ion of what he aspired to and imagined; a
pledge that he was not dreaming, in portraying Prince Arthur's greatness
of soul, the religious chivalry of the Red Cross Knight of Holiness, the
manly purity and self-control of Sir Guyon. It is too much to say that
in Prince Arthur, the hero of the poem, he always intended Sidney. In
the first place, it is clear that under that character Spenser in places
pays compliments to Leicester, in whose service he began life, and
whose claims on his homage he ever recognized. Prince Arthur is
certainly Leicester, in the historical passages in the Fifth Book
relating to the war in the Low Countries in 1576: and no one can be
meant but Leicester in the bold allusion in the First Book (ix. 17) to
Elizabeth's supposed thoughts of marrying him. In the next place,
allegory, like caricature, is not bound to make the same person and the
same image always or perfectly coincide; and Spenser makes full use of
this liberty. But when he was painting the picture of the Kingly
Warrior, in whom was to be summed up in a magnificent unity the
diversified graces of other men, and who was to be ever ready to help
and support his fellows in their hour of need, and in their conflict
with evil, he certainly had before his mind the well-remembered
lineaments of Sidney's high and generous nature. And he further
dedicated a separate book, the last that he completed, to the
celebration of Sidney's special "virtue" of Courtesy. The martial strain
of the poem changes once more to the pastoral of the _Shepherd's
Calendar_ to describe Sidney's wooing of Frances Walsingham, the fair
Pastorella; his conquests by his sweetness and grace over the
churlishness of rivals; and his triumphant war against the monster
spirit of ignorant and loud-tongued insolence, the "Blatant Beast" of
religious, political, and social slander.

Again, in Lord Grey of Wilton, gentle by nature, but so stern in the
hour of trial, called reluctantly to cope not only with anarchy, but
with intrigue and disloyalty, finding selfishness and thanklessness
everywhere, but facing all and doing his best with a heavy heart, and
ending his days prematurely under detraction and disgrace, Spenser had
before him a less complete character than Sidney, but yet one of grand
and severe manliness, in which were conspicuous a religious hatred of
disorder, and an unflinching sense of public duty. Spenser's admiration
of him was sincere and earnest. In his case the