' The third petition averred that 'Edmond Spenser of
Kilcolman, gentleman, hath entered into three
ploughlands, parcel of Ballingerath, and disseised your
suppliant thereof, and continueth by countenance and
greatness the possession thereof, and maketh great
waste of the wood of the said land, and converteth a
great deal of corn growing thereupon to his proper use,
to the damage of the complainant of two hundred pounds
sterling. Whereunto,' continues the document, which is
preserved in the Original Rolls Office, 'the said
Edmond Spenser appearing in person had several days
prefixed unto him peremptorily to answer, which he
neglected to do.' Therefore 'after a day of grace
given,' on the 12th of February, 1594, Lord Roche was
decreed the possession. Perhaps the absence from his
lady love referred to in the concluding sonnets was
occasioned by this litigation. Perhaps also the 'false
forged lyes'--the malicious reports circulated about
him--referred to in Sonnet 85, may have been connected
with these appeals against him. It is clear that all
his dreams of Faerie did not make him neglectful of his
earthly estate. Like Shakspere, like Scott, Spenser
did not cease to be a man of the world--we use the
phrase in no unkindly sense--because he was a poet. He
was no mere visionary, helpless in the ordinary affairs
of life.
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