This circumstance, and the more recent asylum afforded in Scotland to Henry VI., are probably alluded to by Molinet, when he terms that country "De tous siècles, le mendre The style of Mr Godwin's life of Chaucer is, in our apprehension, uncommonly depraved, exhibiting the opposite defects of meanness and of bombast. This is especially evident in those sentimental flourishes with which he has garnished his narrative, and which appear to us to be executed in a most extraordinary taste. In the following simile, for example, we hardly know whether most to admire the elegance and power of conception, or the happy ease and dignity of expression. "Its slender pillars (the author is treating of the later Gothic architecture) may possess various excellences, but they are certainly not magnificent; and the shafts by which the pillars are frequently surrounded have an insignificant air, suggesting to us an idea of fragility, and almost reminding us of the humble vehicle through which an English or German rustic inhales the fumes of the Indian weed."-Vol. i. p. 145. In p. 181, we hear of " a tune, in which the luxuriance and multiplicity of musical sounds obs cures and tramples with disdain upon the majestic simplicity of words." In other places, we find "the technicalities of justice"-" the religious nerve of the soul of man" -young knights who looked upon the field of Roncesvalles with augmented circulation"-" unforshortened figures"-an "ancient baron neighboured to a throne," and sundry other extremely new and whimsical expressions. But even these conceited barbarisms offend us less than the execrable taste displayed in the following account of Chaucer's early studies: 66 "He gave himself up to the impressions of nature, and to the sensations he experienced. He studied the writings of his contemporaries, and of certain of the aucients. He was learned according to the learning of his age. He wrote, because he felt himself impelled to write. He analyzed the models which were before him. He sought to please his friends and fellow scholars in the two Universities. He aspired to an extensive and lasting reputation."-Vol. i. p. 436. We have no doubt that Mr Godwin considers these short sentences as the true model of a nervous and concise style. For our part, we find the sense so poor and trite, when compared with the pithy and sententious mode of delivery, that we feel in our closet the same shame we have sometimes experienced in the theatre, when a fourth-rate actor has exposed himself by mouthing, slapping his pockets, and, according to stage phrase, making the most of a trifling part. We will not pursue this subject any further, although we could produce from these ponderous tomes some notable instances of the passages have tempted us to exclaim with Pandarus (dropping only one letter of his ejaculation), "Alas! alas! so noble a creature As is a man should reden * such ordure !" Upon the whole, Mr Godwin's friends have, in one respect, great reason to be satisfied with the progress of his convalescence. We hope and trust, that the favourable symptoms of his case may continue. He is indeed now and then very low; or, in other words, uncommonly dull; but there is no apparent return of that fever of the spirits which alarmed us so much in his original publications. The insurrection of Jack Straw (a very dangerous topic) produces only a faint and moderate aspiration breathed towards the "sacred doctrines of equality," which it is admitted are too apt to be "rashly, superficially, and irreverently acted upon, involving their disciples in the most fearful calamity." The disgrace of Alice Pierce, or Perrers, the chere amie of Edward III., or, as Mr Godwin delicately terms her, "the chosen companion of his hours of retirement and leisure," calls down his resentment against the turbulence and rudeness of the Good Parliament. But less could hardly have been expected from the author of the memoirs of a late memorable female.+ We cannot help remarking that the principles of a modern philosopher continue to alarm the public, after the good man himself has abandoned them, just as the very truest tale will sometimes be distrusted from the habitual falsehood of the narrator. We fear this may have incommoded Mr Godwin in his antiquarian researches, more than he seems to be aware of. When he complains that private collectors declined to part with their treasures for a short time . out of their own hands," did it never occur to Mr Godwin that the maxims concerning property, contained in his "Political Justice," were not altogether calculated to conciliate confidence in the author? But, upon the whole, the Life of Chaucer, if an uninteresting, is an innocent performance; and were its prolixities and superfluities unsparingly pruned (which would reduce the work to about onefourth of its present size), we would consider it as an accession of some value to English literature. * For dreden. + [Memoirs of Mary Woolstonecroft, author of " The Rights of Woman." 8vo. 1798.] ARTICLE IV. TODD'S EDITION OF SPENSER. [From the Edinburgh Review for 1805. On the Works of EDMUND SPENSER, with the principal Illustrations of various Commentators: To which are added, Notes, some Account of the Life of SPENSER, and a Glossarial and other Indexes. By the Rev. JOHN TODD, M.A.F.A.S. 8 vols. 1805.] A COMPLETE and respectable edition of Spenser's works, has been long a desideratum in English literature. Indeed, to what purpose do our antiquaries purchase at high rates, and peruse, at the cost of still more valuable leisure and labour, the treasures of the black letter, which, in themselves, have usually so very little to repay their exertions? Surely, the only natural and proper use of the knowledge thus acquired, is to throw light, as well upon our early literature, as on the manners and language of our ancestors, by re-editing and explaining such of our ancient authors as have suffered by the change of both. Amongst these, Spenser must ever be reckoned one of the most eminent; for no other, perhaps, ever possessed and combined, in so brilliant a degree, the requisite qualities of a poet. Learned, according to the learning of his times, his erudition never appears to load or encumber his powers of imagination; but even the fictions of the classics, worn out as they are by the use of every pedant, become fresh and captivating themes, when adopted by his fancy, and accommodated to his plan. If that plan has now become to the reader of riper years somewhat tedious and involved, it must be allowed, on the other hand, that from Cowley downwards, every youth of imagination has been enchanted with the splendid legends of the Faëry Queen. It was therefore with pleasure that we turned to the examination of a work, which promised to recall the delightful sensations of our earlier studies; and if we have been in some respects disappointed in the perusal, we do not impute it altogether to want of diligence or accuracy on the part of