But nothing shews the difference of the two systems under consideration
more plainly, than the effect they really had on the Two greatest of
our Poets; at least the two which an _English_ reader is most fond to
compare with HOMER; I mean, SPENSER and MILTON.
It is not to be doubted but that each of these bards had kindled his
poetic fire from classic fables. So that, of course, their prejudices
would lie that way. Yet they both appear, when most inflamed, to have
been more particularly rapt with the _Gothic_ fables of Chivalry.
SPENSER, though he had been long nourished with the spirit and
substance of HOMER and VIRGIL, chose the times of Chivalry for his
theme, and Fairy Land for the scene of his fictions. He could have
planned, no doubt, an heroic design on the exact classic model:
or, he might have trimmed between the _Gothic_ and classic, as his
contemporary TASSO did. But the charms of _fairy_ prevailed. And if
any think, he was seduced by ARIOSTO into this choice, they should
consider that it could be only for the sake of his subject; for the
genius and character of these poets was widely different.
Under this idea then of a _Gothic_, not classical poem, the _Fairy
Queen_ is to be read and criticized. And on these principles it would
not be difficult to unfold its merit in another way than has been
hitherto attempted.
MILTON, it is true, preferred the classic model to the _Gothic_. But
it was after long hesitation; and his favourite subject was ARTHUR
_and his Knights of the round table_. On this he had fixed for the
greater part of his life. What led him to change his mind was, partly,
as I suppose, his growing fondness for religious subjects; partly, his
ambition to take a different rout from SPENSER; but chiefly perhaps,
the discredit into which the stories of Chivalry had now fallen by the
immortal satire of CERVANTES. Yet we see through all his poetry, where
his enthusiasm flames out most, a certain predilection for the legends
of Chivalry before the fables of _Greece_.
This circumstance, you know, has given offence to the austerer and more
mechanical critics. They are ready to censure his judgment, as juvenile
and unformed, when they see him so delighted, on all occasions, with
the _Gothic_ romances. But do these censors imagine that MILTON did not
perceive the defects of these works, as well as they? No: it was not
the _composition_ of books of Chivalry, but the _manners_ described in
them, that took his fancy; as appears from his _Allegro_—
Towred cities please us then
And the busy hum of men,
Where throngs of knights and barons bold
In weeds of peace high triumphs hold,
With store of ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize
Of wit, or arms, while both contend
To win her grace, whom all commend.
And when in the _Penseroso_ he draws, by a fine contrivance, the same
kind of image to sooth melancholy which he had before given to excite
mirth, he indeed extols an _author_, or two, of these romances, as he
had before, in general, extolled the _subject_ of them: but they are
authors worthy of his praise; not the writers of _Amadis_, and _Sir
Launcelot of the Lake_; but Fairy SPENSER, and CHAUCER himself, who
has left an unfinished story on the _Gothic_ or feudal model.
Or, call up him that left half-told
The story of CAMBUSCAN bold,
Of CAMBALL and of ALGARSIFF,
And who had CANACE to wife,
That own’d the virtuous ring and glass,
And of the wondrous horse of brass,
On which the Tartar king did ride;
And if aught else great bards beside
In sage and solemn tunes have sung
Of turneys and of trophies hung,
Of forests and inchantments drear,
Where more is meant than meets the ear.
The conduct then of these two poets may incline us to think with more
respect, than is commonly done, of the _Gothic manners_; I mean, as
adapted to the uses of the greater poetry.
I shall add nothing to what I before observed of SHAKESPEAR, because
the sublimity (the divinity, let it be, if nothing else will serve) of
his genius kept no certain rout, but rambled at hazard into all the
regions of human life and manners. So that we can hardly say what he
preferred, or what he rejected, on full deliberation. Yet one thing
is clear, that even he is greater when he uses _Gothic_ manners and
machinery, than when he employs classical: which brings us again to
the same point, that the former have, by their nature and genius, the
advantage of the latter in producing the _sublime_.