The vertue of this courser, and the might,
And praiéd him to tell his governaunce.1

This hors, anon, gan for to trip and daunce,
Whan that the knight laid hond upon his rein;
And saidé, "Sire! ther n' is no more to sain,
But whan you list to riden any where,
Ye moten trill2 a pin, stant3 in his ere,
Which I shal tellen you betwixt us two;
Ye moten nempne1 him to what place also,
Or to what contree, that you list to ride.
And when ye come ther as you list abide,
Bid him descend, and trill another pin,
(For therin lieth the effect of all the gin,6)
And he wol doun descend and don your will,
And in that place he wol abiden still:
Though al the world had the contràry swore,
He shall not thennes be drawé ne be bore.7
Or if you list to bid him thennés gon,
Trillé this pin, and he wol vanish anon
Out of the sight of every maner wight,
And come agen, be it by day or night,
Whan that you list to clepen him again,
In swiche a guise as I shal to you sain
Betwixen you and me, and that ful sone.
Ride whan you list, ther n' is no more to done."
Enfourmed whan the king was of the knight,
And hath conceivéd in his wit aright
The maner and the forme of all this thing,
Ful glad and blith, this noble doughty king
Repaireth to his revel, as beforne.
The bridel is in to the tour yborne,
And kept among his jewels lefe and dere;
The hors vanisht, I n'ot 10 in what manere,
Out of hir sight; ye get no more of me:
But thus I lete, in lust 12 and jolitee,

(1) His govèrnaunce-the mode of governing him. (2) Trill-twirl, turn round. This word is akin to drill, thrill, twirl, tirl (see an article on the meaning and origin of the verb to tirl, by Sir G. C. Lewis, in the "Classical Museum," vol. i. pp. 113-124). (3) Stant-i. e. which stands. (4) Moten nempne— must name. (5) Ther as you list, &c.-Where you wish to stop. (6) Gin -engine. (7) Bore-borne. (8) Clepen-call. (10) N'ot-know not. (11) Lete-let, leave. and lest-pleasure.

(9) Lefe-pleasing, beloved. (12) Lust-connected with list

This Cambuscán his lordés festeying,
Til that wel nigh the day began to spring.1

GOOD COUNSAIL OF CHAUCER.2

6

FLY fro the prease,3 and dwell with sothfastnesse,
Suffise unto thy good though it be small,
For horde hath hate, and climbing tikelnesse,
Prease hath envy, and wele7 is blent over all,
Savours no more than thee behové shall,
Rede well thy selfe that other folk canst rede,
And trouth thee shall deliver, it is no drede.10
Peiné thee not ech crooked to redresse,
In trust of her that tourneth" as a ball;
Great rest standèth in little businesse,
Beware 12 also to spurne againe a nall,13
Strive not as doth a crocké 14 with a wall,

(1) Thus concludes what is called the first part of the story. The second describes the rising of Canace at daybreak, to try the effect of her ring. The sunrise is thus simply and freshly painted ;

"The vapour, which that fro the erthé glode (glided),

Maketh the sonne to semé rody and brode;

But nathéles it was so faire a sight,

That it made all hir hertes for to light (lighten)

What for the seson, and the morwening (morning)

And for the foulés that she herdé sing:

For right anon she wisté what they ment,

Right by hir song, and knew al hir entent."

Her attention is soon attracted to a falcon, whose pitiful lamentation extends over nearly two hundred lines, and is for the most part very prolix and wearisome. Shortly after the piece abruptly closes, being evidently left-if we judge by the plan which the author lays down--even less than "half told." Spenser, in the "Faerie Queene" (book iv. cantos 2 and 3), afterwards attempted to supply the deficiency.

(2) This is said to have been Chaucer's last composition, and written upon his death-bed, "when he was in great anguish." (8) Prease-press, crowd. (4) Sothfastnesse-truth. (5) Suffise unto, &c.-Be satisfied with thy wealth. (6) Tikelnesse-uncertainty. (7) Wele is, &c.-Wealth or riches are blind (blent) or deceitful above all things. (8) Savour-taste, affect. (9) Rede-counsel. (10) It is no drede-there is no fear or doubt. (11) Her that tourneth, &c.-Fortune. (12) Beware-take care not, like the French gardez-vous de. (13) Nall -nail. (14) Crocke-earthen pitcher.

Demé1 thy selfe that demest others dede,2
And trouth thee shall deliver, it is no drede.

That thee is sent receive in buxomnesse,3
The wrastling of this world asketh a fall,
Here is no home, here is but wildernesse,
Forth, pilgrime! forth, beast, out of thy stall!
Looke up on high, and thanké God of all!
Weivé thy lusts, and let thy ghost thee lede,
And trouth thee shall deliver, it is no drede.

