How long was edmund spenser married

Shortly afterward Spenser compiled a collection of poems dedicated to the memory of Sir Philip Sidney. To this collection he contributed the first elegy, "Astrophel. They were married on June 11, His sonnet sequence "Amoretti" and his "Epithalamion" together form an imaginatively enhanced poetic chronicle of his courtship and marriage. Some of the "Amoretti" sonnets were probably written earlier, but Spenser intended this collection to represent the fluctuations and the emotions of his love for his wife.

Written in frequent imitation of such French and Italian sonneteers as Philippe Desportes and Torquato Tasso, Spenser's sonnets, representing one of the most popular poetic forms of his period, are graceful if not great. However, his "Epithalamion" is generally acknowledged to rank among the greatest love poems in English. In this poem a lover's passion blends with a deeply religious sensibility, calling upon both classical myth and medieval legend to create an intricate pattern of allusions and evocations.

Late in Spenser returned to London, again staying for more than a year. He published during this visit to the capital three more books of The Faerie Queene; the "Prothalamion," written to celebrate the double wedding of two daughters of the Earl of Worcester; and the "Four Hymns," poems that concern his Platonic conceptions of love and beauty.

During this stay he seems also to have composed or at least to have revised his View of the Present State of Ireland, a prose tract in which he defended the policies of his earlier patron, Lord Grey, in dealing with rebellious Irish subjects and in which he proposed a program for first subjugating the Irish people and then reforming their government on the model of the English administrative system. Surprisingly, this pamphlet, so in tune with much of governmental opinion, did not receive permission for publication during Spenser's lifetime and was first published in Spenser seems to have returned to Ireland sometime in and to have resumed his work on The Faerie Queene.

Two more cantos of a succeeding book were published posthumously in , but most of what he wrote in these years has been lost. Spenser was temporarily without political office, but in September he was named sheriff of Cork. He had hardly taken control of that office before, in October of the same year, the Earl of Tyrone's rebellion, a generalized revolt of the Irish people, broke out in Munster.

Spenser's castle was burned, and the poet was forced to flee with his family, which now included four young children. In December the provincial governor sent Spenser as a messenger to Queen Elizabeth. He arrived in the capital at the end of , much weakened by the hardships of the preceding months.

Spenser presented his messages to the Queen, together with a personal statement reiterating his position on the Irish question. Soon after his arrival he became seriously ill, and he died in London on Jan. Spenser was buried near other poets in Westminster Abbey. Jones, A Spenser Handbook , is still useful as a general introduction to the works. A thorough biographical study by Alexander C.

A work on Spenser's reputation through the centuries is William R. Mueller, ed. Waldo F. For general background see S. Spenser's life and the subject of biography, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, Waller, Gary F. Martin's Press, All rights reserved. Diplomatic Activities After completing his studies, Spenser seems to have spent some time in Lancashire, possibly with his relatives. The Shepherd's Calendar By now Spenser had written a considerable quantity of poetry, but he had published nothing.

The Complaints Before leaving London, Spenser prepared for publication a collection of minor poems under the title of Complaints. Verdon's , Mr. Edmund Spenser and others. He speaks ill of Her Majesty's government and hath uttered words of contempt of Her Majesty's laws, calling them unjust. He killed a fat beef of Teig Olyve's , because Mr. Spenser lay in his house one night as he came home from the sessions at Limerick.

He also killed a beef of his smith's for mending Mr. Peer's plough iron. He has forbidden his people to have any trade or conference with Mr. Spenser or Mr. Piers or their Tenants. He has concealed from Her Majesty the manor of Crogh, being the freehold of one who was a rebel. The case was to haunt Spenser throughout the next decade, and was arguably a significant influence on the 'Two cantos of Mutabilitie' , published after his death P. Spenser had clearly been working hard on his poetry, even though he had published next to nothing since his initial success with The Shepheardes Calender.

It is likely that his busy job as a civil servant precluded extensive publication—although we cannot be sure how onerous his duties really were. Perhaps now that he was a landowner of some substance he could find more time to write, or to prepare what he had written for publication, as he produced a large body of work in the last decade of his life.

The first edition of The Faerie Queene must have been ready for publication in , for in October he left for England with Ralegh , leaving Richard Chichester as a substitute deputy. Spenser's visit is recorded in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe first published —although as usual we should be wary of taking anything Spenser wrote in his work at face value.

The preface to that poem, dated 27 December , 'From my house of Kilcolman' , thanks Ralegh ' for your singular favours and sundrie good turnes shewed to me at my late being in England '. Spenser may have brought a copy of The Faerie Queene with him in order to see the proofs through the press, as he appears to have been careful to do this for other works.

