Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for '' The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical

allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...

celebrating the Tudor dynasty and

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of nascent Modern English verse and is often considered one of the greatest poets in the English language.

Life

Edmund Spenser was born in East Smithfield, London, around the year 1552; however, there is still some ambiguity as to the exact date of his birth. His parenthood is obscure, but he was probably the son of John Spenser, a journeyman clothmaker. As a young boy, he was educated in London at the Merchant Taylors' School and matriculated as a sizar at

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

. While at Cambridge he became a friend of

Gabriel Harvey Gabriel Harvey (c. 1552/3 – 1631) was an English writer. Harvey was a notable scholar, whose reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe. Henry Morley, writing in the ''Fortnightly Review'' (March 1869), has argued that Harvey's L ...

and later consulted him, despite their differing views on poetry. In 1578, he became for a short time secretary to

John Young John Young may refer to: Academics * John Young (professor of Greek) (died 1820), Scottish professor of Greek at the University of Glasgow * John C. Young (college president) (1803–1857), American educator, pastor, and president of Centre Coll ...

, Bishop of Rochester. In 1579, he published ''The

Shepheardes Calender ''The Shepheardes Calender'' was Edmund Spenser's first major poetic work, published in 1579. In emulation of Virgil's first work, the ''Eclogues'', Spenser wrote this series of pastorals at the commencement of his career. However, Spenser's ...

'' and around the same time married his first wife, Machabyas Childe. They had two children, Sylvanus (d. 1638) and Katherine. In July 1580, Spenser went to Ireland in service of the newly appointed

Lord Deputy The Lord Deputy was the representative of the monarch and head of the Irish executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and then the Kingdom of Ireland. He deputised prior to 1523 for the Viceroy of Ireland. The plural form is ' ...

, Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton. Spenser served under Lord Grey with

Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebelli ...

at the

Siege of Smerwick The siege of Smerwick took place at (known in English as Smerwick) in November 1580, during the Second Desmond Rebellion in Ireland. A force of between 400 and 700 Papal freelance soldiers, mostly of Spanish and Italian origin, landed at Smerw ...

massacre. When Lord Grey was recalled to England, Spenser stayed on in Ireland, having acquired other official posts and lands in the

Munster Plantation Plantations in 16th- and 17th-century Ireland involved the confiscation of Irish-owned land by the English Crown and the colonisation of this land with settlers from Great Britain. The Crown saw the plantations as a means of controlling, angl ...

. Raleigh acquired other nearby Munster estates confiscated in the Second Desmond Rebellion. Sometime between 1587 and 1589, Spenser acquired his main estate at Kilcolman, near

Doneraile Doneraile (), historically Dunerayl, is a town in County Cork, Ireland. It is on the R581 regional road east of the N20 road, which runs from Limerick to Cork. It is about north of Mallow town. It is on the River Awbeg, a branch of the ...

in North Cork. He later bought a second holding to the south, at Rennie, on a rock overlooking the river Blackwater in North Cork. Its ruins are still visible today. A short distance away grew a tree, locally known as "Spenser's Oak" until it was destroyed in a lightning strike in the 1960s. Local legend claims that he penned some of ''The Faerie Queene'' under this tree. In 1590, Spenser brought out the first three books of his most famous work, '' The Faerie Queene'', having travelled to London to publish and promote the work, with the likely assistance of Raleigh. He was successful enough to obtain a life pension of £50 a year from the Queen. He probably hoped to secure a place at court through his poetry, but his next significant publication boldly antagonised the queen's principal secretary, Lord Burghley (William Cecil), through its inclusion of the satirical ''

Mother Hubberd's Tale ''Mother Hubberd's Tale'' is a poem by English poet Edmund Spenser, written in 1578–1579. The more commonly read version of the poem is a revision of the original, created sometime in 1590, and published in 1591 as a part of Spenser's collection ...

''. He returned to Ireland. He was at the centre of a literary circle whose members included his lifelong friend

Lodowick Bryskett Lodowick Bryskett (1547–1612 ca., fl. 1571–1611), was a poet, translator, diplomat and Irish official. He served as Special Ambassador from England to Tuscany in 1600-01. Life He is stated to have been the son of ‘a natural (born) Italian', ...

and Dr.

