in 1805, has furnished the materials for a large part of the annotations. This is what is technically called a variorum edition, containing a reprint of all the labors of the previous editors, Hughes, Upton, and Church, and of the observations of Warton. The merits of this edition are not commensurate with Spenser's rank in English literature. There is a great deal of learned rubbish in it; much trouble is often wasted in elucidating what is plain, and really difficult points are frequently passed by in silence.* This edition, it may be remarked, has been heretofore the only one to be procured with notes and explanations of the text; and the price of this has put it quite out of the reach of a large majority of readers. In the performance of his task, which has formed the agreeable employment of such leisure hours as could be snatched from an engrossing profession, the editor has felt a painful sense of his own incompetency, and claims merit for little more than a most conscientious desire to be faithful to his trust, and to do justice to his author. The amount of labor, which it has required, is much more considerable than is obvious at first blush, and will only be correctly estimated by such as have themselves undertaken a similar task. His work has been, however, a labor of love, and has brought its own reward; and he will have nothing to regret should he have succeeded in awakening and gratifying a taste for the poetry of Spenser in his countrymen. * For an estimate of the value of this edition, see a review of it, written by Sir Walter Scott, in the thirteenth number of the Edinburgla Review, for October, 1805. AN ESSAY ON THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF EDMUND SPENSER. EDMUND SPENSER was born in East Smithfield, London, about the year 1553. In what situation of life his father was does not appear; but he was probably not very wealthy, as his son was, in 1569, admitted a sizer in Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. Spenser, however, in different parts of his works, claims kindred with the Spencers of Althorpe, in Northamptonshire-a claim which seems to have been allowed by that ancient family. He took his bachelor's degree in January, 1572-3, and that of master of arts in 1578. At Cambridge he became acquainted with Gabriel Harvey, with whom he maintained a close intimacy during the rest of his life. The allegation of some of his biographers, that he was an unsuccessful candidate for a fellowship in Pembroke Hall, is now considered to be incorrect. From Cambridge it is supposed he went to reside with some relations in the north; but whether merely as a visitor, or for the purpose of filling some situation, is not known. His continuance there, however, was not of long duration; though long enough, it appears, for him to fall in love. By the advice of his friend Harvey, he was induced, "for special occasions of private affairs, and for his more preferment," as his commentator E. K. says, to leave his residence in the north, and come to London --an event which took place, it is supposed, in 1578. In the following year, he published his "Shepheards Calender," a series of twelve eclogues, appropriated to, or rather named after, the twelve months of the year, and written in such antiquated diction that it was thought necessary, even at that time, to add an explanation of the obsolete words at the end of each eclogue. This pastoral is not confined to scenes of rural life, to sketches of rustic manners, and to descriptions of the beauties or peculiarities of natural scenery or of particu lar seasons; indeed, they form but a small part of it. Instead of them, Spenser has introduced his shepherds discussing the comparative merits of the Protestant and Romish churches. disquisitions little favorable to the development of poetical genius, and, in a pastoral, not only out of place, but absurd. He has also made this, as well as almost every other of his productions, the vehicle of panegyric on his sovereign. "The Shepheards Calender," in fact, is very moral, and, for the most part, very dull; possessing little that is tender or beautiful, and affording few indications of that excellence which the author afterwards attained. There are, however, some passages not deficient in accurate and forcible description. Sir Philip Sidney, to whom it was dedicated, speaks of it in measured terms of praise: "The Shepheards Calender,'" says he, “has much poetry in he Eclogues indeed worth the reading, if I be not deceived." It obtained some reputation for the author: Abraham Fraunce, a lawyer, a poet, and a friend of Sidney, drew from it part of his illustrations in The Logick of the Law, and it passed through five editions in Spenser's lifetime. Some curiosity has been excited respecting Spenser's friend and commentator, E. K. That he was not the poet himself, as has been lately suggested, we are bound to believe, from the high strain of eulogium in which he indulges when speaking of Spenser; although the latter evidently thought highly of his own genius. From the circumstance of the name of Mrs. Kerke occurring in one of Spenser's letters to Harvey, in which E. K. is mentioned as desiring his hearty commendations to Harvey, some have conjectured that his name was Kerke. This friend, who says he "was made privy to his counsel and secret meaning in these eclogues," informs us that "Rosalind is a feigned name, which being well ordered, will bewray the very name of his |