THE FAERIE QUEENE: DISPOSED INTO TWELVE BOOK-ES, FASHIONING XII MORALL VERTUES. BY EDMUND SPENSER TO WHICH IS ADDED HIS EPITHALAMION. A NEW EDITION, WITH A GLOSSARY. ILLUSTRATED BY EDWARD CORBOULD. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO., 346 & 348 BROADWAY, AND 16 LITTLE BRITAIN, LONDON. M DCCC LVII. MEMOIR OF EDMUND SPENSER. THE reign of Elizabeth, various as may be the opinions held respecting the "virgin queen" herself, was unquestionably most favourable to the cultivation of wit and genius. A court sufficiently lax to allow of a tolerable freedom of language, but yet removed from anything like the broad coarseness which was hereafter to distinguish or disgrace the reign of Charles II-a sovereign, herself no mean scholar, and a hearty lover of learning and genius in others-finally, a state of national prosperity, consequent on our freedom from a foreign enthraldom; such were, indeed, advantages rarely combined in one reign, especially in a reign of such long duration; and it was not to be wondered at, if the times that developed the abilities of a Burleigh, a Hatton, or a Raleigh, should have also found fame and renown for a poet like the hero of the present narrative. Obscure as are the accounts of his birth and origin, it seems probable, from certain passages in his poems, that he was at least respectably connected. But his early prospects appear to have been but moderate. Born in London, he was sent to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he subsequently competed for a fellowship against Andrewes, afterwards Bishop of Winchester. His failure (if indeed to be defeated by such a man as Andrewes can be called a failure), and the narrow state of his finances, compelled him to quit the university. He took up his residence with some friends in the north, and, being just in that state of pocket when love is most imprudent, he very naturally fell in love at once, therein following the example of nine-tenths of humanity. Love, if a man be a poet at heart, is pretty sure to find its vent through that most charming of the liberal arts, and we may be said to owe the "Shepherd's Calendar," and other pastoral poems, to the lady whom Spenser everywhere celebrates, and whose cruelty he deplores, under the name of Rosalind. Spenser's love was, so far, profitable both to himself and to posterity; and when we read this delightful specimen of early English bucolic, we feel that, in the words of Sir Mulberry Hawk, "it is to Rosalind's mamma's obliging marriage that we are indebted for so much happiness." Sir Philip Sidney, to whom this poem was dedicated, under the modest title of "Immerito," took great notice of our hero, and being himself not merely "a lord among wits, and a wit among lords," but an able writer and judicious thinker, as well as no mean poet, his introduction proved of no small advantage to Spenser. As long as this great man lived, he extended the benefits of his fortune, advice, and influence to his poet-friend, and proved as constant, as he was liberal, a patron. Spenser quitted the north, and returned to the "Great Babylon," at the advice of some friends, who wished him to be near the court. ΤΟ this he alludes in his sixth eclogue, where Hobbinol (i. e. his intimate friend Gabriel Harvey) persuades Colin (i. e. Spenser himself) to quit the hill country, and its barren solitudes, and seek a more genial soil. It has, however, been doubted whether his acquaintance with Sidney began so early as has been above stated; and the following story seems to render it more probable that he had already began the "Faerie Queene." It is said, that on going to Leicester House, with the view of introducing himself to the then Mr. Sidney, he sent in a copy of the ninth canto of the first book of this poem. "Mr. Sidney was much surprised with the description of Despair in that canto, and is said to have shown an unusual kind of transport on the discovery of so new and uncommor a genius. After he had read some stanzas, he turned to his steward and bade him give the person that brought the 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 sudden and lavish a bounty; but upon reading one stanza more, Mr. Sidney raised his gratuity to two hundred pounds, and commanded the steward to give it immediately, lest, as he read further, he might be tempted to give away his whole estate." Spenser did not, however, reap any immediate substantial benefit from this introduction, and, although chosen poet-laureat, he for some time "wore a barren laurel, and possessed only the place without the pension." Burleigh, whatever thoughts might be comprehended in his "shake of the head," appears to have taken no thought for our poet, and his neglect was rendered more serious by the constant absence of Sir Philip Sidney, either on diplomatic negotiations, or in the Low Country He has plaintively alluded to these disappointments in his poem called the "Ruins of Time," as follows: wars. "O grief of griefs! O gall of all good hearts! Of such as first were rais'd for vertue's parts, With still greater bitterness, he inveighs against the neglect of learning and poetry, in "The Tears of Calliope:" "Their great revenues all in sumptuous pride They spend, that nought to learning they may spare; Now Parasites and Sycophants do share." But it would appear that Spenser, like many others, was, to some extent, the cause of his own misfortune. The following lines, in Mother Hubbard's Tale, are supposed to have been construed by the courtier into a personal affront, for, as the author of our poet's life observes," even the sighs of a miserable man are sometimes resented as an affront by him that is the occasion of them." "Full little knowest thou that hast not try'd, Hughes, appended to the edition printed by Tonson, 12mo, 1715. |