John Longe John Longe (1548–1589) was an English-born Church of Ireland archbishop of Armagh. He had a fondness for good living, which caused him to run up massive debts, but was also noted for his literary tastes. Life He was born in London; little se ...

Archbishop of Armagh In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdio ...

. In 1591, Spenser published a translation in verse of Joachim Du Bellay's sonnets, ''Les Antiquités de Rome'', which had been published in 1558. Spenser's version, ''Ruines of Rome: by Bellay'', may also have been influenced by Latin poems on the same subject, written by Jean or Janis Vitalis and published in 1576. By 1594, Spenser's first wife had died, and in that year he married a much younger Elizabeth Boyle, a relative of

Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork (13 October 1566 – 15 September 1643), also known as the Great Earl of Cork, was an English politician who served as Lord Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland. Lord Cork was an important figure in the continuing ...

. He addressed to her the sonnet sequence ''

Amoretti ''Amoretti'' is a sonnet cycle written by Edmund Spenser in the 16th century. The cycle describes his courtship and eventual marriage to Elizabeth Boyle. ''Amoretti'' was first published in 1595 in London by William Ponsonby. It was printed as ...

''. The marriage itself was celebrated in '' Epithalamion''. They had a son named Peregrine. In 1596, Spenser wrote a prose pamphlet titled ''A View of the Present State of Ireland''. This piece, in the form of a dialogue, circulated in manuscript, remaining unpublished until the mid-seventeenth century. It is probable that it was kept out of print during the author's lifetime because of its inflammatory content. The pamphlet argued that Ireland would never be totally "pacified" by the English until its indigenous language and customs had been destroyed, if necessary by violence. In 1598, during the Nine Years' War, Spenser was driven from his home by the native Irish forces of Aodh Ó Néill. His castle at Kilcolman was burned, and

Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...

, who may have had private information, asserted that one of his infant children died in the blaze. Fowre Hymnes by Edmund Spenser 1596

In the year after being driven from his home, 1599, Spenser travelled to London, where he died at the age of forty-six – "for want of bread", according to

; one of Jonson's more doubtful statements, since Spenser had a payment to him authorised by the government and was due his pension. His coffin was carried to his grave in Poets' Corner in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

by other poets, who threw many pens and pieces of poetry into his grave with many tears. His second wife survived him and remarried twice. His sister Sarah, who had accompanied him to Ireland, married into the Travers family, and her descendants were prominent landowners in Cork for centuries.

Rhyme and reason

Thomas Fuller Thomas Fuller (baptised 19 June 1608 – 16 August 1661) was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his ''Worthies of England'', published in 1662, after his death. He was a prolific author, and ...

, in ''Worthies of England'', included a story where the Queen told her treasurer, William Cecil, to pay Spenser one hundred pounds for his poetry. The treasurer, however, objected that the sum was too much. She said, "Then give him what is reason". Without receiving his payment in due time, Spenser gave the Queen this quatrain on one of her progresses:

I was promis'd on a time, To have a reason for my rhyme: From that time unto this season, I receiv'd nor rhyme nor reason.

She immediately ordered the treasurer to pay Spenser the original £100. This story seems to have attached itself to Spenser from Thomas Churchyard, who apparently had difficulty in getting payment of his pension, the only other pension Elizabeth awarded to a poet. Spenser seems to have had no difficulty in receiving payment when it was due as the pension was being collected for him by his publisher, Ponsonby.

''The Shepheardes Calender''

Title Page of a 1617 Edition of The Shepherd's Calendar

'' The Shepheardes Calender'' is Edmund Spenser's first major work, which appeared in 1579. It emulates

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

's ''

Eclogues The ''Eclogues'' (; ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil. Background Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offer ...

'' of the first century BCE and the ''Eclogues'' of Mantuan by

Baptista Mantuanus Baptista Spagnuoli Mantuanus ( it, Battista Mantovano, English: Battista the Mantuan or simply Mantuan; also known as Johannes Baptista Spagnolo; 17 April 1447 – 22 March 1516) was an Italian Carmelite reformer, humanist, and poet. Biography ...

