Excerpt from The Critics of Edmund Spenser The interest of the subject deepens with the rise of the neo-classicism. Mr. Cory claims that Spenser exercised a greater influence on the Augustans than he afterwards did on the 'romanticists in reality each age took only a partial view of the poet - that, of course, which best suited it - and it is curious to compare the respective judgments. The neo-classicists emphasised beauties in Spenser that were lost on the Romanticists. The former loved his fidelity to Virgil, and deplored his debauchery by Ariosto; while the latter, when their day came, praised him for his debt to the Italians, and regretted his Latin blemishes. His didactic tone and his allegorical method are his chief excellences to the Augustans. But when the Romantic Revival came, the boot was on the other leg. He is now sought rather as a poet of ardent emotion and sensuous glow than as a poet of vast moral visions his appeal is to the feelings of the heart rather than the cold approbation of the head. He is even conceived as a true Romanticist blushing for his enthu siasm, and cloaking his romance in morals to hide his shame. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.