In the first line I have put _here_ instead of
_hether_, which (like other words where _th_ comes between two
vowels) was then very often a monosyllable, in order to throw the
accent back more strongly on _bring_, where it belongs. Spenser's
innovation lies in making his verses by ear instead of on the
finger-tips, and in valuing the stave more than any of the single
verses that compose it. This is the secret of his easy superiority to
all others in the stanza which he composed, and which bears his name.
Milton (who got more of his schooling in these matters from Spenser
than anywhere else) gave this principle a greater range, and applied
it with more various mastery. I have little doubt that the tune of
the last stanza cited above was clinging in Shakespeare's ear when he
wrote those exquisite verses in "Midsummer Night's Dream" ("I know a
bank"), where our grave pentameter is in like manner surprised into a
lyrical movement. See also the pretty song in the eclogue for August.
Ben Jonson, too, evidently caught some cadences from Spenser for his
lyrics. I need hardly say that in those eclogues (May, for example)
where Spenser thought he was imitating what wiseacres used to call
the _riding-rhyme_ of Chaucer, he fails most lamentably.
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