Brief history of edmund spenser

Here, he became a friend of Gabriel Harvey, although they had differing views on poetry. Inhe published The Shepheardes Calender. However, when Lord Grey was recalled to England, Spenser stayed on in Ireland, because, by this time, he had acquired other official posts and lands in the Munster Plantation. He remained in Ireland for almost all of his following years.

Sometime between andSpenser acquired his main estate at Kilcolman, near Doneraile in North Cork. He later bought a second holding to the south, at Rennie, on a rock overlooking the river Blackwater in North Cork, where its ruins are still visible today. It is thought that he wrote some of The Faerie Queene under this tree. Spenser published the first three books of his most famous work, The Faerie Queene, in This work, entitled Ruines of Rome: by Bellay, may also have been influenced by Latin poems on the same subject.

Spenser married his first wife, Machabyas Childe, inaround the same time he published The Shepheardes Calender. Together, they had two children, Sylvanus and Katherine. A Tale of a Tuba prose parody by Jonathan Swift. They fight over a coat that their father left them—symbolic of the Bible that God gives mankind—until it is left in tatters that none of them can use.

Everyman c. In this perfect example of the genre, the title character, Every-man, receives a summons from Death, but Good Deeds is the only one of his friends—the others include Fellowship, Kindred, Worldly Goods, Beauty—who can go along with him to the final meeting. In this allegory, set in Puritan New Englanda young man has his faith tested during a late-night walk in the woods.

Berger, Harry, Jr. Spenser: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Bloom, Harold, Ed. Modern Critical Views: Edmund Spenser. New York : Chelsea House, Representing Ireland: Literature and the Origins of Conflict, — Cavanagh, Sheila T. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Vondersmith, eds.

Contemporary Thought on Edmund Spenser. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, Essential Articles for the Study of Edmund Spenser. Hamden, Conn. Hamilton, Donald Cheney, W. Blissett, David A. Richardson, and William W. Barker, eds. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, Hieatt, A. Hume, Anthea. Edmund Spenser: Protestant Poet.

Johnson, Lynn Staley. The Life of Edmund Spenser. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, Edmund Spenser ca. Famous as the author of the unfinished epic poem The Faerie Queene, he is the poet of an ordered yet passionate Elizabethan world. Edmund Spenser was a man of his times, and his work reflects the religious and humanistic ideals as well as the intense but critical patriotism of Elizabethan England.

His contributions to English literature —in the form of a heightened and enlarged poetic vocabulary, a charming and flexible verse style, and a rich fusing of the philosophic and literary currents of the English Renaissance—entitle him to a rank not far removed from that of William Shakespeare and John Milton. Spenser was the son of a London tailor, but his family seems to have had its origins in Lancashire.

The poet was admitted to the newly founded Merchant Taylors' School about as a "poor scholar. The curriculum at Mulcaster's school included Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; music and drama were stressed; and the English language was also a subject of study—then a novelty. In Spenser went to Cambridge, where he entered Pembroke College as a sizar a student who earns his tuition by acting as a servant to wealthy students.

He spent 7 years at the university, gaining his bachelor of arts degree in and his master of arts degree in Records of the period reveal that Spenser's health was poor but that he had an excellent reputation as a student. He studied Italian, French, Latin, and Greek; read widely in classical literature and in the poetry of the modern languages; and authored some Latin verse.

At Cambridge, Spenser came to know Gabriel Harvey, lecturer in rhetoric and man of letters, who proved to be a faithful and long-term friend and adviser. Among his fellow students were Lancelot Andreweslater a learned theologian and bishop, and Edward Kirke, a future member of Spenser's poetic circle. After completing his studies, Spenser seems to have spent some time in Lancashire, possibly with his relatives.

This sojourn in the north increased his familiarity with the northern dialect, which later exerted a considerable influence on the language of The Shepherd's Calendar. Shortly after leaving the university, Spenser also spent time in the service of the powerful Earl of Leicester, regarded as the head of the Puritan faction in the government.

Some hints in Spenser's correspondence and in his published works suggest that he may have traveled as an envoy for Leicester to Ireland, Spain, France, and Italy. In any case, in Spenser was named secretary to the former master of his college, John Young, now bishop of Rochester. Spenser probably composed the major part of The Shepherd's Calendar at Rochester.

