d "Pastorals," 1709.
Steele, in No. 540 of the _Spectator_ (November 19, 1712), printed some
mildly commendatory remarks about Spenser. Altogether it is clear that
Spenser's greatness was accepted, rather upon trust, throughout the
classical period, but that this belief was coupled with a general
indifference to his writings. Addison's lines in his "Epistle to
Sacheverel; an Account of the Greatest English Poets," 1694, probably
represent accurately enough the opinion of the majority of readers:

"Old Spenser next, warmed with poetic rage,
In ancient tales amused a barbarous age;
An age that, yet uncultivated and rude,
Wher'er the poet's fancy led, pursued,
Through pathless fields and unfrequented floods,
To dens of dragons and enchanted woods.
But now the mystic tale, that pleased of yore,
Can charm an understanding age no more.
The long-spun allegories fulsome grow,
While the dull moral lies too plain below,
We view well pleased at distance all the sights
Of arms and palfreys, battles, fields and fights,
And damsels in distress and courteous knights,
But when we look too near, the shades decay
And all the pleasing landscape fades away."

Addison acknowledged to Spence that, when he wrote this passage, he had
never read Spenser! As late as 1754 Thomas Warton speaks of him as "this
admired but neglected poet,"[20] and Mr. Kitchin asserts that "between
1650 and 1750 there are but few notices of him, and a very few editions
of his works."[21] There was a reprint of Spenser's works--being the
third folio of the "Faerie Queene"--in 1679, but no critical edition till
1715. Meanwhile the title of a book issued in 1687 shows that Spenser
did not escape that process of "improvement" which we have seen applied
to Shakspere: "Spenser Redivivus; containing the First Book of the 'Faery
Queene.' His Essential Design Preserved, but his Obsolete Language and
Manner of Verse totally laid aside. Delivered in Heroic Numbers by a
Person of Quality." The preface praises Spenser, but declares that "his
style seems no less unintelligible at this day than the obsoletest of our
English or Saxon dialect." One instance of this deliverance into heroic
numbers must suffice:

"By this the northern wagoner had set
His sevenfold team behind the steadfast star
That was in ocean waves yet never wet,
But firm is fixed, and sendeth light from far
To all that