466 
SPENSER. 
They bend their bows, they whirl their slings around ; 
Heaps of spent arrows fall and strew the ground. Dry den. 
To fatigue; to harass. 
Some spent with toil, some with despair oppress’d, 
Leap’d headlong from the heights, the flames consum’d the 
rest. Dry den. 
To SPEND, v. n. To make expense.—He spends as a 
person who knows that he must come to a reckoning. 
South. —To prove in the use.—Butter spent as if it came 
from the richer soil. Temp/e. —To be lost or wasted.—The 
sound spendetk and is dissipated in the open air; but in 
such concaves it is conserved and contracted. Bacon. —To 
be employed to any use.—There have been cups and an 
image of Jupiter made Of wild vines; for the vines that they 
use for wine are so often cut, that their sap spendetk into the 
grapes. Bacon. 
SPE'NDER, s. One who spends.—Let not your recrea¬ 
tions be lavish spenders of your time ; but healthful, short, 
and apt to refresh you. Bishop Taylor. —A prodigal ; a 
lavisher.—Bishop Morton told the commissioners, who were 
to levy the benevolence, if they met with any that were 
sparing, to tell them that they must needs have, because they 
laid up ; and if they were spenders, they must needs have, 
because it was seen in their port and manner of living. 
Bacon. 
SPE'NDING, s. [fpenbung, Sax.] Act of consuming, 
expending, or bestowing for any purpose.—The great mo¬ 
gul’s wealth and revenues, treasure, or spendings. Whit¬ 
lock. 
SPE'NDTHRTFT, s. A prodigal; a lavisher.—Most 
men, like spendthrift heirs, judge a little in hand better 
than a great deal to come. Locke. 
SPENNITHORNE, a parish of England, North Riding 
of Yorkshire; H mile north-east of Middleham. 
SPENSER (Edmund), one of the most distinguished 
English poets, was born in London about the year 1553. 
His parents were in humble life, though in his works he 
claims kindred with the noble family of the Spensers of 
Northamptonshire. Of his early education nothing is 
known, but it appears that he was, in 1569, a sizer in Pem¬ 
broke College, Cambridge. He, in proper time, took his de¬ 
grees, and in 1576 he was candidate for a fellowship, but 
was not successful. This disappointment was probably the 
cause of his quitting the university, which he left for a 
residence among his relations in the north of England. Here, 
it appears, he fell in love, and the object of his affection, 
whom he has commemorated under the name of Rosalindo, 
after leading him through the usual vicissitudes of a love 
adventure, finally deserted him. This circumstance is said to 
have given him a turn to pastoral poetry, since his 
“ Shepherd’s Complaint,” which is devoted to amorous 
complaining, was his first publication. It was published in 
1579, and dedicated, under the signature of Immerito, to 
Mr. afterwards Sir Philip Sidney. He was introduced to the 
acquaintance of this celebrated person by his friend, Mr. 
Gabriel Harvey, previously to his publishing his “ Shepherd’s 
Calendar,” which sufficiently refutes a tale concerning his 
being first made known to Sir Philip Sidney by a passage 
in the Faery Queen, and the munificent reward which he 
received on the occasion. He was, however, patronized 
by Sir Philip, who introduced him to his uncle, the 
favourite Leicester, who engaged him as an agent for his 
service in foreign countries, but it is uncertain whether he 
ever actually travelled abroad; at any rate he could not 
have been long in that employ, since, in 1580, he was at¬ 
tending Lord Grey of Wilton, appointed Lord-deputy of 
Ireland, as his secretary. In this situation he displayed 
those talents for business, which are usually, though often 
very unjustly, represented as incompatible with a poetic 
genius. He returned with Lord Grey in 1582, and was 
probably some years an attendant at court, and in 1586 he 
had a grant from the crown of upwards of 3000 acres of 
land in the county of Cork, out of the vast forfeited pro¬ 
perty of the earl of Desmond. In 1587 Spenser went over 
Voi,. XXIII. No. 1584. 
to take possession of this estate; his residence was the castle 
of Kilcolman, near Doneraile, where, in the style of pastoral 
poetry, he describes himself as keeping his sheep “ under 
the Mole, that mountain hore,” and frequenting the coolly 
shade of the green alders by the Mulla’s shore. Here it 
appears he received a visit in 1589 from Sir Walter Raleigh, 
who had been a commander in Ireland under Lord Grey, 
and had obtained a large grant of land from the crown. 
