Pictures from English literature . UNA. A MODERN commentator upon Spenser has justly observed that Una,the heroine of the first book of the Faerie Queene, is one of the loveliestcreations of genius. Her uniform meekness in misfortune, and the gentleserenity of her temper, would have made her insipid in the hands of aninferior artist; but what we see in her is the repose of heaven, and notthe apathy of earth; and the tranquillity of the stream comes from itsdepth, and not its sluggishness. The legend of the Knight of the RedCross, in which Saint George, the tutelar saint of England, is the type
Pictures from English literature . UNA. A MODERN commentator upon Spenser has justly observed that Una,the heroine of the first book of the Faerie Queene, is one of the loveliestcreations of genius. Her uniform meekness in misfortune, and the gentleserenity of her temper, would have made her insipid in the hands of aninferior artist; but what we see in her is the repose of heaven, and notthe apathy of earth; and the tranquillity of the stream comes from itsdepth, and not its sluggishness. The legend of the Knight of the RedCross, in which Saint George, the tutelar saint of England, is the type ofholiness, details those adventures of that knight which, in a different form,are found in The Seven Champions of Christendom. There is, reason to believe that Spenser was indebted to the latter work, thepublication of which is not proved to have preceded that of the FaerieQueene. The struggles and trials through which he passes, in that processof spiritual discipline which gradually transforms him from the tall clown
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublisherlondon, booksubject
