396 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



bittered the short remainder of his life, and perhaps hastened 

 his end. Rebellion again broke out in Ireland ; the confiscated 

 lands were overrun ; Spenser and his family fled in haste from 

 Kilcolman ; the Irish seized and burnt the castle ; and one cf 

 Spenser's children, who had, we know not how, been left 

 behind, perished in the flames. Spenser returned to London, 

 and the next year died, it has been said with what truth we 

 cannot tell in great distress and poverty. 



The first important contribution of Spenser to literature, 

 during his residence in Ireland, was the publication of the first 

 three books of the "Faery Queen " in 1590. In an age of such 

 intellectual activity, in which the popular avidity for poetry 

 was so keen, and the patronage of the court towards literary 

 men so liberal, it is easy to conceive the enthusiasm which the 

 work excited. It was the first really great poem which had 

 been produced in England since the " Canterbury Tales ;" and 

 the time was especially favourable for its reception, so that its 

 merits were appreciated at once. The success of this work led 

 to an eager demand for anything which Spenser could supply. 

 The following year a collection of shorter pieces was published 

 under the name of " Complaints." It included the " Ruins of 

 Time," a poem mainly commemorative of the death of Sir Philip 

 Sidney, and dedicated to his famous sister, the Countess of Pem- 

 broke ; " The Tears of the Muses," " Virgil's Gnat," " Mother 

 Hubbard's Tale," a social and political satire ; " Muiopotmos, 

 or the Tale of the Butterfly;" "The Ruins of Rome" and 

 the "Visions of Bellay," translated from the French poet 

 Bellay; "Visions of the World's Vanity," and "Visions of 

 Petrach." In rapid succession followed "Daphnaida," an elegy 

 on the death of a lady of the Howard family; " Colin Clout's 

 come Home Again," a poem in which he returned to the pas- 

 toral form used by him in earlier life, which is dedicated to Sir 

 Walter Raleigh, and contains many allusions to contemporary 

 poets ; " Astrophel," an elegy, likewise pastoral in form, on the 

 death of Sir Philip Sidney ; " Amoretti, or Sonnets," probably 

 written during, and with reference to, his courtship ; and " Epi- 

 thalamium," a bridal hymn upon his own marriage. In 1596 

 were published three more books of the "Faery Queen," 

 making, with the previous three, the whole of that poem which 

 was ever published in a complete form. In the short interval 

 between this period and his death, he published " Prothala- 

 mium," a marriage song on the marriage of the daughters of the 

 Earl of Worcester ; four hymns in honour of Love, Beauty, 

 Heavenly Love, and Heavenly Beauty ; and a few shorter and 

 less important poems. After his death were published some 

 fragments of later and unfinished books of the "Faery Queen." 

 He also left behind him a remarkable prose work, a " View of 

 the State of Ireland," which was not printed till long after his 

 death. 



Our space does not allow us to enter upon any detailed 

 examination of Spenser's minor poems ; and this is the less 

 important, because the " Faery Queen " is so much the most 

 characteristic of Spenser's genius among his works, as well the 

 poem of far the greatest intrinsic merit, that an acquaintance 

 with the "Faery Queen" will give a sufficient comprehension 

 of Spenser's qualities as a poet. 



The " Faery Queen," even in its unfinished state, is a poem 

 of great length ; and the six books completed are only half of 

 the poem as projected. The unfinished state of the poem, 

 moreover, leaves it in a disjointed condition, the several books 

 being connected with one another only by the slenderest thread. 

