In a short notice addressed to the Gentle Reader which
follows--the notice just referred to--the publisher of
the volume mentions other works by Spenser, and
promises to publish them too 'when he can attain to'
them. These works are _Ecclesiastes_, _The Seven
Psalms_, and _Canticum Canticorum_--these three no
doubt translations of parts of the Old Testament--_A
Sennight Slumber_, _The State of Lovers_, the _Dying
Pelican_--doubtless the work mentioned, as has been
seen, in one of Spenser's letters to Harvey--_The
Howers of the Lord_, and _The Sacrifice of a Sinner_.
Many of these works had probably been passing from hand
to hand in manuscript for many years. That old method
of circulation survived the invention of the printing
press for many generations. The perils of it may be
illustrated from the fate of the works just mentioned.
It would seem that the publisher never did attain to
them; and they have all perished. With regard to the
works which were printed and preserved, the _Ruines of
Time_, as the Dedication shows, was written during
Spenser's memorable visit of 1589-91 to England. It is
in fact an elegy dedicated to the Countess of Pembroke,
on the death of Sir Philip Sidney, 'that most brave
Knight, your most noble brother deceased.' 'Sithens my
late cumming into England,' the poet writes in the
Epistle Dedicatorie, 'some friends of mine (which might
much prevaile with me and indeede commaund me) knowing
with howe straight bandes of duetie I was tied to him;
as also bound unto that noble house (of which the