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EDMUND SPENSER.

SPENSER is commemorated by a plain tablet in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey. It was originally erected by Anne, the celebrated Countess of Dorset, and consisted of a block of Purbeck stone, which, falling gradually into decay, was restored by a subscription, set on foot at the instigation of Mason the poet, in 1768. The form of the present memorial corresponds with the old one in every particular, the substitution of statuary marble for Purbeck stone solely excepted. The inscription is cut in this order:

Heare yes (expecting the second
Comminge of our Saviour CHRIST
JESUS) the body of Edmond Spencer,
The Prince of Poets in his tyme,
Whose divine spirrit needs noe
Other witnesse than the works
Which he left behinde him.

He was borne in London in the yeare 1553
And died in the yeare 1598.

Of Edmund Spenser, the most popular and gifted of our antient poets, all accounts are imperfect and unsatisfactory in the extreme. According to the epitaph, he was born in London about the year 1553: it is believed that he was descended from humble parents, though he represents himself as a relation to the noble family bearing the same name in Northamptonshire All that is known of the manner and progress of his education is comprised in the facts, that he appears to have been a sizar in

Pembroke College, Cambridge, during the year 1569; and that after taking his degree of Master of Arts, he stood an unsuccessful contest for a Fellowship in 1576. This latter disappointment is conjectured to have driven him from the University; after which he spent some time among his relatives in the North of England. The Shepherd's Complaint,' published in 1579, and dedicated, under the signature of Immerito, to Mr., afterwards Sir Philip Sydney, was his first production. By Sydney, whom be thus made his friend, he was introduced to the influential Earl of Leicester, and by him named an agent for foreign countries. That he either went abroad or executed any offices, in consequence of this appointment, is not supposed. In 1580, Lord Grey, of Wilton, was commissioned to be Lord Deputy of Ireland, and Spenser was declared his Secretary.

The duties of this busy post he discharged with great talent and assiduity for two years. Returning then to England with Lord Grey, he is thought to have hung awhile about the Court of Queen Elizabeth, who, in 1586, gave him a grant of three thousand acres in the county of Cork, which formed a part of the estates forfeited by the Earl of Desmond. Of this property he took possession during the course of the following year, and fixing his residence at the castle of Kilcolman, near Doneraile, was chosen Clerk to the Council of the Province of Munster. Here he was visited by Sir Walter Raleigh, whom he celebrated in a poem entitled the Shepherd of the Ocean.' Here, too, he occupied himself with the composition of his 'Faery Queen,' with the manuscript of which he accompanied Raleigh to London in 1590, where it was published without delay, prefaced with a dedication to Elizabeth, and an explanatory address to Raleigh. The Queen returned her part of the compliment with a pension of 50l. a year.

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Before a twelvemonth had elapsed, he went back to Ireland, and after the pastoral fashion, which he so loved to sing, married a rustic lass of low degree. The disturbed state of the country, however, compelled him to seek refuge in England, during the year 1595, where he printed Colin Clout's come home again,' with some other poems, and submitted to the Queen his View of the State of Ireland,' which remained in manuscript until 1633, when it was edited by Sir James Ware, who passed a high

panegyric upon the knowledge and judgment it revealed, but properly condemned the spirit of political acerbity which it breathed. By late judges it is reputed a performance, heated, fanciful, and erroneous. A new impression of the 'Faery Queen,' to which were added some new books, engaged his attention in 1596, and constituted his last literary labour. The poem, therefore, had the misfortune to remain incomplete.

Tempted by the hope of peaceful tines, he once more ventured over to Ireland in 1597, but was doomed to severe misfortunes. The Earl of Tyrone roused the persecuted natives into rebellion, and overran the country with fire and sword. Castlecolman was burnt, and an infant daughter of Spenser's perished in the flames. All his lands devastated, and his property made the spoil of the victors, the Poet hurried back with his wife into England, and after a short interval of acute indigence expired, according to the assertion of his biographers, of a broken heart. The Earl of Essex discharged the expenses of his funeral, which was attended by several brother bards, who threw panegyrics upon his works into the grave. His poems, particularly the Faery Queen,' have been published at different times, in various forms; but the best complete edition of his works is that given by Mr. Todd, in six

vols. 8vo.

