is worth remembering that Raleigh, not contented with this splendid tribute to the genius of his friend, uttered his praise a second time, and in a form which, if less poetical, bears at least the mark of honesty. Here is the final couplet— "Of me no lines are loved, nor letters are of price, Of all which speak our English tongue but those of thy device." By Raleigh's invitation Spenser accompanied him to England, where he was presented to "the most High, Mighty, and Magnificent Empresse Elizabeth," to whom the first three books of the "Faerie Queene" are dedicated, "to live with the eternitie of her fame." His reception at court took place in 1589, and in the following year these books were published and received a hearty welcome. Unlike an illustrious poet of more recent times, Spenser's genius won instant recognition, and he sprung at once into the place he was entitled to hold as the successor of Chaucer, as the second English poet who had won a poetical immortality. Ten years earlier, it will be remembered, Spenser had published his "Shepherd's Calendar," so that at the age of thirty-eight he had risen to a height of fame which could scarcely be increased by any after-labour. He spent some time at court, and "The with the just remark that it labours under a serious defect. great poets of the past," he writes, "lose no whit of their glory because later poets are found worthy to share it. Petrarch in his lesser and Homer in his greater sphere, are just as illustrious since Spenser appeared as before." spent it in vain beyond gaining some experience he would willingly have been spared. "Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried To lose good days that might be better spent ; To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run, That doth his life in so long tendence spend!" Spenser returned to Ireland, to find the richest compensation for this neglect in a good wife, whose praise he has sung magnificently in the "Faerie Queene" (book vi. canto x.), and also in his immortal nuptial song. If any one wishes to know how rich this poet was in fancy, and what an ear for music he possessed, let him read and read again the "Epithalamion." What poet has ever so praised his bride? And yet, strange to say, no one knows to this day the family name of the lady who is thus honoured. We know only that her Christian name was Elizabeth, that the marriage took place in 1594, that she survived Spenser to marry a second time, and had some litigation with one of her sons. In the following year the poet again visited London, and remained there many months. On returning to Ireland he was appointed Sheriff of Cork. Two sons were born to him, and baptized with the suggestive names of Sylvanus and Peregrine. There seem also to have been other children, and of one at least we have sad mention. The great poet's days ended in gloom. In 1598 Kilcolman was attacked by the Irish rebels, sacked and burned. It is said that an infant child of Spenser's perished in the flames. The poet and his wife escaped to London, and there Spenser died shortly afterwards, in King Street, Westminster, apparently in great poverty. He was buried near Chaucer, in Westminster Abbey. "His hearse," writes Dean Stanley, was attended by poets, and mournful elegies and poems, with the pens that wrote them, were thrown into his tomb. What a funeral was that at which Beaumont, Fletcher, Jonson, and in all probability Shakespeare, attended !—what a grave, in which the pen of Shakespeare may be mouldering away!" Spenser's "Faerie Queene," which is designed "to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline," is of so great a length that a youthful student, who takes up the poem for the first time, may be tempted either to leave it unread or to rest satisfied with the perusal of such passages as are generally given in selections. He will commit a blunder in either case. Spenser demands leisure and that absolute freedom from care which is the priceless possession of the young; but the reader who has these gifts, and a love, however untutored, for the divine felicities of verse, will gain a lasting delight from the perusal of this poet. Some of the critics of the last century, writing under the slavery of classic models, have found fault with Spenser for doing what he never in tended to do. It may be readily admitted that the "Faerie Queene" wants the unity of plan which is regarded as essential to the epic. It is broken into many parts, and the design, as stated by the poet in the preface, lacks fulfilment in the verse. Prince Arthur is far too insubstantial and shadowy a personage to form the hero of the poem, and Spenser is assuredly not happy in representing his "Faerie Queene" as "glory in general and Queen Elizabeth in particular." "There are a hundred faults in this thing, and a hundred things might be said to prove them beauties," writes Goldsmith of his immortal "Vicar of Wakefield;" and a similar judgment may be passed on the "Faerie Queene." Some of these faults may be mentioned. Spenser's plan was too vast to be carried out satisfactorily, and it is probably a gain to the reader that some of the promised books were never written, or are lost. As it is, there are six books and a portion of a seventh, instead of the twelve books designed by the poet, and each book, it has been justly said, may be considered as almost amounting in quantity to an ordinary epic. The vast length of the poem is unfavourable to vigour of language and compression of thought, although sometimes the force of the style is as conspicuous as its beauty, and what the poet himself calls its "dark conceit" is an obstacle to the reader's enjoyment. On his choice of allegory something more shall be said. presently, but it may be observed here that Spen ser's explanation of his purpose in the long letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, prefixed to the work, proves that he foresaw the necessity of furnishing a key to his "dark sayings." A poem that does not tell its own story is, in a measure, defective as a work of art. Another fault due to the construction of the work is the abstract nature of the characters. Unlike Shakespeare's men and women of flesh and blood, who are as real to us as the people with whom we have clasped hands, Spenser's shadowy personages represent vices and virtues, and finely drawn though they be, lack a human interest. The adventures of his heroes, who are pledged to relieve the distresses of forlorn damsels, are the adventures of knights-errant; but the moral purpose of the poem gives to every exploit a sacred significance. Thus chivalry and religion are linked together; and Spenser's warriors are bound -as we also are bound by our baptismal vows-to resist the world, the flesh and the devil, and to continue Christ's faithful soldiers and servants unto their lives' end. But the scheme even as conceived by the author is not clearly maintained, and while pouring forth the wealth of his imagination, and revelling in splendid imagery, Spenser frequently forgets his purpose as an allegorist and moral teacher. On this point Dean Church writes so clearly that I am glad to substitute his words for my own. The poem, says Spenser's latest critic and biographer-"is really a collection of separate tales and allegories as much as the 'Arabian Nights,' or as its counterpart and |