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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6937.txt b/6937.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3dfe33c --- /dev/null +++ b/6937.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3569 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Biography of Edmund Spenser, by John W. Hales + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll +have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using +this ebook. + + + +Title: A Biography of Edmund Spenser + +Author: John W. Hales + +Release Date: July 18, 2019 [EBook #6937] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BIOGRAPHY OF EDMUND SPENSER *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer + + + + + + +A BIOGRAPHY OF EDMUND SPENSER + +By John W. Hales + +Revised 1896 + +From the Macmillan Globe edition of +THE WORKS OF EDMUND SPENSER + + + +Please note: + + Accented, etc. characters are shown thus: + {a\} = a + grave accent + {e\} = e + grave accent + {e"} = e + diaeresis mark + {ae} = ae diphthong + {oe} = oe dipthong + Footnotes for each chapter are enclosed in curly + brackets, e.g. {1} + Regions of italic type are defined by underscores + + + + _E D M U N D S P E N S E R_. + + + Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim + Credebat libris; neque, si male cesserat, unquam + Decurrens alio, neque si bene; quo fit ut omnis + Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella + Vita senis. + + Hither, as to their fountain, other stars + Repairing in their urns draw golden light. + + +The life of Spenser is wrapt in a similar obscurity to +that which hides from us his great predecessor Chaucer, +and his still greater contemporary Shakspere. As in +the case of Chaucer, our principal external authorities +are a few meagre entries in certain official documents, +and such facts as may be gathered from his works. The +birth-year of each poet is determined by inference. +The circumstances in which each died are a matter of +controversy. What sure information we have of the +intervening events of the life of each one is scanty +and interrupted. So far as our knowledge goes, it +shows some slight positive resemblance between their +lives. They were both connected with the highest +society of their times; both enjoyed court favour, and +enjoyed it in the substantial shape of pensions. They +were both men of remarkable learning. They were both +natives of London. They both died in the close +vicinity of Westminster Abbey, and lie buried near each +other in that splendid cemetery. Their geniuses were +eminently different: that of Chaucer was the active +type, Spenser's of the contemplative; Chaucer was +dramatic, Spenser philosophical; Chaucer objective, +Spenser subjective; but in the external circumstances, +so far as we know them, amidst which these great poets +moved, and in the mist which for the most part enfolds +those circumstances, there is considerable likeness. + Spenser is frequently alluded to by his +contemporaries; they most ardently recognised in him, +as we shall see, a great poet, and one that might +justly be associated with the one supreme poet whom +this country had then produced--with Chaucer, and they +paid him constant tributes of respect and admiration; +but these mentions of him do not generally supply any +biographical details. + The earliest notice of him that may in any sense +be termed biographical occurs in a sort of handbook to +the monuments of Westminster Abbey, published by Camden +in 1606. Amongst the 'Reges, Regin{ae}, Nobiles, et alij +in Ecclesia Collegiata B. Petri Westmonasterii sepulti +usque ad annum 1606' is enrolled the name of Spenser, +with the following brief obituary: + 'Edmundus Spencer Londinensis, Anglicorum Poetarum +nostri seculi facile princeps, quod ejus poemata +faventibus Musis et victuro genio conscripta +comprobant. Obijt immatura morte anno salutis 1598, et +prope Galfredum Chaucerum conditur qui felicissime +po{e"}sin Anglicis literis primus illustravit. In quem +h{ae}c scripta sunt epitaphia:-- + + Hic prope Chaucerum situs est Spenserius, illi + Proximus ingenio proximus ut tumulo. + + Hic prope Chaucerum, Spensere poeta, poetam + Conderis, et versu quam tumulo propior. + Anglica, te vivo, vixit plausitque po{e"}sis; + Nunc moritura timet, te moriente, mori.' + + 'Edmund Spencer of London, far the first of the +English Poets of our age, as his poems prove, written +under the smile of the Muses, and with a genius +destined to live. He died prematurely in the year of +salvation 1598, and is buried near Geoffrey Chaucer, +who was the first most happily to set forth poetry in +English writing: and on him were written these +epitaphs:-- + + Here nigh to Chaucer Spenser lies; to whom + In genius next he was, as now in tomb. + + Here nigh to Chaucer, Spenser, stands thy +hearse,{1} + Still nearer standst thou to him in thy verse. + Whilst thou didst live, lived English poetry; + Now thou art dead, it fears that it shall die.' + + The next notice is found in Drummond's account of +Ben Jonson's conversations with him in the year 1618: + 'Spencer's stanzas pleased him not, nor his +matter. The meaning of the allegory of his Fairy Queen +he had delivered in writing to Sir Walter Rawleigh, +which was, "that by the Bleating Beast he understood +the Puritans, and by the false Duessa the Queen of +Scots." He told, that Spencer's goods were robbed by +the Irish, and his house and a little child burnt, he +and his wife escaped, and after died for want of bread +in King Street; he refused 20 pieces sent to him by my +lord Essex, and said he was sure he had no time to +spend them.'{2} + The third record occurs in Camden's _History of +Queen Elizabeth (Annales rerum Anglicarum et +Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha)_, first published in +a complete form in 1628. There the famous antiquary +registering what demises marked the year 1598 (our +March 25, 1598, to March 24, 1599), adds to his list +Edmund Spenser, and thus writes of him: 'Ed. Spenserus, +patria Londinensis, Cantabrigienis autem alumnus, Musis +adeo arridentibus natus ut omnes Anglicos superioris +{ae}vi Poetas, ne Chaucero quidem concive excepto, +superaret. Sed peculiari Poetis fato semper cum +paupertate conflictatus, etsi Greio Hiberni{ae} proregi +fuerit ab epistolis. Vix enim ibi secessum et +scribendi otium nactus, quam a rebellibus {e\} laribus +ejectus et bonis spoliatus, in Angliam inops reversus +statim exspiravit, Westmonasterii prope Chaucerum +impensis comitis Essexi{ae} inhumatus, Po{e"}tis funus +ducentibus flebilibusque carminibus et calamis in +tumulum conjectis.'{3} This is to say: 'Edmund +Spenser, a Londoner by birth, and a scholar also of the +University of Cambridge, born under so favourable an +aspect of the Muses that he surpassed all the English +Poets of former times, not excepting Chaucer himself, +his fellow-citizen. But by a fate which still follows +Poets, he always wrestled with poverty, though he had +been secretary to the Lord Grey, Lord Deputy of +Ireland. For scarce had he there settled himself into +a retired privacy and got leisure to write, when he was +by the rebels thrown out of his dwelling, plundered of +his goods, and returned to England a poor man, where he +shortly after died and was interred at Westminster, +near to Chaucer, at the charge of the Earl of Essex, +his hearse being attended by poets, and mournful +elegies and poems with the pens that wrote them thrown +into his tomb.'{4} + In 1633, Sir James Ware prefaced his edition of +Spenser's prose work on the State of Ireland with these +remarks:-- + 'How far these collections may conduce to the +knowledge of the antiquities and state of this land, +let the fit reader judge: yet something I may not passe +by touching Mr. Edmund Spenser and the worke it selfe, +lest I should seeme to offer injury to his worth, by +others so much celebrated. Hee was borne in London of +an ancient and noble family, and brought up in the +Universitie of Cambridge, where (as the fruites of his +after labours doe manifest) he mispent not his time. +After this he became secretary to Arthur Lord Grey of +Wilton, Lord Deputy of Ireland, a valiant and worthy +governour, and shortly after, for his services to the +Crowne, he had bestowed upon him by Queene Elizabeth, +3,000 acres of land in the countie of Corke. There he +finished the latter part of that excellent poem of his +"Faery Queene," which was soone after unfortunately +lost by the disorder and abuse of his servant, whom he +had sent before him into England, being then _a +rebellibus_ (as Camden's words are) _{e\} laribus ejectus +et bonis spoliatus_. He deceased at Westminster in the +year 1599 (others have it wrongly 1598), soon after his +return into England, and was buried according to his +own desire in the collegiat church there, neere unto +Chaucer whom he worthily imitated (at the costes of +Robert Earle of Essex), whereupon this epitaph was +framed.' And then are quoted the epigrams already +given from Camden. + The next passage that can be called an account of +Spenser is found in Fuller's _Worthies of England_, +first published in 1662, and runs as follows:-- + 'Edmond Spencer, born in this city (London), was +brought up in Pembroke-hall in Cambridge, where he +became an excellent scholar; but especially most happy +in English Poetry; as his works do declare, in which +the many Chaucerisms used (for I will not say affected +by him) are thought by the ignorant to be blemishes, +known by the learned to be beauties, to his book; which +notwithstanding had been more saleable, if more +conformed to our modern language. + 'There passeth a story commonly told and believed, +that Spencer presenting his poems to queen Elizabeth, +she, highly affected therewith, commanded the lord +Cecil, her treasurer, to give him an hundred pound; and +when the treasurer (a good steward of the queen's +money) alledged that the sum was too much; "Then give +him," quoth the queen, "What is reason;" to which the +lord consented, but was so busied, belike, about +matters of higher concernment, that Spencer received no +reward, whereupon he presented this petition in a small +piece of paper to the queen in her progress:-- + + I was promis'd on a time, + To have reason for my rhyme; + From that time unto this season, + I receiv'd nor rhyme nor reason. + +'Hereupon the queen gave strict order (not without some +check to her treasurer), for the present payment of the +hundred pounds the first intended unto him. + 'He afterwards went over into Ireland, secretary +to the lord Gray, lord deputy thereof; and though that· +his office under his lord was lucrative, yet he got no +estate; but saith my author "peculiari poetis fato +semper cum paupertate conflictatus est." So that it +fared little better with him than with William Xilander +the German (a most excellent linguist, antiquary, +philosopher and mathematician), who was so poor, that +(as Thuanus saith), he was thought "fami non famae +scribere." + 'Returning into England, he was robb'd by the +rebels of what little he had; and dying for grief in +great want, anno 1598, was honourably buried nigh +Chaucer in Westminster, where this distich concludeth +his epitaph on his monument + + Anglica, te vivo, vixit plausitque poesis; + Nunc moritura timet, te moriente, mori.' + + Whilst thou didst live, liv'd English poetry + Which fears now thou art dead, that she shall die. + + +'Nor must we forget, that the expence of his funeral +and monument was defrayed at the sole charge of Robert, +first of that name, earl of Essex.' + The next account is given by Edward Phillips in +his _Theatrum Po{e"}tarum Anglicanorum_, first published +in 1675. This Phillips was, as is well known, Milton's +nephew, and according to Warton, in his edition of +Milton's juvenile poems, 'there is good reason to +suppose that Milton threw many additions and +corrections into the _Theatrum Po{e"}tarum_.' Phillips' +words therefore have an additional interest for us. +'Edmund Spenser,' he writes, 'the first of our English +poets that brought heroic poesy to any perfection, his +"Fairy Queen" being for great invention and poetic +heighth, judg'd little inferior, if not equal to the +chief of the ancient Greeks and Latins, or modern +Italians; but the first poem that brought him into +esteem was his "Shepherd's Calendar," which so endeared +him to that noble patron of all vertue and learning Sir +Philip Sydney, that he made him known to Queen +Elizabeth, and by that means got him preferred to be +secretary to his brother{5} Sir Henry Sidney, who was +sent deputy into Ireland, where he is said to have +written his "Faerie Queen;" but upon the return of Sir +Henry, his employment ceasing, he also return'd into +England, and having lost his great friend Sir Philip, +fell into poverty, yet made his last refuge to the +Queen's bounty, and had 500_l_. ordered him for his +support, which nevertheless was abridged to 100_l_. by +Cecil, who, hearing of it, and owing him a grudge for +some reflections in Mother Hubbard's Tale, cry'd out to +the queen, What! all this for a song? This he is said +to have taken so much to heart, that he contracted a +deep melancholy, which soon after brought his life to a +period. So apt is an ingenuous spirit to resent a +slighting, even from the greatest persons; thus much I +must needs say of the merit of so great a poet from so +great a monarch, that as it is incident to the best of +poets sometimes to flatter some royal or noble patron, +never did any do it more to the height, or with greater +art or elegance, if the highest of praises attributed +to so heroic a princess can justly be termed +flattery.'{6} + When Spenser's works were reprinted--the first +three books of the _Faerie Queene_ for the seventh +time--in 1679, there was added an account of his life. +In 1687, Winstanley, in his _Lives of the most famous +English Poets_, wrote a formal biography. + These are the oldest accounts of Spenser that have +been handed down to us. In several of them mythical +features and blunders are clearly discernible. Since +Winstanley's time, it may be added, Hughes in 1715, Dr. +Birch in 1731, Church in 1758, Upton in that same year, +Todd in 1805, Aikin in 1806, Robinson in 1825, Mitford +in 1839, Prof. Craik in 1845, Prof. Child in 1855, Mr. +Collier in 1862, Dr. Grosart in 1884, have re-told what +little there is to tell, with various additions and +subtractions. + Our external sources of information are, then, +extremely scanty. Fortunately our internal sources are +somewhat less meagre. No poet ever more emphatically +lived in his poetry than did Spenser. The Muses were, +so to speak, his own bosom friends, to whom he opened +all his heart. With them he conversed perpetually on +the various events of his life; into their ears he +poured forth constantly the tale of his joys and his +sorrows, of his hopes, his fears, his distresses. + He was not one of those poets who can put off +themselves in their works, who can forego their own +interests and passions, and live for the time an +extraneous life. There is an intense personality about +all his writings, as in those of Milton and of +Wordsworth. In reading them you can never forget the +poet in the poem. They directly and fully reflect the +poet's own nature and his circumstances. They are, as +it were, fine spiritual diaries, refined self- +portraitures. Horace's description of his own famous +fore-runner, quoted at the head of this memoir, applies +excellently to Spenser. On this account the scantiness +of our external means of knowing Spenser is perhaps the +less to be regretted. Of him it is eminently true that +we may know him from his works. His poems are his best +biography. In the sketch of his life to be given here +his poems shall be our one great authority. + + + + Footnotes + --------- + +{1} Compare 'Underneath this sable _hearse_, &c.' +{2} Works of William Drummond of Hawthornden. + Edinburgh, 1711, p. 225. +{3} _Annales_, ed. _Hearne_, iii. 783. +{4} _History of Elizabeth, Queen of England._ Ed. + 1688, pp. 564, 565. +{5} Father +{6} _Theatrum Poet. Anglic._, ed. Brydges, 1800, pp. + 148, 149. + + + + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + 1552-1579. + + FROM SPENSER'S BIRTH TO THE PUBLICATION OF THE + SHEPHEARD'S CALENDAR. + +Edmund Spenser was born in London in the year 1552, or +possibly 1551. For both these statements we have +directly or indirectly his own authority. In his +_Prothalamion_ he sings of certain swans whom in a +vision he saw floating down the river 'Themmes,' that + + At length they all to mery London came, + To mery London, my most kyndly nurse, + That to me gave this lifes first native sourse, + Though from another place I take my name, + An house of auncient fame. + +A MS. note by Oldys the antiquary in Winstanley's +_Lives of the most famous English Poets_, states that +the precise locality of his birth was East Smithfield. +East Smithfield lies just to the east of the Tower, and +in the middle of the sixteenth century, when the Tower +was still one of the chief centres of London life and +importance, was of course a neighbourhood of far +different rank and degree from its present social +status. The date of his birth is concluded with +sufficient certainty from one of his sonnets, viz. +sonnet 60; which it is pretty well ascertained was +composed in the year 1593. These sonnets are, as well +shall see, of the amorous wooing sort; in the one of +them just mentioned, the sighing poet declares that it +is but a year since he fell in love, but that the year +has seemed to him longer + + Then al those fourty which my life out-went. + +Hence it is gathered that he was most probably born in +1552. The inscription, then, over his tomb in +Westminster Abbey errs in assigning his birth to 1553; +though the error is less flagrant than that perpetrated +by the inscription that preceded the present one, which +set down as his natal year 1510. + Of his parents the only fact secured is that his +mother's name was Elizabeth. This appears from sonnet +74, where he apostrophizes those + + Most happy letters! fram'd by skilfull trade + With which that happy name was first desynd, + The which three times thrise happy hath me made, + With guifts of body, fortune and of mind. + The first my being to me gave by kind + From mothers womb deriv'd by dew descent. + +The second is the Queen, the third 'my love, my lives +last ornament.' A careful examination by Mr. Collier +and others of what parish registers there are extant in +such old churches as stand near East Smithfield--the +Great Fire, it will be remembered, broke out some +distance west of the Tower, and raged mainly westward-- +has failed to discover any trace of the infant Spenser +or his parents. An 'Edmund Spenser' who is mentioned +in the Books of the Treasurer of the Queen's Chamber in +1569, as paid for bearing letters from Sir Henry +Norris, her Majesty's ambassador in France, to the +Queen,{1} and who with but slight probability has been +surmised to be the poet himself, is scarcely more +plausibly conjectured by Mr. Collier to be the poet's +father. The utter silence about his parents, with the +single exception quoted, in the works of one who, as +has been said above, made poetry the confidante of all +his joys and sorrows, is remarkable.