verses heralded in the poem, written by his distinguished
friend.
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INTRODUCTION. 39
He had resigned his clerkship on the 22nd June, 1588,
and was appointed Clerk to the Council of Munster.
Although we have mentioned no previous publication,
yet it must not be concluded that this was the first poem
with which Spenser delighted hb contemporaries. Our
author was one of those extraordinary men who appear
occasionally to prove the marvellous fecundity of the human
mind. With him incessant production seemed a law of
nature; composition was but the spontaneous and un«
laboured flow of his ever teeming fancy ; an exercise neces-
sary to his healthy existence, and an ever originating source
of solace. His earliest work was his " Shepherd's Calender,"
published ten years before, a series of twelve eclogues, ap-
propriated to each month of the year, detailing the course
of his hapless passion. Within the intermediate decade
of years, he had written nine comedies, a composition called
'' The Dreams," "The Dying Pelican," " Slumber," "The
Court of Cupid ;" " Legends," probably afterwards worked
into the " Faery Queen," " Pageants," concerning which a
like conjecture has been expressed, "Sonnets," "The
Marriage Song of the Thames," Translation of Moschus's
" Idyllium of Wandering Love, " " The English Poet,"
probably a prose essay, and " Stemmata Dudleiana."
In 1591, William Ponsonby, publisher of the "Faery
Queen," brought out a volume of his minor poems. Among
these were " The Ruins of Time," a poem in ninety-seven
stanzas, bewailing the death of the Earl of Leicester. In
this piece there are a few bitter lines, which have generally
been applied to Burleigh. The occasion of the attack is
contained in a story related by Fuller, which it has been
the fashion of late to discredit. The recent discovery of
a MS. diary of a barrister from 1601 to 1603 tends,
however, to confirm the tale, which bears no internal im-
probability. On the presentation of some poems to the
Queen, we are told % that ^he ordered him a gift of £100.
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40 INTRODUCTION.
Burleigh disliking Spenser probably on political grounds,
he being protected by the party opposed to himself, ob-
served testily, "What, all this for a song?" The Queen
replied, " Then give him what is reason." Spenser waited,
but no realization of the royal bounty reached him, and
he emlH'aoed an opportunity of presenting her with a
paper, purporting to be a petition, in which were written
the following lines :
" I was promised on a time
To have reason for my rhyme ;
From that time unto this season,
I have had nor rhyme nor reason."
The device was successful, as the Queen requested the
immediate payment of the money.
In "The Tears of the Muses," a poem containing
numerous allusions to the persons and literary history of
the time, are some stanzas referring to "Our Pleasant
Willy," by whom it is supposed that Shakespeare is meant.
" Virgil's Gnat" is a free translation of the " Culex" attri-
buted to that poet. " Prosopopoia, or Mother Hubberd's
Tale" is a remarkable poem. Lying ill of a sickness pro-
duced by the excessive heats of Midsummer, some friends
gathered round him to divert him with their stories, and
among the rest a good old woman named Mother Hubberd,
who related this fable of the "Fox and the Ape." In it occur
those powerful lines, which springing from blighted hopes,
are among the most nervous that dropped from his pen.
" So pitiful a thing is suitor's state 1
Full little knowest thou that hast not tried
What hell it is in suing long to bide ;
To lose good days that might be better spent.
To waste long nights in pensive discontent;
To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow ;
To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow ;
To.have thy prince's grace, yet want her peers' ;
To have thy asking, yet wait many years ;
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INTRODUCTION. 4 1
To fret th J soul with crosses and with enures ;
To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs,
To fawn, to cronch, to wait, to ride, to run.
To spend, to give, to want, to be nndone."
"The Ruins of Rome'' by Bellay, are thirty-three
sonnets translated from the French, of no particular merit.
" Muiopotmos, or the Fate of the Butterfly/' is an allegory,
the drift of which at present is not very apparent. " Visions
of the World's Vanity," and a few sonnets completed the
list of this collection. Ponsonby, in the address to the
reader prefixed to his volume, observes that finding the
" Faery Queen" had found a favourable passage among
them, for the better increase and accomplishment of their
delight, he had collected such small poems of the same
author, as he had heard were dispersed abroad in sundry
hands, and refers to other poems in addition to those
enumerated as lost. Those, however, which were published,
and the titles of others already recapitulated, to which
frequent allusions were made in the poet's correspondence,
exhibit in their amount alone a rare industry, and an un-.
paralleled facility of composition.
