GRAY. In a small degree. Every stream nourishes some shallower brook-every writer, however humble his talents, draws some one after him. At the commencement of the sixteenth century, about 1517, appeared the Pastime of Pleasure, by Stephen Hawes, a friend, I think, of Lydgate, whom he calls his Master, the original of all his learning, and the model of his compositions. But we shall lose nothing by hurrying along with our eyes closed until we reach Sackville,-beyond all comparison the truest poet between Chaucer and Spenser. Pope thought his Gorboduc written in a purer style than some of the earlier plays of Shakspeare. He was of the School of Dante, whom he resembles in the severity and grandeur of his imagination. The poet represents himself wandering into the fields, when the wintry snow has beaten down the flowers, and covered the earth with gloom. In his walk he meets with Sorrow, who conducts him to the abode of the unhappy dead. The figures with which he peoples "The dark Averne," are delineated with surprising vigour. Who could fail to recognise Care. Greedy Care still brushing up the breres, His knuckles knob'd, his flesh deep dented in, The picture of Dread is the finest personification in the language. There is something very bold in the conception of Old Age, His wither'd fist still knocking at Death's door. And of Sleep: By him lay heavy Sleep, the cousin of Death, Which comes and goes more faster than we see MASON. I suppose you place the accomplished Earl of Surrey in the second Italian School. GRAY. His compositions are slight and few in number; but their influence upon our literature was deeply felt. He was our earliest writer of blank-verse, and to him we owe the introduction of the Sonnet and the ternal rhyme of Dante; a measure employed by Milton in the second Psalm, and from its * Keats has transferred this description-whether with acknowledgment or not, I cannot say,-to Saturn, who sits still as any stone. N solemnity and dignity peculiarly appropriated to sacred poetry. I fall in with the common error, in attributing the invention of the Terza Rima to Dante; because there is extant, a composition by his master, Brunetto Latini, in this very metre. The fancy of Surrey was tinged with the romance of his Italian models. He very gracefully describes the delights of the Tennis-Court, with the surrounding seats thronged by high-born beauties, whose bright eyes rained influence : With dazed eyes we oft by gleams of love This is natural and tender, and not unlike the gallantry of Petrarch. MASON. Your imagination kindles as the Fairy Queen begins to dawn upon you. GRAY. I cannot speak of Spenser without affection. I revere Milton, but I love Spenser, and never sit down to compose a verse, without first refreshing my fancy with his works; they soothe my mind into contemplation like a strain of soft music. I will not try my pencil upon a face whose lineaments have been so often drawn; but I would say to every youthful student of poetry, in the words of Shakspeare: Dost thou love pictures? we will fetch thee strait And Cytherea all in sedges hid, Which seem to move and wanton with her breath, Even as the waving sedges play with wind. Taming of the Shrew; Act i., Sc. 4. With what astonishment did my eye glance for the first time over Addison's contemptuous criticism of the Fairy Queen; not knowing that he never read Spenser until fifteen years afterwards. It must have been in a similar spirit of adventurous ignorance, that he blamed Chaucer for want of humour. No poet ever imbued his country's literature so deeply as Spenser: you catch the echo of his lute in Drayton, Fairfax, Fletcher, Browne, and many others, until it died away for a season in the early poems of Milton. The magnetic power of Genius not only attracts other minds, but imparts to those minds, in an inferior degree, the power of attracting others in their turn. But from that chief Stone at the head of the series, comes the virtue operating through them all*. Whatever of beauty you meet with in the imitators of Spenser, is inspired by their Master. * See Plato's curious and interesting dialogue, The Io. MASON. Many a heavy look Follow'd sweet Spenser. Britannia's Pastorals. He could not be mourned by a more congenial spirit; and if accident had not deprived us of Browne's Lives of the English Poets, we should probably have possessed a more complete history of your favourite bard than we are ever likely to obtain. Browne did not sing in vain. His little stream of pastoral sweetness may be seen running through a considerable portion of the poetry of the seventeenth century. Milton disdained not to drink of it. His fancy was picturesque and tender; and his ear susceptible of the finest harmony. The picture of Satyrs, reminds me of the learned pencil of Poussin : While shaggy Satyrs tripping o'er the strands The flutter of the leaves is prettily described : And as the year hath first his jocund Spring, His similes are lively and natural: |