SPENSER.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF HIS LIFE.-Edmund Spenser-"The Prince of Poets in his time,"was, like Chaucer, a native of London. He was born in East Smithfield, in 1553. He was educated at Cambridge, and early in life became the friend of the accomplished Sir Philip Sidney, and a dependent on the powerful Earl of Leicester, Sidney's uncle. By this nobleman he was, in 1580, sent to Ireland, as secretary to Lord Grey of Wilton, who had been appointed the Lord Deputy of that country. For his services in this capacity, he subsequently obtained of the crown the grant of an estate in Cork, named Kilcolman, with a castle of the same name. During his residence here, his great poem, "The Faerie Queene," was probably begun, and here he was visited by Sir Walter Raleigh, who, after Sir Philip Sidney's death, had become Spenser's principal friend and patron, and who is said to have introduced him to Queen Elizabeth. His success as a courtier was doubtful, if we may believe his own experience, thus recorded:

"Full little knowest thou, that hast not tride,
What hell it is, in suing long to bide:

To loose good dayes that might be better spent,
To wast long nights in pensive discontent;
To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;
To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow;
To have thy princes grace, yet want her peeres;
To have thy asking, yet waite manie yeeres;

(1) Deme-judge. (2) Others dede-others' deed, that which is done by

others.

forsake.

(3) Buxomnesse-obedience (see note 2, p. 125).

(5) Ghost-spirit.

(6) So styled in the inscription on his tomb.

(4) Weive-waive,

To fret thy soule wirh crosses and with cares;
To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires;
To fawne, to crowche, to ride, to waite, to ronne;
To spend, to give, to want, to be undonne."

دوو

Spenser's earthly career ended very mournfully. In the rebellion of Tyrone, his castle was attacked, and to conclude in Ben Jonson's words, "The Irish having robbed Spenser's goods, and burnt his house, and a little child new-born, he and his wife escaped; and after, he died for lake (lack) of bread, in King Street, and refused twenty pieces sent to him by my lord of Essex, adding, He was sorrie he had no time to spend them. He died in 1598, and was buried, at his own request, near Chaucer, in Westminster Abbey, and the most celebrated poets of the time followed the hearse, and threw "mournful elegies" into his grave. PRINCIPAL WORKS.-Spenser's most important poems are The Shepheards Calender," "An Hymne of Heavenly Love," "An Hymne of Heavenly Beautie," "Prothalamion" and "Epithalamion,' both nuptial poems; two elegies entitled "Daphnaïda" and Astrophel," The Ruines of Rome," "The Ruines of Time," Muiopotmos, or the Fate of the Butterfly;" and far transcending all the rest both in extent and merit, "The Faerie Queene.' The subject of this poem is thus described by Dr. Aikin:

66

"His

Faery Queen' is by much the most considerable allegorical poem in our language; and in many respects it deserves the reputation which through two centuries it has enjoyed. Its plan, indeed, is most singularly perplexed and incoherent; and as the work is unfinished, it would be entirely unintelligible had not the author himself given a prefatory explanation of it. The term faery is used by him to denote something existing only in the regions of fancy, and the Faery Queen is the abstract idea of Glory personified. The knights of faery-land are the twelve virtues, who are the champions or servants of the Queen. The British Prince Arthur, who is the subject of so many fabulous legends, becomes enamoured of the Faery Queen in a vision, and comes to seek her in faery-land. He is the image of perfect excellence, and is regarded as the general hero of the piece. Each book, however, has its particular hero, who is one of the virtues above mentioned, and who goes through a course of adventures modelled upon the tales of chivalry, and having for their object the relief of some distressed damsel, or other sufferer under wrong and oppression. He encounters giants, monsters, enchanters, and the like, who are the allegorised foes of the particular virtue of which he is the representative; and prince

(1) "Letters on English Poetry," p. 212.

Arthur, the general hero, occasionally appears as his auxiliary when he is hard pressed.

"Thus far there is some consistency in the plan; but the poet had the further view of paying his court to Queen Elizabeth, the great topic of all the learned adulation of the age. She is therefore typified by the person of the Faery Queen, and several incidents of her history are related under the veil of allegory: the principal personages of her court are likewise occasionally alluded to in the characters of the faery knights. Moreover, the supposed real history of Arthur and other British princes is interwoven with the tissue of fictitious adventure. It is impossible to conceive a more tangled skein of narrative, and the author could scarcely expect that any reader would take the pains to unravel it. In fact, no one at present regards this poem in any other light than as a gallery of allegorical pictures, no otherwise connected than by the relation several of them bear to one common hero. It would be no easy matter to form one consistent allegory of any single book, and to explain the emblematical meaning of every adventure ascribed to its particular knight."

CHARACTERISTIC SPIRIT AND STYLE.-"His command of imagery is wide, easy, and luxuriant. He threw the soul of harmony into our verse, and made it more warmly, tenderly, and magnificently descriptive than it ever was before, or, with a few exceptions, than it has ever been since. It must certainly be owned, that in description he exhibits nothing of the brief strokes and robust power which characterise the very greatest poets; but we shall nowhere find more airy and expansive images of visionary things, a sweeter tone of sentiment, or a finer flush in the colours of language, than in this Rubens of English poetry. His fancy teems exuberantly in minuteness of circumstance, like a fertile soil sending bloom and verdure through the utmost extremities of the foliage which it nourishes. On a comprehensive view of the whole work, we certainly miss the charm of strength, symmetry, and rapid or interesting progress; for though the plan which the poet designed is not completed, it is easy to see that no additional cantos could have rendered it less perplexed. But still there is a richness in his materials, even where their coherence is loose, and their disposition confused. The clouds of his allegory may seem to spread into shapeless forms, but they are still the clouds of a glowing atmosphere. Though his story grows desultory, the sweetness and grace of his manner still abide by him. He is like a speaker whose tones continue to be pleasing, though he may speak too long; or like a painter who makes us forget the defect of his design, by the magic of his colouring. We always rise from