Dark, doleful, dreary, like a greedy grave The ground no herbs, but venomous, did bear, Dead bones and skulls were cast, and bodies hanged were. Upon the roof the bird of sorrow sat, And all about the murdered ghosts did shriek and groan. Like cloudy moonshine in some shadowy grove, That made him deadly look, their glimpse did show His clothes were ragged clouts, with thorns pinned fast; A thousand wild Chimeras would him cast: Some winged fury, straight the hasty foot, The voice dies in the tongue, and mouth gapes without boot. Now he would dream that he from Heaven fell, And ever, as he crept, would squint aside, The most material features of this description, remarks Mr. Headley*, are taken from Spencer's Fairy Queen lib. i. canto 9, st. 33, 36. This, he adds, is a curious instance of plagiarism, and serves to show us how little ceremony the poets of that day laboured under in pilfering from each other. But this censure is very unjust. All that Fletcher borrowed from Spenser in the present instance might be restored without injuring the beauty of the picture. The Fairy Queen was, indeed, the model upon which he worked; and he seems to have studied its design and colouring with enthusiastic industry. But he stamped his copies with his own genius. Spenser was himself indebted to the powerful pencil of Sackville. Our Saviour, having been "woo'd in vain" by the Serpent to enter into the Cave, is next transported to The sacred pinnacles that threat, With their aspiring tops, Astræa's starry seat. Here did Presumption her pavilion spread, Of love, long life, of mercy, and of grace; A painted face belied with vermeil store, And ever, when her lady wavered, Poor fool! she thought herself in wondrous price But, were she not in a fool's paradise, She might have seen more reason to despair; And therefore, as that wretch hew'd out his cell So she above the moon, amid the stars would dwell. Her tent with sunny clouds was sealed aloft, And as her house was built, so did her brain Upon a "hilly bank" was built "the bower of VainDelight," and along this false Eden, the "first destroyer" led our Saviour. Throughout this canto, Fletcher evidently had the pictures of Spenser before his eyes; the fount of silver, the "plump Lyæus," the empurpled elm, the ruby grapes, all whisper of the great author of the Fairy Queen. But if Fletcher borrowed from Spenser, he in turn has been imitated by Milton. We are reminded of the Table richly spread, in regal mode,—(Par. Reg. b. 2.) which Satan caused to rise up in the desert before Jesus, with the attending Naiades bearing "fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn," and the fair "ladies of the Hesperides." Milton does not, indeed, like his predecessor, employ them as objects of temptation, an assumption not sanctioned by the Evangelists; but (as Bishop Newton has remarked) with greater propriety makes them the subject of debate among the wicked spirits themselves. Presumption having in vain tempted the Saviour to throw himself from the pinnacle of the temple, "herself she tumbled headlong to the floor," while a choir of angels bear our Lord to an "airy mountain." Immediately a delightful garden springs up in that solitary place : All suddenly the hill his snow devours, For whatsoe'er might aggravate the sense, G Not lovely Ida might with this compare, Nor Rhodope, nor Tempe's flow'ry plain: Though Plato on his beds a flood of praise did rain. That lay as if she slumbered in delight, The azure fields of heaven were sembled right In a large round, set with the flowers of light: The flowers-de-luce, and the round sparks of dew, Like twinkling stars, that sparkle in the ev'ning blue. The allegorical figures of Ambition and Vain-glory are vividly painted. Therefore above the rest Ambition sate : His court with glitt'ring pearl was all enwalled, With diamonds, and gemmed every where, High over all Vainglories blazing throne, In which her image still reflected was By the smooth crystal, that most like her glass, She full of emptiness had bladdered, Such wat❜ry orbicles young boys do blow The painted bubble instantly doth fall. This allegory is in the manner of Spenser; but Milton, by keeping closer to the inspired narrative, has produced a sublimer effect. The "specular mount," from whence are beheld all the cities and empires of the East, Nineveh, and Babylon, Ecbatana, and the City of the hundred gates, presents a magnificent picture. The third book, entitled Christ's Triumph over Death, commemorates the Crucifixion. It is the least harmonious and powerful portion of the poem; but the portrait of the traitor Judas, suffering under the horrors of an accusing conscience, is delineated with surprising sublimity and force of imagination : For him a waking blood-hound, yelling loud, Till the betrayer's self it had betrayed. Oft changed the place, in hope away to wind; But change of place could never change his mind: With that a flaming brand a Fury catched, To fly from his own heart, and aid implore Of him, the more he gives, that hath the more, Whose storehouse is the heav'ns, too little for his store: At this moment the Tempter appears to the apostate disciple, and reviles him for his ingratitude to his Divine Master. His soul is overwhelmed with fear and madness: |