THE WORKS EDMUND SPENSER. IE B M. IT M B 1?^ P E M i E E,. LOiroCfl^. G-EOB.GB EDTTTLEDeB & SOKS.BEOJlDWAT.LTJDGATE BHOi . T Et E f^ 1 & LONDON". THE WORKS EDMUND SPENSER, A SELECTION OF NOTES FROM VARIOUS COMMENTATORS; ^nb a (illossarial |nb«x: TO WHICH IS PRErlXED, SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF SPENSER, BY THE REV. HENRY JOHN TODD, M.A. ARCHDEACON OF CLEVELAND. NEW EDITION. LONDON : GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE. NEW YORK : 416, BROOME STREET. 1872. LOXDuX : BIIADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTKIW, WHITF.FRIARS. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BAilBAilA TO ALFRED TENNYSON, ESQ. THIS EDITION OF THE WORKS OF SPENSER, IS INSCRIBED THE PUBLISHED. CONTENTS. fAUi SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF SPENSER . . , . . Ix THE FAERIE QUEENE— BOOK 1 8 BOOK II. 65 BOOK III , .128 BOOK IV 191 BOOK V ,... 244 BOOK VI 297 THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER S60 JANDARIE 364 FEBRUARIE 365 MARCH . . . . , 4 369 APRIL 371 M^Y 374 lUNB , 378 lULY . . ■ 380 AUGUST , 383 SEPTEMBER , - ... 385 OCTOBER , 388 NOVEMBER 391 DECEMBER . k 394 MUIOPOTMOS 397 THE RUINES OF TIME 401 THE TEARES OF THE MUSES 408 VIRGILS GNAT 414 PROSOPOPOIA ; OR MOTHER HUBBERDS TALE ... . . 420 CONTENTS. FAOB THE RUINES OF ROME 431 VISIONS OF THE WORLDS VANITIE . . . . • . • .4 36 VISIONS OF BELLAY, 1569 .... 437 THE VISIONS OF BELLAY, 1591 439 THE VISIONS OF PETRARCH 441 DAPHNAIDA 442 COLIN CLOUTS COME HOME AGAINE 4-17 ASTROPHEL 455 THE DOLEFULL LAY OF CLORINDA 457 THE MOURNING MUSE OF THESTYLIS 458 A PASTORALL AEGLOGUE 461 AN ELEGIE 462 AN EPITAPH ... 464 ANOTHER OF THE SAME 46S PROTHALAMION 466 AMORETTI. OR SONNETS 468 SONNETS 480 POEMS ••..,. .481 EPITHALAMION 482 FOWRE HYMNES , . ...... 485 AN HYMNE IN HONOUR OP LOVE 486 AN HYMNE IN HONOUR OP BEAUTIE ... . * 48i» AN HYMNE OF HEAVENLY LOVE ...... 491 AN HYMNE OP HEAVENLY BEAOTIE . ....... 494 BklTTAIN'S IDA 497 A VIP:W of the state of IRELAND 503 GLOSSARIAL INDEX 557 SOME ACCOUNT LIFE OF SPENSER Edmund Spknser, descenrled from tlie "ancient and honourable family of Spencor, was 6orn in London in i" East Smith field by the Tower, probably about the year 1553. In what scliool he received the first part of his education, it has not been recorded. But we find that he was admitted, as a sizer, of Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge, on May 20. 1569 ; that he proceeded to the degree of Batchelor of Arts, Jan. 16. 1572-3 ; and to that of Master of Arts, June 2G. ISTC. That Spenser cultivated, with successful attention, wliat is useful as well as elegant iu academical learning ; is evident by the abundance of classical allusions in liis woi'ks, and by llie accustomed moral of his song. At Cambridge he formed an '' intimacy with Gabriel Harvey, first of Christ's College, afterwards of Trinity Hall ; who became Doctor of Laws in 1585, and survived his friend more than thirty years. The correspondence between Spenser and IIarvey%ill present to the reader several interesting particulars respecting both. That Spenser was an unsuccessful candidate for a fellowship in Pembroke-Hall, in competition with Andrews, afterwards the well-known prelate ; the best-informed biographers of the poet have long since « disproved. The rival of Andrews was Thomas Dove, afterwards Bishop of Peter- borough. That some disappointment, however, had occurred, in regard to Spenser's academical views ; and that some disagreement had taken place between him and the master or tutor of the society ; is rendered highly probable by the following passage in Harvey's Letter to him, at the close of his shoH but sharpe and learned iudgement of Earthquahes, dated April 7. 