The poem was entered into the Stationers' register on 1 December and published in early The appended 'Letter to Raleigh' is dated 23 January that is, , suggesting that it may have been inserted at the proof stage.

It is quite likely that this did occur, as Elizabeth is the main dedicatee of the poem. Spenser writes that the encounter was a great success:. The Faerie Queene was a new departure in the history of English poetry, being a combination of Italian romance, classical epic, and native English styles, principally derived from Chaucer. It contained nine lines, the first eight being pentameters and the last line an alexandrine, and employed the rhyme scheme ababbcbcc.

It was accompanied by seventeen dedicatory sonnets to a variety of figures. Unusually for an Elizabethan poem these were appended, rather than prefaced, to it. It is clear from this list that Spenser had chosen to dedicate the poem to friends and employers— Ralegh , Norris , and Grey —and figures who were especially concerned with matters in Ireland— Ormond , Burghley , and Essex —as well as to a variety of powerful politicians and potential patrons, such as Mary Sidney and Walsingham.

It would be stretching a point to read personal relationships into this miscellaneous group of people, especially if one bears in mind that works could be dedicated to patrons without their knowledge as was the case with Stephen Gosson's dedication of School of Abuse to Sir Philip Sidney , and Sir John Hayward's dedication of The First Part of the Life and Reign of King Henry IV to the earl of Essex. The poem has survived as a long fragment of six completed books, each of twelve cantos, of lengths varying from forty to eighty stanzas.

A further fragment of a seventh book, published after Spenser's death, consisted of two complete cantos and two stanzas from a third. There was also a letter appended from the author to Ralegh , dated 23 January , explaining the allegorical method of the ' Poet historical '.

Scholars are divided on the question of the extant nature of the poem, some concluding that Spenser never really intended to complete it, others that had he lived longer all twelve books would have emerged.

Equally the relationship between the 'Two cantos of Mutabilitie' and the rest of the poem has not been satisfactorily resolved, some regarding these as a key to the whole work, others reading them as a minor episode not fully worked through. The Faerie Queene tells a series of discrete but interrelated stories based around the quests of six knights who each represent a particular virtue.

Its allegory is flexible and moves easily from the historically specific to deal with theological, philosophical, and ethical questions, many based on readings of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics , a stated source of the poem. Book 1 tells the story of the redcross knight, eventually revealed to be the patron saint of England, St George , who has to destroy the dragon who holds captive the parents of his lady, Una. As with all romances the narrative moves sideways as much as forwards a process known as dilation , and a whole series of episodes represent events and problems precipitated by the Reformation.

The lovers are united but, significantly, the knight is recalled to his service to Gloriana, the faerie queen, before they can get married. Book 2 charts the progress of the knight of temperance, Sir Guyon, culminating in the famous description of his destruction of the Bower of Bliss, an episode which has inspired commentators, artists, and writers ever since.

Guyon's undoubted virtue is shown to be limited when he is defeated by the knight of chastity, Britomart , the heroine of book 3. While Guyon can only refuse and oppose bodily temptation Britomart is able to experience corporeal ecstasies and agonies, and so point to a way beyond the limits of temperance for those who have to live in the ordinary world.

Britomart, in pointed contrast to the real queen of England , the virginal Elizabeth, sees her husband-to-be, Artegall, in Merlin's magic mirror, and the dynasty that she will found stretching into the future.

The first edition of The Faerie Queene concluded with the striking image of the hermaphrodite created through the passionate embrace of the rescued lovers, Amoret and Scudamore, a sign that human experience could be equal and satisfying through the institution of marriage. The second edition of the poem is generally agreed to be a darker and more diffuse work.

Book 4, the legend of Friendship, has two central figures, Cambel and Telamond, who occupy only a small section of the narrative. Many commentators argue that the original version of the poem that circulated in manuscript in the early s consisted of portions of books 3 and 4, later worked into the printed version with varying success. The book contains the famous description of the marriage of the Thames and the Medway—again probably adapted from an earlier work or version of the poem.

Book 5, the legend of Justice, follows the adventures of Artegall, Britomart's future spouse. This has generally been the least popular section of the poem because of its disturbing defence of English policy in Ireland and, more overtly, its historical allegory, but it has recently received far more attention for the very reason that it was previously ignored.

Artegall, abandoned by his tutor, Astrea, has to resolve a number of difficult disputes, foolishly falls prey to the Amazon Radigund, and has to be rescued by Britomart before his violent suppression of rebellion in Ireland is prematurely truncated by Gloriana. Book 6, the legend of Courtesy, depicts the adventures of Sir Calidore, a confused and misdirected knight who tries to give up his elusive quest for the Blatant Beast when he stumbles across a pastoral world at odds with the courtly world he is less than keen to defend.

