Edmund Spenser (c. 1552 – 13 January 1599) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
best known for
The Faerie QueeneThe Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is the longest poem in the English...
, an epic poem celebrating, through fantastical allegory, the
Tudor dynastyThe House of Tudor was a prominent European royal house that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch Henry Tudor, descended paternally from the rulers of the Welsh principality of Deheubarth, and maternally from a legitimised branch of the English royal...
and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy.
Edmund Spenser was born in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
around 1552. As a young boy, he was educated in London at the
Merchant Taylors' SchoolMerchant Taylors' School is a British boys' independent, day school, originally located in the City of London, and since 1933 located at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire ....
and matriculated as a
sizarAt Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is a student who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined job....
at
Pembroke College, CambridgePembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over six hundred students and fellows, and is the third-oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
.
In July 1580 Spenser went to Ireland, in the service of the newly appointed lord deputy, Arthur Lord Grey de Wilton.
I learned have, not to despise, What ever thing seemes small in common eyes.
Visions of the Worlds Vanitie line 69 (1591)
For of the soule the body|bodie forme doth take; For the soule is forme, and doth the bodie make.
An Hymne in Honour of Beautie, line 132 (1596)
For all that faire is, is by nature good; That is a signe to know the gentle blood.
An Hymne in Honour of Beautie, line 139
Calm was the day, and through the trembling airSweet-breathing Zephyrus did softly play—A gentle spirit, that lightly did delayHot Titan's beams, which then did glister fair
Line 1
Sweete Themmes runne softly, till I end my Song.
The last line of each stanza
With that I saw two swans of goodly hueCome softly swimming down along the Lee:Two fairer birds I yet did never see;The snow which doth the top of Pindus strowDid never whiter show,Nor Jove himself, when he a swan would beFor love of Leda, whiter did appear
Line 37
Fierce warres and faithfull loves shall moralize my song.
Book I, Introduction, stanza 1
A Gentle Knight was pricking on the plaine.
Book I, canto 1, stanza 1
But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad.
Book I, canto 1, stanza 2
Edmund Spenser (c. 1552 – 13 January 1599) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
best known for
The Faerie QueeneThe Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is the longest poem in the English...
, an epic poem celebrating, through fantastical allegory, the
Tudor dynastyThe House of Tudor was a prominent European royal house that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch Henry Tudor, descended paternally from the rulers of the Welsh principality of Deheubarth, and maternally from a legitimised branch of the English royal...
and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy.
Life
Edmund Spenser was born in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
around 1552. As a young boy, he was educated in London at the
Merchant Taylors' SchoolMerchant Taylors' School is a British boys' independent, day school, originally located in the City of London, and since 1933 located at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire ....
and matriculated as a
sizarAt Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is a student who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined job....
at
Pembroke College, CambridgePembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college has over six hundred students and fellows, and is the third-oldest college of the university. Physically, it is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from almost every century since its...
.
In July 1580 Spenser went to Ireland, in the service of the newly appointed lord deputy, Arthur Lord Grey de Wilton. Then he served with the English forces during the
Second Desmond RebellionThe Second Desmond rebellion was the more widespread and bloody of the two Desmond Rebellions launched by the Fitzgerald dynasty of Desmond in Munster, southern Ireland, against English rule in Ireland...
. After the defeat of the rebels he was awarded lands in
County CorkCounty Cork is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the province of Munster, and was named after the city of Cork...
that had been confiscated in the Munster Plantation during the
Elizabethan reconquest of IrelandThe Tudor re-conquest of Ireland took place under the English Tudor dynasty during the 16th century. Following a failed rebellion against the crown by the Geraldines in the 1530s, Henry VIII was declared King of Ireland by statute of the Irish parliament, with the aim of restoring such central...
. Among his acquaintances in the area was
Walter RaleighSir Walter Raleigh, Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall was a English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, and explorer.Raleigh was born to a Protestant family in Devon, the son of Walter Raleigh and Catherine Champernowne...
, a fellow colonist.
Through his poetry Spenser hoped to secure a place at court, which he visited in Raleigh's company to deliver his most famous work, the
Faerie Queene. However, he boldly antagonized the queen's principal secretary,
Lord BurghleyWilliam Cecil may refer to:* Lord William Cecil , British royal courtier* William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , English politician and advisor to Elizabeth I* William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Exeter , Knight of the Garter...
