Raleigh's patronage. But it is conceivable that his experience in 1578 and 1579 inspired the lines in question.

The remaining pieces in the Complaints consist of translations or imitations, com. posed probably some years before, though probably in some cases, as has been shown, revised or altogether recast.

Probably in the same year with the Complaints-that is in 1591--was published Daphnaida,* 'an Elegie upon the death of the noble and vertuous Douglas Howard, daughter and heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and wife of Arthur Georges, Esquire.' This elegy was no doubt written before Spenser returned to Ireland. It is marked by his characteristic diffuseness, abundance, melody.

Certainly before the close of the year 1591 Spenser found himself once more in his old castle of Kilcolman. A life at Court could never have suited him, however irksome at times his isolation in Ireland may have seemed. When his friends wondered at Lis returning unto

This barrein soyle,

Where cold and care and penury do dwell,
Here to keep sheepe with hunger and with toyle,

he made answer that he,

Whose former dayes

Had in rude fields bene altogether spent,
Durst not adventure such uninowen wayes,
Nor trust the guile of fortunes blandishment;
But rather chose back to my sheepe to tourne,
Whose utmost hardnesse I before had tryde,
Then, having learnd repentance late, to mourne
Emongst those wretches which I there descryde.

That life, with all its intrigues and self-seekings and scandals, had no charms for him. Once more settled in his home, he wrote an account of his recent absence from it, which he entitled Colin Clouts Come Home Again. This poem was not published till 1595; but, whatever additions were subsequently made to it, there can be no doubt it was originally written immediately after his return to Ireland. Sitting in the quiet to which he was but now restored, he reviewed the splendid scenes he had lately witnessed; he recounted the famous wits he had met, and the fair ladies he had seen in the great London world; and dedicated this exquisite diary to the friend who had introduced him into that brilliant circle. It would seem that Raleigh had accused him of indolence. That ever-restless schemer could not appreciate the poet's dreaminess. That you may see,' writes Spenser, that I am not alwaies ydle as yee think, though not greatly well occupied, nor altogither undutifull, though not precisely officious, I make you present of this simple pastorall, unworthie of your higher conceipt for the meanesse of the stile, but agreeing with the truth in circumstance and matter. The which I humbly beseech you to accept in part of paiment of the infinite debt in which I acknowledge myselfe bounden unto you for your singular favours and sundrie good turnes shewed to me at my late being in England, &c.'

The conclusion of this poem commemorates, as we have seen, Spenser's enduring

• This poem: is in this volume reprinted from the edition of 1591. Mr. Morris thinks that Todd was not aware of this edition. Mr. Collier reprinted from the 2nd edition—that of 1595,

affection for that Rosalind who so many years before had turned away her ears from
his suit. It must have been some twelve months after those lines were penned,
that the writer conceived an ardent attachment for one Elizabeth. The active
research of Dr. Grosart has discovered that this lady belonged to the Boyle family-
a family already of importance and destined to be famous. The family seat was at
Kilcoran, near Youghal, and so we understand Spenser's singing of 'The sea that
neighbours to her near.' Thus she lived in the same county with her poet. The
whole course of the wooing and the winning is portrayed in the Amoretti or Sonnets
and the Epithalamium. It may be gathered from these biographically and otherwise
interesting pieces, that it was at the close of the year 1592 that the poet was made a
captive of that beauty he so fondly describes. The first three sonnets would seem to
have been written in that year. The fourth celebrates the beginning of the year 1593
-the beginning according to our modern way of reckoning. All through that year
1593 the lover sighed, beseeched, adored, despaired, prayed again. Fifty-eight sonnets
chronicle the various hopes and fears of that year. The object of his passion re-
mained as steel and flint, while he wept and wailed and pleaded. His life was a long
torment.
In vaine I seeke and sew to her for grace

And doe myne humbled hart before her poure;
The whiles her foot she in my necke doth place
And tread my life downe in the lowly floure.

In Lent she is his 'sweet saynt,' and he vows to find some fit service for her.

Her temple fayre is built within my mind

In which her glorious image placed is,

But all his devotion profited nothing, and he thinks it were better at once to die.' He marvels at her cruelty. He cannot address himself to the further composition of his great poem. The accomplishment of that great work were

Sufficient werke for one man's simple head,

All were it, as the rest, but rudely writ.
How then should I, without another wit,
Thinck ever to endure so tedious toyle!
Sith that this one is tost with troublous fit
Of a proud love that doth my spirit spoyle.