By EasterSpenser was back in London, in daily contact with Gabriel Harvey and Edward Kirke, and much involved in literary discussions, especially those about Harvey's project of introducing classical Latin and Greek nonrhyming meters into English verse. By now Spenser had written a considerable quantity of poetry, but he had published nothing. Upon the advice of his friends he decided to make his literary debut with The Shepherd's Calendarwhich he dedicated to Sidney.

This work, consisting of 12 pastoral eclogues, uses the pastoral conventions as vehicles of allegorical and satirical allusions to contemporary political and religious problems, as well as to the poet's own life and loves. The work is especially important for its naturalization in English of a variety of poetic forms—dirges, complaints, paeans—and for its attempt to enrich the English poetic vocabulary through foreign borrowings and through the use of archaic and dialect words.

Allusions and letters from this period of Spenser's life show that he was busy with a variety of literary projects. Spenser was already at work on The Faerie Queene and on a number of the poems eventually collected in his Complaints. Meanwhile, he was also studying law and hoping for a place in diplomacy or civil service. His efforts were rewarded inwhen, through the influence of the Earl of Leicester, he was named secretary to Lord Grey, the new lord deputy of Ireland.

That same year Spenser accompanied Grey to Dublin. Ireland was to remain Spenser's home for the rest of his life. Grey was recalled inbut Spenser remained, holding a variety of government posts and participating at first in the cultivated life of Dublin Anglo-Irish society. Increasingly, however, the poet's financial interests and administrative duties took him to Munster southern Ireland.

In he leased Kilcolman Castle in County Cork, and he lived there after For some years Spenser had been working on The Faerie Queene. By three books were complete. When Sir Walter Raleigh visited the poet in the early autumn of that year, Raleigh was so impressed with this work that he took Spenser with him back to England. In November they arrived in London; and early in the following year the first three books of Spenser's most famous work were published, with an elaborate dedication to Queen Elizabeth I.

His plan was to compose 12 books, each concerned with one of the 12 moral virtues as classified by Aristotle. Each of these virtues was to be embodied in a knight. Thus the poem would combine elements of the romance of chivalry, the handbook of manners and morals, and the national epic. The Faerie Queene can be read on various levels: as an allegory of the eternal struggle between good and evil in every form; as a poetic statement of an ethical system; and as a historical allegory portraying the struggle between the pure Protestant traditions of England and the manifold threats of England's Roman Catholic neighbors.

Allusions to contemporary political and religious controversies are numerous. The philosophy underlying Spenser's epic combines three strands. Platonism, which as seen through the eyes of Renaissance commentators stressed the harmony between love and beauty on the human and divine levels, is blended with the less imaginative and more concrete Aristotelianism of the scholastic tradition, with its disciplined analysis and careful reflection on the moral life, which Spenser had probably learned in school.

These two elements are penetrated by a strong Calvinistic Christianity, stressing man's weakness, his need for a strict moral life, and the total dependence of humanity on the atonement of Christ. Thus the work itself is a fine example of an attempted synthesis between the traditions of Christianity and those of classical antiquity that characterizes all the best productions of the Renaissance.

Spenser's style is distinctively his own: he attempted to create a remote, old-fashioned atmosphere through the use of archaic diction, strange neologisms, and forgotten terms of chivalry. Yet, because of his clear and straightforward syntax, few of his passages are obscure, even to a modern reader. For his verse form, Spenser created a new stanza which has since been often imitated in English literature.

It consists of nine lines, eight lines of iambic pentameter concluding with an Alexandrine iambic hexameterarranged in the rhyme scheme ababbcbcc. The harmonious and orderly movement of this Spenserian stanza fits the slow, ample, and cumulative pace of the whole work. The publication of the first three books of The Faerie Queene met with much acclaim.

Spenser remained in London for more than a year, enjoying fame and making many friends; but he did not succeed in attaining a sufficiently lucrative post in the home government. Spenser was now by no means a poor man, and his wealth was increased by the substantial annual pension that was the reward for his poem. But in courtly circles he was a decidedly minor figure.

Inprobably in the spring, Spenser brief history of edmund spenser to Ireland, famous but disappointed. Before leaving London, Spenser prepared for publication a collection of minor poems under the title of Complaints. A hint of Spenser's mood at this time might have been expressed in this volume's subtitle: Sundry Small Poems of the World's Vanity.