· + Whoever they were, he was well connected on his +father's side at least. 'The nobility of the +Spensers,' writes Gibbon, 'has been illustrated and +enriched by the trophies of Marlborough; but I exhort +them to consider the "Faerie Queen" as the most +precious jewel of their coronet.' Spenser was +connected with the then not ennobled, but highly +influential family of the Spencers of Althorpe, +Northamptonshire. Theirs was the 'house of auncient +fame,' or perhaps we should rather say they too +belonged to the 'house of auncient fame' alluded to in +the quotation made above from the _Prothalamion_. He +dedicates various poems to the daughters of Sir John +Spencer, who was the head of that family during the +poet's youth and earlier manhood down to 1580, and in +other places mentions these ladies with many +expressions of regard and references to his affinity. +'Most faire and vertuous Ladie,' he writes to the +'Ladie Compton and Mountegle,' the fifth daughter, in +his dedication to her of his _Mother Hubberds Tale_, +'having often sought opportunitie by some good meanes +to make knowen to your Ladiship the humble affection +and faithfull duetie, which I have alwaies professed +and am bound to beare to that house, from whence yee +spring, I have at length found occasion to remember the +same by making a simple present to you of these my idle +labours, &c.' To another daughter, 'the right worthy +and vertuous ladie the Ladie Carey,' he dedicates his +_Muiopotmos_; to another, 'the right honorable the +Ladie Strange,' his _Teares of the Muses_. In the +latter dedication he speaks of 'your particular +bounties, and also some private bands of affinitie, +which it hath pleased your Ladiship to acknowledge.' +It was for this lady Strange, who became subsequently +the wife of Sir Thomas Egerton, that one who came after +Spenser--Milton--wrote the _Arcades_. Of these three +kinswomen, under the names of Phyllis, Charillis, and +sweet Amaryllis, Spenser speaks once more in his _Colin +Clouts Come Home Again_; he speaks of them as + + The honour of the noble familie + Of which I meanest boast myself to be. + +For the particular branch of the Spencer or Spenser +family--one branch wrote the name with _s_, another +with _c_--to which the poet belonged, it has been well +suggested that it was that settled in East Lancashire +in the neighbourhood of Pendle Forest. It is known on +the authority of his friend Kirke, whom we shall +mention again presently, that Spenser retired to the +North after leaving Cambridge; traces of a Northern +dialect appear in the _Shepheardes Calendar_; the +Christian name Edmund is shown by the parish registers +to have been a favourite with one part of the +Lancashire branch--with that located near Filley Close, +three miles north of Hurstwood, near Burnley. + Spenser then was born in London, probably in East +Smithfield, about a year before those hideous Marian +fires began to blaze in West Smithfield. He had at +least one sister, and probably at least one brother. +His memory would begin to be retentive about the time +of Queen Elizabeth's accession. Of his great +contemporaries, with most of whom he was to be brought +eventually into contact, Raleigh was born at Hayes in +Devonshire in the same year with him, Camden in Old +Bailey in 1551, Hooker near Exeter in or about 1553, +Sidney at Penshurst in 1554, Bacon at York House in the +West Strand, 1561, Shakspere at Stratford-on-Avon in +1564, Robert Devereux, afterwards second earl of Essex, +in 1567. + The next assured fact concerning Spenser is that +he was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, then +just founded. This we learn from an entry in 'The +Spending of the Money of Robert Nowell, Esq.,' of Reade +Hall, Lancashire, brother of Alexander Nowell, Dean of +St. Paul's. In an accompt of sums 'geven to poor +schollers of dyvers gramare scholles' we find Xs. +given, April 28, 1569, to 'Edmond Spensore Scholler of +the Merchante Tayler Scholl;' and the identification is +established by the occasion being described as 'his +gowinge to Penbrocke Hall in Chambridge,' for we know +that the future poet was admitted a Sizar of Pembroke +College, then styled Hall, Cambridge, in 1569. Thus we +may fairly conclude that Spenser was not only London +born but London bred, though he may have from time to +time sojourned with relatives and connections in +Lancashire{2} before his undergraduateship, as well as +after. Thus a conjecture of Mr. Collier's may +confidently be discarded, who in the muster-book of a +hundred in Warwickshire has noted the record of one +Edmund Spenser as living in 1569 at Kingsbury, and +conjectures that this was the poet's father, and that +perhaps the poet spent his youth in the same county +with Shakspere. It may be much doubted whether it is a +just assumption that every Edmund Spenser that is in +any way or anywhere mentioned in the Elizabethan era +was either the poet or his father. Nor, should it be +allowed that the Spenser of Kingsbury was indeed the +poet's father, could we reasonably indulge in any +pretty picture of a fine friendship between the future +authors of _Hamlet_ and of the _Faerie Queene_. +Shakspere was a mere child, not yet passed into the +second of his Seven Ages, when Spenser, being then +about seventeen years old, went up to the University. +However, this matter need not be further considered, as +there is no evidence whatever to connect Spenser with +Warwickshire. + But in picturing to ourselves Spenser's youth we +must not think of London as it now is, or of East +Smithfield as now cut off from the country by +innumerable acres of bricks and mortar. The green +fields at that time were not far away from Spenser's +birthplace. And thus, not without knowledge and +symnpathy, but with appreciative variations, Spenser +could re-echo Marot's 'Eglogue au Roy sous les noms de +Pan et Robin,' and its descriptions of a boy's rural +wanderings and delights. See his _Shepheardes +Calendar_, December:-- + + Whilome in youth when flowrd my joyfull spring, + Like swallow swift I wandred here and there; + For heate of heedlesse lust me did so sting, + That I oft doubted daunger had no feare: + I went the wastefull woodes and forrest wide + Withouten dread of wolves to bene espide. + + I wont to raunge amid the mazie thicket + And gather nuttes to make my Christmas game, + And joyed oft to chace the trembling pricket, + Or hunt the hartlesse hare till she were tame. + What wreaked I of wintrie ages waste? + Tho deemed I my spring would ever last. + + How often have I scaled the craggie oke + All to dislodge the raven of her nest? + How have I wearied, with many a stroke, + The stately walnut-tree, the while the rest, + Under the tree fell all for nuttes at strife? + For like to me was libertie and life. + +To be sure he is here paraphrasing, and also is writing +in the language of pastoral poetry, that is, the +language of this passage is metaphorical; but it is +equally clear that the writer was intimately and +thoroughly acquainted with that life from which the +metaphors of his original are drawn. He describes a +life he had lived. + It seems probable that he was already an author in +some sort when he went up to Cambridge. In the same +year in which he became an undergraduate there appeared +a work entitled, 'A Theatre wherein be represented as +well the Miseries and Calamities that follow the +Voluptuous Worldlings as also the greate Joyes and +Pleasures which the Faithful do enjoy. An Argument +both Profitable and Delectable to all that sincerely +loue the Word of God. Deuised by S. John Vander +Noodt.' Vander Noodt was a native of Brabant who had +sought refuge in England, 'as well for that I would not +beholde the abominations of the Romyshe Antechrist as +to escape the handes of the bloudthirsty.' 'In the +meane space,' he continues, 'for the avoyding of +idlenesse (the very mother and nourice of all vices) I +have among other my travayles bene occupied aboute thys +little Treatyse, wherein is sette forth the vilenesse +and basenesse of worldely things whiche commonly +withdrawe us from heavenly and spirituall matters.' +This work opens with six pieces in the form of sonnets +styled epigrams, which are in fact identical with the +first six of the _Visions of Petrarch_ subsequently +published among Spenser's works, in which publication +they are said to have been 'formerly translated'. +After these so-called epigrams come fifteen _Sonnets_, +eleven of which are easily recognisable amongst the +_Visions of Bellay_, published along with the _Visions +of Petrarch_. There is indeed as little difference +between the two sets of poems as is compatible with the +fact that the old series is written in blank verse, the +latter in rhyme. The sonnets which appear for the +first time in the _Visions_ are those describing the +Wolf, the River, the Vessel, the City. There are four +pieces of the older series which are not reproduced in +the later. It would seem probable that they too may +have been written by Spenser in the days of his youth, +though at a later period of his life he cancelled and +superseded them. They are therefore reprinted in this +volume. (See pp. 699-701.) + Vander Noodt, it must be said, makes no mention of +Spenser in his volume. It would seem that he did not +know English, and that he wrote his _Declaration_--a +sort of commentary in prose on the _Visions_--in +French. At least we are told that this _Declaration_ +is translated out of French into English by Theodore +Roest. All that is stated of the origin of his +_Visions_ is: 'The learned poete M. Francisce +Petrarche, gentleman of Florence, did invent and write +in Tuscan the six firste . . . . which because they +serve wel to our purpose, I have out of the Brabants +speache turned them into the English tongue;' and 'The +other ten visions next ensuing ar described of one +Ioachim du Bellay, gentleman of France, the whiche· +also, because they serve to our purpose I have +translated them out of Dutch into English.' The fact +of the _Visions_ being subsequently ascribed to Spenser +would not by itself carry much weight. But, as Prof. +Craik pertinently asks, 'if this English version was +not the work of Spenser, where did Ponsonby [the +printer who issued that subsequent publication which +has been mentioned] procure the corrections which are +not mere typographical errata, and the additions and +other variations{3} that are found in his edition?' + In a work called _Tragical Tales_, published in +1587, there is a letter in verse, dated 1569, addressed +to 'Spencer' by George Turberville, then resident in +Russia as secretary to the English ambassador, Sir +Thomas Randolph. Anthony {a\} Wood says this Spencer was +the poet; but it can scarcely have been so. +'Turberville himself,' remarks Prof. Craik, 'is +supposed to have been at this time in his twenty-ninth +or thirtieth year, which is not the age at which men +choose boys of sixteen for their friends. Besides, the +verses seem to imply a friendship of some standing, and +also in the person addressed the habits and social +position of manhood. . . . It has not been commonly +noticed that this epistle from Russia is not +Turberville's only poetical address to his friend +Spencer. Among his "Epitaphs and Sonnets" are two +other pieces of verse addressed to the same person.' + To the year 1569 belongs that mention referred to +above of payment made one 'Edmund Spenser' for bearing +letters from France. As has been already remarked, it +is scarcely probable that this can have been the poet, +then a youth of some seventeen years on the verge of +his undergraduateship. + The one certain event of Spenser's life in the +year 1569 is that he was then entered as a sizar at +Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He 'proceeded B.A.' in 1573, +and 'commenced M.A.' in 1576. There is some reason for +believing that his college life was troubled in much +the same way as was that of Milton some sixty years +later--that there prevailed some misunderstanding +between him and the scholastic authorities. He +mentions his university with respect in the _Faerie +Queene_, in book iv. canto xi. where, setting forth +what various rivers gathered happily together to +celebrate the marriage of the Thames and the Medway, he +tells how + + ... the plenteous Ouse came far from land + By many a city and by many a towne, + And many rivers taking under hand + Into his waters, as he passeth downe, + The Cle, the Were, the Grant, the Sture, the Rowne. + Thence doth by Huntingdon and Cambridge flit, + My mother Cambridge, whom as with a Crowne + He doth adorne, and is adorn'd of it + With many a gentle Muse, and many a learned wit. + +But he makes no mention of his college. The notorious +Gabriel Harvey, an intimate friend of Spenser, who was +elected a Fellow of Pembroke Hall the year after the +future poet was admitted as a sizar, in a letter +written in 1580, asks: 'And wil you needes have my +testimoniall of youre old Controllers new behaviour?' +and then proceeds to heap abusive words on some person +not mentioned by name but evidently only too well known +to both the sender and the receiver of the epistle. +Having compiled a list of scurrilities worthy of +Falstaff, and attacked another matter which was an +abomination to him, Harvey vents his wrath in sundry +Latin charges, one of which runs: 'C{ae}tera fer{e\}, ut +olim: Bellum inter capita et membra continuatum.' +'Other matters are much as they were: war kept up +between the heads [the dons] and the members [the +men].' Spenser was not elected to a fellowship; he +quitted his college, with all its miserable bickerings, +after he had taken his master's degree. There can be +little doubt, however, that he was most diligent and +earnest student during his residence at Cambridge; +during that period, for example, he must have gained +that knowledge of Plato's works which so distinctly +marks his poems, and found in that immortal writer a +spirit most truly congenial. But it is conceivable +that he pursued his studies after his own manner, and +probably enough excited by his independence the strong +disapprobation of the master and tutor of the college +of his day. + Among his contemporaries in his own college were +Lancelot Andrews, afterwards Master, and eventually +Bishop of Winchester, the famous preacher; Gabriel +Harvey, mentioned above, with whom he formed a fast +friendship, and Edward Kirke, the 'E.K.' who, as will +be seen, introduced to the world Spenser's first work +of any pretence. Amongst his contemporaries in the +university were Preston, author of _Cambyses_, and +Still, author of _Gammer Gurtons Needle_, with each of +whom he was acquainted. The friend who would seem to +have exercised the most influence over him was Gabriel +Harvey; but this influence, at least in literary +matters, was by no means for the best. Harvey was some +three or four years the senior, and of some academic +distinction. Probably he may be taken as something +more than a fair specimen of the average scholarship +and culture given by the universities at that time. He +was an extreme classicist; all his admiration was for +classical models and works that savoured of them; he it +was who headed the attempt made in England to force +upon a modern language the metrical system of the +Greeks and Latins. What baneful influence he exercised +over Spenser in this last respect will be shown +presently. Kirke was Spenser's other close friend; he +was one year junior academically to the poet. He too, +as we shall see, was a profound admirer of Harvey. + After leaving the university in 1576, Spenser, +then, about twenty-four years of age, returned to his +own people in the North. This fact is learnt from his +friend 'E.K.'s' glosses to certain lines in the sixth +book of the _Shepheardes Calendar_. E.K. speaks 'of +the North countrye where he dwelt,' and 'of his +removing out of the North parts and coming into the +South.' As E.K. writes in the spring of 1579, and as +his writing is evidently some little time subsequent to +the migration he speaks of, it may be believed that +Spenser quitted his Northern home in 1577, and, as we +shall see, there is other evidence for this +supposition. About a year then was passed in the North +after he left the University. + These years were not spent idly. The poetical +fruits of them shall be mentioned presently. What made +it otherwise a memorable year to the poet was his +falling deeply in love with some fair Northern +neighbour. Who she was is not known. He who adored +her names her Rosalind, 'a feigned name,' notes E.K., +'which being well ordered will bewray the very name of +hys love and mistresse, whom by that name he +coloureth.' Many solutions of this anagram have been +essayed, mostly on the supposition that the lady lived +in Kent; but Professor Craik is certainly right in +insisting that she was of the North. Dr. Grosart and +Mr. Fleay, both authorities of importance, agree in +discovering the name Rose Dinle or Dinley; but of a +person so Christian-named no record has yet been found, +though the surname Dyneley or Dinley occurs in the +Whalley registers and elsewhere. In the Eclogue of the +_Shepheardes Calendar_, to which this note is appended, +Colin Clout--so the poet designates himself--complains +to Hobbinol--that is, Harvey--of the ill success of his +passion. Harvey, we may suppose, is paying him a visit +in the North; or perhaps the pastoral is merely a +versifying of what passed between them in letters. +However this may be, Colin is bewailing his hapless +fate. His friend, in reply, advises him to + + Forsake the soyle that so doth thee bewitch, &c. + +Surely E.K.'s gloss is scarcely necessary to tell us +what these words mean. 