stances of his courtship and marriage is, that the name of his mistress was Elizabeth, and that the nuptial ceremony was performed in Ireland, on St. Barnabas's day. Mr. Todd, apparently on good grounds, fixes upon the year 1594, as being that in which Spenser became a husband. At least three children were the fruits of this union, two of whom, Silvanus and Peregrine, survived their father.

With the double purpose, perhaps, of soliciting the court, and of superintending the printing of the works which he had prepared for the press, Spenser, in 1596, again visited England. The dedication to his Four Hymns on Love and Beauty, is dated from Greenwich, on the first of September. About the same period he likewise printed his Prothalamion, on the marriage of ladies Elizabeth and Catherine Somerset. But the crowning labour of the year was the publication of the second part of The Fairy Queen, which was sent forth along with a new edition of the former part.

To complete the poem, six books are yet wanting. It has been a subject of warm dispute, whether those books were composed or not. On one side, it has been positively affirmed, that they were finished, and that they were lost by a servant on his passage from Ireland; and this, on the other side, has been no less positively denied. Two imperfect cantos, “Of Mutabilitie,” as a part of a lost book, entitled The Legend of Constancy,” were given to the public in 1609; and their beauty is such as to excite deep regret that no more could be found. However apocryphal may be the story told respecting the servant, it is certain that some of Spenser's manuscripts were destroyed, when his mansion was burned; and it is more than probable that among them might be considerable portions of the concluding books of The Fairy Queen. Some of the disputants upon this

question have argued as if such a poem must necessarily be written strait forward; an absurd idea, which does not merit refutation. When his plan is once drawn out, and especially when, as in this case, the work consists of a series of narratives slightly connected with each other, no reason can be assigned why the poet may not, at pleasure, labour as well on the final as on the initial cantos.

To the year 1596, and to that part of it during which he resided in England, must be referred the composition, or at least the completion, of Spenser's View of the State of Ireland. More praise is due to the talent displayed in this tract than to its moderation or justice. Ireland has no cause to venerate the memory of Spenser. His work breathes almost throughout a spirit of rancour against that misgoverned and unhappy country. Perhaps it was as a reward for this work that, about this time, he was appointed Clerk of the Council of Munster, the yearly profits of which office were estimated at twenty pounds. If so, he does not seem to have been satisfied with his recompense; for, in the "Prothalamion," he talks of his "sullen care," occasioned by his "long fruitless stay in princes' court, and expectation vain of idle hope."

He returned to Ireland in 1597; and, in the following year, was on the point of being raised to the honourable situation of sheriff of Cork, when the storm of misfortune burst upon him with unexpected and overwhelming fury. The rebellion of Tyrone broke out in October, 1598, and one of the first consequences of it was, that the hapless poet was compelled to fly with such precipitancy that one of his infants was left behind. After having plundered the castle, the rebels destroyed it by fire, and the child perished in the flames. Spenser fled to England, but his heart was broken, and he expired on the six

teenth of the following January. He died in Kingstreet, Westminster, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, at the charge of the earl of Essex. Thirty years after his decease, a monument was erected to his memory by Anne, countess of Dorset*.

It has been imagined that Spenser died in a state of poverty, if not of absolute want. For this belief there seems to be no other foundation than the exaggerated language used by some of his poetical encomiasts. That, by the sudden loss of his property, he was much embarrassed, there can be little doubt; but it is not to be credited, that, even supposing him to have saved nothing from the wreck in Ireland, his many powerful friends would suffer him to feel the pressure of want; and he had, besides, the certain resource of the pension which his sovereign had bestowed on him.

The erudition of Spenser was superior to that of any of his contemporaries; his moral character appears to have been unstained; and, though little information has been handed down to us respecting his private life, it is obvious that he who was so extensively beloved, who had, indeed, no enemies, and who was warmly praised even by those who might have been tempted to envy him as a successful rival, must have been no less estimable for his social virtues, than remarkable for the vast extent of his learning, the vigour of his intellect, and the splendor of his genius.

The character of Spenser, as a poet, is drawn by

* The following is a list of the lost works of Spenser His translation of Ecclesiastes; of Canticum Canticorum; The Dying Pelican; The Hours of our Lord; The Sacrifice of a Sinner; The Seven Psalms; Dreams; The English Poet; Legends; The Court of Cupid; The Hell of Lovers ; His Purgatory; A Sennight's Slumber; Pageants; Nine Comedies; Stemmata Dudleiana; Epithalamion Thamesis.

Mr. Campbell in so masterly a manner, and so entirely agrees with my opinion on the subject, that the reader will doubtless thank me for quoting it, rather than expressing the same sentiments in less graceful language.

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"Among the numerous poets belonging exclusively to Elizabeth's reign, Spenser stands without a class and without a rival. He brought to the subject of 'The Fairy Queen,' a new and enlarged structure of stanza, elaborate and intricate, but well contrived for sustaining the attention of the ear, and concluding with a majestic cadence. In the other poets of Spenser's age we chiefly admire their language, when it seems casually to advance into modern polished succinctness. But the antiquity of Spenser's style has a peculiar charm. The mistaken opinion that Ben Jonson censured the antiquity of the diction in the Fairy Queen' has been corrected by Mr. Malone, who pronounces it to be exactly that of his contemporaries. His authority is weighty; still, however, without reviving the exploded error respecting Jonson's censure, one might imagine the difference of Spenser's style from that of Shakspeare's, whom he so shortly preceded, to indicate that his gothic subject and story made him lean towards words of the elder time. At all events, much of his expression is now become antiquated, though it is beautiful in its antiquity, and like the moss and ivy on some majestic building, covers the fabric of his language with romantic and venerable associations.

"His command of imagery is wide, easy, and luxuriant. He threw the soul of harmony into our verse, and made it more warmly, tenderly, and magnificently descriptive, than it ever was before, or, with a few exceptions, than it has ever been since. It must certainly be owned, that in description he exhibits nothing of the brief strokes and robust power which

characterise the very greatest poets; but we shall no where find more airy expansive images of visionary things, a sweeter tone of sentiment, or a finer flush in the colours of language, than in this Rubens of English poetry. His fancy teems exuberantly in minuteness of circumstance, like a fertile soil sending bloom and verdure through the utmost extremity of the foliage which it nourishes. On a comprehensive view of the whole work, we certainly miss the charm of strength, symmetry, and rapid or interesting progress; for, though the plan which the poet designed is not completed, it is easy to see that no additional cantos could have rendered it less perplexed. But still there is a richness in his materials, even where their coherence is loose, and their disposition confused. The clouds of his allegory may seem to spread into shapeless forms, but they are still the clouds of a glowing atmosphere. Though his story grows desultory, the sweetness and grace of his manner still abide by him. He is like a speaker whose tones continue to be pleasing, though he may speak too long; or like a painter who makes us forget the defect of his design, by the magic of his colouring. We always rise from perusing him with melody in the mind's ear, and with pictures of romantic beauty impressed on the imagination.

"For these attractions the 'Fairy Queen' will ever continue to be resorted to by the poetical student. It is not, however, very popularly read, and seldom, perhaps, from beginning to end, even by those who can fully appreciate its beauties. This cannot be ascribed merely to its presenting a few words which are now obsolete; nor can it be owing, as has been sometimes alleged, to the tedium inseparable from protracted allegory. Allegorical fable may be made very entertaining. With every disadvantage of dress and language, the humble John Bunyan has made this species of writing very amusing. *** "

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