, a late medieval, early renaissance poet. An eclogue is a short pastoral poem that is in the form of a dialogue or soliloquy. Although all the months together form an entire year, each month stands alone as a separate poem. Editions of the late 16th and early 17th centuries include woodcuts for each month/poem, and thereby have a slight similarity to an emblem book which combines a number of self-contained pictures and texts, usually a short vignette, saying, or allegory with an accompanying illustration.

''The Faerie Queene''

Spenser's masterpiece is the epic poem ''The Faerie Queene''. The first three books of ''The Faerie Queene'' were published in 1590, and the second set of three books was published in 1596. Spenser originally indicated that he intended the poem to consist of twelve books, so the version of the poem we have today is incomplete. Despite this, it remains one of the longest poems in the English language. It is an allegorical work, and can be read (as Spenser presumably intended) on several levels of allegory, including as praise of Queen

. In a completely allegorical context, the poem follows several knights in an examination of several virtues. In Spenser's "A Letter of the Authors", he states that the entire epic poem is "cloudily enwrapped in allegorical devises", and that the aim behind ''The Faerie Queene'' was to "fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline".

Shorter poems

Spenser published numerous relatively short poems in the last decade of the sixteenth century, almost all of which consider love or sorrow. In 1591, he published '' Complaints'', a collection of poems that express complaints in mournful or mocking tones. Four years later, in 1595, Spenser published ''Amoretti and Epithalamion''. This volume contains eighty-eight sonnets commemorating his courtship of Elizabeth Boyle. In ''

'', Spenser uses subtle humour and parody while praising his beloved, reworking Petrarchism in his treatment of longing for a woman. '' Epithalamion'', similar to ''Amoretti'', deals in part with the unease in the development of a romantic and sexual relationship. It was written for his wedding to his young bride, Elizabeth Boyle. Some have speculated that the attention to disquiet, in general, reflects Spenser's personal anxieties at the time, as he was unable to complete his most significant work, '' The Faerie Queene''. In the following year, Spenser released '' Prothalamion'', a wedding song written for the daughters of a duke, allegedly in hopes to gain favour in the court.

The Spenserian stanza and sonnet

Spenser used a distinctive verse form, called the Spenserian stanza, in several works, including '' The Faerie Queene''. The stanza's main metre is

iambic pentameter Iambic pentameter () is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called " feet". "Iam ...

with a final line in iambic hexameter (having six feet or stresses, known as an Alexandrine), and the rhyme scheme is . He also used his own rhyme scheme for the sonnet. In a Spenserian sonnet, the last line of every quatrain is linked with the first line of the next one, yielding the rhyme scheme . "Men Call you Fayre" is a fine Sonnet from Amoretti. The poet presents the concept of true beauty in the poem. He addresses the sonnet to his beloved, Elizabeth Boyle, and presents his courtship. Like all Renaissance men, Edmund Spenser believed that love is an inexhaustible source of beauty and order. In this Sonnet, the poet expresses his idea of true beauty. The physical beauty will finish after a few days; it is not a permanent beauty. He emphasises beauty of mind and beauty of intellect. He considers his beloved is not simply flesh but is also a spiritual being. The poet opines that he is beloved born of heavenly seed and she is derived from fair spirit. The poet states that because of her clean mind, pure heart and sharp intellect, men call her fair and she deserves it. At the end, the poet praises her spiritual beauty and he worships her because of her Divine Soul.

Influences

Though Spenser was well-read in classical literature, scholars have noted that his poetry does not rehash tradition, but rather is distinctly his. This individuality may have resulted, to some extent, from a lack of comprehension of the classics. Spenser strove to emulate such ancient Roman poets as

and

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...

, whom he studied during his schooling, but many of his best-known works are notably divergent from those of his predecessors. The language of his poetry is purposely archaic, reminiscent of earlier works such as '' The Canterbury Tales'' of Geoffrey Chaucer and '' Il Canzoniere'' of Francesco Petrarca, whom Spenser greatly admired. An Anglican and a devotee of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth, Spenser was particularly offended by the anti-Elizabethan propaganda that some Catholics circulated. Like most Protestants near the time of the Reformation, Spenser saw a Catholic church full of corruption, and he determined that it was not only the wrong religion but the anti-religion. This sentiment is an important backdrop for the battles of ''The Faerie Queene''. Spenser was called "the Poet's Poet" by Charles Lamb, and was admired by

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and politica ...

