as notes upon his writings. It certainly is not always easy to separate exactly the department of the biographer from that of the commentator; but it is obvious, that to interrupt the narrative, by notes critical and illustratory, must necessarily destroy the effect of both. To these preliminary observations, which affect rather the manner than the matter of Mr Todd's memoir, we subjoin the leading incidents of Spenser's life, as they have been illustrated by his industry.

The fame of this poet, however great during his lifetime, seems to have excited no enquiry into his parentage. He himself informs us that he was born in

"Merry London, my most kindly nurse,
That to me gave this life's first native source,
Though from another place I take my name,
A house of ancient fame."

But although Spenser alludes repeatedly to his gentle birth, and claims kindred with several persons of rank, his parents were entirely unknown; a circumstance which Mr Todd, in beginning his life, passes over without commentary. It appears from a passage in one of his sonnets, that the Christian name of his mother was Elizabeth; and this is all we know of the matter. The birth of the poet is conjectured to have taken place about 1553; but the first event of his life which has been ascertained, is his admission as a sizer of Pembroke Hall, in Cambridge, 1569, where he acquired the degree of Bachelor and Master of Arts in 1572-3 and 1576. Here commenced his intimacy with Gabriel Harvey. He seems to have been disappointed, either in his views of a fellowship, or of some other academical distinction, which has not prevented his gratitude to his alma mater from breaking forth in his account of the Ouze, who

"Doth by Huntingdon and Cambridge flit ;
My mother Cambridge, whom, as with a crown,
He doth adorn, and is adorned of it.

With many a gentle muse, and many a learned wit."

From the University, Spenser seems to have retired to some friends in the north. Of the cause of his journey, or his occupation while with them, we have no record. Here he composed, besides lesser poems, the Shepherd's Calendar; a work which, in some places, exhibits a beautiful model of pastoral poetry, and, in others, that turn for allegorizing and moralizing two meanings in the same tale, which afterwards gave rise to the Faëry Queen.

It is supposed that some passages in these poems, of a nature rather political than pastoral, particularly a warm eulogium on Archbishop Grendal, drew down upon our author the wrath of the great Burleigh; the effects of which, although deprecated by Spenser, and exaggerated perhaps by former biographers, certainly continued to attend him

worde, neither so harde nor so harshe, that it will easily and fairely yeelde it selfe to oure moother tongue. For the onely, or chiefest hardnesse, whyche seemeth, is in the accente; whyche sometime gapeth, and as it were yawneth ilfavouredly; comming shorte of that it should, and sometime exceeding the measure of the number, as in Carpenter, the middle sillable being used shorte in speache, when it shall be read long in verse, seemeth like a lame gosling, that draweth one legge after hir: and Heaven, being used shorte as one sillable when it is in verse, stretched out with a diastole, is like a lame dogge that holdes up one legge. But it is to be wonne with custome, and rough words must be subdued with use. For, why a God's name may not we, as else the Greekes, have the kingdome of our own language, and measure our accentes by the sounde, reserving the quantitie to the verse? Loe here I let you see my olde use of toying in rymes, turned into your artificial straightness of verse by this Tetrasticon. I beseech you tell me your fancie, without parcialitie.

"See yee the blindefoulded pretie god, that feathered archer,
Of lovers miseries which maketh his bloodie game?
Wote ye why his moother with a veale hath covered his face?
Truste me, least he my Loove happely chaunce to beholde."

We would hardly have suspected Spenser, the marshalled march of whose stanza is in general so harmonious, of drilling the stubborn and unmanageable words of the English language into such strange doggrel. The verses are truly "lame and o'erburthened, and screaming their wretchedness."

From another passage in this correspondence, the young poet may learn how little he ought to rely upon the taste even of the ablest counsellor. Harvey was a scholar, and, in some sense, even a poet; he was, moreover, Spenser's long approved and singular good friend; nevertheless, Gabriel had the assurance to write the following libel upon the Faëry Queen, for the conceited pedantry of which he deserves a worse Hunt's up than was played him by Nashe.

