PREFACE. A S every original work, whether of the poet, philofopher, or hiftorian, represents, mirrour-like, the fentiments, ideas and opinions, of the writer; fo the knowledge of what relates to the life, family, and friendships of fuch an author, must in many instances illuftrate his writings; and his writings again reflect the image of the inward man. What wonder therefore, if our curiofity is excited to get fome kind of intimacy with those, whom from their writings we cannot but esteem, and that we listen to every tale told of them with any degree of probability, or even suffer ourselves to be imposed on by invented stories? We have several traditionary tales of very uncertain authority recorded of ancient authors; because commentators and critics, knowing the inquifitive difpofitions of the readers, and oftentimes not furnished with true materials, fet their inventions to work to impose with mere conjectures. But while they are thus inventing, they often forget to attemper their tales with proper time and circumstances; and confequently the ill-fupported story falls to the ground; and if not well invented is foon despised. There are various forts of traditionary tales told of Spenfer; fome of which want chronology to fupport them, and others, better fupported, have gain'd credit. The following is one of thofe ill-timed ftories handed down to us, firft mentioned, I believe, by the editor of his works in Folio, anno 1679. "Mr. Sidney (after"wards Sir Philip) then in full glory at Court was the perfon, "to whom Spenfer defigned the first discovery of himself; and " to "to that purpose took an occafion to go one morning to Lei"cefter-house, furnisht only with a modest confidence, and the "IXth canto of the 1ft Book of his Fairy Queen. He waited "not long e're he found the lucky feafon for an address of the paper to his hand; who having read the XXVIIIth stanza of Defpair (with fome figns in his countenance of being much "affected and furpriz'd with what he had read) turns fuddenly "to his fervant, and commands him to give the party, that pre“ sented the verses to him 50 pounds; the steward stood speech"lefs, and unready, till his mafter, having past over another ftanza, bad him give him a hundred pounds; the fervant fome"thing stagger'd at the humour his master was in, mutter'd to "this purpofe, That by the semblance of the man that brought "the paper, five pounds would be a proper reward; but Mr. "Sidney having read the following ftanza commands him to "give him 200 pounds, and that very speedily, leaft advancing ❝his reward proportionably to the height of his pleasure in read❝ing, he fhould hold himself obliged to give him more than he "had: Withal he sent an invitation to the poet, to see him at "thofe hours, in which he would be moft at leifure. After this «Mr. Spenfer by degrees fo far gained upon him, that he be"came not only his patron, but his friend too; entred him at "Court, and obtained of the Queen the grant of a penfion to "him as Poet Laureat: But in this his fate was unkind; for it “prov'd only a poetical grant; the payment after a after a very fhort "time being stopt by a great councellour, who ftudied more "the Queen's profit than her diverfion, and told her 'twas be yond example to give fo great a penfion to a ballad-maker.” This ftory is deficient in point of Chronology, otherwise not illinvented, because 'tis plain from Spenfer's Paftorals, first publifhed in the year 1579, and from the notes printed with them by his friend E. K. (whofe name was Kerke, if I guess right) that he was known to Sir Philip Sidney before the publication of them. Hear what Hobbinol fays in the Fourth Eclogue. Colin thou kenft the Southern Shepheards boy, Hobbinol means Gabriel Harvey, Colin Spenfer, and the Southern Shepheard Sir Philip Sidney. His friend E. K. in his notes says, "It feemeth that Colin pertaineth to fome Southern noble-man, "and perhaps in Surrey or Kent; the rather because he so often "nameth the Kentish downs: And before, As lithe as laffe of "Kent." Again in the Sixth Eclogue Hobbinol thus speaks to Colin, Then if by me thou lift advised be Forfake the foil that fo doth thee bewitch--- And to the dales refort, where shepheards ritch "This is no poetical fiction (fays his friend E. K.) but unfainedly "fpoken of the poet felfe, who for fpecial occafion of private "affairs (as I have been partly of himselfe informed) and for his "more preferment, removed out of the North partes, and came "into the