So far as our knowledge goes, it
shows some slight positive resemblance between their
lives. They were both connected with the highest
society of their times; both enjoyed court favour, and
enjoyed it in the substantial shape of pensions. They
were both men of remarkable learning. They were both
natives of London. They both died in the close
vicinity of Westminster Abbey, and lie buried near each
other in that splendid cemetery. Their geniuses were
eminently different: that of Chaucer was the active
type, Spenser's of the contemplative; Chaucer was
dramatic, Spenser philosophical; Chaucer objective,
Spenser subjective; but in the external circumstances,
so far as we know them, amidst which these great poets
moved, and in the mist which for the most part enfolds
those circumstances, there is considerable likeness.
Spenser is frequently alluded to by his
contemporaries; they most ardently recognised in him,
as we shall see, a great poet, and one that might
justly be associated with the one supreme poet whom
this country had then produced--with Chaucer, and they
paid him constant tributes of respect and admiration;
but these mentions of him do not generally supply any
biographical details.
The earliest notice of him that may in any sense
be termed biographical occurs in a sort of handbook to
the monuments of Westminster Abbey, published by Camden
in 1606.
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