The book, like its predecessor, is replete with disturbing images of violent disruption, principally of disguised rebels ambushing small peasant communities undoubtedly an echo of Spenser's experience in Ireland. It ends when Calidore finally manages to capture the Blatant Beast, but it escapes to terrorize the world with its awful slanders, which include attacks on the poet himself. Spenser may have spent much of in London, or he may have returned to Ireland, owing to his protracted lawsuit with Lord Roche.

On 6 May Elizabeth granted Spenser and his heirs the manor, lands, castle, and town of Kilcolman in fee-farm forever, confirmed on 26 October. The royal grant notes that part of the estate went by the name Hap Hazard Maley , The volume Complaints was entered into the Stationers' register on 29 December The publisher, William Ponsonby , included a preface to the reader, which states that his last publication for Spenser , The Faerie Queene , ' hath found favourable passage with you [the readers] ' and that therefore he has attempted to:.

Ponsonby claims that he has gathered the volume together ' for that they al seeme to containe like matter of argument in them '. He also refers to other works that he understands are circulating:. From this preface it has been argued that Ponsonby simply went ahead on his own without the poet's consent and that arguments for Spenser's involvement in the physical process of publishing his work should be discounted see Brink , Who fashioned Edmund Spenser?

It might equally be a means of disguising the fact that he and Spenser worked in close co-operation Johnson , As well as providing another confirmation of the existence of 'The Dying Pellican' and naming other lost works Ponsonby's comments read like an advertisement for future publications of Spenser's works, suggesting a relationship in print that we should place alongside Spenser's published correspondence with Gabriel Harvey , Sir Walter Ralegh , and the enigmatic E.

It is implausible that Spenser was not aware of Ponsonby's comments. Complaints , like The Shepheardes Calender , is a complex and puzzling volume. Critics who want to claim that Spenser was attempting to follow a poetic career based on the model of Virgil , progressing from the pastoral Eclogues to the epic Aeneid , have to ignore Complaints , treating it as a detour between the serious business of The Shepheardes Calender and The Faerie Queene , often taking Ponsonby's prefatory comments that he, not Spenser , compiled the poems, at face value.

Complaints gathers together a series of poems ' being all complaints and meditations of the worlds vanitie, verie grave and profitable ': 'The Ruines of Time' , 'The Teares of the Muses' , 'Virgil's Gnat' an adaptation of the pseudo-Virgilian Culex , Prosopopia, or, Mother Hubberds Tale , 'The ruines of Rome: by Bellay' a translation of Du Bellay's Antiquitez de Rome , 'Muiopotmos, or, The fate of the butterfly' dated and dedicated to Lady Carey , 'Visions of the Worlds Vanitie' , and 'The Visions of Bellay' and 'The Visions of Petrarch, Formerly Translated' , the last two being revised versions of the material published in Van Der Noot's Theatre over twenty years earlier.

The volume, evidently published early in , appears to have landed Spenser in more trouble, owing to its satire of Lord Burghley. It was quickly called in. Given that Burghley was one of the dedicatees of The Faerie Queene Spenser may have assumed that the offence taken at the manuscript of Mother Hubberds Tale about was now forgotten.

His mistake, which reflects his lack of knowledge of court life, might have fostered his adoption of an Anglo-Irish identity. This was publicly expressed in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe , dated 27 December —that is, soon after the publication of Complaints —where the ' home ' that Colin refers to rather bitterly in the poem is Ireland, not England. Gabriel Harvey noted: ' Mother Hubberd in heat of choller, forgetting the pure sanguine of her sweete Faery Queen, willfully over-shott her malcontented selfe ' E.

Spenser , The Faerie Queene , ed. Hamilton , , x. The Catholic recusant Sir Thomas Tresham , in a letter of 19 March , also refers to the furore surrounding the publication of the volume, while noting the effect that the scandal had on its price:. The whole discourse of that ould weoman [Mother Hubberd] ys as I have heard reported to showe by what channce the apes did loose their tayles. Thowghe this be a jest, yett is itt taken in suche earnest, that the booke is by Superior awthoritie called in; and nott to be had for anie money.