1580, and printed in the same year, p. 29. "And wil you needes have my testiraoniall of youre old Controllers new behaviour ? A busy and dizy heade ; a brazen forehead ; a ledden braine j a woodden * See his Colin Clouts come, home apain, ver. 538 ; his Dedication of Muiopotmos to lady Carew ; and the circumstance more fully noticed in the remarks, offLrod iu this account of Spenser's Life, on that Dedication. l" Oldys's manuscript additions to Winstanley's Lives of the most famous English poets, copied by Isaac Reed Esqr. ' I'rofixcd by Dr. Farmer, in his own hand-writinp, to the first volume of Hughes's second edition of Spenser, in the possession of Isaac Keed E^qr. See also Chalmers's Siippl. Apolony &c. p. 23. J See a long account of Harvey in Wood's Athena Oxon Vol. 1. Fasti, col. 120. And a list of his writings in Tanner's Bihliotheca liritllih. p. 3()2. See also the remark of E. K. the commentator on the She/iheard's Caleniler, in the nintli Eclogue, p. .3!iH — Wcbbe, in his Discourse of Enpltsh Poetrie, I.'i.tC, asserts that Harvey was the " most special fi iende " of Spenser. Nash, however, the avowed enemy of Harvey, repeatedly riilicules Harvey's boast of his friend- ship with Spenser; and, notwithstanding his animadversions on Harvey's railing, rails with equal if not greater flippancy and petulance himself. He may ridicule Harvey's hexameters, as much as he pleases; of which kind of ver^es in English, Harvey indeed pompously announces himself as the inventor. Hut he cannot detract from tlio general merit of Harvey both as a poet and a scholar. His beautiful pnem, prefixed to the Faerie Qiieeite. and signed //o^fei'no^ bespeaks an elegant and well turned mind. Among his works are several productions of great ingenuity and profound research. « See the Life of Spoiiser i>ro63ed to the edition of the Faerie Qiieene, in 1751 ; the Diographia Tiritannlca, vol. 6. Ar( Openscr, ic. i SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF SPENSER. wit ; a copper face ; ^ a stony breast ; a factioiis and elvish Jiearte ; a fourdcr of noveUies ; a confounder of his owne and his friends good gifts ; a morning hookeworm ; an afternooiiu maltworm ; a right juggler, as ful of his sleights, w>les, fetches, casts of Legerdemaine, tojes to niocke apes withal, odde shiftes, and knavish practizes, as his skin can holde:" Ho then proceeds to reprobate the circumstance of "many ^(j/piYs, jackeniates and hayle-fellowes-wel-met with their tutors; and, by yoisr leave, some too, becau--e forsooth they be gentlemen or great neires or a little neater and ^ayer than their fellowes, (shall I say it for shame? beleeve me, tis too true,) their rery own tuton ! " To the notice of this abuse in academical instruction he subjoins a copious list of Latin reflections, full of indignation at its existence ; one of which seems to point at the disagreement already mcntionecl : "Csatera fere, ut glim: Bellum inter capita et meinhra covtinuatum." After having taken his last degree in Arts, therefore, we must suppose Spenser to have retired immediately from Cambridge ; having no fortune to support an independent residence there, and apparently no prospect of furtherance in the society to which he belonged. It is remarkable, however, that he makes no mention of Pembroke-Hall either iji his Letters or his poetry. The Uoiversity lie has repeatedly celebrated with filial regard. It is said that he now went to reside with some relations in the North of England : not perhaps, as is vaguely asserted by most of his biographers, as a mere pensioner on their bounty, but perhaps as a tutor to some young friend. However, he now employed his poetical abilities, no doubt, on various occasions. I conceive it to be very probable that, long before this time, he had given proof of his attachment to the Muses, while at the same time he concealed his name, in several poems which are to be found in the Theatre for Worldlings ; a work published in tiie year, in which he had become a member of the University. The similarity, almost minutely exact, of these poems to Spenser's Visions ; to his Visions of Petrarch in particular, for.'merly TRANSLATED, as tlis title tolls US; is otherwise not easily to be explained. Spenser needed not to boirow such petty aids to fame. But my