ry with historical
allusions to our poet's times, one might be apt to think, that, in a
poem written on so extensive a plan, the cruel Rosalinde would be in
some way or other typically introduced; and methinks I see her
plainly characterized in Mirabella. Perhaps, too, her expressions
were the same that are given to Mirabella,--'the _free lady_,' 'she
was born free,'" etc.[7]

"We are now come," says Mr. G.L. Craik, by far the most acute and
sagacious of all the commentators on Spenser, "to a very remarkable
passage. Having thus disposed of Turpin, the poet suddenly addresses
his readers, saying,--

'But turn we back now to that _lady free_
Whom late we left riding upon an ass
Led by a _carle and fool_ which by her side did pass.'

"This is the 'fair maiden clad in mourning weed,' who, it may be
remembered, was met, as related at the beginning of the preceding
canto, by Timias and Serena. There, however, she was represented as
attended only by a _fool_. What makes this episode especially
interesting is the conjecture that has been thrown out, and which
seems intrinsically probable, that the 'lady' is Spenser's own
Rosalinde, by whom he had been, jilted, or at least rejected, more
than a quarter of a century before. His unforgetting resentment is
supposed to have taken this revenge."

So far with Mr. Upton and Mr. Craik we heartily concur as to the
identity of Rosalinde and Mirabella; and feel confident that a
perusal and comparison of the episode of Mirabella with the whole
story of Rosalinde will leave every candid and intelligent reader no
choice but to come to the same conclusion: We shall now collate the
attributes assigned in common to those two impersonations in their
maiden state, and note the correspondence.

Both are of humble birth,--Rosalinde being described in the
"Shepherd's Calendar" as "the widow's daughter of the glen"; her low
origin and present exalted position are frequently alluded to,--her
beauty, her haughtiness, and love of liberty. Mirabella is thus
described in Book VI. "Faery Queen," Canto vii:--

"She was a lady of great dignity,
And lifted up to honorable place;
Famous through all the land of Faerie:
Though of mean parentage and kindred base,
Yet decked with wondrous gifts of Nature's grace."

"But she thereof grew proud and insolent,
And scorned them all that lore unto her meant."

"She was born free, not bound to any wight."

Of Rosalinde we hear in "Col