tained by labour and ftudy, is not only extremely proper to the fubject of this Book, but admirable, if we confider it as the fenfe of that Princefs, and as a fhort character of fo active and glorious a reign.

"Abroad in armes, at home in studious kynd,

"Who feekes with painfull toile, fhall Honor fooneft fynd:
"In woods, in waves, in warres, fhe wonts to dwell,
"And will be found with perill and with paine;
"Ne can the man, that moulds in ydle cell,
"Unto her happy manfion attaine:

"Before her gate High God did Sweate ordaine,
"And wakefull Watches, ever to abide :
"But eafy is the way and paffage plaine
"To Pleafure's pallace; it may foone be fpide,

"And day and night her dores to all stand open wide."

Such paffages as these kindle in the mind a generous emulation, and are an honour to the art of poetry, which ought always to recommend worthy fenti ments. The reader may fee in Canto VI. a character quite oppofite to this, in that of Idlenefs, who draws Sir Guyon for a while from his guide, and lays him asleep in her island. Her fong with which she charms him into a flumber,

"Behold, O Man! that toilefome paines doest take,

"The flowrs, the fields, and all that pleasaunt growes, &c." is very artfully adapted to the occafion, and is a contraft to that speech of Belphoebe I have juft quoted.

The epifode of Mammon, who in the palmer's abfence leads Sir Guyon into his cave, and tempts him with a furvey of his riches, very properly diverfifies the entertainment in this Book, and gives occafion to a noble speech against riches, and the mischievous effects of them. I have, in the Difcourfe on Allegory, taken notice of the fiends and fpectres which are placed in crowds at the entrance to this place. The Author fuppofes the Houfe of Riches

to lie almoft contiguous to hell; and the guard he sets upon it expreffes a very juft moral:

"Before the dore fat felfe-confuming Care,
"Day and night keeping wary watch and ward."
The light which is let into this place,

Such as a lamp, whofe life does fade away; "Or as the moone cloathed with clowdy night :" The fmokinefs of it, and the flaves of Mammon working at an hundred furnaces, are all defcribed in the most lively manner; as their fudden looking at Sir Guyon is a circumftance very naturally reprefented. The walks, through which Mammon afterwards leads the Knight, are agreeably varied. The defcription of Ambition, and of the Garden of Proferpine, are good Allegories; and Sir Guyon's falling into a fwoon on his coming into the open air, gives occafion to a fine machine of the appearance of an heavenly spirit in the next Canto, by whofe affiftance he is reftored to the Palmer.

I cannot think the poet fo fuccefsful in his defcription of the House of Temperance, in which the Allegory feems to be debased by a mixture of too many low images, as Diet, Concoction, Digeftion, and the like, which are reprefented as perfons: but the allegorical defcription of Memory, which follows foon after, is very good.

The IXth Canto, in which the author has made an abridgement of the old British hiftory, is a very amufing digreffion, but might have been more artfully introduced. Homer or Virgil would not have fuffered the action of the poem to stand still whilst the hero had been reading over a book, but would have put the history into the mouth of fome proper perfon to relate it. But I have already faid that this Work is not to be examined by the ftrict rules of epick poetry.

The laft Canto of this Second Book being defigned to fhow the utmoft trial of the Virtue of Temperance, abounds with the most pleasurable ideas and reprefentations which the fancy of the Poet could affemble together; but, from the 58th stanza to the end, it is for the moft part copied, and many whole ftanzas tranflated, from the famous episode of Armida in Taffo. The reader may obferve, that the Italian genius for luxury appears very much in the defcriptions of the garden, the fountain, and the nymphs; which, however, are finely amplified and improved by our English poet. I fhall give but one inftance in the following celebrated ftanza, which to gratify the curiofity of those who may be willing to compare the copy with the original, I fhall fet down in Italian.

"Vezzofi augelli, infra le verdi fronde,
"Temprano à prova lascivette note:
"Mormora l'aura, e fà le foglie e l'onde
"Garrir, che variamente ella percote.

