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A Biography of Edmund Spenser by John W. Hales
page 46 of 106 (43%)
seen, for some three years. From that year to near the
close of his life his home was to be in Ireland. He
paid at least two visits to London and its environs in
the course of these eighteen years; but it seems clear
that his home was in Ireland. Perhaps his biographers
have hitherto not truly appreciated this residence in
Ireland. We shall see that a liberal grant of land was
presently bestowed upon him in the county of Cork; and
they have reckoned him a successful man, and wondered
at the querulousness that occasionally makes itself
heard in his works. Towards the very end of this life,
Spenser speaks of himself as one

Whom sullein care
Through discontent of my long fruitlesse stay
In princes court and expectation vayne
Of idle hopes, which still doe fly away
Like empty shaddowes, did afflict my brayne.

Those who marvel at such language perhaps forget what a
dreary exile the poet's life in Ireland must in fact
have been. It is true that it was relieved by several
journeys to England, by his receiving at least one
visit from an English friend, by his finding, during at
any rate the earlier part of his absence, some
congenial English friends residing in the country, by
his meeting at length with that Elizabeth whose
excelling beauty he has sung so sweetly, and whom he
married; it is also true that there was in him--as in
Milton and in Wordsworth--a certain great self-
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