, and all he received in recognition of his work was a pension in 1591. When it was proposed that he receive payment of 100 pounds for his epic poem, Burghley remarked, "What, all this for a song!"
In the early 1590s, Spenser wrote a prose pamphlet titled,
A View of the Present State of Ireland. This piece remained in manuscript until its publication and print in the mid-seventeenth century. It is probable that it was kept out of print during the author's lifetime because of its inflammatory content. The pamphlet argued that Ireland would never be totally 'pacified' by the English until its indigenous language and customs had been destroyed, if necessary by violence. Spenser recommended
scorched earthA scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
tactics, such as he had seen used in the
Desmond RebellionsThe Desmond Rebellions occurred in 1569-1573 and 1579-1583 in the Irish province of Munster.....
, to create famine. Although it has been highly regarded as a polemical piece of prose and valued as a historical source on 16th century Ireland, the
View is seen today as genocidal in intent. Spenser did express some praise for the Gaelic poetic tradition, but also used much tendentious and bogus analysis to demonstrate that the Irish were descended from barbarian Scythian stock.
Later on, during the Nine Years War in 1598, Spenser was driven from his home by Irish rebels. His castle at Kilcolman, near
DoneraileDoneraile is a town in County Cork, Province of Munster, Ireland. It is located on the R581 regional road 8 km east of the N20 road which runs from Limerick to Cork. It is about 12 km north of Mallow town...
in North Cork was burned, and it is thought one of his infant children died in the blaze - though local legend has it that his wife also died. He possessed a second holding to the south, at Rennie, on a rock overlooking the river
BlackwaterThe Blackwater or Munster Blackwater is a river which flows through counties Kerry, Cork, and Waterford in Ireland. It rises in the Mullaghareirk Mountains in County Kerry and then flows in an easterly direction through County Cork, through Mallow and Fermoy...
in North Cork. The ruins of it are still visible today. A short distance away grew a tree, locally known as "Spenser's Oak" until it was destroyed in a lightning strike in the 1960s. Local legend has it that he penned some or all of
The Faerie Queene under this tree. Queen Victoria is said to have visited the tree while staying in nearby Convamore House during her state visit to Ireland before she died. In the following year Spenser traveled to London, where he died in distressed circumstances, aged forty-six. It was arranged for his coffin to be carried by other poets, upon which they threw many pens and pieces of poetry into his grave with many tears.
Spenser was admired by
William WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
,
John KeatsJohn Keats was an English poet, who became one of the key figures of the Romantic movement. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, Keats was one of the second generation Romantic poets...
, Lord Byron and Alfred Lord Tennyson, among others. The language of his poetry is purposely archaic, reminiscent of earlier works such as
The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century . The tales are contained inside a frame tale and told by a collection of pilgrims on a pilgrimage from Southwark to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral...
of
Geoffrey ChaucerGeoffrey Chaucer was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales...
, whom Spenser greatly admired.
Spenser's
Epithalamion is the most admired of its type in the English language. It was written for his wedding to his young bride, Elizabeth Boyle. The poem consists of 365 long lines, corresponding to the days of the year; 68 short lines, representing the sum of the 52 weeks, 12 months, and 4 seasons of the annual cycle; and 24 stanzas, corresponding to the diurnal and sidereal hours.
Structure of the Spenserian stanza and sonnet
Spenser used a distinctive verse form, called the
Spenserian stanzaThe Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem The Faerie Queene. Each stanza contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single 'Alexandrine' line in iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme of these lines is...
, in several works, including
The Faerie QueeneThe Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is the longest poem in the English...
. The stanza's main meter is iambic pentameter with a final line in iambic hexameter (having six feet or stresses, known as an
AlexandrineAn alexandrine is a line of poetic meter comprising 12 syllables. Alexandrines are common in the German literature of the Baroque period and in French poetry of the early modern and modern periods. Drama in English often used alexandrines before Marlowe and Shakespeare, by whom it was supplanted...
), and the rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc.
The Spenserian Sonnet is based on a fusion of elements of both the Petrarchan sonnet and the Shakespearean sonnet. It is similar to the Shakespearan sonnet in the sense that its set up is based more on the 3 quatrains and a
coupletA couplet is a pair of lines of verse. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic couplets....
