THE

POETICAL WORKS

OF

EDMUND SPENSER.

VOL. I.

CONTAINING HIS

FAERY QUEENE.

FROM MR. UPTON'S TEXT.

When SPENSER saw the fame was spredd so large
Through Faery Land of their renowned Queene,
Loth that his Muse should take so great a charge,
As in such haughty matter to be seene,
To seeme a shepeheard then he made his choice,
But Sidney heard him sing, and knew his voice----
So SPENSER was by Sidney's speaches wonne,
To blaze her fame, not fearing future harmes--**
So SPENSER now, to his immortal prayse,
Hath wonne the laur ell quite from all his feres.

VERSES TO THE AUTHOR.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY J. BELL, BOOKSELLER TO HIS

ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE PRINCE OF WALES.

THE LIFE OF

EDMUND SPENSER.

As the reign of Queen Elizabeth is one of the most shining parts of our history, and an age of which Englishmen are accustomed to speak with a particular pride and delight; it is remarkable for having beef fruitful in eminent geniuses of very different kinds. Among the Romans, the age of Augustus is observed to have produced the finest wits; but the preceding one the greatest men: but this was a period of time distinguished for both; and, by a wonderful conjunction, we find learning and arms, wisdom and polite arts, arising to the greatest heights together.

In this happy reign flourished Edmund Spenser, the most eminent of our poets till that time, unless we except Chaucer, who was, in some respects, his master and original. The accounts of his birth and family are but obscure and imperfect; and it has happened to him, as to many other men of wit and learning, to be much better known by his Works than by the history of his life. He was born in London, and had his education at Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge. Tho' in the dedications of one or two of his Poems, we find him claiming affinity with some persons of distinction, yet his fortune and interest seem, at his first setting out, to have been very inconsiderable for after he had continued in the College for some time, and laid that foundation of learning, which, joined to his natural genius, qualified him for

:

rising to so great an excellency afterwards, he stood for a Fellowship in competition with Mr. Andrews, afterwards Bishop of Winchester; but without success. This disappointment, together with the narrowness of his circumstances, forced him from the university and we find him next taking up his residence with some friends in the North, where he fell in love with his Rosalind, whom he so finely celebrates in his Pastoral Poems, and of whose cruelty he has written such pathetical complaints.

As poetry is frequently the offspring of love and retirement, it is probable his genius began first to distinguish itself about this time: for the Shepherd's Calendar, which is so full of his unprosperous passion for Rosalind, was the first of his Works of any note. This he addressed, by a short dedication in verse, to Sir PhilipSidney, concealing himself under the humble title of Immerito. Sir Philip was then in the highest reputation for his wit, gallantry, and polite accomplishments; and indeed seems to have been the most universally admired and beloved of any one gentleman of the age in which he lived. As he was himself a very good writer, and especially excelled in the fabulous or inventive part of poetry, it is no wonder he soon became sensible of our Author's merit: he was one of the first who discovered it, and recommended it to the notice of the best judges of that time; and, so long as this great man lived, Spenser never wanted a judicious friend and a generous patron.

After he had staid for some time in the North, he was prevailed upon, by the advice of some friends, to

quit his obscurity, and come to London, that he might be in the way of promotion. To this he alludes in his Sixth Eclogue, where Hobbinol (by which name is meant his intimate friend Mr. Gabriel Harvey) persuades Colin to leave the hilly country, as a barren and unthriving solitude, and remove to a better soil. The first step he afterwards made towards preferment was, as I have said, his acquaintance with Sir Philip Sidney; but whether that acquaintance began immediately upon his addressing to him the Shepherd's Calendar, as to me seems most probable, or some time after, I will not determine. That which makes it somewhat uncertain, is a story of him, which I shall only set down as I find it related, not knowing how far it may appear worthy of credit. It is said

he was a stranger to Mr. Sidney (afterwards Sir Philip) when he had begun to write his Fairy Queen, and that he took occasion to go to Leicester-house, and to introduce himself, by sending in to Mr. Sidney a copy of the Ninth Canto of the First Book of that Poem. Mr. Sidney was much surprised with the description of Despair in that Canto, and is said to have shewn an unusual kind of transport on the discovery of so new and uncommon a genius. After he had read some stanzas, he turned to his Steward, and bid him give the person that brought those verses fifty pounds; but upon reading the next stanza, he ordered the sum to be doubled. The Steward was no less surprised than his master, and thought it his duty to make some delay in executing so