Queen's bounty, and had 500_l_. ordered him for his
support, which nevertheless was abridged to 100_l_. by
Cecil, who, hearing of it, and owing him a grudge for
some reflections in Mother Hubbard's Tale, cry'd out to
the queen, What! all this for a song? This he is said
to have taken so much to heart, that he contracted a
deep melancholy, which soon after brought his life to a
period. So apt is an ingenuous spirit to resent a
slighting, even from the greatest persons; thus much I
must needs say of the merit of so great a poet from so
great a monarch, that as it is incident to the best of
poets sometimes to flatter some royal or noble patron,
never did any do it more to the height, or with greater
art or elegance, if the highest of praises attributed
to so heroic a princess can justly be termed
flattery.'{6}
When Spenser's works were reprinted--the first
three books of the _Faerie Queene_ for the seventh
time--in 1679, there was added an account of his life.
In 1687, Winstanley, in his _Lives of the most famous
English Poets_, wrote a formal biography.
These are the oldest accounts of Spenser that have
been handed down to us. In several of them mythical
features and blunders are clearly discernible. Since
Winstanley's time, it may be added, Hughes in 1715, Dr.
Birch in 1731, Church in 1758, Upton in that same year,
Todd in 1805, Aikin in 1806, Robinson in 1825, Mitford
in 1839, Prof. Craik in 1845, Prof. Child in 1855, Mr.
Collier in 1862, Dr. Grosart in 1884, have re-told what
little there is to tell, with various additions and