A Biography of Edmund Spenser by John W. Hales
page 46 of 106 (43%)
page 46 of 106 (43%)
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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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