supposition, I think, is strengthened by the following observation, made by Harvey to Spenser in a second letter, edit. 1580. p. 41. '-I like your Dreames passingly well ; and the rather, bicause they savour of that singular extraordinarie veine and invention, whiche I ever fancied raoste, and in a manner admired onelye in Lucian, Petrarche, Aretine, Pasquill, and all the most delicate and fine-conceited Grecians and Italians ; (for the Romanes to speake of, are but verye ciphars in this kinde ;) whose chief^t endevour and drifte was, to have nothing vulgare ; but in some respecte or other, and especially in lively hyperbolicall amplifications, rare, queint, and odde in every pointe, and, as a man would saye, a degree or two at the leaste above the reache and compasse of a common schollers capacitie. In which respect notwithstanding, as well for the singularitie of the manner as thedivinitie of the matter, I hearde once a Divine preferre Saint Johns Iterelation before al the veriest Metaphysical Visions, and iollyest conceited Dreames or Extasies, that ever were devised by one or other, how admirable or superexcellent soever they seemed otherwise to the worlde. And truely I am so confirmed in this opinion, that, when I bethinke me of the verie notablest and moste wonderful propheticall or poeticall Vision that ever I read or hearde, me seemeth the proportion is so unequall, that there hardly appeareth any semblaunce of comparison ; no more in a manner (specially for poets) than doth betweeiie the incomprehensible Wisedome of God, and the sensible wit of man. But what needeih this digression betweene you and me? I d^ire sa}e you wyll hold your selfe reasonably wel satisfied, if youre Dreames be but as well esteemed of in Euglande as Fetrarches Visions be in Italy : which, I assure you, is the very worst I wish you." Tlie author of the Life of Spenser, prefixed to Mr. Church's edition of the Faerie Queene, makes this observation on Spenser's Visions ; that they are little things, done probably when Spenser was yonng, according to the taste of the times for Emblems. The Theatre for Worldlings^ I must f This quotation certainly exhibits a choice example of ITarvey's talent in the language of abuse; and Nasli fails not to remind him of his " singular liberalitie and bountie in bestowing this beauti/ull eticomiiim upon Doctour i'orne," in his Foiire Letters confuted, 15!)2. Sign. E. 2. — The author of the Life of Spenser, in the Diographia Brilannic/i, Iim^ sufFcivd a singular error of the press, in this passage of Harvey's Letter, to pass imnotieed ; by which, however, I grant, the severity of Harvey is somewhat io/Zoicrf; viz, " a copper face ; a. satlin hreast, &.C." The same ludicrous mistalit occurs in the Life of Spenser, which is given in the Supplement to Hie Universal M(i(jazine,vol. xlix. d. 33, &c. f OME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF SPENSER. add, evidently ju-esouts a series of EmUcuis. It may be therefore not unreasonably supposed tliat the Visions in tliat book ; the J'c«a)Ks commonded by Ilarvoy ; and the Visions piiblisliod bv the bookseller while Spenser was in Ireland, which now regularly form a part of his "Works ; are originally the same composition, since altered and improved. E. K. the commentator on the Shephcards Calender, first published in 1579, informs us, that, beside the Dreams, the s Legends and CoaH of Cupid were then finished by Spenser, as well as his Translation of Moschus's IdyUion of tcandeiing Love. He also relates that Spenser had written a Discourse tinder the title of the •> English Poet ; and that he purposed to present it to the publick : but he fulfilled not his intention. Spenser, in liis Letter to Gabriel Harvey, dated October 16. 1579, syie-iHs of " His Sloniher, and other pamjihlets " intended to be dedicated to Sir Pliilip Sidney, and in his Letter dated April 10. 