Spenser's position in the poetic Pantheon is secure, but
he is a god worshipped rather with the lips than with the
heart. Until the last few years English critics while be-
ginning always with formal homage, by acknowledging his
place with Shakespeare and Milton at the head of our
literature, have generally gone on to admit explicitly or
implicitly that he wearied them. They believe that he is
great, but they do not really feel it. The criticism is apt
to degenerate into the citation of a few well-known pas-
sages, or into an exposition of the superficial allegory.
Church Life of Spenser in the 'Men of Letters Series'--
still a standard authority--devotes pages to what he regards
as blemishes. Of The Faerie Queene he writes: 'Its place
in literature is established beyond controversy, yet its first
aspect inspires respect, perhaps interest, rather than attracts
and satisfies . . . at first acquaintance The Faerie Queene to
many of us has been disappointing. It has seemed . . .
artificial . . . fantastic . . . tiresome.' He objects that
there is much padding in the later books, and instances the
marriage of the Thames and the Medway. He thinks that
Spenser had exhausted or tired of his proper allegory, and
so 'his poem became an elastic framework into which he
could fit whatever interested him and tempted him to
composition,' and preparing to praise he allows his instinc-
tive attitude to show itself in a long list of what he regards

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