after the marriage had been accomplished, or at least after it was arranged.1 All the superstructure raised upon this groundwork of reality is, I imagine, purely poetical. It conforms at every point to the requirements of this kind of composition. Stella, of course, embodies in herself the manifold perfections which always inspire the lover; like Laura she is severely chaste, and even repellent; and the numerous situations which give rise to sonnets, such as the lover's sleeplessness, his feelings on hearing that Stella is sick, his despair at seeing her coach pass by without being able to obtain a look, and the kiss which he supposes himself to have stolen from her while she was asleep, are only ideal inventions necessary for the elaboration of the "concetti" which the Petrarchan tradition demands. 2 He was also inspired by another motive, which he reveals in the sonnet beginning "Let dainty wits cry on the Sisters nine," namely artistic opposition to the Euphuists. As against the party at Court which treated love as a subject to be developed with all the pedantry of the New Learning, he wished to assert the ancient and chivalrous tradition of Petrarch. Sonnet after sonnet sounds the note that love alone is an adequate source of inspiration, without the artificial supplement of science and learning. And, ideally speaking, there was undoubtedly something striking and pathetic in the situation of a lover who, when happiness was in his power, refrained from availing himself of his opportunities till it was too late. Whenever Sidney in imagination throws himself into this position, and leaves the purely conventional celebration of Stella's perfections, his sonnets reach a very high degree of poetical excellence; for example : 1 This inference is based on Sonnet ii. v. 5, "I saw, and liked; I liked, but loved not," which explains the nature of Sidney's feelings before the marriage on Sonnet xxxiii. beginning: I might !-unhappy word-O me, I might, and on Sonnet xxxvii. when he says that Stella "hath no misfortune but that Rich she is "; showing that when this was written she was actually married. 2 See ante p. 197. Or With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climbst the skies! Come, Sleep! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace, I will good tribute pay if thou do so. A rosy garland and a weary head: In short, Arcadia and Astrophel and Stella are equally to be regarded as the outpourings of an ardent and chivalrous nature, long pent in the midst of uncongenial surroundings, and at length permitted to find utterance during a period of enforced leisure. Both are evidently conceived in the spirit encouraged during the year 1580, while Sidney was an exile from the Court, and was under the inspiration of a sister's tender sympathies and the solitude of Salisbury Plain. In the various characters of the romance and the poem he found mouthpieces for his different feelings. Philisides, the shepherd, provides an 1 Sir P. Sidney's Complete Poems (Grosart), vol. i. p. 45. outlet for his dislike of Court Conventionalism; Musidorus expresses his loftier aspirations; Pyrocles and the various champions of the Arcadia, his dreams of knightly adventure; while in the sorrowful history of Astrophel and Stella, composed while the poetical mood was still strong in him, he gives utterance alike to the amorous traditions of chivalry and to the ardours of his own imagination. After his return to Court the literary and romantic impulse seems to have gradually exhausted itself. He takes up the old round of duty and amusement, marries a wife, enters Parliament, engages in the work of administration, occupies himself with designs for thwarting the power of Philip of Spain, fights on behalf of freedom in the Low Countries, and at last meets with the reward of all his repressed chivalry in brilliant victory and glorious death.1 1 For the biographical facts on which the estimate of Sidney given in this chapter is based, I am largely indebted to the Life of the poet, written by Mr. Fox Bourne for the Heroes of the Nations Series, 1891, a book equally admirable for industry in research and soundness of judgment. CHAPTER IX COURT ALLEGORY: EDMUND SPENSER THE genius of Spenser was by far the most comprehensive that had illuminated the sphere of English poetry since the time of Chaucer. It covered at once the movement developed by the Euphuists for the refinement of the national language, and the ideals of those who aimed at adapting the institution of chivalry to the requirements of the Court. But Spenser surpassed Lyly in intellectual power, as far as he excelled Sidney in the range of his reading and philosophy. His imagination received an impulse from every one of the great sources of thought which in the sixteenth century were agitating the mind of Europe. Catholic Theology, Mediæval Romance, the Philosophy of the Renaissance, the Morality of the Reformation, all contributed elements to the formation of his poetical conceptions. He wanted no quality required to place him in the same class with Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, and, perhaps, I may add Chaucer, but that supreme gift of insight and invention which enables the poet to blend conflicting ideas into an organic form. It must be added that to produce such a form out of the materials at his disposal was probably impossible, so that -apart from a certain defect of judgment implied in the selection of subject-the lack of unity that characterises Spenser's creations is the result not so much of his own artistic incapacity as of the circumstances of his times. Edmund Spenser was born in Smithfield in 1552 or 1553. He is supposed to have been the son of John Spenser, a cloth-maker of London, and claims to have belonged to the same family as the Spencers of Althorpe.1 He was first educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, whence he was sent as a sizar to Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1569; and in the same year it is supposed that he made his first appearance as an author in some translations of Petrarch and Joachim du Bellay, inserted in a volume published by a Dutchman, John Vander Noodt. Both the English Universities were at this time feeling the influence of a wave of the Calvinism which on the Continent had grown out of the milder doctrines of the early Reformers, and at Cambridge these opinions were represented in an extreme form by Cartwright, the Margaret Professor of Divinity, who was deprived of his Chair in 1570. Puritanism of a slightly more moderate colour was also professed by Grindal, Bishop of London, who had been Master of Spenser's college, and is celebrated by him as "Algrind" in The Shepherd's Calendar; while it is conjectured, not without probability, that the "Ruffin," who is mentioned in that poem, was Young, then Bishop of Rochester but formerly, Master of Pembroke Hall. These circumstances are sufficient to account for the vein of Puritanism that runs through the poetry of Spenser, a man evidently of quick perceptions and warm sensibilities, and likely to have formed his religious opinions in the mould of his immediate surroundings. At Cambridge he came also under an influence of a quite different kind. When he entered Pembroke Hall the College was divided into sets, formed by the supporters and opponents of Gabriel Harvey, of whom I shall have to say more in another chapter. Spenser enlisted himself with all the ardour of his temperament on the side of Harvey, and the latter, a man of considerable learning and force of character, obtained over him an ascendency which, under other circumstances, would have been surprising. Spenser formed with him a lasting friendship, constantly deferred to his very bad taste, and addressed to him the finest of his sonnets. From Harvey he prob1 Colin Clout's Come Home Again, 536. |