1580, mentions also that his "Drmwcsand Dying Fdlicaiic were then fully finished ;" and that he designed soon "to sette forthe a booke, entitled Epitha- iainion Thamesii." In the same Letter he also speaks of his Stemmata Dudleiana. These Leqends, Court of Cu-pid, and Ejiithalamioii, apjiear to be closely connected with circumstances since admitted into the Faerie Queene '. Sufficient lias been said to prove the industry of Spenser, after his retirement from the banks of Cam. But the praise due to his diligence and genius must be higiily augmented, when we add his Shej)heards Calender to the list of his labours already mentioned ; which was published in lb^i>. Of this elegant Poem much is devoted to complaints, such as tender and unsuccessful loveis breathe ; and a considei-able part to observations that bespeak a pensive and a ft-cling mind. While resident in the North, he liad fallen in love with a mis'ress, of no ordinary accomplishments, whom he has recorded under the name of ^ I'osaliud ; who, after trifling with his honourable affection, preferred his rival. To hubjccts of this kind the pipe of pastoral poetry is often tuned ; and thus Spenser soothed his unfortunate passion ; while, in tliese plaintive strains, he has also interwoven several circumstances relating to his own history and to that of contemi^orary persons. Before the publication of the Shepheards Calender, he had been induced, by the advice of his friend Harvey, to quit his obscure abode in the country, and to remove to London. This removal is dated by Mr Ball, in his Life of Spenser prefixed to his edition of the Calender, in 1578. Ry Harvey, it is generally allowed, he was introduced to the accomplished Philip Sidney ; « iio, justly appreciating the talents of Spenser, recommended him to his uncle the Earl of Leicester. The poet was also invited to the family-seat of Sidney at Penshurst in Kent, where he was probably employed in some literary service, and at least assisted, we may suppose, the Platoniok and chivalrous studies of the gallant and learned youth who had thus kindly noticed him. We may thus understand the passage, as well the old commentators remark, in the fourth Eclogue, ver. 21. Colin tlinu kenst, the foiitherne shepheards hoye : lliin Love hath woundtvi &.c. " Seemeth hereby," says E. K., " that Colin j^^rtainetli to some Southern nobleman, and perhajis in Surrey, or Kent the rather, because he so often nametli the Kentish dcwnes, and before ^7.-.- lithe as lasse o/Kent." In the sixth Eclogue also, where Hobbinol advises Colin to forsake the soil that had bewitched him, and to repair to vales more fruitful, the commentator informs us that this is no poetical fiction, but a true description of the advice to which the poet had wisely listened. In the tenth Eclogue, Spenser celebrates the Earl of Leicester as " the Worthy whom K See fho Kpistle prefixed to the Shepheards Calender, and the notes on the third Eclogue, p. 379. •> See tlie Argument to the tenth Kclc^gue. > See the Faer. Qn. Book iii. C. xii. st. b, G, kc. Rook iv. Canto ii. st. 10, 11, &c. k See what K IC. relates of this hard-Iiearted fair, in his notes on the first liclogue, p. .W5. The aulhor of the Life of Spenser, prefixed to Church's edition of the Faerie Queene, observes, in eonscquencu of li. K.'s information, that the vntiie being u-ell ordered will betray the very name 0/ Spenser's Love anil Mixtress, "that as Hose is a coninmn Christian name, so in Keiil among the Gentry under Henry VI. in Fuller's Wurthies, we find in Canteibiiry the nanio of John Li/nde" — If Rose L;/nde bo the person designed, she has the honour also to have her poetical n.Tiiie adopted by Dr. Lodge, a conteniponiry poet with Spenser, who wrote a collection of Sonnct.'i entitled Jiosalind ; and by Sh:ik>i*arc who has |irestnted us with a very engaging liosiitiiul, in As iw.i lilic it. b 2 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF SPENSER. the Queeu loves best;" according to E. K.'s illustration. TJie eleventh is conjectured to have heen written at Penshurst. Nor was the poet unnoticed, in regard to his advancement in the world, by this