We may assume — and most of the incidents in the
biography of Spenser are but assumptions, gleaned from
incidental notices of himself in his works — that he now
remained in England for a year or two- In February, 1591,
Elizabeth conferred on him a grant of £50 a-year. The
discovery of this instrument in the Chapel of the Rolls
has induced his biographers to class Spenser with the
Poets-Laureate. He held, however, a sort of intermediate
position between the old University Graduates, and the
subsequent tenants of a legally constituted office. In
January of the following year he published his "Daphnaida,"
an elegy on the death of Mrs. Arthur Gorges, and soon
afterwards he returned to Ireland. Though we fail now
to trace his proceedings from his writings, we have some
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42 INTRODUCTION.
glimpse of him through the following unpoetical documents.
In 1593, Maurice, Lord Roche, Viscount Fermoy, petitioned
the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, objecting that " one Ed-
mund Spenser, gentleman, hath lately exhibited suit against
your suppliant for three plough lands, parcels of ShanbaDy-
more, your suppliant's inheritance, before the Vice-President
of the Council of Munster, which land hath been hereto-
fore decreed for your suppliant against the said Spenser
and others, under whom he conveyed, and nevertheless
for that the said Spenser being Clerk of the County in the
said province, did assign his office unto one Nicholas Curteys,
among other agreements with covenant, that during his
life he should be free in the said office for his causes, by
occasion of which immunity he doth multiply suits against
your suppliant in the said province upon pretended title of
others." Lord Roche presented at the same time another
petition against one Callaghan, whom he therein alleges
as bis opponent, ^^by supportation and maintenance of
Edmund Spenser, gentleman, a heavy adversary unto yowc
suppliant." In a third petition the same suppliant states,
'^ that Edmund Spenser, gentleman, hath entered into three
plough-lands, parcel of Ballingerath, and disseised your
suppliant thereof, and continueth by countenance and
greatness the possession thereof, and maketh great waste
of the wood of the said land, and converteth a great deal
of corn growing thereupon to his proper use, to the
damage of the complainant of £200 sterling." Where-
unto we are informed by the Record in the Rolls Office,
the said Edmund Spenser had several days prefixed unto
him peremptorily to answer, which he neglected to do.
Wherefore, after a day of grace given on the 12th Feb-
ruary, 1594, Lord Roche was decreed his possession.
From these extracts, we may suspect that Spenser was
by no means neglectful of his rights as a proprietor, or
considerate of those of his neighbours. The plaintive,
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INTRODUCTION. 43
even querulous complaints with which his works are
studded, indicate some deficiency of moral power, and are
no assurance of the writer's gentleness or sensibility.
Such laments spring usually from a deep selfishness, which
precludes the possibility of a keen sensitiveness to the
rights of others, or a generous sympathy with suffering.
Thus Spenser encroached upon his neighbours, and never
made way in the affections of the surrounding poor, and
his memory was long held in detestation. In life he was
eminently fortunate. Starting from obscure circumstances,
he gained the affection and patronage of the noblest in
the land. The Queen was munificent in rewarding his
merit. His works were highly popular, and he escaped
all annoyance from the irritating shafts of satire, yet in one
poem he terms himself " the wofuUest man alive." He
was always complaining and always poor. So assiduous
was he in soliciting the favour of the great, as apparently
to be oblivious of the obligation and dignity of self-
reliance, and his comparative failure as a courtier over-
whelmed him with mortification.
" Poorly, poor man, he lived, poorly, poor man, he died."
So wrote Phineas Fletcher ; summing up his history in a line.
In 1595, Ponsonby published a quarto in London,
containing, with other poems, " Colin Clout*s come home
again." Colin Clout is Spenser himself, and the poem,
which is dedicated to Raleigh, is most interesting as refer-
ing to contemporary circumstances and persons. Here we
meet with the last allusion to his false but not yet forgotten
Rosalind. In the same year appeared a small duodecimo,
containing the " Amoretti," a series of eighty-eight sonnets
relating the progress of a new affection, with the " Epitha-
laraium; or, Bridal Song." After so long an interval
he again had wooed, and this time with success, as he was
married at Cork, June 11, 1594.
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44 INTRODUCTION.