"In good faith I had once againe nigh forgotten your Faërie Queene: howbeit, by good chaunce I have nowe sent hir home at the laste, neither in better nor worse case than I found hir. And must you, of necessitie, have my judgment of hir in deede? To be plaine; I am voyde of al judgment, if your nine Comædies, whereunto, in imitation of Herodotus, you give the names of the Nine Muses (and in one mans fansie not unworthily), come not neerer Ariostoes Comedies, eyther for the finenesse of plausible elocution, or the rarenesse of poetical invention, than that Elvish Queene doth to his Orlando Furioso; which notwithstanding, you will needes seeme to emulate, and hope to overgo, as you flatly professed yourself in one of your last Letters. But I will not stand greatly with you in your owne matters. If so be the Fairie Queene be fairer in your eie than the Nine Muses, and Hobgoblin runne away with the garland from Apollo; marke what I saye; and yet I will not say that [which] I thought; but there an end for this once, and fare you well till God, or some good Aungel, putte you in a better mind.”—P. xlv. xlvi.

There is another circumstance which gives Mr Todd's Life of Spenser a more clumsy and ungainly appearance than the matter itself really deserves. It has been observed long ago, that the history of an author is the history of his works; and therefore Mr Todd has, with great propriety, regularly recorded the various publications of his author, in the order in which they were given to the world; but, from a want of arrangement, not peculiar to this editor, he has uniformly appended to his notices of these publications, a variety of circumstances, illustrative of their contents, which properly make no part of Spenser's life, although they ought to have been introduced

"It is to be lamented," says Mr Cooper Walker, in a letter to Mr Todd, " that

as notes upon his writings. It certainly is not always easy to separate exactly the department of the biographer from that of the commentator; but it is obvious, that to interrupt the narrative, by notes critical and illustratory, must necessarily destroy the effect of both. To these preliminary observations, which affect rather the manner than the matter of Mr Todd's memoir, we subjoin the leading incidents of Spenser's life, as they have been illustrated by his industry.

The fame of this poet, however great during his lifetime, seems to have excited no enquiry into his parentage. He himself informs us that he was born in

But although Spenser alludes repeatedly to his gentle birth, and claims kindred with several persons of rank, his parents were entirely unknown; a circumstance which Mr Todd, in beginning his life, passes over without commentary. It appears from a passage in one of his sonnets, that the Christian name of his mother was Elizabeth; and this is all we know of the matter. The birth of the poet is conjectured to have taken place about 1553; but the first event of his life which has been ascertained, is his admission as a sizer of Pembroke Hall, in Cambridge, 1569, where he acquired the degree of Bachelor and Master of Arts in 1572-3 and 1576. Here commenced his intimacy with Gabriel Harvey. He seems to have been disappointed, either in his views of a fellowship, or of some other academical distinction, which has not prevented his gratitude to his alma mater from breaking forth in his account of the Ouze, who

"Doth by Huntingdon and Cambridge flit;

My mother Cambridge, whom, as with a crown,
He doth adorn, and is adorned of it.

With many a gentle muse, and many a learned wit."

From the University, Spenser seems to have retired to some friends in the north. Of the cause of his journey, or his occupation while with them, we have no record. Here he composed, besides lesser poems, the Shepherd's Calendar; a work which, in some places, exhibits a beautiful model of pastoral poetry, and, in others, that turn for allegorizing and moralizing two meanings in the same tale, which afterwards gave rise to the Faëry Queen.

It is supposed that some passages in these poems, of a nature rather political than pastoral, particularly a warm eulogium on Archbishop Grendal, drew down upon our author the wrath of the great Burleigh; the effects of which, although deprecated by Spenser, and exaggerated perhaps by former biographers, certainly continued to attend him

Blatant Beast Slander, that construction of his poetry which had drawn on him "a mighty peer's displeasure." It was in vain that, among the worthies of Elizabeth's court, to whom he addressed separate sonnets with his Faëry Queen, he distinguished Burleigh by the most flattering strain of adulation. We find, from repeated passages in his works, that his offence was never forgotten or forgiven. But the Shepherd's Calendar, although unfortunate in making our poet one powerful and inveterate enemy, secured him many active and distinguished friends. Its fame was the means of introducing him to the friendship of Sir Philip Sidney, and to that of Leicester; a more powerful, if less discerning patron. The latter received Spenser into his house, though in what capacity does not precisely appear; perhaps in order to facilitate the composition of the Stemmata Dudleiana, an account of the Earl's genealogy, with which Spenser appears to have been busied in 1580. At this time the poet was also engaged with his Faery Queen, with the Dying Pellican, with the Visions, which he afterwards published in a more correct shape, and sundry less important labours. About July, in the same year, he received, doubtless through the patronage of Lord Leicester, the honourable appointment of secretary to Arthur Lord Grey, then nominated Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, which he held till Lord Grey's return to England in 1582. Spenser appears to have been sincerely attached to this nobleman, whom he has distinguished in his Faëry Queen under the character of Arthegal, or Justice. Lord Grey's course with the Irish was that of severity, for excess of which he seems to have been recalled to England. Hence Spenser describes Arthegal, when returning from the adventure of succouring Irene, as leaving his work unfinished.