However, most of its contents had been composed years before. The most important of the poems in this volume is "Mother Hubberd's Tale," a satire that had gained notoriety a decade earlier. The work is important not only because of its political implications but also because of its express and able use of medieval English sources and conventions.

Its plot is drawn from William Caxton 's translation of the French beast allegory Renard the Fox, and its verse and narrative style betray clear Chaucerian influences. Also included in the Complaints were revised and enlarged versions of Spenser's youthful translations from Joachim du Bellay and Petrarch; a poem entitled "The Ruins of Time" celebrating the family of the Earl of Leicester and Sir Philip Sidney ; and another called "Tears of the Muses," brief history of edmund spenser lamented the poverty and neglect suffered by poets.

Somewhat lighter in tone is "Virgil's Gnat," a free translation of the Culex, a humorous ancient poem attributed to Virgil. In this work Spenser tells allegorically of his discomfiture resulting from the adverse political reactions to "Mother Hubberd's Tale. Late inafter returning to Ireland, Spenser wrote the greater part of "Colin Clout's Come Home Again," an idealized poetic autobiography dedicated to Raleigh.

It ranks as one of Spenser's most charming poems, narrating in the allegorical terms of the then popular pastoral convention the story of his reception in London and his impressions mostly negative of court life. Shortly afterward Spenser compiled a collection of poems dedicated to the memory of Sir Philip Sidney. To this collection he contributed the first elegy, "Astrophel.

His sonnet sequence "Amoretti" and his "Epithalamion" together form an imaginatively enhanced poetic chronicle of his courtship and marriage. Some of the "Amoretti" sonnets were probably written earlier, but Spenser intended this collection to represent the fluctuations and the emotions of his love for his wife. Written in frequent imitation of such French and Italian sonneteers as Philippe Desportes and Torquato TassoSpenser's sonnets, representing one of the most popular poetic forms of his period, are graceful if not great.

However, his "Epithalamion" is generally acknowledged to rank among the greatest love poems in English. In this poem a lover's passion blends with a deeply religious sensibility, calling upon both classical myth and medieval legend to create an intricate pattern of allusions and evocations. Late in Spenser returned to London, again staying for more than a year.

He published during this visit to the capital three more books of The Faerie Queene; the "Prothalamion," written to celebrate the double wedding of two daughters of the Earl of Worcester; and the "Four Hymns," poems that concern his Platonic conceptions of love and beauty. During this stay he seems also to have composed or at least to have revised his View of the Present State of Ireland, a prose tract in which he defended the policies of his earlier patron, Lord Grey, in dealing with rebellious Irish subjects and in which he proposed a program for first subjugating the Irish people and then reforming their government on the model of the English administrative system.

Surprisingly, this pamphlet, so in tune with much of governmental opinion, did not receive permission for publication during Spenser's lifetime and was first published in Spenser seems to have returned to Ireland sometime in and to have resumed his work on The Faerie Queene. Two more cantos of a succeeding book were published posthumously inbut most of what he wrote in these years has been lost.

Spenser was temporarily without political office, but in September he was named sheriff of Cork. He had hardly taken control of that office before, in October of the same year, the Earl of Tyrone's rebellion, a generalized revolt of the Irish people, broke out in Munster. Spenser's castle was burned, and the poet was forced to flee with his family, which now included four young children.

In December the provincial governor sent Spenser as a messenger to Queen Elizabeth. He arrived in the capital at the end ofmuch weakened by the hardships of the preceding months. Spenser presented his messages to the Queen, together with a personal statement reiterating his position on the Irish question. Soon after his arrival he became seriously ill, and he died in London on Jan.

Spenser was buried near other poets in Westminster Abbey. Jones, A Spenser Handbookis still useful as a general introduction to the works. A thorough biographical study by Alexander C. A work on Spenser's reputation through the centuries is William R. Mueller, ed. Waldo F. For general background see S. Spenser's life and the subject of biography, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, Waller, Gary F.

Martin's Press, Known to his contemporaries as the "prince of poets," Edmund Spenser was widely admired for both his writing and his actions. Courteous, devout, and loyal to the Protestant cause and to Elizabeth I —; see entryhe served the English government in several brief history of edmund spenser jobs. He read extensively and wrote some of the most important poems in the English language.

He is best known for his epic, The Faerie Queene. An epic is a long poem telling the story of a hero's deeds. This rich and complex work is an allegory, or symbolic representation, of both the eternal struggle between good and evil and the more specific struggle between Protestantism in England and the threats it endured from rival Catholic nations.

