ing, the idea of which is supposed to have originated with Milton : One would have thought (so cunningly the rude But the reader will judge for himself. I have attached to each of the pictures in this Spenser Gallery the name of the painter of whose genius it reminded me; and I think the connoisseur will allow that the assignment was easy, and that the painter-poet's range of art is equally wide and wonderful. CHARISSA; OR, CHARITY. Character: Spiritual Love. Painter for it, Raphael. She was a woman in her freshest age, A multitude of babes about her hung Playing their sports, that joy'd her to behold, Whom still she fed, whilst they were weak and young, And on her head she wore a tire of gold (24) And by her side, &c. This last couplet brings at once before us all the dispassionate graces and unsuperfluous treatment of Raphael's allegorical females. HOPE. Character: Sweetness without Devotedness. Painter, Correggio. With him went Hope in rank, a handsome maid, Of cheerful look, and lovely to behold: In silken samite she was light array'd, And her fair locks were woven up in gold. (25) (25) And her fair locks, &c. What a lovely line is that! and with a beauty how simple and sweet is the sentiment portrayed in the next *Owches wondrous fair: Owches are carcanets, or ranges of jewels. † Uneath Scarcely, with difficulty. three words," She alway smil'd!" But almost every line of the stanza is lovely, including the felicitous Catholic image of the Holy-water sprinkle dipp'd in dew. Correggio is in every colour and expression of the picture. CUPID USURPING THE THRONE OF JUPITER. In Satyr's shape Antiope he snatch'd; While thus on earth great Jove these pageants play'd, "Lo! now the heavens obey to me alone, And take me for their Jove, whilst Jove to earth is gone." MARRIAGE PROCESSION OF THE THAMES AND Character: Genial Strength, Grace, and Luxury. Painter, Raphael. First came great Neptune with his three-forked mace, His dewy locks did drop with brine apace, Under his diadem imperial; And by his side his queen, with coronal, As with a robe, with her own silver hair, And deck'd with pearls which the Indian seas for her prepare. These marched far afore the other crew, That made the rocks to roar as they were rent. Or take another part of the procession, with dolphins and sea-nymphs listening as they went, to ARION. Then was there heard a most celestial sound So went he playing on the watery plain. (26) (26) So went he, &c. This sweet, placid, and gently progressing line is one of Spenser's happy samples of alliteration. emphatic is the information That was Arion, crown'd. And how SIR GUYON BINDING FUROR. Character: Superhuman Energy and Rage. Painter, Michael Angelo. In his strong arms he stiffly him embrac'd, And both his feet in fetters to an iron rack. With hundred iron chains he did him bind, (27) Colour'd like copper wire. A felicity suggested perhaps by the rhyme. It has all the look, however, of a copy from some painting; perhaps one of Julio Romano's. UNA (OR FAITH IN DISTRESS). Character: Loving and Sorrowful Purity glorified. (May I say, that I think it would take Raphael and Correggio united to paint this, on account of the exquisite chiaro-scuro? Or might not the painter of the Magdalen have it all to himself?) Yet she, most faithful lady, all this while, (*) Far from all people's press, as in exile, In wilderness and wasteful deserts stray'd To seek her knight, who subtily betray'd Through that late vision which the enchanter wrought, Through woods and wasteness wide him daily sought. |