Spenser celebrates him in a poem under the title of the 
“ Shepherd of the Ocean,” and highly extols his courtesy 
and elegant accomplishments. At this period Spenser was 
engaged in the composition of his “ Faery Queen,” of 
which he had written the three first books; and accompany¬ 
ing Raleigh the next year to England they were published, 
with a dedication to queen Elizabeth, and an introductory 
letter addressed to Raleigh, explaining the plan of the whole 
projected work. Elizabeth rewarded his poetry and dedica¬ 
tion by a pension of 50/. per annum, granted in 1591, and 
he has been termed her laureat, though the title was not for¬ 
mally conferred upon him. Spenser returned to Ireland in 
1591, and married a country lass of low degree; but the 
disturbances in that country forced him to return to England 
in 1595. Here he printed some poems, and drew up a plan 
for the entire reduction of that island in the space of two 
winters, which work he completed in the next year, giving it 
the title of “ A View of the State of Ireland.” This piece 
remained in MS. till it was printed in 1633 by Sir James 
Ware, who bestows much applause on the information and 
judgment displayed in it, though he intimates, that it was 
deficient in moderation : and it is generally admitted, that in 
what he says concerning the history and antiquities of the 
country there are many errors, and the fanciful turn of a 
poet is more conspicuous than the sobriety of a judicious 
enquirer. In 1596 he published a new edition of his 
“ Faery Queen,” with additional books, which only com¬ 
pleted half his original design. It was currently reported, 
that the remaining six books were lost by a servant, who 
was entrusted to carry them to England, which certainly 
would be one of the greatest disasters that a poet could 
possibly suffer, and might greatly contribute to break his 
spirits: the fact, however, is very questionable, and cer¬ 
tainly does not stand on good authority : it is most probable 
that they were never finished. He returned to Kilcolman 
in 1597, but Tyrone having in the next year broken out 
in rebellion, and overrun the county of Cork, Spenser was 
obliged to take refuge with his wife in England, leaving 
all his property to the spoil and ravages of the insurgents. 
His house was burnt, and with it, it is said, an infant who 
had not been removed. Reduced to a state of indigence, 
he sunk under his misfortunes in the same year, or in the 
beginning of the next. He was interred in Westminster 
Abbey, at the expense of the earl of Essex, several of his 
brother poets attending, and throwing into his grave copies 
of panegyrical verses. A monument was afterwards erected 
to his memory by Anne, the celebrated countess of Dorset, 
Of his family and posterity nothing is known, except that one 
of his descendants was restored in the reign of Charles II. 
to so much of the estate in Ireland, as he could prove had 
belonged to his ancestor; and that another, or perhaps the 
same, came to England in the reign of William with a 
similar claim, which was allowed. The works of Spenser 
are animated with a fervent spirit of piety, and a pure and 
exalted morality; and though he certainly paid an assiduous 
courtto the great, he was not guilty of that meanness of adu¬ 
lation which was too much practised even by some eminent 
persons of that age. The homage paid to the queen was great, 
but it was deemed impossible to carry this too far. 
The poetical reputation of Spenser is chiefly supported by 
his great work the “ Faery Queen,” for his pastorals will 
scarcely please a correct taste; and though critics admit that 
there is much occasional beauty of sentiment and harmony 
of versification in his sonnets, hymns; and other miscellane¬ 
ous pieces, yet on the whole they are scarcely distinguished 
from the effusions of tedious pedantry common in that age. 
But the “Faery Queen” is justly regarded as one of the 
6 C great 
