EDMUND SPENSER (1552_1599)

LIFE 

             Edmund Spencer was born in East Smithfield, near the Tower of London, and was poor. He started education at the Merchant Tailor's school in London and continued in Cambridge. In 1569 spencer was a student in Pembroke Hall of the university of Cambridge , where ,along with perhaps

 a quarter of the student ,he was classed as Sizer .He  received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1573. 

Because of an epidemic, Spencer left Cambridge in 1574,but he received the Master of Arts degree in 1576.
 

            Charles Lamb called Spencer 'the poet's of poet'. Spencer was extremely learned poet, acquainted with the best works not only in English, but also in Greek, Latin, Italian, and French. Like Wyatt and Surrey ,Spencer derived his chief impulse from Italy. He knew and admired Chaucer and the other old English poets, but his real masters were Ariosto and Tasso. 

           The poetical works of Spencer are as follows:-

WORKS

              Astrophel

              Amoretti 

              The Shepherd's Calendar

               Epithalamion

               Prothalamion

               The Faery Queen

 

The Shepherd 's Calendar:

            Sir Philip Sydney, to whom he dedicated his first major poem, The Shepherd's Calendar (1579).This works indicate the great poetic flexibility of the English language. 

 

The Faery Queen:

            Spencer began to write "The Faery Queen" while he was residing with earl of Leicester in London. And in 1580 he was appointed secretary to Arthur Grey,14 Grey de Wilton, the new lord deputy of Ireland. Therefore, Spencer mostly in Ireland .In 1589 he was visited by the English poet. And Sir Walter Raleigh, who recognized the poem and brought Spencer to England to publish it 

and to make the poet known to Queen Elizabeth 1.

Prothalamion: 

              It is wedding song in honor of the wedding of the two daughters of the earl of Worcester. 

                

Epithalamion:  

                This a wedding song considered the most beautiful. It was printed in 1595 in the same volume as a group of love Sonnets, the Amoretti. 

Amoretti:

               His sonnets  are dedicated to Elizabeth Boyle who became his second wife. These sonnets  have been given Italian name. It consists of 'Eighty Eight' .

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