author's merit. He was one of the firft who difcovered it, and recommended it to the notice of the best judges of that time; And fo long as this great man lived, Spenfer never wanted a judicious friend and a generous patron. After he had ftaid for fome time in the North, he was prevailed upon, by the advice of fome friends, to quit his obfcurity, and come to London, that he might be in the way of promotion. The first step he afterwards made towards preferment, was, as I have faid, his acquaintance with Sir Phillip Sidney: but whether that acquaintance began immediately upon his addreffing to him the Shepherd's Calendar, as to me feems most probable, or fome time after, I will not determine. That which makes it fomewhat uncertain, is a ftory of him which I fhall only fet down as I find it related, not knowing how far it may appear worthy of credit. It is faid he was a ftranger to Mr. Sidney (afterwards Sir Philip) when he had begun to write his Fairy Queen, and that he took occafion to go to Leicefter-Houfe, and to introduce himself by fending in to Mr. Sidney a copy of the ninth canto of the first book of that poem. Mr. Sidney was much furpriz'd with the defcription of Defpair in that canto, and is faid to have fhewn an unusual kind of transport on the discovery of fo new and uncommon a genius. After he had read fome ftanza's, he turned to his steward, and bid him give the person that brought thofe verfes fifty pounds; but upon reading the next ftanza, he ordered the fum to be doubled. The fteward was no lefs furprized than his mafter, and thought it his duty to make fome delay in executing fo fudden and lavish a bounty; but upon reading one stanza more, Mr. Sidney railed his gratuity to two hundred pounds, and commanded the fteward to give it immediately, left as he read further, he might be tempted to give away his whole eftate. From this time he admitted the author to his acquaintance and converfation, and prepared the way for his being known and received at Court. Tho' nothing could have been more happy for him than to be thus introduced, yet he did not immediately reap any great benefit by it. He was indeed created Poet-laureat to Queen Elizabeth, but for fome time he wore a barren laurel, and poffeffed only the place without the penfion. The lord treasurer Burleigh had not, it feems, the fame tafte of Spenfer's merit with Sir Philip Sidney; and, whether out of neglect, or any particular refentment, or from whatever caufe, he is faid to have intercepted the Queen's favour to this unfortunate and ingenious man. As the most elegant minds have the quickeft fenfe of repulfes from the great and powerful, who should countenance and protect them, it is no wonder this misfortune funk deep into our author's fpirit, and feems to have dwelt upon him for a great space of his life. Accordingly we find him in many parts of his works pouring forth his heart in complaints of fo hard and undeferved a treatment; which probaby would have been lefs unfortunate to him, if his noble patron Sir Philip Sidney had not been fo much abfent from Court, as he was obliged to be, by his employments abroad, and by the fhare he had in the Low-Country wars. I think I ought not here to omit a little ftory, which feems founded on the grievance I have mentioned, and is related by fome, as a matter of fact commonly reported at that time. It is faid the Queen, upon his presenting fome poems to her, ordered him a gratuity of an hundred pounds; but that the lord treasurer Burleigh objecting to it, faid, with fome fcorn of the Poet, What! all this for a fong? The Queen replied, Then give bim what is reafon. Spenfer waited for fome time, but had the mortification to find himself difappointed of the Queen's intended bounty. Upon this he took a proper opportunity to prefent a paper to Queen Elizabeth in the manner of a petition, in which he reminded her of the orders fhe had given, in the following lines. I was promis'd on a time To have reafon for my rhime; This This paper produced the defired effect; and the Queen, not without fome reproof of the treafurer, immediately directed the payment of the hundred pounds fhe had firft ordered. But tho' our author had no better intereft with the Lord Treasurer, yet we find him, fome time after his appearance at court, in confiderable efteem with the moft eminent men of that time. In the year 1579, he was fent abroad by the Earl of Leicester: But in what service he was employed, is uncertain. The most confiderable step he afterwards made into business, was upon the Lord Grey of Wilton's being chofen deputy of Ireland, to whom Mr. Spenfer was recommended as fecretary. This drew him over into another kingdom, and fettled him for fome time in a fcene of life very different from what he had known before. His life now seemed to be freed from the difficulties which had hitherto perplexed it, and his fervices to the crown were