range. The Mar-prelate controversy was now raging violently, and, while the mind of the nation was occupied with polemics, a writer who did not join one side or the other was not likely to receive much attention. No talents are too mean for such disputes, and it must have been humiliating indeed to a man like Spenser to be eclipsed by a crowd of vulgar and ignorant wranglers. The controversy was carried into the theatres, and their license to entertain the people was abused by a free handling of "matters of state and religion." The consequences which ensued are depicted in striking terms in the Complaint of Thalia. Shameless ribaldry and scurrilous folly drove out innocent mirth and "seasoned wit"; and that gentle spirit who had already, at the age of twenty-six, extinguished the fame of every rival on the comic stage, OUR PLEASANT WILLY, withdrew himself from the revolting scene, until the reign of reason and taste should be restored.1

Next follows Virgil's Gnat, a skilful and pleasing paraphrase of the Culex. We read on the title-page that this had long before been dedicated to the Earl of Leicester. It must, therefore, have been written between 1579 and 1588, the year in which Leicester died, and (as it has reference to some offence which Spenser had undesignedly given his patron) probably as early as 1580, while the poet was still in the Earl's service. This, then, would be one of those poems

1 There can be no longer any question whether Shakespeare is meant by "our pleasant Willy." See Collier's Life of Shakespeare, Chap. VII.; Knight's Biography, pp. 342-348.

which had been for several years circulating in manuscript, and the preservation of which we may owe to the printer Ponsonby.

Virgil's Gnat is succeeded by Mother Hubberd's Tale, a satire in the manner of Chaucer, full of point and spirit, and penned with an energy uncommon to Spenser. This delightful piece was, according to the author, composed in the "raw conceit of his youth." If So, it was probably written before he went to Ireland, and while he was still waiting for preferment at Leicester House. A second and more irritating experience of life at court would enable him to deepen the colors and sharpen the strokes of his earlier sketch. The whole composition was no doubt worked over before it was published, and some of the most vigorous passages appear to have been added during this revision.

After Mother Hubberd's Tale comes the Ruins of Rome, a series of thirty-two sonnets translated from Bellay's Antiquities of Rome, to which is added an Envoy. These translations are printed without dedication or any sort of preface, and, like all the remaining pieces in the Complaints, except the poem which is next to be noticed, are ascribed to Spenser solely on the authority of Ponsonby. If really his, they may be considered as youthful performances to which he attached no great value.

Muiopotmos, or The Fate of the Butterfly, is dated,

1 As Todd has remarked, the description of the ape at court (v. 663-679) may have reference to the same "great magnifico" satirized by Harvey in his Speculum Tuscanismi. See Harvey's letter to Spenser of the 23d of April, 1580.

probably by mistake of the printer, 1590, instead of 1591. There is reason to suppose that it was published before the rest of the volume. An enthusiastic critic has pronounced this airy little poem the most beautiful thing in Spenser out of the magic circle of the Fairy Queen; but, with all its grace, it is deficient in that "minute pencilling of nature" which the character of the piece required, and though carefully elaborated, it is not picturesque. If Muiopotmos be meant for anything more than a simple tale of a spider and a fly, or a fable with the general moral of the insecurity of youth and happiness, the enigma which it contains defies solution. The date of the composition cannot be fixed.

Three series of Visions, the second translated from Bellay, the third from Petrarch, form the remainder of the Complaints. They set forth through a succession of tableaux the instability of glory and the vanity of all worldly things,- Spenser's most favorite theme. Their stately eloquence is rather impressive, and we do not hesitate to call them, with the printer, “meditations very grave and profitable." The interesting question concerning the authorship of the last two has already been noticed.2

In December, 1591, we find Spenser again in Kilcolman. Some of the brilliant expectations he indulged on his first setting out for England may not have been realized, but he was henceforth to receive the liberal pension of 50l. a year, a sum equivalent

1 Christopher North in Blackwood's Magazine, November, 1833 2 Ante, pp. x., xi.

to at least two hundred and fifty at the present time. Before leaving Ireland he had probably assigned his office of Clerk of the Council of Munster to another person, for valuable considerations. In this case, he would now be entirely at leisure to cultivate the Muses.

His first production was the so-called pastoral of Colin Clout's come Home again; an offering of gratitude to Raleigh, the Queen, and others who had befriended him, expressed under the form of a description of his sojourn in England. In this poem he gives a history "agreeing," he assures us, "with the truth, in circumstance and matter," of the visit paid him by Raleigh in 1589, their voyage in company to England, and his introduction to Queen Elizabeth, and sketches briefly the most distinguished poets and scholars, and the most beautiful ladies, that adorned the metropolis and the court. The perfections of the Queen are extolled in lofty phrases, nor is the occasion lost to read inexperienced "shepherds" one lesson more on the dangers and vexations that hedge the way to preferment with princes. A sharp tirade against the vices of courts, and the abuses practised there in the name of Love, conducts to a long metaphysical exposition of the nature of that passion, and this not very appropriate episode is terminated by a fervid eulogy of Rosalind, to whom the poet still professes an everlasting devotion :

"And ye, my fellow shepheards, which do see
And hear the languours of my too long dying,

1 See page xli. of this Memoir.

Unto the world forever witnesse bee

That hers I die, nought to the world denying
This simple trophe of her great conquest."

The poem on being finished was dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh, in a letter dated December 27, 1591,1 and was no doubt despatched to him over sea, fresh from the author's pen. Like many other compositions of Spenser, it remained unprinted several years, but it was probably read extensively in manuscript.2 It was made public in 1595, together with other pieces, in a small quarto, and before it appeared at least one passage was interpolated, suggested by an event that had occurred since 1591: this was a notice of the death of the Earl of Derby, (the husband of one of Spenser's kinswomen, and himself a poet,) which took place in April, 1594.

The other pieces which were included in the same volume with Colin Clout's come Home again, are all elegies on the death of Sir Philip Sidney, and as such would most naturally have been composed towards the end of the year 1586. They are by various authors, Spenser's, which is entitled "Astro

1 Todd's reasons for changing this date to 1594 or 1595 have no force whatever. The Rosamond and the Cleopatra of Daniel are probably alluded to, v. 416-427, and neither of them was published until after 1591. But Spenser may have seen them in writing, as he had the Eliseis of Alabaster (v. 400-411); or if he had not, there still was an opportunity for him to insert his compliment in 1595. See also the notes, Vol. IV. pp. 377, 385.

2 Whether this was owing to the caution of booksellers or to the indifference of authors, it was extremely common in those days. The Elegy on the death of Sir Philip Sidney must have been written about nine years before it was printed.