Yet that which reft it, no less fair was bound: Withal she laugh'd, and she blushed withal, 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, The joyous birds, shrouded in cheerful shade, 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, "So passeth, in the passing of a day Of mortal life, the leaf, the bud, the flower, That erst was sought to deck both bed and bower 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, "So in the passing of a day, doth pass 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, 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; 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: Nor the fine nets which oft we woven see Her snowy neck was bare to ready spoil That like pure orient pearls adown it trill'd; 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, 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 |