Part 4 (1/2)
FOOTNOTES:
[54:1] Froude, x 158
[58:2] Calendar of State Papers Ireland, 1574-1585 Mr H C Hamilton's Pref p lxxi-lxxiii Nov 12, 1580
[62:3] cox, Hist of Ireland, 354
[63:4] Irish Papers, March 29, 1587
[79:5] Carew MSS Calendar, 1587, p 449 Cf Irish Papers; Calendar, 1587, p 309, 450
CHAPTER IV
THE FAERY QUEEN--THE FIRST PART
[1580-1590]
The _Faery Queen_ is heard of very early in Spenser's literary course
We know that in the beginning of 1580, the year in which Spenser went to Ireland, soun and sub other literary projects, Spenser was intending to proceed with it But beyond the , at this time, of Spenser's proposed _Faery Queen_
Harvey's criticiseneral plan or its numbers Whether the first sketch had been decided upon, whether the new stanza, Spenser's original creation, and its peculiar beauty and instru experiments in metre in the _Shepherd's Calendar_, we have noBut he took the idea with him to Ireland; and in Ireland he pursued it and carried it out
The first authentic account which we have of the composition of the _Faery Queen_, is in a pamphlet written by Spenser's friend and predecessor in the service of the Council of Munster, Ludowick Bryskett, and inscribed to Lord Grey of Wilton: a _Discourse of Civil Life_, published in 1606 He describes a e near Dublin, and a conversation that took place on the ”ethical” part of moral philosophy The colishmen employed in Irish affairs, men whose names occur continually in the copious correspondence in the Rolls and at Lah; there were Sir Robert Dillon, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Dormer, the Queen's Solicitor; and there were soldiers, like Thomas Norreys, then Vice-President of Munster, under his brother John Norreys; Sir Warhaer, on whom had fallen so much of the work in the South of Ireland, and who at last, like Thomas Norreys, fell in Tyrone's rebellion; Captain Christopher Carleil, Walsinghareat distinction on land and sea, not only in Ireland, but in the Low Countries, in France, and at Carthagena and San Doo; and Captain Nicholas Dawtry, the Seneschal of Clandeboy, in the troublesome Ulster country, afterwards ”Captain” of Hampshi+re at the time of the Arwasof 1588, when Daas in Hampshi+re The extract is so curious, as a picture of the intellectual and literary wants and efforts of the times, especially amid the disorders of Ireland, and as a statement of Spenser's purpose in his poeiven in Mr Todd's _Life of Spenser_, and repeated in that by Mr Hales
”Herein do I greatly envie,” writes Bryskett, ”the happiness of the Italians, who have in their ular easie ht all that Plato and Aristotle have confusedly or obscurely left written Of which, soht; as Alexander Piccolo written upon the Ethick part of Morall Philosophie both exactly and perspicuously And would God that some of our countriood of their countrie (whereof one principall andlish the precepts of those parts of Morall Philosophy, whereby our youthof those other languages require, speedily enter into the right course of vertuous life
In the le with those bookes which I vnderstand and content myselfe to plod upon them, in hope that God (who knoweth the sincerenesse of , so as I , which I trauell for Yet is there _a gentleman in this company_, whom I have had often a purpose to intreate, that as his liesure ht serue him, he would vouchsafe to spend some time with me to instruct me in so hiue, but also very well read in Philosophie, both morall and naturall_
Neuertheless such is my bashfulness, as I neuer yet durst open h I have not wanted so thereunto froed ue, and offered ood an opportunitie is offered vnto me, to satisfie in soreat fault, not to myselfe alone, but to all this company, if I should not enter my request thus farre, as to moue him to spend this time which we have now destined to fareat benefits which e of Morall Philosophie, and inus to knohat the same is, what be the parts thereof, whereby vertues are to be distinguished from vices; and finally that he will be pleased to run ouer in such order as he shall thinke good, such and so many principles and rules thereof, as shall serue not only for my better instruction, but also for the content doubt, but that euery one of you will be glad to heare so profitable a discourse and thinke the tie shal be reuealed unto you, froather so myselfe to _M Spenser_, It is you sir, to whom it pertaineth to shew yourselfe courteous now unto vs all and tounto you for the pleasure and profit which we shall gather frooodly cabinet, in which this excellent treasure of vertues lieth locked up froar sort And thereof in the behalfe of all as for myselfe, I do most earnestly intreate you not to say vs nay