Mr Todd, whose commentary, so far as it goes, is in both respects commendable. In the Life of Spenser, which is the longest specimen of original composition, he has brought forward several new facts, and evinced a laudable anxiety to throw light upon the story, by comparison of dates, and investigation of contemporary documents. The result of his labours is stated in so modest a manner, as ought, in some degree, to humble account of the Life of Spenser, drawn from authentic records, the curiosity and importance of which, will, I trust, be admitted by the liberal and candid as an apology for the want of biographical elegance." It is, however, our duty to point out some defects in the plan of this Memoir, by avoiding which, we apprehend, much might have been added to its perspicuity and elegance, without the least derogation from its authenticity. The events of Spenser's earlier life are, in some measure, extracted from a correspondence betwixt the poet and Gabriel Harvey, the same against whom Nash wrote the satire, well known among collectors, entitled, "Have with you to Saffron-Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt's up." It was highly meritorious in Mr Todd to peruse these letters, and to consider them as proper materials for his biography. But we are disposed to blame him, first, because he has not republished an entire copy of this curious correspondence, which was of so much importance to the matter in hand; and, secondly, because, instead of printing the letters as an appendix to the life, he has thrust large extracts from them into the midst of his own narrative. Nothing, indeed, in our opinion, could have a more confused and inelegant effect than this medley of narrative and quotation. The biographer should always study to give his work the appearance of continuity. He may and ought to refer distinctly to the sources of his information; and where there is doubt, the words of the original documents may be subjoined in a note to justify his inference; but the text ought to be expressed historically, and in the language of the author himself. It is extremely awkward to jump from the words of the narrator into those of Spenser, and has, besides, the effect of making one part of the memoir bear a great disproportion to the other; for the letter-writer spends much more time in discussing the matter then immediately before him, than the biographer has probably an opportunity of bestowing upon incidents of much greater importance. Nevertheless, although these letters are thus thrust upon our hands in a disorderly manner, the extracts have afforded us amusement, and give room, as we have already hinted, to regret that they had not been printed separately, with such explanatory notes as Mr Todd's researches suggested. We perceive from thence, that Spenser had busied himself in the fruitless and unharmonious task of versifying, as it was then called, that is, of composing English verses according to the Latin prosody. He seems, at the same time, to have been fully sensible of the difficulty of the attempt, and we wonder at his perseverance, after the humour with which he describes its effects. "I like your late Englishe Hexameters so exceedingly well, that I also enure my penne worde, neither so harde nor so harshe, that it will easily and fairely yeelde it selfe to oure moother tongue. For the onely, or chiefest hardnesse, whyche seemeth, is in the accente; whyche sometime gapeth, and as it were yawneth ilfavouredly; comming shorte of that it should, and sometime exceeding the measure of the number, as in Carpenter, the middle sillable being used shorte in speache, when it shall be read long in verse, seemeth like a lame gosling, that draweth one legge after hir: and Heaven, being used shorte as one sillable when it is in verse, stretched out with a diastole, is like a lame dogge that holdes up one legge. But it is to be wonne with custome, and rough words must be subdued with use. For, why a God's name may not we, as else the Greekes, have the kingdome of our own language, and measure our accentes by the sounde, reserving the quantitie to the verse? Loe here I let you see my olde use of toying in rymes, turned into your artificial straightness of verse by this Tetrasticon. I beseech you tell me your fancie, without parcialitie. "See yee the blindefoulded pretie god, that feathered archer, We would hardly have suspected Spenser, the marshalled march of whose stanza is in general so harmonious, of drilling the stubborn and unmanageable words of the English language into such strange doggrel. The verses are truly "lame and o'erburthened, and screaming their wretchedness." From another passage in this correspondence, the young poet may learn how little he ought to rely upon the taste even of the ablest counsellor. Harvey was a scholar, and, in some sense, even a poet; he was, moreover, Spenser's long approved and singular good friend; nevertheless, Gabriel had the assurance to write the following libel upon the Faëry Queen, for the conceited pedantry of which he deserves a worse Hunt's up than was played him by Nashe. "In good faith I had once againe nigh forgotten your Faërie Queene: howbeit, by good chaunce I have nowe sent hir home at the laste, neither in better nor worse case than I found hir. And must you, of necessitie, have my judgment of hir in deede? To be plaine; I am voyde of al judgment, if your nine Comedies, whereunto, in imitation of Herodotus, you give the names of the Nine Muses (and in one mans fansie not unworthily), come not neerer Ariostoes Comedies, eyther for the finenesse of plausible elocution, or the rarenesse of poetical invention, than that Elvish Queene doth to his Orlando Furioso; which notwithstanding, you will needes seeme to emulate, aud hope to overgo, as you flatly professed yourself in one of your last Letters. But I will not stand greatly with you in your owne matters. If so be the Fairie Queene be fairer in your eie than the Nine Muses, and Hobgoblin runne away with the garland from Apollo; marke what I saye; and yet I will not say that [which] I thought; but there an end for this once, and fare you well till God, or some good Aungel, putte you in a better mind.”—P. xlv. xlvi. There is another circumstance which gives Mr Todd's Life of Spenser a more clumsy and ungainly appearance than the matter itself really deserves. It has been observed long ago, that the history of an author is the history of his works; and therefore Mr Todd has, with great propriety, regularly recorded the various publications of his author, in the order in which they were given to the world; but, from a want of arrangement, not peculiar to this editor, he has uniformly appended to his notices of these publications, a variety of circumstances, illustrative of their contents, which properly make no part of Spenser's life, although they ought to have been introduced "It is to be lamented," says Mr Cooper Walker, in a letter to Mr Todd, "that |
