It was fitting that he who
had portrayed for us such beautiful gardens of English nature, should
people them instead of leaving them solitary.
THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.--This is an allegory, written after the manner of
Spenser, and in the Spenserian stanza. He also employs archaic words, as
Spenser did, to give it greater resemblance to Spenser's poem. The
allegorical characters are well described, and the sumptuous adornings and
lazy luxuries of the castle are set forth _con amore_. The spell that
enchants the castle is broken by the stalwart knight _Industry_; but the
glamour of the poem remains, and makes the reader in love with
_Indolence_.
MARK AKENSIDE.--Thomson had restored or reproduced the pastoral from
Nature's self; Akenside followed in his steps. Thomson had invested blank
verse with a new power and beauty; Akenside produced it quite as
excellent. But Thomson was the original, and Akenside the copy. The one is
natural, the other artificial.
Akenside was the son of a butcher, and was born at New Castle, in 1721.
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