Spenser remained in England until after the beginning of 1591. was dedicated from "London, this first of January, 1591." The date is undoubtedly "New Style." The lady, Douglas Howard, whose death is lamented, died late in 1590; and the dedication of Clouts Come Home Againe) to Raleigh ((From my house at Kilcolman, the 27 of December 1591" circumstantially proves Spenser's return. Assumption of a dramatic fiction in the latter dedication (cf. P. W. Long, N. Y. Nation, 1 Nov. 1906) is uncalled for : use of "New Style" dating is by no means uncommon among liter ary Elizabethans; Gascoigne as early as 1575 appears to have used it side by side with "Old Style" (cf. J. W. Cunliffe: 'Supposes and Jo casta,' Boston, 1906, p. vi, n. 1) ; Jonson used it mainly; in the Calendar) and in IV, Spenser starts the "new yeare" with January. The per haps built on the lines of Chaucer's (Boke of the Duchesse,> is itself a "funeral complaint" set in a "vision," and in the falsetto key of hired mourning; its representation of the hapless lady by an heraldic pet lion is a monumental piece of bathos.
A collection, entitled (en tered' 26 Dec. 1590, appeared 1591. The poems were mostly earlier ones, revised, and were possibly published before. Of the of Rome' and Hubberds Tale' there is a manuscript extant decidedly varying from Ponsonby's text (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 34064; cf. (Modern Language Notes,' XXII, No. 2). Ponsonby's foreword, accepting responsibility for the volume, and referring to Spenser's "departure over sea," would naturally indicate that the collection was "made up" in the au thor's absence. But Spenser was certainly in England when the book was "entered"; and Ponsonby would hardly have "pirated" from his best client. Doubtless Ponsonby's foreword, like E. K.'s "glosse," was a "blind" to avert pos sible consequences from such plain speaking as the contained.
The common motif of these is that of mediaeval "tragedy," the ever-turning of For tune's wheel and the upsetting of great expecta tions. The theme, modified by the antique notion of "Fate," still dominated the Renais sance inmagination, inspiring in England the huge (Mirror for Magistrates,' the "chronicle history" plays, and much more, including Van der Noodt's (Theatre' itself. Too much may, therefore, be inferred as to Spenser's own tem perament from such fashionably melancholy meditations. There is indeed strong personal feeling in them, certainly grief for Sidney and animosity against Burghley, but much is con ventional literary exercise. The (Ruins of Time' follows in scheme the (Ruins of Rome,' translated from Du Bellay; the (Visions of the Worlds Vanitie) echo the 'Visions' from Du Bellay and Petrarch;
A. Greenlaw,
Shortly after Spenser's return to Kilcolman, he fell in love; and after more than a year of courtship, married 11 June 1594, Elizabeth Boyle, "cozen" of Richard Boyle, later 1st Earl of Cork. "Elizabeth's" identity is estab lished from Boyle's memoirs ( (Linsmore Pa pers,' ed. Grosart, 1868-88, in which she appears as mother of Peregrine Spenser and wife of Roger Seckerstone, whom she had married in 1603. In 1613, again a widow, she married Cap tain, later Sir Robert Tynt. The kindlier tone toward Ireland of Spenser's later poetry in dicates domestic happiness.
On 19 Nov. 1594, five months after Spenser's wedding, Ponsonby "entered" the "Amoretti and Epithalamion written not long since by Edmund Spenser," and issued the volume, 1595, ostensibly on his own initiative; but his vague foreword implies that he had received the man uscript from the author himself. The titular coupling of the two pieces must have suggested their dramatic connection, four little neo-classic idyls Serving as a "recreative" entr'acte. Both describe in identical terms one heroine, stately to haughtiness, rosy-cheeked, golden-haired, blue-eyed. After the traditional sonnet-cycle formula "the prologue, hope; the epilogue, despair" the (Amoretti) close with a lovers' quarrel, allusion to which may lie in "the paynes and sorrowes past" of the (Epithalamion) (i. 32). Phrase and conceit are imitative ; but one may go awooing with conventional man ners in a borrowed coat. In form, the schema of "linked" quatrains compromises between the close-knit Italian sonnet and the loose Shake sperian. The gorgeous re deemed from mere goldsmith's work by its ex uberant feeling, follows not unworthily the Italian carrzone. To these two "goodly orna ments" for his bride, Spenser added a charming pendant in the idyl of Colin piping to his "coun trey lasse," a fourth Grace in the midst of Venus' damsels (F. Q. VI, x).