poet introduces his connection with the family. "The causes, for which ye have thus deserved of me to be honoured, (if honour it be at all,) are, both your particular bounties, and also some private bands of affinitie which it hath pleased your Ladiship to acknowledge." This Lady married Ferdinando, Lord Strange, who, by his father's death, became Earl of Derby in 1592. He died of poison April 16. 1594. He is lamented under the name of Amyntas in Colin Clouts come home again; in the subsequent account of which poem I shall notice his accomplishments and his misfortune. He left by this Lady three daughters his coheirs. Spenser, speaking of her widowhood, represents her as u freed from Cupids yoke by fate; “Since which she doth new bands adventure dread: " She conquered these poetical fears, however; and became in 1600 the third wife to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, afterwards Baron of Ellesmere, and Viscount Brackley; by whom she had no issue. John, the only surviving son of the Lord Keeper by his first wife, married the Lady Frances, the second daughter of the Lady then his step-mother; and, almost immediately after the death of his father, was advanced to the Earldom of Bridgewater; an honour, which at the distance of about a century was elevated in his descendants to a Dukedom; but, in consequence of the late Duke dying unmarried, has returned to its original rank in the person of the Right Hon. John William Egerton, the present Earl; the amiableness of whose disposition, and the moral influence of whose publick and private character, will still further endear to society the honourable names of those who are thus connected with the history of Spenser, and whose family also has been celebrated by the muse of Milton. The mask or poem written by Milton, entitled Arcades, further illustrates the account of the Lady, to whose patronage Spenser acknowledges his obligations. The Lord Keeper and the Lady jointly purchased the seat, called Harefield place, in Middlesex. Here, in the autumn of 1602, they were honoured with a visit by the Queen; who was received with all the accustomed pageantry of elder days; and, on her departure, was addressed with a farewell speech, and with the present of an anchor jewell, by "the place of Harvile personified, attired in black." And here the Arcades was performed, long after the death of her husband, by persons of her own family, the children (it is conjectured) of the Earl of Bridgewater; on whose account the inimitable mask of Comus also was composed, and by some of them represented. Before I pass to the consideration of Virgils Gnat, which follows the Teares of the Muses; it is necessary to observe that these tears or declamations, however elegant, present a melancholy picture of fancied or real discouragements to learning as then existing; which circumstance I shall further notice in the account of Mother Hubberds Tale. b To the Teares of the Muses succeeds the translation of Virgils Gnat, LONG SINCE dedicated, as Spenser tells us, to the Earl of Leicester. The Dedication mentions an enigmatical wrong, which Spenser pretends to have received; and of which I do not consider myself the Oedipus, whom the poet challenges, to unfold the meaning. Mr. Upton conjectures this wrong, resulting from the Earl of Leicester's displeasure, to have been "owing to some kind of officious sedulity in Spenser, who much desired to see his patron married to the queen of England. The historians are full of the Queen's particular attachments to the Earl. She expressed, says Camden, such an inclination towards him, that some have imputed her regard to the influence of the stars. Melvil says, in his Memoirs, that queen Elizabeth freely declared that, had she ever designed to have married, her inclinations would have led her to make choice of him for a husband. • Collins's Peerage, Art. Earls of Derby, vol. 2. p. 470. edit. 1768. "Colin Clouts come home again, ver. 566. Ibid. ▾ Collins, ut supr. p. 471. And MS. Pedigree of the Egerton family in the possession of the present Earl of Bridgewater. Ibid. Lysons's Middlesex, p. 108, &c. y Lodge's Illustr. of Brit. Hist. vol. 3. p. 132. Talbot Papers, vol. 4. p. 43. See the edition of Milton published in 1801, vol. 5. p. 146. &c. Ibid. p 194-204. Preface to his edition of the Faerie Queene, pp. xvi. xvii. For onely worthy you, through prowess priefe, (Yf living man mote worthie be,) to be her liefe.