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and perhaps the list of laureate dulness has some title to be illuminated by the name of Spenser. Some farther advantages, probably a permanent establishment in Britain, appear to have been unsuccessfully solicited by our author; for the striking lines, describing the miseries of a suitor for court favour, have been always understood to refer to his own disappointments.

"Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried,
What hell it is, in suing long to bide:

To lose good days, that might be better spent ;
To waste long nights in pensive discontent;
To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;
To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow;
To have thy princess' grace, yet want her peers';
To have thy asking, yet wait many years;
To frett thy soul with crosses and with cares;
To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs;
To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to ronne;
To spend, to give, to want, to be undone."

Mother Hubbara's Tale.

In the same satire and elsewhere, Spenser has not hesitated to launch the darts of his satire against his powerful enemy Lord Burleigh. After the publication of the Faëry Queen in 1590, Spenser seems to have returned to Ireland, where he was soon after married. The progress of his passion and its success is celebrated in his sonnets and Epithalamion. Mr Todd supposes this happy event to have taken place in 1594. The surname of the beautiful Elizabeth has escaped the researches of the biographer. In the year 1595, to omit lesser particulars, the next three books of the Faëry Queen made their appearance. There is an unauthorized story told by Sir James Ware, that about this time Spenser had written the remaining six cantos of that beautiful poem, which were afterwards lost by the carelessness of his servant in passing from Ireland. But it appears much more probable, that the work was never completed by the author, especially when we consider how long he had dwelt upon the first three books. It is too certain that, if any fragments, excepting the two cantos of "Mutabilitie," did ever exist, they are entirely lost to the world, and were probably destroyed in the wreck of our author's fortune, when his house was pillaged by the rebels. Spenser visited England in 1596, when he appears to have presented to the Queen and her ministers his View of the State of Ireland; which probably induced Elizabeth to recommend him to the office of sheriff of Cork, by a letter dated in September, 1598. But, in October following, Tyrone, who had been long in arms, obtained that signal victory over Sir Henry Bagnol, marshal of Ireland, which was long after remembered by the name of the Defeat of Blackwater. He instantly summoned his secret confederates in Munster to imitate him in assailing the English settlers. The call was obeyed; and the insurrection, like those we have had the misfortune to witness in later

of the Munster rebels was James Fitzthomas Geraldine, titular Earl of Desmond. It was natural that he and his followers should be inflamed with the most bitter indignation against "the English Undertakers," as they were called, to whom the forfeited estates of the Geraldines had been granted after Desmond's war.

"And to speak truth," says Fynes Morrison, who had the best access to know the fact, "Munster undertakers were in great part cause of this defection, and of their own fatal miseries. For, whereas they should have built castles, and brought over colonies of English, and have admitted no Irish tenant, but only English, these and like covenants were in no part performed by them. Of whom the men of best quality never came over. but made profit of the land; others brought no more English than their own families; and all entertained Irish servants and tenants, which were now the first to betray them. If the covenants had been kept by them, they themselves might have made two thousand able men; whereas, the Lord President could not find above two hundred of English_birth amongst them, when the rebels first entered the province. Neither did these gentle undertakers make any resistance to the rebels; but left their dwellings, and fled to walled towns; yea, when there was such danger in flight, as greater could not have been in defending their own, whereof many of them had woful experience, being surprised with their wives and families in flight."

We have been full in our account of this insurrection, because Mr Todd has not thought proper to explain to his readers either the nature of the grants to the Munster Undertakers, of whom Spenser was one, or the progress of the insurrection, by which our author was so great a sufferer. Indeed, he has always substituted Tyrone's rebellion for that of Desmond, with dubious propriety, since that branch of the rebellion by which Spenser suffered is allowed to have burst forth in October, 1598; which is true of the Munster insurrection, but not of the original war of Tyrone, which had already raged in Ulster for several years. Spenser, who held the castle and estate of Kilcolman, an ancient appanage of the Geraldines, who had been clerk of council for the province, and who, in his View of Ireland, had advised that future Lieutenants should follow the example of the severe and inflexible Grey, had little mercy to hope from the rebels. Accordingly, he fled with precipitation,-such precipitation, that an infant child of the poet's appears to have been left behind, who perished when the rebels burned his castle. He arrived in London in misery and indigence. The bounty of Essex and of his other friends might save him from the extremity of poverty; but, in proportion as the sufferers under a calamity are numerous, relief becomes more difficult, and individual distress is regarded with less commiseration. Spenser never subdued the impressions of sorrow and misfortune. He died of a broken heart at London, in January, 1599.

