Raleigh, especially of the former, it is tea.
sonable to attribute virtue as well as geniis,- His
works breathe a fervent spirit of piety and morality ;
and it would be difficult to conceive of any thing
base or dissolute in conduct, in cotijunftias with
the dignity of sentimeat vebech is uniformly sup-
ported in the produftions of his mer.e. A queru-
lous disposition, however, oecasfodally breaks forth :
nor does he seem to have been contented under a
fortune more affluent than usually Wit to the lot of
a poet. He paid contiderable court to the great
but without that extravagance of adulation which
was not nuconunue even among the eminent per-
sons of that age. He possessed friends as well as
patrons, and his death was lamented as a public
loss to;the literature of his country.
e We are nowt° speak of Spenser in his poetical
capacity. Freeght with the itoreeof ancient learn-
ing and of the :school-philosophy of his time, and
conversant with the poets of Italy, and the tales of
popular ro ce, he came fully prepared for the
re
execution ofl • plan of pcetical intention which
his genius, :no Led by the taste of the age, might
suggest ; and he found his native language suffi-
ciently cultivated to serve as a vehicle of poetical
conceptions of any Cuss. The revival of letters
had hot as yet produced in Europe the revival of
that pure and natural taste which dininguished the
best periods of Greece and Rome. A passionefor
marvellous adventure, carried to the limits of the
absurd and burlesque, and a disposition to veil
truth under the disguise of allegory, charaderised
the writers who Were 'Lhe favcurites of the day.
Spenser did not possess that rare elevation of genius
which places a man above the level of the age; but
he had the richness of invention, and the warmth of
feeling, which present the manner of the age in its
happiest form. His first performance, however, did
not indicate a marked -superiority over the con-
temperary
poets of his country.
e The SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR" is a Ser:CS of Pas-
torah, formed upcn no uniform plan, but in gene-
ral lowered down to that rustic standard which is
supposed appropriate to this species of composition.
The gradation of rural scenery according to the
changes of the year, which the title of tne piece
would lead the reader to expe6t, forms but a. small,
and by no means a striking part of the design,
which is rather moral than descriptive. The shep-
. herd's chattel:et' is borrowed, chid.) fur the pur•
pose of giving grave lectures on the condud of life ;
of panegyrising a sovereign, or lamenting a lost
friend : it is even made the allegorical vehicle of
refledions concerning the state of religion. Spenser,
at this perioobosens to have joined that party wbich
was most zealous for ecclesiastical reform, and which
viewed with the greatest displeasure the corruptions
introduced by the worldly pomp and dominion of
popery. How adverse such topics are to the sim-
plicity and amenity of genuine pistoral, needs net
now be pointed out. It seems generally agreed,
that the description of the grand and beautiful oh-
)efts of nature, nith well selected scenes of rural
life, real, but not ccat se, constitute the only ,propei
materials of pastcral poetry. To these, Spenserhas
made small additions ; and, therefore, the Shep-
herd's Calendar, though it obtained the applause
of Sidney, and seems tmmediately to have given its
author a rank a,mcng the esteemed poets of the
time, would probably, in the progression of critical
taste, have been consigned to obli-eicn, had it not
been borne up by the fame cf the " Faery Qneene."
It is not, Inwcver, void of passages marked with
the writer's peculiar strength and livelinets of paint-
ing. The description of the aged oak, in the moral •
fable of February, may be pointed out as an in-
stance of this kind; as well as the Whole fable et'
the kid and. wolf, under May. The rustic and
antiquated language of the greater part of thee
pieces'was, doubtless, intended to correspond \viol
the charader annexed to pastoral poetry ; but its
simplicity is often carried to rudeness and vulgarity.
The' alliteration, which is also meant as a charader
of antiquity, will scarcely please e modern ear.
ii The nERy Queeert,the inseparable companion
of Spenser's fame, is one of the most singular
rextant in any language ; and, from the un-
ifh2sed state in which we possess it, we should pro.
feebly have fcund it impossible to forne a clear con-
ception of the author's plan in writing it, had he
not, in a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, prefixed to
the publication of the first three books, given its ge-
neral argument. We there learn, that his leading
purpose--a truly noble one—was to train a person
of rank in e vertuous and gentle discipline," by ex-
hibiting a perfect example of the twelve private
moral virtues, as they are enumerated by Aristotle.
This is done its " a continued allegory or dark con-
ceit," rendered more dark than the usual obscurity
of allegorical fiEtion by an extraordinary involution
of the plot. The general hero, or image of perfed
excellence, is the Ilritish prince Arthur, so renowned
in legendary history ; yet each several book has its
particular hero, whose adventures allegorically dis-
play the exercisF of that virtue which is the proper
subjea of the book. In order, therefore, to pre-
serve the unity of the whialJl, Priece Arthur is oc-
casionally introduced as an auxiliary of these al-
legorical knights in their most ddegerous adven-
tures. The quality pecnliarle- ateribeited to him is
Magnificence, which, in modern language, would
-perhaps rather be termed Magnanimity, cr Great-
ness of Sonl, as being the sum and perfedloo of all
the other virtues, He is enamoured in a vision
with the beatify. Aft klee. kner, flume, and comets to