A Biography of Edmund Spenser

A Biography of Edmund Spenser

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Title: A Biography of Edmund Spenser
Author: John W. Hales
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6937] [This file was first
posted on February 15, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A
BIOGRAPHY OF EDMUND SPENSER ***

A BIOGRAPHY OF EDMUND SPENSER, BY JOHN W. HALES
Revised 1896
From the Macmillan Globe edition of THE WORKS OF EDMUND
SPENSER

Please note
Accented, etc. characters are shown thus: {a\} = a + grave accent {e\} =
e + grave accent {e"} = e + diaeresis mark {ae} = ae diphthong {oe} =
oe dipthong Footnotes for each chapter are enclosed in curly brackets,
e.g. {1} Regions of italic type are defined by underscores

E D M U N D S P E N S E R.
Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim Credebat libris; neque, si male
cesserat, unquam Decurrens alio, neque si bene; quo fit ut omnis
Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella Vita senis.
Hither, as to their fountain, other stars Repairing in their urns draw
golden light.
The life of Spenser is wrapt in a similar obscurity to that which hides
from us his great predecessor Chaucer, and his still greater
contemporary Shakspere. As in the case of Chaucer, our principal
external authorities are a few meagre entries in certain official
documents, and such facts as may be gathered from his works. The
birth-year of each poet is determined by inference. The circumstances
in which each died are a matter of controversy. What sure information
we have of the intervening events of the life of each one is scanty and
interrupted. So far as our knowledge goes, it shows some slight positive
resemblance between their lives. They were both connected with the
highest society of their times; both enjoyed court favour, and enjoyed it
in the substantial shape of pensions. They were both men of remarkable
learning. They were both natives of London. They both died in the

close vicinity of Westminster Abbey, and lie buried near each other in
that splendid cemetery. Their geniuses were eminently different: that of
Chaucer was the active type, Spenser's of the contemplative; Chaucer
was dramatic, Spenser philosophical; Chaucer objective, Spenser
subjective; but in the external circumstances, so far as we know them,
amidst which these great poets moved, and in the mist which for the
most part enfolds those circumstances, there is considerable likeness.
Spenser is frequently alluded to by his contemporaries; they most
ardently recognised in him, as we shall see, a great poet, and one that
might justly be associated with the one supreme poet whom this
country had then produced--with Chaucer, and they paid him constant
tributes of respect and admiration; but these mentions of him do not
generally supply any biographical details. The earliest notice of him
that may in any sense be termed biographical occurs in a sort of
handbook to the monuments of Westminster Abbey, published by
Camden in 1606. Amongst the 'Reges, Regin{ae}, Nobiles, et alij in
Ecclesia Collegiata B. Petri Westmonasterii sepulti usque ad annum
1606' is enrolled the name of Spenser, with the following brief obituary:
'Edmundus Spencer Londinensis, Anglicorum Poetarum nostri seculi
facile princeps, quod ejus poemata faventibus Musis et victuro genio
conscripta comprobant. Obijt immatura morte anno salutis 1598, et
prope Galfredum Chaucerum conditur qui felicissime po{e"}sin
Anglicis literis primus illustravit. In quem h{ae}c scripta sunt
epitaphia:--
Hic prope Chaucerum situs est Spenserius, illi Proximus ingenio
proximus ut tumulo.
Hic prope Chaucerum, Spensere poeta, poetam Conderis, et versu quam
tumulo propior. Anglica, te vivo, vixit plausitque po{e"}sis; Nunc
moritura timet, te moriente, mori.'
'Edmund Spencer of London, far the first of the English Poets of our
age, as his poems prove, written under the smile of the Muses, and with
a genius destined to live. He died prematurely