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Hales, John W., 1836-1914

"A Biography of Edmund Spenser"


{5} See this work amongst Mr. Arber's excellent
_English Reprints_.
{6} _Ancient Critical Essays_, ed. Hazlewood, 1815, pp.
259, 260.


CHAPTER II.
1580-1589.
In the year 1580 Spenser was removed from the society
and circumstances in which, except for his probable
visit to Ireland, he had lived and moved as we have
seen, for some three years. From that year to near the
close of his life his home was to be in Ireland. He
paid at least two visits to London and its environs in
the course of these eighteen years; but it seems clear
that his home was in Ireland. Perhaps his biographers
have hitherto not truly appreciated this residence in
Ireland. We shall see that a liberal grant of land was
presently bestowed upon him in the county of Cork; and
they have reckoned him a successful man, and wondered
at the querulousness that occasionally makes itself
heard in his works. Towards the very end of this life,
Spenser speaks of himself as one
Whom sullein care
Through discontent of my long fruitlesse stay
In princes court and expectation vayne
Of idle hopes, which still doe fly away
Like empty shaddowes, did afflict my brayne.
Those who marvel at such language perhaps forget what a
dreary exile the poet's life in Ireland must in fact
have been.


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