'Come down,' they say, 'from +your bleak North country hills where she dwells who +binds you with her spell, and be at peace far away from +her in the genial South land.' In another Eclogue +(April) the subduing beauty is described as 'the +Widdowes daughter of the Glen,' surely a Northern +address. On these words the well-informed E.K. +remarks: 'He calleth Rosalind the Widowes daughter of +the glenne, that is, of a country hamlet or borough, +which I thinke is rather sayde to coloure and concele +the person, than simply spoken. For it is well known, +even in spighte of Colin and Hobbinol, that she is a +gentlewoman of no meane house, nor endowed with anye +vulgare and common gifts, both of nature and manners: +but suche indeede, as neede neither Colin be ashamed to +have her made known by his verses, nor Hobbinol be +greved that so she should be commended to immortalitie +for her rare and singular virtues.' Whoever this +charming lady was, and whatever glen she made bright +with her presence, it appears that she did not +reciprocate the devoted affection of the studious young +Cambridge graduate who, with probably no apparent +occupation, was loitering for a while in her vicinity. +It was some other--he is called Menalacas in one of his +rival's pastorals--who found favour in her eyes. The +poet could only wail and beat his breast. Eclogues I. +and VI. are all sighs and tears. Perhaps in the course +of time a copy of the _Faerie Queene_ might reach the +region where Menalcas and Rosalind were growing old +together; and she, with a certain ruth perhaps mixed +with her anger, might recognise in Mirabella an image +of her fair young disdainful self{4}. The poet's +attachment was no transient flame that flashed and was +gone. When at the instance of his friend he travelled +southward away from the scene of his discomfiture, he +went weeping and inconsolable. In the Fourth Eclogue +Hobbinol is discovered by Thenot deeply mourning, and, +asked the reason, replies that his grief is because + + . . . the ladde whome long I loved so deare + Nowe loves a lasse that all his love doth scorne; + He plongd in payne, his tressed locks dooth teare. + + Shepheards delights he dooth them all forsweare; + Hys pleasant pipe, whych made us meriment,· + He wylfully hath broke, and doth forbeare + His wonted songs, wherein he all outwent. + + . . . . . + + Colin thou kenst, the Southerne shepheardes boye; + Him Love hath wounded with a deadly darte. &c. + +The memory of Rosalind, in spite of her unkindness, +seems to have been fondly cherished by the poet, and +yielded to no rival vision--though there may have been +fleeting fits of passion--till some fourteen years +after he and she had parted--till the year 1592, when, +as we shall see, Spenser, then living in the south of +Ireland, met that Elizabeth who is mentioned in the +sonnet quoted above, and who some year and a half after +that meeting became his wife. On the strength of an +entry found in the register of St. Clement Danes Church +in the Strand--'26 Aug. [1587] Florenc Spenser, the +daughter of Edmond'--it has been conjectured that the +poet was married before 1587. This conjecture seems +entirely unacceptable. There is nothing to justify the +theory that the Edmund Spenser of the register was the +poet. It is simply incredible that Spenser, one who, +as has been said, poured out all his soul in his poems, +should have wooed and won some fair lady to his wife, +without ever a poetical allusion to his courtship and +his triumph. It is not at all likely, as far as one +can judge from their titles, that any one of his lost +works was devoted to the celebration of any such +successful passion. Lastly, besides this important +negative evidence, there is distinct positive testimony +that long after 1587 the image of Rosalind had not been +displaced in his fancy by any other loveliness. In +_Colin Clouts Come Home Again_, written, as will be +seen, in 1591, though not published until 1595, after +the poet has 'full deeply divined of love and beauty,' +one Melissa in admiration avers that all true lovers +are greatly bound to him--most especially women. The +faithful Hobbinol says that women have but ill requited +their poet:-- + + 'He is repayd with scorne and foule despite, + That yrkes each gentle heart which it doth heare.' + 'Indeed,' says Lucid, 'I have often heard + Faire Rosalind of divers fowly blamed + For being to that swaine too cruell hard. + +Lucid however would defend her on the ground that love +may not be compelled:-- + + 'Beware therefore, ye groomes, I read betimes + How rashly blame of Rosalind ye raise.' + +This caution Colin eagerly and ardently reinforces, and +with additions. His heart was still all tender towards +her, and he would not have one harsh word thrown at +her:-- + + Ah! Shepheards, then said Colin, ye ne weet + How great a guilt upon your heads ye draw + To make so bold a doome, with words unmeet, + Of thing celestiall which ye never saw. + For she is not like as the other crew + Of shepheards daughters which emongst you bee, + But of divine regard and heavenly hew, + Excelling all that ever ye did see; + Not then to her that scorned thing so base, + But to myselfe the blame that lookt so hie, + So hie her thoughts as she herselfe have place + And loath each lowly thing with lofty eie; + Yet so much grace let her vouchsafe to grant + To simple swaine, sith her I may not love, + Yet that I may her honour paravant + And praise her worth, though far my wit above. + Such grace shall be some guerdon for the griefe + And long affliction which I have endured; + Such grace sometimes shall give me some reliefe + And ease of paine which cannot be recured. + And ye my fellow shepheards, which do see + And heare the languors of my too long dying, + Unto the world for ever witnesse bee + That hers I die, nought to the world denying + This simple trophe of her great conquest. + + This residence of Spenser in the North, which +corresponds with that period of Milton's life spent at +his father's house at Horton in Buckinghamshire, ended, +as there has been occasion to state, in the year 1577. +What was the precise cause of Spenser's coming South, +is not known for certain. 'E.K.' says in one of his +glosses, already quoted in part, that the poet 'for +speciall occasion of private affayres (as I have bene +partly of himselfe informed) and for his more +preferment, removing out of the North parts, came into +the South, as Hobbinoll indeede advised him privately.' +It is clear from his being admitted at his college as a +sizar, that his private means were not good. Perhaps +during his residence in the North he may have been +dependent on the bounty of his friends. It was then in +the hope of some advancement of his fortunes that, +bearing with him no doubt in manuscript certain results +of all his life's previous labour, he turned away from +his cold love and her glen, and all her country, and +set his face Town-ward. + It is said that his friend Harvey introduced him +to that famous accomplished gentleman--that mirror of +true knighthood--Sir Philip Sidney, and it would seem +that Penshurst became for some time his home. There +has already been quoted a line describing Spenser as +'the southern shepheardes boye.' This southern +shepherd is probably Sidney. Sidney, it would seem, +introduced him to his father and to his uncle, the Earl +of Leicester. If we are to take Iren{ae}us' words +literally--and there seems no reason why we should +not--Spenser was for a time at least in Ireland, when +Sidney's father was Lord Deputy. Iren{ae}us, in _A View +of the Present State of Ireland_, certainly represents +Spenser himself; and he speaks of what he _said_ at the +execution of a notable traitor at Limerick, called +Murrogh O'Brien; see p. 636 of this volume. However, +he was certainly back in England and in London in 1579, +residing at the Earl of Leicester's house in the +Strand, where Essex Street now stands. He dates one of +his letters to Harvey, 'Leycester House, this 5 +October, 1579.' Perhaps at this time he commenced, or +renewed, or continued his acquaintance with his +distinguished relatives at Althorpe. During the time +he spent now at Penshurst and in London, he mixed +probably with the most brilliant intellectual society +of his time. Sidney was himself endowed with no mean +genius. He, Lord Leicester, Lord Strange, and others, +with whom Spenser was certainly, or in all probability, +acquainted, were all eminent patrons and protectors of +genius. + This passage of Spenser's life is of high +interest, because in the course of it that splendid era +of our literature commonly called the Elizabethan +Period may be said to have begun. Spenser is the +foremost chronologically of those great spirits who +towards the close of the sixteenth century lifted up +their immortal voices, and spoke words to be heard for +all time. In the course of this present passage of his +life, he published his first important work--a work +which secured him at once the hearty recognition of his +contemporaries as a true poet risen up amongst them. +This work was the _Shepheardes Calendar_, to which so +many references have already been made. + It consists of twelve eclogues, one for each month +of the year. Of these, three (i., vi., and xii.), as +we have seen, treat specially of his own disappointment +in love. Three (ii., viii., and x.) are of a more +general character, having old age, a poetry combat, +'the perfect pattern of a poet' for their subjects. +One other (iii.) deals with love-matters. One (iv.) +celebrates the Queen, three (v., vii, and ix.) discuss +'Protestant and Catholic,' Anglican and Puritan +questions. One (xi.) is an elegy upon 'the death of +some maiden of great blood, whom he calleth Dido.' +These poems were ushered into the world by Spenser's +college friend Edward Kirke, for such no doubt is the +true interpretation of the initials E.K. This +gentleman performed his duty in a somewhat copious +manner. He addressed 'to the most excellent and +learned both orator and poet Mayster Gabriell Harvey' a +letter warmly commending 'the new poet' to his +patronage, and defending the antique verbiage of the +eclogues; he prefixed to the whole work a general +argument, a particular one to each part; he appended to +every poem a 'glosse' explaining words and allusions. +The work is dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney. It was +published in the winter of 1579-80. + More than once in the course of it, Spenser refers +to Tityrus as his great master. The twelfth eclogue +opens thus: + + The gentle shepheard sat beside a springe + All in the shadow of a bushye brere, + That Colin height, which well could pype and singe, + For hee of Tityrus his songs did lere. + +Tityrus, on E.K.'s authority, was Chaucer. It is +evident from the language--both the words and verbal +forms--used in this poem that Spenser had zealously +studied Chaucer, whose greatest work had appeared just +about two centuries before Spenser's first important +publication. The work, however, in which he imitates +Chaucer's manner is not the _Shepheardes Calendar_, but +his _Prosopopoia or Mother Hubberds Tale_, which he +says, writing in a later year, he had 'long sithens +composed in the raw conceipt of my youth.' The form +and manner of the _Shepheardes Calendar_ reflected not +Chaucer's influence upon the writer, but the influence +of a vast event which had changed the face of +literature since the out-coming of the _Canterbury +Tales_--of the revival of learning. That event had put +fresh models before men, had greatly modified old +literary forms, had originated new. The classical +influence impressed upon Europe was by no means an +unmixed good; in some respects it retarded the natural· +development of the modern mind by overpowering it with +its prestige and stupefying it with a sense of +inferiority; while it raised the ideal of perfection, +it tended to give rise to mere imitations and +affectations. Amongst these new forms was the +Pastoral. When Virgil, Theocritus, 'Daphnis and +Chloe,' and other writers and works of the ancient +pastoral literature once more gained the ascendancy, +then a modern pastoral poetry began to be. This poetry +flourished greatly in Italy in the sixteenth century. +It had been cultivated by Sannazaro, Guarini, Tasso. +Arcadia had been adopted by the poets for their +country. In England numerous _Eclogues_ made their +appearance. Amongst the earliest and the best of these +were Spenser's. It would perhaps be unjust to treat +this modern pastoral literature as altogether an +affectation. However unreal, the pastoral world had +its charms--a pleasant feeling imparted of +emancipation, a deep quietude, a sweet tranquillity. +If vulgar men discovered their new worlds, and +trafficked and bustled there, why should not the poet +discover his Arcadia, and repose at his ease in it, +secure from the noises of feet coming and going over +the roads of the earth? + That fine melodiousness, which is one of Spenser's +signal characteristics, may be perceived in his +_Eclogues_, as also a native gracefulness of style, +which is another distinguishing mark of him. +Perceivable, too, are his great, perilous fluency of +language and his immense fecundity of mind. The work +at once secured him a front place in the poetical ranks +of the day. Sidney mentions it in his _Apologie for +Poetrie_;{5} Abraham Fraunce draws illustrations from +it in his _Lawyers Logicke_, which appeared in 1588; +Meres praises it; 'Maister Edmund Spenser,' says +Drayton, 'has done enough for the immortality, had he +only given us his _Shepheardes Calendar_, a +masterpiece, if any.' It is easy to discern in +_Lycidas_ signs of Milton's study of it. + During Spenser's sojourn in the society of the +Sidneys and the Dudleys, letters passed between him and +Harvey, some of which are extant. From these, and from +the editorial notes of Kirke, we hear of other works +written by Spenser, ready to be given to the light. +The works thus heard of are _Dreames_, _Legends_, +_Court of Cupide_, _The English Poet_, _The Dying +Pelican_, _Stemmata Dudleiana_, _Slomber_, _Nine +English Comedies_, _The Epithalamion Thamesis_, and +also _The Faerie Queene_ commenced. Of these works +perhaps the _Legends_, _Court of Cupide_, and +_Epithalamion Thamesis_ were subsequently with +modifications incorporated in the _Faerie Queene_; the +_Stemmata Dudleiana_, _Nine English Comedies_, _Dying +Pelican_, are altogether lost. The _Faerie Queene_ had +been begun. So far as written, it had been submitted +to the criticism of Harvey. On April 10, 1580, Spenser +writes to Harvey, wishing him to return it with his +'long expected judgment' upon it. Harvey had already +pronounced sentence in a letter dated April 7, and this +is the sentence: 'In good faith I had once again nigh +forgotten your _Faerie Queene_; howbeit, by good +chaunce I have nowe sent hir home at the laste, neither +in a better nor worse case than I founde hir. And must +you of necessitie have my judgement of hir indeede? To +be plaine, I am voyde of al judgement, if your nine +Com{oe}dies, whereunto, in imitation of Herodotus, you +give the names of the Nine Muses, and (in one man's +fansie not unworthily), come not neerer Ariostoes +Com{oe}dies, eyther for the finenesse of plausible +elocution, or the rareness of poetical invention, than +that Elvish queene doth to his Orlando Furioso, which +notwithstanding, you will needes seem to emulate, and +hope to overgo, as you flatly professed yourself in one +of your last letters. Besides that, you know it hath +bene the usual practise of the most exquisite and odde +wittes in all nations, and especially in Italie, rather +to shewe and advaunce themselves that way than any +other; as namely, those three notorious dyscoursing +heads Bibiena, Machiavel, and Aretine did (to let Bembo +and Ariosto passe), with the great admiration and +wonderment of the whole countrey; being indeede reputed +matchable in all points, both for conceyt of witte, and +eloquent decyphering of matters, either with +Aristophanes and Menander in Greek, or with Plautus and +Terence in Latin, or with any other in any other tong. +But I will not stand greatly with you in your owne +matters. If so be the Faery Queen be fairer in your +eie than the Nine Muses, and Hobgoblin runne away with +the garland from Apollo; marke what I saye, and yet I +will not say that I thought; but there is an end for +this once, and fare you well, till God or some good +Aungell putte you in a better minde.' + Clearly the _Faerie Queene_ was but little to +Harvey's taste. It was too alien from the cherished +exemplars of his heart. Happily Spenser was true to +himself, and went on with his darling work in spite of +the strictures of pedantry. This is not the only +instance in which the dubious character of Harvey's +influence is noticeable. The letters, from one of +which the above doom is quoted, enlighten us also as to +a grand scheme entertained at this time for forcing the +English tongue to conform to the metrical rules of the +classical languages. Already in a certain circle rime +was discredited as being, to use Milton's words nearly +a century afterwards, 'no necessary adjunct or true +ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works +especially, but the invention of a barbarous age to set +off wretched matter and lame metre.' A similar attempt +was made in the course of the sixteenth century in +other parts of Europe, and with the same final issue. +Gabriel Harvey was an active leader in this deluded +movement. When Sidney too, and Dyer, another poet of +the time, proclaimed a 'general surceasing and silence +of bald rhymes, and also of the very best too, instead +whereof they have by authority of their whole senate, +prescribed certain laws and rules of quantity of +English syllables for English verse, having had already +thereof great practice,' Spenser was drawn 'to their +faction.' + 'I am of late,' he writes to Harvey, 'more in love +wyth my Englishe versifying than with ryming; whyche I +should have done long since if I would then have +followed your councell.' In allying himself with these +Latin prosody bigots Spenser sinned grievously against +his better taste. 'I like your late Englishe +hexameters so exceedingly well,' he writes to Harvey, +'that I also enure my pen sometime in that kinde, +whyche I find in deed, as I have heard you often +defende in word, neither so harde nor so harsh [but] +that it will easily and fairly yield itself to our +mother tongue. For the onely or chiefest hardnesse +whyche seemeth is in the accente; whyche sometimes +gapeth and as it were yawneth il-favouredly, comming +shorte of that it should, and sometimes exceeding the +measure of the number; as in carpenter the middle +sillable being used short in speache, when it shall be +read long in verse, seemeth like a lame gosling that +draweth one legge after hir. And heaven being used +shorte as one syllable, when it is in verse stretched +with a Diastole is like a lame dogge, that holdes up +one legge.'