400 pounds would be now. But it did not seem to Spenser to be
enough to allow him to give up his post in Ireland and live in
England. So back to Ireland he went once more, with a grudge
in his heart against Lord Burleigh.

*Thomas Fuller.







Chapter XLII SPENSER--THE "FAERY QUEEN"

SPENSER'S plan for the Faery Queen was a very great one. He
meant to write a poem in twelve books, each book containing the
adventures of a knight who was to show forth one virtue. And if
these were well received he purposed to write twelve more. Only
the first three books were as yet published, but they made him
far more famous than the Shepherd's Calendar had done. For never
since Chaucer had such poetry been written. In the Faery Queen
Spenser has, as he says, changed his "oaten reed" for "trumpets
stern," and sings no longer now of shepherds and their loves, but
of "knights and ladies gentle deeds" of "fierce wars and faithful
loves."

The first three books tell the adventures of the Red Cross Knight
St. George, or Holiness; of Sir Guyon, or Temperance; and of the
Lady Britomartis, or Chastity. The whole poem is an allegory.