Vnto which wordes ofesture and countenances expressing as h it may seeme hard for me, to refuse the request made by you all, whoratifie; yet as the case standeth, I doubt not but with the consent of the most part of you, I shall be excused at this time of this taske which would be laid vpon me; for sure I am, that it is not vnknowne unto you, that I haue alreedy vndertaken a work tending to the same effect, which is in _heroical verse_ under the title of a _Faerie Queene_ to represent all the ht to be the patron and defender of the same, in whose actions and feates of arms and chiualry the operations of that vertue, whereof he is the protector, are to be expressed, and the vices and unruly appetites that oppose theainst the same, to be beaten down and ouercome Which work, _as I haue already well entred into_, if God shall please to spareto my mind, your wish (_M Bryskett_) will be in soh perhaps not so effectually as you could desire And the same may very well serue for my excuse, if at this time I craue to be forborne in this your request, since any discourse, that I ht make thus on the sudden in such a subject would be but siood aduisement and premeditation for any man to vndertake the declaration of these points that you have proposed, containing in effect the Ethicke part of Morall Philosophie Whereof since I haue taken in hand to discourse at large in my poeme before spoken, I hope the expectation of that workin thatyour motion and all your intreaties But I will tell you how I thinke by himselfe he may very well excuse my speech, and yet satisfie all you in this matter I haue seene (as he knoweth) a translation ue co all the Ethick part of Moral Philosophy written by one of those three he formerly mentioned, and that is by _Giraldi_ vnder the title of a Dialogue of Ciuil life If it please hi vs, or otherwise to deliuer to us, as his memory may serue him, the contents of the same; he shal (I warrant you) satisfie you all at the ful, and himselfe wil haue no cause but to thinke the ti his labors, especially in the company of so many his friends, who may thereby reape much profit, and the translation happily fare the better by sos else may do by the often examination of the saaine the taske he wold haue put me to; for it falleth out fit for hiie, euen now made for himselfe; because thereby it will appeare that he hath not withdrawne himselfe from seruice of the state to liue idle or wholly priuate to hireatly benefit others, and hath serued not a little to the bettering of his owne h he for norance, and pleade want in wealth, ars, who either of custos whereof they haue no want at home
With this answer of _M Spensers_ it seemed that all the company el satisfied, for after so after his worke of the _Fairie Queene_, _whereof soan to presse me to produce ht be perused a them; or else that I should (as near as I could) deliuer unto the thatso studied and advisedly set downe in writing as a translation must be”
A poet at this ti himself in the character of a professed teacher of h with a different method, as the preacher in the pulpit Even with this profession, he had to encounter ravity and wisdo But if he wished to be counted respectable, and to separate himself from the crowd of foolish or licentious rimers, he must intend distinctly, not merely to interest, but to instruct, by his new and deep conceits It was under the influence of this persuasion that Spenser laid down the plan of the _Faery Queen_ It was, so he proposed to hiiven him, political philosophy, composed with as serious a didactic aim, as any treatise or sermon in prose He dee for it this design
He did not venture to send the _Faery Queen_ into the world without also telling the world itsHe cannot trust it to tell its own story or suggest its real drift In the letter to Sir W
Ralegh, acco the first portion of it, he unfolds elaborately the sense of his allegory, as he expounded it to his friends in Dublin ”To some,” he says, ”I know this ood discipline delivered plainly by way of precept, or sere, as they use, than thus cloudily enwrapped in allegorical devises” He thought that Hoil and Ariosto had thus written poetry, to teach the world moral virtue and political wisdohley, who hated hi before him in a dedication sonnet, the true intent of his--
Idle rimes; The labour of lost tihed, And the dim veil, hich from common view Their fairer parts are hid, aside be laid, Perhaps not vain they may appear to you
In earlier and in later ti poets; and Spenser hi himself credit for this direct purpose to instruct, when he was really following the course enius But he only conformed to the curious utilitarian spirit which pervaded the literature of the time Readers were supposed to look everywhere for a moral to be drawn, or a lesson to be inculcated, or some practical rules to be avowedly and definitely deduced; and they could not yet take in the idea that the exercise of the speculative and iinative faculties may be its own end, and reater than if it was guided by a conscious intention to be edifying and instructive