confiftent, emblematically and typically, fome hiftorical characters and real transactions might be fignifyed. Thus though in one sense you are in Fairy land, yet in another you may be in the British dominions.

And here methinks a fair opportunity offers of laying before the reader, at one view, fome of the hiftorical allufions, that lye concealed in this myftical poem. That there are hiftorical allufions in this poem, Spenfer himself tells us, " In that Faery Queene (fays he in his letter to Sir W. R.) I mean Glory in my general intention; but in my particular I conceive the "moft excellent and glorious perfon of our Soveraine the Queene, "and HER KINGDOME in Faery land." So in his Introduction to the fecond Book, St. iv.

Of Faerie lond yet if he more inquire

By certaine fignes here fet in fundry place,
He may it find

And thou, O faireft princeffe under fky,
In this fayre mirrhour maift behold thy face;
And thine owne realmes in lond of Faery,

And in this antique image thy great ancestry.

So likewife in his Introduction to the third Book, St. 3.

But, O dredd foveragne,

Thus far forth pardon, fith that choiceft witt
Cannot your glorious pourtrait figure playne,
That I in colourd showes may fhadow itt,

And antique praifes unto PRESENT PERSONS fitt.

This fubject I formerly mentioned in a letter to Mr. Weft, concerning a new edition of Spenfer; and from that letter I fhall here borrow what is to my prefent purpose, adding fome things and altering others.

d 2

What

.

What reader is ignorant that kingdoms are often imaged by their arms and enfigns? when therefore I fuppofe the Lion, Una's defender [fee note on B. 1. C. 3. St. 9. and on St. 18. and 43.] to be the defender of the faith, our English King, I make no queftion but this will be as readily allowed me, as when I fuppofe the Raven, the Danish arms, to ftand for the Dane himself.

Ne fhall the Saxons felves all peaceably
Enjoy the crowne-----

There fhall a Raven far from rifing funne
With his wide wings upon them fiercely fly.

Thus in the Ruines of Time.

B. iii. C. 3. St. 46.

What now is of th' Affyrian Lyoneffe,
Of whom no footing now on earth appeares?
What of the Perfian Beares outrageoufneffe,
Whofe memory is quite worne out with yeares?
Who of the Grecian Libbard now ought heares
That over-ran the Eaft with greedy powre,

And left his whelps their kingdoms to devoure?

The Allyrian Lyonesse images the Affyrian and Chaldean empire. Daniel vII. 4. The firft was like a Lion [the Affyrian and Chaldean empire] A fecond like a Bear [the Persian] Another like a Leopard [Alexander K. of Macedon] HIS WHELPS, his captains who divided among themselves the vast empires that he had conquered. From confidering arms and enfigns, imaging kingdoms and knights, I found out as I thought the clew, directing me to the allufion of the Babes bloody hands: the adventure of the fecond day, affigned to Sir Guyon. He is called the bloudyhanded babe, and hence Ruddymane, B. ii. C. 3. St. 2. this will appear from Spenfer's words in his view of Ireland, "The Irish under Oneal cry Launderg-abo, that is the BLOODY

And

(( HAND,

HAND, which is Oneals badge." The rebellion of the Oneals seems to be imaged in this episode: they all drank so deep of the charm and venom of Acrafia, that their blood was infected with fecret filth. [B. ii. C. 2. St. 4.] The ungovernable tempers of the Oneals hurried them into conftant infurrections, as may be seen in Camden's account of the rebellion of the Irish Oneals. But to make this hiftorical allufion ftill clearer, I will cite a paffage from Cambden in the life of Q. Elizabeth. Ann. 1567. "Thus did Shan Oneal come to his bloody end: A man he was who had ftained his hands with blood, and dealt in all the pollutions of unchaft embraces.-----The children he left by "his wife, were Henry and Shan: but he had feveral more by "O-donell's wife, and others of his miftreffes." His wife Spenfer has introduced in B. ii. C. 1. St. 35, &c. The Lion in B. v. C. 7. St. 16. points out a British king, and particularly the king mentioned in B. iii. C. 3. St. 29. Mercilla, who is attended by a Lion in B. v. C. 9. St. 33. is Q. Elizabeth and the Lady brought to the bar, Mary Q. of Scots. Her two paramours, faithless Blandamour and Paridell, are the Earls of Northumberland and Weftmorland. Blandamour is plainly the Earl of Northumberland, because the poet calls him in B. v. C. 1. St. 35. The Hot-Spurre Youth,' which was the wellknown name of the young Percy in the reign of K. Henry IV. In fome places of his poem he has given us the very names without any disguise; thus he mentions Sir Bourbon, B. v. C. 11. St. 52. And Belge, B. v. C. 10. St. 6. Somewhat covertly Irene is expreffed, which in the notes we have fuppofed to be the fame as Ierne. Philip K. of Spain is often characterized. Arthegal is Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton. The Earl of Effex is imaged in Sir Guyon; Dr. Whitgift, his fometime tutor, in the reverend Palmer. Sir Satyrane is Sir John Perrot: whose behaviour, though honeft, yet was too coarse and rude for a Court: effe quam videri bonus malebat. 'Twas well known that he was a fon of Henry the vith; and this is plainly alluded to,