Edmund Spenser was born into a London family of modest means. Few facts about his early life are available, but historians believe it is likely that his father worked as a cloth maker. There were several children in the family and money was scarce, but because Spenser showed exceptional intelligence his parents arranged for him to receive a good education.

At age nine he began attending the Merchant Taylor's School in London on scholarship. He studied Latin, Greek, and possibly Hebrew, as well as music and drama. He paid his tuition by working as a sizar—a student who was paid to wait on wealthier students. Though he was often ill, Spenser was known as an excellent student. He mastered Italian, French, Latin, and Greek; studied classical literature, or the literature of ancient Greece and Rome; and extensively read the poetry of modern languages.

He even wrote his own poems in Latin. He received his bachelor of arts degree in and his master of arts degree in After leaving Cambridge Spenser visited relatives who lived in Lancashire, in northern England. He became particularly interested in the region's unique dialect of English. Dialect is the language used by people of a particular region.

His dialect studies influenced his use of language in his later poem, The Shepheard's Calendar. Around this time Spenser also served Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester; —; see entryone of the England's most powerful leaders and the queen's closest friend. There is some evidence to suggest that Dudley sent Spenser on diplomatic errands to Ireland, Spain, France, and Italy.

In Spenser became secretary to the bishop of Rochester, John Young, who had been master headmaster; presiding officer at Pembroke College. In early Spenser returned to London, where he spent much time with literary friends including Gabriel Harvey, Edward Kirke, and Philip Sidney —; see entry. These friends encouraged Spenser to begin publishing his poetry.

That year he published The Shepheard's Calendara work containing twelve poems in the pastoral tradition. Pastoral poetry idealized country life, especially the lives of shepherds and shepherdesses. The Shepheard's Calendarwhich Spenser dedicated to Sidney, became the most important example of the pastoral poem in English. Spenser published The Shepheard's Calendar under the pseudonym Immerito, which means "unworthy.

The twelve poems in The Shepheard's Calendar corresponded to the twelve months of the year, and expressed the typical themes of pastoral works: regret for a lost golden age of pure love, art, and morality, and sadness that the poet's own time fell short of these ideals. The Shepheard's Calendar employed a wide variety of poetic forms, including songs of praise, laments which express griefand complaints which express the poet's sadness, often about unreturned love.

Brief history of edmund spenser

It also showed Spenser's love of the English languagewith its fascinating dialects and its ability to absorb foreign terms. As James E. Despite his success with publication of The Shepheard's CalendarSpenser realized he could not support himself solely by writing. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he did not live long enough to see the full ramifications of the Renaissance developments that would radically change the prevailing paradigms in both science and philosophy during the course of the seventeenth century.

Moreover, he was a man of low birth who spent most of his life away from Londonin the intellectual backwaters of England. His own reading interests lay primarily in more ancient texts than most of the writers of his time. Spenser is a vital link between the earlier centuries of Middle English in the Middle Agesand what would become the early modern era of English literature.

Spenser absorbed all of the major writers of the previous two hundred years, including Chaucer, and Petrarch, and the Troubadourscreating a style and oeuvre that was immediately popular and apprehensible, making him one of the major figures some would argue the major figure, even greater than Shakespeare of English literature after the sixteenth century.

Spenser was born circaand educated in London at the Merchant Taylors' School. He went to Ireland in the s, during the Elizabethan reconquest of the country, to acquire land and wealth. From tohe served with the English forces during the second of the Desmond Rebellions, and afterwards was awarded lands in Cork that had been confiscated from the rebels in the Munster Plantation.

Among his acquaintances in the area was Sir Walter Raleigh who, like Spenser, had been granted land in Munster. Edmund Spenser, through his poetry, hoped to achieve a secure place at court but partly as a result of foolishly antagonizing Lord Burghley received only a pension in in recognition of his efforts. For most of his life he lived in Ireland, bitter toward not only the English court but to the Irish as well, whose culture Spenser disliked.

Although it was not published in Spenser's lifetime due to its inflammatory nature, this piece became quite famous after its publication in the mid-seventeenth century. The pamphlet argued that Ireland would never be totally 'pacified' until its indigenous language and customs had been destroyed, by violence if necessary. He recommended using scorched earth tactics, such as he had seen used in the Desmond Rebellions, to create famine.

