Before the close of the year 1596 Spenser wrote
and published the _Prothalamion_ or 'A spousall verse
made in honour of the double marriage of the two
honourable and vertuous ladies, the ladie Elizabeth,
and the ladie Katherine Somerset, daughters to the
right honourable the Earle of Worcester, and espoused
to the two worthie gentlemen, M. Henry Gilford and M.
William Peter Esquyers.' It was composed after the
return of Essex from Spain, for he is introduced in the
poem as then residing at his house in the Strand. It
is a poem full of grace and beauty, and of matchless
melodiousness.
This is the last complete poem Spenser wrote. No
doubt he entertained the idea of completing his _Faerie
Queene_; and perhaps it was after 1596 that he composed
the two additional cantos, which are all, so far as is
known, that he actually wrote. But the last poem
completed and published in his lifetime was the
_Prothalamion_.
This second visit to England at last came to an
end. It was probably in 1597 that he returned once
more to Kilcolman. In the following year he was
recommended by her Majesty for Sheriff of Cork. But
his residence in Ireland was now to be rudely
terminated.
The Irishry had, ever since the suppression of
Desmond's rebellion in 1582, been but waiting for
another opportunity to rise, that suppression not
having brought pacification in its train.
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