"But, ere he could reform it thoroughly,
He through occasion called was away

To Faery Court, that of necessity

His course of justice he was forced to stay."

On his return, the victorious knight is attacked by Envy, by Detraction, and by the Blatant Beast, or Slander, who railed against him;

66

Saying that he had, with unmanly guile

And foul abusion, both his honour blent,

And that bright sword, the sword of justice lent,

Had stained with reproachful cruelty

In guiltless blood of many an innocent:

As for Grandtorto, him with treacherie

And traines having surprised, he foully did to die."

This last accusation is referred by Upton to Lord Grey's putting to death the Spaniards who held out the fort of Smerwick, after they had surrendered to him at discretion; which "sharp execution" Spenser has justified at more length in his State of Ireland. After

haps also his poetical fame, was rewarded by the grant of the castle of Kilcolman, in the county of Cork, and 3028 acres out of the forfeited estate of the Earl of Desmond. Mr Todd has copied, from Smith's History of the County of Cork, the following interesting account of our poet's residence upon this property, during the happiest period of his life.

"Two miles north-west of Doneraile is Kilcolman, a ruined castle of the Earls of Desmond: but more celebrated for being the residence of the immortal Spenser, where he composed his divine poem, The Faerie Queene. The castle is now almost level with the ground. It was situated on the north side of a fine lake, in the midst of a vast plain, terminated to the east by the county of Waterford mountains; Ballyhowra hills to the north, or, as Spenser terms them, the mountains of Mole; Nagle mountains to the south; and the mountains of Kerry to the west. It commanded a view of above half of the breadth of Ireland'; and must have been, when the adjacent uplauds were wooded, a most pleasant and romantic situation; from whence, no doubt, Spenser drew several parts of the scenery of his poem. The river Mulla, which he more than once has introduced in his poems, ran through his grounds.' Here, indeed, the poet has described himself, as keeping his flock under the foot of the mountain Mole, amongst the cooly shades of green aldars, by the shore of Mulla; and charming his oaten pipe (as his custom was) to his fellow shepherd-swains."-Life, p. 1. li.

We are here tempted to copy two stanzas, descriptive of Spenser's tranquil retreat, and containing, especially the first, the most happy imitation of the rich and artful melody of his versification.

"Awake, ye west windes, through the lonely dale,
And Fancy to thy faerie bower betake;
Even now with balmie freshness breathes the gale,
Dimpling with downie wing the stilly lake;
Through the pale willows faultering whispers wake
And evening comes with locks bedropt with dew;
On Desmond's mouldering turrets slowly shake
The trembling rie-grass and the hare-bell blew ;
And ever and anon fair Mulla's plaints renew.

"O for the namelesse power to strike mine eare,
The power of charm by Naiads once possest!
Melodious Malla! when full oft while eare
Thy gliding numbers soothed the gentle brest
Of haplesse Spenser, long with woes opprest,
Long with the drowzie patron's smiles decoyed,
Till in thy shades, no more with cares distrest,
No more with painful, anxious hopes accloyed,
The Sabbath of his life the mild good man enjoyed."

The delight of these halcyon days was enhanced by a visit which Sir Walter Raleigh made to his estates in our author's vicinity in 1589. To the criticism of the Shepherd of the Ocean, as Spenser elsewhere termed him, the poet submitted such books of the Faëry Queen as he had then finished; and was determined, by his ardent approbation, immediately to prepare them for the press. For this purpose, he accompanied Sir Walter in his return to England; and in 1590, the three first books of this beautiful poem were given to the world. The author of a romantic poem did not remain long unrewarded in the romantic court of Elizabeth. The Earl of Essex, who replaced, as the flower of chivalry, the amiable Sidney, was now added to Spenser's former patrons; and, under their auspices, our poet received from Queen Elizabeth a pension of L. 50 yearly;