Although it has been highly regarded as a polemical piece of prose and valued as a historical source on sixteenth-century Ireland, the genocidal intent of the essay is now generally recognized. He also utilized Ireland's Celtic tradition for poetic source material. Spenser was driven from his home by Irish rebels during the Nine Years War in He died in The first poem to earn Spenser notability was a collection of eclogues called The Shepheardes Calendar, written from the point of view of various shepherds throughout the months of the year.

The poem is an allegory symbolizing the state of humanity. This story seems to have attached itself to Spenser from Thomas Churchyardwho apparently had difficulty in getting payment of his pension, the only other pension Elizabeth awarded to a poet. Spenser seems to have had no difficulty in receiving payment when it was due as the pension was being collected for him by his publisher, Ponsonby.

The Shepheardes Calender is Edmund Spenser's first major work, which appeared in Although all the months together form an entire year, each month stands alone as a separate poem. Spenser's masterpiece is the epic poem The Faerie Queene. The first three books of The Faerie Queene were published inand the brief history of edmund spenser set of three books was published in Spenser originally indicated that he intended the poem to consist of twelve books, so the version of the poem we have today is incomplete.

Despite this, it remains one of the longest poems in the English language. In a completely allegorical context, the poem follows several knights in an examination of several virtues. In Spenser's "A Letter of the Authors", he states that the entire epic poem is "cloudily enwrapped in allegorical devises", and that the aim behind The Faerie Queene was to "fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline".

Spenser published numerous relatively short poems in the last decade of the 16th century, almost all of which consider love or sorrow. Inhe published Complaintsa collection of poems that express complaints in mournful or mocking tones. Four years later, inSpenser published Amoretti and Epithalamion. This volume contains eighty-eight sonnets commemorating his courtship of Elizabeth Boyle.

In AmorettiSpenser uses subtle humour and parody while praising his beloved, reworking Petrarchism in his treatment of longing for a woman. It was written for his wedding to his young bride, Elizabeth Boyle. Some have speculated that the attention to disquiet, in general, reflects Spenser's personal anxieties at the time, as he was unable to complete his most significant work, The Faerie Queene.

In the following year, Spenser released Prothalamiona wedding song written for the daughters of a duke, allegedly in hopes to gain favour in the court. Spenser used a distinctive verse form, called the Spenserian stanzain several works, including The Faerie Queene. The stanza's main metre is iambic pentameter with a final line in iambic hexameter having six feet or stresses, known as an Alexandrineand the rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc.

In a Spenserian sonnet, the last line of every quatrain is brief history of edmund spenser with the first line of the next one, yielding the rhyme scheme ababbcbccdcdee. The poet presents the concept of true beauty in the poem. He addresses the sonnet to his beloved, Elizabeth Boyle, and presents his courtship. Like all Renaissance men, Edmund Spenser believed that love is an inexhaustible source of beauty and order.

In this Sonnet, the poet expresses his idea of true beauty. The physical beauty will finish after a few days; it is not a permanent beauty. He emphasises beauty of mind and beauty of intellect. He considers his beloved is not simply flesh but is also a spiritual being. The poet opines that he is beloved born of heavenly seed and she is derived from fair spirit.

The poet states that because of her clean mind, pure heart and sharp intellect, men call her fair and she deserves it. At the end, the poet praises her spiritual beauty and he worships her because of her Divine Soul. Though Spenser was well-read in classical literature, scholars have noted that his poetry does not rehash tradition, but rather is distinctly his.

This individuality may have resulted, to some extent, from a lack of comprehension of the classics. Spenser strove to emulate such ancient Roman poets as Virgil and Ovidwhom he studied during his schooling, but many of his best-known works are notably divergent from those of his predecessors. An Anglican [ 28 ] and a devotee of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth, Spenser was particularly offended by the anti-Elizabethan propaganda that some Catholics circulated.

Like most Protestants near the time of the Reformation, Spenser saw a Catholic church full of corruption, and he determined that it was not only the wrong religion but the anti-religion. This sentiment is an important backdrop for the battles of The Faerie Queene. Among his contemporaries Walter Raleigh wrote a commendatory poem to The Faerie Queene in in which he claims to admire and value Spenser's work more so than any other in the English language.

John Milton in his Areopagitica mentions "our sage and serious poet Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas ".