SPEN'SER, EDMUND (c.1552-99). An English poet, born in London. He claimed relationship to the noble family of Spencers at Althorp, but he seems to have been more closely connected with the Spensers of Lancashire. His father, certainly in reduced circumstances, has been iden tified with John Spenser. a London clothmaker. The boy was apparently sent to the Merchant Taylors' School, London, whence he passed, as sizar or poor scholar, to Pembroke Hall, Cam bridge. At the university he read widely and eagerly in Latin, Greek, Dalian, and French liter ature. He was especially fond of Petrarch and Chaucer, of Marot and Du Benny. Pe formed lifelong friendships with Gabriel Harvey and Edward Kirke. After graduating M. A. in 1576. he seems to have spent nearly two years with his kinsfolk in Lancashire, where he fell in love with a young woman whom he celebrated in verse under the name of Rosalind. In 1578 he went to London and found a place in the house hold of the yarl of Leicester. There he prob ably met Sir Philip Sidney, to whom he dedicated The Shephrordes Calender (1579). In 1550 he was appointed secretary to Lord Grey, the new Lord Deputy of Ireland. Thenceforth Spenser lived mostly in Ireland. There he completed The Facrie Qucene, already begun at Leicester House.
By 1588 or 1589 he was living at KileoBlinn Castle, in the County of Cork, which with its ex tensive lands was legally transferred to him in 1591. In the meantime he had written Astr•uphel, a noble pastoral elegy on Sidney, and had re ceived a visit from Sir Walter Ralegit (1589), made memorable by Co/in Clouts Come Home Again. In 1590 he accompanied Ralegh to London, was welcomed by the Court, and pub lished the first three books of The Fuerie Queene, a moral and historical allegory. In 1591 followed a volume of miscellanies called Com plain ts, in cluding "The Ruines of Time," "The Teares of the Muses," "Mother Hubberd's Tale," "The Tale of the Butterflie," and four other poems. Evi dently disappointed of expected Court preferment, Spenser returned to Ireland, where he married a certain Elizabeth, probably Elizabeth Boyle, re lated to the first Earl of Cork. The courtship is described in the Amoretti (published in 1595), a series of mellifluous sonnets; and the marriage is celebrated in the Epithalamion (published in 1595), the richest militia] hymn in the English language. In 1596 he brought to London for pub lication three more books of The Faerie Queene.
Spenser intended to continue the work to twelve books, but he never got further than two cantos on Atutabilitie (printed 1609). While in England he seems to have completed a prose treatise on the Present State of Ireland (not published till 1633) ; he prepared for the press the beautiful Foure Hymnes (1596), in honor of love, beauty, heavenly love, and heavenly beauty; and wrote for a double marriage at Essex House the Pro thalamion (1590), one of his choicest poems. Once more disappointed of preferment, he re turned to Ireland. In October. 1598, his castle was sacked and burned by the Irish rebels. Spen ser fled to England, where he died at a London inn, January 10, 1599. He was buried near Chaucer in Westminster Abbey.
The Shepheardes Calender• marks an epoch in English poetry. Con•entiolal in theme. it yet shows a command over rhythm greater even than Chaucer's. It sounded the note of the Elizabethan outburst. As Spenser grew older he became more weighty in substance and discovered new melodies. In The Faerie Qncene he invented a nine-line stanza known as 'Spenserian.' It is the Italian °tiara rimy with an added Alex andrine (twelve syllables). The rhymes run ababbebee. But there is more in Spenser than sweet verse. His imagination dwelt in a realm of beauty and the noblest ideals. His greatest fault is an insistence on the allegory until it becomes monotonous and obscure. With the poets themselves, for whom this weakness counts less than for the general public. Spenser has been a favorite. The generation following him were Spenserians, and to him Milton owed mueh. In the romantic revival at the end of the eight eenth century Spenser was potent, and lieats's Eve of Saint Agnes and Byron's Childe Hat-old were written in the Spenserian stanza.
Consult the Life by R. W. Church (English Men of Letters, London. 1879) ; ji'ov1,•s. ed. H. J. Todd (S vols., ib., 1805. new ed. 1877). by J. P. Collier (5 vols. new ed., ib., 1891), by R Mor ris, with memoir by J. W. Hales (Globe edition, ib., 18(19, often reprinted), and by A. B. Grosart (Huth Library. 10 vols. ib.. 1882-84). Consult also G. L. Craik, Spenser and his Poetry (ib., 1S45), and the essays by Lowell, Among My Books, second series (Boston, 1S76). and by Au brey de (London and New York, 1894). The Spenser Society, founded at Manchester in 1S67. published a facsimile of the first edition of The Shephecn•des Calender.