when he was a sufferer in the cause of government, is a question which may be asked without the risk of a satis factory answer. The whining of some contemporary poets* affords no proof of the fact, and may be rejected as authority; but the reception Mr. Warton has given to the report of Spenser's poverty is entitled to higher regard. It might indeed be considered as decisive, if Mr. Todd's more successful researches did not prove that he founds all his arguments upon the mistaken supposition that Spenser died in Ireland. Nor will Mr. Warton's agree with the lamentations of the poets, for they represent Spenser as poor by the neglect of his friends and country; and Mr. Warton, as dying amidst the desolations of rebellion.

Spenser's remains were interred in Westminster Abbey, near those of Chaucer, and the funeral expenses defrayed by the earl of Essex, a nobleman very erroneous in political life, but too much a friend to literature to have allowed Spenser to starve, and afterwards insult his remains by a sumptuous funeral. His monument, however, which has been attributed to the munificence of Essex, was erected by Anne, countess of Dorset, about thirty years after Spenser's death. Stone was the workman, and had forty pounds for it. That at present in Westminster Abbey was erected or restored in 1778.

It does not appear what became of Spenser's wife and children. Two sons are said to have survived him, Sylvanus and Peregrine. SYLVANUS married Ellen Nangle, or Nagle, eldest daughter of David Nangle of Moneanymy in the county of Cork, by whom he had two sons, Edmund and William Spenser. His other son, PEREGRINE, also married and had a son, HUGOLIN, who, after the restoration of Charles II. was replaced by the court of claims in as much of the lands as could be found to have been his ancestor's. Hugolin, however, attached himself to the cause of James II. and after the Revolution was outlawed for treason and rebellion. Some time after, his cousin William, son of Sylvanus, became a suitor for the forfeited property, and recovered it by the interest of Mr. Montague, afterwards earl of Halifax, who was then at the head of the Treasury. He had been introduced to Mr. Montague by Congreve, who, with others, was desirous of

Phineas Fletcher, in his "Purple Island," speaks most decisively in favour of Spenser's poverty at the time of his death.

honouring the descendant of so great a poet. Dr. Birch describes him as a man somewhat advanced in years, but unable to give any account of the works of his ancestor which are wanting. The family has been since very imperfectly traced.

It remains to be observed, almost in the words of Mr. Todd, that Spenser is the author of four Sonnets, which are admitted into the late editions of his works, of which three are prefixed to separate publications, and the fourth occurs in letters by his friend Harvey. He is conjectured to be the author of a sonnet signed E. S. addressed to Master Henry Peacham, and entitled "A Vision upon his Minerva," and of some poor verses on Phillis, in a publication called "Chorus Poetarum," 1684. The verses on queen Elizabeth's picture at Kensington have been likewise given to Spenser, but lord Orford ascribes them to the queen herself. As "Britain's Ida" has been usually printed with the works of Spenser, it is still retained, although the critics are agreed that it was not written by him. The lost pieces of Spenser are said to be, 1. His transla tion of Ecclesiasticus. 2. Translation of Canticum Canticorum. 3. The Dying Pelican. 4. The hours of our Lord. 5. The Sacrifice of a Sinner. 6. The Seven Psalms. 7. Dreams. 8. The English Poet. 9. Legends. 10. The Court of Cupid. 11. The Hell of Lovers. His Purgatory. 13 13 A Se'nnight's Slumber. 14. Pa geants. 15. Nine Comedies. 16. Stemmata Dudleiana. 17. Epithalamion Thamesis. If his pen was thus prolific, there is very little reason to suppose that he might not have had leisure and industry to have nearly completed his "Faerie Queene," before the fatal rebellion which terminated all his labours.

12.1

Of the personal character of Spenser, if we may be allowed to form an opinion from his writings, it will be highly favourable. With a few exceptions, their uniform tendency is in favour of piety and virtue. His religious sentiments assimilate, so closely with those of the early re-a formers, that we may conjecture he had not only studied the controversies of his age, but was a man of devotional temper and affections.

རྣམ་པ་སྟེ

Of Spenser, as a poet, little can be added to the many criticisms which have been published since his import

*

*Jortin, Hurd, Church, Upton, but his Observations on the Faerie Queen. Y above all, Mr. Thomas Warton, in There are also some ingenious re

ance in the history of English poetry became more justly appreciated. His lesser pieces contain many beauties. Dryden thought the "Shepheard's Calender the most compleat work of the kind which imagination had produced since the time of Virgil." It has not, however, risen in estimation. The language is so much more obsolete than that of the "Faerie Queene," the groundwork of which is the language of his age, that it required a glossary at the time of publication. It is, however, the "Faerie Queene" which must be considered as constituting Spenser one of the chief fathers of English poetry. Its predominant excellencies are, imagery, feeling; taste, and melody of versification. Its defects are partly those of his model, Ariosto, and partly those of his age. His own

errors are the confusion and inconsistency admitted in the stories and allegorical personages of the ancients, and the absurd mixture of Christian and heathenish allusions. Mr. Spence has fully exemplified these in his "Polymetis." It is, indeed, impossible to criticise "The Faerie Queene" by any rules; but we find in it the noblest examples of all the graces of poetry, the sublime, the pathetic, and such. powers of description as have never been exceeded. Bishop Hurd has therefore judiciously considered it under the idea of a gothic rather than a classical poem. It certainly strikes with all the grand effect of that species of architecture, and perhaps it is not too much to say that, like that, its reputation has suffered by the predominant taste for the more correct, lighter, and more easily practicable forms of the Grecian school.

