THE STORY OF UNA. BY PROF. JOHN 8. HART. SEE UNA is the heroine of the first and best known of the beautiful allegories of Spenser, which togeth er make up the incomparable Poem of the Fairie Queene. The legend which forms the first book is entitled the Red Cross Knight, or St. George and the Dragon. The poem opens with a scene of extraordinary beauty. A gentle knight was pricking on the plain, * A lovely lady rode him fair beside, Upon a lowly ass more white than snow; Yet she much whiter; but the same did bide Under a veil that wimpled was full low And over all a black stole she did throw; The lady is named Una. She is sorrowful, and not without cause. Her father's kingdom lies ravaged by a horrible monster. She has come a long distance to the Court of Gloriana, Queen of Fairy Land, to ask aid. Gloriana has assigned the task of aiding her and destroying the monster to this noble Knight. The Knight (named St. George) has set out on this expedition, and he and the lady, with their strange attend. ant, are on their way towards her father's dominions, when we first see them "pricking on the plain." Long before the knight reaches that monster, whose destruction is to be his principal achievement, he may meet with minor adventures, or mishaps-possibly may fall a victim on the way, and never accomplish the object of his mission. In fact, we have hardly time to examine attentively this interesting and curious group, before an adventure occurs, which completely engrosses our attention, and puts an end to further speculation. The heavens are overcast, and a sudden shower of rain obliges the riders to seek shelter in a neighboring grove. So dense is the forest, so thick the foliage overhead in the tops of the PLATE. trees, (although free from underwood and easy to ride through,) that the rain scarcely penetrated it, and the birds, gay and musical, "seemed in their song to scorn the cruel sky." This dense wood proved to be the den of Error An ugly monster plain, Half like a serpent horribly displayed, But th' other half did woman's shape retain, The Champion of Truth, nothing daunted by this formidable shape, boldly commences the assault, and deals her a blow that seems sufficient to put at once an end to her existence. But mere force and courage are not the only qualities necessary to combat Error. Such is St. George's first adventure. Error is slain, and her miserable brood are destroyed. But the Champion of Truth has had a desperate struggle, nor did he finally succeed till faith was added to his force,and courage was tempered with discretion. Happy is he if he does not forget the warning it should give him. Having overcome this loathsome beast and found their way out of the wood, the party resume their journey. Towards night they fall in with an old man of venerable aspect, a HERMIT to all appearance. They accept the old man's hospitable invitation, and spend the night in his humble cell. This pretended Hermit proves to be a wicked and potent magician, named ARCHIMAGO. His foul machinations commence as soon as the travellers are asleep. He sends one of his Spirits as a messenger to the cave of Morpheus, somewhere in the interior of the earth, to procure a Dream. While the first Spirit is gone to bring a Dream, Archimago by his magic art fashions the other into the shape and appearance of the Lady Una, so like that no one by the eye alone could know the difference. And framed of liquid air her tender parts, THE STORY OF UNA. 187 Was nigh beguiled with so goodly sight. Her all in white he clad, and over it Cast a black stole, most like to seem for Una fit. journey forth until high noon, when they seek the friendly shelter of two wide-spreading trees. While reposing beneath the shade of these trees, the Knight thinks to please his companion by making a fresh garland for her dainty forehead. For this purpose he plucks a bough. Imagine his horror, when the wounded tree drops blood, and utters a piercing shriek! The apparent tree is an unfotunate knight, Fradubio, and the fellowtree is his lady-love, both thus changed through the machinations of a wicked sorceress, named DUESSA. The miserable Fradubio had been sub Having thus transformed one Spirit, and received by the hands of the other a false Dream, he proceeds with his machinations against his victims. By means of the false Dream, loose imaginations are conveyed to the mind of the sleeping Knight. When the latter awakes, the influence of the foul Dream upon his mind is sec anded by the light conduct of what he supposes to be the Lady Una, but which we know to be a false and foul Spirit. St. George, though he pen-jected to the power of the hag, and changed into etrates not the devices of the adversary, is yet proof against his assaults. It only grieves him that he is to peril his life for so light a dame. The night is now nearly spent, and these two wicked Spirits, having failed to taint the pure mind of the Knight, report their ill success to their master, Archimago. Thereupon he tries another scheme, the object of which you will learn from the result. The pretended Una retains her false appearance, and the Dream-Spirit is transformed into the shape and appearance of a gay young Squire. Archimago, having everything in readiness, rushes to the apartment of St. George, and wakens him in haste. The Knight, under the guidance of this "bold bad man," is conducted to another apartment, where he sees, as he supposes, the guilt of the Lady Una-a guilt, which he is the more ready to believe because of her light behavior towards himself that same night. He draws his sword upon the guilty couple, but is restrained by Archimago. Disgusted, indignant, the Knight in an evil hour determines to desert the Lady, for whose sake he had undertaken this dangerous enterprize. At earliest dawn, therefore, he calls the Dwarf, and departs with the utmost secrecy and speed. On leaving Una the Knight first encounters a faithless Saracen, Sansfoy. St. George conquers Sansfoy, the Saracen, and then addresses himself to the richly-dressed lady, his companion. She declares her name to be Fidessa (faithful.) She pretends also to be the daughter of an emperor, and betrothed to a young prince, who had died in the flower of his age, leaving her broken-hearted and disconsolate. She was by mishap carried aff by this cruel, faithless Sansfoy. Such was her pitiful story. "Pity melts to love." Alas! alas! for our Knight. The fresh flush of victory, the melting of compassion, the supposed faithlessness and levity of the woman who of all the world has been trusted as pure and true-these are not the circumstances which are apt to lead