Collier suggests that this Edmund was the father; but we have been assured that he was a journeyman tailor, and also that his name was John. But why did he think him the poet's father? Evidently by the discrepancies to which we have alluded. In addition to the payment to the dispatch-bearer, he had probably seen a curious rhymed epistle in Hakluyt, under date of 1568, written from Russia by George Turberville, who was attached to the English Embassy, beginning — If I should now forget, or not remember thee, Thou Spenser might'st a foule rebuke, and shame impute to me.1 This was addressed "To Spencer," but Anthony Wood in a sketch of Turberville identifies him in this manner. After speaking of the Embassy of Thomas Randolph to Russia, and the appointment of Turberville as his secretary, he says: After our author arrived at that place, he did at spare hours exercise his muse, and wrote Poems describing the Places and Manners of the Country, An. 1568, writing to Edw. Duncie, Edm. Spenser, &c. at London.2 As we are endeavoring to find the truth about the age of the Spenser we are in search of, we should discard Wood's evidence. He was anxious to add to his list of notable scholars, and, venturing a guess according to historic custom, inserted "Edm" before Turberville's "Spencer." We are also enabled to eliminate a more important piece of evidence relative to his age. 'In a letter of July 14, 1580, to Leicester, Sir William Pelham, Lord Justice of Ireland, wrote that "Spencer," who had "long served without any consideration or recompense, and now grown into years, would be glad to taste of her Majesty's bounty." This has long been a stumbling-block to Spenser's 1 Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, etc., vol. 1, p. 127. London, 1903. 2 Anthony A. Wood, M. A., Athenea, Oxonienses, vol. 1, p. 627; reprint of edition, 1691. London, 1815. 3 Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts. biographers. Without doubt, however, he refers to James Spencer, appointed Master of Ordnance in 1569. We find that he was Pelham's brother-in-law; in fact, he alludes to him in his correspondence as "his brother Spencer," and as having served as Master of Ordnance, which should be sufficient to identify him. The dispatch-bearer, Edmund, may well have been another of the same name, and we may dismiss both of these men from consideration. Evidence that the present date on Spenser's tomb in Westminister Abbey is incorrect needs no such support. If we refer to the 1679 Folio we find an engraving of this tomb bearing these lines: — Such is the Tombe the Noble Essex gave Great Spencer's learned Reliques, such his grave. His sacred Bones Rest Honourably Here. An inscription above them is as follows: Heare lyes (expecting the Second comminge of our Saviour Christ Jesus) the body of Edmond Spencer the Prince of Poets in his Tymme whose Divine Spirit needs noe other witness then the works which he left behind him he was borne in London in the yeare 1510 and died in the year 1596.1 The figure 6 we shall show was a mistake of Stow. This Folio also says that he was By his Parents liberally Educated, and sent to the University of Cambridge, where he continued a student in Pembroke-Hall; till upon the vacancy of a Fellowship, he stood in competition with Mr. Andrews (afterwards Lord Bishop of Winchester) in which he miscarried; and thus defeated of his hopes, unable any longer to subsist in the College, he repaired to some Friends of his in the North, where he staid, fell in love, and at last (prevail'd upon by the persuasions and importunities of other Friends) came to London. Reference to the roll of Bishops of Winchester reveals to us that the Andrews above mentioned was Lancelot Andrewes, 1 The Works of that Famous English Poet, Mr. Edmund Spenser. London, 1679. (From Folio in possession of author.) born in 1555; matriculated at Cambridge 1571; became B.A. 1575; Fellow 1576; M.A. 1578; Bishop of Winchester, 1618; and died 1626. We give these particulars that the reader may have all attainable evidence relative to his age, as a guide in forming a correct judgment, for if the birth date on his monument in 1679 is correct, it will hardly be contended that he was the author of the "Faerie Queene." The monument now in the Abbey, a duplicate of that depicted in the Folio, bears the birth date, 1553, and the death date, 1598. Whatever view we may take of the age of Spenser, there is no doubt that the birth date, 1510, was placed upon it at an early period. As no attempt has been made by the authors of his numerous fanciful lives to ascertain how early, let us attempt to do so, and we will begin with the engraving in the Folio of 1679, which furnishes an unquestionable startingpoint. In doing so we refer to Thomas Dingley, a worthy "Old Mortality" of the reign of Charles II, who indulged himself in the melancholy amusement of haunting the grim shades of ancient churches, and copying therein inscriptions and mortuary emblems; so it happened that being in Westminster Abbey one day he copied the inscription on Spenser's monument, and gives us the correct death date, 1598, as well as the birth date, 1510, though, using a coarse pencil, or making a slip, the last figure looks about as much like a 6 as a cipher.1 This correct death date, copied so near that of the Folio engraving, shows almost conclusively that the error was that of Stow, whom the editor of the Folio would be likely to follow. In speaking of the "tomb" of Spenser, many writers, misled by the inscription beginning, "This is the Tomb the noble Essex gave," have supposed it to be the architectural structure shown in the Folio engraving, but this is an error. The writer, having consulted all the authorities on the subject 1 Thomas Dingley, Gent., History from Marble, vol. 11, p. 139; pl. 472. London, 1867. |