We have thus made a brief analysis of Todd's Life of Spenser, which is the principal portion of original matter contributed to this edition by the editor. The Memoir, in point of style, is of a dry, sober, and sleepy cast: elegance has not perhaps been aimed at ; certainly it has not been attained.

To the life is subjoined a list of the editions of Spenser, and of his

and perhaps the list of laureate dulness has some title to be illuminated by the name of Spenser. Some farther advantages, probably a permanent establishment in Britain, appear to have been unsuccessfully solicited by our author; for the striking lines, describing the miseries of a suitor for court favour, have been always understood to refer to his own disappointments.

"Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried,
What hell it is, in suing long to bide:

To lose good days, that might be better spent;
To waste long nights in pensive discontent;
To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow;
To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow;
To have thy princess' grace, yet want her peers';
To have thy asking, yet wait many years;
To frett thy soul with crosses and with cares;
To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs;
To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to ronne;
To spend, to give, to want, to be undone."

Mother Hubbara's Tale.

In the same satire and elsewhere, Spenser has not hesitated to launch the darts of his satire against his powerful enemy Lord Burleigh. After the publication of the Faëry Queen in 1590, Spenser seems to have returned to Ireland, where he was soon after married. The progress of his passion and its success is celebrated in his sonnets and Epithalamion. Mr Todd supposes this happy event to have taken place in 1594. The surname of the beautiful Elizabeth has escaped the researches of the biographer. In the year 1595, to omit lesser particulars, the next three books of the Faëry Queen made their appearance. There is an unauthorized story told by Sir James Ware, that about this time Spenser had written the remaining six cantos of that beautiful poem, which were afterwards lost by the carelessness of his servant in passing from Ireland. But it appears much more probable, that the work was never completed by the author, especially when we consider how long he had dwelt upon the first three books. It is too certain that, if any fragments, excepting the two cantos of "Mutabilitie," did ever exist, they are entirely lost to the world, and were probably destroyed in the wreck of our author's fortune, when his house was pillaged by the rebels. Spenser visited England in 1596, when he appears to have presented to the Queen and her ministers his View of the State of Ireland; which probably induced Elizabeth to recommend him to the office of sheriff of Cork, by a letter dated in September, 1598. But, in October following, Tyrone, who had been long in arms, obtained that signal victory over Sir Henry Bagnol, marshal of Ireland, which was long after remembered by the name of the Defeat of Blackwater. He instantly summoned his secret confederates in Munster to imitate him in assailing the English settlers. The call was obeyed; and the insurrection, like those we have had the misfortune to witness in later

of the Munster rebels was James Fitzthomas Geraldine, titular Earl of Desmond. It was natural that he and his followers should be inflamed with the most bitter indignation against "the English Undertakers," as they were called, to whom the forfeited estates of the Geraldines had been granted after Desmond's war.

"And to speak truth." says Fynes Morrison, who had the best access to know the fact, "Munster undertakers were in great part cause of this defection, and of their own fatal miseries For, whereas they should have built castles, and brought over colonies of English, and have admitted no Irish tenant, but only English, these and like covenants were in no part performed by them. Of whom the men of best quality never came over. but made profit of the land; others brought no more English than their own families; and all entertained Irish servants and tenants, which were now the first to betray them. If the covenants had been kept by them, they themselves might have made two thousand able men; whereas, the Lord President could not find above two hu dred of English birth amongst them. when the rebels first entered the province. Neither did these gentle undertakers make any resistance to the rebels; but left their dwellings, and fled to walled towns; yea, when there was such danger in flight, as greater could not have been in defending their own, whereof many of them had woful experience, being surprised with their wives and families in flight."

