they had scarcely known before; the strong personal popularity of the Tudor sovereigns, culminating in the almost extravagant worship of Elizabeth, heightened men's feeling of patriotism. They were impelled to find some way of expressing all this joy and satisfaction both in their own lives and in the greatness of their country. Hence arose a group of poets and dramatists such as England had never before possessed at one time. Their works reflect the stirring activity, the spontaneous feelings, and sincere enthusiasm of joyous youth. Many of the writers, like Sidney and Raleigh, were themselves men of action. Professional authors had not yet come into being, and no one would have dreamed of earning a livelihood by his poetry or his prose. Authors' rights were unknown. Any publisher who came into the possession of a manuscript had a perfect right to print and publish it without the author's permission. The only reward a man could hope for from his writings was recognition of his powers by his friends, and thus there was little encouragement for men to write unless they felt a direct inspiration, and had really something of worth to say. Useful selections from Surrey, Wyatt, Sackville, and Gascoigne will be found in Skeat's Specimens of English Literature already mentioned. Tottel's Miscellany forms one of Arber's Reprints (Constable). Edmund Spenser, as he tells us himself, was born in 1552 in Merry' London, my most kindly nurse, Birth. That to me gave this life's first native source.2 His father was a distant connection of the great family of the Spencers, but of his mother we know little beyond 1 Pleasant. ( M 205) 2 Prothalamion, lines 129, 130. I the fact that her name was Elizabeth. In the Amoretti (love sonnets) Spenser refers to the three Elizabeths who had an influence on his life, viz., the queen, his mother, and his wife.1 No record of Spenser's childhood and boyhood has been preserved. Indeed, as with all the great Elizabethan writers, there is but scanty material for constructing a biography, and our chief knowledge of him is to be derived from his poems. He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, then lately established under a famous headmaster, Dr. Mulcaster, and afterwards proceeded to PemEducation. broke College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1573, and that of M.A. in 1576. He studied Plato, the Greek philosopher, and his influence is plainly seen in Spenser's poetry, and in his views of life. At Cambridge Spenser formed fast friendships with Gabriel Harvey and Edward Kirke. On leaving the university he seems to have spent a year with friends in the north of England, and to have there fallen in love with a fair lady, Rosalind, the "widow's daughter of the glen ".2 His love was not returned, but the episode made on the poet a lasting impression; he did not marry until fifteen years later. The Spenser went to London. Harvey introduced him to Sir Philip Sidney, and he, in his turn, presented him to the Earl of Leicester, and probably to the "Shepherds queen. Spenser stayed with Sidney at his Calendar". beautiful home of Penshurst in Kent, and it is said that he wrote there the greater part of his Shepherds Calendar. There and in London Spenser must have met many interesting men and women. In the winter of 1579-80 Spenser published his first book, the Shepherds Calendar. It appeared anonymously under the editorship of one who had been a fellow-student at Cambridge, E.K. (Edward Kirke). Kirke dedicated. it to another fellow-student, Gabriel Harvey, and accom 1 Sonnet lxxiv. ? 2 Shepherds Calendar, Eclogue iv., line 26. panied it with notes explaining words and allusions.1 Spenser dedicated this work "to the noble and virtuous gentleman, most worthy of all titles both of learning and chivalry, Master Philip Sidney", and to preserve his anonymity signed the dedication Immerito (the undeserving one). Spenser put forth the composition in order to test the public favour likely to be extended to his literary vein. Come tell me what was said of me, And I will send ore after thee, he said, apostrophizing the volume. The work consists of twelve pastoral poems or eclogues, one for each month of the year: there is no other connection between them. The topics discussed in Spenser's poem cover a wide range; one of the eclogues (IV) is entirely in praise. Of fair Eliza, queen of shepherds all, i.e. Queen Elizabeth, and in its extravagant tone follows the custom of the time. The second eclogue deals with old age, and in it Spenser tells the tale of the oak and the briar. Here we see signs of the skill in narrative to which Spenser was to attain later. Love, religion, the state of the Church, and the perfect poet, are among other subjects treated. The eleventh eclogue is an elegy on the death of a fair lady in imitation of the French poet Clement Marot (1495-1544), and takes its place among those poems in memory of the dead, in which English literature is so rich. In the twelfth and last eclogue the poet compares the course of his life through boyhood, youth, manhood, and old age to the four seasons of the year. The verse of the Shepherds Calendar is extraordinarily varied: Spenser used almost all the metrical forms with which later poets have made us familiar. In addition, the verse is always musical and melodious, and amply proves the genius and power of the poet. The work 1 The suggestion of some modern critics that "E. K." was Spenser himself has been rejected, with conclusive argument, by Prof. Herford in his recent edition of the Shepherds Calendar. was reprinted in 1581 and 1586. Dryden classed Spenser with Theocritus and Virgil, and declared that the Shepherds Calendar was not to be matched in any language. When Lord Grey of Wilton was appointed in 1580 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Spenser accompanied him Spenser goes thither as his secretary. Lord Grey was reto Ireland, called two years later, but Spenser remained in Ireland, and was appointed to certain clerkships in the Court of Chancery. Probably about 1586 he received a grant of land in County Cork, and took up his abode for good at Kilcolman Castle. It was beautifully situated two miles north-west of Doneraile, and commanded fine views of the surrounding country. Here the poet led a quiet student's life, varied by occasional visits from his friends. He mourned the untimely death of Sidney under the name of Astrophel in a poem which, though sincere, was of no high literary value. He read parts of the Faery Queen, on which he had been long occupied, to Sir Walter Raleigh, who was one of his visitors at Kilcolman, and was persuaded by him to bring the poem to London visits and there publish it. Of Raleigh's visit to London, Ireland and of his own visit to England, Spenser gave a delightful account in Colin Clout's come home again,1 written in 1591, though not published until 1595. Raleigh is the "shepherd of the ocean", who said he came far from the main-sea deep. The sea-voyage from Ireland to England is finely described, No wailing there nor wretchedness is heard, No grisly famine, nor no raging sweard?, 1 Spenser names himself in his poems either Colin Clout or Cuddie. 2 sword. No nightly bordrays1, nor no hue and cries; Elizabeth's court is described with the wits, gallants, and beauties who frequented it. The poem has been well called "an exquisite diary ", and forms in fact a valuable document in the study of contemporary history. In it we have Spenser's last mention of his love for Rosalind, and it is in connection with her that the well-known line So Love is lord of all the world by right were pub and pub I. to III. of appears. The first three books of the Faery Queen lished in 1590. Their excellence was at once recognized, and Spenser straightway took his place at the head of all living English poets. In that same year Spenser seems to have been appointed poet-laureate, ? with a pension of fifty pounds a year. lishes Books the "Faery Queen”. The great success of the Faery Queen induced the publisher to apply to Spenser for material for a further volume. Accordingly in 1591 appeared a volume The "Comof poems entitled Complaints. It contained plaints". nine poems, of which the Ruins of Time and the Tears of the Muses are the most famous. The former is an elegy on the death of Sidney, dedicated to his sister the Countess of Pembroke, and having for its main object the celebration of Sidney and other members of his family. The tribute to Sidney, "to the most noble spirit which was the hope of all learned men", is simply expressed, and is of indubitable sincerity. 1 Border raids. |