the complex operations of the human mind. The king of the "Isle of Man" is Intellect, and he has the assistance of eight counsellors the five senses, Common Sense, Fancy, and Memory. In the twelfth canto the battle of Mansoul is described. The Vices attack the Human Fortress, and a fierce contest ensues for the possession of the human soul. At length an angel (none other than King James I.!) appears upon the scene and promises victory to the Virtues. The following extract is from "The Purple Island":— PARTHENIA. A bed of lilies flow'r upon her cheek, To such a fair, which none attain, but all admire ! Her ruby lips lock up from gazing sight A troop of pearls, which march in goodly row: Yet all these stars which deck this beauteous sky As when a taper shines in glassy frame, The sparkling crystal burns in glittering flame, So does that brightest love brighten this lovely dame. The Faerie Queene. "THE Faerie Queene," by Edmund Spenser,1 is the most famous allegory in the English language. It consists of six books, of which the first contains the Legend of the Knight of the Red Cross; the second, that of Sir Guyon; the third, of Britomartis; the fourth, of Cambel and Triamond; the fifth, of Artegall; and the sixth, of Sir Calidore. It was originally planned to consist of twelve books, but whether the remaining six books were ever written is unknown. There is a tradition which asserts that through the carelessness of a servant they were lost on the passage across the sea from Ireland to England. The versification is based upon the ottava rima made so popular in Italian poetry by Tasso and Ariosto. Instead of eight lines to a stanza, however, there are nine. The first eight lines are iambic pentameters, and the ninth a hexameter, the stanza thus closing with a lingering cadence which adds greatly to the melody of the verse. This species of versification is now known as the Spenserian stanza. Since the work consists of six poems, each containing a dozen long cantos, the impossibility of giving in any brief space a complete analysis of the performance will be readily understood. Let us, however, point out some 1 For an account of Spenser's life, see note, page 147. The "Faerie Queene" was first published in 1590-1596. of its beauties and at the same time indicate certain portions of it that may be found worthy of special study. The general plan of the work is partly explained by the poet in his dedicatory letter to Sir Walter Raleigh. The object of the book, he says, is to fashion a gentleman, or noble person, in virtuous and gentle discipline -in imitation of Arthur, "the image of the brave Knight perfected in twelve moral virtues." By the Faerie Queene he means, in a general sense, Glory, but in a particular sense "the most excellent and glorious person of our soveraine, the Queen and her kingdom in faerie land.” "The beginning of my history, if it were to be told by an historiographer, should be the twelfth book, which is the last, where I devise that the Faerie Queene kept her annual feast xii. days; uppon which xii. severall days the occasions of the xii. severall adventures hapned, which being undertaken by xii. severall knights, are in these xii. bookes severally handled and discoursed. The first was this: In the beginning of the feast there presented himselfe a tall clownishe younge man, who, falling before the Queene of the Faeries desired a boone (as the manner then was) which during that feast she might not refuse; which was that hee might have the atchievement of any adventure which during that feaste should happen. That being granted, he rested himself on the floore, unfitte through his rusticity for a better place. Soon after entred a faire Ladye in mourning weedes, riding on a white asse, with a dwarf behind her leading a warlike steed that bore the arms of a knight, and his speare in the dwarf's hand. Shee, falling before the Queene of the Faeries, complayned that her father and mother, an ancient king and queene, had been by an huge dragon many years shut up in a brazen Castle, who thence suffred them not to yssew: and therefore besought the Faerie Queene to assygne her some one of her knights to take on him that exployt. Presently that clownish person, upstarting, desired that adventure: whereat the Queene much wondering, and the Lady much gainesaying, yet he earnestly importuned his desire. In the end, the Lady told him that unlesse that armour which she brought would serve him (that is the armour of a Christian man specified by St. Paul, v. Ephes.) that he could not succeed in that enterprise: which being forthwith put upon him with dew furnitures thereunto, he seemed the goodliest man in all that company, and was well liked of the Lady. And eftsoones taking on him knighthood, and mounting on that strange courser, he went forth with her of that adventure: where beginneth the first Booke, viz. : "A gentle Knight was pricking on the playne," etc. The allegorical interpretation of the first Book, although seemingly intricate, is not at all difficult. It may be briefly summarized as follows: The Red Cross Knight is the personification of Holiness clad in the armor of the Christian warrior as described by St Paul: his loins are girt about with truth; his feet are shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace; he has on the breast-plate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation; and he carries the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Thus armed, he goes forth to combat error wherever he may find it, and, above all, to win the grace of Gloriana. The lovely lady, fair Una, typifies Truth, and her milk-white lamb is Innocence. The dwarf, who lags so far behind her, represents the natural physical life so far inferior, and ever so far behind, our spiritual body. The trees, among which they take refuge from the storm, probably typify the different conditions of life, as youth, pleasure, sorrow, glory, maturity, old age, etc. While contemplating these different conditions, the knight wanders into Error's ways and becomes involved in a deadly contest with that monster. Archimago, whom next they meet, is the Great Deceiver, and in him the poet probably meant to typify the Roman Catholic Church. His misrepresentation of Truth is the cause of a temporary alienation between Holiness and Truth, and of all the subsequent mishaps that occur to the knight. Sansfoy is, as his name indicates, the personification of Infidelity. Duessa, the two-faced deceiver, is the Catholic Church typified as a woman clothed in scarlet, this figure being suggested by a passage in the Apocalypse. Fradubio is the doubter who hesitates between the corrupt Romish Church and the purer, but by no means true, philosophy of the ancients, which is here represented by Frælissa. Neither Fradubio nor Frælissa can become useful, living members of the body social until they have been "bathed in a living well," in that living water of which Christ spoke to the woman of Samaria. The lion which espouses the cause of Truth and follows her so bravely is Reason. The blind woman and her daughter who at first refuse to listen to the words of Truth are Ignorance and Superstition. When the church-robber brings his stolen offerings to Superstition, she is prevented from receiving them because she has Truth and Reason with her. Reason is — finally slain by Lawlessness, Sansloy, who also fights with and overcomes Archimago, whom he has |