Spenser favours this opinion what he can.
His Prince Arthur, or whoever he intends by him, is a Trojan. Thus
the hero of Homer was a Grecian; of Virgil, a Roman; of Tasso, an
Italian.
I have transgressed my bounds and gone farther than the moral led
me; but if your lordship is not tired, I am safe enough.
Thus far, I think, my author is defended. But as Augustus is still
shadowed in the person of AEneas (of which I shall say more when I
come to the manners which the poet gives his hero), I must prepare
that subject by showing how dexterously he managed both the prince
and people, so as to displease neither, and to do good to both--
which is the part of a wise and an honest man, and proves that it is
possible for a courtier not to be a knave. I shall continue still
to speak my thoughts like a free-born subject, as I am, though such
things perhaps as no Dutch commentator could, and I am sure no
Frenchman durst. I have already told your lordship my opinion of
Virgil--that he was no arbitrary man.
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