Evening star., 1925-06-17

as it were, to get it's mass effect.
| Perhaps 1t is just as well that the
author never finished but six hooks,
the first three in 1890, the second
trio in 1896; a larger ''Faerie Queene"
would have been more than the world
could stand. We would love to have
two more movements to Schubert S
Unfinished Symphony" but Spen-
sers unfinished epic Of fairyland is
well left unfinished. There is enough
of 1t to satisfie any one.
'Spenser created a new world,
which, from its first appearance in
the armament of literature, had a
special charm and fascination for his
brother artists, who. generation after
generation, delighted to wander in it, .
says John w. Hales in his introduc-
ton to the Everyman edition.
"Of all the poets he is the most po-
etical," declared Hazltt. Perhaps
that is enough, of itself, to scare away
the average reader, who does not
claim to be a poet. Yet most readers
are familiar with the first line:
gentle knight pricking on the plaine
and with the character of the gentle
Una and her milk-white lamb. The
Red Cross knight, as he is called,
because he wore upon his breast "a
bloodie Crosse" the dear remembrance
of his dying Lord may be seen in an
Illuminated window in the national
headquarters of the American Red
Cross here on lower Seventeenth
street.
II. A. Taine, i'll his History of
English Literature" devotes 32 pages
to Spenser, of which 10 are quotations,
saying of the poet, "Spenser leads us
to Milton, and thence to Puritanism,
as Plato to Virgil. and thence to Chris
| tianity Sensuous beauty is perfect
in both, but their main worship is for
moral beauty" 1t is interesting to
note that Milton said Spenser was
his "poetical father"
Edmund Spenser was born in Lon
don in 1852. dying in 1899 in want, ac-
cording to some chroniclers, although
others scout this.
His first poem, The Shepherd s
Calendar" was published in 1879 and
was dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney.
After that all England delighted to
call him master He was a close
friend of Shakespeare. it is said.
His long stanza. with the long last
line, was his alone, being necessary
for the lingering flow of his images
and vast design. The gossip of his
age has it that he was a sort of poor
| relation of the noble Spensers and
SpencerS, TO whom they paid no par
| ticular attention until he began to be
famous, after which they delighted
to invite him to tea,
The nobility of the Spensers has
been illustrated and enriched by the
| trophies of Marlborough" wrote
Gibbon, but | eXhort them to con
slider The Faerie Queene' as the most
precious jewel of their coronet."
"
Perhaps the average reader will get
more from the smaller pieces of Spen-
ser than from his masterpiece. Taine
quotes some of this lesser verse,
after saying that Spenser has an
alteration for beauty worthy of Dante
and Plotinus. And this because he
never considers ii mere harmony
of colour and form, but an emanation
of unique, heavenly, imperishable
beauty. which no mortal eye can see,
and which is the masterpiece of the
great author of the worlds"
For that same goodly hew OF white and red
With which the cheekes are sprlnkled shall
! decay,
And those sweete rosy leaves so fairly
spread
Upon the lips. shall fade and fall away
To that they were. even to corrupted clay !
That golden Wyre. those sparckhng stars
Shall turn to dust and lose their goodly
light.
But that faire lamp from whose celestial
That light proceedes. which kindIeth lovers
Shall never be extinguished nor decay:
But when the vital spirits doe expyre,
Upon her native planet shall retyre:
For il is heavenly borne and cannot die
Being a PARCEL of the purest skie