certain that, if Spenfer had vifited the North of England in the interval, he came to London in 1578, the year before his "Shepheardes Calender" iffued from the prefs. On his own evidence, in one of his letters to Harvey, dated from Leicester House, 5th October, 1579, we learn that he was then, in fome unexplained capacity, in the fervice of the Earl, and that, probably on his Lordship's behalf, he had had an interview with, or at all events had seen, the Queen. He also speaks of being about to vifit the continent on Leicester's bufinefs. Whether he ever performed this duty is doubtful; but he was no fooner emancipated from College than he appears to have been actuated by a truant difpofition, and talked freely to his friend Harvey of travelling in various parts of the world. Upon this point the reader muft draw his own conclufions, and we have elfewhere furnished the few exifting materials for arriving at a decifion. "The Shepheardes Calender," which came out with the date of 1579 at the bottom of the title-page, was anonymously dedicated, at the back of that title-page, in eighteen short lines, to Sir Philip Sidney, who, however, is not there named, but indicated as "the prefident Of Nobleffe and of chevalree." g into Latin, of which tranflation a copy is, we believe, ftill preserved in Caius College. It was most likely completed not very long after the death of Archbishop Grindal (whom Spenfer in his paftorals celebrates and praises as Algrind) in 1583. This, which is the firft paffage in Spenfer's Works, affords also our first proof of the neceffity of a revifion of the text as given by Todd. He printed "The Shepheardes Calender" from one of the later and corrupted impreffions, and gave the fuppofed language thus: instead of "the prefident Of nobleneffe and chivalrie;" "the prefident Of nobleffe and of chevalree," To him, it is generally allowed, Spenfer was introduced. by Gabriel Harvey," who certainly had advised him to come to London. Sidney was two years younger than Spenfer, and it has been fuggefted, rather than proved, that the latter had been staying with the former at or near Penshurst; and there Spenfer may have acquired from Sidney and Harvey, and perhaps from Sir Edward Dyer, the temporary tafte, before alluded to, for the employment of claffic measures in English. Our poet's mistaken devotion to this fpecies of compofition, a year after the fuccefs of his "Shepheardes Calender" where we meet with nothing of the fort, may be feen from his Letter to Harvey, dated from Westminster in April, 1580:-" I like your late English hexameters fo exceedingly well, that I also enure my penne fometime in that kinde; whyche I fynde, indeede, as I have often heard you defende in worde, neither fo harde, nor fo harshe, that it will eafily and fairly yeelde it selfe to our moother tongue." He proceeds to touch upon the greatest difficulty in the enterprise, the dealing with the accent, and adds, "but it is to be wonne with custome, and rough words must be subdued with use." He begs Harvey to forward to him "the rules and precepts of art which he observed; if not, he would follow those Sidney had given him; and Spenfer refers to Sir Edward Dyer for "the good liking and estimation" in which he held fome fatirical hexameters Harvey had com as it stands in the earliest edition of 1579. "Nobleffe" is Spenfer's own word, and it is a word in Shakespeare and in many other poets and writers of the time. The change was made in the folio 1611; and "nobleffe" having been converted into a trifyllable, nobleneffe, it became neceffary to omit "of," fo that the poet's elegance of expreffion was alfo facrificed. Every modern edition we have been able to confult has nobleneffe for "nobleffe." h See Todd's" Life of Spenfer," vol. i. p. ix. Cooper's Athena Cantabrigienfes, vol. ii. p. 259, &c. posed, and tranfmitted. Spenser, therefore, was at this time prepared to go nearly all lengths for the introduction of the ancient metres into English; and it is fortunate that he afterwards altered his judgment, as well as his practice, for even a "Faerie Queene" in English hexameters would fcarcely have been readable.' Spenfer merely fubfcribed his poetical dedication of "The Shepheardes Calender" Immerito; and his young patron, fpeaking of the work in his " Defence of Poefie" (first published eight or nine years after the death of its author) fays nothing to disturb the poet's incognito, while he thus timidly does juftice to the merits of the paftorals:-"The Shepheards Kalender hath much poetrie in his Eclogues, indeed worthy the reading, if I be not deceived. That fame framing of his ftile to an old rufticke language I dare not allow, fince neither Theocritus in Greeke, Virgil in Latine, nor Sanazara in Italian did affect it." Perhaps Sidney felt fome referve in applauding too highly a work dedicated to himself, as ftated in large type on the title-page; but, on the other hand, it was Sidney's i Thomas Nash with great wit and humour points out the abfurdity of the attempt; but this was fome years after Spenfer had relinquished it. "The Hexamiter verfe, I graunt, is a gentleman of an auncient houfe, (fo is many an English begger) yet this clyme of ours he cannot thrive in our fpeech is too craggy for him to fet his plough in: hee goes twitching and hopping in our language, like a man running upon quagmiers, up the hill in one fyllable, and downe the dale in another, retaining no part of that ftately smooth gate which he vaunts himselfe with amongst the Greeks and Latins." Strange Newes of the intercepting of certaine Letters," 4to. 1592. Sign. G. 3. 