The pastoral elegy of "Astrophel," devoted to the
memory of Sydney, "the pride of a proud age/' was
given to the world in 1595.
In 1596, Spenser returned to England with the three
latter books of his " Faery Queen, and in the course of
the year the whole six were published together. The
" Protholamium," and "Four Hymns," which appeared
likewise in the coxirse of the year were the last of his
publications. The two additional cantos of the "Faery
Queen" were posthumous as they were first printed in the
folio edition of 1609. His prose dialogue on the state of
Ireland, showing enlarged political knowledge and much
antiquarian learning, finished in 1596, did not see the
light till thirty-four years after his death, when Sir James
Ware published it at Dublin, with a dedication to the then
Lord-Deputy Wentworth. Some short additional poems
appeared in the collected edition of his works in 1611, and
a few sonnets have been recovered by a later editor.
The poet had returned to Ireland, and on the last day
of September, 1598, the Queen, not forgetful of her
absent flatterer, addressed a Ifetter to the Irish Governor,
recommending Spenser to be Sheriflf of Cork. In the
next month broke out the rebellion of the treacherous
Tyrone. Kilcolman was sacked and burned. The poet
fled from his* flaming home; one of his children perished
amid the havoc, and with his wife and remaining two he,
with difficulty, escaped to England. He did not long
survive this mishap, as he died Januar}^ 16, 1599, at an
inn or lodging-house in King Street, Westminster.
" A damp of wonder and amazement struck
Thetis' attendants ; many a heavy look
Followed sweet Spenser, till the thickening air
Sight's further passage stopped. A passionate tear
Fell from each nymph ; no shepherd's cheek was dry ;
A doleful dirge and mournful elegy
Flew to the shore." beowwe's pastoeals.
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INTRODUCTION. 45
He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and placed
where he wished, by the side of his favourite Chaucer.
The pall was held up by poets, who assembled round the
grave, and dropped in their farewell elegies with the pens
that wrote them, a touching tribute to his memory. The
charges of his funeral were defrayed by the Earl of Essex,
and after an interval of upwards of thirty years, his
monument was erected by Anne, Countess of Dorset.
This was restored and rectified as to dates in 1 788 at the
expense of his college at Cambridge.
Spenser was the last interpreter of those waning modes of
thought, which had once exercised so powerful an influence
through the wide extent of Christendom. With him the
romance of the mediaeval chivalry expired, and his genius
availed to immortalize the splendid euthanasia.
Samuel Daniel has been termed a volunteer laureate.
We know but little of his life, and principally acquire our
estimate of his character from the general tenor of his
writings. Through all, there runs a propriety and an
unaffected simplicity, that the " well-languaged" poet
cannot fail to be a favourite with all who have mused over
his pages. He was bom near Taunton in Somersetshire,
in the year 1562, of a father "whose faculty," to use the
quaint language of Fuller, " was a master of music, and
his harmonious mind made an impression on his son's
genius, who proved an exquisite poet. He carried in his .
christian and surname two holy prophets, his monitors, so
to qualify his raptures, that he abhorred all prophaneness.''
In 1579, he was entered as a commoner at Magdalen
Hall, Oxford, where he remained about three years, but
left without a degree. He then resided in some capacity
at Wilton, and under the patronage of the Countess of
Pembroke, sister of Sir Philip Sydney, devoted himself to
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46 INTRODUCTION.
the study of poetry and history. He was afterwards
selected by the Countess of Cumberland to superintend
the education of her daughter, the Lady Ante CliflFord.
This high-spirited and accomplished lady profited by his
advice, and was not unmindful of his memory ; and many
years afterwards, when he had long been dead, but she
had become the great Countess of Pembroke, Dorset and
Montgomery, she superintended the erection of a monu-
ment over his remains; and a likeness of the poet
accompanied a full-length portrait of herself, which hung
in one of her castles in Westmoreland. Daniel was fortunate
in his patrons. Lord Mountjoy, afterwards Earl of Devon-
shire, Lucy, Countess of Bedford, and Henry Wriothesly,
Earl of Southampton, the friend of Essex, honoured him
with their friendship, and enriched him by their munificent
regard. He was fortunate likewise in his friends, among
whom may be enumerated Sir Fulke Grevifle, Sir John
Harrington, Sir Henry Spelman, Sir Robert Cotton,
Cowell, Camden, Spenser, Jonson, Drayton and Browne.
