There is something in Spenser that pleases one as
strongly
in
old age as it did in youth.
old age as it did in youth.
Spenser - Faerie Queene - 1
--The peculiar diction of the _Faerie Queene_ should
receive the careful attention of the student. As a romantic poet, Spenser
often preferred archaic and semi-obsolete language to more modern forms. He
uses four classes of words that were recognized as the proper and
conventional language of pastoral and romantic poetry; viz. (a)
_archaisms_, (b) _dialect_, (c) _classicisms_, and (d) _gallicisms_. He did
not hesitate to adopt from Chaucer many obsolete words and grammatical
forms. Examples are: the double negative with _ne_; _eyen_, _lenger_,
_doen_, _ycladd_, _harrowd_, _purchas_, _raught_, _seely_, _stowre_,
_swinge_, _owch_, and _withouten_. He also employs many old words from
Layamon, Wiclif, and Langland, like _swelt_, _younglings_, _noye_, _kest_,
_hurtle_, and _loft_. His dialectic forms are taken from the vernacular of
the North Lancashire folk with which he was familiar. Some are still a part
of the spoken language of that region, such as, _brent_, _cruddled_,
_forswat_, _fearen_, _forray_, _pight_, _sithen_, _carle_, and _carke_.
Examples of his use of classical constructions are: the ablative absolute,
as, _which doen_ (IV, xliii); the relative construction with _when_, as,
_which when_ (I, xvii), _that when_ (VII, xi); the comparative of the
adjective in the sense of "too," as, _weaker_ (I, xlv), harder (II, xxxvi);
the participial construction after _till_, as, _till further tryall made_
(I, xii); the superlative of location, as, _middest_ (IV, xv); and the old
gerundive, as, _wandering wood_ (I, xiii). Most of the gallicisms found are
anglicized loan words from the French _romans d'aventure_, such as,
_disseized_, _cheare_, _chappell_, _assoiled_, _guerdon_, _palfrey_,
_recreaunt_, _trenchand_, _syre_, and _trusse_. Notwithstanding Spenser's
use of foreign words and constructions, his language is as thoroughly
English in its idiom as that of any of our great poets.
"I think that if he had not been a great poet," says Leigh Hunt, "he would
have been a great painter. "
"After reading," says Pope, "a canto of Spenser two or three days ago to an
old lady, between seventy and eighty years of age, she said that I had been
showing her a gallery of pictures. I do not know how it is, but she said
very right.
There is something in Spenser that pleases one as strongly in
old age as it did in youth. I read the _Faerie Queene_ when I was about
twelve, with infinite delight; and I think it gave me as much, when I read
it over about a year or two ago. "
The imperishable charm of the poem lies in its appeal to the pure sense of
beauty. "A beautiful pagan dream," says Taine, "carries on a beautiful
dream of chivalry. " The reader hears in its lines a stately and undulating
rhythm that intoxicates the ear and carries him on with an irresistible
fascination, he sees the unsubstantial forms of fairyland go sweeping by in
a gorgeous and dreamlike pageantry, and he feels pulsing in its luxuriant
and enchanted atmosphere the warm and beauty-loving temper of the Italian
Renaissance. "Spenser is superior to his subject," says Taine, "comprehends
it fully, frames it with a view to the end, in order to impress upon it the
proper mark of his soul and his genius. Each story is modified with respect
to another, and all with respect to a certain effect which is being worked
out. Thus a beauty issues from this harmony,--the beauty in the poet's
heart,--which his whole work strives to express; a noble and yet a laughing
beauty, made up of moral elevation and sensuous seductions, English in
sentiment, Italian in externals, chivalric in subject, modern in its
perfection, representing a unique and admirable epoch, the appearance of
paganism in a Christian race, and the worship of form by an imagination of
the North. "
