A Biography of Edmund Spenser
Hales, John W., 1836-1914
English
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Below is a summary of A Biography of Edmund Spenser
A BIOGRAPHY OF EDMUND SPENSER, BY JOHN W. HALES
Revised 1896
From the Macmillan Globe edition of
THE WORKS OF EDMUND SPENSER
Please note
Accented, etc. characters are shown thus:
{a\} = a + grave accent
{e\} = e + grave accent
{e"} = e + diaeresis mark
{ae} = ae diphthong
{oe} = oe dipthong
Footnotes for each chapter are enclosed in curly
brackets, e.g. {1}
Regions of italic type are defined by underscores
_E D M U N D S P E N S E R_.
Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim
Credebat libris; neque, si male cesserat, unquam
Decurrens alio, neque si bene; quo fit ut omnis
Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella
Vita senis.
Hither, as to their fountain, other stars
Repairing in their urns draw golden light.
The life of Spenser is wrapt in a similar obscurity to
that which hides from us his great predecessor Chaucer,
and his still greater contemporary Shakspere. As in
the case of Chaucer, our principal external authorities
are a few meagre entries in certain official documents,
and such facts as may be gathered from his works. The
birth-year of each poet is determined by inference.
The circumstances in which each died are a matter of
controversy. What sure information we have of the
intervening events of the life of each one is scanty
and interrupted. So far as our knowledge goes, it
shows some slight positive resemblance between their
lives. They were both connected with the highest
society of their times; both enjoyed court favour, and
enjoyed it in the substantial shape of pensions. They
were both men of remarkable learning. They were both
natives of London. They both died in the close
vicinity of Westminster Abbey, and lie buried near each
other in that splendid cemetery. Their geniuses were
eminently different: that of Chaucer was the active
type, Spenser's of the contemplative; Chaucer was
dramatic, Spenser philosophical; Chaucer objective,
Spenser subjective; but in the external circumstances,
so far as we know them, amidst which these great poets
moved, and in the mist which for the most part enfolds
those circumstances, there is considerable likeness.
Spenser is frequently alluded to by his
contemporaries; they most ardently recognised in him,
as we shall see, a great poet, and one that might
justly be associated with the one supreme poet whom
this country had then produced--with Chaucer, and they
paid him constant tributes of respect and admiration;
but these mentions of him do not generally supply any
biographical details.
The earliest notice of him that may in any sense
be termed biographical occurs in a sort of handbook to
the monuments of Westminster Abbey, published by Camden
in 1606. Amongst the 'Reges, Regin{ae}, Nobiles, et alij
in Ecclesia Collegiata B. Petri Westmonasterii sepulti
usque ad annum 1606' is enrolled the name of Spenser,
with the following brief obituary:
'Edmundus Spencer Londinensis, Anglicorum Poetarum
nostri seculi facile princeps, quod ejus poemata
faventibus Musis et victuro genio conscripta
comprobant. Obijt immatura morte anno salutis 1598, et
prope Galfredum Chaucerum conditur qui felicissime
po{e"}sin Anglicis literis primus illustravit. In quem
h{ae}c scripta sunt epitaphia:--
Hic prope Chaucerum situs est Spenserius, illi
Proximus ingenio proximus ut tumulo.
Hic prope Chaucerum, Spensere poeta, poetam
Conderis, et versu quam tumulo propior.
Anglica, te vivo, vixit plausitque po{e"}sis;
Nunc moritura timet, te moriente, mori.'
'Edmund Spencer of London, far the first of the
English Poets of our age, as his poems prove, written
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