(35) Oft peeping in her face, &c. I cannot think the words peeping and stare the best which the poet could have used; but he is aggravating the beauties of his bride in a long epithalamium, and sacrificing everything to her superiority. The third line is felicitous. A NYMPH BATHING. Character Ecstasy of Conscious and Luxurious Beauty. Painter, the same. -Her fair locks, which formerly were bound Withal she laughed, and she blush'd withal, (36) (36) Withal she laughed, &c. Perhaps this is the loveliest thing of the kind, mixing the sensual with the graceful, that ever was painted. The couplet, So hid in locks and waves, &c. would be an excessive instance of the sweets of alliteration, could we bear to miss a particle of it. ! THE CAVE OF DESPAIR. Character: Savage and Forlorn Scenery, occupied by Squalid Misery. Ere long they come where that same wicked wight Far underneath a craggy cliff ypight, And all about old stocks and stubs of trees, That darksome cave they enter, where they find His griesly locks, long growen and unbound, *Teen. Anxiety. His garment nought but many ragged clouts, And made an open passage for the gushing flood. Still finer than this description are the morbid sophistry and the fascinations of terror that follow it in the original; but as they are less poetical or pictorial then argumentative, the extract is limited accordingly. There is a tradition that when Sir Philip Sidney read this part of the Fairy Queen, he fell into transports of admiration. A KNIGHT IN BRIGHT ARMOUR LOOKING INTO A CAVE. Character: A deep effect of Chiaro-scuro, making deformity visible. Painter, Rembrandt. But full of fire and greedy hardiment, The youthful knight would not for aught be stay'd, And looked in. His glistering armour made A little glooming light, much like a shade ; (37) (37) A little glooming light, much like a shade. Spenser is very fond of this effect, and has repeatedly painted it. I am not aware that anybody noticed it before him. It is evidently the original of the passage in Milton: Where glowing embers through the room Observe the pause at the words looked in. MALBECCO SEES HELLENORE DANCING WITH THE SATYRS. Character: Luxurious Abandonment to Mirth. Painter, Nicholas -Afterwards, close creeping as he might, Came dancing forth, and with them nimbly led Danc'd lively; and her face did with a laurel shade. The silly man then in a thicket lay, Saw all this goodly sport, and grievèd sore, *That new honour which they redd: Areaded, awarded. LANDSCAPE, WITH DAMSELS CONVEYING A WOUNDED SQUIRE ON HIS HORSE. Character: Select Southern Elegance, with an intimation of fine Architecture. Painter, Claude. (Yet "mighty" woods hardly belong to him.) Into that forest far they thence him led, Where was their dwelling, in a pleasant glade Amongst the pumy stones, which seem'd to plain Beside the same a dainty place there lay, Of God's high praise and of their sweet love's teen, As it an earthly paradise had been ; In whose enclosed shadows there was pight A fair pavilion, scarcely to be seen. THE NYMPHS AND GRACES DANCING TO A APOTHEOSIS OF A POET'S MISTRESS. Character: Nakedness without Impudency; Multitudinous and Innocent Delight; Exaltation of the principal Person from Circumstances rather than her own Ideality. Painter, Albano. Unto this place whenas the elfin knight |