66 Edit. folio 1598, p. 513. It came out originally in 4to. 1595, when it was called "An Apologie of Poetrie." Sir John Harington had, however, preceded his translation of " Ariofto," in 1591, by " An Apologie of Poetrie," and hence perhaps the change in the title of Sidney's effay on the fame fubject after its firft appearance in 1595. That Sidney received the dedication of "The Shepheardes Calender" with a high eftimate of its merit, and with due honour to the poet, we may be fure. In the very fame year Stephen Goffon inscribed to the fame patron a production of a very different character, viz. his own error to be too imitative of exifting examples, and therefore to be afraid of "Things unattempted yet in profe or rhyme." He did not truft enough to his own powers; and had he lived, with all his grace and purity of style and thought, he could never have risen to the rank of a great, bold, and original writer. Spenfer adopted" ruftic language " with the strictest dramatic propriety, for he at once faw the unfitnefs of making herdfmen and clowns talk like kings and courtiers. Although "The Shepheardes Calender" has the figures 1579 on the title-page, it was not really published until 1580, as we now reckon the commencement of the year; for it was thus entered at Stationers' Hall on the 5th December, 1579, by Hugh Singleton, the printer, whose name is at the foot of the title-page : "5 Decembr. [1579] Hughe Singelton. Lycenced unto him the Shep- vjd." The year 1579, according to the registers and the then popular mode of calculation, would not expire until 25th March, fome months after Singleton had carried Spenfer's work in a printed fhape (as we may prefume from the particularity of the entry) to the hall of the Company of Stationers, in order that it might be duly "School of Abufe," which he himself calls " a pleasant invective against Poets, Pipers, Players, Jefters and fuch like Caterpillars of a Commonwealth." This liberty he feems to have taken without Sidney's privity. or confent; and we have it on the evidence of Spenfer himself, in one of his Letters to Gabriel Harvey, printed in 1580, that Goffon " was for his labour fcorned; if at least, it be in the goodness of that nature to fcorn." Befides plays and poems, Goffon was himself "a penner of paftorals; he had been an actor, afterwards went into the church, and died Rector of St. Botolph, Bishopgate. In 1598 he preached at Paul's Crofs, and publifhed, a fermon called "The Trumpet of War." licensed before it was published.' The practice had not then commenced of requiring the name of fome known perfon, of pofition and refpectability, to be placed upon the cover as teftimony of the moral fitnefs of a book, tract, or ballad, and that it was unobjectionable on the score of religion or politics. E. K.'s preliminary epistle bears date on 10th April preceding the date of the entry at Stationers' Hall; and the work probably went through the process of typography during the interval. The epiftle is addreffed, with fome adulation, " to the moft excellent and learned, both Orator and Poete, Mayster Gabriel Harvey ;" and it is subscribed only with the initials E. K. who profeffes to be fufficiently well seen in the "drift and purpose," as well as in the language of the new Poet" (never giving a hint of that new poet's name) as to be qualified for the office of editor, "the rather that by meanes of fome familiar acquaintance, he had been made privy to the author's counfel and fecret meaning." Until recently, nobody has been in a condition to decide whom the initials E. K. reprefented: he has even been termed "an unknown and officious friend," and it certainly nowhere appears that the "new Poet" authorised the publication at the time it came out. It was, indeed, long ago conjectured that 1 In about a year and three-quarters from the date of the original entry, Singleton affigned over "The Shepheardes Calender," to John Harrison in this form, as we find it recorded in the registers : "29 October [1581]. "John Harrison :-Affigned over from Hugh Singleton to have the fheppardes callender, which was Hughe Singletons copie vjd" In accordance with this memorandum, the subsequent impreffions of 1581, 1586, 1591, and 1597, were printed for John Harrison. We have obtained these entries, and other particulars of the fame kind, from the two volumes of "Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company," iffued by the Shakespeare Society in 1849. See vol. ii. pp. 104, 128, of the "Extracts," &c. |