io6 Charles G. Osgood, 



for some time been at hand which shows that the Epithalamioii 

 Thamesis was first written in Latin, and that Spenser projected 

 an English version in quantitative verse, which, even if he com- 

 pleted it, he was never willing to circulate. In his 'Preface to 

 the Reader' Vallans sets forth his reasons for publishing The 

 Tivo Swans.'- His first object was to illustrate his native Hert- 

 fordshire. 'Another reason was, that albeit neither my writing, 

 nor other indevour whatsoever, be able to perfourm any thing 

 that might either beautifie or adorne the places I speake of : 

 Yet hereby I would animate, or encourage those worthy Poets, 

 who have written Epithalamion Thamesis, to publish the same. 

 I have seen it in Latine verse (in my judgment) wel done, but 

 the Author, I know not for what reason, doth suppresse it. That 

 which is written in English, though long since it was promised, 

 yet is it not perfourmed. So as it seemeth some unhappy Star 

 envieth the sight of so good a work : which once set abroad, such 

 trifles as these would vanish, and be overshadowed, much like the 

 Moon and other Starres, which after the appearing of the Sunne 

 are not to be seen at all.' The mention of 'Poets' might prompt 

 the conjecture that at least the Latin version was by another 

 hand than Spenser's, perhaps was the very poem cjuoted in Cam- 

 den ; but in the letter to Harvey, cited at the beginning of this 

 article, Spenser clearly describes his own labor in composing the 

 poem. In the same letter he says that the English version was 

 to be a specimen of the new quantitative verse. His unwilling- 

 ness to complete and publish it may well have been the result 

 of his diminishing confidence in this medium. In any case, 

 Vallans' words surely support the conjecture that Spenser never 

 finished, perhaps never began, the English version, but that he 

 went as far as to collect and arrange his material in a Latin 

 poem. 



The opinion .that canto xi is made of the material of the lost 

 Epithalamion, in revised metre, must also be modified. The 

 whole pageant properly occupies stanzas ii to 53, that is, forty- 

 three stanzas in all. Of these, nine (11-19) enumerate the sea- 



Chronicle History, etc., p. 11 ; R. E. N. Dodge, Cambridge ed. of Spenser, 

 p. xiv. 

 ''■ Leland's Itinerary, ed. Hearne, vol. 5, pp. vi, vii. 



