Who was Edmund Spenser?
Poet.
Date and Place of Birth:
1552/3, London, England.
Family Background:
Probably the son of a gentleman tradesman. His
father may have been the John Spenser from Lancashire who moved
to London and became a member of the Merchant Taylor's Company.
Education:
Merchant Taylor's School, London. Pembroke Hall
College, Cambridge.
Chronology/Biography of Edmund Spenser:
1569: Contributes
several sections to the English version of "A Theatre for Worldlings"
edited by Jan van der Noodt. In particular he translated epigrams
by Petrarch and four sonnet paraphrases.
1573: Receives his
BA degree from Cambridge University.
1576: Receives his
MA degree from Cambridge University.
1578: Is employed
as a secretary to John Young the Bishop of Rochester, who was formerly
Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
1579: Is employed
by Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester and becomes part of the
group called Areopagus, surrounding Sir Phillip Sidney. (5th December)
Entry in the Stationer's Register for the publication of his work
"The Shepherd's Calendar".
1580: First reference
to "The Fairie Queene" is made in some letters to Gabriel
Harvey a friend from Cambridge. He is appointed Secretary to Arthur,
Lord Grey of Wilton, who is the Lord Deputy of Ireland. (August)
Sets foot in Ireland with Grey and works as Clerk of the Privy Council
at Dublin Castle.
1581: (9th March)
Succeeds Lodowick Bryskett as Clerk in the Chancery for Faculties
which pays him a regular sum of money whilst still being employed
by Grey. (December) He leases the castle and manor house at Enniscorthy
in County Wexford for a short while and then leases a dissolved
monastery at New Ross in Wexford. He then takes a house in Dublin
and New Abbey, County Kildare.
1583: Appointed
as Commissioner of Musters for County Kildare.
1586: He is given
Kilcolman Castle in Munster, which formed part of the lands confiscated
from the Irish Earl Desmond, as a reward for putting down the rebellion
of Trim. Is given the task of populating Munster with English people.
1589: Succeeds Bryskett
as Clerk of the Council in Munster. (October) He returns to England
with Sir Walter Raleigh to present "The
Fairie Queene" to Queen Elizabeth the First. However the Queen
has not forgotten his previous work "Mother Hubberd's Tale"
which proposed her match to the Duc d'Alencon, which she did not
like.
1590: Books 1 to
3 of "The Fairie Queene" are published by William Ponsonby
in London. (9th December) Stationer's Register records his work
"Complaints: Containing Sundery Small Poems of the World's
Vanity.
1591: Returns to
Ireland having been granted a life pension of £50 per year
by the Queen. "Complaints and Daphniaida is published by William
Ponsonby (December) Produces the dedicatory epistle to Raleigh "Colin
Clout's Come Home Again".
1594: Appointed
Queen's Justice for Cork. (19th November) "Amoretti and Epithalmion"
is published.
1595: Publication
of "Colins Clout's Come Home Again" and "A Pastoral
Elegy on the Death of the Most Noble and Valorous Knight, Sir Philip
Sydney".
1596: Revisits London.
Publication of "The Fairie Queene" Books 4-6, and "Four
Hymns". King James the Sixth of Scotland accuses Spenser of
slandering his mother Mary Queen of Scots as the figure of Duessa
in the "The Fairie Queene" .
1598: Named Sheriff
Designate for County Cork. (April) Completes " A View of the
Present State of Ireland", but it is not published until 1633.
(October) The castle at Kilcolman is attacked and burned to the
ground by the army of the Earl of Tyrone. Spenser fleas to Cork.
1598: Takes dispatches
from Sir Thomas Norris, the Governor of Munster to London to give
to the Privy Council.
1599: Back in Westminster.
(1609): Full publication
of "The Fairie Queene" including "Two Cantos of Mutability".
Written Works:
- 1569:
“The Visions of Bellay”. “The Visions of Petrarch”.
- 1579:
“The Shepherd's Calendar”.
- 1580:
“Three Letters and Two Other Letters Passed between Two University
Men”.
- 1590:
“The Faerie Queen”. (Books 1-3). “Muiopotmos, or the Fate of the
Butterfly”.
- 1591:
“Complaints”. “Daphnaida”.
- 1595: “Amoretti”.
“Colin Clout's Come Home Again”. “Epithalamion”.
- 1596:
“The Fairie Queen” (Books 1-3 Revised and Books 4-6).
- (1633):
“A View of the Present State of Ireland”.
Marriage:
1. To Machabyas Chylde at Westminster.
2.1594 to Elizabeth Boyle.
Places of Interest:
LONDON:
Westminster Abbey.
Date and Place of Death:
13th January 1599, London, Westminster Abbey,
Westminster , London. His funeral was paid for by the Earl of Essex.
Age at Death:
47.
Site of Grave:
Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, London.
Westminster Abbey, London
(© Anthony Blagg)
