With sprinkled pearle and gold full richly drest,
Did shake, and seemd to daunce for jollitie;
Like to an almond tree ymounted hye
On top of greene Selinis all alone,
With blossoms brave bedecked daintily,
Whose tender locks do tremble every one
At everie little breath that under heaven is blowne.

Ib. c. 7. st. 31-2.


4. You will take especial note of the marvellous independence and true
imaginative absence of all particular space or time in the Faery Queene.
It is in the domains neither of history or geography; it is ignorant of
all artificial boundary, all material obstacles; it is truly in land of
Faery, that is, of mental space. The poet has placed you in a dream, a
charmed sleep, and you neither wish, nor have the power, to inquire
where you are, or how you got there. It reminds me of some lines of my
own:--


Oh! would to Alla!
The raven or the sea-mew were appointed
To bring me food!--or rather that my soul
Might draw in life from the universal air!
It were a lot divine in some small skiff
Along some ocean's boundless solitude
To float for ever with a careless course
And think myself the only being alive!