Hume was among the first who endeavoured to depreciate the value of the "Faerie Queene," by asserting that the perusal of it was rather a task than a pleasure, and challenging any individual to deny this. Pope and lord Somers are two who might have accepted the challenge with hope of success. But in fact Spenser will not lose much if we admit the assertion. That the perusal of the Faerie Queene must be at first a task, and a very irksome

marks in Pope's Discourse on Pastoral Poetry, and indeed in every writer who has treated the subject of English poetry.

* "There is something," said Pope, "in Spenser that pleases one as strongly in one's old age as it did in one's youth. I read the Fairy Queen when I was

about twelve with a vast deal of delight; and I think it gave me as much when read it over about a year or two ago." Spence's, Anecdotes quoted by Dr. Warton, who very justly censures Pope's Imitation of Spenser. See Pope's Works, Bowles's edit. vol. II. 289.

W artaca M 18

one, will be confessed by all who are unacquainted with any English words but what are current. If that difficulty be surmounted, the reader of taste cannot fail to relish the beauties so profusely scattered in this poem. With respect to the objections that have been made to the allegorical plan, it is sufficient to refer to its antiquity; it was one of the earliest vehicles of pleasure blended with instruction, and although modern critics object to a continued allegory, which indeed it is extremely difficult to accomplish without falling into inconsistencies, yet specimens of it, detached personifications, aiming at the sublimity of Spenser, still continue to be among the efforts by which our best writers wish to establish their fame. Perhaps the same re mark may be extended to the stanza of Spenser, which critics have censured, and poets, praised by those critics, have imitated. After all it is to the language of Spenser that we must look for the reason why his popularity is less than that of many inferior poets. Spenser, Chaucer, and indeed all the early poets can be relished, not by common readers, but by students, and not separately but as connected with times, characters, and manners, the illustration of which demands the skill and industry of the antiquary.1

SPERONI (SPERONE), an Italian scholar of great eminence in the sixteenth century, was born at Padua April, 12, 1500, of noble parents. After finishing his studies at Bologna, under the celebrated Pomponatius, he returned to Padua, and took a doctor's degree in philosophy and medicine. He also was made professor of logic, and afterwards of philosophy in general; but soon after he had obtained the chair of philosophy, he was so diffident of his acquirements that he returned to Padua for farther improvement under his old master, and did not return to his professorship until after the death of Pomponatius. In 1528, however, the death of his father obliged him to resign his office, and employ his time on domestic affairs.. Yet these, a marriage which he now contracted, the lawsuits which he had to carry on, and some honourable employments he was engaged in by the government, did not prevent him from cultivating his literary talents with such success, that there were few men in his time who could be compared with him in point of learning, eloquence, and

1 Todd's Life of Spenser.-English Poets, 1810, 21 vols. 8vo.

taste. In 1560 he was deputed to go to Rome by the duke of Urbino, under the pontificate of Pius IV., and there obtained the esteem of the learned of that metropolis, and received marks of high favour from the pope and his nephew Charles Borromeo, who invited him to those literary assemblies in his palace, which were called "Vatican nights." On his departure, after four years residence, the pope gave him the title and decorations of a knight. When be returned home he was equally honoured by the dukes of Urbino and Ferrara, but certain lawsuits, arising from his family affairs, induced him to remove again to Rome, about the end of 1573, and he did not return until five years after, when he took up his final residence at Padua. He had flattering invitations to quit his native city from various princes, but a private life had now more charms for him. He died June 12, 1588, having completed his eighty-eighth year. His funeral was performed with every circumstance of respect and magnificence. His works form no less than 5 vols. 4to, elegantly printed at Venice in 1740; but there had been editions of individual parts printed and reprinted often in his life-time. His range of study was extensive. He was equally conversant in Greek and Latin, sacred and profane literature, and displayed on every subject which employed his pen, great learning and judgment. Among his works, are dialogues on morals, the belles lettres, rhetoric, poetry and history. He wrote also both serious and burlesque poetry. His prose style is among the best of his age, and has fewer faults than are to be found among the Italian writers of the sixteenth century. He wrote a tragedy, "Canace et Macareus," which had its admirers and its critics, and occasioned a controversy on its merits.1

SPIGELIUS, or VANDEN SPIEGHEL (ADRIAN), an eminent medical writer, was born at Brussels in 1578, and studied at Louvain and Padua. He was afterwards appointed state-physician in Moravia, which, in 1616, he quitted for the professorship of anatomy and surgery at Padua. There he acquired a high reputation, was made a knight of St. Mark, and decorated with a collar of gold. He died April 7, 1625. His most valuable works "De formato Fœtu, liber singularis ;" and "De Humani Cor

are

1 Tiraboschi,-Ginguené Hist. Lit. d'Italie.-Niceron, vol. XXXIX.--Toma-` sini Elogia.