Page images
PDF
EPUB

Yet that which reft it, no less fair was bound:
So hid in locks and waves from looker's theft,
Naught but her lovely face she for his looking left.

Withal she laugh'd, and she blushed withal,
That blushing to her laughter gave more grace,
And laughter to her blushing.

ENCHANTED MUSIC.

The greatest charm of this blissful bower, is the music; music that does not flow from a single instrument or a single voice, but from a concert of all that is melodious. To his melodious verse the poet has added all that is sweet and musical in nature.

Eftsoons they heard a most melodious sound,
Of all that might delight a dainty ear,
Such as at once might not on living ground
Save in this paradise, be heard elsewhere;
Right hard it was for wight which did it hear,
To read what manner music that might be ;
For all that pleasing is to living ear,
Was there consorted in one harmony,
Birds, voices, instruments, winds, waters, all agree.

The joyous birds, shrouded in cheerful shade,
Their notes unto the voice attempered sweet ;
Th' angelical soft trembling voices made,
To th' instruments divine respondence meet;
The silver sounding instruments did meet
With the base murmur of the water's fall:
The waters fall with difference discreet,
Now soft, now loud, unto the wind did call:
The gentle warbling wind low answered to all.

It is worthy of notice that in these charming stanza the most perfect music is produced with but little or no departure from the natural order of the words. Nothing can be more graceful or flowing than the versification. The thought is taken from the Italian of Tasso, but Spenser has expanded and embellished it from his own affluent fancy, and poured into it the music of his own soul. The song that is sung to the nymph of the Bower is as exquisite, though not as melodious.

The while some one did chaunt the lovely lay,
"Ah see, who so fair a thing dost fain to see
In springing flower the image of thy day!
Ah! see the virgin rose, how sweetly she
Doth first peep forth with bashful modesty,
That fairer seems, the less ye see her may !
Lo! see soon after, how more bold and free
Her bared bosom she doth broad display :
Lo! see soon after how she fades and falls away.

"So passeth, in the passing of a day

Of mortal life, the leaf, the bud, the flower,
Nor more doth flourish after first decay,

That erst was sought to deck both bed and bower
Of many a lady, and many a paramour:
Gather, therefore, the rose while yet is prime,
For soon comes age that will her pride deflower:
Gather the rose of love, while yet is time,

While loving thou mayest be loved with equal crime."

This song is taken from Armida's Elysium, where it is sung by a bird with human voice. It is thus rendered in the beautiful version of Fairfax :

"The gently budding rose, quoth she, behold,
That first scant peeping forth with virgin beams,
Half ope, half shut, her beauties doth unfold
In their clear leaves, and less seen, fairer seems ;
And after spreads them forth more broad and bold,
Then languisheth and dies in last extremes:
Nor seems the same that decked bed and bower
Of many a lady, late, and paramour.

"So in the passing of a day, doth pass
The bud and blossom of the life of man,
Nor ere doth flourish more, but like the grass
Cut down, becometh wither'd, pale and wan:
O gather then the rose while time thou hast,
Short is the day, done when it scant began;
Gather the rose of love, while yet thou may'st,
Loving, be loved; embracing, be embraced."

It will be observed that the versification of Spenser is the more majestic and sweet; indeed it is acknowledged to be far superior, in this respect, to the original itself.

There is much resemblance between the two scenes; Spencer has placed his Bower on an island in the ocean, and Tasso placed his beyond a lake, upon the summit of a mountain. The English is the most condensed and vivid; the tale, however, is best in Tasso. The journey to the bower of Armida, in search of Rinaldo, forms one of the most beautiful episodes in the great Italian epic. The cave into which the messengers enter where the universe is reflected, and its hidden laws are disclosed, the instructions and directions of the seer;-the beautiful lake over which they are borne in a silver boat, steered by a charming

nymph using golden paddles,-the sweet words she utters as they pass to their destined shore-their adventures in ascending the mountain-the charming contrast when they enter the elysian fields; the song of birds, the fragrance of flowers; and the martial spirit that was inspired in Rinaldo at the sight of his armor-are imperishable pictures which will remain among the brightest visions of romance.

The couch of the nymph is arrayed not unlike the nuptial bower described by Milton:

He ceased; and then 'gan all the quire of birde,
Their diverse notes t' attune unto his lay,
As in approvance of his pleasing words.
The constant pair heard all that he did say,
Yet severed not, but kept their forward way
Through many covert groves, and thickets close,
In which they creeping did at last display
The lovely lady with her lover loose,

Whose sleepy head she in her lap did soft dispose.

Upon a bed of roses she was laid,

As faint through heat or dight to pleasant sin;
And was arrayed, or rather disarrayed,

All in a veil of silk and silver thin,

That hid no whit her alabaster skin,

But rather shew'd more white, if more might be:
More subtle web Arachne can not spin,

Nor the fine nets which oft we woven see
Of schorched dew do not in th' air more lightly flee.

Her snowy neck was bare to ready spoil
Of hungry eyes which note therewith be fill'd;
And yet through languor of her late sweet toil,
Few drops, more clear than nectar, forth distill'd,

That like pure orient pearls adown it trill'd;
And her fair eyes, sweet smiling in delight,
Moistened their fiery beams with which she thrill'd,
Frail hearts, yet quenched not: like starry light
Which sparkling on the silent waves does seem more bright.

The wrath of Guyon is vividly displayed in the destruction of the bower: and it is thus that the poet beats down with a mighty arm, every thing that is not founded in purity and truth.

But all those pleasant bowers and palace brave,
Guyon broke down with rigor pitiless;
Nor aught their goodly workmanship might save
Them from the tempest of his wrathfulness:
But that their bliss he turned to balefulness:
Their groves he felled, their gardens did deface;
Their arbors spoiled, their cabinets suppress;
Their banquet-houses burn, their buildings raze,
And of the fairest late, now made the foulest place.

[blocks in formation]

The general end, therefore, of all the Book, is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline: which for that I conceived should be most plausible and pleasing, being colored with an historical fic. tion, the which the most part of men delight to read, rather for variety of matter than for profit of the ensample, I chose the history of King Arthur, as most fit for the excellency of his person, being made famous by many men's former works, and also further from the danger of envy, and suspicion of present time. In which I have followed all the antique poets histo. rical; first, Homer, who, in the persons of Agamemnon and Ulysses, hath ensampled a good governor and a virtuous man, the one in his Iliad, the other in his Odyssey; then Virgil, whose like intention was to do in the person of Æneas; after him, Aristo comprised them both in his Orlando ; and lately Tasso dissevered them again, and formed both parts in two persons, namely, that part which they in philosophy call ETHIC, or virtues of

« PreviousContinue »