to a well-considered action of the understanding. St. George and his new acquaintance, Fidessa, the appearance of a tree, (though retaining the sensations of humanity,) as a penalty for having allowed himself to entertain unworthy sentiments of his lady. For this offence he had been imposed upon by the foul hag Duessa, who had made herself appear in his eyes as an “ angel of light;" but chancing upon a time to see her when the charm was off, he found out her real character and appearance. "A filthy, foul old woman I did view, That ever to have touched her, I did rue." Duessa, at last discovered, and finding she could no longer hope to impose upon Fradubio, exerted her magic power to change him and his true lady into these two trees. The male tree, whose bleeding limbs had been torn, ends his tale by exhorting Saint George to caution in regard to appearances, and to beware of falling by the machinations of this false Duessa, who is still abroad in the world. Saint George listens with horror to the words of the bleeding tree, and resolves to take its advice and flee from this dangerous place. On turning to his companion, the pretended Fidessa, he finds her in a swoon. Still unsuspecting, he raises her from the ground, and having reassured her spirits from her feigned fright, he again sets forward on his journey. It is now near the close of the day succeeding that eventful night at the Hermitage. Leaving Saint George and his companion, whom the reader understands to be none other than the false Duessa herself, to travel for a while together, let us return to the Hermitage and see what became of Una. 188 THE STORY OF UNA. She found them both in darksome corner pent; Nine hundred Pater nosters every day, And thrice nine hundred Aves she was wont to say. During the night, a guilty accomplice of Corceca, a bold, blustering fellow, called Kirkrapine, comes to the cottage and commences his pranks, but receives his quietus from the paw of our honest friend Leo. Power is of right the guardian of innocence. The following day the noble beast continues to protect the noble lady. During this day she sees not far off a noble knight approaching. His shield bears the well-remembered emblem, and on a nearer approach, she sees it is indeed her own dear knight, Saint George. Such at least the lady supposes him to be, although the reader knows it to be the false Archimago, dressed and framed to appear like the Red-Cross Knight. The subtle magician, who in regard to the person of a lover, can deceive a woman's eyes, will not lack words to deceive her wit. Poor Una! She receives good and sufficient reasons for her lover's temporary absence, and she is too, too happy at his return, to refuse belief to that which satisfies her heart, if not her head. Supposing, therefore, that she had in truth found her own good knight, she goes on to recount her adventures since their separation. But soon a new foe appears. Bold and cruel Sansloy, brother of the Sansfoy who had been slain, meets and attacks them. The encounter is very much like that between Sansfoy and the real Saint George, except in its result. The false Saint George is unhorsed, and Sansloy is about to slay him, when removing the vizor, behold, to the amazement both of the Saracen and the lady, a wrinkled, feeble old man-Archimago, stripped of all disguise. Una has hardly time to rejoice at her escape from this fearful danger, before a new and more imminent one stares her in the face-that, namely, of falling into the hands of this rude and lawless unbeliever! Sansloy leaves the old magician to die or recover, as it might happen, and directs his ill-boding attentions to his beauteous prize. Taking her rudely from her palfrey, he is attacked by the brave and faithful lion. But mere honesty and simple-minded courage are not always a match for bold and prac tised villany. The glittering Damascus blade drinks the heart's-blood of the noble beast, and the lady is at the mercy of an insulting and godless foe. But the thought of sin or disloyalty hath not yet entered her pure breast, and the reader never for one moment entertains a doubt about her safety. THE CLOSE OF DAY. 189 bounds of our solar system, where it lingers awhile, and then flies away into different and distant systems with which we are not yet acquainted. After Arthur has taken his departure, Saint George and Una resume their journey. While travelling together, enjoying sweet discourse, they meet something well suited to excite in the strongest degree their curiosity and their sym The fortunes of St. George are various and disastrous, and he does not escape the snares of his subtle foes, nor regain his faithful Una, until the appearance of the great Hero of the whole Poem, Prince Arthur. This knight excels all other knights in magnificence. His majestic but youthful person, his heroic and knightly bearing, his matchless armor, his princely qualities, are topics suited to the genius of Spenser. The reader finds himself in a perfect blaze of splen-pathy. dor. It is a brightness not devoid of heat. The imagination becomes not only dazzled, but warmed. The whole picture, indeed, is like one of those magnificent cathedrals of the olden time, in which the mind of the devout worshipper, faint with the endless multiplicity of ever-increasing wonders, finds relief at last in that ultimate and only resting-place of human thought, the heavens to which the ever-springing Gothic arch doth point. I will not spoil Spenser's description of Prince Arthur by extracts. It should be read entire, and in its connexion, or not at all. This noble person extricates the parties from their difficulties. The adventure of Prince Arthur occupies about eight hundred and fifty lines, and forms one of the connecting links between the first book and those which follow. It is something like the intervention of a comet within the The Knight, having gone through a variety of preparatory adventures, having learned equally his power and his weakness, having put to the trial both his lady-love and the weapons which he bare in her defence, he is now ready to enter upon his principal adventure. The description of this adventure, containing the destruction of the monster, the release of the parents, and the betrothal of the lady to her chosen and deserving Knight, occupy the eleventh and twelfth Cantos. This adventure surpasses in magnificence all the previous ones, as much as Prince Arthur surpassed the Knight of Saint George, or any common Knight. I cannot do justice to it without quoting more than would be expedient. I leave, therefore, the whole adventure to the reader's imagination. |