-Faer. Qu. i. ix. 17. d And, according to my plan, with respect to the historical allusions in the Faerie Queene, Prince Arthur means the Earl of Leicester."-Possibly the Earl's displeasure might have been excited, in consequence of Spenser's pleading in behalf of archbishop Grindal, who is " believed to have incurred the Earl's enmity on account of his determination to prosecute an Italian physician, whom Leicester wished to protect, as a bigamist. The next composition, in the Complaints, is Mother Hubberds Tale; which is dedicated to the Lady Compton and Mountegle. This Lady was Anne, the fifth daughter of Sir John Spenser, distinguished also, in the Pastoral of Colin Clouts come home again, by the name of Charillis. She was married first to Sir William Stanley, Lord Mountegle; next to Henry Compton, Lord Compton; and lastly to Robert Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset; whom the author of the Life of Spenser, prefixed to Mr. Church's edition of the Faerie Queene, has confounded with his father, Thomas Lord Buckhurst. I cannot agree with Mr. Malone,' that this Lady was the widow of Lord Compton at the time of Spenser's inscribing this Poem to her; because Spenser tells us, in the Dedication, that "he had long sithens composed this Poem in the raw conceipt of his youth;" and Lord Compton died in 1589. But in the Poem there is an allusion to Sir Philip Sidney, under the description of the brace Courtier, as then living; and he died in 1586. There seems also an allusion in it, by the expressions applied to the coxcomical Ape at Court, to the same person whom Harvey represents, in his answer to Spenser's Letter of April 7, 1580, as the mirrour of Tuscanism, as a Magnifico, &c. The Lady therefore was now the wife of Lord Compton. But, in Colin Clouts come home again, she is the wife of Sackville. To this Lady, as to her Sisters, the Poem is inscribed, with "the humble affection and faithfull duetie, which," the poet urges, "I have alwaies professed, and am bound to beare to THAT HOUSE from whence yee spring.” g h In this satirical Poem, reflections on the general instability of Court-favour have often been cited as a proof of Lord Burleigh's opposition to Spenser : "Most miserable man, whom wicked fate This passage is supposed to have been represented to Lord Burleigh as a censure upon him. But, at the close of the sixth Book of his Faerie Queene, Spenser denies that it was his intention, in any of his writings, to reflect on this "mighty peer." And, alluding to the monster Detraction who even "spares not the gentle Poet's rime," he proceeds; d See Strype's Life of Archbishop Grindal, p. 224. And more particularly Harington's Briefe View of the State of the Church, &c. 1653, p. 5. ⚫ Dr. Birch's Life of Spenser, Upton's Pref. ut supr. Biograph. Brit. &c. f * Inquiry into the authenticity of the pretended Shakspeare papers, &c. p. 63. * See ver. 665. The precise expression also of Harvey, Three Letters, &c. 1580. p. 36. "For life Magnificoes, &c." already cited in p. xxii. b Harvey appears not to have approved of this poetical satire. For he writes; "I must needs say, Mother Hubbard in heat of choler, forgetting the pure sanguine of her sweete Faery Queene, wilfully overshott her malcontented selfe: as elsewhere I have specified at large, with the good leave of unspotted friendshipp." i See Dr. Birch's Life of Spenser. These "former Writs" are conjectured by Mr. Upton, to be the Pastorals; in which the poet's commendations of archbishop Grindal, and his reflections on bishop Aylmer, are the topicks that were offensive to Burleigh. Grindal, whom Spenser reverenced, had certainly experienced some opposition from Burleigh, long before the publication of the Pastorals. In a very spirited letter to that nobleman, dated June 26. 