He too,
as we shall see, was a profound admirer of Harvey.
After leaving the university in 1576, Spenser,
then, about twenty-four years of age, returned to his
own people in the North. This fact is learnt from his
friend 'E.K.'s' glosses to certain lines in the sixth
book of the _Shepheardes Calendar_. E.K. speaks 'of
the North countrye where he dwelt,' and 'of his
removing out of the North parts and coming into the
South.' As E.K. writes in the spring of 1579, and as
his writing is evidently some little time subsequent to
the migration he speaks of, it may be believed that
Spenser quitted his Northern home in 1577, and, as we
shall see, there is other evidence for this
supposition. About a year then was passed in the North
after he left the University.
These years were not spent idly. The poetical
fruits of them shall be mentioned presently. What made
it otherwise a memorable year to the poet was his
falling deeply in love with some fair Northern
neighbour. Who she was is not known. He who adored
her names her Rosalind, 'a feigned name,' notes E.K.,
'which being well ordered will bewray the very name of
hys love and mistresse, whom by that name he
coloureth.' Many solutions of this anagram have been
essayed, mostly on the supposition that the lady lived
in Kent; but Professor Craik is certainly right in
insisting that she was of the North.
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