Edmund Spenser: Elizabethan Poet
English Writer and Satirist of the 16th Century
Short biography of the life and works of English poet Edmund Spenser, leading poet during the Elizabethan Era, and famous for "The Faerie Queene."
Edmund Spenser was a leading English poet during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. HE was famous for his The Faerie Queene books. His works had great influence on John Keats, one of the best poets of the Romantic writing school.
Early Career
Spenser was born around 1552 in London, where his father was a tradesman and a clothmaker, connected with the Spencers of Althorp. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Cambridge University. His early writings were partly written at Cambridge and included some translations of Petrarch's Visions and sonnets of Joachim Du Bellay.
After finishing his studies, Spenser got a job in the household of a powerful aristocrat, the Earl of Leicester. He became the earl's assistant. He mixed with important people and became acquainted with the poet Sir Philip Sidney, and a society of wits called the Areopagus. Spenser dedicated his first important work, a series of 12 long poems called The Shepheard's Calendar, to Sidney. They became lifelong friends.
Life in Ireland
In 1580 Spenser was appointed secretary to Lord Grey, lord deputy to Ireland. Spenser went with him to Ireland and became involved in the forced seizure of land from the Irish. For this the queen gave him Kilcolman Castle in the southern Ireland county of Cork, where he settled, and hoped to write his works. Spenser did not like being away from London but felt he could not refuse this gift. He settled into his new home and devoted his time to writing his greatest poem, The Faerie Queene.
The Faerie Queene Books
The first three books of The Faerie Queene were published when Spenser was about 38 years old. He dedicated them to Queen Elizabeth, hoping to receive an invitation to return from Ireland and serve at her court. No such invitation came. Spenser expressed his disappointment with a satire on court life in his book Colin Clouts Home Againe. Spenser finished the last three books of The Faerie Queene in Ireland.
Last Years
In 1598 an Irish rebellion broke out, and Kilcolman Castle was burned to the ground. Spenser managed to escape to London with his family, but he lived for only a short time. He died on the 16th of January, 1599.
Works by Edmund Spenser
- The Shepheard's Calendar
- Mother Hubberd's Tale
- The Faerie Queene (Books 1-3)
- Complaints
- Colin Clouts Come Home Again
- The Early Tears of the Muses
- Amoretti, sonnet
- Epithalamion, poem
- The Faerie Queene (Books 4-6)
- Prothalamion
- View of the Present State of Ireland (Published after he died)
Sources:
Cambridge Guide to Literature in English by Ian Ousby (1993)
Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring (1994)