, William Blake,

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

, Alfred Tennyson and others. Among his contemporaries

wrote a commendatory poem to '' The Faerie Queene'' in 1590, in which he claims to admire and value Spenser's work more so than any other in the English language. John Milton in his ''

Areopagitica ''Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England'' is a 1644 prose polemic by the English poet, scholar, and polemical author John Milton opposing licensing and censorship. ''Areop ...

'' mentions "our sage and serious poet Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than

Scotus The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known ...

". In the eighteenth century,

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

compared Spenser to "a mistress, whose faults we see, but love her with them all."

''A View of the Present State of Irelande''

In his work '' A View of the Present State of Irelande'' (1596), Spenser discussed future plans to establish control over Ireland, the most recent Irish uprising, led by Hugh O'Neill having demonstrated the futility of previous efforts. The work is partly a defence of Lord Arthur Grey de Wilton, who was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1580, and who greatly influenced Spenser's thinking on Ireland. The goal of the piece was to show that Ireland was in great need of reform. Spenser believed that "Ireland is a diseased portion of the State, it must first be cured and reformed, before it could be in a position to appreciate the good sound laws and blessings of the nation". In ''A View of the Present State of Ireland'', Spenser categorises the "evils" of the Irish people into three prominent categories: laws, customs and religion. According to Spenser, these three elements worked together in creating the supposedly "disruptive and degraded people" who inhabited the country. One example given in the work is the Irish law system termed " Brehon law", which at the time trumped the established law as dictated by

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has differ ...

. The Brehon system had its own court and methods of punishing infractions committed. Spenser viewed this system as a backward custom which contributed to the "degradation" of the Irish people. A particular legal punishment viewed with distaste by Spenser was the Brehon method of dealing with

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

, which was to impose an '' éraic'' (fine) on the murderer's family. From Spenser's viewpoint, the appropriate punishment for murder was

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

. Spenser also warned of the dangers that allowing the education of children in the

Irish language Irish (Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

would bring: "Soe that the speach being Irish, the hart must needes be Irishe; for out of the aboundance of the hart, the tonge speaketh". He pressed for a

scorched earth A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy that aims to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy. Any assets that could be used by the enemy may be targeted, which usually includes obvious weapons, transport vehicles, commun ...

policy in Ireland, noting its effectiveness in the Second Desmond Rebellion:

"'Out of everye corner of the woode and glenns they came creepinge forth upon theire handes, for theire legges could not beare them; they looked Anatomies fdeath, they spake like ghostes, crying out of theire graves; they did eate of the carrions, happye wheare they could find them, yea, and one another soone after, in soe much as the verye carcasses they spared not to scrape out of theire graves; and if they found a plott of water-cresses or shamrockes, theyr they flocked as to a feast… in a shorte space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentyfull countrye suddenly lefte voyde of man or beast: yett sure in all that warr, there perished not manye by the sworde, but all by the extreamytie of famine ... they themselves had wrought.'"

List of works

* ''Iambicum Trimetrum'' * 1569: Jan van der Noodt's ''A Theatre for Worldlings'', including poems translated into English by Spenser from French sources, published by Henry Bynneman in LondonWeb page title
"Edmund Spenser Home Page/Biography"
, "Chronology" section (at bottom of Chronology, Web page states: "Source: adapted from Willy Maley, ''A Spenser Chronology''."), at the website of the University of Cambridge Faculty of English website, retrieved 24 September 2009 * 1579: '' The Shepheardes Calender'', published under the pseudonym "Immerito"Cox, Michael, editor, ''The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature'', Oxford University Press, 2004, (entered into the Stationers' Register in December) 1590: * '' The Faerie Queene'', Books 1–3 1591: * '' Complaints, Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie'' (entered into the Stationer's Register in 1590), includes: ** "The Ruines of Time" ** "The Teares of the Muses" ** "Virgil's Gnat" ** "Prosopopoia, or Mother Hubberds Tale" ** "Ruines of Rome: by Bellay" ** "Muiopotmos, or the Fate of the Butterflie" ** "Visions of the Worlds Vanitie" ** "The Visions of Bellay" ** "The Visions of

