In each, it will be noted, the fighting knight is likened to an animal which is forced to shift its attention suddenly in the fight from one foe to another. (18) Like as a mastiffe, having at a bay A salvage bull, whose cruell hornes doe threat Traceth his ground, and round about doth beat, ... VI, vii, 47. There are two similes in Tasso which Spenser may have had in mind here. Tal gran tauro talor nell' ampio agone, Così di can timido stuol sovente, G. L., III, 32. Ch' incontra 'l toro arda di sdegno e d' ira, E latrando lo sguarda e si ritira, Mentre in feroce aspetto alteramente Quel muove i passi e gli occhi intorno gira, R., XI, 35. In each of these similes it will be noted that a dog, or several dogs, are attacking a bull; that, as the bull advances or shows signs of action, the dogs retreat. In Spenser's and in the first of Tasso's, the bull threatens to use his horns. (19) Koeppel has pointed out 16 how the story of Calidore among the shepherds (F. Q., VI, ix, 19 ff.) has elements imitated from Tasso's similar story about Erminia (G. L., VII, 8 ff.) as she lodges with the old shepherd near the banks of the Jordan. Two details however, he has not mentioned. 10 Op. cit., pp. 359-360. (1) Calidore offers gold to Meliboe: 'Not that the burden of so bold a guest Shall chargefull be, or chaunge to you at all; And in this quiet make you safer live.’ So forth he drew much gold, and toward him it drive. VI, ix, 32. In like manner, Erminia offers gems and gold to her aged shepherd host. Chè se di gemme e d'ôr, che 'l vulgo adora St come idoli suoi, tu fossi vago, Potresti ben, tante n' ho meco ancora, Renderne il tuo desio contento e pago. (2) G. L., VII, 16. Calidore clothes himself in shepherd's attire, tends the flocks, and milks them. (1) So being clad, unto the fields he went And kept her sheepe with diligent attent, Watching to drive the ravenous wolfe away, The whylest at pleasure she mote sport and play; (2) And every evening helping them to fold: And otherwhiles, for need, he did assay In his strong hand their rugged teats to hold, (3) And out of them to presse the milke: love so much could. (20) There are five proper names in the Faerie Queene which appear in the Gerusalemme: Argante in Spenser (III, vii, 47) is a giantess typifying lust. Argante in Tasso (II, 59) is a Circassian of high military rank and prowess in Egypt, a scoffer at every god. Clarinda, Clarin in Spenser (V, iv, 48; v, 29) is maid to the Amazon queen, Radigund. Clorinda in Tasso (II, 38) is a female warrior of great prowess and renown.1 The Souldan in Spenser (V, viii, 24) is husband to Adicia or Injustice, and the persecutor of Queen Mercilla. Solimano (IX, 2), il Soldano (IX, 22) in Tasso is King of the Turks, a mighty pagan conqueror. Aladine, Aldine in Spenser (VI, iii, 3, 15) is an obscure knight who figures as lover of Priscilla. Aladino in Tasso (I, 83) is an aged king of Jerusalem, suspicious and cruel under the crisis of the Christian attack. Matilde in Spenser (VI, iv, 29) is wife of Sir Bruin; into her care Calepine delivers the babe which he has rescued from a bear. Matilda in Tasso (I, 59) is the nurse and instructor of Rinaldo during his earliest years. Here the parallel extends beyond the mere name itself. (21) The three following sets of passages are given, not necessarily as instances of imitation, but to show how similar Spenser and Tasso are in their attitude toward and conception of the ideals of chivalry. (1) Ne was there ever noble corage seene, That in advauntage would his puissaunce bost: П, viii, 26. 17 A. B. Gough has already noted this parallel, in his edition of Book v, Oxford, 1918, p. 220. E quanto è più il periglio orrendo e fiero, (2) R., 1, 36. Long so they traveiled through wastefull wayes, And to recover right for such as wrong did grieve. Poichè Florindo fu del tutto sano, Per molte parti gir dell' Asia errando, III, i, 3. (3) R., VIII, 76. 'Life is not lost,' said she, for which is bought Endlesse renowm, that more then death is to be sought.' SPENSER AND ALEXANDER NECKAM BY FRANK F. COVINGTON, JR. In creating his pageant of the rivers in the eleventh canto of Book IV of the Faerie Queene Spenser was not only following a literary fashion,' but was indebted to some extent to previous poems of a similar nature, notably to one printed in William Camden's Britannia, and probably composed by that writer.2 Furthermore, the materials for his descriptions of the English rivers in this pageant he found in Camden's work, and in William Harrison's "Description of England," printed in Holinshed's Chronicles. For his poetic account of the Irish rivers, however, no source has been discovered. Professor Osgood is probably correct in attributing to "the poet's familiarity with the rivers themselves," the "peculiar freshness and spontaneity" of the passages describing them. Nevertheless it is interesting to note that not only Harrison and Camden, in their celebrations of English streams, but Spenser, in his inclusion of Irish rivers in his catalogue of those of Britain, were anticipated more than three hundred years in a Latin poem by Alexander Neckam, the English ecclesiastic and scholar (1157-1217). In the third "Distinctio" of his De Laudibus Divinae Sapientiae, a sort of encyclopedia in verse, he names the chief rivers of the world, among them those of England and Ireland. The passage concerning the Irish rivers runs as follows: 4 "Fluminibus magnis laetatur Hibernia, Sined Inter Connaciam Momoniamque fluit. Transit per muros Limerici Suoc [sic] patrit [sic] illum Oceani clausum sub ditione videt. 1 See H. R. Patch, "Notes on Spenser and Chaucer," Mod. Lang. Notes, XXXIII, 177-80; C. G. Osgood, "Spenser's English Rivers," Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 100-08. Osgood, op. cit., 72-73, 90. Carrie A. Harper, The Sources of the British Chronicle History in Spenser's Faerie Queene, chapter II. 5 For Neckam, see Dictionary of National Biography; Thomas Wright, Introduction to his edition of Neckam in the Rolls Series, 1863. |