upon which he was sent by the Fairy Queen, for the Blatant Beast is committing great ravages, and he leaves the lady and sets off to seek the monster. Sir Calidore follows the Beast from place to place, who at last takes refuge in a monastery, and following through cloister and church

Him in a narrow place he overtook,

And fierce assailing forced him turn again :
Sternly he turned again, when he him strook
With his sharp steel, and ran at him amain
With open mouth, that seemèd to contain
A full good peck within the utmost brim,
All set with iron teeth in ranges twain,
That terrified his foes, and armèd him,
Appearing like the mouth of Orcus grisly grim :

*

And therein were a thousand tongues empight
Of sundry kinds and sundry quality;
Some were of dogs, that barkèd day and night;
And some of cats, that wrawling + still did cry ;
And some of bears, that groyned ‡ continually ;
And some of tigers, that did seem to gren
And snarl at all that ever passed by:

But most of them were tongues of mortal men,

Which spake reproachfully, not caring where nor when.

The knight overcomes and drags the Beast forth, and

* Placed.

+ Mewing.

Growled.

binding him with an iron chain, leads him away to the Fairy Court, but by the way he broke his fetters and escaped.

So now he rangeth through the world again,
And rageth sore in each degree and state;
Ne any is that may him now restrain,
He growen is so great and strong of late,
Barking and biting all that do him bait,
Albe they worthy blame, or clear of crime;
Ne spareth he most learned Wits to rate,
Ne spareth he the gentle Poet's rhyme;
But rends, without regard of person or of time.

The quest of the Blatant Beast ends the Sixth Book, and of the other purposed books of the epic nothing more appears to have been written save two cantos supposed to belong to the legend of Constancy, and two verses of another canto upon Mutability—the last which Spenser is thought to have written, and they may appropriately end this sketch of the Fairy Queen.

*

When I bethink me on that speech whilere
Of Mutability, and well it weigh;
Me seems, that though she all unworthy were
Of th' heavens' rule; yet, very sooth to say,
In all things else she bears the greatest sway:

Which makes me loathe this state of life so tickle,*

And love of things so vain to cast away;

Whose flow'ring pride, so fading and so fickle,

Short time shall soon cut down with his consuming sickle!

Then gin I think on that which Nature said,

Of that same time when no more change shall be,

But steadfast rest of all things, firmly stayed

Upon the pillars of Eternity,

That is contrair to Mutability:

For all that moveth doth in change delight:
But thenceforth all shall rest eternally

With Him that is the God of Sabaoth hight:

O! that great Sabaoth God, grant me that Sabbath's sight!

"The "Fairy Queen" may be likened to a palace full of echoing corridors, which lead into suite after suite of halls, blazing with all the splendour of “barbaric pearl and gold." On one who merely pays it a flying visit, the effect is unsatisfactory. As he hurries from room to room, he is dazzled and bewildered, and leaves with an impression blurred and confused. Far different, however, is the result on the rapt devotee. who for a time makes the mansion his abode. Day after day he lingers with clear-eyed enthusiasm over the

* Uncertain.

glories of each apartment. Day after day he continues to see a magnificent order and beauty rise out of the gorgeous chaos, until the palace presents itself to his mind one grand and harmonious whole, completely filling the imagination.'-Pryde.

Milton's Paradise Lost.

HE life of Milton is too well known to require

THE

that much should be given here by way of introduction to his great epic of Paradise Lost.' This poet and politician was born on December 9, 1608, in Bread Street, London, being the son of a scrivener or notary, a man of cultivated mind and notably skilled as a musician. He gave his son a careful education up to the age of fifteen at St. Paul's school, and afterwards at Cambridge, which university the young poet entered in 1624, and greatly distinguished himself by the excellence of his Latin verses. Quitting Cambridge

in 1631, he remained some years in Buckinghamshire with his father, who had had retired from business, earnestly devoting himself to study and self-cultivation, and some of his minor poems were probably written about this time. In 1638 he made a tour on the Continent, making acquaintance with Grotius in Paris, and visiting Galileo, then a prisoner of the Inquisition