We have been full in our account of this insurrection, because Mr Todd has not thought proper to explain to his readers either the nature of the grants to the Munster Undertakers, of whom Spenser was one, or the progress of the insurrection, by which our author was so great a sufferer. Indeed, he has always substituted Tyrone's rebellion for that of Desmond, with dubious propriety, since that branch of the rebellion by which Spenser suffered is allowed to have burst forth in October, 1598; which is true of the Munster insurrection, but not of the original war of Tyrone, which had already raged in Ulster for several years. Spenser, who held the castle and estate of Kilcolman, an ancient appanage of the Geraldines, who had been clerk of council for the province, and who, in his View of Ireland, had advised that future Lieutenants should follow the example of the severe and inflexible Grey, had little mercy to hope from the rebels. Accordingly, he fled with precipitation,-such precipitation, that an infant child of the poet's appears to have been left behind, who perished when the rebels burned his castle. He arrived in London in misery and indigence. The bounty of Essex and of his other friends might save him from the extremity of poverty; but, in proportion as the sufferers under a calamity are numerous, relief becomes more difficult, and individual distress is regarded with less commiseration. Spenser never subdued the impressions of sorrow and misfortune. He died of a broken heart at London, in January, 1599.

We have thus made a brief analysis of Todd's Life of Spenser, which is the principal portion of original matter contributed to this edition by the editor. The Memoir, in point of style, is of a dry, sober, and sleepy cast: elegance has not perhaps been aimed at ; certainly it has not been attained.

To the life is subjoined a list of the editions of Spenser, and of his

known author of the Battle of the Sexes, an allegorical poem, in the manner of Spenser, which, though now forgotten, contains some very striking passages.

The edition of the poems themselves is published cum notis variorum; so that instead of extracting from his predecessors' labours their spirit and essence, Mr Todd has overlaid poor Spenser with the unselected mass of their commentaries in addition to his own; and, after all, we are much afraid the text is, in many instances, rather burdened than assisted. In fact, as no author deserved the commentary of a kindred spirit so much as Spenser, we are greatly surprised that the task has not been long since undertaken by some person better qualified than Upton, Hughes, Church, or even Tom Warton himself. As none merits, so perhaps few English authors so much require, the assistance of a skilful commentator. The plan of the Faëry Queen is much more involved than appears at first sight to a common reader. Spenser himself has intimated this in his letter to Sir Walter Raleigh prefixed to the poem. For he there mentions, that he has often a general and particular intention, as when he figures, under Gloriana, the general abstract idea of glory, but also the particular living person of Queen Elizabeth. This continued allegory or dark conceit," therefore, contains, besides the general allegory or moral, many particular and minute allusions to persons and events in the court of Queen Elizabeth, as well as to points of general history. The ingenuity of a commentator would have been most usefully employed in decyphering what, "for avoiding of jealous opinions and misconstructions," our author did not choose to leave too open to the contemporary reader. But although every thing belonging to the reign of the Virgin Queen carries with it a secret charm to Englishmen, no commentator of the Faëry Queen has taken the trouble to go very deep into those annals, for the purpose of illustrating the secret, and as it were, esoteric allusions of Spenser's poems. Upton is the only one who has pointed out some of these relations and allusions; but he has neither been sufficiently particular, nor is the low vulgar familiarity of his style a fit accompaniment to the lofty verse of Spenser. Church and Hughes both remain in the court of the Gentiles; and the present worthy commentator adds little to their labours, save a few crumbs of verbal criticism. We fear they have verified the saying of Hamlet, that a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear. Those political innuendos which Spenser wrapt up in mystery and allegory, may even remain like unexpounded oracles, for all the light these learned gentlemen can throw upon them. They have not even followed the clue thrown out by Upton. As for the late laureate, it is well known that he could never follow a clue of any kind. With a head abounding in multi

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