first time in the _Visions_ are those describing the
Wolf, the River, the Vessel, the City. There are four
pieces of the older series which are not reproduced in
the later. It would seem probable that they too may
have been written by Spenser in the days of his youth,
though at a later period of his life he cancelled and
superseded them. They are therefore reprinted in this
volume. (See pp. 699-701.)
Vander Noodt, it must be said, makes no mention of
Spenser in his volume. It would seem that he did not
know English, and that he wrote his _Declaration_--a
sort of commentary in prose on the _Visions_--in
French. At least we are told that this _Declaration_
is translated out of French into English by Theodore
Roest. All that is stated of the origin of his
_Visions_ is: 'The learned poete M. Francisce
Petrarche, gentleman of Florence, did invent and write
in Tuscan the six firste . . . . which because they
serve wel to our purpose, I have out of the Brabants
speache turned them into the English tongue;' and 'The
other ten visions next ensuing ar described of one
Ioachim du Bellay, gentleman of France, the whiche
also, because they serve to our purpose I have
translated them out of Dutch into English.' The fact
of the _Visions_ being subsequently ascribed to Spenser
would not by itself carry much weight. But, as Prof.
Craik pertinently asks, 'if this English version was
not the work of Spenser, where did Ponsonby [the
printer who issued that subsequent publication which
has been mentioned] procure the corrections which are