In Shenstone’s “Schoolmistress” (1737-1742) instances of personification are rare, and, where they do occur, are merely faint abstractions like “Learning near her little dome.” It is noteworthy that one of the most successful of the Spenserian imitations should have dispensed with the cumbrous machinery of abstract beings that, on the model of the “Faerie Queene,” might naturally have been drawn upon. The homely atmosphere of the “Schoolmistress,” with its idyllic pictures and its gentle pathos, would, indeed, have been fatally marred by their introduction.
The same sparing use of personification is evident in the greatest of the imitations, James Thomson’s “Castle of Indolence” (1748). A theme of this nature afforded plenty of opportunity to indulge in the device, and Thomson, judging from its use of the figure in some of his blank verse poems, might have been expected to take full advantage. But there are less than a score of examples in the whole of the poem. Only vague references are made to the eponymous hero: he is simply “Indolence” or “tender Indolence” or “the demon Indolence.” For the rest Thomson’s few abstractions are of the stock type, though occasionally more realistic touches result, we may suppose, from the poet’s sense of humour as
The sleepless Gout here counts the crowing cock.
Only here and there has Thomson attempted full-length portraits in the Spenserian manner, as when Lethargy, Hydropsy, and Hypochondria are described with drastic realism.[228]
The works of the minor Spenserians show a greater use of personified abstraction, but even with them there is no great excess. Moreover, where instances do occur, they show imaginative touches foreign to the prevalent types. Thus in the “Vision of Patience” by Samuel Boyce (d. 1778),
Silence sits on her untroubled throne
As if she left the world to live and reign alone,
while Patience stands
In robes of morning grey.
Occasionally the personified abstractions, though occurring in avowedly Spenserian imitations, obviously owe more to the influence of “L’Allegro”; as in William Whitehead’s “Vision of Solomon” (1730), where the embroidered personifications are much more frequent than the detailed images given by Spenser.[229]