{6} His ear was far too fine and sensitive +to endure the fearful sounds uttered by the poets of +this Procrust{ae}an creed. The language seemed to groan +and shriek at the agonies and contortions to which it +was subjected; and Spenser could not but hear its +outcries. But he made himself as deaf as might be. +'It is to be wonne with custom,' he proceeds, in the +letter just quoted from, 'and rough words must be +studied with use. For why, a God's name, may not we, +as the Greekes, have the kingdom of oure owne language, +and measure our accentes by the sounde, reserving the +quantitie to the verse? . . . I would hartily wish you +would either send me the rules or precepts of arte +which you observe in quantities; or else follow mine +that Mr. Philip Sidney gave me, being the very same +which Mr. Drant devised, but enlarged with Mr. Sidney's +own judgement, and augmented with my observations, that +we might both accorde and agree in one, leaste we +overthrowe one another and be overthrown of the rest.' +He himself produced the following lines in accordance, +as he fondly hoped, with the instructions of the new +school:-- + + IAMBICUM TRIMETRUM. + + Unhappie verse! the witnesse of my unhappie state, +[as indeed it was in a sense not meant] + Make thy selfe fluttring winge of thy fast flying +thought, + And fly forth unto my love whersoever she be. + + Whether lying reastlesse in heavy bedde, or else + Sitting so cheerelesse at the cheerefull boorde, or +else + Playing alone carelesse on hir heavenlie virginals. + + If in bed, tell hir that my eyes can take no reste; + If at boorde, tell hir that my mouth can eat no +meete; + If at hir virginals, tell her I can beare no mirth. + + Asked why? Waking love suffereth no sleepe; + Say that raging love doth appall the weake stomacke, + Say that lamenting love marreth the musicall. + + Tell hir that hir pleasures were wonte to lull me +asleepe, + Tell her that hir beauty was wonte to feede mine +eyes, + Tell hir that hir sweete tongue was wonte to make me +mirth. + + Now doe I nightly waste, wanting my kindlie rest, + Now doe I dayly starve, wanting my daily food, + Now doe I always dye wanting my timely mirth. + + And if I waste who will bewaile my heavy chance? + And if I starve, who will record my cursed end? + And if I dye, who will saye, This was Immerito? + +Spenser of the sensitive ear wrote these lines. When +the pedantic phantasy which had for a while seduced and +corrupted him had gone from him, with what remorse he +must have remembered these strange monsters of his +creation! Let us conclude our glance at this sad fall +from harmony by quoting the excellent words of one who +was a bitter opponent of Harvey in this as in other +matters. 'The hexameter verse,' says Nash in his +_Fowre Letters Confuted_, 1592, 'I graunt to be a +gentleman of an auncient house (so is many an English +beggar), yet this clyme of ours hee cannot thrive in; +our speech is too craggy for him to set his plough in; +hee goes twitching and hopping in our language like a +man running upon quagmiers up the hill in one syllable +and down the dale in another; retaining no part of that +stately smooth gate, which he vaunts himselfe with +amongst the Greeks and Latins.' + Some three years were spent by Spenser in the +enjoyment of Sidney's friendship and the patronage of +Sidney's father and uncle. During this time he would +seem to have been constantly hoping for some +preferment. According to a tradition, first recorded +by Fuller, the obstructor of the success of his suit +was the Treasurer, Lord Burghley. It is clear that he +had enemies at Court--at least at a later time. In +1591, in his dedication of _Colin Clouts Come Home +Again_, he entreats Raleigh, to 'with your good +countenance protest against the malice of evil mouthes, +which are always wide open to carpe at and misconstrue +my simple meaning.' A passage in the _Ruines of Time_ +(see the lines beginning 'O grief of griefs! O full of +all good hearts!') points to the same conclusion; and +so the concluding lines of the Sixth Book of the +_Faerie Queene_, when, having told how the Blatant +Beast (not killed as Lord Macaulay says in his essay on +Bunyan, but 'supprest and tamed' for a while by Sir +Calidore) at last broke his iron chain and ranged again +through the world, and raged sore in each degree and +state, he adds:-- + + Ne may this homely verse, of many meanest, + Hope to escape his venemous despite, + More then my former writs, all were they clearest + From blamefull blot, and from all that wite, + With which some wicked tongues did it backebite, + And bring into a mighty Peres displeasure, + That never so deserved to endite. + Therfore do you my rimes keep better measure, + And seek to please, that now is counted wisemens +threasure. + +In the _Tears of the Muses_ Calliope says of certain +persons of eminent rank:-- + + Their great revenues all in sumptuous pride + They spend that nought to learning they may spare; + And the rich fee which Poets wont divide + Now Parasites and Sycophants do share. + +Several causes have been suggested to account for this +disfavour. The popular tradition was pleased to +explain it by making Burghley the ideal dullard who has +no soul for poetry--to whom one copy of verses is very +much as good as another, and no copy good for anything. +It delighted to bring this commonplace gross-minded +person into opposition with one of the most spiritual +of geniuses. In this myth Spenser represents mind, +Burghley matter. But there is no justification in +facts for this tradition. It may be that the Lord +Treasurer was not endowed with a high intellectual +nature; but he was far too wise in his generation not +to pretend a virtue if he had it not, when +circumstances called for anything of the sort. When +the Queen patronized literature, we may be sure Lord +Burghley was too discreet to disparage and oppress it. +Another solution refers to Burghley's Puritanism as the +cause of the misunderstanding; but, as Spenser too +inclined that way, this is inadequate. Probably, as +Todd and others have thought, what alienated his +Lordship at first was Spenser's connection with +Leicester; what subsequently aggravated the +estrangement was his friendship with Essex. + + + + Footnotes + --------- + +{1} See Peter Cunningham's _Introduction to Extracts + from Accounts of the Revels at Court_. (Shakspeare + Society.) +{2} It may be suggested that what are called the + archaisms of Spenser's style may be _in part_ due + to the author's long residence in the country with + one of the older forms of the language spoken all + round him and spoken by him, in fact his + vernacular. I say _in part_, because of course his + much study of Chaucer must be taken into account. + But, as Mr. Richard Morris has remarked to me, he + could not have drawn from Chaucer those forms and + words of a _northern_ dialect which appear in the + _Calendar_. +{3} These are given in the Appendix to the present + work. +{4} This supposed description of his first love was + written probably during the courtship, which ended, + as we shall see, in his marriage. The First Love + is said to be portrayed in cant. vii., the Last in + cant. x. of book vi. of the _Faerie Queene_. But + this identification of Rosalind and Mirabilla is, + after all, but a conjecture, and is not be accepted + as gospel. +{5} See this work amongst Mr. Arber's excellent + _English Reprints_. +{6} _Ancient Critical Essays_, ed. Hazlewood, 1815, pp. + 259, 260. + + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + 1580-1589. + +In the year 1580 Spenser was removed from the society +and circumstances in which, except for his probable +visit to Ireland, he had lived and moved as we have +seen, for some three years. From that year to near the +close of his life his home was to be in Ireland. He +paid at least two visits to London and its environs in +the course of these eighteen years; but it seems clear +that his home was in Ireland. Perhaps his biographers +have hitherto not truly appreciated this residence in +Ireland. We shall see that a liberal grant of land was +presently bestowed upon him in the county of Cork; and +they have reckoned him a successful man, and wondered +at the querulousness that occasionally makes itself +heard in his works. Towards the very end of this life, +Spenser speaks of himself as one + + Whom sullein care + Through discontent of my long fruitlesse stay + In princes court and expectation vayne + Of idle hopes, which still doe fly away + Like empty shaddowes, did afflict my brayne. + +Those who marvel at such language perhaps forget what a +dreary exile the poet's life in Ireland must in fact +have been. It is true that it was relieved by several +journeys to England, by his receiving at least one +visit from an English friend, by his finding, during at +any rate the earlier part of his absence, some +congenial English friends residing in the country, by +his meeting at length with that Elizabeth whose +excelling beauty he has sung so sweetly, and whom he +married; it is also true that there was in him--as in +Milton and in Wordsworth--a certain great self- +containedness,{1} that he carried his world with him +wherever he went, that he had great allies and high +company in the very air that flowed around him, +whatever land he inhabited; all this is true, but yet +to be cut off from the fellowship which, however self- +sufficing, he so dearly loved--to look no longer on the +face of Sidney his hero, his ideal embodied, his living +Arthur, to hear but as it were an echo of the splendid +triumphs won by his and our England in those glorious +days, to know of his own high fame but by report, to be +parted from the friendship of Shakspere--surely this +was exile. To live in the Elizabethan age, and to be +severed from those brilliant spirits to which the fame +of that age is due! Further, the grievously unsettled, +insurgent state of Ireland at this time--as at many a +time before and since--must be borne in mind. Living +there was living on the side of a volcanic mountain. +That the perils of so living were not merely imaginary, +we shall presently see. He did not shed tears and +strike his bosom, like the miserable Ovid at Tomi; he +'wore rather in his bonds a cheerful brow, lived, and +took comfort,' finding his pleasure in that high +spiritual communion we have spoken of, playing +pleasantly, like some happy father, with the children +of his brain, joying in their caprices, their +noblenesses, their sweet adolescence; but still it was +exile, and this fact may explain that tone of +discontent which here and there is perceptible in his +writings.{2} + When in 1580 Arthur, Lord Grey of Wilton, was +appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland, he--perhaps through +Lord Leicester's influence, perhaps on account of +Spenser's already knowing something of the country-- +made Spenser his Private Secretary. There can be no +doubt that Spenser proceeded with him to Dublin. It +was in Ireland, probably about this time, that he made +or renewed his acquaintance with Sir Walter Raleigh. +In 1581 he was appointed Clerk of Degrees and +Recognizances in the Irish Court of Chancery, a post +which he held for seven years, at the end of which time +he received the appointment of Clerk to the Council of +Munster. In the same year in which he was assigned the· +former clerkship, he received also a lease of the lands +and Abbey of Enniscorthy in Wexford county. It is to +be hoped that his Chancery Court duties permitted him +to reside for a while on that estate. 'Enniscorthy,' +says the _Guide to Ireland_ published by Mr. Murray, +'is one of the prettiest little towns in the Kingdom, +the largest portion of it being on a steep hill on the +right bank of the Slaney, which here becomes a deep and +navigable stream, and is crossed by a bridge of six +arches.' There still stands there 'a single tower of +the old Franciscan monastery.' But Spenser soon parted +with this charming spot, perhaps because of its +inconvenient distance from the scene of his official +work. In December of the year in which the lease was +given, he transferred it to one Richard Synot. In the +following year Lord Grey was recalled. 'The Lord +Deputy,' says Holinshed, 'after long suit for his +revocation, received Her Majesty's letters for the +same.' His rule had been marked by some extreme, +perhaps necessary, severities, and was probably +somewhat curtly concluded on account of loud complaints +made against him on this score. Spenser would seem to +have admired and applauded him, both as a ruler and as +a patron and friend. He mentions him with much respect +in his _View of the Present State of Ireland_. One of +the sonnets prefixed to the _Faerie Queene_ is +addressed 'to the most renowmed and valiant lord the +lord Grey of Wilton,' and speaks of him with profound +gratitude:-- + + Most noble lord the pillor of my life, + And patrone of my Muses pupillage, + Through whose large bountie poured on me rife, + In the first season of my feeble age, + I now doe live, bound yours by vassalage: + Sith nothing ever may redeeme, nor reave + Out of your endlesse debt so sure a gage, + Vouchsafe in worth this small guift to receave, + Which in your noble hands for pledge I leave, + Of all the rest, that I am tyde t' account. + +Lord Grey died in 1593. Spenser may have renewed his +friendship with him in 1589, when, as we shall see, he +visited England. For the present their connection was +broken. It may be considered as fairly certain that +when his lordship returned to England in 1582, Spenser +did not return with him, but abode still in Ireland. + There is, indeed, a 'Maister Spenser' mentioned in +a letter written by James VI. of Scotland from St. +Andrews in 1583 to Queen Elizabeth: 'I have staied +Maister Spenser upon the letter quhilk is written with +my auin hand quhilk sall be readie within tua daies.' +It may be presumed that this gentleman is the same with +him of whose postal services mention is found, as we +have seen, in 1569. At any rate there is nothing +whatever to justify his identification with the poet. +On the other hand, there are several circumstances +which seem to indicate that Spenser was in Ireland +continuously from the year of his going there with Lord +Grey to the year of his visiting England with Raleigh +in 1589, when he presented to her Majesty and published +the first three books of the _Faerie Queene_. Whatever +certain glimpses we can catch of Spenser during these +ten years, he is in Ireland. + We have seen that he was holding one clerkship or +another in Ireland during all this time. In the next +place, we find him mentioned as forming one of a +company described as gathered together at a cottage +near Dublin in a work by his friend Lodovick{3} +Bryskett, written, as may be inferred with considerable +certainty, some time in or about the year 1582, though +not published till 1606. This work, entitled _A +Discourse of Civill Life; containing the Ethike part of +Morall Philosophie_, 'written to the right honorable +Arthur, late Lord Grey of Wilton'--written before his +recall in 1582--describes in the introduction a party +met together at the author's cottage near Dublin, +consisting of 'Dr. Long, Primate of Ardmagh; Sir Robert +Dillon, knight; M. Dormer, the Queene's sollicitor; +Capt. Christopher Carleil; Capt. Thomas Norreis; Capt. +Warham St. Leger; Capt. Nicholas Dawtrey; and M. Edmond +Spenser, late your lordship's secretary; and Th. Smith, +apothecary.' In the course of conversation Bryskett +envies 'the happinesse of the Italians who have in +their mother-tongue late writers that have with a +singular easie method taught all that which Plato or +Aristotle have confusedly or obscurely left written.' +The 'late writers' who have performed this highly +remarkable service of clarifying and making +intelligible Plato and Aristotle--perhaps the +'confusion' and 'obscurity' Bryskett speaks of mean +merely the difficulties of a foreign language for one +imperfectly acquainted with it--are Alexander +Piccolomini, Gio. Baptista Giraldi, and Guazzo, 'all +three having written upon the Ethick part of Morall +Philosopie [sic] both exactly and perspicuously.' +Bryskett then earnestly wishes--and here perhaps, in +spite of those queer words about Plato and Aristotle, +we may sympathise with him--that some of our countrymen +would promote by English treatises the study of Moral +Philosophy in English. + + 'In the meane while I must struggle with those + bookes which I vnderstand and content myselfe to + plod upon them, in hope that God (who knoweth the + sincerenesse of my desire) will be pleased to open + my vnderstanding, so as I may reape that profit of + my reading, which I trauell for. Yet is there a + gentleman in this company, whom I have had often a + purpose to intreate, that as his leisure might serue + him, he would vouchsafe to spend some time with me + to instruct me in some hard points which I cannot of + myselfe understand; knowing him to be not onely + perfect in the Greek tongue, but also very well read + in Philosophie, both morall and naturall. + Neuertheless such is my bashfulnes, as I neuer yet + durst open my mouth to disclose this my desire unto + him, though I have not wanted some hartning + thereunto from himselfe. For of loue and kindnes to + me, he encouraged me long sithens to follow the + reading of the Greeke tongue, and offered me his + helpe to make me vnderstand it. But now that so + good an oportunitie is offered vnto me, to satisfie + in some sort my desire; I thinke I should commit a + great fault, not to myselfe alone, but to all this + company, if I should not enter my request thus + farre, as to moue him to spend this time which we + have now destined to familiar discourse and + conuersation, in declaring unto us the great + benefits which men obtaine by knowledge of Morall + Philosophie, and in making us to know what the same + is, what be the parts thereof, whereby vertues are + to be distinguished from vices; and finally that he + will be pleased to run ouer in such order as he + shall thinke good, such and so many principles and + rules thereof, as shall serue not only for my better + instruction, but also for the contentment and + satisfaction of you al. For I nothing doubt, but + that euery one of you will be glad to heare so + profitable a discourse and thinke the time very wel + spent wherin so excellent a knowledge shal be + reuealed unto you, from which euery one may be + assured to gather some fruit as wel as myselfe. + Therefore (said I) turning myselfe to _M. Spenser_, + It is you, sir, to whom it pertaineth to shew + yourselfe courteous now unto us all and to make vs + all beholding unto you for the pleasure and profit + which we shall gather from your speeches, if you + shall vouchsafe to open unto vs the goodly cabinet, + in which this excellent treasure of vertues lieth + locked up from the vulgar sort. And thereof in the + behalfe of all as for myselfe, I do most earnestly + intreate you not to say vs nay. Vnto which wordes + of mine euery man applauding most with like words of + request and the rest with gesture and countenances + expressing as much, _M. Spenser_ answered in this + maner: Though it may seeme hard for me, to refuse + the request made by you all, whom euery one alone, I + should for many respects be willing to gratifie; yet + as the case standeth, I doubt not but with the + consent of the most part of you, I shall be excused + at this time of this taske which would be laid vpon + me, for sure I am, that it is not vnknowne unto you, + that I haue already vndertaken a work tending to the + same effect, which is in _heroical verse_ under the + title of a _Faerie Queene_ to represent all the + moral vertues, assigning to every vertue a Knight to + be the patron and defender of the same, in whose + actions and feates of arms and chiualry the + operations of that vertue, whereof he is the + protector, are to be expressed, and the vices and + unruly appetites that oppose themselves against the + same, to be beaten down and overcome. Which work, + as I haue already well entred into, if God shall + please to spare me life that I may finish it + according to my mind, your wish (_M. Bryskett_) will + be in some sort accomplished, though perhaps not so + effectually as you could desire. And the may very + well serue for my excuse, if at this time I craue to + be forborne in this your request, since any + discourse, that I might make thus on the sudden in + such a subject would be but simple, and little to + your satisfactions. For it would require good + aduisement and premeditation for any man to + vndertake the declaration of these points that you + have proposed, containing in effect the Ethicke part + of Morall Philosophie. Whereof since I haue taken + in hand to discourse at large in my poeme before + spoken, I hope the expectation of that work may + serue to free me at this time from speaking in that + matter, notwithstanding your motion and all your + intreaties. But I will tell you how I thinke by + himselfe he may very well excuse my speech, and yet + satisfie all you in this matter. I haue seene (as + he knoweth) a translation made by himselfe out of + the Italian tongue of a dialogue comprehending all + the Ethick part of Moral Philosophy, written by one + of those three he formerly mentioned, and that is by + _Giraldi_ under the title of a dialogue of ciuil + life. If it please him to bring us forth that· + translation to be here read among vs, or otherwise + to deliuer to us, as his memory may serue him, the + contents of the same; he shal (I warrant you) + satisfie you all at the ful, and himselfe wil haue + no cause but to thinke the time well spent in + reuiewing his labors, especially in the company of + so many his friends, who may thereby reape much + profit and the translation happily fare the better + by some mending it may receiue in the perusing, as + all writings else may do by the often examination of + the same. Neither let it trouble him that I so + turne ouer to him againe the taske he wold have put + me to; for it falleth out fit for him to verifie the + principall of all this Apologie, euen now made for + himselfe; because thereby it will appeare that he + hath not withdrawne himselfe from seruice of the + state to live idle or wholly priuate to himselfe, + but hath spent some time in doing that which may + greatly benefit others and hath serued not a little + to the bettering of his owne mind, and increasing of + his knowledge, though he for modesty pretend much + ignorance, and pleade want in wealth, much like some + rich beggars, who either of custom, or for + couetousnes, go to begge of others those things + whereof they haue no want at home. With this answer + of _M. Spensers_ it seemed that all the company were + wel satisfied, for after some few speeches whereby + they had shewed an extreme longing after his worke + of the _Faerie Queene_, whereof some parcels had + been by some of them seene, they all began to presse + me to produce my translation mentioned by _M. + Spenser_ that it might be perused among them; or + else that I should (as near as I could) deliuer unto + them the contents of the same, supposing that my + memory would not much faile me in a thing so studied + and advisedly set downe in writing as a translation + must be.' + +Bryskett at length assents to Spenser's proposal, and +proceeds to read his translation of Giraldi, which is +in some sort criticised as he reads, Spenser proposing +one or two questions 'arising principally,' as Todd +says, 'from the discussion of the doctrines of Plato +and Aristotle.' This invaluable picture of a scene in +Spenser's Irish life shows manifestly in what high +estimation his learning and genius were already held, +and how, in spite of Harvey's sinister criticisms, he +had resumed his great work. It tells us too that he +found in Ireland a warmly appreciative friend, if +indeed he had not known Bryskett before their going to +Ireland. Bryskett too, perhaps, was acquainted with +Sir Philip Sidney; for two of the elegies written on +that famous knight's death and printed along with +_Astrophel_ in the elegiac collection made by Spenser +were probably of Bryskett's composition, viz., _The +Mourning Muse of Thestylis_, where 'Liffey's tumbling +stream' is mentioned, and the one entitled _A Pastoral +Eclogue_, where Lycon offers to 'second' Colin's lament +for Phillisides. + What is said of the _Faerie Queene_ in the above +quotation may be illustrated from the sonnet already +quoted from, addressed to Lord Grey--one of the sonnets +that in our modern editions are prefixed to the great +poem. It speaks of the great poem as + + Rude rymes, the which a rustick Muse did weave + In savadge soyle, far from Parnasso mount. + +See also the sonnet addressed to the Right Honourable +the Earl of Ormond and Ossory. + A sonnet addressed to Harvey, is dated 'Dublin +this xviij of July, 1586.' Again, in the course of the +decad now under consideration, Spenser received a grant +of land in Cork--of 3,028 acres, out of the forefeited +estates of the Earl of Desmond. + All these circumstances put together make it +probable, and more than probable, that Spenser remained +in Ireland after Lord Grey's recall. How thorough his +familiarity with the country grew to be, appears from +the work concerning it which he at last produced. + The years 1586-7-8 were eventful both for England +and for Spenser. In the first Sidney expired of wounds +received at Zutphen; in the second, Mary Queen of Scots +was executed; in the third, God blew and scattered the +Armada, and also Leicester died. Spenser weeps over +Sidney--there was never, perhaps, more weeping, +poetical and other, over any death than over that of +Sidney--in his _Astrophel_, the poem above mentioned. +This poem is scarcely worthy of the sad occasion--the +flower of knighthood cut down ere its prime, not yet + + In flushing + When blighting was nearest. + +Certainly it in no way expresses what Spenser +undoubtedly felt when the woeful news came across the +Channel to him in his Irish home. Probably his grief +was 'too deep for tears.' It was probably one of those +'huge cares' which, in Seneca's phrase, not +'loquuntur,' but 'stupent.' He would fain have been +dumb and opened not his mouth; but the fashion of the +time called upon him to speak. He was expected to +bring his immortelle, so to say, and lay it on his +hero's tomb, though his limbs would scarcely support +him, and his hand, quivering with the agony of his +heart, could with difficulty either weave it or carry +it. All the six years they had been parted, the image +of that chivalrous form had never been forgotten. It +had served for the one model of all that was highest +and noblest in his eyes. It had represented for him +all true knighthood. Nor all the years that he lived +after Sidney's death was it forgotten. It is often +before him, as he writes his later poetry, and is +greeted always with undying love and sorrow. Thus in +the _Ruines of Time_, he breaks out in a sweet fervour +of unextinguished affection: + + Most gentle spirite breathed from above, + Out of the bosom of the Makers blis, + In whom all bountie and all vertuous love + Appeared in their native propertis + And did enrich that noble breast of his + With treasure passing all this worldes worth. + Worthie of heaven itselfe, which brought it forth. + + His blessed spirite, full of power divine + And influence of all celestiall grace, + Loathing this sinfull earth and earthlie slime, + Fled backe too soone unto his native place; + Too soone for all that did his love embrace, + Too soone for all this wretched world, whom he + Robd of all right and true nobilitie. + + Yet ere this happie soule to heaven went + Out of this fleshie gaole, he did devise + Unto his heavenlie Maker to present + His bodie as a spotles sacrifise, + And chose, that guiltie hands of enemies + Should powre forth th' offring of his guiltles +blood, + So life exchanging for his countries good. + + O noble spirite, live there ever blessed, + The world's late wonder, and the heaven's new ioy. + Live ever there, and leave me here distressed + With mortall cares and cumbrous worlds anoy; + But where thou dost that happiness enioy, + Bid me, O bid me quicklie come to thee, + That happie there I maie thee alwaies see. + + Yet whilest the Fates affoord me vitell breath, + I will it spend in speaking of thy praise, + And sing to thee untill that timelie death + By Heaven's doome doe ende my earthlie daies: + Thereto doo thou my humble spirite raise, + And into me that sacred breath inspire + Which thou there breathest perfect and entire. + + It is not quite certain in what part of Ireland +the poet was living when the news that Sidney was not +reached him. Was he still residing at Dublin, or had +he transferred his home to that southern region which +is so intimately associated with his name? The sonnet +to Harvey mentioned above shows that he was at Dublin +in July of the year of his friend's death. It has been +said already that he did not resign his Chancery +clerkship until 1588. We know that he was settled in +Cork county, at Kilcolman castle, in 1589, because +Raleigh visited him there that year. He may then have +left Dublin in 1588 or 1589. According to Dr. Birch's +Life of Spenser, prefixed to the edition of the _Faerie +Queene_ in 1751,{4} and the _Biographia Britannica_, +the grant of land made him in Cork is dated June 27, +1586. But the grant, which is extant, is dated October +26, 1591. Yet certainly, as Dr. Grosart points out, in +the 'Articles' for the 'Undertakers,' which received +the royal assent on June 27, 1586, Spenser is set down +for 3,028 acres; and that he was at Kilcolman before +1591 seems certain. As he resigned his clerkship in +the Court of Chancery in 1588, and was then appointed, +as we have seen, clerk of the Council of Munster, he +probably went to live somewhere in the province of +Munster that same year. He may have lived at Kilcolman +before it and the surrounding grounds were secured to +him; he may have entered upon possession on the +strength of a promise of them, before the formal grant +was issued. He has mentioned the scenery which +environed his castle twice in his great poem; but it is +worth noticing that both mentions occur, not in the +books published, as we shall now very soon see, in +1590, but in the books published six years afterwards. +In the famous passage already referred to in the +eleventh canto of the fourth book, describing the +nuptials of the Thames and the Medway, he recounts in +stanzas xl.-xliv. the Irish rivers who were present at +that great river-gathering, and amongst them + + Swift Awniduff which of the English man + Is cal'de Blacke water, and the Liffar deep, + Sad Trowis, that once his people ouerran,· + Strong _Allo_ tombling from Slewlogher steep, + And _Mulla_ mine, whose waues I whilom taught to +weep. + +The other mention occurs in the former of the two +cantos _Of Mutability_. There the poet sings that the +place appointed for the trial of the titles and best +rights of both 'heavenly powers' and 'earthly wights' +was + + . . . vpon the highest hights + Of _Arlo-hill_ (Who knowes not _Arlo-hill?_) + That is the highest head (in all mens sights) + Of my old father _Mole_, whom Shepheards quill + Renowmed hath with hymnes fit for a rurall skill. + + His poem called _Colin Clouts Come Home Again_, +written in 1591, and dedicated to Sir W. Raleigh 'from +my house at Kilcolman the 27 of December, 1591'{5}-- +written therefore after a lengthy absence in England-- +exhibits a full familiarity with the country round +about Kilcolman. On the whole then we may suppose that +his residence at Kilcolman began not later than 1588. +It was to be roughly and and terribly ended ten years +after. + We may suppose he was living there in peace and +quiet, not perhaps undisturbed by growing murmurs of +discontent, by signs of unrepressed and irrepressible +hostility towards his nation, by ill-concealed +sympathies with the Spanish invaders amongst the native +population, when the Armada came and went. The old +castle in which he had lived had been one of the +residences of the Earls of Desmond. It stood some two +miles from Doneraile, on the north side of a lake which +was fed by the river Awbeg or Mulla, as the poet +christened it. + 'Two miles north-west of Doneraile,' writes +Charles Smith in his _Natural and Civil History of the +County and City of Cork_, 1774, (i. 340, 341)--'is +Kilcoleman, a ruined castle of the Earls of Desmond, +but more celebrated for being the residence of the +immortal Spenser, when he composed his divine poem _The +Faerie Queene_. The castle is now almost level with +the ground, and was situated on the north side of a +fine lake, in the midst of a vast plain, terminated to +the east by the county of Waterford mountains; Bally- +howra hills to the north, or, as Spenser terms them, +the mountains of Mole, Nagle mountains to the south, +and the mountains of Kerry to the west. It commanded a +view of above half the breadth of Ireland; and must +have been, when the adjacent uplands were wooded, a +most pleasant and romantic situation; from whence, no +doubt, Spenser drew several parts of the scenery of his +poem.' + Here, then, as in some cool sequestered vale of +life, for some ten years, his visits to England +excepted, lived Spenser still singing sweetly, still, +as he might say, piping, with the woods answering him +and his echo ringing. Sitting in the shade he would +play many a 'pleasant fit;' he would sing + + Some hymne or morall laie, + Or carol made to praise his loved lasse; + +he would see in the rivers that flowed around his tower +beings who lived and loved, and would sing of their +mutual passions. It must have sounded strangely to +hear the notes of his sweet voice welling forth from +his old ruin--to hear music so subtle and refined +issuing from that scarred and broken relic of past +turbulencies -- + + The shepheard swaines that did about him play + . . . with greedie listfull eares + Did stand astonisht at his curious skill + Like hartlesse deare, dismayed with thunders sound. + +He presents a picture such as would have delighted his +own fancy, though perhaps the actual experience may not +have been unalloyed with pain. It is a picture which +in many ways resembles that presented by one of kindred +type of genius, who has already been mentioned as of +affinity with him--by Wordsworth. Wordsworth too sang +in a certain sense from the shade, far away from the +vanity of courts, and the uproar of cities; sang 'from +a still place, remote from men;' sang, like his own +Highland girl, all alone with the 'vale profound' +'overflowing with the sound;' finding, too, objects of +friendship and love in the forms of nature which +surrounded his tranquil home. + Of these two poets in their various lonelinesses +one may perhaps quote those exquisite lines written by +one of them of a somewhat differently caused isolation: +each one of them too lacked + + Not friends for simple glee + Nor yet for higher sympathy. + To his side the fallow-deer + Came and rested without fear; + The eagle, lord of land and sea, + Stooped down to pay him fealty. + + . . . . . + + _He knew the rocks which angels haunt + Upon the mountains visitant; + He hath kenned them taking wing; + And into caves where Faeries sing + He hath entered; and been told + By voices how men lived of old._ + + Here now and then he was visited, it may be +supposed, by old friends. Perhaps that distinguished +son of the University of Cambridge, Gabriel Harvey, may +for a while have been his guest; he is introduced under +his pastoral name of Hobbinol, as present at the poet's +house on his return to Ireland. The most memorable of +these visits was that already alluded to--that paid to +him in 1589 by Sir Walter Raleigh, with whom it will be +remembered he had become acquainted some nine years +before. Raleigh, too, had received a grant from the +same huge forfeited estate, a fragment of which had +been given to Spenser. The granting of these, and +other shares of the Desmond estates, formed part of a +policy then vigorously entertained by the English +Government--the colonising of the so lately disordered +and still restless districts of Southern Ireland. The +recipients were termed 'undertakers;' it was one of +their duties to repair the ravages inflicted during the +recent tumults and bring the lands committed to them +into some state of cultivation and order. + The wars had been followed by a famine. 'Even in +the history of Ireland,' writes a recent biographer of +Sir Walter Raleigh, 'there are not many scenes more +full of horror that those which the historians of that +period rapidly sketch when showing us the condition of +almost the whole province of Munster in the year 1584, +and the years immediately succeeding.'