,a system set up by Shakespeare; however it is more like the Petrarchan tradition in the fact that the conclusion follows from the argument or issue set up in the earlier quatrains. There is also a great use of the parody of the
blasonBlason originally comes from a heraldic term in French heraldry and means either the codified description of a coat of arms or the coat of arms itself.----The terms "blason", "blasonner", "blasonneur" were used in 16th c...
and the idealization or praise of the mistress, a literary device used by many poets. It is a way to look at a woman through the appraisal of her features in comparison to other things. In this description, the mistress's body is described part by part, i.e., much more of a scientific way of seeing one. As William Johnson states in his article "Gender Fashioning and Dynamics of Mutuality in Spenser's Amoretti," the poet-love in the scenes of Spenser's sonnets in
AmorettiAmoretti was a sonnet cycle written by Edmund Spenser in the 16th century. The cycle describes his courtship and eventual marriage to Elizabeth Boyle....
, is able to see his lover in an objectified manner by moving her to another, or more clearly, an item. The purpose of Spenser doing this is to bring the woman from the "transcendental ideal" to a woman in everyday life. "Through his use of
metonymyMetonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept. It comes from the , , "a change of name", from , , "after, beyond" and , , a suffix used to name figures of...
and
metaphorA metaphor is a figure of speech concisely comparing two things, saying that one is the other. The English metaphor derives from the 16th c...
, by describing the lady not as a whole being but as bodily parts, by alluding to centuries of topoi which remove her in time as well as space, the poet transforms the woman into a text, the living 'other' into an inanimate object" (503). The opposite of this also occurs in
The Faerie Queen. The counter-blason, or the opposition of appraisal, is used to describe Duessa. She is not objectified, but instead all of her flaws are highlighted.
Without A Rhyme or Reason
Spenser is also the man believed to have crafted the phrase "without reason or a rhyme". He was promised payment from the Queen of one hundred pounds, a so called, "reason for the rhyme". The
Lord High TreasurerThe post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer is an old English government position. The holder of the post is third highest of the Great Officers of State, ranking below the Lord High Chancellor and above the Lord President of the Council...
William CecilWilliam Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG, was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign , twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572.-Early life:Cecil was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire in...
, however, considered the sum too much. After a long while without receiving his payment, he sent her this quatrain:
I was promis'd on a time,
To have a reason for my rhyme:
But from that time unto this season,
I had neither rhyme or reason.
She immediately ordered Cecil to send Spenser his due sum.
List of works
Publication years are linked to their corresponding "[year] in poetry" articles:
- Iambicum Trimetrum
- 1569
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works published:* Stephen Bateman, The Travayled Pylgrime, translated from Olivier de La Marche's Le chevalier delibere...
: Jan van der Noot's A theatre for Worldlings, including poems translated into English by Spenser from French sources, published by Henry Bynneman in London
- 1579
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Great Britain:*Thomas Churchyard, A lamentable and pitifull Description of the wofull warres in Flanders, including two poems Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or...
: The Shepheardes CalenderThe Shepheardes Calender was Edmund Spenser's first major poetic work, published in 1579. In emulation of Virgil's first work, the Eclogues, Spenser wrote this series of pastorals to begin his career. However, Spenser's models were rather the Renaissance eclogues of Mantuanus[ M. Y. Hughes....]
, published under the pseudonym "Immerito" (entered into the Stationers' Register in December)
- 1590
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* With the encouragement of Sir Walter Ralegh, Edmund Spenser joins him on a trip to London, where Ralegh presented the celebrated poet to Queen Elizabeth I.-Works:* George Peele, Polyhymnia* Edmund...
: The Faerie QueeneThe Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is the longest poem in the English...
, Books 1–3, published in London (Books 4–6 1596— From Sir John Harington, A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, called the Metamorphosis of AjaxNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works published in English:...
, final books 1609— Last lines from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, published this year and, four centuries later, still "eternal lines"Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works:...
)
1591Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* February 25 – English Queen Elizabeth I awards Edmund Spenser a pension of 50 pounds per year for life -Great Britain:* Nicholas Breton, Brittons Bowre of Delights* Thomas Campion, Astrophel...