South, as Hobbinol indeed advised him privately." What is above mentioned of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh's ungracious treatment of the Mufes, and the Mufes friend, is more particularly related by Dr. Fuller: And as the story does not carry with it any inconfiftencies of time or place, I shall here transcribe it from his Worthies of England. "Edmond Spenfer born in this city [London] was brought up " in Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge, where he became an excellent "fcholar, but especially most happy in English poetry, as his works "do declare. În which the many Chaucerisms ufed(for I will not fay affected by him) are thought by the ignorant to be blemishes, "known by the learned to be beauties to his book; which notwithstanding had been more falable, if more conformed to "our modern language. There paffeth a ftory commonly told "and believed, that Spenfer prefenting his poems to Queen Eli"zabeth "zabeth, the highly affected therewith commanded the Lord “ Cecil her Treasurer to give him an hundred pounds; and "when the Treasurer (a good steward of the Queen's money) alledged that the fum was too much, Then give him (quoth the "Queen) what is reafon; to which the Lord Treasurer consented; "but was fo bufied belike about matters of higher concernment, "that Spenfer received no reward. Whereupon he presented "this petition in a small piece of paper to the Queen in her progrefs, I was promis'd on a time Hereupon the Queen gave ftrict order (not without fome check "to her Treasurer) for the prefent payment of the hundred pounds fhe first intended unto him. "He afterwards went over into Ireland Secretary to the Lord "Gray, Lord Deputy thereof; and though that his office under "his Lord was lucrative, yet got he no eftate; but faith my "author [Cambden] peculiari poetis fato femper cum paupertate "conflictatus eft. So that it fared little better with him, than "with William Xilander the German (a moft excellent linguist, “antiquary, philosopher and mathematician) who was fo poor, "that, as Thuanus faith, he was thought fami non famæ fcribere. Returning into England he was robb'd by the rebels of that "little he had, and dying for grief in great want, Anno 1598, "was honourably buried nigh Chaucer in Westminster, where "this diftich concludeth his Epitaph on his monument, Anglica te vivo vixit plaufitque poefis, Nunc moritura timet te moriente mori. "Nor muft we forget, that the expence of his funeral and mo*nument was defrayed at the charge of Robert, firft Earl of that 66 name, name, Earl of Effex." Perhaps it may not be improper here to add Cambden's Eulogy, who was our poet's contemporary and acquaintance, and whom he calls in his Poem intitled The Ruins of Time, ----the nourice of antiquitie, And lanterne unto late fucceeding age. "In the year 1598 died William Cecil Lord Burghley, Lord High Treasurer of England. In the fame year likewife died "Edmund Spenfer, a Londoner by birth, and a Scholar alfo, of "the university of Cambridge, born under fo favourable an "afpect of the Muses, that he furpaffed all the English poets of " former times, not excepting Chaucer himself, his fellow Citizen. "But by a fate which ftill follows poets, he always wrestled with "poverty, though he had been Secretary to the Lord Grey, "Lord Deputy of Ireland. For fcarce had he there fettled him"felf in a retired privacy, and got leifure to write, when he was by the rebels thrown out of his dwelling, plundered of his goods, and returned into England a poor man; where he "Thortly after died, and was interred at Westminster, near to "Chaucer, at the charge of the Earl of Effex; his hearfe being "attended by poets, and mournful elegies and poems, with the pens that wrote them, thrown into his tomb." What I have now to offer is intended to illuftrate the Fairy Queen, both in the general plan, confidered as an Epic and Moral poem; and likewife in the concealed hiftories of the times and perfons of the poet's age. 'Tis not my defign to enter into any minute inquiry of his other writings; for that fhall be kept for a third Volume; which will contain his Paftorals, Sonnets, &c. together with his View of the State of Ireland, and a tranflation of a Socratic dialogue, entitled Axiochus or of Death; which is not taken notice of by any Editor of any part of his works. His Paftorals, like Virgil's, carry a perpetual allufion to his amorous paffion, his friendships, and other circumstances VOL. I. b of 1 |