1574, the prelate vindicates the attack made upon his character, to which Burleigh, it seems, had given credit; and demands, in consequence of his good name being thus unjustly blotted, and his office slandered, an immediate trial. Three years afterwards, being then archbishop of Canterbury, he was confined to his house and sequestered. And to this disgrace, after describing the merits of Grindal, Spenser alludes in the seventh Eclogue of the Shepheards Calender : Mor. But say mee, what is Algrind, hec That is so oft bynempt? Tho. Heis a shepheard great in gree, The interference of the poet we must therefore suppose displeasing to the policy of the statesman. But what can we say of the lines in the Ruines of Time, which evidently point at Burleigh? m"For he, that now welds all things at his will, I consider the Ruines of Time to have been written almost immediately after the publication of the first edition of the Faerie Queene; for it could not have been written till "after the death of Sir Francis Walsingham, who died in April 1590; and Spenser's Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, at the end of this edition, is dated in January 1589-90. With the Faerie Queene a Sonnet had been transmitted to Burleigh, in which Spenser endeavours to sooth the lord treasurer to an acceptance of his "idle rimes." But in vain. The Introduction to the fourth Book of the Faerie Queene, the continuation of the former edition, published in 1596, bears testimony to the coldness of Burleigh: "The rugged forhead, that with grave foresight Burleigh's disapprobation was probably shewn at the first appearance of the Faerie Queene; and, to this disdain of his labours, I ascribe the honest indignation of the poet in the Ruines of State-Papers, by Murdin, p. 275. 1 Strype's Life of Grindal, p. 231. m These lines are inaccurately printed in many editions. But the first, and most flagrant, departure from the original is in the folio of 1611. In consequence of the alteration, the reader would look in vain for this allusion to a particular person; for the application is rendered general: "For such as now have most the world at will, And, in the remainder of the allusion, the singular number is discarded for the plural; which Hughes and others follow. The editor of the first folio thought the passage perhaps, thus generalised, a happy touch at the times; or was anxious, by the removal of particulars, to appease the shade of Burleigh! n See the note on the Ruines of Time, ver. 436. Time. In the Teares of the Muses, (which I believe to be a much earlier composition of Spenser,) the following lines, often cited as a corollary to the proof of the poet having offended the lord treasurer, are certainly too general to offend a particular person. The lord treasurer might, with equal propriety, have been offended at the title of the chapter in Puttenham's ̊ Arte of English Poesie, already cited. "Their great revenues all in sumptuous pride "They spend, that nought to learning they may spare; "And the rich fee, which Poets wont divide, "Now Parasites and Sycophants do share." Mr. Warton is of opinion that Burleigh was a Puritan; and that the Puritans, who were numerous in the time of Elizabeth, were peculiarly characterised for their hatred of poetry, however instructive. Yet the Earl of Leicester, I must observe, was the friend of Spenser and of the Puritans. And it has been justly observed by Dr. Birch, that Burleigh's neglect of Spenser is not to be attributed so much to any personal prejudice against him or contempt of poetry, as to the poet's early attachment to the Earl of Leicester, and afterwards to the Earl of Essex; who were both successively heads of a party opposite to the lord treasurer. Hence perhaps the expression of Spenser also in Mother Hubberds Tale : "Of men of armes he had but small regard, Mother Hubberds Tale must not be dismissed, without remarking the political knowledge which Spenser displays in it. Let the reader attentively peruse the poem from ver. 1119. to ver. 1224, and he will probably not deny the discernment of the poet, even if he applies his positions to the history of modern Europe. This Poem, I must add, was re-published in 1784, with a Dedication, highly satirical, to the Hon. Charles James Fox, by George Dempster, Esq. M.P. The subsequent Poems in the Complaints have been already noticed. By the date of the dedication of Daphnaida, (the next publication,) we find Spenser in London on the first of January, 1591-2. This beautiful Elegy was written upon the death of Douglas Howard, daughter and heir of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon; and wife of Arthur Gorge or Gorges Esquire, afterwards knighted. It is dedicated to her aunt, the Ladie Helena, Marchioness of Northampton. The afflicted husband is introduced into the Poem, under the name of Alcyon, as bewailing the death of a White Lioness which he had been so happy as to find, and had tenderly nursed. The White Lion being one of the Duke of Norfolk's supporters to his armorial bearings, "the " riddle of the loved