_Orl. Fur._, e. vi. 78.
[304] B. I. c. iii. 7. Leigh Hunt, one of the most sympathetic of
critics, has remarked the passionate change from the third to the
first person in the last two verses.
[305] B. II. c. viii. 3.
[306] Observations on Faery Queen, Vol. I pp. 158, 159. Mr. Hughes
also objects to Spenser's measure, that it is "closed always by a
fullstop, in the same place, by which every stanza is made as it were
a distinct paragraph." (Todd's Spenser, II. xli.) But he could hardly
have read the poem attentively, for there are numerous instances to
the contrary. Spenser was a consummate master of versification, and
not only did Marlowe and Shakespeare learn of him, but I have little
doubt that, but for the "Faery Queen," we should never have had the
varied majesty of Milton's blank verse.
[307] As where Dr. Warton himself says:--
"How nearly had my spirit past,
Till stopt by Metcalf's skilful hand,
To death's dark regions wide and waste
And the black river's mournful strand,
Or to," etc.,
to the end of the next stanza. That is, I had died but for Dr.
Metcalf 's boluses.
[308] Iliad, XVII. 55 _seqq_. Referred to in Upton's note on Faery
Queen, B.
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