Life time of Edmund Spenser

Timeline of Spenser’s life (1552-1599)

•Born in East Swithfield, near Tower of London, presumed to be poor

•(In his work Prothalamion we deduce when and where was he born although little is known of his parentage).

•His life and work seems to center around three great influences: Cambridge-London-Ireland.

Spenser’s early life

•He was believed to be born around 1552/1553 in London.

•His father was believed to be John Spenser a journeyman cloth maker

•Spencer’s  believed to  to have originated from Lancashire where they were connected with prominent local families, one of those was believed to be Robert Nowell.

•Confirmed to have at least one sister, Sarah and a number of brothers.

•Attended Merchant Taylor’s school probably from it’s opening in 1561. Studies at that time concentrated on  works of Cato, Ceasar, Horace, Lucan and Homer.

• He studied Latin language and composition. He was also perhaps trained in Greek and Hebrew. 

Some of his work includes

•The Shepheardes calendar (1579)

•The Fearie Queene Book (I-III) (1589)

•Complaints (1590)

•Colin Clovts came home againe (1591)

•Amoretti and Epithalamion (1594/1595)

•A view of the present state of Ireland (1597)

Chronology of Spenser’s life 

•After leaving Cambridge around 1576 “his chief occupation was to fall in love and record his melancholy over the lost Rosalind in the Shepheardes Calender” (Andrews)

•On Harvey’s advice he came to London and at the peak of royal favor, he lived at Liecester House.

•When he finished the Shepherd’s Calender  he met Sidney and all other favorites of the queen.

•The court life was full of intrigue, lying, flattery which made Spenser uncomfortable. 

•By 1580, Spenser was weary of his dependent position and was made secretary to Lord Grey de Wilton, the Queen’s deputy in Ireland.

•He accompanied the chief in one of the campaign of savage brutality against the Irish rebels.

•He was given Kilcolman castle in Munster (confiscated from Earl Desmond, an Irish leader), where he led a lonely exile.

•In Kilcolman, he wrote his only prose work “View of the State of Ireland” in 1596 (It was a plan for’pacifying the opposed & rebellious people’.

•He also finished his first three books of the Fearie Queene.

•1589, Sir Walter Raleigh visited him and heard the Faerie Queene.

•Raleigh at once hurried him to London to present the Faerie Queene to Queen Elizabeth.

•He was awarded a pension of 50 pounds a year, although it was rarely paid and so he went back to Ireland.

•He fell in love with an Irish girl Elizabeth Boyle and wrote his Amoretti in her honor.

•1594 he married Elizabeth and celebrated his wedding in Epithalamion.

•Spenser’s next visit to London was 1595 when he published the elegy, Astrophel for his friend Sidney and three more books of the Fearie Queene.

•He met Shakespeare and other literati's of the Elizabethan age.

•When he returned to Ireland he was appointed Sheriff of Cork.

•It was during this time the Tyrone rebellion broke out in Munster.

•Kilcolman was the first to be attacked, he barely escaped with his wife and his two children.

•It is believed that the unfinished parts of the Fearie Queene were also burned

•Spenser never recovered from the incident and by 1599 he died in Westminster.

Chronicling Spenser’s last days 

•Throughout the years as Spenser tried to rise through court, his efforts  were blocked by Baron Burghley.

•Burghley died in August 1597

•Shortly thereafter he was named Sherif of Cork and in October a rebellion occurred and his house sacked and burned. While he escaped, all was lost.

•In December 1597, Spenser was dispatched to London  and again trying to gain position in court tried to get the Queen to enact reform in Ireland.

•In January he fell ill and quickly died. (Jokinen)

•Ben Jonson said he died “for want of bread”. Although it’s uncertain whether this poetic expression was the loss of property or he actually died of destitution.

•January 13, 1598

•Spenser dies at Westminster Abbey

•He is buried in the ‘poet’s corner’, Westminster Abbey, London, England next to his beloved Chaucer. (Abrams, et. Al.)

Sources:

•Judson,  Alexander, “The Life Edmund Spenser” 14 April 2007, http://www.English.cam.ac.uk/spenser/biography.htm.

•Abrams, et. Al. “The Norton Anthology of English Literature” seventh edition, Volume 1. New York; Norton, 2000. 614-616

•Jokinen, Anniina, “The Life of Edmund Spenser” 10 April 2007 <http://www.luminarium.org/

•“The Faerie Queene” 1999, Wordsworth Classics

•Long J. William, “English Literature: Its history and its significance for the life of the English Speaking World” Enlarged edition, AITBS publication

•Sanders Andrew, “The Short Oxford History of English Literature” second edition 2009

•Albert Edward, “History of English Literature”