 The general plan of the whole was intended to have been 

 developed in a later portion. But, fortunately, we have a letter 

 of the author addressed to Sir Walter Raleigh, and prefixed 

 to the first three books of the " Faery Queen," in which he 

 set forth his plan with great clearness, and from which we 

 give a few extracts rather than tell the story in any other than 

 Spenser's own words. He says that " the general end of all 

 the book is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous 

 and gentle discipline ; which for that I conceived should be 

 most plausible and pleasing, being coloured with an historical 

 fiction, the which the most part of men delight to read, rather 

 for variety of matter than for profit of the ensample, I chose 

 the history of King Arthur, as most fit for the excellency of 

 his person, being made famous for many men's former works, 

 and also furthest from the danger of envy and suspicion of 

 present time. ... So have I laboured to do in the person of 

 Arthur ; whom I conceive, after his long education by Timon, 



to whom he was by Merlin delivered to be brought up so soon 

 as he was born of the Lady Igrayne, to have seen in a dream 

 or vision the Faery Queen, with whose excellent beauty ravished, 

 he, awaking, resolved to seek her out ; and so, being by Merlin 

 armed, and by Timon thoroughly instructed, he went to seek 

 her forth in Faery land. In that Faery Queen I mean Glory in 

 my general intention, but in my particular, I conceive the most 

 excellent ar. .1 glorious person of our Sovereign the Queen, and her 

 kingdom in Faery land. And yet in some places I do otherwise 

 shadow her ; for, considering she beareth two persons, the one 

 of a most royal queen or empress, the other of a moat virtuous 

 and beautiful lady, this latter part in some places I do express 

 in Belphoebe. So in the person of King Arthur I do set forth 

 Magnificence in particular : which virtue, for that (according to 

 Aristotle and the rest) it is the perfection of all the rest, and 

 containeth in it them all, therefore, in the whole course of it, I 

 mention the deeds of Arthur appliable to that virtue which I 

 write of in that book. But of the twelve other virtues I make 

 twelve other knights the patrons, for the more variety of the 

 history." He then explains that the first book contains the 

 adventures of the Red Cross Knight, who stands for Holiness; 

 the second, of Guyon, or Temperance; the third, of Britomartis, 

 a lady knight, representing Chastity. The three books subse- 

 quently published contain the legends of Cambell and Triamond, 

 the patrons of Friendship; Artegall, or Justice; and Calidore, 

 or Courtesy. Spenser further informs us that " the beginning 

 of my history, if it were to be told by an historiographer, should 

 be the twelfth book, which is the last ; where I devise that the 

 Fairy Queen kept her annual feast twelve days, upon which 

 twelve several days the occasions of the twelve several ad- 

 ventures happened, ..hich being undertaken by twelve several 

 knights, are in these twelve books severally handled and 

 discoursed." 



To a poet of Spenser's peculiar genius this plan afforded 

 special advantages. Spenser's genius was in no degree dra- 

 matic. He has nowhere shown any power of conceiving or 

 portraying character, or of giving human interest to his story 

 by arousing our sympathies with the joys and griefs, the 

 struggles and triumphs of his heroes. There is nothing in his 

 mere narrative to excite interest or curiosity. The charm of 

 his poetry is of a very different kind indeed, it might almost 

 be said, of an opposite kind. The very remoteness of all he 

 describes from real life is one of its sources of pleasure. His 

 unequalled fertility of imagination in producing images of 

 beauty and purity, his power of invention as well as of de- 

 scription, and not less the singularly sweet though somewhat 

 monotonous melody of his versification, find their most suitable 

 field in visions of fairy land and vague allegories, the wander- 

 ings and adventures of elfin knights and fairy ladies. 



But, in addition to the sources of pleasure in the " Faery 

 Queen," which are intrinsic and permanent, and no less appre- 

 ciable by us than by the Elizabethan reader, Spenser's judgment 

 in the selection of his subject was shown by the opportunity 

 which it gave him of introducing a thousand allusions to things 

 and people of his own day allusions which probably had, r,nd 

 were intended to have, the effect of removing for contemporary 

 readers the tone of monotony and sameness which it unquestion- 

 ably has for modern readers. Thus the Fairy Queen herself is, 

 as we have seen, Elizabeth. The evil witch Duessa was pro- 

 bably not only the representative of Falsehood, but stood for 

 her rival, Mary Queen of Scots, as well. Artegall, the patron 

 of Justice, is Lord Grey de Wilton, the lord-deputy of Ireland, 

 under whom Spenser served. References to the Spanish wars 

 and the various incidents in the ecclesiastical history of the 

 reign are numerous ; and there are, doubtless, many covert 

 meanings of the same kind, which we now miss, but which were 

 plain enough to Spenser's contemporaries. 



The earlier books of the "Faery Queen" are, by universal 

 consent, of greater merit than the later ; and probably we 

 cannot in any way better assist the student in acquiring a 

 knowledge of the general character of the poem than by a 

 somewhat close examination of the first book. And the ex- 

 tracts which we give will enable every one to appreciate the 

 metre in which it is written a metre which, it must be remem- 

 bered, was of Spenser's own formation, though to some extent 

 founded upon an Italian model. 



The first book contains the adventures of the Red Cross 

 Knight, or Holiness. Like each of the other books, it ia 