Quando taccion gli augelli, alto rifponde; "Quando cantan gli augei, piu lieve fcote. "Sia cafo od arte, hor accompagna, ed hora "Alterna i verfi lor la Mufica ora.

Spenser has two stanzas on this thought, the laft of which only is an imitation of Taffo, but with finer turns of the verfe, which are so artificial, that he feems to make the mufick he describes.

"Eftfoones they heard a moft melodious found
"Of all that mote delight a daintie eare,
"Such as attonce might not on living ground,
"Save in this paradife, be heard elsewhere:
"Right hard it was for wight which did it heare
"To read what manner muficke that mote bee;
"For all that pleafing is to living eare

"Was there conforted in one harmonee;

Birdes, voices, inftruments, windes, waters, all agree:

"The ioyous birdes, fhrouded in chearefull fhade,
"Their notes unto the voice attempred sweet;
"Th' angelicall foft trembling voyces made
"To th' inftruments divine refpondence meet;
"The filver-founding inftruments did meet
"With the base murmure of the water's fall;
"The water's fall, with difference difcreet,
"Now foft, now loud, unto the wind did call;
"The gentle warbling wind low answered to all."

Sir Guyon and the Palmer, refcuing the youth who was held captive by Acrafia in this delightful manfion, resembles that of the two warriours recovering Rinaldo from the charms of Armida in the Italian poem.

In the Third Book, the character of Britomartis, a lady-errant, who is the heroine, and performs the chief adventure, refembles Ariofto's Bradamante, and Taffo's Clarinda; as they are all copies of the Camilla in Virgil.

Among the chief beauties in this book, we may reckon that episode in which Britomartis goes to the cave of Merlin, and is entertained with a prophetical account of her future marriage and offfpring. This thought is remotely taken from Virgil, but more immediately from Ariofto, who has represented Bradamante on the like occafion making a vifit to the tomb of Merlin, which he is forced for that purpose to suppose to be in Gaul; where the fees, in like manner, in a vifion, the heroes and captains who were to be her defcendants.

The story of Marinell, and that of the birth of Belphoebe and Amoret, in which the manner of Ovid is well imitated, are very amufing. That complaint against Night, at the end of Canto IV.

"Night! thou foule mother of annoyaunce fad, "Sifter of heavie Death, and nourfe of Woe, &c." though it were only confidered as detached from

the reft, might be esteemed a very fine piece of poetry. But there is nothing more entertaining in this whole Book than the profpect of the Gardens of Adonis, which is varied from the Bower of Blifs in the former Book, by an agreeable mixture of philofophical fable. The figure of Time, walking in this garden, fpoiling the beauty of it, and cutting down the flowers, is a very fine and fignificant Allegory.

I cannot fo much commend the story of the Squire of Dames, and the intrigue between Paridell and Hellenore: these paffages favour too much of the coarfe and comick mixtures in Ariofto: but that image of Jealoufy, at the end of Canto X. grown to a favage, throwing himself into a cave, and lying there without ever fhutting one eye, under a craggy clift juft threatening to fall, is ftrongly conceived, and very poetical. There is likewife a great variety of fancy in drawing up and diftinguishing, by their proper emblems, the vifionary perfons in the Mask of Cupid, which is one of the chief embellishments of this Book.

In the ftory of Cambel and Canace, in Book IV. the Author has taken the rise of his invention from the Squire's Tale in Chaucer, the greatest part of which was loft. The battle of Cambel with the three brethren, and the fudden parting of it by that beautiful machine of the appearance of Concord, who by a touch of her wand charms down the fury of the warriours, and converts them into friends, is one of the most fhining paffages in this Legend. We may add to this the fiction concerning the Girdle of Florimel, which is a good Allegory; as alfo the defcription of Atè, or Difcord; that of Care, working like a smith, and living amidst the perpetual noife of hammers; and efpecially the Temple of Venus, which is adorned with a great variety of