He falls ill in his body too. When the anniversary of his being carried into captivity comes round, he declares, as has been already quoted, that the year just elapsed has appeared longer than all the forty years of his life that had preceded it (sonnet 60). In the beginning of the year 1594,

After long stormes and tempests sad assay
Which hardly I endured hertofore
In dread of death and daungerous dismay
With which my silly bark was tossed sore,

he did 'at length descry the happy shore.' The heart of his mistress softened towards him. The last twenty-five sonnets are for the most part the songs of a lover accepted and happy. It would seem that by this time he had completed three more books of the Faerie Queene, and he asks leave in sonnet 70,

Probably the Sixth Book was concluded in the first part of the year 1594, just after his long wooing had been crowned with success. In the tenth canto of that book he introduces the lady of his love, and himself piping' unto her. In a rarely pleasant place on a fair wooded hill-top Calidore sees the Graces dancing, and Colin Clout. piping merrily. With these goddesses is a fourth maid; it is to her alone that Colin pipes :

Pype, jolly shepheard, pype thou now apace
Unto thy love that made thee low to lout;
Thy love is present there with thee in place;
Thy love is there advaunst to be another Grace.

Of this fourth maid the poet, after sweetly praising the daughters of sky-ruling Jovs, sings in this wise :—

Who can aread what creature mote she bee;
Whether a creature or a goddesse graced
With heavenly gifts from heven first enraced?
But what so 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.

So farre, as doth the daughter of the day
All other lesser lights in light excell:
So farre doth she in beautyfull array
Above all other lasses beare the bell;
Ne lesse in vertue that beseems her well
Doth she exceede the rest of all her race.

The phrase 'country lass' in this rapturous passage has been taken to signify that she to whom it is applied was of mean origin; but it scarcely bears this construction. Probably all that is meant is that her family was not connected with the Court or the Court circle. She was not high-born; but she was not low-born. refer to some malicious reports circulating about him, and to some local separation The final sonnets between the sonneteer and his mistress. This separation was certainly ended in the June following his acceptance-that is, the June of 1594; for in that month, on St. Barnabas' day, that is, on the 11th, Spenser was married. This event Spenser celebrates in the finest, the most perfect of all his poems, in the most beautiful of all bridal songs-in his Epithalamion. He had many a time sung for others; he now bade the Muses crown their heads with garlands and help him his own love's praises to resound:

So I unto my selfe alone will sing,

The woods shall to me answer, and my echo ring.

Then, with the sweetest melody and a refinement and grace incomparable, he sings with a most happy heart of various matters of the marriage day-of his love's waking, of the merry music of the minstrels, of her coming forth in all the pride of her visible

loveliness, of that inward beauty of her lively spright' which no eyes can see, of her standing before the altar, her sad eyes still fastened on the ground, of the bringing her home, of the rising of the evening star, and the fair face of the moon looking down on his bliss not unfavourably, as he would hope. The Amoretti and Epithalamion were registered at the Stationers' Hall on the 19th of November following the marriage. They were published in 1595, Spenser-as appears from the 'Dedication of them to Sir Robert Needham, written by the printer Ponsonbybeing still absent from England.