{6} + The claims of his duties as an 'undertaker,' in +addition perhaps to certain troubles at court, where +his rival Essex was at this time somewhat superseding +him in the royal favour,{7} and making a temporary +absence not undesirable, brought Raleigh into Cork +County in 1589. A full account of this visit and its +important results is given us in _Colin Clouts Come +Home Again_, which gives us at the same time a charming +picture of the poet's life at Kilcolman. Colin +himself, lately returned home from England, tells his +brother shepherds, at their urgent request, of his +'passed fortunes.' He begins with Raleigh's visit. +One day, he tells them, as he sat + + Under the foote of Mole, that mountaine hore, + Keeping my sheepe amongst the cooly shade + Of the greene alders by the Mullaes shore, + +a strange shepherd, who styled himself the Shepherd of +the Ocean -- + + Whether allured with my pipes delight, + Whose pleasing sound yshrilled far about, + Or thither led by chaunce, I know not right -- + +found him out, and + + Provoked me to plaie some pleasant fit. + +He sang, he tells us, a song of Mulla old father Mole's +daughter, and of another river called Bregog who loved +her. Then his guest sang in turn:-- + + His song was all a lamentable lay + Of great unkindnesse and of usage hard, + Of Cynthia the ladie of the sea, + Which from her presence faultlesse him debard, + And ever and anon, with singults rife, + He cryed out, to make his undersong: + Ah! my loves queene and goddesse of my life, + Who shall me pittie when thou doest me wrong? + +After they had made an end of singing, the shepherd of +the ocean + + Gan to cast great lyking to my lore, + And great dislyking to my lucklesse lot + That banisht had my selfe, like wight forlore, + Into that waste where I was quite forgot, + +and presently persuaded him to accompany him 'his +Cinthia to see.' + It has been seen from one of Harvey's letters that +the _Faerie Queene_ was already begun in 1580; and from +what Bryskett says, and what Spenser says himself in +his sonnets to Lord Grey, and to Lord Ormond, that it +was proceeded with after the poet had passed over to +Ireland. By the close of the year 1589 at least three +books were completely finished. Probably enough parts +of other books had been written; but only three were +entirely ready for publication. No doubt part of the +conversation that passed between Spenser and Raleigh· +related to Spenser's work. It may be believed that +what was finished was submitted to Raleigh's judgment, +and certainly concluded that it elicited his warmest +approval.{8} One great object that Spenser proposed to +himself when he assented to Raleigh's persuasion to +visit England, was the publication of the first three +books of his _Faerie Queene_. + + + + Footnotes + --------- + +{1} One might quote of these poets, and those of a like + spirit, Wordsworth's lines on 'the Characteristics + of a Child three years old,' for in the respect + therein mentioned, as in others, these poets are + 'as little children:' + + As a faggot sparkles on the hearth, + Not less if unattended and alone, + Than when both young and old sit gathered round, + And take delight in its activity; + _Even so this happy creature of herself + Is all-sufficient; Solitude to her + Is blithe society, who fills the air + With gladness and involuntary songs. + +{2} See _Colin Clouts Come Home Again_, vv. 180-184, + quoted below. +{3} This is the 'Lodovick' mentioned in Sonnet 33, + quoted below. It was from him a little later, in + 1588, that Spenser obtained by 'purchase' the + succession to the office of the Clerk of the + Government Council of Munster. _See_ Dr. Grosart's + vol. i. p. 151. +{4} Dr. Birch refers in his note to _The Ancient and + Present State of the County and City of Cork_, by + Charles Smith, vol. i. book i. c. i. p. 58-63. + Edit. Dublin 1750, 8vo. And Fiennes Moryson's + _Itinerary_, part ii. p. 4. +{5} Todd proposes to regard this date as a printer's + error for 1595, quite unnecessarily. +{6} Mr. Edward Edwards, 1868, I. c. vi.; see also + _Colin Clouts Come Home Again_, vv. 312-319. +{7} 'My lord of Essex hath chased Mr. Raleigh from the + court and confined him in Ireland.'--Letter, dated + August 17, 1589, from Captain Francis Allen to + Antony Bacon, Esq.--Quoted by Todd from Dr. Birch's + _Memoirs of Queen Elizabeth_.--See Mr. Edwards's + _Life of Raleigh_, I. c. viii. +{8} See Raleigh's lines entitled 'A Vision upon this + Conceipt of the _Faery Queene_,' prefixed to the + _Faerie Queene_. + + + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + 1590. + +Thus after an absence of about nine years, Spenser +returned for a time to England; he returned 'bringing +his sheaves with him.' Whatever shadow of +misunderstanding had previously come between his +introducer--or perhaps re-introducer--and her Majesty +seems to have been speedily dissipated. Raleigh +presented him to the Queen, who, it would appear, +quickly recognised his merits. 'That goddess' + + To mine oaten pipe enclin'd her eare + That she thenceforth therein gan take delight, + And it desir'd at timely houres to heare + Al were my notes but rude and roughly dight. + + In the Registers of the Stationers' Company for +1589 occurs to following entry, quoted here from Mr. +Arber's invaluable edition of them:-- + + Primo Die Decembris.--Master Ponsonbye. + Entered for his Copye a book intituled the fayre + Queene, dyposed into xii bookes &c. Aucthorysed + vnder thandes of the Archb. of Canterbery & bothe + the Wardens, vjd. + + The letter of the author's prefixed to his poem +'expounding his whole intention in the course of this +worke, which for that it giveth great light to the +reader, for the better understanding is hereunto +annexed,' addressed to 'Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight, +Lord Wardein of the Stanneryes and her Maiesties +lieftenaunt in the county of Cornewayll,' is dated +January 23, 1589--that is, 1590, according to the New +Style. Shortly afterwards, in 1590, according to both +Old and New Styles, was published by William Ponsonby +'THE FAERIE QUEENE, Disposed into twelve books, +Fashioning XII Morall vertues.' That day, which we +spoke of as beginning to arise in 1579, now fully +dawned. The silence of well nigh two centuries was now +broken, not again to prevail, by mighty voices. During +Spenser's absence in Ireland, William Shakspere had +come up from the country to London. The exact date of +his advent it seems impossible to ascertain. Probably +enough it was 1585; but it may have been a little +later. We may, however, be fairly sure that by the +time of Spenser's arrival in London in 1589, Shakspere +was already occupying a notable position in his +profession as an actor; and what is more important, +there can be little doubt he was already known not only +as an actor, but as a play-writer. What he had already +written was not comparable with what he was to write +subsequently; but even those early dramas gave promise +of splendid fruits to be thereafter yielded. In 1593 +appeared _Venus and Adonis_; in the following year +_Lucrece_; in 1595, Spenser's _Epithalamion_; in 1596, +the second three books of the _Faerie Queene_; in 1597 +_Romeo and Juliet_, _King Richard the Second_, and +_King Richard the Third_ were printed, and also Bacon's +_Essays_ and the first part of Hooker's _Ecclesiastical +Polity_. During all these years various plays, of +increasing power and beauty, were proceeding from +Shakspere's hands; by 1598 about half of his extant +plays had certainly been composed. Early in 1599, he, +who may be said to have ushered in this illustrious +period, he whose radiance first dispersed the darkness +and made the day begin to be, our poet Spenser, died. +But the day did not die with him; it was then but +approaching its noon, when he, one of its brightest +suns, set. This day may be said to have fully broken +in the year 1590, when the first instalment of the +great work of Spenser's life made its appearance. + The three books were dedicated to the Queen. They +were followed in the original edition--are preceded in +later editions--first, by the letter to Raleigh above +mentioned; then by six poetical pieces of a +commendatory sort, written by friends of the poet--by +Raleigh who writes two of the pieces, by Harvey who now +praises and well-wishes the poem he had discountenanced +some years before, by 'R.S.,' by 'H.B.,' by 'W.L.;' +lastly, by seventeen sonnets addressed by the poet to +various illustrious personages; to Sir Christopher +Hatton, to Lord Burghley, to the Earl of Essex, Lord +Charles Howard, Lord Grey of Wilton, Lord Buckhurst, +Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir John Norris, Knight, lord +president of Munster, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Countess +of Pembroke, and others. The excellence of the poem +was at once generally perceived and acknowledged. +Spenser had already, as we have seen, gained great +applause by his _Shepheardes Calendar_, published some +ten years before the coming out of his greater work. +During these ten years he had resided out of England, +as has been seen; but it is not likely his reputation +had been languishing during his absence. Webbe in his +_Discourse of English Poetrie_, 1586, had contended +'that Spenser may well wear the garlande, and step +before the best of all English poets.' The +_Shepheardes Calendar_ had been reprinted in 1581 and +in 1586; probably enough, other works of his had been +circulating in manuscript; the hopes of the country had +been directed towards him; he was known to be engaged +in the composition of a great poem. No doubt he found +himself famous when he reached England on the visit +suggested by Raleigh; he found a most eager expectant +audience; and when at last his _Faerie Queene_ +appeared, it was received with the utmost delight and +admiration. He was spoken of in the same year with its +appearance as the new laureate.{1} In the spring of +the following year he received a pension from the crown +of 50_l_. per annum. Probably, however, then, as in +later days, the most ardent appreciators of of Spenser +were the men of the same craft with himself--the men +who too, though in a different degree, or in a +different kind, possessed the 'vision and the faculty +divine.' + This great estimation of the _Faerie Queene_ was +due not only to the intrinsic charms of the poem--to +its exquisitely sweet melody, its intense pervading +sense of beauty, its abundant fancifulness, its subtle +spirituality--but also to the time of its appearance. +For then nearly two centuries no great poem had been +written in the English tongue. Chaucer had died +heirless. Occleve's lament over that great spirit's +decease had not been made without occasion:-- + + Alas my worthie maister honorable + This londis verray tresour and richesse + Deth by thy dethe hathe harm irreperable + Unto us done; hir vengeable duresse + Dispoiled hathe this londe of swetnesse + Of Rethoryk fro us; to Tullius + Was never man so like amonges us.{2} + +And the doleful confession this orphaned rhymer makes +for himself, might have been well made by all the men +of his age in England:-- + + My dere mayster, God his soule quite,· + And fader Chaucer fayne would have me taught, + But I was dull, and learned lyte or naught. + +No worthy scholar had succeeded the great master. The +fifteenth century in England had abounded in movements +of profound social and political interest--in movements +which eventually fertilised and enriched and ripened +the mind of the nation; but, not unnaturally, the +immediate literary results had been of no great value. +In the reign of Henry VIII, the condition of +literature, for various reasons, had greatly improved. +Surrey and Wyatt had heralded the advent of a brighter +era. From their time the poetical succession had never +failed altogether. The most memorable name in our +literature between their time and the _Faerie Queene_ +is that of Sackville, Lord Buckhurst--a name of note in +the history of both our dramatic and non-dramatic +poetry. Sackville was capable of something more than +lyrical essays. He it was who designed the _Mirror for +Magistrates_. To that poem, important as compared with +the poetry of its day, for its more pretentious +conception, he himself contributed the two best pieces +that form part of it--the _Induction_ and the +_Complaint of Buckingham_. These pieces are marked by +some beauties of the same sort as those which +especially characterise Spenser; but they are but +fragments; and in spirit they belong to an age which +happily passed away shortly after the accession of +Queen Elizabeth--they are penetrated by that despondent +tone which is so strikingly audible in our literature +in the middle years of the sixteeth century, not +surprisingly, if the general history of the time be +considered. Meanwhile, our language had changed much, +and Chaucer had grown almost unintelligible to the +ordinary reader. Therefore, about the year 1590, the +nation was practically without a great poem. At the +same time, it then, if ever, truly needed one. Its +power of appreciation had been quickened and refined by +the study of the poetries of other countries; it had +translated and perused the classical writers with +enthusiasm; it had ardently pored over the poetical +literature of Italy. Then its life had lately been +ennobled by deeds of splendid courage crowned with as +splendid success. In the year 1590, if ever, this +country, in respect of its literary condition and in +respect of its general high and noble excitement, was +ready for the reception of a great poem. + Such a poem undoubtedly was the _Faerie Queene_, +although it may perhaps be admitted that it was a work +likely to win favour with the refined and cultured +sections of the community rather than with the +community at large. Strongly impressed on it as were +the instant influences of the day, yet in many ways it +was marked by a certain archaic character. It depicted +a world--the world of chivalry and romance--which was +departed; it drew its images, its forms of life, its +scenery, its very language, from the past. Then the +genius of our literature in the latter part of Queen +Elizabeth's reign was emphatically dramatic; in the +intense life of these years men longed for reality. +Now the _Faerie Queene_ is one long idealizing. These +circumstances are to accounted for partly by the +character of Spenser's genius, partly by the fact +already stated that chronologically Spenser is the +earliest of the great spirits of his day. In truth he +stands between two worlds: he belongs partly to the new +time, partly to the old; he is the last of one age, he +is the first of another; he stretches out one hand into +the past to Chaucer, the other rests upon the shoulder +of Milton. + + + + Footnotes + --------- + +{1} Nash's _Supplication of Pierce Pennilesse_, 1592. +{2} Skeat's _Specimens of English Literature_, p. 14. + + + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + 1591-1599. + +It is easy to imagine how intensely Spenser enjoyed his +visit to London. It is uncertain to what extent that +visit was prolonged. He dates the dedication of his +_Colin Clouts Come Home Again_ 'from my house at +Kilcolman, the 27 of December, 1591.' On the other +hand, the dedication of his _Daphnaida_ is dated +'London this first of Januarie 1591,' that is 1592 +according to our new style. Evidently there is some +mistake here. Prof. Craik 'suspects' that in the +latter instance 'the date January 1591' is used in the +modern meaning; he quotes nothing to justify such a +suspicion; but it would seem to be correct. Todd and +others have proposed to alter the '1591' in the former +instance to 1595, the year in which _Colin Clouts Come +Home Again_ was published, and with which the allusions +made in the poem to contemporary writers agree; but +this proposal is, as we shall see, scarcely tenable. +The manner in which the publisher of the _Complaints_, +1591, of which publication we shall speak presently, +introduces that work to the 'gentle reader,' seems to +show that the poet was not at the time of the +publishing easily accessible. He speaks of having +endeavoured 'by all good meanes (for the better +encrease and accomplishment of your delights) to get +into my hands such small poems of the same authors, as +I heard were disperst abroad in sundrie hands, and not +easie to bee come by by himselfe; some of them having +been diverslie imbeziled and purloyned from him since +his departure ouer sea.' He says he understands +Spenser 'wrote sundrie others' besides those now +collected, 'besides some other Pamphlets looselie +scattered abroad . . . which when I can either by +himselfe or otherwise attaine too I meane likewise for +your fauour sake to set foorth.' It may be supposed +with much probability that Spenser returned to his +Irish castle some time in 1591, in all likelihood after +February, in which month he received the pension +mentioned above, and on the other hand so as to have +time to write the original draught of _Colin Clouts +Come Home Again_ before the close of December. + The reception of the _Faerie Queene_ had been so +favourable that in 1591--it would seem, as has been +shown, after Spenser's departure--the publisher of that +poem determined to put forth what other poems by the +same hand he could gather together. The result was a +volume entitled '_Complaints_, containing sundrie small +Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie, whereof the next page +maketh mention. By Ed. Sp.' 'The next page' contains +'a note of the Sundrie Poemes contained in this +volume:' + + 1. The Ruines of Time. + 2. The Teares of the Muses. + 3. Virgils Gnat. + 4. Prosopopoia or Mother Hubbards Tale. + 5. The Ruines of Rome, by Bellay. + 6. Muiopotmos or The Tale of the Butterflie. + 7. Visions of the Worlds Vanitie. + 8. Bellayes Visions. + 9. Petrarches Visions. + +In a short notice addressed to the Gentle Reader which +follows--the notice just referred to--the publisher of +the volume mentions other works by Spenser, and +promises to publish them too 'when he can attain to' +them. These works are _Ecclesiastes_, _The Seven +Psalms_, and _Canticum Canticorum_--these three no +doubt translations of parts of the Old Testament--_A +Sennight Slumber_, _The State of Lovers_, the _Dying +Pelican_--doubtless the work mentioned, as has been +seen, in one of Spenser's letters to Harvey--_The +Howers of the Lord_, and _The Sacrifice of a Sinner_. +Many of these works had probably been passing from hand +to hand in manuscript for many years. That old method +of circulation survived the invention of the printing +press for many generations. The perils of it may be +illustrated from the fate of the works just mentioned. +It would seem that the publisher never did attain to +them; and they have all perished. With regard to the +works which were printed and preserved, the _Ruines of +Time_, as the Dedication shows, was written during +Spenser's memorable visit of 1589-91 to England. It is +in fact an elegy dedicated to the Countess of Pembroke, +on the death of Sir Philip Sidney, 'that most brave +Knight, your most noble brother deceased.' 