"Though the Faerie Queene does not exhibit that economy of plan and exact arrangement of parts which epic severity requires, yet we scarcely regret the loss of these while their place is so amply supplied by something which more powerfully attracts us, as it engages the affection of the heart, rather than the applause of the head; and if there be any poem whose graces please, because they are situated beyond the reach of art, and where the faculties of creative imagination delight us, because they are unassisted and unrestrained by those of deliberate judgment, it is in this of which we are now speaking. To sum up all in a few words; though in the Faerie Queene we are not satisfied as critics, yet we are transported as readers."
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Original Language: English
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Thomas Warton, Observations on the Faerie Queene of Spenser (1754), pp. 12–13
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Faerie_Queene
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The Faerie Queene
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