Where ytt was att the first sould for vi. The bookebynders have allreadie gotten by the vent of this booke, more then all the Apes in Parys garding is worthe. I did never see ytt myselfe; neither would I read ytt nowe, yf I might have ytt, becawse yt is forbidden. Tresham also attests to the popularity of Spenser , noting that The Faerie Queene ' was so well liked, that her ma:tie gave him ane hundred marks pencion forthe of the Exchequer : and so clerklie was yt penned, that he beareth the name of Poet Laurell '.

Now, however, Spenser was ' in hazard to loose his forsayd annuall reward: and fynallie hereby proove himselfe a Poett Lorrell ' ibid.

The title poet laureate was evidently an unofficial one but indicates that Spenser did indeed make a significant impact at court in —90, one which he appears to have spoilt rather with the publication of Complaints. This may explain the extent of his bitterness towards the court—and the queen—in some of his subsequent writings.

Spenser continued to produce poetry at an impressive rate. Daphnaida: an elegie upon the death of the noble and vertuous Douglas Howard, daughter of Lord Howard and wife of Arthur Gorges , an imitation of Chaucer's Book of the Duchess , was published by Ponsonby on 1 January The poem is dedicated to Lady Helena, marchioness of Northampton , another figure whose relations with Spenser are unknown.

The pseudo-Platonic Axiochus: a most excellent dialogue, written in Greeke by Plato the phylosopher, trans. Spenser was entered into the Stationers' register on 1 May and published later in the year. The work is a translation from a Greek dialogue between Socrates and Axiochus, an old man, about the fear of death. It is not certain that the translation was by Spenser , as the attribution is based on verbal echoes in Spenser's other works, most of which could be coincidence although there is a substantial echo of an entire clause in the dialogue in The Faerie Queene , book 2, canto 12, stanza The attribution to ' Edw.

Some scholars attribute the work to Anthony Munday. There is little record of Spenser in the next two years. He appears to have travelled to England in August—September and is referred to in a list of colonists who have paid their rent in December of that year. The lawsuit with Lord Roche was still proceeding, with claims and counter-claims. In Roche petitioned Adam Loftus , lord chancellor of Ireland, that Spenser had falsely claimed his land at Shanballymore east of Doneraile.

He also petitioned against Joan Ny Callaghan on the grounds of his ' supportation and mayntenance of Edmond Spenser , gentleman, a heavy adversary unto your suppliant ' Maley , Spenser sold his office as deputy clerk of Munster to Nicholas Curtis.

There were a large number of references to Spenser and his work, borrowings, quotations, and citations in the early s, indicating his popularity and influence as a poet. Spenser served as queen's justice for Cork in Spenser appeared in court on 12 February and Roche was granted possession of the disputed lands.

They had one child, Peregrine ' Lat. Strange or outlandish ', according to William Camden , born possibly in The courtship and marriage are represented in the sonnet sequence Amoretti and the marriage hymn Epithalamion , entered into the Stationers' register on 19 November and published as a single volume in early , when they were advertised as poems ' Written not long since '.

The dedicatory note by Spenser's usual publisher, William Ponsonby , to Sir Robert Needham claims that he has taken responsibility for publishing the poems in the absence of the poet. Needham , according to Ponsonby's dedication, had brought them from Ireland to London, and it is possible that he also brought over the completed second edition of The Faerie Queene.

Sonnet 80 of Amoretti states that Spenser had already finished the six completed books of The Faerie Queene , which were to be published in , giving the newly married Spenser time to turn his attentions from Elizabeth , the queen, to his wife of the same name.

Colin Clouts Come Home Againe , another poem that draws on Spenser's life, was published in the same year, though it states that it was written ' From my house of Kilcolman the Smith and E. The poem fits neatly into a tradition of advice literature that exempts the monarch from the general failings of his or her courtiers, and includes strong criticisms of the court, as well as attacks on the vanity, ignorance, and greed of courtiers in general.

It is possible that Colin Clout was intended as a criticism of Elizabeth's regime in the s, especially if we bear in mind Spenser's own lack of preferment in England and his posthumous criticisms of the queen in 'Two cantos of Mutabilitie' A. Hadfield , Edmund Spenser's Irish Experience , , chap. He also published a commendatory sonnet prefixed to William Jones's translation of Nennio, or, A Treatise of Nobility The second edition of The Faerie Queene was entered into the Stationers' register on 20 January , and it is possible—although no evidence survives—that Spenser was in London to supervise its publication.

The work consisted of three new books, 4—6, and a revision of the first three books, with the ending altered to allow the plot to continue; like the first edition it was dedicated to Elizabeth. As in the case of Mother Hubberds Tale it plunged Spenser into considerable trouble and triggered a diplomatic row. Robert Bowes , the English ambassador in Scotland, wrote to Lord Burghley on 1 November that James VI was extremely angry at the portrayal of his mother, Mary, queen of Scots , and her execution in book 5, canto 9.