'Sithens my +late cumming into England,' the poet writes in the +Epistle Dedicatorie, 'some friends of mine (which might +much prevaile with me and indeede commaund me) knowing +with howe straight bandes of duetie I was tied to him; +as also bound unto that noble house (of which the +chiefe hope then rested in him) have sought to revive +them by upbraiding me; for that I have not shewed anie +thankefull remembrance towards him or any of them; but +suffer their names to sleepe in silence and +forgetfulnesse. Whome chieflie to satisfie, or els to +avoide that fowle blot of unthankefulnesse, I have +conceived this small Poeme, intituled by a generall +name of the _Worlds Ruines_: yet speciallie intended to +the renowming of that noble race from which both you +and he sprong, and to the eternizing of some of the +chiefe of them late deceased.' This poem is written in +a tone that had been extremely frequent during +Spenser's youth. Its text is that ancient one 'Vanity +of Vanities; all is Vanity'--a very obvious text in all +ages, but perhaps especially so, as has been hinted, in +the sixteenth century, and one very frequently adopted +at that time. This text is treated in a manner +characteristic of the age. It is exemplified by a +series of visions. The poet represents himself as +seeing at Verulam an apparition of a woman weeping over +the decay of that ancient town. This woman stands for +the town itself. Of its whilome glories, she says,· +after a vain recounting of them, + + They all are gone and with them is gone, + Ne ought to me remaines, but to lament + My long decay. + +No one, she continues, weeps with her, no one remembers +her, + + Save one that maugre fortunes injurie + And times decay, and enuies cruell tort + Hath writ my record in true seeming sort. + + Cambden the nourice of antiquitie, + And lanterne unto late succeeding age, + To see the light of simple veritie + Buried in ruines, through the great outrage + Of her owne people, led with warlike rage, + Cambden, though time all moniments obscure, + Yet thy just labours ever shall endure. + +Then she rebukes herself for these selfish moanings by +calling to mind how far from solitary she is in her +desolation. She recalls to mind the great ones of the +land who have lately fallen--Leicester, and Warwick, +and Sidney--and wonders no longer at her own ruin. Is +not _Transit Gloria_ the lesson taught everywhere? +Then other visions and emblems of instability are seen, +some of them not darkly suggesting that what passes +away from earth and apparently ends may perhaps be +glorified elsewhere. The second of these collected +poems--_The Teares of the Muses_--dedicated, as we have +seen, to one of the poet's fair cousins, the Lady +Strange, deplores the general intellectual condition of +the time. It is doubtful whether Spenser fully +conceived what a brilliant literary age was beginning +about the year 1590. Perhaps his long absence in +Ireland, the death of Sidney who was the great hope of +England Spenser knew, the ecclesiastical controversies +raging when he revisited England, may partly account +for his despondent tone with reference to literature. +He introduces each Muse weeping for the neglect and +contempt suffered by her respective province. He who +describes these tears was himself destined to dry them; +and Shakspere, who, if anyone, was to make the faces of +the Muses blithe and bright, was now rapidly +approaching his prime. There can be little doubt that +at a later time Spenser was acquainted with Shakspere; +for Spenser was an intimate friend of the Earl of +Essex; Shakspere was an intimate friend of the Earl of +Southampton, who was one of the most attached friends +of that Earl of Essex. And a personal acquaintance +with Shakspere may have been one of the most memorable +events of Spenser's visit to London in 1589. We would +gladly think that Thalia in the _Teares of the Muses_ +refers in the following passage to Shakspere: the comic +stage, she says, is degraded, + + And he the man whom Nature selfe had made + To mock herselfe and Truth to imitate, + With kindly counter under Mimick shade, + Our pleasant Willy, ah! is dead of late; + With whom all joy and jolly meriment + Is also deaded and in dolour drent. + +The context shows that by 'dead' is not meant physical +death, but that + + That same gentle spirit, from whose pen + Large streames of honnie and sweete nectar flowe, + +produces nothing, sits idle-handed and silent, rather +than pander to the grosser tastes of the day. But this +view, attractive as it is, can perhaps hardly be +maintained. Though the _Teares of the Muses_ was not +published, as we have seen, till 1591, it was probably +written some years earlier, and so before the star of +Shakspere had arisen. Possibly by Willy is meant Sir +Philip Sidney, a favourite haunt of whose was his +sister's house at Wilton on the river Wiley or Willey, +and who had exhibited some comic power in his masque, +_The Lady of May_, acted before the Queen in 1578. +Some scholars, however, take 'Willy' to denote John +Lily. Thus the passage at present remains dark. If +written in 1590, it certainly cannot mean Sidney, who +had been dead some years; just possibly, but not +probably, it might in that case mean Shakspere. + Of the remaining works published in his +_Complaints_, the only other one of recent composition +is _Muiopotmos_, which, as Prof. Craik suggests, would +seem to be an allegorical narrative of some matter +recently transpired. It is dated 1590, but nothing is +known of any earlier edition than that which appears in +the _Complaints_. Of the other pieces by far the most +interesting is _Prosopopoia, or Mother Hubbards Tale_, +not only because it is in it, as has been said, Spenser +most carefully, though far from successfully, imitates +his great master Chaucer, but for its intrinsic merit-- +for its easy style, its various incidents, its social +pictures. In the dedication he speaks of it as 'These +my idle labours; which having _long sithens composed in +the raw conceipt of my youth_, I lately amongst other +papers lighted upon, and was by others, which liked the +same, mooved to set them foorth.' However long before +its publication the poem in the main was written, +possibly some additions were made to it in or about the +year 1590; as for instance, the well-known passage +describing 'a suitor's state,' which reflects too +clearly a bitter personal experience to have been +composed before Spenser had grown so familiar with the +Court as he became during his visit to England under +Raleigh's patronage. But it is conceivable that his +experiences in 1578 and 1579 inspired the lines in +question. + The remaining pieces in the _Complaints_ consist +of translations or imitations, composed probably some +years before, though probably in some cases, as has +been shown, revised or altogether recast. + Probably in the same year with the _Complaints_-- +that is in 1591--was published _Daphnaida_,{1} 'an +Elegie upon the death of the noble and vertuous Douglas +Howard, daughter and heire of Henry Lord Howard, +Viscount Byndon, and wife of Arthur Georges, Esquire.' +This elegy was no doubt written before Spenser returned +to Ireland. It is marked by his characteristic +diffuseness, abundance, melody. + Certainly before the close of the year 1591 +Spenser found himself once more in his old castle of +Kilcolman. A life at Court could never have suited +him, however irksome at times his isolation in Ireland +may have seemed. When his friends wondered at his +returning unto + + This barrein soyle, + Where cold and care and penury do dwell, + Here to keep sheepe with hunger and with toyle, + +he made the answer that he, + + Whose former dayes + Had in rude fields bene altogether spent, + Durst not adventure such unknowen wayes, + Nor trust the guile of fortunes blandishment; + But rather chose back to my sheepe to tourne, + Whose utmost hardnesse I before had tryde, + Then, having learnd repentance late, to mourne + Emongst those wretches which I there descryde. + +That life, with all its intrigues and self-seekings and +scandals, had no charms for him. Once more settled in +his home, he wrote an account of his recent absence +from it, which he entitled _Colin Clouts Come Home +Again_. This poem was not published till 1595; but, +whatever additions were subsequently made to it, there +can be no doubt it was originally written immediately +after his return to Ireland. Sitting in the quiet to +which he was but now restored, he reviewed the splendid +scenes he had lately witnessed; he recounted the famous +wits he had met, and the fair ladies he had seen in the +great London world; and dedicated this exquisite diary +to the friend who had introduced him into that +brilliant circle. It would seem that Raleigh had +accused him of indolence. That ever-restless schemer +could not appreciate the poet's dreaminess. 'That you +may see,' writes Spenser, 'that I am not alwaies ydle +as yee think, though not greatly well occupied, nor +altogither undutifull, though not precisely officious, +I make you present of this simple pastorall, unworthie +of your higher conceipt for the meanesse of the stile, +but agreeing with the truth in circumstance and matter. +The which I humbly beseech you to accept in part of +paiment of the infinite debt in which I acknowledge +myselfe bounden unto you for your singular favours and +sundrie good turnes shewed to me at my late being in +England, &c.' + The conclusion of this poem commemorates, as we +have seen, Spenser's enduring affection for that +Rosalind who so many years before had turned away her +ears from his suit. It must have been some twelve +months after those lines were penned, that the writer +conceived an ardent attachment for one Elizabeth. The +active research of Dr. Grosart has discovered that this +lady belonged to the Boyle family--a family already of +importance and destined to be famous. The family seat +was at Kilcoran, near Youghal, and so we understand +Spenser's singing of 'The sea that neighbours to her +near.' Thus she lived in the same county with her +poet. The whole course of the wooing and the winning +is portrayed in the _Amoretti or Sonnets_ and the +_Epithalamium_. It may be gathered from these +biographically and otherwise interesting pieces, that +it was at the close of the year 1592 that the poet was +made a captive of that beauty he so fondly describes. +The first three sonnets would seem to have been written +in that year. The fourth celebrates the beginning of +the year 1593--the beginning according to our modern +way of reckoning. All through that year 1593 the lover +sighed, beseeched, adored, despaired, prayed again. +Fifty-eight sonnets chronicle the various hopes and +fears of that year. The object of his passion remained· +as steel and flint, while he wept and wailed and +pleaded. His life was a long torment. + + In vaine I seeke and sew to her for grace + And doe myne humbled hart before her poure; + The whiles her foot she in my necke doth place + And tread my life downe in the lowly floure. + +In Lent she is his 'sweet saynt,' and he vows to find +some fit service for her. + + Her temple fayre is built within my mind + In which her glorious image placed is. + +But all his devotion profited nothing, and he thinks it +were better 'at once to die.' He marvels at her +cruelty. He cannot address himself to further +composition of his great poem. The accomplishment of +that great work were + + Sufficient werke for one man's simple head, + All were it, as the rest, but rudely writ. + How then should I, without another wit, + Thinck ever to endure so tedious toyle? + Sith that this one is tost with troublous fit + Of a proud love that doth my spirit spoyle. + +He falls ill in his body too. When the anniversary of +his being carried into captivity comes round, he +declares, as has already been quoted, that the year +just elapsed has appeared longer than all the forty +years of his life that had preceded it (sonnet 60). In +the beginning of the year 1594, + + After long stormes and tempests sad assay + Which hardly I endured hertofore + In dread of death and daungerous dismay + With which my silly bark was tossed sore, + +he did 'at length descry the happy shore.' The heart +of his mistress softened towards him. The last twenty- +five sonnets are for the most part the songs of a lover +accepted and happy. It would seem that by this time he +had completed three more books of the _Faerie Queene_, +and he asks leave in sonnet 70, + + In pleasant mew + To sport my Muse and sing my loves sweet praise, + The contemplation of whose heavenly hew + My spirit to an higher pitch doth raise. + +Probably the Sixth Book was concluded in the first part +of the year 1594, just after his long wooing had been +crowned with success. In the tenth canto of that book +he introduces the lady of his love, and himself +'piping' unto her. In a rarely pleasant place on a +fair wooded hill-top Calidore sees the Graces dancing, +and Colin Clout piping merrily. With these goddesses +is a fourth maid; it is to her alone that Colin +pipes:-- + + Pype, jolly shepheard, pype thou now apace + Unto thy love that made thee low to lout; + Thy love is present there with thee in place; + Thy love is there advaunst to be another Grace. + +Of this fourth maid the poet, after sweetly praising +the daughters of sky-ruling Jove, sings in this wise:-- + + Who can aread what creature mote she bee; + Whether a creature or a goddesse graced + With heavenly gifts from heven first enraced? + But what so sure she was, she worthy was + To be the fourth with those three other placed, + Yet she was certes but a countrey lasse; + Yet she all other countrey lasses farre did passe. + + So farre, as doth the daughter of the day + All other lesser lights in light excell; + So farre doth she in beautyfull array + Above all other lasses beare the bell; + Ne lesse in vertue that beseems her well + Doth she exceede the rest of all her race. + +The phrase 'country lass' in this rapturous passage has +been taken to signify that she to whom it applied was +of mean origin; but it scarcely bears this +construction. Probably all that is meant is that her +family was not connected with the Court or the Court +circle. She was not high-born; but she was not low- +born. The final sonnets refer to some malicious +reports circulating about him, and to some local +separation between the sonneteer and his mistress. +This separation was certainly ended in the June +following his acceptance--that is, the June of 1594; +for in that month, on St. Barnabas' day, that is, on +the 11th, Spenser was married. This event Spenser +celebrates in the finest, the most perfect of all his +poems, in the most beautiful of all bridal songs--in +his _Epithalamion_. He had many a time sung for +others; he now bade the Muses crown their heads with +garlands and help him his own love's praises to +resound:-- + + So I unto my selfe alone will sing, + The woods shall to me answer, and my echo ring. + +Then, with the sweetest melody and a refinement and +grace incomparable, he sings with a most happy heart of +various matters of the marriage day--of his love's +waking, of the merry music of the minstrels, of her +coming forth in all the pride of her visible +loveliness, of that 'inward beauty of her lively +spright' which no eyes can see, of her standing before +the altar, her sad eyes still fastened on the ground, +of the bringing her home, of the rising of the evening +star, and the fair face of the moon looking down on his +bliss not unfavourably, as he would hope. The +_Amoretti_ and _Epithalamion_ were registered at the +Stationers' Hall on the 19th of November following the +marriage. They were published in 1595, Spenser--as +appears from the 'Dedication' of them to Sir Robert +Needham, written by the printer Ponsonby--being still +absent from England. + Meanwhile the poet had been vexed by other +troubles besides those of a slowly requited passion. +Mr. Hardiman,{2} in his _Irish Minstrelsy_, has +published three petitions presented in 1593 to the Lord +Chancellor of Ireland by Maurice, Lord Roche, Viscount +Fermoy, two against 'one Edmond Spenser, gentleman', +one against one Joan Ny Callaghan--who is said to act +'by supportation and maintenance of Edmond Spenser, +gentleman, a heavy adversary to your suppliant.' +'Where,' runs the first petition, 'one Edmond Spenser, +gentleman, hath lately exhibited suit against your +suppliant for three ploughlands, parcels of +Shanballymore (your suppliant's inheritance) before the +Vice-President and Council of Munster, which land hath +been heretofore decreed for your suppliant against the +said Spenser and others under whom he conveyed; and +nevertheless for that the said Spenser, being Clerk of +the Council in the said province, and did assign his +office unto one Nicholas Curteys among other agreements +with covenant that during his life he should be free in +the said office for his causes, by occasion of which +immunity he doth multiply suits against your suppliant +in the said province upon pretended title of others +&c.' The third petition averred that 'Edmond Spenser of +Kilcolman, gentleman, hath entered into three +ploughlands, parcel of Ballingerath, and disseised your +suppliant thereof, and continueth by countenance and +greatness the possession thereof, and maketh great +waste of the wood of the said land, and converteth a +great deal of corn growing thereupon to his proper use, +to the damage of the complainant of two hundred pounds +sterling. Whereunto,' continues the document, which is +preserved in the Original Rolls Office, 'the said +Edmond Spenser appearing in person had several days +prefixed unto him peremptorily to answer, which he +neglected to do.' Therefore 'after a day of grace +given,' on the 12th of February, 1594, Lord Roche was +decreed the possession. Perhaps the absence from his +lady love referred to in the concluding sonnets was +occasioned by this litigation. Perhaps also the 'false +forged lyes'--the malicious reports circulated about +him--referred to in Sonnet 85, may have been connected +with these appeals against him. It is clear that all +his dreams of Faerie did not make him neglectful of his +earthly estate. Like Shakspere, like Scott, Spenser +did not cease to be a man of the world--we use the +phrase in no unkindly sense--because he was a poet. He +was no mere visionary, helpless in the ordinary affairs +of life. In the present case it would appear that he +was even too keen in looking after his own interests. +Professor Craik charitably suggests that his poverty +'rather than rapacity may be supposed to have urged +whatever of hardness there was in his proceedings.' It +is credible enough that these proceedings made him +highly unpopular with the native inhabitants of the +district, and that they were not forgotten when the day +of reckoning came. 