Great names ! — ^but that was the heroic age of England.
The works of our author were varied but not volu-
minous. He wrote Masques, Tragedies, Poems and
Sonnets, and a History of England, extending to the
reign of Edward IH. His poetical efforts are deficient in
force either of imagination or passion. Their flow is
temperate and equable. His aim was to please ; and he
.seldom aspired to influence or inflame his readers. "He
wrote the * Civil Wars,' and yet had not one battle in his
book," was the depreciatory observation of Ben Jonson ;
and from this poem, which may be regarded as his most^
ambitious effort, we have selected the following favoiu^ble
specimen of his manner. It is taken from the third book,
and depicts the. captive Richard soliloquizing, on the
morning of his murder in.Pomfret Castle.
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INTRODUCTION. 47
" The morning of that day, which was his last,
After a weary rest rising to pain.
Out at a little grate his eyes he cast
Upon those bordering hills and open plain,
And views the town, and sees how people pass'd :
Where others' liberty makes him complain
The more his own, and grieves his soul the more,
Conferring captive crowns with freedom poor.
" O, happy man, saith he, that lo I see
Grazing his cattle in those pleasant fields !
If he but knew his good (how blessed he
That feels not what affliction greatness yields !)
Other than what he is he would not be,
Nor change his state with him that sceptres wields ;
Thine, thine is that true life, that is to live,
To rest secure, and not rise up to grieve.
" Thou sitt'st at home safe by thy quiet fire.
And hear'st of others' harms but feelest none,
And there thou tell'st of kings, and who aspire,
Who fall, who rise, who triumphs, who do moan ;
Perhaps thou talk'st of me, and dost inquire
Of my restraint, why here I live alone.
And pitiest this iny miserable fall ;
For pity must have part, envy not all.
'' Thrice happy you that look as from the shore,
And have no venture in the wreck you see ;
No interest, no occasion to deplore
Other men's travails, while yourselves sit free.
How much doth your sweet rest make us the more
To see our misery and what we be !
Whose blinded greatness ever in turmoil,'
Still seeking happy life, makes life a toil.
" Are kings that freedom give, themselves not free.
As meaner men to take what they may give P
What, are they of so fatal a degree.
That they cannot descend from that and live ?
Unless they still be kings, can they not be,
Nor may they their authority survive ?
Win not my yielded crown redeem my breath
Still am I fear'd P is there no way but death P"
Daniel received warm encouragement from Queen Anne,
consort of James I. He was nominated Gentleman-
Extraordinary, and afterwards one of the Grooms of her
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48 INTRODUCTION.
Privy Chamber. It was during the leisure afforded by
these offices, he composed the chief part of his history.
He likewise wrote several Masques for the entertainment
of the Court ; but gradually declined the occupation, awed
or chagrined by the superior ascendant of Ben Jonson.
When in the fervour of dramatic composition, he generally
withdrew to the seclusion of a garden residence he occupied
in Old Street in the parish of St. Luke's, then a suburban
district. Here he would remain for months together,
patiently weaving his solitary task.
Ben Jonson said of him that he " was a good honest
man, had no children and was no poet," poetical and
connubial fecundity we presume being usually associated.
His reputation, though equal to his deserts, fell far short
of what he had fondly anticipated, and he at length retired
altogether from public view. He returned to his native
county, and occupied the intervals of studious contempla-
tion, by the labours of his farm at Beckington, near
Philips-Norton. He died October 13, 1619, and was
buried in the parish church.
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BEN JONSON.
The life of Jonson has never been given to the public
in the form in which it is now presented. A short, popular
biography of this great dramatist, making accuracy and
candour its especial aim, is a novelty in our literature.
And none can sufficiently estimate the difficulty of the
task save those who have looked into the diverse and
scattered materials from which this personal history must
be drawn.
Our labours indeed are much lightened by the work of
Mr. Gilford, to whom a warm tribute is due from us for
the patience with which he has investigated the subject,
and the courage with which he has defended the character
of the poet. His edition of Jonson's works forms an
epoch in dramatic criticism, and the volimie containing the
memoir is such an introduction to them as, we venftire to
predict, will never be superseded. All former sketches of
the poet's life had more or less repeated the idle and mis-
chievous calumnies which the envy and malice of some
inferior contemporary writers had invented. To sift and
expose these was the arduous duty Mr. GifFord imposed
E
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50 BEN JONSON.
on himself, and manfully has he performed his task. But
those very qualities which, in one point of view, make his
work so valuable, seen in another, detract from its merits.