nobleman ; as we shall presently see. The Dedication, therefore, of the Shepheards Calender to " Maister Philip Sidney" is a proof of gratitude as well as of judgement ; to which the poet, "not obvious, not obtrusive," modestly subscribes himself Immerlto ; by which appellation also Harvey afterwards addresses him in his Letters. The commentator on the Calender has prefixed to the Poem a Letter to Harvey, which displays with remarkable acuteness the design of the Pastoral ; in which Spenser is styled the unknown and new poet, but who, "as soon as he shall be known, shall be beloved « f all, embraced of the most, and wondered at of the best." Congenial as we may suppose the studies of Sidney and Spenser to have been, Sidney has not however given unqualified 'praise to the Calender. "The Shepheards Kalender," he says, in his Defence of Poesie, "hath much poetrle in his Eclogues, indeede worlhiethe reading if I be not deceived. That same framing of his stile to an old rusticke language, I dare not allow ; since neither Theocritus in Greeke, Virgil in Latin, nor Sannazarius in Italian, did affect it." Yet Webbe, in his Discourse of English Poetri/, can find no blemish existing in it ; and Francis ]\Ieres, in his Wifs Treasurij, says, " As Theocritus is famed for his Idyllia in Greek, and "Virgil for his Eclogs in Latin ; so Spenser, their imitator in his Shepheards Calendar, is renowned for the like argument, and honoured for fine poetical invention and most exquisite wit." The Poem indeed gained so many admirers as to pass through ™ five editions while Spenser lived. Yet the name of Spenser, as the author, appears for some time to have been not generally known. For to a manuscript translation of the poem into Latin verse by John Dove, preserved in the " Library of Caius Colleo-e Cambridge, a Dedication to the Dean and Subdean of Christ Church Oxford is prefixed, which shew* that the translator had never heard of Spenser, and had never seen th(^ first edition of what he had translated. The Dean and Subdean, to whom this translation is addressed, are Dr. .Tames and Dr. Heton, of whom the former held the Deanery from 1584 to 159G. It is remarkable that the translator speaks of this unowned poem (to adopt the translator's own allusion (as almost buried in oblivion : "Prodiit (ornatissirai viri) anno salutis 1581 libellus qui- dam oSeo-TTOTos rithmo Anglicano eleganter compositus, qui vulgari nomine et titulo Calendarium Pastorum inscribebatur, in-Tiignissimo D. P. Sidneio dediqatus, cui tum noviter divulgate docti vehementer applauserunt. Quia illustrissimus eques suo patrocinio non indignum judicavit, eundem etiara latinitate donatum in vestri nominis dignitate apparere volui, vestrum nomen conjunctim aiJari, vos patrenos asciscere, partim ut aliquam observantise mese significationem vobis darem quibus me plurimura debere agnosco, partim ut Jioo opusculum jam pens, deletum et quasi scpultum de novo vfestiie lectioni secundo commendarem ; vel, si non integrum, saltem ^o'logas 7, 9, etc. quibus sensus inest longe divinissimus. Spero vobis non ingratum fore hoc meum studium, quum non sitis ]\lorrelli, non Davides, non Palinodi, et pseudapostoli ; sed Algriadi, sed Pierci, et Thomalini, orthodoxi pastorcs, &c." The poetical translation is by no means indiff^^rent ; and there is subjoined to it an Elegy, in very respectable Latin hexameters, on the death of Algrind, that is, Archbishop Grindal, whom Spenser designs, in his fifth Eclogue, under ° that anagrammatick name ; as in the seventh he also designs Bishop Elmer or Aylmer, under p that of MorrcU. ' Sir Pliilip, howtvor, in liis Defence of Poesie, evidently alhules, with particular commendation, in the followin?; passage, to tlio satirical turn of the Slicpficards Calender : "Is it then the PasloruU Pocme wliich is niislilfed ? (For per- chance where the hedge is lowest tliey will soonest leap over.) Is tlie p.ior pipe disdained, which sometimes, out of -Melibcus' mouth, can sheu-e the miseiie of people under hard