:
- Complaints Containing sundrie small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie (entered into the Stationer's Register in 1590), includes:
- The Ruines of Time
- The Teares of the Muses
- Virgil's Gnat
- Prosopopoia, or Mother Hubberds Tale
- Ruines of Rome: by Bellay
Joachim du Bellay was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.-Biography:He was born at the château of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers, being the son of Jean du Bellay, seigneur de Gonnor, first cousin of the cardinal Jean du Bellay and of Guillaume du Bellay.Both his...
- Muiopotmos, or the Fate of the Butterflie
- Visions of the worlds vanitie
- The Visions of Bellay
Joachim du Bellay was a French poet, critic, and a member of the Pléiade.-Biography:He was born at the château of La Turmelière, not far from Liré, near Angers, being the son of Jean du Bellay, seigneur de Gonnor, first cousin of the cardinal Jean du Bellay and of Guillaume du Bellay.Both his...
- The Visions of Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...
1592Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Great Britain:* Nicholas Breton, The Pilgrimage to Paradise...
:
- Axiochus, a translation of a pseudo-Platonic dialogue from the original Ancient Greek; published by Cuthbert Burbie; attributed to "Edw: Spenser" but the attribution is uncertain
- Daphnaïda. An Elegy upon the death of the noble and vertuous Douglas Howard, Daughter and heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and wife of Arthure Gorges Esquier (published in London in January, according to one source; another source gives 1591
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* February 25 – English Queen Elizabeth I awards Edmund Spenser a pension of 50 pounds per year for life -Great Britain:* Nicholas Breton, Brittons Bowre of Delights* Thomas Campion, Astrophel...
as the year)
1595Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works published:-Great Britain:* Anonymous, , verse paraphrase of Robert Greene's Pandosto 1588* Barnabe Barnes,...
:
- Amoretti and Epithalamion, containing:
- Astrophel. A Pastoral Elegie upon the death of the most Noble and valorous Knight, Sir Philip Sidney
Sir Philip Sidney became one of the Elizabethan Age's most prominent figures. Famous in his day in England as a poet, courtier and soldier, he remains known as the author of Astrophel and Stella , The Defence of Poetry Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) became one of the...
- Colin Clouts Come home againe
1596— From Sir John Harington, A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, called the Metamorphosis of AjaxNationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works published in English:...
:
- Fowre Hymnes dedicated from the court at Greenwich; published with the second edition of Daphnaida
- Prothalamion
Prothalamion, the commonly used name of , is a poem by Edmund Spenser , one of the important poets of the Tudor Period in England. Published in 1596 , it is a nuptial song that he composed that year on the occasion of the twin marriage of the daughters of the Earl of Worcester; Elizabeth Somerset...
- The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is the longest poem in the English...
, Books 4–6 (Books 1–3 1590Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* With the encouragement of Sir Walter Ralegh, Edmund Spenser joins him on a trip to London, where Ralegh presented the celebrated poet to Queen Elizabeth I.-Works:* George Peele, Polyhymnia* Edmund...
)
Posthumous:
- 1609
— Last lines from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, published this year and, four centuries later, still "eternal lines"Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works:...
: Two Cantos of Mutabilitie published together with a reprint of The Fairie Queene
- 1611
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Works:* Richard Brathwaite, The Golden Fleece...
: First folio edition of Spenser's collected works
- 1633: A vewe of the present state of Irelande a prose treatise on the reformation of Ireland, first published in James Ware's Ancient Irish Chronicles (Spenser's work was entered into the Stationer's Register in 1598
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-England:*Richard Barnfield:** The Encomium of Lady Pecunia; or, The Praise of Money** Poems in Divers Humours...
and circulated in manuscript but not published until it was included in this work of Ware's)
Sources
- Rust, Jennifer. "Spenser's The Faerie Queen." Saint Louis University, St. Louis. 10 October 2007.
- Johnson, William. "The struggle between good and evil in the first book of "The Faerie Queene". English Studies, Vol. 74, No. 6. (December 1993) p. 507-519.
External links
Preceded by:
John SkeltonJohn Skelton, also known as John Shelton , possibly born in Diss, Norfolk, was an English poet.-Education:...
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English Poet Laureate A Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for State occasions and other government events....
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Succeeded by:
Samuel DanielSamuel Daniel was an English poet and historian.-Biography:Daniel was born near Taunton in Somerset, the son of a music-master. He was the brother of John Daniel. Their sister Rosa was Edmund Spenser's model for Rosalind in his The Shepherd's Calendar; she eventually married John Florio...
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