Of the ladies, Cynthia is the Virgin Queene. Urania, sister to Astrophel, Mary, Countess of Pembroke. Theana, Anne, the third wife of the Earl of Warwick. Marian, is Margaret, Countess of Cumberland. Mansilia, the Marchioness of Northampton, to whom Daphnaida is inscribed. Galathea, and Neæra, appear to be Irish beauties, whose names are unknown. Stella, is the beautiful Lady Rich. Then succeed the three daughters of Sir John Spenser, and the list of beauties concludes with the names of Flavia and Candida, both undiscovered by the biographers and critics of the poet.

The Elegy of Astrophel, devoted to the memory of Sir Philip Sidney,* was, with Colin Clout,+ first

(G. Peele). Alcon, (Lodge). Palæmon, (Golding). Amyntas, (Earl of Derby). Lastly, Aëtion, (Shakespeare), of whom Mr. Malone states, that "he is obscurely, yet unquestionably shadowed in these lines,

“And then, though last, not least, is Aëtion-
A gentler shepherd may no where be found,
Whose muse full of high thoughts invention,
Doth like himself heroically sound."

V. Life of Shakespeare, p. 234-273, and Mr. J. Boswell's note, p. 260.

* Mr. Todd has noticed a singular mistake in the life prefixed to Church's edition of Spenser, in saying, that the grief of Stella, the Countess of Warwick, his aunt, for her Astropbel, makes a large part of this tender poem! Life, p. cvi.

+ Spenser published at London in 1595, or consented to the publication of a poem called Colin Clouts Come Home Again. V. Malone's Life of Shakespeare, p. 226.

published in 1595," dedicated to the most beautifull and vertuous Ladie, the Countess of Essex," who had been the wife of Sidney, and was the daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham. To this elegy are added the Lamentations of Sir Philip's sister, the Countess of Pembroke, under the name of Clarinda; and a Collection of Flowers that decked the herse of Sidney, by G. L. Bryskett, and others. The Amoretti, or Sonnets, were dated by Mr. Ball, in 1592; but Mr. Todd says, that they were certainly not published till 1595, though probably written in 1592, and 1593, and were sent from Ireland for publication, to his bookseller, Ponsonby.+ The dedication to "The Right Worshipfull Robert Needham, Knight," is as follows:

"SIR,-To gratulate your safe return from Ireland, I had nothing so ready, nor thought any thing so meet, as these sweete-conceited Sonnets, the deede of that well-deserving gentleman, Maister Edmunde Spenser, whose name sufficiently warranting the authorism of the work, I do more confidently presume to publish in his absence. This gentle Muse for her former perfection long wished for in Englande, now at the length crossing the seas,

"On the 19 November, 1594, was entered for William Ponsonbye, in the Stationers' Registers, a poem entitled, Amorette and Epithalamium, written not long since by Edmund Spenser." Vide Chalmers' Suppl. Apology, p. 28.

in your happye companye, (tho' to yourself unknowne), seemeth to make choyse of you, &c. "Yours in all dutifull affection,

1594.*

"W. P."

In these Sonnets, Mr. Todd has diligently traced the progress of the poet's courtship of the lady whom he is supposed to have married in The name of his bride was Elizabeth,† and the marriage probably took place at Cork, near which town his castle of Kilcolman was situated, on St. Barnabas' day. In the Faery Queene she is described as eminently beautiful, and, at the same time, of humble birth:

"Such were those goddesses which ye did see : But that fourth Mayd, which there amidst them traced,

* That Spenser was married in this year, 1594, and not 1596, as is stated in Mr. Church's life, Mr. Todd concludes from the account of children which were left, and the interference of the Privy Council in behalf of them and their mother.

In the seventy-fourth Sonnet, he discriminates between his love, his mother, and his queen, all being the same

name:

"The which three times thrice happy hath me made With guifts of body, fortune, and of minde:

Ye three Elizabeths for ever live,

That three such graces did unto me give."

On these Sonnets, see Sir Egerton Brydges' Preface to Sir Walter Raleigh's Poems, p. 16. Mr. G. Chalmers has said he means to prove: 1. That Spenser addressed his Amoretti to Elizabeth. 2. That Shakespeare was ambitious of emulating Spenser. 3. That Shakespeare was thus induced to address his sonnets to the same queen. See

d

Who can aread what creature mote she bee,
Whether a creature, or a goddesse graced
With heavenly gifts from heven first enraced!
But whatso sure she was, she worthy was

To be the Fourth with those Three other placed :
Yet was she certes but a countrey lasse;

Yet she all other countrey lasses farre did passe."

Faerie Queene, vi. x. 25.

Some biographers have asserted, that having lost his first wife, the courtship of a second gave rise to the Amoretti; but Mr. Todd feels convinced that he was a bachelor before he married his country + lass Elizabeth,' and Mr. Todd is a safe authority to depend on.

The four Hymns on Love and Beauty are dated at Greenwich, September 1, 1596, and are dedicated to the Countesses of Cumberland and Warwick; the name of the latter being mistaken either by the poet or printer; as the Countess of Warwick was certainly Anne, the daughter of Francis, Earl of Bedford. It appears these were ladies of uncommon accomplishments, whose memory Constable, in a manuscript sonnet, quoted by Mr. Todd, has thus delighted to honour :

"Sisters of spotlesse fame! of whom alone
Malitiouse tongues take pleasure to speak well,

Supplement to the Apology, p. 21, and also p. 29, 33, 83. See also Herbert's Typ. Ant. vol. ii. p. 1275, on the first edition, 12mo. 1595.

* See Chalmers' Supplemental Apology, p. 30.

In the Lives of the Poets called Cibber's, she is called a "merchant's daughter." See vol. i. p. 96.

How should I you commend, when eyther one
All things in heaven and earth so far excell.
The highest praise that I can give is this,
That one of you like to the other is."

In the same year the Prothalamion, a spousal verse in honour of the double marriage of the Ladies Elizabeth and Catherine Somerset, was printed; the second part of the Faerie Queene appeared, and a new edition of the former part accompanied it. Of the remaining six books, which would have completed Spenser's design, two imperfect cantos of "Mutabilitie" are the only parts which have been made public, and which were first inserted in the folio edition of the Faerie Queene, in 1609, as part of the last book, entitled, "The Legend of Constancy." Sir James Waret informs us, that the poet finished the latter part of the Faerie Queene in Ireland," which was soon after unfortunately lost by the disorder and abuse of his servant, whom he had sent before him into England." Fenton, however, in his notes on Waller, considers the assertion of Sir James Ware as not entitled to credit; and he says, that "he is entirely of opinion with Dryden, that upon Sir Philip Sidney's death, Spenser was deprived both of the means and spirit to accomplish his design: the story of their being lost on a voyage from Ireland seems to be a fiction." Dr. Birch, whom Gray

See Sir James Ware's Preface to Spenser's View of the State of Ireland. Dublin, 1633.