Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet who lived from around 1552 until 1599. He is most famous for writing The Faerie Queene, a long and imaginative poem. This poem tells many stories and shares important ideas about the Tudor dynasty and Queen Elizabeth I.

Spenser’s writing is known for its beauty and careful structure. He is one of the greatest poets in the history of the English language. His stories of brave heroes and magical lands celebrated the values and history of his country, and his work has had a lasting impact on literature.

Life

Edmund Spenser was born in East Smithfield, London, around 1552. He went to school in London and later studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge. In 1579, he published a book called The Shepheardes Calender.

In 1590, Spenser published the first three books of his famous work, The Faerie Queene. He wanted this to help him find a place at court. He later married again and had a son named Peregrine.

In 1598, during a conflict in Ireland, Spenser's home was destroyed. The next year, in 1599, he travelled to London where he passed away at the age of forty-six. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, near the grave of Geoffrey Chaucer.

Rhyme and reason

Thomas Fuller wrote in his book Worthies of England about Edmund Spenser. The Queen wanted to pay Spenser £100 for his poems. But her treasurer thought that was too much. The Queen told him to give Spenser "what is reason." Spenser wrote a special poem for the Queen about the missing payment. After she heard the poem, the Queen told the treasurer to pay Spenser the full £100.

This kind of story also happened to another poet named Thomas Churchyard, who had trouble getting paid. But Spenser’s publisher handled his payments, so he didn’t have this problem.

The Shepheardes Calender

Main article: The Shepheardes Calender

The Shepheardes Calender was Edmund Spenser's first big book, published in 1579. It was inspired by Virgil’s Eclogues and the Eclogues of Baptista Mantuanus. An eclogue is a short poem about shepherds, often like a chat between friends. Each month of the year has its own poem, and all these poems together tell one big story. Old copies of the book had special pictures for each month, making it like a picture book with short poems.

The Faerie Queene

Main article: The Faerie Queene

Edmund Spenser's most famous work is the epic poem The Faerie Queene. The first three books were published in 1590, and the next three books came out in 1596. Spenser planned for twelve books, but he did not finish the poem. Even so, it is one of the longest poems in the English language. The story uses allegory, which means it has hidden meanings. One meaning is to praise Queen Elizabeth I. The poem follows knights who show different virtues, or good qualities. Spenser wanted to teach people how to be good and noble through this story.

Shorter poems

Edmund Spenser wrote many short poems in the late 1500s about love or sadness. In 1591, he published Complaints, a group of poems with sad or playful feelings. In 1595, he shared Amoretti and Epithalamion. This book has eighty-nine poems about his time courting Elizabeth Boyle. In Amoretti, Spenser used gentle jokes while praising the woman he loved. Epithalamion is a poem for his wedding to Elizabeth Boyle. The next year, Spenser wrote Prothalamion, a song for a duke’s daughters.

The Spenserian stanza and sonnet

Edmund Spenser used a special way of writing poems called the Spenserian stanza in his famous work, The Faerie Queene. This stanza has ten lines, mostly in a rhythm called iambic pentameter, with the last line having one extra beat, called iambic hexameter or an Alexandrine. The rhymes follow a special pattern: ababbcbcc.

Spenser also wrote shorter poems called sonnets. In a Spenserian sonnet, the rhymes connect each group of four lines to the next, following the pattern ababbcbccdcdee. One of his poems is titled "Men call you fayre" from Amoretti. In this poem, Spenser talks about what true beauty means. He says that while people may see beauty in looks, the most important beauty comes from a kind and wise mind. He believes that real beauty lasts forever because it comes from within, not just from how someone looks.

Influences

Edmund Spenser read many old stories. His poems were special and unique. He tried to write like famous ancient poets such as Virgil and Ovid, but his work was different. He used old-fashioned language, like in books such as The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Spenser loved Queen Elizabeth. He did not agree with some ideas about the old Catholic church, like many others during the Reformation. This feeling helps us understand the stories in The Faerie Queene. Many great writers, including John Milton, William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Lord Byron, and Alfred Tennyson, admired Spenser's work.

A View of the Present State of Irelande

Main article: A View of the Present State of Irelande

In his work A View of the Present State of Irelande from 1596, Edmund Spenser wrote about ways to bring stronger control to Ireland. This was after a big uprising led by Hugh O'Neill. Spenser wrote to support Lord Arthur Grey de Wilton, an important leader in Ireland.

Spenser thought Ireland needed big changes. He believed the country's laws, customs, and religion caused problems. He talked about the Irish law system called "Brehon law". Spenser didn't like this system and thought it made life harder for people. He also worried that teaching children in the Irish language might stop them from learning better ideas and rules.

List of works

Edmund Spenser wrote many poems and books. Some of his important works are:

• In 1579, he published The Shepheardes Calender, using the name "Immerito."
• In 1590, he released the first three books of The Faerie Queene, a famous long poem.
• In 1591, he wrote Complaints, Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie, with several shorter poems.
• In 1595, he published Amoretti and Epithalamion, a collection of love poems, and Astrophel. A Pastorall Elegie vpon the Death of the Most Noble and Valorous Knight, Sir Philip Sidney, a poem in memory of a friend.
• In 1596, he released the last three books of The Faerie Queene, finishing his big poem.

After he passed away, more of his works were published, including Two Cantos of Mutabilitie in 1609 and A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande in 1633.

Editions

Here are some books with works by Edmund Spenser.

• Edmund Spenser, Selected Letters and Other Papers. Edited by Christopher Burlinson and Andrew Zurcher (Oxford, OUP, 2009).
• Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (Longman-Annotated-English Poets, 2001, 2007) Edited by A. C. Hamilton, Text Edited by Hiroshi Yamashita and Toshiyuki Suzuki Archived).

Digital archive

A professor named Joseph Lowenstein from Washington University in St. Louis and some students made a digital archive of Edmund Spenser's first works. These works had not been published online for 100 years. They got help from a big grant given by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The project is mainly at Washington University and has support from other colleges in the United States.