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The rust of time, and an obsolete phraseology, have robbed Spenser of his reputation amongst vulgar readers, but, with scholars, age has only mellowed his honours. Like Chaucer, he has been paraphrased and imitated by some of the most illustrious of our poets. Pope ranks first in the list, but fails to impart in any way a pure idea of his original. Thomson's Castle of Indolence' is an admirable piece of happy imitation, and Shenstone's "School Mistress,' with the Education of Achilles' by Bedingfeld, are pleasing specimens in the same style. His works are to be reviewed under the head of Pastorals, Sonnets, and Hymns; and that mainspring of his fame, the Faery Queen.' The pastorals can now be seldom read, for they are too rude and imperfect for a modern taste. The sonnets and hymns are, in many passages, remarkable for beauty of sentiment, felicity of versification, a fervid spirit of piety, and an exalted strain of morality; but they are most tediously pedantic. The Faery Queen' is justly estimated one of the noblest compositions in our lan

guage. Fault undoubtedly may be found with the prolixity and confusion of the plan, the want of connexion and incident in the fable, and the improbability of the adventures; but it is not to be matched in fertility of imagination, vividness of description, and richness of allegory. For this last quality he has been pronounced the Rubens of poetry :- the following lines, crowded with metaphor, and yet most gracefully couched, afford an example; they are from Book ii. c. 7.

By that way's side there sat infernal Pain,
And fast beside him sat tumultuous Strife;
The one in hand an iron whip did strain,
The other brandished a bloody knife,

And both did gnash their teeth, and both did threaten life.

But knawing Jealousy, out of their sight
Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bite;

And trembling Fear still to and fro did fly,

And found no place where safe he shroud him might.

Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lie,

And Shame his ugly face did hide from living eye.

The strength with which so many figures are here embodied is most masterly; but his fancy is not less creative in pourtraying a single object with the various circumstances that can attach to it. Here is another picture of Jealousy from Book iii. c. 11.

Into that cave he creeps, and thenceforth there
Resolv'd to build his baleful mansion

In dreary darkness, and continual fear
Of that rock's fall, which ever and anon
Threats with huge ruin him to fall upon,
That he dares never sleep, but that one eye
Still ope he keeps for that occasion;

Ne ever rests he in tranquillity,

The roaring billows beat his bower so boisterously.

EARLS OF STANHOPE.

JAMES, first Earl of Stanhope, has a lofty monument adjoining the principal entrance into the choir of Westminster Abbey. The structure itself is exclusively devoted to the illustration of his life and character; but, as there are some additional inscriptions upon it commemorative of his descendants, this notice embraces a commemoration of his son and grandson. The monument, a laboured and costly production, was designed with no great imagination by William Kent, painter and architect, and executed with much freedom and skill by Michael Rysbrach. The Earl, clad as an ancient warrior, is introduced in a recumbent posture, clasping a truncheon in his right, and a scroll in his left hand; at his feet stands an urchin leaning against a shield; a state tent protects his person, upon the crown of which is seated an armed Pallas, with a javelin in one hand, and a scroll in the other: a pyramid conceals the background; -and thus the performance is in every respect a counterpiece to the monument of Newton, on the other side of the door. The first inscription is a Latin one, to this effect:*

Sacred to the Memory of

JAMES, EARL of STANHOPE, a man supremely noble, and step after step adorned by a splendid variety of honours. Bred in the

* M. S.

Viri Prænobilis JACOBI COMITIS STANHOPE, quem, pro multifaria Ingenii Præstantia Splendida Honorum varietas gradatim illustravit. Castris ab ineunte Adolescentia innutritus, perpetua Titulorum Serie ad militaris Fas

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