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

" 1592: * ''Axiochus'', a translation of a pseudo-Platonic dialogue from the original

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

; published by Cuthbert Burbie; attributed to "Edw: Spenser" but the attribution is uncertain * ''Daphnaïda. An Elegy upon the Death of the Noble and Vertuous Douglas Howard, Daughter and Heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and Wife of Arthure Gorges Esquier'' (published in London in January, according to one source; another source gives 1591 as the year) 1595: * ''Amoretti and Epithalamion'', containing: ** "

" ** " Epithalamion" * '' Astrophel. A Pastorall Elegie vpon the Death of the Most Noble and Valorous Knight, Sir Philip Sidney'' * '' Colin Clouts Come Home Againe'' 1596: * ''Fowre Hymnes'' dedicated from the court at Greenwich; published with the second edition of ''Daphnaida'' * '' Prothalamion'' * '' The Faerie Queene'', Books 4–6 * ''Babel, Empress of the East – a dedicatory poem prefaced to

Lewes Lewkenor Sir Lewes Lewknor (c.1560–1627) was an English courtier, M.P., writer, soldier, and Judge who served as Master of the Ceremonies to King James I of England. M.P. for Midhurst in 1597 and for Bridgnorth 1604–10. His career has been descr ...

's The Commonwealth of Venice, 1599. Posthumous: * 1609: ''Two Cantos of Mutabilitie'' published together with a reprint of '' The Faerie Queene''Hadfield, Andrew
''The Cambridge Companion to Spenser''
"Chronology", Cambridge University Press, 2001, , p xx, retrieved via Google Books, 24 September 2009 * 1611: First folio edition of Spenser's collected works * 1633: ''A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande'', a prose treatise on the reformation of Ireland, first published by Sir James Ware (historian) entitled ''The Historie of Ireland'' (Spenser's work was entered into the Stationer's Register in 1598 and circulated in manuscript but not published until it was edited by Ware)

Editions

* 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 b
Yamashita and Toshiyuki Suzuki
.

Digital archive

Washington University in St. Louis professor Joseph Lowenstein, with the assistance of several undergraduate students, has been involved in creating, editing, and annotating a digital archive of the first publication of poet Edmund Spenser's collective works in 100 years. A large grant from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

has been given to support this ambitious project centralized at Washington University with support from other colleges in the United States.

References

Sources

* Croft, Ryan J. "Sanctified Tyrannicide: Tyranny And Theology in John Ponet's Shorte Treatise of Politike Power And Edmund "Spenser's The Faerie Queene." ''Studies in Philosophy'', 108.4 (2011): 538–571. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 8 October 2012. * Johnson, William. "The struggle between good and evil in the first book of 'The Faerie Queene'." ''English Studies'', Vol. 74, * Maley, Willy. "Spenser's Life". ''The Oxford Dictionary of Edmund Spenser''. Ed. Richard A. McCabe. 1st Ed. 2010. Print. * Rust, Jennifer. "Spenser's The Faerie Queene." Saint Louis University, St. Louis. 10 October 2007. No. 6. (December 1993) p. 507–519. * Wadoski, Andrew. ''Spenser's Ethics: Empire, Mutability, and Moral Philosophy in Early Modernity''. Manchester University Press, June 2022, . * Zarucchi, Jeanne Morgan. "Du Bellay, Spenser, and Quevedo Search for Rome: A Teacher's Peregrination." ''The French Review'', 17:2 (December 1997), pp. 192–203.

External links

The Edmund Spenser Home Page at the Cambridge University
* Complete works in Verse and Prose at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

* The works of Edmund Spenser in a single volume at

* ** Project Gutenberg edition of
Biography of Edmund Spenser
' by John W. Hales * *
Profile and works at the Poetry Foundation

''The Spenser Encyclopedia'' by A. C. Hamilton in Google Books Preview
* *
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">- style="text-align:center;" "> style="width:30%; ", Preceded by:
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