Meanwhile the poet had been vexed by other troubles besides those of a slowly requited passion. Mr. Hardiman,* in his Irish Minstrelsy, has published three petitions presented in 1593 to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland by Maurice, Lord Roche, Viscount Fermoy, two against 'one Edmond Spenser, gentleman,' one against one Joan Ny Callaghan-who is said to act by supportation and maintenance of Edmond Spenser, gentleman, a heavy adversary unto your suppliant.' Where,' runs the first petition, one Edmond Spenser, gentleman, hath lately exhibited suit against your suppliant for three ploughlands, parcels of Shanballymore (your suppliant's inheritance) before the Vice-president and Council of Munster, which land hath been heretofore decreed for your suppliant against the said Spenser and others under whom he conveyed; and nevertheless for that the said Spenser, being Clerk of the Council in the said province, and did assign his office unto one Nicholas Curteys among other agreements with covenant that during his life he should be free in the said office for his causes, by occasion of which immunity he doth multiply suits against your suppliant in the said province upon pretended title of others &c.' The third petition averred that Edmond Spenser of Kilcolman, gentleman, hath entered into three ploughlands, parcel of Ballingerath, and disseised your suppliant thereof, and continueth by countenance and greatness the possession thereof, and maketh great waste of the wood of the said land, and converteth a great deal of corn growing thereupon to his proper use, to the damage of the complainant of two hundred pounds sterling. Whereunto,' continues the document, which is preserved in the Original Rolls Office, 'the said Edmond Spenser appearing in person had several days prefixed unto him peremptorily to answer, which he neglected to do.' Therefore after a day of grace given,' on the 12th of February, 1594, Lord Roche was decreed the possession. Perhaps the absence from his lady love referred to in the concluding sonnets was occasioned by this litigation. Perhaps also the false forged lyes'-the malicious reports circulated about him-referred to in Sonnet 85, may have been connected with these appeals against him. It is clear that all his dreams of Faerie did not make him neglectful of his earthly estate. Like Shakspere, like Scott, Spenser did not cease to be a man of the world-we use the phrase in no unkindly sense-because he was a poet. He was no mere visionary, helpless in the ordinary affairs of life. In the present case it would appear that he was even too keen in looking after his own interests. Professor Craik charitably suggests that his poverty rather than rapacity may be supposed to have urged whatever of hardness there was in his proceedings.' It is credible enough that these proceedings made him highly unpopular Irish Minstrelsy; or, Bardic Remains of Ireland, by J. Hardiman. London, 1831.

with the native inhabitants of the district, and that they were not forgotten when the day of reckoning came. 'His name,' says Mr. Hardiman, on the authority of Trotter's Walks in Ireland, is still remembered in the vicinity of Kilcolman; but the people entertain no sentiments of respect or affection for his memory.'

In the same year with the Amoretti was published Colin Clouts Come Home Again, several additions having been made to the original version.

Probably at the close of this year 1595 Spenser a second time crossed to England, accompanied, it may be supposed, by his wife, carrying with him in manuscript the Becond three books of his Faerie Queene, which, as we have seen, were completed before his marriage, and also a prose work, A View of the Present State of Ireland. Mr. Collier quotes the following entry from the Stationers' Register:—

20 die Januarii [1595].-Mr. Ponsonby. Entred &c. The Second Part of the Faerie Queene, cont. the 4, 5, and 6 bookes, vjd.

This second instalment--which was to be the last-of his great poem was duly published in that year. The View of the Present State of Ireland was not registered till April 1598, and then only conditionally. It was not actually printed till 1633. During his stay in England he wrote the Hymns to Heavenly Love and Heavenly Beauty, and the Prothalamion, which were to be his last works.

In 1596 his successful. With this nobleman Spenser Strand-a house which had

More than four years had elapsed since Spenser had last visited London. During that period certain memorable works had been produced; the intellectual power of that day had expressed itself in no mean manner. When he arrived in London towards the close of the year 1595, he would find Shakspere splendidly fulfilling the promise of his earlier days; he would find Ben Jonson just becoming known to fame; he would find Bacon already drawing to him the eyes of his time. Spenser probably spent the whole of the year 1596, and part of 1597, in England. In 1597 appeared, as has already been said, the first part of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, and Bacon's Essays, and also Jonson's Every Man in His Own Humour. The reigning favourite at this time was the Earl of Essex. descent upon Cadiz raised him to the zenith of his fame. was on terms of intimacy. At his London house in the previously been inhabited by Spenser's earlier patron, the Earl of Leicester-it stood where Essex Street now is, and is still represented by the two pillars which stand at the bottom of that street-Spenser no doubt renewed his friendship with Shakspere. This intimacy with Essex, with whatever intellectual advantages it may have been attended, with whatever bright spirits it may have brought Spenser acquainted, probably impeded his prospects of preferment. There can be no doubt that one of the motives that brought him to England was a desire to advance his fortunes. Camden describes him as always poor. His distaste for his residence in Ireland could not but have been aggravated by his recent legal defeat. But he looked in vain for further preferment. He had fame, and to spare, and this was to suffice. It was during this sojourn in England that he spoke of himself, as we have seen, as one

** The name and occupation of Spenser is handed down traditionally among them (the Irish); but they seem to entertain no sentiments of respect or affection for his memory; the hard came in rather ungracious times, and the keen recollections of this untutored people are wonderful.'-Trotter's Walks through Ireland in the Years 1812, 1814, and 1817. London. 1819, p. 302.