Tell me, have ye seen her angelick face,

Like Phoebe fayre ?

The Redde rose medled with the White yfere,1

In either cheeke depeincten lively chere :

With these again compare Bacon's description (which includes the "white and red") in his " Discourse in Praise of his Sovereign" (circ. 1592):

Nobility extracted out of the royal and victorious line of the kings of England; yea both roses white and red do as well flourish in her nobility as in her beauty . . .

Let no light poet be used for such a description, but the chastest and the royalest.

Of her gait,

of her voice,

of her eye,

of her colour,

Et vera incessu patuit Dea;

Nec vox hominem sonat;

Et lætos oculis afflavit honores;

Indum sanguineo veluti violaverit ostro
Si quis ebur;

Veste sinus collecta fluentes;

of her breast,

of her hair,

Ambrosiæque coma divinum vertice odorem
Spiravere.

If this be presumption, let him bear the blame that oweth the verses.2

The magnificent image at the end of stanza 10 is peculiarly adapted to a description of a Queen :

And all her body like a pallace fayre,
Ascending up, with many a stately stayre,
To honors seat and chastities sweet bowre.

Stanza II contains another royal analogy:

There virtue raynes as Queene in royal throne,
And giveth lawes alone,

The which the base affections doe obay,

And yeeld theyr services unto her will:

1 "White and red" is a phrase used by Spenser to describe beauty, e.g. "Hath white and red in it such wondrous powre?" Hymne in Honour of Beautie; "that same goodly hew of white and red," ibid. Also similarly used in the " Astrophel and Stella" sonnets: "Marble, mix'd red & white" (of cheeks), Sonnet ix. But the allusion is also to the Queen's lineage. Cf. pp. 20, 21 above. 2 Spedding, Life, i. 138.

and "this Saynt" (12) and "the Bryde" (17) seem to have a similar significance.

Allusion to royalty is even more clearly denoted in the classical comparisons in stanza 18, and the offspring (apparently of Jove and Night) is referred to as “Majesty." Further point is given to this in the concluding stanza, where in a prayer to the gods the hope is expressed

That we may raise a large posterity,

Which from the Earth, which they may long possesse
With lasting happinesse,

Up to your haughty pallaces may mount:

hardly an appropriate supplication for people in a private station.

The "Merchants daughters" (10) and the "roring organs" (12) are expressions which are most naturally applicable to London in those days.

Another, and very important, point to notice is the change in the personal pronoun from the first to the second person in stanza 20-"your pleasant playne," "your bed "—and the change back again to the first person in the following stanzas-" my window," "my love with me to spy," etc. The change may possibly have been made from motives of delicacy, the writer, in stanza 20, treating himself and his love objectively, but this is not a natural explanation. The conclusion to which I have come is that the poem is a patch work, formed out of a draft of a Royal "Epithalamion" which the writer had at some time prepared in anticipation of the Queen's marriage, perhaps with the Earl of Essex. This match was not beyond the bounds of possibility, at least at the early stages of the Queen's affection, and the poet seems to encourage it under the story of Britomart and Arthegal. In this view the Amoretti would also be based on the relations of the Queen and Essex-probably Essex originally rather than Ralegh-and are thus in part composed of pieces written for the Earl. It is not disputed that Bacon composed pieces for Essex, and it came out at the trial that he wrote letters in his name

to be shown to the Queen. For the rest, the sequence is filled in with occasional sonnets, a form of composition in which I believe it was Bacon's practice to express his thoughts, as a sort of spiritual diary. The less strict form of sonnet adopted would facilitate this. They no doubt also contain much which has been suggested by the study of French and Italian models. The fine sonnet, for example, beginning "Most glorious Lord of lyfe!" (No. Ixviii.), seems to have had its origin from a sonnet of Du Bellay (cxi. of L'Olive) beginning "Voici le jour que l'eternel amant," and it is an interesting example of the way in which the writer has transmuted the thought from a French into a wholly English form. I suppose other such examples could be found if search were made.

In 1592 Ralegh fell into disgrace with the Queen owing to her discovery of his attachment to Elizabeth Throgmorton. They were both imprisoned in the Tower, and on their liberation retired to Sherborne. Ralegh's exclusion from access lasted five years (till June 1597). I think this Sonnet-sequence and Epithalamion must have been dressed up by the author with the object of utilising it in some way for the purpose of working on the Queen's feelings in Ralegh's favour, perhaps with a view to indicating that married love, which is necessary for domestic life and the perpetuation of the family, was different from, and did not preclude, a romantic passion for a Queen so raised above ordinary humanity as Queen Elizabeth. On the other hand, they may have been published in this form merely as a means of preserving work which the author thought worth preserving, and for which there was no further private use. They were registered at the Stationers' Hall on 19th November 1594 and published (presumably early) in 1595. Ralegh was absent during the greater part of 1595 on the search

"It was at the self-same time [1600] that I did draw with my Lord's privity and by his appointment two letters, the one written as from my brother, the other as an answer returned from my Lord, both to be by me in secret manner shown to the Queen . . . the scope of which was but to represent and picture forth unto her Majesty my Lord's mind to be such as I knew her Majesty would fainest have had it."-Bacon's Apology, 1603. See the letters given by Spedding, Life, ii. 196.

for Eldorado-the "Guinea Voyage." The dressing up of the original draft of the Epithalamion for its publication in that year would involve the disguising of its application to the forbidden subject of the Queen's marriage and the succession. This would be done by the Spenser "impersonation "-" mine owne loves prayses" (st. 1), the Irish allusions (st. 2), and notably by stanza 21, in which the jealousy of "Cynthia," one of the recognised names for the Queen, is deprecated. These lines are quite inapplicable to the case of a man living in a remote part of Ireland. Compare with them the lines quoted at p. 223 above, which occur in the "Adventures of Master F. J."

The enigmatical tag at the end of the poem may have been added with reference to the hurried marriage of Ralegh and Elizabeth Throgmorton, or it may have reference to the original purpose of the poem, and be intended to apply (ambiguously) to the more recent event:

Song made in lieu of many ornaments,

With which my love should duly have been dect,
Which cutting off through hasty accidents,

Ye would not stay your dew time to expect,

But promist both to recompens,

Be unto her a goodly ornament,

And for short time an endlesse moniment.

As Spenser was in Ireland, these poems were brought out with an address of a very peculiar character from the publisher, as was done (with similar mystification) in the case of the Complaints. Sir Robert Needham was a Cheshire gentleman who apparently had a command in Ireland. The description and address are as follow:

AMORETTI AND EPITHALAMION.

WRITTEN NOT LONG SINCE BY

EDMUNDE SPENSER.

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL

SIR ROBART NEEDHAM, KNIGHT.

SIR, to gratulate your safe return from Ireland, I had nothing so readie, nor thought any thing so meete, as these sweete

conceited Sonets, the deede of that wel deserving gentleman, maister Edmond Spenser: whose name sufficiently warranting the worthinesse of the work, I do more confidently presume to publish it in his absence, under your name, to whom (in my poore opinion) the patronage therof doth in some respectes properly appertaine. For, besides your judgement and delighte in learned poesie, this gentle Muse, for her former perfection long wished for in Englande, nowe at the length crossing the Seas in your happy companye, (though to your selfe unknowne) seemeth to make choyse of you, as meetest to give her deserved countenaunce, after her retourne : entertaine her, then, (Right worshipfull) in sorte best beseeming your gentle minde, and her merite, and take in worth my good will herein, who seeke no more but to shew my selfe yours in all dutifull affection. W. P.