in the Strand--'26 Aug. [1587] Florenc Spenser, the
daughter of Edmond'--it has been conjectured that the
poet was married before 1587. This conjecture seems
entirely unacceptable. There is nothing to justify the
theory that the Edmund Spenser of the register was the
poet. It is simply incredible that Spenser, one who,
as has been said, poured out all his soul in his poems,
should have wooed and won some fair lady to his wife,
without ever a poetical allusion to his courtship and
his triumph. It is not at all likely, as far as one
can judge from their titles, that any one of his lost
works was devoted to the celebration of any such
successful passion. Lastly, besides this important
negative evidence, there is distinct positive testimony
that long after 1587 the image of Rosalind had not been
displaced in his fancy by any other loveliness. In
_Colin Clouts Come Home Again_, written, as will be
seen, in 1591, though not published until 1595, after
the poet has 'full deeply divined of love and beauty,'
one Melissa in admiration avers that all true lovers
are greatly bound to him--most especially women. The
faithful Hobbinol says that women have but ill requited
their poet:--

'He is repayd with scorne and foule despite,
That yrkes each gentle heart which it doth heare.'
'Indeed,' says Lucid, 'I have often heard
Faire Rosalind of divers fowly blamed
For being to that swaine too cruell hard.