Spensers The Faerie Queene | Page 5

riot increased on all sides.
The ever growing murmurs of discontent gave place to cries for
vengeance and unrepressed acts of hostility. Finally, in the fall of 1598,
there occurred a fearful uprising known as Tyrone's Rebellion, in which
the outraged peasants fiercely attacked the castle, plundering and
burning. Spenser and his family barely escaped with their lives.
According to one old tradition, an infant child was left behind in the
hurried flight and perished in the flames; but this has been shown to be
but one of the wild rumors repeated to exaggerate the horror of the
uprising. Long after Spenser's death, it was also rumored that the last
six books of the Faerie Queene had been lost in the flight; but the story
is now utterly discredited.
Spenser once more arrived in London, but he was now in dire distress
and prostrated by the hardships which he had suffered. There on
January 16, 1599, at a tavern in King Street, Westminster, the great
poet died broken-hearted and in poverty. Drummond of Hawthornden
states that Ben Jonson told him that Spenser "died for lack of bread in
King Street, and refused 20 pieces sent to him by my Lord of Essex,
and said He was sorrie he had no time to spend them." The story is
probably a bit of exaggerated gossip. He was buried close to the tomb
of Chaucer in the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, his fellow-poets
bearing the pall, and the Earl of Essex defraying the expenses of the
funeral. Referring to the death of Spenser's great contemporary, Basse
wrote:--
"Renownèd Spenser, lie a thought more nigh
To learnèd Chaucer, and
rare Beaumont, lie
A little nearer Spenser, to make room
For
Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb."
"Thus," says Mr. Stopford Brooke, appropriately, "London, 'his most
kindly nurse,' takes care also of his dust, and England keeps him in her
love."

Spenser's influence on English poetry can hardly be overestimated.
Keats called him "the poets' poet," a title which has been universally
approved. "He is the poet of all others," says Mr. Saintsbury, "for those
who seek in poetry only poetical qualities." His work has appealed
most strongly to those who have been poets themselves, for with him
the poetical attraction is supreme. Many of the greatest poets have
delighted to call him master, and have shown him the same loving
reverence which he gave to Chaucer. Minor poets like Sidney, Drayton,
and Daniel paid tribute to his inspiration; Milton was deeply indebted
to him, especially in Lycidas; and many of the pensive poets of the
seventeenth century show traces of his influence. "Spenser delighted
Shakespeare," says Mr. Church; "he was the poetical master of Cowley,
and then of Milton, and in a sense of Dryden, and even Pope." Giles
and Phineas Fletcher, William Browne, Sir William Alexander,
Shenstone, Collins, Cowley, Gray, and James Thomson were all direct
followers of Spenser. His influence upon the poets of the romantic
revival of the nineteenth century is even more marked. "Spenser begot
Keats," says Mr. Saintsbury, "and Keats begot Tennyson, and
Tennyson begot all the rest." Among this notable company of disciples
should be mentioned especially Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne. If we
include within the sphere of Spenser's influence also those who have
made use of the stanza which he invented, we must add the names of
Burns, Shelley, Byron, Beattie, Campbell, Scott, and Wordsworth.
When we consider the large number of poets in whom Spenser
awakened the poetic gift, or those to whose powers he gave direction,
we may safely pronounce him the most seminal poet in the language.
III. STUDY OF THE FAERIE QUEENE
0. A ROMANTIC EPIC.--The Faerie Queene is the most perfect type
which we have in English of the purely romantic poem. Four
elements enter into its composition: "it is pastoral by association,
chivalrous by temper, ethical by tendency, and allegorical by
treatment" (Renton). Its subject was taken from the old cycle of
Arthurian legends, which were brightened with the terrorless
magic of Ariosto and Tasso. The scene of the adventures is laid
in the enchanted forests and castles of the far away and unreal

fairyland of mediæval chivalry, and the incidents themselves are
either highly improbable or frankly impossible. The language is
frequently archaic and designedly unfamiliar. Much of the
machinery and properties used in carrying on the story, such as
speaking myrtles, magic mirrors, swords, rings, impenetrable
armor, and healing fountains, is supernatural. All the
characters--the knights, ladies, dwarfs, magicians, dragons,
nymphs, satyrs, and giants--are the conventional figures of
pastoral romance.
The framework of the plot of the Faerie Queene is vast and loosely put
together. There are six main stories, or legends, and each contains
several digressions and involved episodes. The plan of the entire work,
which the author only half completed, is