in

in B. i. C. 6. St. 21, 22. But of all the hiftorical characters here delineated, the moft ftriking feems that of Sir W. R. whom we may trace almost in every adventure of the gentle fquire Timias; and whofe name [is] points out Spenfer's honoured friend. Unfortunate man to fall under the displeasure of Belphabe, the Virgin Queen! How could he prefume to carry on a criminal amour with any one of her maids of honour ?

IS THIS THE FAITH, fhe faid---and said no more,
But turn'd her face, and fled away for evermore.
B. iv. C. 7. St. 7.

This Lady he afterwards married: She was a daughter of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton; and it seems to me that her story is fhadowed in B. iv. C. 7. where Amoret is rapt by greedy Luft,' The calumny and flander that befell her is imaged in St. 23, &c. This fame Lady likewife is typically shown in Serena : though he defignedly perplexes the ftory, and makes her beloved by Sir Calepine; as he makes Amoret beloved by Sir Scudamore. If the reader cannot fee through thefe difguifes, he will fee nothing but the dead letter: Serena is carried to the Hermit's cell together with the gentle Squire, to be healed of their wounds, inflicted on them by the rancerous tooth of Calumny and Scandal. 'Tis not to be supposed that Sir P. Sidney was forgotten; whom I think we may discover in the knight of Courtesy. Perhaps Marinel, who has his name from the Sea, was intended to reprefent in fome particulars the Lord high Admiral, the Lord Howard. I cannot find any other Fairy knight, to whom properly might be applied, what Spenfer fays in his Sonnet prefixed to this poem:

Thy praises everlasting monument

Is in this verfe engravcu femblably,
That it may live to all pofterity.

By this expreffion in this verfe engraven femblably he cannot mean in this fonnet; for the word semblably, I think, has refe

rence

rence to that historical resemblance that these imaginary beings. in Fairy land bore to those real heroes of Queen Elizabeth's Court. There are other allufions of a like complicated nature. Belvoir caftle (fo named from the fair and extenfive view of the country all around) seems not obfcurely intimated, in B. vi. C. 12. St. 3. Unto the Castle of Belgard her brought,

Whereof was Lord the good Sir Bellamoure.

Allufions of a political nature require still a more delicate touch : and as times and circumstances altered during the first planning of the poem, and the publishing of it, fo the poet was obliged in this particular scheme to alter likewife, and to complicate and perplex the allufions. Methinks when I fee Braggadochio and his buffoon fervant Trompart repulfed by Belphoebe, I cannot help thinking them proper types of the Duke of Anjou and of Simier. Several of these kind of typical allufions are pointed out, particularly in the notes on the fifth book and these I am perfuaded will appear very far-fetched to any one, who pays but little regard to the doctrine of types, fymbols, and figurative representations: while others will rather wonder that the subject is not pursued much further. It may reasonably be fuppofed if Amoret and Florimel in fome particulars are the types of Mary Queen of Scots, political reafons might oblige Spenfer to abuse her under the character of Dueffa in the Fifth Book; which was published fome years after the three first books. Amoret was Belphoebe's fifter [B. iii. C. 6.] and Queen Elizabeth addrefled the Queen of Scots always with the title of Sifter. How is it then contrary to the decorum of this poem to suppose, that by the cruel treatment of Amoret by Bufirane is meant, not only in the general moral the vile vaffalage of Love and Beauty under the tyranny of Luft, but in the

* Spenfer ufes Belgards as the French belles regardes, in B. ii. C. 3. St. 25. B. iii. C. 9. St. 52. See this resemblance purfued farther in the notes, pag. 655 and P. 657, 658.

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