THE

LIFE OF EDMUND SPENSER.

BY

R. A. DAVENPORT, Esq.

OF EDMUND SPENSER, one of the brightest stars in the heaven of British poetry, there are so few memorials in existence, that the task of his biographer cannot fail to be performed in an unsatisfactory manner. Though he was undoubtedly the pride and ornament of the age in which he lived, little more than we find in his works has been handed down to us, relative to his habits, his sentiments, and the principal events of his life. Obscurity hangs over far the greater part of the circumstances connected with him from the cradle even to the grave. He was born in East Smithfield, near the Tower of London; and the most probable opinion respecting the date of his birth is that which fixes it in or about the year 1553. Who were his parents, and what was their station in society, remains unknown; but there can be little doubt that he was descended from the ancient and honourable family of the Spensers; a descent to which he more than once alludes, and his claim to which he affirms to have been allowed by some of his noble kindred.

At what school he acquired his early education is

equally unknown. The instruction which he received was, however, such as to qualify him for completing his studies at the university of Cambridge, and must, therefore, not have been negligently or scantily given. He was admitted, on the twentieth of May, 1569, as a sizer of Pembroke Hall; and, as the sizers are the lowest order of students, this may be considered as a sufficient proof that his parents were not opulent. He attained the degree of Bachelor of Arts on the sixteenth of January, 1572-3, and that of Master of Arts on the twentieth of June, 1576. Of the events of his college life the only trace which remains is, that he contracted a close and lasting friendship with Gabriel Harvey, a man of acknowledged talent, and of scarcely less bitterness than talent, who is well known as a writer of the age of Elizabeth. "That Spenser," says Mr. Todd, "cultivated with successful attention, what is useful as well as elegant in academical learning, is evident by the abundance of classical allusions in his works, and by the accustomed moral of his song." There is reason to believe, too, that his poetical talent was manifested during his residence at Cambridge. Some anonymous poems, in the Theatre of Worldlings, which was published in 1569, are obviously the same which, altered and retouched, he, at a later period, gave to the world under the title of his Visions.

From some unascertainable cause, Spenser, probably soon after his having taken his Master's degree, seems to have quitted the university in disgust. It has been asserted, that his resolution to withdraw was adopted in consequence of his having failed in a competition for a fellowship with Andrews, subsequently the celebrated bishop. This, however, is manifestly erroneous; as the rival of Andrews was Thomas Dove, who was afterwards bishop of Peterborough. It is rather to be imagined that the want

of fortune, the small prospect of further advancement, or some disagreement with the head of his college, gave occasion to his departure. The last supposition is the most probable one, as, though he often mentions the university in terms of affection, he preserves an unbroken silence with respect to that particular member of it to which he belonged. There is also a passage, in one of Harvey's letters to him, which seems to allude to this subject, and which, if only one half of it be true, will show that the poet's situation at Pembroke Hall was not likely to be tolerable to a man of feeling and spirit. “And wil you," says Harvey, "needes have my testimoniall of youre old Controllers new behaviour? A busy and dizy heade; a brazen forehead; a ledden brain; a woodden wit; a copper face; a stony breast; a factious and elvish hearte; a founder of novelties; a confounder of his owne and his friends good gifts; a morning bookeworm; an afternoone maltworm; a right juggler, as ful of his sleights, wyles, fetches, casts of legerdemaine, toyes to mocke apes withal, odde shifts, and knavish practizes as his skin can holde."

On leaving the university, Spenser, it is said, went to reside with some relations in the north of England. In the absence of evidence, it would be useless to discuss, as others have done, whether he became a mere pensioner on the bounty of his friends, or whether he repaid them by acting as a tutor to one of the younger branches of the family. There is nothing in the known circumstances of Spenser's life, which can induce us to believe that he had a mind capable of submitting to any thing that was calculated to degrade him. It is at least certain, that, during his retirement, he was not idle; several of his poems, and some works which are lost, having been composed while he was thus living in seclusion.

But the event which imparts the greatest share of