SPENSER, Edmund, English poet: b. Lon don (probably in East Smithfield near the Tower), about 1552; d. Westminster, 16 Jan. 1599. He was the eldest son of Elizabeth (cf. LXXIV) and (perhaps) Spenser, °free journeyman" in the "arte or mysterie of clothmakynge," in 1566 with one Nicholas Peele, usheermann in Bow Lane. A "John Spenser, son of John Spenser, gent.," known to have followed the poet through the same school and college, may have been a younger brother. In the Burnley district of N. E. Lancashire there was a family of Spen sers, among whom the names John, Edmund, Lawrence were common. The poet had a son Lawrence. Edmund also shared in the benefac tions of Dean Nowell, relative by marriage of the Lancashire Spensers.
This commonplace upcountry stock hardly invited celebration from the ambitious Court poet; but the Spencers of Althorpe, Northamp tonshire, were a kinsfolk to be claimed and pro claimed. And, after 1590 at least, three daugh ters of Sir fohn Spencer, head of that *house of auncient fame," acknowledged and patronized their now famous, if still impecunious connec tion; he in return is profuse with dedication and complimentary allusion. To one, Elizabeth, Lady Carey, he writes, dedicating (Muiopot mos' • " I have determined to give my self wholy to you, as quite abandoned from myselfe, and absolutely vowed to your serv ices." No doubt solely on the strength of this "platonic' vow, Nashe two years later (1593) assured Lady Carey in his dedication of
accounts (ed. Grosart, 1877) show several gifts of money from 1569 on; and already in 1569 Spenser was earning money himself. At least, certain sonnets included by Ponsonby in the
Spenser took his B.A. at Cambridge 1573; M.A. 1576. Allowances for protracted illnesses indicate delicate health; but he was clearly an eager, if discursive, student. Following Mul caster's lead, he read widely Italian and French literature as well as classic, the older English authors — especially Chaucer and Langland, moral and natural philosophy — especially the hybrid Platonism of the period. Harvey's nick names for him —"Italianate Seignor," "Your French Monsieurship," etc.— recognize his cosmopolitan tastes. Training and temperament made him sharply partisan for the Puritans, whose leader in the University, Cartwright, was driven from his chair of divinity in 1570.