It
is difficult to conceive how those 'former hymns'
should in any moral respect need amending. The
moralising and corrective purpose with which the two
latter were written perhaps diminished their poetical
beauty; but the themes they celebrate are such as
Spenser could not but ever descant upon with delight;
they were such as were entirely congenial to his
spirit. He here set forth special teachings of his
great master Plato, and abandoned himself to the high
spiritual contemplations he loved. But perhaps the
finest of these four hymns is the second--that in
honour of Beauty. Beauty was indeed the one worship of
Spenser's life--not mere material beauty--not 'the
goodly hew of white and red with which the cheekes are
sprinkled,' or 'the sweete rosy leaves so fairly spred
upon the lips,' or 'that golden wyre,' or 'those
sparckling stars so bright,' but that inner spiritual
beauty, of which fair hair and bright eyes are but
external expressions.
So every spirit, as it is most pure
And hath in it the more of heavenly light,
So it the fairer bodie doth procure
To habit in, and it more fairely dight
With chearfull grace and amiable sight;
For of the soule the bodie forme doth take,
For soule is forme and doth the bodie make.
This hymn is one of high refined rapture.
Pages:
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109