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CONTENTS

OF

VOL. IV.

The second Book of the Faerie Queene, Canto VIII

The thirde Booke of the Faerie Queene, Canto I

-VIII

Page

1

239

THE SECOND BOOK OF

T

THE FAERIE QUEENE

CANTO VIII.

Sir Guyon, layd in fwowne, is by
Acrates fonnes defpoyld;

Whom Arthure foone hath reskewed,
And Paynim brethren foyld.

AND is there care in heaven? And is there love

In heavenly spirits to these creatures bace, That may compaffion of their evils move? There is:-elfe much more wretched were

the cace

Of men then beafts: But O! th' exceeding

grace

I. 1. And is there care in heaven? And is there love &c.] These fine-turned verfes must be felt by every one, that knows the least thing belonging to the power of words and dignity of fentiment. And, in the beginning of a sentence, is expreffive of paffion; fometimes of admiration, fometimes too of indignation. UPTON.

Of Highest God that loves his creatures so,
And all his workes with mercy doth embrace,

That bleffed Angels he fends to and fro,
To ferve to wicked man, to ferve his wicked foe!

II.

How oft do they their filver bowers leave
To come to fuccour us that fuccour want!
How oft do they with golden pineons cleave
The flitting fkyes, like flying purfuivant,
Against fowle feendes to ayd us militant!
They for us fight, they watch and dewly ward,
And their bright squadrons round about us
plant;

I. 9. To ferve to wicked man,] The old English writers, as
they said "to obey to," fo they faid "to ferve to." See
Wickliff, Matt. iv. 10. "Thou schalt worfchippe thi Lord
God, and to him aloone thou shalt ferve." UPTON.
II. 6. They for us fight, they watch and dewly ward,

And their bright Squadrons round about us plant ;] The guardianship of angels is a favourite theme of Spenfer and of Milton. It is difficult to pronounce which of them has decorated the fubject with greater elegance and fenfibility. Spenfer probably might here remember the following lines of Hefiod, Op. et Dies, ver. 121.

Δαίμονες εἰσι Διὸς μεγάλε διὰ βελὰς,

Εσθλοι, ἐπιχθόνιοι, φύλακες θνητῶν ἀνθρώπων.

Italian poetry, I fhould obferve, delights in defcribing angelick fquadrons. See my note on Milton's Par. L. B. iv. 977. Milton, indeed, before he had become deeply verfed in Italian literature, borrowed from his favourite Spenfer, this difpofition of the heavenly hoft into Squadrons bright. See his Ode Nativ. ver. 21. "And all the fpangled hoft keep watch in Squadrons bright." We may therefore no longer fuppofe that Milton could here be much indebted to Sylvefter's "heaven's glorious hoft in nimble fquadrons," Du Bart. p. 13. See Confiderations on -Milton's early Reading, 1800, p. 46. The fact is, that Sylvefter often plunders Spenfer, but often alfo accommodates the theft to his purpofe with little taste or judgement. TODD..