792 
POE 
Fairy Queen ffiould give occafion for feveral moral vir¬ 
tues, enfampled as knights, to dart on different perilous 
adventures. But this poem was to have been fo managed, 
that, inftead of beginning, this fad was to have ended the 
book. The twelve refpedlive ad ventures of twelve differ¬ 
ent knights were >o have been told in as many different 
poems; and ultimately it was propofed, that the explana¬ 
tion of the allegory Ihould be made by a retrofpeftive 
view of the fairy queen’s court. Our author only 
finifhed the firft fix books, fo that we only know this con- 
fummation from a letter of his to fir W. Raleigh. To 
recapitulate all the beauties of this poem is impoffible ; 
but we mult call our reader’s attention particularly to the 
very excellent and rapid manner which Spenfer has of 
narrating, and his vividnefs and clearnefs in defcribing ; 
the Ikilful mode with which he embodies the fineft paf- 
fages from the dallies into his work, and improves their 
beauties; the chadity of his expreflions, and the mighty 
ffretch of imagination which enables him to give the molt 
palpable form and human reality to mere mortal creations; 
as we fee efpecially in his defeription of Error, Sleep, See. 
and alfo in that of Hulinefs, and the other virtues. 
Thofe who are fond of energetic and pithy language, 
and love to trace the dawn of that reafoning dyle of poe¬ 
try which appeals rather to the urfderltanding than to the 
heart, will enjoy the perufal of Daniel's poems. Critics 
give credit alfo to this author for confiderable powers in 
pathos, though not in the fublime ; and, as this feems to 
us true, we cannot but regret that he fo feldom exerted 
his powers on tender fubjeds. His chief poem was an 
hifforical account of the civil wars between the houfes of 
York and Lancafter. In his tragedies he is inferior to 
many of his contemporaries; and is one of the few of 
that time who endeavoured to apply the Ariftotelian rules 
to the conftruiSfion of the drama. His “ Complaint of 
Rofamond” is a very touching and forcible produ&ion, 
and has lines in it of extraordinary vigour. Thofe on 
the then recent introduction of the artifice of painting 
the cheeks, are worth tranferibing as remarkable : 
Such one was I; my beauty was my own, 
No borrowed blulh which bankrupt beauties feek; 
That new-found lhame, a fin to us unknown, 
The adulterate beauty of a faded cheek, 
Vile ftain to honour and to woman eke. 
Impiety of times, chaftity’s abator, 
Falfehood wherein thyfelf thyfelf denieff, 
Treafon to counterfeit the feal of nature, 
The Itamp of heaven impreffed by the Higheft ; 
Difgrace unto the world, to whom thou lieft; 
Fool unto thyfelf, lhame to the wife, 
And all that honour thee idolatrize. 
Far was that fire from us.yvhofe age was pure. 
When fimple beauty was accounted bed; 
The time when women had no other lure 
But modeffy, pure cheeks, a virtuous bread. 
This was the font wherewith my youth was blefs’d ; 
Thefe were the weapons which my honour won 
In all the conflicts which mine eyes begun. 
Rofamond in this poem fpeaks of her ruin as partly 
accomplilhed by a matron who “fet upon her with the 
fmoothefl fpeech that court and age could cunningly de- 
vife;” and then burds out with jufl indignation againd 
fuch 
Hateful confounders both of blood and laws, 
Vile orators of lhame that plead delight, 
Ungracious agents in a wicked caule, 
Factors for darknefs, meffengers of night, 
Serpents of guile, devils that do unite 
The wanton tafle of that forbidden tree. 
You in the credit of a grave afpeO, 
In credit by the trud of years, can Ihow 
The cunning ways of lud, and can direCt 
The fair and wily wantons how to go ; 
TRY. 
Having your loathfome felves your youth fpent Co ; 
And in uncleannefs even have been fed 
By the revenue of a wanton bed. 
By you have been the innocent betray’d, 
The blulhing fearful boldened into fin, 
The wife made fubtle, fubtle made the maid, 
The hulband fcorn’d, dilhonoured the kin. 
Parents difgraced, children infamous been ; 
Confus’d our race, and falfified our blood, 
While father’s fons poffefs wrong father’s good. 
The reader will obferve from the above extracts, that 
Daniel does not always complete either his fentences or 
the rhythm of his verfes. 
The works of Tuberville, Warner, Drayton, Donne, Cor¬ 
bet, Drummond, the Fletchers,Beaumont,Dav'enant, and Jon- 
fon, remain in our compendiums of poetry; and are well 
worth the attention of the poet, both in regard to their 
various dyles and numerous beauties; and to the anti¬ 
quarian and hidorian they offer much intereding matter. 
But the talk of reading them is one which is not very allu¬ 
ring, fince we have often to wade through much tedious 
material in fearch of fcattered beauties. 
In the works of Sir John Davies, the Earl of Sterling, 
and Carew, we have the birth of what may be called the 
finiflied dyle of poetry, that which was rendered nearly 
perfeCf by Pope and Dryden, and their contemporaries. 
Carew redored the elegance and fprightlinefs of amatory 
poetry, which was fo remarkable in the Latin poets; but, 
in removing the coldnefs of chivalric love, he forgot its 
purity, and relapfed into fomewbat of the diffolute dyle 
of Catullus. Hall, bilhop of Norwich, is perhaps thefird 
who gave fatire a polite and Horatian dyle in this country. 
He profeffed to imitate Juvenal; but he has a polite man¬ 
ner we look for in vain in that poet. Our literature is 
certainly much indebted to bifliop Hall. Satire before 
his time was chiefly confined to a few political fquibs and 
inventions againd the Roman Catholic clergy : but this 
author attacked, with a mod elegant feverity, the faults of 
preceding and contemporary writers, laughed at the 
abundance of trifling fonnets and fanciful conceits which 
his contemporary poets delighted in, and at the turgef- 
cence and want of judgment of the dramatids. He re¬ 
commended the ffudy of facred and moral poetry, and in¬ 
culcated the propriety of writing poetry with a view to 
fome end. The cacoethes feribendi in general fell under 
his cenfures; and violent allegories and perfonifications he 
derided. Hall alfo turned his attention to the abfurdi- 
ties of reigning characters ; and his fatires on the con¬ 
temners of knowledge, on the braggadocio foldier, and 
on the effeminate beau, are all excellent. His verfe is 
very nervous, and, at the fame time, mulical and elegant. 
The licentioufnefs of the early poets has been long and 
feverely animadverted on. This ferious error has been 
excufed by fome, who fay that the habits and manners 
of the people infeCted the poets, not the writings of the 
latter the former. If this excufe be admitted, how much 
ought we to admire Spenfer and fome others, who avoided 
this fault! This praife efpecially belongs to Crajhaw, to 
whofe dyle of tranflating Pope owed fo much ; as well as 
to Habington, who with laudable tade omitted, in his 
beautiful amatory poems, all licentious allufions. 
It was in the time of Elizabeth that the Englifh drama 
fprung up to an aftonidiing perfection. Tranflations, and 
the love of romantic tales, had fupplied the dramatids with 
abundance of plots ; the exceflive lengths to which alle¬ 
gory had been carried cultivated metaphyfical acumen, 
and gave the prime fcience of man an important help. 
The claflics, tranflated and fafhionable, furniflied a beau¬ 
tiful feries of illudrations and lofty portraits. The Eng- 
lifli, entirely occupied with thinking, had rendered no 
poetry tolerable but fuch as was full of thought; and, lan - 
guage being held fecondary, concifenefs of expreflion was 
carried to a fault. The dramatids of this age prefent us 
with the bed pofiible dyle for the difplay of the paflions; 
