THE FAERIE QUEENE: DISPOSED INTO TWELVE BOOKES, FASHIONING XII MORALL VERTUES. BY EDMUND SPENSER. TO WHICH IS ADDED HIS EPITHALAMION. THIRD EDITION, WITH A GLOSSARY. ILLUSTRATED BY EDWARD CORBOULD. LONDON: G. ROUTLEDGE & CO., FARRINGDON STREET. 1855. MEMOIR OF EDMUND SPENSER. THE reign of Elizabeth, various as may be the opinions held respecting the "virgin queen" herself, was unquestionably most favourable to the cultivation of wit and genius. A court sufficiently lax to allow of a tolerable freedom of language, but yet removed from anything like the broad coarseness which was hereafter to distinguish or disgrace the reign of Charles II-a sovereign, herself no mean scholar, and a hearty lover of learning and genius in others-finally, a state of national prosperity, consequent on our freedom from a foreign enthraldom: such were, indeed, advantages rarely combined in one reign, especially in a reign of such long duration; and it was not to be wondered at, if the times that developed the abilities of a Burleigh, a Hatton, or a Raleigh, should have also found fame and renown for a poet like the hero of the present narrative. Obscure as are the accounts of his birth and origin, it seems probable, from certain passages in his poems, that he was at least respectably connected. But his early prospects appear to have been but moderate. Born in London, he was sent to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he subsequently competed for a fellowship against Andrewes, afterwards Bishop of Winchester. His failure (if indeed to be defeated by such a man as Andrewes can be called a failure), and the narrow state of his finances, compelled him to quit the university. He took up his residence with some friends in the north, and, being just in that state of pocket when love is most imprudent, he very naturally fell in love at once, therein following the example of nine-tenths of humanity. Love, if a man be a poet at heart, is pretty sure to find its vent through that most charming of the liberal arts, and we may be said to owe the "Shepherd's Calendar," and other pastoral poems, to the lady whom Spenser everywhere celebrates, and whose cruelty he deplores, under the name of Rosalind. Spenser's love was, so far, profitable both to himself and to posterity; and when we read this delightful specimen of early English bucolic, we feel that, in the words of Sir Mulberry Hawk, "it is to Rosalind's mamma's obliging marriage that we are indebted for so much happiness." Sir Philip Sidney, to whom this poem was dedicated, under the modest title of "Immerito," took great notice of our hero, and being himself not merely "a lord among wits, and a wit among lords," but an able writer and judicious thinker, as well as no mean poet, his introduction proved of no small advantage to Spenser. As long as this great man lived, he extended the benefits of his fortune, advice, and influence to his poet-friend, and proved as constant, as he was liberal, a patron. |