Of the _Diana_ of _Constable_, a collection of sonnets in eight decades, we have already, if we consider their mediocrity, given a sufficiently copious notice. They were published in 1594, and were soon eclipsed by the _Amoretti_ of _Spenser_, a series of eighty-eight sonnets, printed about the year 1595. These, from the singularity of their construction, which not only deviates from the Italian costume, but has seldom found an imitator, require, independent of their poetic value, peculiar notice. The Spenserian sonnet, then, consists of three tetrachords in alternate rhime; the last line of the first tetrachord rhiming to the first of the second, and the last of the second to the first of the third, and the whole terminated by a couplet. That this system of rhythm often flows sweetly, and that it is often the vehicle of chaste sentiment and beautiful imagery must, in justice, be conceded to this amiable poet; but, at the same time, it is necessary to add, that it is occasionally the medium of quaintness and far-fetched conceit. A specimen, however, shall be subjoined, of which, if the first stanza be slightly tainted with affectation, the remainder will be pronounced, as well in melody and simplicity as in moral beauty, nearly perfect. "The doubt which ye misdeeme, fayre Love, is vaine, That fondly feare to lose your liberty; When, losing one, two liberties ye gaine, And make him bond that bondage earst did fly. Sweet be the bands, the which true Love doth tye Without constraynt, or dread of any ill: The gentle birde feeles no captivity Within her cage; but sings, and feeds her fill. There Pride dare not approach, nor Discord spill The league twixt them, that loyal Love hath bound: But simple Truth, and mutual Good-will, Seeks, with sweet Peace, to salve each others wound: There Fayth doth fearless dwell in brazen towre, And spotlesse Pleasure builds her sacred bowre." Son. 65. Between the sonnets of Spenser, and those of Drayton, a period of ten or eleven years, many minor bards, such as _Percy_, _Barnes_, _Barnefielde_, _Griffin_, _Smith_, &c. the titles of whose works will be found in the table of our preceding chapter, were induced to cultivate, and sometimes with tolerable success, this difficult little poem; nor are there wanting, during this period, some elegant examples of the sonnet interspersed through the works of writers of a higher rank, as, for instance, _Googe_, _Gascoigne_, _Raleigh_, _Breton_, and _Lodge_; but we shall close this criticism with a few remarks on the sonnets of the once popular poet whose productions of this kind immediately preceded the collection of Shakspeare in 1609.