lords and ravening soiildiers ? And againe by Tili/ru.i. what blcsscdnesse is derived to tliem that lye lowest, from the goodiiesse of them that sit highest ? Sometimes, under the pfdlie talcs o/tvolves ami sheepe, cm incUule the whole consideratinuH ol wrong dniug and patience; sometimes tihow that contentions for trifles can get but a trifling victorie, \'C." ™ \ iz in 1J7!), I;i31, Isijy, 1591, 1597, n Numbered 595 in the valuable collection of manuscripts belonging to this society. • Archbishop Grindal appears, by these conmiendations of Spenser and Dove, to have been greatly respected on ncc'ount of the mildness of his disposition. The puritans claimed him, unjustly, as their own. Dr. Drant, another contemporary poet, (of wliom further mention is presently made,) wrote and published a poem also in praise of Grindal. wlijch he named, by way of eminence, Prcesvl. The memory of Grindal indeed will continue to be the theme ol gr.ititude, while Queen's College Oxford, and Pembroke Hall Cambridge, shall exist. See Strype's Life of this prelate. » Dr. Klmer or Aylmer, liishop oi London, excited the displea.-.urc of Spenser perhaps, in consequence of his ceasing t-. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF SPENSER, If Mr. Dove's trauslation has represented the fame of the Sheplieards Calender as sleeping, let us oppose to his evidence the acknowledged utility of tlie poem, within the period in which he deplores its supposed burial, as subservient not only to the solacirg the troubled spirit, but to the illustration of perhaps the most abstruse subject wiiliin the circle of English Literature, The Loffick of the Law ! Abraham Fraunce, (a poet as well as a banister, and the friend of Sir Philip Sidney,) who tells us that " seaven yeares were almost overgone him since he began to be a medler with Logicall meditations," published in 158J ''"The Lawiers Logike ;" and in his Preface he says he had read his meditations six times over within the seven years, " thrise at S. lohns colledge in Cambridge, thrise at Grays Inne in London. After application of Logike to Lawe," he continues, "and examination, of Lawe by Logike, I made playne the precepts of the one by tlie practise of the other, and called my booke, The Lawyers Logike ; not as though Logike were tyed only unto Law, but for that our Law is most fit to expresse the prnecepts of Logike. Yet, because many love Logike that never learne Lawe, I have reteyned those ould examples of the neic Shepheards Kalender, which I first gathered ; and thereunto added thease also out of our Law bookes, which I lately collected." — I select a pithy illustration from the tenth chapter of the first book: "Of Opposites. Opposites are eyther Disparates or contraries. Disparates are sundry oi>posites wherof one is equally and in like manner opposed unto many. Ilobbinoll in Aprill in his song of Elisa : Bring liere the pincke, anil iiuri>lf ciilhiiiibine, with gelliflowreK: Bring coronations, and sops in wine, &c &c. All which herbes bee equally differing one from another, and are therefore Disparates. M. Plowden, Fol. 170. a. b. Mes vn grosse nosme poyet conteignor diners choses corporall, come Manor, Monastery, Rectory, Castell, Honor, et tiels semblables. Car eux sont choses compound, et poyent conteyner tout ensemble messuages, terres, prees, bois, et tiels semblables." I will add another instance, which may perhaps entitle me to the thanks of the next editor of I'lowden, as it exhibits a. correction of that great lawyer! " Of Contraries. Repugnant argu- ments bee such contraries, whereof one is so opposite to one, or at the most to two, as that there can never any agreement bee found betweene them.. So warre is ouely Oi>positb to peace : but covetousness to liberality and prodigalitie, yet more to prodigality. Perigot in August : Ah Willy, when the hart is ill assayde. How can bagpipe or ioynts be well apayde ? Maister Plowden, Fol. 467. a. Et issinfe il apiert dlversitie, (hee should have sayde rather lii'jii((ji/.