Her tent with sunny clouds was ceil'd aloft,
And so exceeding shone with a false light,
That Heav'n itself to her it seemed oft-
Heav'n without clouds to her deluded sight;
But clouds withouten heav'n it was aright,
And as her house was built, so did her brain
Build castles in the air, with idle pain,
But heart she never had in all her body vain.
Like as a ship, in which no ballance' lies,
Without a pilot on the sleeping waves
Fairly along with wind and water flies,

And painted masts with silken sails embraves,
That Neptune's self the bragging vessel saves
To laugh awhile at her so proud array,
Her waving streamers loosely she lets play,
And flagging colours shine, as bright as smiling day;

-Right so Presumption did herself behave, &c.

In this stave (and the remark applies also to the one preceding it) the final rhime runs continuously through the three last verses. This jingling was avoided, and another more convenient stave formed on the ballet-stave of seven, by substituting an alexandrine for the last verse of the stanza. Milton has used this Spenser-stave.

Yet can I not persuade me thou art dead,
Or that thy corse corrupts in earth's dark womb,
Or that thy beauties lie in wormy bed,
Hid from the world in a low delved tomb-
Could Heav'n for pity thee so strictly doom?
Oh no! for something in thy face did shine
Above mortality, that show'd thou wast divine.

Phineas Fletcher had preceded Milton in the use of this stanza some thirty years; and in his Letter to his

1 Ballast.

2 In his "Lamentacyon" for the death of Henry the Seventh's Queen, written in 1503, Sir Thomas More uses the ballet-stave of seven, and often

Cousin W. R., the same poet has given us another kind of Spenser-stave, similarly formed in the ballet-stave of five verses. Prior, in his Poem on the Campaign of 1706, has used a Spenser-stave, consisting of two elegiac staves and a couplet. The ballet-stave, which answers to this arrangement, had been used by Churchyard.

When bright Eliza rul'd Britannia's state,
Widely distributing her high commands,
And boldly wise, and fortunately great,
Freed the glad nation from tyrannic bands,
An equal genius was in Spenser found,
To the high theme he match'd his noble lays,
He travell'd England o'er on fairy ground,
In mystic notes to sing his monarch's praise-
Reciting wondrous truths in pleasing dreams,
He deck'd Eliza's head with Gloriana's beams.

But greatest Anna! while thy arms pursue
Paths of renown, and climb ascents of fame,
Which nor Augustus, nor Eliza knew,
What poet shall be found to sing thy praise ?
What numbers shall record, what tongue shall
Thy wars on land, thy triumphs on the main ?
O fairest model of imperial sway!

say

What equal pen shall write thy wondrous reign?
Who shall attempts, and feats of arms rehearse,
Nor yet by story told, nor chronicled in verse?

Prior professed to follow Spenser " in the manner of his expression and turn of his number, having only added

gives six accents to the last verse of the stanza. This verse always ends with the words " and lo now here she lies." It must have been often convenient to wedge this section into a verse of six accents; and as the poet's rhythm is in other respects loose, I consider the resemblance to the Spenser-stave owing rather to the tumbling rhythm of the period, than to any design of introducing novelty into English versification

one verse to his stanza," which he thought "made the number more harmonious." Had he stated facility to be his aim, he had shown more honesty. He has escaped the difficulties of Spenser's stanza, but at the same time has sacrificed all its science and not a little of its beauty.

Prior's name gave to this stanza a certain degree of popularity. Among others, it was used by Lowth in his Choice of Hercules, and by Denton in his poem on the Immortality of the Soul.

We have a few instances, in which the Spenser-stave was fashioned on combinations other than the ballet-stave, as in Rochester's poem on Nothing.

Nothing, that dwell'st with fools in grave disguise,

For whom they rev'rend shapes and forms devise,

Lawn sleeves, and furs, and gowns, when they like thee look wise,
French truth, Dutch prowess, British policy,
Hibernian learning, Scotch civility,

Spaniards' dispatch, Danes' wit are mainly seen in thee! &c.

Occasionally we have even the Psalm-staves ending with an alexandrine, as in Warton's verses on the Suicide's Grave.

Beneath the beech, whose branches bare

Smit with the lightnings vivid glare

O'erhang the craggy road,

And whistle hollow, as they wave,
Within a solitary grave

A wretched suicide holds his accurs'd abode.

The broken stave was closed with an alexandrine at a very early period. The following intricate specimen was used by Spenser in his Epithalamion, written on the marriage of the two Ladies Somerset, daughters of Lord Worcester. It may be considered as compounded of a ballet-stave of 6, a peculiar ballet-stave of 5 with three terminations, another ballet-stave of 6, and a final couplet

-the first and second staves receiving band from the rhime. Each of the three staves breaks its last verse.

Open the Temple-gates unto my love!

Open them wide, that she may enter in,
And all the posts adorn, as doth behove,
And all the pillars deck with garlands trim,
For to receive this Saint with honour due,
That cometh in to you;

With trembling steps and humble reverence
She cometh in before the Almighty's view-
Of her ye Virgins learn obedience,
When so ye come into these holy places,

To humble your proud faces.

Bring her up to th' High Altar, that she may
The varied ceremonies there partake
The which do endless matrimony make,
And let the roaring organs loudly play
The praises of the Lord with lively notes;
The whiles with hollow throats

The Choristers the joyous anthem sing,

That all the woods may answer, and their echo ring, &c.

The stave which Cowley uses in his Ode to Light is of the same kind, but of greater simplicity. The original was doubtless Waller's stave, consisting of two rhiming couplets.* I quote the ode at some length, as it is one of the few cases, in which poetry has succeeded in throwing grace and beauty over the stern truths of science.

-All the world's brav'ry that delights our eyes

Is but thy sev'ral liveries,

Thou the rich dye on them bestow'st,

Thy nimble pencil paints this landscape as thou go'st.

A crimson garment in the rose thou wear'st,
A crown of studded gold thou bear'st-

The virgin lilies in their white

Are clad but in the lawn of almost naked light.

* See p. 302.

The violet, Spring's little infant, stands

Girt in thy purple swaddling bands ;

On the fair tulip thou dost doat,

Thou cloth'st them in a gay, and party-colour'd coat, &c. &c.

Through the soft ways of heav'n and earth and sea,
Which open all their pores to thee,

Like a clear river thou dost glide,

And with thy living stream, through the close channels slide

But the vast ocean of unbounded day

In th' empyrean heav'n does stay;
Thy rivers, lakes, and springs below,

From thence took first their rise, thither at last must flow.

;

It may be observed, before we close the chapter, that Chatterton has used the Spenser-staves, in the poems which he ascribed to Rowley. This anachronism would, of itself, be sufficient to prove the forgery, even though it had baffled every other test, which modern criticism has applied to it.