1569,—that he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts, June 16, 1572–3,—and that of Master of Arts, June 26, 1576.
We gather from their correspondence, that he here became intimate with the learned, but pedantic, Gabriel Harvey, of Christchurch; and to his critical opinions, although occasionally fantastic, he seems to have paid great deference.[1] During his residence at Cambridge, he gave evidence of his poetical abilities, and was well known to his fellow-students as a votary of the Muses, having contributed, although anonymously, several poems to the “Theatre of Worldlings,” published in 1569. But his hopes of further advancement at the university having been annihilated, in consequence of a quarrel with the master of the society to which he belonged, respecting some preferment unjustly conferred upon a rival, he withdrew to the North of England, where he lived as tutor in the family of one of his relatives. In this retirement he became enamoured of the “widdowe’s daughter of the glenne,” a lady of no common accomplishments, whom he has celebrated in his poems, under the name of Rosalind. In one of the notes to “The Shepheards Calendar,” she is said to have been one “that for her rare and singular gifts of person and mind, Spenser need not have been ashamed to love.” Nor was she insensible of her lover’s merit; for, according to Harvey, “gentle Mistresse Rosalinde once reported him to have all the intelligences at commandment, and another time christened him Signor Pegaso.”—To this attachment we are indebted tor many of his sweetest productions. He seems to have loved with the most fervent ardour; and has imparted to the strains in which he sang the praises of his mistress, a tone of tender entreaty inexpressibly beautiful. Of this affair, too little is known; but the very mystery in which it is enshrined, has thrown around the tradition of the poet’s first love, all the “strong interest of reality, and all the charm of romance and poetry.” But the passion which gave birth to so many exquisite lyrics was doomed to be but a day-dream; the affections of Rosalind were transferred to another, the Menaleas of the Shepheards Calendar; and Spenser poured forth in tuneful numbers his complaint, “how he was forsaken unfaithfully; and in his stead another received disloyally.”
Having removed to London at the suggestion of Harvey, he there published the Shepheards Calendar in 1579. This Poem, which is composed in a style of language, nearly obsolete in the age in which it was written, is therefore accompanied by a glosse or commentary, which was furnished, together with an introductory letter to Harvey, by E. K., respecting whose identity many ingenious conjectures have been hazarded; but every attempt at his discovery has been ineffectual: that he was an intimate and partial friend of the author, is evident.
As a Pastoral, the value of the Shepheards Calendar is considerably diminished, by being written in a quaint and antiquated dialect, and by the frequent satire on ecclesias-
- ↑ “Harvey,” says D’Israeli, in those curious and entertaining volumes, “The Calamities of Authors,” “is not unknown to the lover of poetry, from his connection with Spenser, who loved and revered him. He is the Hobynol, whose poem is prefixed to the Faerie Queene, who introduced Spenser to Sir Philip Sidney, and besides his intimacy with the literary characters of his time, he was a Doctor of Laws, an erudite scholar, and distinguished as a poet.” The most remarkable feature of his life was his quarrel with Nash, Greene, and the most “pregnant Lucianic wits who ever flourished at one time,” for an account of which, see the work quoted above.
