UNA AND THE REDCROSS KNIGHT. From "THE FAERIE QUEENE." BY EDMUND SPENSER.-1553-96. year 1553, and was eduBeing introduced to Sir [EDMUND SPENSER descended from the family of the Spensers in Nottinghamshire, was born in London about the cated at Cambridge, where he entered as a sizar. Philip Sidney, he became known at Court, and in 1580 was appointed secretary to Lord Grey of Wilton, Viceroy of Ireland. In 1586 he obtained from the Queen a grant of 3028 acres of land, in the county of Cork, out of the forfeited estate of the Earl of Desmond; and being obliged by his patent to live on his property, he took up his residence at Kilcolman Castle. It is now a ruin, but it will always be dear to the lovers of genius. In this delightful retreat he wrote the three first books of his "Faerie Queene." and on presenting them to Elizabeth received from her a pension of £50 a year. He published the next three books in 1596. He was a strenuous advocate for arbitrary power, and having, it is said, attempted to add unjustly to his possessions, when Tyrone's rebellion broke out, had he not sought for safety by flight he would have been one of the first victims to the fury of the native Irish, with whom revenge was a virtue; his escape was so precipitate, that he left his infant child to the flames which consumed his house. He came to England with a broken heart, and died in about three months, in extreme indigence. His remains were interred in Westminster Abbey. The "Faerie Queene" was to have consisted of twelve books, but there are only fragments of the last six. The loss of the remainder is not perhaps extremely to be regretted, since there are symptoms in the last three books which he published that his genius was beginning to be exhausted; and the work can scarcely be considered imperfect, as each book is, in itself, a complete poem. His language differs from that of all the other poets of his age in structure and cadence, having as it were been formed for his subject. His versification is both smooth and majestic, and his imagination seems to have been inexhaustible. He wrote some of the best sonnets in our language.] A GENTLE knight was pricking on the plain, His angry steed did chide his foaming bit, And on his breast a bloody cross he bore, For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore, Upon his shield the like was also scored, For sovereign hope, which in his help he had: (That greatest glorious queen of fairy lond,) Upon a lowly ass more white than snow; Seemed in heart some hidden care she had, So pure and innocent, as that same lamb, Of ancient kings and queens, that had of yore Their sceptres stretcht from east to western shore, Till that infernal fiend with foul uproar Forewasted all their land and them expell'd : Whom to avenge, she had this knight from far compell'd. Behind her far away a dwarf did lag, The day with clouds was sudden overcast, And angry Jove an hideous storm of rain Did pour into his leman's lap so fast, That every wight to shroud it did constrain, And this fair couple eke to shroud themselves were fain. Enforced to seek some covert nigh at hand, And all within were paths and alleys wide, With footing worn, and leading inward far: Fair harbour, that them seems; so in they entered are. And forth they pass, with pleasure forward led, Joying to hear the birds' sweet harmony, Much can they praise the trees so straight and high, The birch for shafts, the sallow for the mill, The fruitful olive, and the plantain round, The carver holme, the maple seldom inward sound : Led with delight, they thus beguile the way, Furthest from end then, when they nearest ween, That which of them to take, in divers doubts they been. "ALM was the day, and through the trembling air Sweet-breathing Zephyrus did softly play A gentle spirit, that lightly did delay Hot Titan's beams, which then did glister fair; Through discontent of my long fruitless stay Along the shore of silver-streaming Thames ; And all the meads adorn'd with dainty gems |