EDMUND SPENSER. BORN about 1553; DIED 1598. THIS delightful poet, although he seems never to have written without a moral purpose, has, in his principal work, notwithstanding its elaborate allegory, too often concealed the point of his lesson,-within such a rich profusion of poetic flowers, indeed, as could have been the produce only of an unrivalled fancy, enlivened by feelings at once tender and ardent. In the following pieces, however, the genius of the author of the "Faery Queene,” is chastened to a degree of sobriety, consistent with the elevated and spiritual nature of the subjects treated. B |