reigning maxims of modern criticism, ás, in the mean time, to recommend classical propriety.

I cannot take my final leave of the reader, without the satisfaction of acknowledging, that this work has proved a most agreeable task; and I hope this consideration will at least plead my pardon for its length, whatever censure or indulgence the rest of its faults may deserve. The business of criticism is commonly laborious and dry; yet it has here more frequently amused than fatigued my attention, in its excursions upon an author, who makes such perpetual and powerful appeals to the fancy. Much of the pleasure that Spenser experienced in composing the Fairy Qneen, must, in some measure, be shared by his commentator; and the critic, on this occasion, may speak in the words, and with the rapture, of the poet.

The wayes through which my weary steppes I guyde In this delightfull land of faerie,

Are so exceeding spacious and wyde,

And sprinkled with such sweet varietie

Of all that pleasant is to ear or eye,

That I nigh ravisht with rare thoughts delight,
My tedious travel do forgett thereby :

And when I gin to feele decay of might,

It strength to me supplies, and cheares my dulled

spright.

6. 1. 1.

6.1.

THE END.

INDEX

TO THE

SECOND VOLUME.

A.

ABBE du Bos, condemns those painters who introduce
their own allegories into sacred subjects, 84.

Action, allegorical, why faulty, 109.

Adore and Adorn, 230.

Alexandrine verses, rules concerning them, 163.

for, 74.

Allegories, Spenser's manner of forming them accounted
Publicly shewn in Queen Elizabeth's
time, 75. Capital faults in Spenser's, 82. Some
of them examined, 82, 87. Spenser's manner of
allegorising different from Ariosto's, and why, 76.
Alliteration, practised by the Saxon poets, 248.
Apollonius, Rhodius, illustrated, 161.

Architecture, ancient, in England, its gradations, 206.
Astronomy, a favourable science in the dark age, 283.

B.

Bards, introduced with propriety by Spenser, 179.

Bale, 123.

Bard, 175.

Beaumont and Fletcher, illustrated, 80.

230.

Bloud-guiltiness, and Bloud-thirstie, 146.

Brain-pan, 263.

Brand, 309.

Busyrane, whence drawn, 191.

By Hooke or by Crooke, 235.

C.

Cervantes, illustrated, 74, 125, 306, 350.

Chambers, how formerly adorned, 272.

Charactered, 176.

Charlemagne, Caxton's history of him, 10.

Explained,

Chaucer, corrected, 34. Why styled one of the first

English poets, 94.

Explained, 173, 136.

Ceiris, of Virgil, where copied by Spenser, 303.

Charm, 282.

Childed, 268.

Chivalry, practised in Queen Elizabeth's age, its use
and importance, 73. Vindicated and recommended,
321.

Clang, 151.

Commentators, their difference of opinion accounted

for, 47.

Concealment, a source of the sublime, 257.

Cromwell, Oliver, anecdote concerning, 278,

D.

Dance of Death, account of prints so called, 115. Al-

luded to by Spenser, 121.

Death's door, 202.

Despair, why Spenser excelled in painting it, 25.
Disple, 141.

Dryden, censured for his manner of praising the Paradise
Lost, 108. And for misrepresenting Milton's rea-
son for choosing blank verse, 107. Imitates Spen-
ser, 147.

Dryghte, 251.

E.

Elizabeth, Queen, flattered by Spenser, 19. Anecdote
concerning, 199. Her maids of honour, how em-
ployed, 132.

Embowed, 138.

F.

Falconry, History of, 189. Knowledge of, an accom-
plishment in the character of a knight, ib.

Fatall, 40.

Fear, Spenser excels in painting it, 24.

Filed, 71.

Florimel, false, simile concerning her examined, 236.
Fountains, 162.