The poem was withdrawn from sale in Scotland and James signalled his intention to complain to Elizabeth. Bowes wrote to Burghley again, on 12 November, claiming that he had persuaded the king that The Faerie Queene had not been published with royal approval but warned that ' he still desires that Edward [ sic ] Spenser for his fault may be tried and duly punished ' CSP Scot.

Nothing appears to have come of James's complaints but in March he commissioned the poet George Nicolson to write a response to Spenser's book, which was either never completed or has not survived. James's furious reaction indicates that Spenser's work was read seriously and carefully by those with political power and influence.

Later in the year Spenser published Fowre Hymnes , the first two 'Of Love' and 'Of Beautie' , dated 1 September , written ' in the greener times of my youth ' and dedicated from the court at Greenwich to Lady Margaret, countess of Cumberland , and Lady Mary, countess of Warwick ; the volume also contained the second edition of Daphnaida , and Prothalamion , a marriage hymn celebrating the betrothals of the two daughters of the earl of Worcester , Lady Elizabeth and Lady Katherine Somerset.

The earl was a close associate of Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex , in whose capacious circle Spenser appears to have been moving in the last years of his life. The marriage took place at Essex House, London, on 8 November and Spenser may have attended, given his presence in London recorded in the Fowre Hymnes. It is likely that Spenser completed A View of the Present State of Ireland in June and July , possibly before he travelled to London to attend the weddings celebrated in the Prothalamion.

The work recommends that a lord lieutenant be appointed to oversee Irish affairs and refers to ' such an one I Coulde name uppon whom the ey of all Englande is fixed and our last hopes now rest ' p. Many commentators have suggested that Spenser —through his character, Irenius—was referring to the earl of Essex , a supposition made plausible by other indications that he had started to move in the large Essex circle. A View is a work which poses a number of questions.

Stationers , 3. Commentators have sometimes assumed that this means that the work was censored but this was not necessarily the case. Other works entered in the register were queried in the same way, often owing to disputes between printers and stationers.

Given that Matthew Lownes , a printer with a record of literary piracy most notably over Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella , entered the work and not Spenser's usual publisher, William Ponsonby , it is more probable that A View was the subject of a dispute between printers than that it was carefully read and censored.

Some twenty manuscript copies survive, including one that belonged to the earl of Essex , which indicates that this work also was read by powerful and influential figures. It is unlikely that Spenser would have been keen to have a political treatise dealing with such a dangerous issue bearing his name circulating to a wide audience in print, considering the dearth of works published that discussed Ireland in the later s when the Nine Years' War was being fought; he had, after all, had his fair share of brushes with the authorities before The chances are that Lownes wanted to make a profit out of Spenser's name, given the impact of the recently published Faerie Queene.

Later claims have been made that Spenser did not write A View Brink , Constructing the View of the Present State of Ireland , Spenser Studies , 11, , —28; Appropriating the author ; the work was definitely attributed to Spenser only after his death, by Sir James Ware , although one of the manuscripts bears the initials E. Such claims, if substantiated, would cause numerous scholars to revise their interpretation of Spenser's relationship to Ireland.

But they have not found much favour with other critics and historians who have defended the attribution of the work to Spenser on a variety of grounds: verbal and stylistic echoes between A View and Spenser's poetry; lack of suitable alternative authors; dating; widespread circulation of manuscripts; and the attribution by Ware.

In short it cannot be proved that Spenser wrote A View but the wealth of corroborating evidence suggests that only a bizarre series of coincidences would force scholars to attribute the work to somebody else. Spenser was still active in acquiring land, despite the mounting threat to the Munster plantation from Hugh O'Neill's forces in the Nine Years' War. In he purchased the castle of Renny, in the south of co. View more about this book on the. Our Privacy Policy sets out how Oxford University Press handles your personal information, and your rights to object to your personal information being used for marketing to you or being processed as part of our business activities.

We will only use your personal information to register you for OUPblog articles. Or subscribe to articles in the subject area by email or RSS. How did a man who seemed destined to become a priest or a don become embroiled in politics? How did the appalling slaughter he witnessed in Ireland impact on his imaginative powers? How did his marriage and family life shape his work? I like the pictures in this blog. Edmund Spenser: A Life.

Buy Now. His first wife, Machabyas Childe, is something of an enigma. She married Edmund Spenser on 27 October in St. It is now the church of the House of Commons. Despite my best efforts I can find no other woman called Machabyas in early modern England and I have asked the Dutch and Huguenot Churches for help.