Lionesse,” as the poet calls it, is easily explained. In the Dedication Spenser avows the "goodwill which he bears unto Master Arthur Gorges, a lover of learning and vertue ;" and again he notices him, with peculiar elegance, in Colin Clouts come home again, not only as inconsolable for the loss of his beloved Daphne, but as known to the Muses and his comrades by notes of higher mood. Sir Arthur Gorges, however, has hitherto been recorded as a man of genius, without a proof of the assertion. I am happy to add his name to the list of English poets; and the reader will be pleased with the following specimen of his talents and his modesty. It is the Sonnet, addressed to the reader of "The Olympian Catastrophe, dedicated to the worthy memory of the most heroical Lord Henry, late illustrious Prince of Wales, &c. By Sr Arthur Gorges, Knight, 1612;" a poem in manuscript of considerable length, together with some Sonnets; preserved amongst numerous treasures of a similar nature, which belonged to the late Duke of Bridgewater, and now belong to the Marquis of Stafford. • See p. xxix. "No praise of Poesie do I affect, "Nor flatteries hoped meed doth me encite; P Manuscript remarks on the Sonnets prefixed to the Faerie Queene. s From the information of Charles Dilly, Esq. by whom the work was published. ▾ See ver. 390, 391. "Such base-born thoughts as servile I reiect; Sorrow doth dictate what my Zeale doth write: "Sorrow for that rich tresor we have lost, "Zeale to the memory of what wee had; I come now to the consideration of the Pastoral, entitled Colin Clouts come home again; the Dedication of which to Sir Walter Raleigh is dated December 27. 1591. But that date must be an errour of the press. The Poem exhibits internal evidence of having been written at a subsequent period. In the first place, there is a lamentation in it on the death of Ferdinando, Earl of Derby, who is styled Amyntas; an appellation by which Nash also appears to have distinguished him. This nobleman, as I have already stated, died in April 1594. He is described by Spenser as "the noblest swaine, "That ever piped on an oaten quill: "Both did he other which could pipe, maintaine, Of his poetical abilities a specimen is preserved, in the Antiquarian Repertory, from a manuscript that belonged to Sir John Hawkins. Spenser incurred the gentle reproof of Nash, in consequence of his neglecting to salute this patron of learning in the same manner, as he had saluted other "English heroes," at the end of the Faerie Queene. Spenser perhaps felt the reproof; and resolved, in this Poem, to make some atonement for his neglect. The estimation in which this nobleman was held, is described in very lively terms by Nash; and is worthy of citation as well on the account of the party commended as of the party blamed. " From generall fame," says Nash, "let me digress to my private experience; and, with a toong unworthy to name a name of such worthines, affectionatelie emblason, to the eies that woonder, the matchlesse image of honor and magnificent rewarder of vertue, Ioves eagle-borne Ganimed, thrice noble Amyntas.—None but Desert should sit in Fames grace; none but Hector be remembred in the chronicles of Prowesse; none but thou, most curteous Amyntas, be the second misticall argument of the Knight of the Redcrosse. And heere, heavenlie Spencer, I am most highlie to accuse thee of forgetfulnes, that, in that honourable catalogue of our English Heroes which insueth the conclusion of thy famous Faerie Queene, thou wouldst let so speciall a piller of Nobilitie passe unsaluted. The verie thought of his far derived discent, and extraordinarie parts wherewith he astonieth the world, and drawes all harts to his love, would have inspired thy forewearied Muse with new furie to proceede to the next triumphs of thy statelie Goddesse!-But, as I in favor of so rare a scholler suppose, with this counsell he refraind his mention in the first part, that he might with full saile proceed to his due commendations in the second. Of this occasion long since I happened to frame a Sonnet, which being wholie intended to the reverence of this renowmed Lord, to whom I owe all the utmoste powers of my love and dutie, I meant heere for variety of stile to insert. Perusing yesternight, with idle eyes, Colin Clouts come home again, ver. 440. * Lord Orford's Royal-and Noble Authors. y Supplication of Pierce Pennilesse, &c. 4to. 1592, at the conclusion. |