recorded in the _Faerie Queene_, the first three books of that great poem
were finished." Spenser had spent the first three years of his residence at
Kilcolman at work on this masterpiece, which had been begun in England,
under the encouragement of Sidney, probably before 1580. The knightly
Sidney died heroically at the battle of Zutphen, in 1586, and Spenser
voiced the lament of all England in the beautiful pastoral elegy
_Astrophel_ which he composed in memory of "the most noble and valorous
knight."

Soon after coming to Ireland, Spenser made the acquaintance of Sir Walter
Raleigh, which erelong ripened into intimate friendship. A memorable visit
from Raleigh, who was now a neighbor of the poet's, having also received a
part of the forfeited Desmond estate, led to the publication of the _Faerie
Queene_. Sitting under the shade "of the green alders of the Mulla's
shore," Spenser read to his guest the first books of his poem. So pleased
was Raleigh that he persuaded the poet to accompany him to London, and
there lay his poem at the feet of the great queen, whose praises he had so
gloriously sung. The trip was made, Spenser was presented to Elizabeth, and
read to her Majesty the three Legends of Holiness, Temperance, and
Chastity. She was delighted with the fragmentary epic in which she heard
herself delicately complimented in turn as Gloriana, Belphoebe, and
Britomart, conferred upon the poet a pension of £50 yearly, and permitted
the _Faerie Queene_ to be published with a dedication to herself. Launched
under such auspices, it is no wonder that the poem was received by the
court and all England with unprecedented applause.

The next year while still in London, Spenser collected his early poems and
issued them under the title of _Complaints_. In this volume were the _Ruins
of Time_ and the _Tears of the Muses_, two poems on the indifference shown
to literature before 1580, and the remarkable _Mother Hubberds Tale_, a