7. +Spenser’s Style.+-- His greatest work is +The Faerie Queene+; but that in which he shows the most striking command of language is his +Hymn of Heavenly Love+. +The Faerie Queene+ is written in a nine-lined stanza, which has since been called the _Spenserian Stanza_. The first eight lines are of the usual length of five iambic feet; the last line contains six feet, and is therefore an Alexandrine. Each stanza contains only three rhymes, which are disposed in this order: _a b a b b c b c c_. --The music of the stanza is long-drawn out, beautiful, involved, and even luxuriant. --The story of the poem is an allegory, like the ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’; and in it Spenser undertook, he says, “to represent all the moral virtues, assigning to every virtue a knight to be the patron and defender of the same.”[17] Only six books were completed; and these relate the adventures of the knights who stand for _Holiness_, _Temperance_, _Chastity_, _Friendship_, _Justice_, and _Courtesy_. The +Faerie Queene+ herself is called +Gloriana+, who represents _Glory_ in his “general intention,” and Queen Elizabeth in his “particular intention.” [Footnote 17: This use of the phrase “the same” is antiquated English.] 8. +Character of the Faerie Queene.+-- This poem is the greatest of the sixteenth century. Spenser has not only been the delight of nearly ten generations; he was the study of Shakespeare, the poetical master of Cowley and of Milton, and, in some sense, of Dryden and Pope. Keats, when a boy, was never tired of reading him. “There is something,” says Pope, “in Spenser that pleases one as strongly in old age as it did in one’s youth.” Professor Craik says: “Without calling Spenser the greatest of all poets, we may still say that his poetry is the most poetical of all poetry.” The outburst of national feeling after the defeat of the Armada in 1588; the new lands opened up by our adventurous Devonshire sailors; the strong and lively loyalty of the nation to the queen; the great statesmen and writers of the period; the high daring shown by England against Spain-- all these animated and inspired the glowing genius of Spenser. His rhythm is singularly sweet and beautiful. Hazlitt says: “His versification is at once the most smooth and the most sounding in the language. It is a labyrinth of sweet sounds.” Nothing can exceed the wealth of Spenser’s phrasing and expression; there seems to be no limit to its flow. He is very fond of the Old-English practice of alliteration or head-rhyme-- “hunting the letter,” as it was called. Thus he has-- “In woods, in waves, in wars, she wont to dwell. Gay without good is good heart’s greatest loathing.”