rewarded by a grant from Queen Elizabeth of 3000 acres of land in the county of Cork. His houfe was in Kilcolman; and the river Mulla, which he has more than once fo beautifully introduced in his poems, ran through his grounds. It was about this time that he contracted an intimate friendship with the great and learned Sir Walter Raleigh, who was then a captain under the Lord Grey, and did him fome fervices afterwards at Court; and by his means Queen Elizabeth became more particularly acquainted than before with our author's writings. In this pleasant fituation he finished his celebrated poem of the Fairy Queen, which was begun and continued at different intervals of time; and of which he at first in 1590 published only the three first books. To these were added three more in a following edition; but the fix last books (excepting the two canto's of Mutability) were unfortunately loft by his fervant, whom he had in hafte fent before him into England. For tho' he paffed his life for fome time very ferenely here, yet. a train of misfortunes ftill purfued him; and in the rebellion of the Earl of Delmond, he was plundered and deprived of his eftate. This forced him to return to England, where his afflictions were doubled by the want of his best friend, the brave Sir Philip Sidney, who died fome years before of the wounds he had received in an action. near Zutphen in the Netherlands. Spenfer furvived his beloved patron about twelve years, but feems to have spent the latter part of that time with much grief of heart, under the disappointment of a broken fortune. It is remarkable that he died the fame year with his powerful enemy the Lord Burleigh, which was in 1598. He was buried in Westminster Abby, near the famous Geoffry Chaucer, as he had defired. His obfequies were attended by the Poets of that time, and others who pay'd the last honours to his memory. Several copies of verfes were thrown after him into his grave and his monument was erected at the charge of the famous Robert Devereux, the unfortunate Earl of Effex; the ftone of which it is made, is much broken and defaced the infcription on it is as follows, "HEARE lyes (expecting the fecond Comminge of "our Saviour Chrift Jefus) the Body of Edmond Spencer, "the Prince of Poets in his tyme; whofe Divine Spir"rit needs noe othir Witness, then the Works which he " left behind him. He was born in London in the "Yeare 1510, and died in the Yeare 1596." It is obfervable that this differs from Camden's account of his death, who fays it was in 1598. in the forty first year of the Queen's reign. But this epitaph is, I doubt, yet lefs to be depended upon for the time of our author's birth, in which there must have been a very grofs miftake. It is by no means probable that he was born fo early as 1510, if we judge only by fo remarkable a circumftance as that of his ftanding for a fellowship in competition with Mr. Andrews, who was not born till 1555. Besides, if this account of his birth were true, he must have been above fixty Years old when he first published his Shepherds Calender, an age not the most proper for love poetry; and in his feventieth year, when he he entered into bufinefs under the Lord Grey, who was created deputy of Ireland in 1580. For thefe reafons, I think, we may certainly conclude, either that this Infcription is falfe, by the error of the carver, which may feem the more probable, because the spelling likewife is very bad even for that time; or that it was put in fometime afterwards, when the monument perhaps was repaired, and is wholly different from the original one; which indeed is mentioned by Dr. Fuller, and others, to have been in Latin. In a little Latin treatise, defcribing the monuments of Westminster in the year 1600. published, as is fuppofed, by Mr. Cambden, I find the following account of it. Edmundus Spenfer, Londinenfis, Anglicorum Poetarum noftri feculi facilè Princeps, quod ejus poemata, faventibus Mufis & vifturo Genio confcripta, comprobant. Obiit immatura morte, Anno falutis 1598. & prope Galfredum Chaucerum conditur, qui faliciffime Poefin Anglicis Literis primus illuftravit. In quem hæc fcripta Junt Epitaphia. "Hic prope Chaucerum fitus eft Spenferius, illi "Nunc moritura timet, te moriente, mori." The abfurdity of fuppofing our author born in 1510. appears yet further by the expreffion immatura morte, which is here used, and could not have been very proper, if applied to a man who had died at eighty-eight years of age. Winstanley and fome others have tranfçribed this whole paffage as his epitaph, not confidering that the profe is only an eulogy on him, and not a monumental infcription. The reader will likewise observe that the verses are two diftinct epitaphs; of which, the first and fecond couplets are but the fame thought differently expreffed. In the last couplet it is not improbable the . * Vid. Kepe's Monumenta Welmoraf. author |