Of our sins, with direful fury, 'Gainst our souls black verdicts give, To Him that made heaven, earth, and sea, And want a head to dine next noon, Just at the stroke when my veins start and spread, Then am I, like a palmer, fit To tread those blest paths which before I writ. Edmund Spenser. { Born 1553. Died 1599. SPENSER was one of the great men who, from age to age, mark out the general course of poetry, and who take a place among the few selected from the illustrious of every age, whom we look up to as the instructors of all time. He claimed to be descended from a noble family, though the chief evidence of the truth of the assertion is, that he took his place in Queen Elizabeth's court as a gentleman of birth. He was born in East Smithfield about the year 1553, in humble circumstances. In his sixteenth year he was entered as a sizar at Cambridge, where he continued seven years, and where he took the degree of A.M. After leaving Cambridge he obtained an introduction to Sir Philip Sidney, to whom he dedicated his first poem, "The Shepherd's Calendar," published in 1579. He seems to have been employed at court, much to his distaste, on various state missions, and experienced much of the discomfort of a hanger-on. In 1580, however, he was appointed Secretary to the Viceroy of Ireland; and six years afterwards he obtained a grant of forfeited land in the county of Cork, where he fixed his residence in the Old Castle of Kilcolman. Here he brought home his wife, the "Elizabeth" of his sonnets; and here he wrote the greater part of his immortal poem, the Faery Queen. The first part was published in 1589, and met with an enthusiastic reception. Queen Elizabeth at once settled a pension of L.50 a year on the poet. In 1596 the second part of the Faery Queen issued from the press. It was intended to have been continued, but was never completed. But fortune, which had so long befriended him, now changed; the Tyrone rebellion broke out in 1598, his house was burned by the rebels, and his infant child perished in the flames. He had to flee with his wife to England in the greatest destitution, and, dejected and heart-broken, he died in the following year, in the forty-fifth year of his age, in a small lodging in London. "The His remains were laid beside those of Chaucer in Poet's Corner. term Faery is used by Spenser to denote something existing in the regions of fancy, and the Faery Queen is the impersonation of glory; the knights of Faeryland are the twelve virtues, who are the champions of the queen." UNA AND THE RED-CROSS KNIGHT. A GENTLE knight was pricking on the plaine, spurring As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt. jousts And on his brest a bloodie crosse he bore, The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore, Upon a great adventure he was bond, That greatest Gloriana to him gave (That greatest, glorious Queene of Faery-lond), Upon a lowly asse more white then snow; dreaded yearn folded robe So pure and innocent, as that same lambe, Whom to avenge, she had this knight from far compeld. called Behind her farre away a dwarfe did lag, Or weariéd with bearing of her bag Of needments at his backe. Thus as they past, sweetheart That everie wight to shroud it did constrain; And foorth they passe, with pleasure forward led, forsaken lovers yew The Mirrhe sweete-bleeding in the bitter wound, plane oak Led with delight, they thus beguile the way, That which of them to take in diverse doubt they been. UNA AND THE LION. ONE day, nigh wearie of the yrksome way, A ramping lyon rushéd suddenly, And lickt her lily hands with fawning tong; O how can beautie maister the most strong, untied robe at once prey know "The lyon, lord of everie beast in field," Quoth she, "his princely puissance doth abate, And mightie proud to humble weake does yield, Forgetfull of the hungry rage, which late Him prickt, in pittie of my sad estate :But he, my lyon, and my noble lord, How does he find in cruell hart to hate Her, that him loved, and ever most adord As the god of my life? why hath he me abhord?” Redounding tears did choke th' end of her plaint, Which softly ecchoed from the neighbour wood; And, sad to see her sorrowful constraint, The kingly beast upon her gazing stood; With pittie calmd, downe fell his angry mood. At last, in close hart shutting up her payne, Arose the virgin borne of heavenly brood, And to her snowy palfrey got agayne, To seeke her strayéd champion if she might attayne. The lyon would not leave her desolate, But with her went along, as a strong gard Of her chast person, and a faythfull mate Of her sad troubles and misfortunes hard: Still, when she slept, he kept both watch and ward; And when she wakt, he wayted diligent, With humble service to her will prepard; From her fayre eyes he took commandément, And ever by her lookes conceived her intent. THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS. And is there care in heaven? And is there love |