'His name,' says Mr. Hardiman, on +the authority of _Trotter's Walks in Ireland_,{3} 'is +still remembered in the vicinity of Kilcolman; but the +people entertain no sentiments of respect or affection +for his memory.' + In the same year with the _Amoretti_ was published +_Colin Clouts Come Home Again_, several additions +having been made to the original version. + Probably at the close of this year 1595 Spenser a +second time crossed to England, accompanied, it may be +supposed, by his wife, carrying with him in manuscript +the second three books of his _Faerie Queene_, which, +as we have seen, were completed before his marriage, +and also a prose work, _A View of the Present State of +Ireland_. Mr. Collier quotes the following entry from +the Stationers' Register:-- + + 20 die Januarii [1595].--Mr. Ponsonby. Entred + &c. The Second Part of the Faerie Queene, cont. + the 4, 5, and 6 bookes, vj_d_. + +This second instalment--which was to be the last--of +his great poem was duly published in that year. The +_View of the Present State of Ireland_ was not +registered till April 1598, and then only +conditionally. It was not actually printed till 1633. +During his stay in England he wrote the _Hymns to +Heavenly Love and Heavenly Beauty_, and the +_Prothalamion_, which were to be his last works. + More than four years had elapsed since Spenser had +last visited London. During that period certain +memorable works had been produced; the intellectual +power of that day had expressed itself in no mean +manner. When he arrived in London towards the close of +the year 1595, he would find Shakspere splendidly +fulfilling the promise of his earlier days; he would +find Ben Jonson just becoming known to fame; he would +find Bacon already drawing to him the eyes of his time. +Spenser probably spent the whole of the year 1596, and +part of 1597, in England. In 1597 appeared, as has +already been said, the first part of Hooker's +_Ecclesiastical Polity_, and Bacon's _Essays_, and also +Jonson's _Every Man in His Own Humour_. + The reigning favourite at this time was the Earl +of Essex. In 1596 his successful descent upon Cadiz +raised him to the zenith of his fame. With this +nobleman Spenser was on terms of intimacy. At his +London house in the Strand--a house which had +previously been inhabited by Spenser's earlier patron, +the Earl of Leicester--it stood where Essex Street now +is, and is still represented by the two pillars which +stand at the bottom of that street--Spenser no doubt +renewed his friendship with Shakspere. This intimacy +with Essex, with whatever intellectual advantages it +may have been attended, with whatever bright spirits it +may have brought Spenser acquainted, probably impeded +his prospects of preferment. There can be no doubt +that one of the motives that brought him to England was +a desire to advance his fortunes. Camden describes him +as always poor. His distaste for his residence in +Ireland could not but have been aggravated by his +recent legal defeat. But he looked in vain for further +preferment. He had fame, and to spare, and this was to +suffice. It was during this sojourn in England that he +spoke of himself, as we have seen, as one + + Whom sullein care + Through discontent of my long fruitlesse stay + In Princes court and expectation vayne + Of idle hopes which still doe fly away + Like empty shaddows, did afflict my brayne. + + The publication of the second three books of the +_Faerie Queene_, with a re-impression of the first +three books, placed him on the highest pinnacle of +fame. Its plentiful references to passing events--its +adumbrations of the history of the time--however it +might damage the permanent value of the work from an +artistic point of view, increased its immediate +popularity. How keenly these references were +appreciated appears from the anxiety of the Scotch King +to have the poet prosecuted for his picture of Duessa, +in whom Mary Queen of Scots was generally recognised. +'Robert Bowes, the English ambassador in Scotland, +writing to Lord Burghley from Edinburgh 12th November, +1596, states that great offence was conceived by the +King against Edmund Spenser for publishing in print, in +the second part of the _Faery Queen_, ch. 9, some +dishonourable effects, as the King deemed, against +himself and his mother deceased. Mr. Bowes states that +he had satisfied the King as to the privilege under +which the book was published, yet he still desired that +Edmund Spenser for this fault might be tried and +punished. It further appears, from a letter from +George Nicolson to Sir Robert Cecil, dated Edinburgh, +25 February, 1597-8, that Walter Quin, an Irishman, was +answering Spenser's book, whereat the King was +offended.'{4} + The _View of the Present State of Ireland_, +written dialogue-wise between Eudoxus and Iren{ae}us, +though not printed, as has been said, till 1633, seems +to have enjoyed a considerable circulation in a +manuscript form. There are manuscript copies of this +tractate at Cambridge, at Dublin, at Lambeth, and in +the British Museum. It is partly antiquarian, partly +descriptive, partly political. It exhibits a profound +sense of the unsatisfactory state of the country--a +sense which was presently to be justified in a +frightful manner. Spenser had not been deaf to the +ever-growing murmurs of discontent by which he and his +countrymen had been surrounded. He was not in advance +of his time in the policy he advocates for the +administration of Ireland. He was far from +anticipating that policy of conciliation whose +triumphant application it may perhaps be the signal +honour of our own day to achieve. The measures he +proposes are all of a vigorously repressive kind; they +are such measures as belong to a military occupancy, +not to a statesmanly administration. He urges the +stationing numerous garrisons; he is for the abolishing +native customs. Such proposals won a not unfavourable +hearing at that time. They have been admired many a +time since. + It is to this work of Spenser's that Protector +Cromwell alludes in a letter to his council in Ireland, +in favour of William Spenser, grandson of Edmund +Spenser, from whom an estate of lands in the barony of +Fermoy, in the county of Cork, descended on him. 'His +grandfather,' he writes, 'was that Spenser who, by his +writings touching the reduction of the Irish to +civility, brought on him the odium of that nation; and +for those works and his other good services Queen +Elizabeth conferred on him that estate which the said +William Spenser now claims.'{5} This latter statement +is evidently inaccurate. Spenser, as we have seen, had +already held his estate for some years when he brought +his _View_ to England. + Spenser dates the dedication of his _Hymns_ from +Greenwich, September 1, 1596. Of these four hymns, two +had been in circulation for some years, though now for +the first time printed; the other two now first +appeared. 'Having in the greener times of my youth,' +he writes, 'composed these former two hymnes in the +praise of love and beautie, and finding that the same +too much pleased those of like age and disposition, +which being too vehemently caried with that kind of +affection, do rather sucke out poyson to their strong +passion than hony to their honest delight, I was moved +by one of you two most excellent ladies [the ladies +Margaret, Countess of Cumberland, Mary, Countess of +Warwick] to call in the same; but unable so to doe, by +reason that many copies thereof were formerly scattered +abroad, I resolved at least to amend, and by way of +retraction to reforme them, making (instead of those +two hymnes of earthly or naturall love and beautie) two +others of heavenly and celestiall.' This passage is +interesting for the illustration it provides of +Spenser's popularity. It is also highly interesting, +if the poems themselves be read in the light of it, as +showing the sensitive purity of the poet's nature. It +is difficult to conceive how those 'former hymns' +should in any moral respect need amending. The +moralising and corrective purpose with which the two +latter were written perhaps diminished their poetical +beauty; but the themes they celebrate are such as +Spenser could not but ever descant upon with delight; +they were such as were entirely congenial to his +spirit. He here set forth special teachings of his +great master Plato, and abandoned himself to the high +spiritual contemplations he loved. But perhaps the +finest of these four hymns is the second--that in +honour of Beauty. Beauty was indeed the one worship of +Spenser's life--not mere material beauty--not 'the +goodly hew of white and red with which the cheekes are +sprinkled,' or 'the sweete rosy leaves so fairly spred +upon the lips,' or 'that golden wyre,' or 'those +sparckling stars so bright,' but that inner spiritual +beauty, of which fair hair and bright eyes are but +external expressions. + + So every spirit, as it is most pure + And hath in it the more of heavenly light, + So it the fairer bodie doth procure + To habit in, and it more fairely dight + With chearfull grace and amiable sight; + For of the soule the bodie forme doth take, + For soule is forme and doth the bodie make. + +This hymn is one of high refined rapture. + Before the close of the year 1596 Spenser wrote +and published the _Prothalamion_ or 'A spousall verse +made in honour of the double marriage of the two +honourable and vertuous ladies, the ladie Elizabeth, +and the ladie Katherine Somerset, daughters to the +right honourable the Earle of Worcester, and espoused +to the two worthie gentlemen, M. Henry Gilford and M. +William Peter Esquyers.' It was composed after the +return of Essex from Spain, for he is introduced in the +poem as then residing at his house in the Strand. It +is a poem full of grace and beauty, and of matchless +melodiousness. + This is the last complete poem Spenser wrote. No +doubt he entertained the idea of completing his _Faerie +Queene_; and perhaps it was after 1596 that he composed +the two additional cantos, which are all, so far as is +known, that he actually wrote. But the last poem +completed and published in his lifetime was the +_Prothalamion_. + This second visit to England at last came to an +end. It was probably in 1597 that he returned once +more to Kilcolman. In the following year he was +recommended by her Majesty for Sheriff of Cork. But +his residence in Ireland was now to be rudely +terminated. + The Irishry had, ever since the suppression of +Desmond's rebellion in 1582, been but waiting for +another opportunity to rise, that suppression not +having brought pacification in its train. In the +autumn of 1598 broke out another of these fearful +insurrections, of which the history of English rule in· +Ireland is mainly composed. + In the September of that year Spenser was at the +zenith of his prosperity. In that month arrived the +letter recommending his appointment to be Sheriff of +Cork. It seems legitimate to connect this mark of +royal favour with the fact that at the beginning of the +preceding month Lord Burghley had deceased. The great +obstructor of the Queen's bounty was removed, and +Spenser might hope that now, at last, the hour of his +prosperity was come. So far as is known, his domestic +life was serene and happy. The joys of the husband had +been crowned with those of the father. Two sons, as +may be gathered from the names given to them--they were +christened Sylvanus and Peregrine--had been by this +time born to him; according to Sir William Betham, who +drew up a pedigree of Spenser's family, another son and +a daughter had been born between the birth of Sylvanus +and that of Peregrine. Then he was at this time the +recognised prince of living poets. The early autumn of +1598 saw him in the culminating enjoyment of all these +happinesses. + In October the insurgents burst roughly in upon +his peace. No doubt his occupation of the old castle +of Desmond had ever been regarded with fierce jealousy. +While he had dreamed his dreams and sung his songs in +the valley, there had been curses muttered against him +from the hills around. At last the day of vengeance +came. The outraged natives rushed down upon Kilcolman; +the poet and his family barely made their escape; his +home was plundered and burned. According to Ben +Jonson, in the conversation with Drummond, quoted +above, not all his family escaped; one little child, +new born, perished in the flames. But, indeed, the +fearfulness of this event needs no exaggeration. In +profound distress Spenser arrived once more in London, +bearing a despatch from Sir Thomas Norreys, President +of Munster, to the Secretary of State, and of course +himself full of direct and precise information as to +the Irish tumult, having also drawn up an address to +the Queen on the subject. Probably, the hardships and +horrors he had undergone completely prostrated him. On +January 16, 1599, he died in Westminster. As to the +exact place, a manuscript note found by Brand, the +well-known antiquary, on the title-page of a copy of +the second edition of the _Faerie Queene_, though not +of indisputable value, may probably enough be accepted, +and it names King Street. Ben Jonson says, 'he died +for lack of bread;' but this must certainly be an +exaggeration. No doubt he returned to England +'inops'--in a state of poverty--as Camden says; but it +is impossible to believe that he died of starvation. +His friend Essex and many another were ready to +minister to his necessities if he needed their +ministry. Jonson's story is that he 'refused twenty +pieces sent him by my lord Essex, and said he was sure +he had no time to spend them.' This story, if it is +anything more than a mere vulgar rumour, so far as it +shows anything, shows that he was in no such very +extreme need of succour. Had his destitution been so +complete, he would have accepted the pieces for his +family, even though 'he had no time to spend them +himself.' It must be remembered that he was still in +receipt of a pension from the crown; a pension of no +very considerable amount, perhaps, but still large +enough to satisfy the pangs of hunger. But numerous +passages might be quoted to show that he died in +somewhat straitened circumstances. + It was said, some thirty-four years after +Spenser's death, that in his hurried flight from +Ireland the remaining six books of the _Faerie Queene_ +were lost. But it is very unlikely that those books +were ever completed.{6} Perhaps some fragments of them +may have perished in the flames at Kilcolman--certainly +only two cantos have reached us. These were first +printed in 1611, when the first six books were +republished. The general testimony of his +contemporaries is that his song was broken off in the +midst. Says Browne in his _Britannia's Pastorals_ +(Book ii. s. 1):-- + + But ere he ended his melodious song, + An host of angels flew the cloud among, + And rapt this swan from his attentive mates + To make him one of their associates + In heaven's faire choir. + +One S. A. Cokain writes:-- + + If, honour'd Colin, thou hadst lived so long + As to have finished thy Fairy song, + Not only mine but all tongues would confess, + Thou hadst exceeded old M{ae}onides. + + He was buried near Chaucer--by his own wish, it is +said--in Westminster Abbey, 'poetis funus ducentibus,' +with poets following him to the grave--bearing the +pall, as we might say--the Earl of Essex furnishing the +funeral expenses, according to Camden. It would seem +from a passage in Browne's _Britannia's Pastorals_ +'that the Queen ordered a monument to be erected over +him, but that the money was otherwise appropriated by +one of her agents.' The present monument, restored in +1778, was erected by Anne, Countess of Dorset, in 1620. + His widow married again before 1603, as we learn +from a petition presented to the Lord Chancellor of +Ireland in that year, in which Sylvanus sues to recover +from her and her husband Roger Seckerstone certain +documents relating to the paternal estate. She was +again a widow in 1606. Till a very recent time there +were descendants of Spenser living in the south of +Ireland. + + + 1869 JOHN W. HALES. + Revised 1896. + + + + Footnotes + --------- + +{1} This poem is in this volume reprinted from the + edition of 1591. Mr. Morris thinks that Todd was + not aware of this edition. Mr. Collier reprinted + from the 2nd edition--that of 1593. +{2} _Irish Minstrelsy; or, Bardic Remains of Ireland_, + by J. Hardiman. London, 1831. +{3} 'The name and occupation of Spenser is handed down + traditionally among them (the Irish); but they seem + to entertain no sentiments of respect or affection + for his memory; the bard came in rather ungracious + times, and the keen recollections of this untutored + people are wonderful.'--Trotter's _Walks through + Ireland in the Years 1812, 1814, and 1817_. + London, 1819, p. 302. +{4} Cooper's _Athen. Cantab._ +{5} See Mr. Edwards's _Life of Raleigh_, vol. i. p. + 128. +{6} No doubt he intended to complete his work. See + book vi. canto v. st. 2: + + 'When time shall be to tell the same;' + + but this time never was. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Biography of Edmund Spenser, by John W. Hales + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BIOGRAPHY OF EDMUND SPENSER *** + +***** This file should be named 6937.txt or 6937.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/9/3/6937/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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