allegorical way (next to 'The Fairy Queen') in the English language."

William Wilkie, a Scotch minister and professor, of eccentric habits and
untidy appearance, published, in 1759, "A Dream: in the Manner of
Spenser," which may be mentioned here not for its own sake, but for the
evidence that it affords of a growing impatience of classical restraints.
The piece was a pendant to Wilkie's epic, the "Epigoniad." Walking by
the Tweed, the poet falls asleep and has a vision of Homer, who
reproaches him with the bareness of style in his "Epigoniad." The
dreamer puts the blame upon the critics,

"Who tie the muses to such rigid laws
That all their songs are frivolous and poor."

Shakspere, indeed,

"Broke all the cobweb limits fixed by fools";

but the only reward of his boldness

"Is that our dull, degenerate age of lead
Says that he wrote by chance, and that he scare could read."

One of the earlier Spenserians was Gilbert West, the translator of
Pindar, who published, in 1739, "On the Abuse of Travelling: A Canto in
Imitation of Spenser."[27] Another imitation, "Education," appeared in
1751. West was a very tame poet, and the only quality of Spenser's which
he succeeded in catching was his prolixity. He used the allegorical
machinery of the "Faërie Queene" for moral and mildly satirical ends.
Thus, in "The Abuse of Traveling," the Red Cross Knight is induced by