ofessedly imitated, has
surpassed him among the Romans, and only Waller among the English."

Mr. Hughes in his essay on allegorical poetry prefixed to Spenser's
works, tells us, that this poem is conceived, wrought up, and coloured
with stronger fancy, and discovers more the particular genius of
Spenser, than any of his other writings; and having observed that
Spenser in a letter to Sir Walter Raleigh calls it, a continued
allegory, or dark conceit, he gives us some remarks on allegorical
poetry in general, defining allegory to be a fable or story, in which,
under imaginary persons or things, is shadowed some real action or
instructive moral, or as I think, says he, it is somewhere very
shortly defined by. Plutarch; it is that, in which one thing is,
related, and another thing understood; it is a kind of poetical
picture, or hieroglyphick, which by its apt resemblance, conveys
instruction to the mind, by an analogy to the senses, and so amuses
the fancy while it informs the understanding. Every allegory has
therefore two senses, the literal and mystical, the literal sense
is like a dream or vision, of which the mystical sense is the true
meaning, or interpretation. This will be more clearly apprehended
by considering, that as a simile is a more extended metaphor, so
an allegory is a kind of continued simile, or an assemblage of
similitudes drawn out at full length.

The chief merit of this poem, no doubt, consists in that surprising
vein of fabulous invention, which runs through it, and enriches it
every where with imagery and descriptions, more than we meet with in
any other modern poem. The author seems to be possessed of a kind of
poetical magic, and the figures he calls up to our view rise so
thick upon us, that we are at once pleased and distracted with the
exhaustless variety of them; so that his faults may in a manner be
imputed to his excellencies. His abundance betrays him into excess,
and his judgment is over-born by the torrent of his imagination. That
which seems the most liable to exception in this work is the model of
it, and the choice the author has made of so romantic a story. The
several books rather appear like so many several poems, than one
entire fable. Each of them has its peculiar knight, and is independent
of the rest; and tho' some of the persons make their appearance in
different books, yet this has very little effect in concealing them.
Prince Arthur is indeed the principal person, and has