It is as full and exhaustive an account as can be gleaned
from multifarious sources — it is throughout the eloquent
defence of an able advocate determined to rescue from
unjust imputation a noble character; but the continuity
of the narrative is broken by frequent quotations, lengthened
notes, much sifting of evidence, and unsparing sarcasm
on slanderers living or dead. The object of our less
ambitious history is to give to the general reader, as
simply and briefly as we can, such incidents in the
poet's career as seem to us authentic, and such criticism
on his character and writings as our knowledge of both
may suggest.
Benjamin, or (as he himself abbreviated it) Ben Jonson,
was bom a.d. 1573. There exists some doubt about the exact
place of his nativity. FuUer tells us that, "with all his
industry he could not find him in his cradle, but that he
could fetch him from his long coats : when a little child, he
lived in Hartshorn Lane, near Ch£u;ing;^ Cross." Whether
in this street or not, we cannot ascertain, but there is
little doubt that he was born in Westminster, a month
after the death of his father/y He was of good ancestry,
his grandfather having been a man of family and
fortune, who resided first at Anandale in Scotland,
afterwards at Carlisle, and who was in the service of
Henry VIII. His son, the father of the poet, suflfered
in thfc reign of Mary, persecution for his religious opi-
nions. His estates were confiscated, and he underwent
a long imprisonment, but was liberated at the decease
of the Papist Queen. As was not unlikely, his zeal was
warmed by the sufferings it had provoked ; for, upon his
quitting prison, he at once entered holy orders, and
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BEN JONSON. 51
became, as Antony Wood assures us, " a grave minister
of the Gospel."*
To school in the Church of St. Martin's in the Fields,
Master Benjamin was sent, when his years were ripe
enough to fit him for instruction in the first rudiments of
knowledge. We know little or nothing of his boyhood
and school careerTy' If " the boy is father to the man" —
we have no doubt that young Jonson learned his lessons
with rapidity, entered into his games with zest, pro-
voked occasional chastisement for insubordination, fought
his battles with courage, and was a leader among his
peers. What promise he gave of his future greatness,
we know not; but his aptitude for learning, and a
consideration for his good ancestry, raised him up a
friend who generously sent him to Westminster School.
The great Camden was then second master there, and
although Ben Jonson reached the sixth form, over
which the head master. Grant, presided, we have no
mention of him in Jonson's writings; while Camden,
who seems to have befriended the schoolboy, is always
spoken of with aflfection. In an epigram, written many
years afler, the poet thus speaks of him :
'* Thau thee the age sees not that thing more grave,
More high, more holy, that she more would craye.
What name, what skill, what faith hast thou in things.
What sight in searching the most antique springs !
What weight and what authority in thy speech !
Men scarce can make that doubt but thou canst teach.
* Mr. Malone, Mr. Gifford, Barry Cornwall and many others have stated
that Jonson's mother married Mr. Thomas Fowler, a master-bricklayer.
They have all blundered more or less. Mr. Payne Collier has shown in a
note, the materials of which were supplied by Mr. Peter Cunningham, that
Mrs. Margaret Fowler was dead in 1595, whereas Jonson's mother was
living after the production of " Eas^ard Hoe," — and we agree with Mr.
Collier, that " if Ben Jonson's mother married a second time we have yet to
ascertain who was her second husband."
E 2
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52 BEN JONSON.
Pardon free truth, and let thy modesty.
Which conquers all, be once o'ercome by thee.
Many of thine this better could than I,
But for their powers, accept my piety/*
In " The King's Entertainment," Jonson calls him " the
glory and light of the kingdom," and mentions him
eulogistically in " The Masque of Queens." But his
most graceful tribute of gratitude to his revered teacher
is the dedication of "Every Man in his Humour" to
Camden, thus for ever associating with the most lasting
monument of his own fame, the name of the man who had
been in the morning of life his " guide, philosopher, and
friend." It was first printed when he collected his works
in 1616, and runs, as follows :
"To the most learned, and my most honoured friend,
Master Camden, Clarencieux —
"Sir — ^There are no doubt a supercilious race in the
world who will esteem all office done you in this kind, an