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
EVENTS IN SPENSER'S LIFE A. D. CONTEMPORARY EVENTS
Birth of Edmund Spenser (about) 1552 Birth of Sir Walter Raleigh
1553 Death of Edward VI; Mary crowned.
1554 Mary marries Philip of Spain.
1558 Death of Mary; Elizabeth crowned.
1560 Charles IX, king of France.
1568 Council of Trent.
_Visions of Bellay_, published, 1569
_Sonnets of Petrarch_, published, 1569
Enters Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, 1569
1572 Gregory XIII, Pope of Rome.
receive the careful attention of the student. As a romantic poet, Spenser
often preferred archaic and semi-obsolete language to more modern forms. He
uses four classes of words that were recognized as the proper and
conventional language of pastoral and romantic poetry; viz. (a)
_archaisms_, (b) _dialect_, (c) _classicisms_, and (d) _gallicisms_. He did
not hesitate to adopt from Chaucer many obsolete words and grammatical
forms. Examples are: the double negative with _ne_; _eyen_, _lenger_,
_doen_, _ycladd_, _harrowd_, _purchas_, _raught_, _seely_, _stowre_,
_swinge_, _owch_, and _withouten_. He also employs many old words from
Layamon, Wiclif, and Langland, like _swelt_, _younglings_, _noye_, _kest_,
_hurtle_, and _loft_. His dialectic forms are taken from the vernacular of
the North Lancashire folk with which he was familiar. Some are still a part
of the spoken language of that region, such as, _brent_, _cruddled_,
_forswat_, _fearen_, _forray_, _pight_, _sithen_, _carle_, and _carke_.
Examples of his use of classical constructions are: the ablative absolute,
as, _which doen_ (IV, xliii); the relative construction with _when_, as,
_which when_ (I, xvii), _that when_ (VII, xi); the comparative of the
adjective in the sense of "too," as, _weaker_ (I, xlv), harder (II, xxxvi);
the participial construction after _till_, as, _till further tryall made_
(I, xii); the superlative of location, as, _middest_ (IV, xv); and the old
gerundive, as, _wandering wood_ (I, xiii). Most of the gallicisms found are
anglicized loan words from the French _romans d'aventure_, such as,
_disseized_, _cheare_, _chappell_, _assoiled_, _guerdon_, _palfrey_,
_recreaunt_, _trenchand_, _syre_, and _trusse_. Notwithstanding Spenser's
use of foreign words and constructions, his language is as thoroughly
English in its idiom as that of any of our great poets.
"I think that if he had not been a great poet," says Leigh Hunt, "he would
have been a great painter. "
"After reading," says Pope, "a canto of Spenser two or three days ago to an
old lady, between seventy and eighty years of age, she said that I had been
showing her a gallery of pictures. I do not know how it is, but she said
very right.
There is something in Spenser that pleases one as strongly in
old age as it did in youth. I read the _Faerie Queene_ when I was about
twelve, with infinite delight; and I think it gave me as much, when I read
it over about a year or two ago. "
The imperishable charm of the poem lies in its appeal to the pure sense of
beauty. "A beautiful pagan dream," says Taine, "carries on a beautiful
dream of chivalry. " The reader hears in its lines a stately and undulating
rhythm that intoxicates the ear and carries him on with an irresistible
fascination, he sees the unsubstantial forms of fairyland go sweeping by in
a gorgeous and dreamlike pageantry, and he feels pulsing in its luxuriant
and enchanted atmosphere the warm and beauty-loving temper of the Italian
Renaissance. "Spenser is superior to his subject," says Taine, "comprehends
it fully, frames it with a view to the end, in order to impress upon it the
proper mark of his soul and his genius. Each story is modified with respect
to another, and all with respect to a certain effect which is being worked
out. Thus a beauty issues from this harmony,--the beauty in the poet's
heart,--which his whole work strives to express; a noble and yet a laughing
beauty, made up of moral elevation and sensuous seductions, English in
sentiment, Italian in externals, chivalric in subject, modern in its
perfection, representing a unique and admirable epoch, the appearance of
paganism in a Christian race, and the worship of form by an imagination of
the North. "
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
EVENTS IN SPENSER'S LIFE A. D. CONTEMPORARY EVENTS
Birth of Edmund Spenser (about) 1552 Birth of Sir Walter Raleigh
1553 Death of Edward VI; Mary crowned.
1554 Mary marries Philip of Spain.
1558 Death of Mary; Elizabeth crowned.
1560 Charles IX, king of France.
1568 Council of Trent.
_Visions of Bellay_, published, 1569
_Sonnets of Petrarch_, published, 1569
Enters Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, 1569
1572 Gregory XIII, Pope of Rome.
